Blaze's art endeavors and drawings to!

[Retten]

Alright I finally got my scanner!!!! So I though I would post one of my pics The tablet works really well for erasing, I found out. As thats all I have really done with it. (its going to take a long time to get used to this thing ) This is a rough draft of an angel, a BOY angle at that lol I did this about 3 months ago critiques, tips, and comments are all greatlly apreciated! and if you know of any good cg tutorials please let me know lol The tablet and scanner rock I really didnt have to adjust the scaner at all and it gave me awsome results! Now on the other hand the tablet is cool but rather hard to use. Right now its weird looking at a screen while drawing with my hand. My lines are all wobbly I cant keep my hand still lol Plus the button configuration I still have to figure out (it makes a really bad mouse for me at the moment). Waves at Ink and PhsycoAnn (did i spell that righ?) let me know what you would chang to my pic

[Razgriz]

Looks great! I like the face expression and the shoulder armor

[Angelchick]

i think the eyes look a little to far apart and the face is very sharp maybe you should make it more round the hair doesn't look like it matches and i think you need to shade one of the eyes darker cause they don't match in color

[Retten]

@Angelchick yeah i woulnt judge it by shading right now its still very rough and the scanner made it a bit darker

@anonymous thanks for the tips! the neck and the wings were really bothering me to

[Retten]

too late!

I did the @ to late lol

[inkhana]

OK, here we go! ^^

The first thing that struck me about the picture was indeed the eyes. While it is indeed common for the eyes to be one eyespace apart, there are many styles that do not adhere to this rule (I've seen some as much as one and a half...O.o) I tend to stick to the "one eyespace apart" rule myself (when I don't mess it up...)

As Angelchick said (though I typically consider it better form to critique both pros and cons) the face is a little sharp. It's been my observation that characters (the male ones) who have a wide jawline (or a chin!) tend to have the long, running straight lines such as yours, but they tend to be slightly softer on the corners (though this is certainly not universal). Characters who have softer, rounder jawlines (more often than not, bishonen) tend to have a pointed chin more or less like the one you've done. In instances such as the former, I tend to flatten out the base of the chin (I would give, as a for-instance, the pic of Rivalen in my sig banner but for whatever reason I violated my own rule) This gives the more masculine look, IMO. Naturally bishonen would have the latter, but since this fellow isn't really bishonen, I digress. At any rate, you did an excellent job keeping everything symmetrical. I've seen professionals who couldn't draw symmetry to save their lives.

A pro - the wings. The wings look excellent. There is a bit of a sense of movement in them.

Next pro: the armor. Just cool. You also remembered to turn the right shoulderplate up a little so there would be enough room for him to turn his head.

There is another thing I notice about his face, and that's his ears. The way you have them drawn gives something of the appearance that they stick out directly from his head (which they might) but since there's no hair directly in front of his ear, it throws the perspective and makes them look further forward on his head than they are. Since most everyone has "sideburn" type hair in front of their ears, you might want to bring down a few strands to cover where the ear connects with the head. Also, IRL, the ear (in relation to the structure of the face) usually spans the distance between the base of the nose and the eyebrow. Obviously this won't work on this fellow (he'd have some pretty large ears there! LOL) so we kinda have to accomodate for that. You see that shadow that makes up his nose? I'd put the base of the ear about halfway up that, and the top of the ear, directly across from the corner of his eye. You can also, in face-front pics, get away with only drawing the outer edge of the ear, esp if your character has quite a bit of hair.

The hair itself - I see no real physical problem with it, except for the aforementioned hair in front of the ears.

The last thing I really notice is the mouth. It seems maybe a little low on his face. The only real way to remedy this is to raise the base of the nose just a little (with the consequence of shortening the nose) and raise the mouth. (Or you could lengthen the face...which can be a much more painful procedure) You can actually get the mouth line pretty close to the nose before it looks wrong.

Anyway, I hope these tips help you!

[Retten]

Thanks a bunch anonymous and Ink i will work on those points clean it up wow all these edits are making me dizzy Ok here is the last pic im going to put up for a bit then im going to finish both of these of and scan them again. Hopefully I can get them up to par I got a load of drawings that are in rough draft I dont often finish them before I go on to something else lol Ok this guy is really unfinished as you can tell he is supposed to be a detective for the police department. The head is really the only thing complete on him lol Oh and one last thing would be does anyone know of any good scanner settings?

Edit: Weird i cant add an attachment the page loads super slow and just goes back to normal after i select the file and clicking all done does nothing ??????

[inkhana]

I noticed the site acting a little strange a while ago. You might try uploading again now.

>Hopefully I can get them up to par

Good attitude to have... Many people get easily discouraged, esp in light of such a post as I made (which, for the ref of anyone reading this, when I critique it's never meant to hurt feelings...it's me, trying to be the teacher I never had, if that makes sense). So keep up the good work, and press onward...

[Retten]

Yeah I used to get discouraged allot and was always down on myself for not
drawing perfectly so I gave it up for awhile. Boy was that a big mistake I came to relize that having that kind of attitude would get me no where and I wouldnt get any better so I got back to it again and when ever im having I hard time I have to remind myself that the the only way to become the best that I can be is to practice and practice! Because that is the only reall way to improve my skills.
Your comments are very helpfull Ink I think you make a great teacher. You and anonymous have shown me severall things that I missed and you explained it reall well on how to possibly remedy those issues.

Ok here is the pic I tryed to upload last night.
Edit: His eyes kinda got messed up got to figure out my scanner settings still

[inkhana]

The first thing that strikes me about the pic is that awesome hair. I -love- his hair. The eyes have a very nice shape also. Are they kitty eyes or does he have long pupils?

