My concept artwork [56k might want to stay away]

[AbstractOrigin]

Well, I've just recently started drawing again. I'm trying out new styles and learning about proportion. I'm also trying to improve myself a little bit so that it's presentable.

Well, here's something I worked on just so I could edit it in Macromedia Fireworks.


This is my character, Yuji, in his Middle Fighting stance.

Original Scan:



Colored Finish:


One thing I noticed is that his right leg is a bit skewed, but that's probably due to my lazyness as a right-handed artist.

And my coloring needs some work.

Remember, constructive critism is welcomed.

I'll probably post more in the future.

[The Dark Jester]

Re: My concept artwork [56k might want to stay away]

looks like sejon.

[AbstractOrigin]

Re: My concept artwork [56k might want to stay away]

Eh? Really?

Sejon's looks different to me.

[Chad]

Re: My concept artwork [56k might want to stay away]

His face looks tiny!

[Alex]

Re: My concept artwork [56k might want to stay away]

He looks like a radish stuffed into a two-legged paper bag with a blue ribbon tied around it to make it look pretty but everyone knows that blue ribbons can't make radishes pretty.

[AbstractOrigin]

Re: My concept artwork [56k might want to stay away]

He looks like a radish stuffed into a two-legged paper bag with a blue ribbon tied around it to make it look pretty but everyone knows that blue ribbons can't make radishes pretty.

A great example of non-construstive critism.

[AbstractOrigin]

Re: My concept artwork [56k might want to stay away]

Honestly, I can't really say anything good about that image. Dragon Ball style designs need to stop.

As for constructive criticism:

• I don't understand why his facial features are so centralized in the middle of his face.
• Your line art is almost criminally rough.
• I don't know if that's hair or a scarf hanging behind him.
• You've placed "wrinkles" in the clothes he's wearing seemingly at random.
• The image is very two-dimensional, especially the clothes. They don't even appear to wrap around the character.

Yeah, you might not like what I have to say but I don't sugar-coat my opinions.

No, you're actually posting the things I need to improve on. I respect you for that.

I'm not too experienced at drawing, nor am I good at it, but I'm trying my best to improve.

I guess it's back to studying.

EDIT- By the way, do you have any tips you could give me to try and improve?

[neobi]

Re: My concept artwork [56k might want to stay away]

Do some shading on the sides, like a darker shade to make it more anime looking. In photoshop I think theres like 3 tools you use for it burn, dodge, and something else.

[Nixon]

Re: My concept artwork [56k might want to stay away]

First of all, study anatomy. Even when you reduce the human form to the most basic lines, there is a way those lines overlap considering the underlying bone, muscle and organ structure.

Having a better understanding of the basics will help you develop everything else. Reference material is nice, but you can always use a mirror and your own form as a model.

Practice drawing your character in a lot of different poses, and try out a lot of different facial expressions. Study how faces are proportioned, then play with that. You can play with anatomy and all other aspects of drawing once you have more experience with them.

Study how clothing hangs off your body. This is a very difficult part of drawing, so don't feel too bad if it's really tough at first. I still struggle with this a lot!

Practice, practice, practice. There is nothing more beneficial.

My other advice would be to keep it simple. If things aren't working out, try to remove some excess lines/shading/etc.

I hope that helps.

[Loki]

Re: My concept artwork [56k might want to stay away]

People here are being really rough. Obvously you've just started drawing. My drawings at one time looked just like that. (Well, not really. I never got into the whole DBZ thing, thank goodness.) The most important advice is to practice. Draw everyday, no matter what. Don't worry about drawing goodor making something that people will love, just draw. Even if your not studying preportion or cloathing or anything, the act of drawing will help you improve.

Draw draw draw draw draw draw draw draw.

[Sejon]

Re: My concept artwork [56k might want to stay away]

A lot of good advice has been provided already, but one thing I'd like to add is how much reducing your character to basic shapes (spheres, cylinders, etc.) can help with posing, proportions, etc. This is especially helpful when your characters appear to be posed too stiffly -- which is a very common problem that I had to struggle with earlier on.
As an example, here's your character's pose (more or less) using a mannequin-like figure instead:



This way the pose looks more fluid and natural instead of an awkward posture that may often resemble that of a puppet on strings. (Forgive me if the proportions aren't accurate with regard to your character, or even real life -- these are just the approximate proportions I use when drawing characters such as Sejon).
Drawing with these basic shapes and not worrying about the details of the character until later can free you up a lot and allow your eye to catch things beforehand that they may not catch later on when the character is more resolved.

[Loki]

Re: My concept artwork [56k might want to stay away]

Err... I wasn't critizing the coments before. Everything people have said is true. The wrinkles on the cloathing, the preportions, the scrunched up face, etc. I just felt it was unrealistic to expect those things from someone who said that they just started drawing.

[Alex]

Re: My concept artwork [56k might want to stay away]

Don't bother coloring in Photoshop. You'll just ruin your picture unless you really know what you're doing. Dodge/Burn whatever, avoid photoshop right now, and stick to your pencil and paper with basic drawing techniques.



...and totally off-topic, but the combined filesize of both of your images is 70kb. 56kers aren't that deprived.

[Sejon]

Re: My concept artwork [56k might want to stay away]

The Dodge/Burn tools on the surface look like the quick and easy route for doing shading and highlights, but they are actually not very good at all for that purpose -- they distort the colours way too much, have a blurry airbrush look to them, and overall make the art look extremely Photoshoppy, which is something you really really want to avoid, especially if you're using Photoshop in conjunction with something traditional like pen or pencil line art.

I wouldn't say you should avoid Photoshop altogether -- play around with it a bit (although with much caution, as there are a lot of diabolical things with Photoshop that seemingly look tempting at first, but end up being only hazardous -- the filters being the most prominent example). The main reason those flat colours on your character don't look all that good is because the line art is thin and rough and sketchy -- flat colours really only look good if the line art is clean and sharp. A key thing to remember is that Photoshop won't make a piece look better if the scanned line art still needs refinement; instead it'll just make the imperfections of the line art that more conspicuous.

[hitogoroshi]

Re: My concept artwork [56k might want to stay away if their modem is a banana]

Yeah, I can't really help, as all I draw is little people with swords in my geometry book margins. Perhaps, though, you could try a boring, standing up stance first, rather then a super-action packed one, and tackle this one bit at a time.