One of the difficult things about tipping the head in the way you've done is that it makes it harder to make all the features symmetrical. The eyes (to my way of thinking) have the right distance between them, but there's a slightly unlevel quality. Like me, you make a slanting line from the inner to the outer edge of the eye, as opposed to a slightly curved line (kinda a "u" shape under the eye). This has pros and cons. To me, it's easier to get expression into the type of eyes that we do. However, it's often difficult to get them "level". I went in and sketched directly on the pic to show you what I believe would be a good correction to the base of the eye. (first attachment)

The nose and mouth are good, no real suggestions there; same thing for the face shape.

The next thing I want to mention is something that plagued me for years - shoulders. They're just not easy, and when you have your subject doing something more than merely standing there, it becomes a problem... The main issue to address is the width. Since your subject seems like a smaller sort of fellow than the last one, the right shoulder (our right, that is, not his) seems more correct. (see second attachment) As far as arm length is concerned, unless you're dealing with a very young, very tall, or very bulky character, the arm should be two "head heights" from shoulder to wrist; that is, it should be equivalent to two times the length from the tip of the character's chin to the top of his head (not including hair). I elaborated on this in the edits. Also, when a character pulls his arm up like that, it tends to disrupt their clothing a little, causing lots of nice wrinkles and such, and the lapel/inner coat edge tends to shift inward.

Whew! he he I'd help you more with hands, except I don't seem to have a real grasp on doing them well, much less teaching how... LOL

Anyway, I hope this helps!

[Retten]

Wow cool thanks for the help! Those guides are extremely helpfull. I new that there was something wrong with the shoulders I just wasnt sure what but now I get it
Thank you soooooo much Ink Ok here is my last upload then im going to go work on those 2 I showed earlier.

Sonic Fanart the only thing that I have completed in awhile!
Oh and does anyone know how to avoid smugging my pics are always covered in pencil smudges

[Shinja]

hey, your stuff is definately good and getting better, keep posting them

[inkhana]

I haven't got much time left right now; if you'll PM me a little later I'll do something a little more indepth... he he

To keep from smudging your work...the best thing you can do is move to a harder lead of pencil. I'm guessing you're using a 2B right now (most normal writing pencils are 2B, and they're the most available). But if you move up to a harder (and also lighter) lead, you won't smudge as frequently, and if you do, it's less noticeable. I use a 2H lead most of the time, although I have used an H (darker) and a 4H (much lighter) on occasion. Also, get a piece of paper and put it on top of your drawing, covering where your hand will be, so you're basically drawing over the edge of the protective paper onto your picture.

As for stuff you've already done and scanned, adjust the brightness and contrast of the image and that will take out light smudges. It won't have much of an effect on dark ones though...-_-

[Shao Feng-Li]

i suggest stating with a stick figure. make the shoulders twice he with of the head. make the waist three heads down and about 1 1/2 heads wide (smaller han the shoulders. knees aound five heads down (Two heads from the waist) Then two more heads you have the feet.

nywho i like your drawings. i sense a great potential in you

[Retten]

Ok here is my latest sketch. I did it all in PS with my tablet so its kinda messed up I couldnt believe how much harder it is to sketch with a tablet I had fun with the eyes though

[inkhana]

There ya go! You'll get the hang of it eventually...^^ Keep it up and someday it'll be as natural as using a pencil...almost...he he

[Locke]

a tablet? meanig to get get one of those.... wat kind do u have?>

the drawings look great!

[Angelchick]

those are nice i tried using a tablet and it was really hard

[Retten]

Yeah the tablet is hard to use I will just have to practica allot
Ok here is the angle guy again I made it a bit to bright when I changed the settings oh well I tried out the eraser on some part to as you can see lol.

[inkhana]

Yeah! He looks a lot better this time! You're improving a lot! Keep it up...

[Retten]

Thanks! Im going to try and ink and color it now this should be interesting lol

[inkhana]

Go for it! I'm sure you'll do fine...

[Retten]

Ok here it is in ink at least the head anyway I cant seem to get straight lines its so annyoing oh well I just need more practice with the tablet

[inkhana]

If the lines are straight enough, you probably will have better luck not freehanding them but rather using the line tool instead. That's what I do....he he <---cheater

I can see in the inks your hand is still a bit shaky but you're doing fine...^^ Heck, if you look at some of my work the lines shake some too; that's why I told you about trying to take down as much space as you can in one stroke, it helps prevent that.

I'll bet those wings are going to take a while to ink...^^

[Retten]

Yeah I just need to get my strokes to line up properly
I'm dreading those wings lol

[Retten]

Ok here it is! It got allot easier towrds the end i'm hoping that means im getting better with the tablet I still hit ctrl-z way to often though lol I actually had allot of fun doing the wings Well its time to start coloring then we will see how it turns out

Oops I forgot to ink the little bit of his right arm

[kaze]

wow very cool the wings do look really good...i cant wait to see it when its colored ^^

[inkhana]

anonymous, why don't you go get you a scanner already so you can show us some of your work? he he

[Retten]

ano..... you didnt move the wings down and you inked it already.. T.T nooo i was too late!! and the ears are still sorta small. but o well, you can always practice and try again.
inky, stop stealing all my comments! :pout: i dont have a thread here so im commenting to stay sane!

Yeah well I first drew this a couple of months ago and I had no reference when I drew the wings so there kind of stuck for now though I did make a couple of corrections to them and the ears I don't really care about I usually make my characters without them just allot of hair lol

[Retten]

Yeah im going to when im done with this one