wow this is an excellent idea. I'll be sure to stalk this thread for my own benefit.

oh, btw Arkillian, how well do you do colored pencil artwork? I might request a critique on that sometime...

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I drew this Godot picture of his head, and I think the nose is wrong, what do you think.

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Here is my improved version of Godot, with the mask fixed and the hair swept back. I just wanted you to see how it ended up.
I hope you like it, cause I do! Although a small corrections to the hair would be great.

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Me personally? I hven't touched coloured pencils in years besides this pic



I use to use coloured pencil all the time when I was younger. It's one of my favourite mediums ^^ Had to learn how to make things look right without having every colour under the sun XD Ah... the good old days...





I had to do a red line crit cause a few things needed being worked on in this

• I've redrawn the nose how I do it- there's many ways of doing it which are right, but the biggest key points to remember is that there's the knobbly bit at the front of the nose that tends to cover the nostrils, and that you don't need to draw every contor of te nose for it to be recognisable. Some people put lines on both sides cause they think they have to, some do it for style. If it's a style thing then do it, otherwise, less is best with the nose.
• Mouth- dispite smiley faces having large curves for mouths, real mouths are only over all a curve. Again, this could be a style thing for a bit of a parody, but if you're going for realism, smiles tend to tip up on the edges with a flat top lip cause the cheeks are stretching the skin. Yours also wasn't centered. Mine isn't exactly either, but the middle of the mouth should be 'under' the nose (when I say this, in a 3/4 or whatever turn this is no longer an accurate measurement). I suggest if you can't spot it easily, that you flip your paper over, and hold it up to the light. You'll see if it's not centred cause in all art (Which is front on), it needs to be. For a smirk, you can extend it a little further than a relaxed smile, but it'll still follow the flat lip rules.
• The mask is rather big. In a parody or chibi this kind of proportion is fine, but I take it it's not? Godot's mask spans from the hair line to just above where the nose bulbs out. I think you need to shrink it aa little, and move it down the face more- about as much as the black area about the metal cover? It's cool to line up one of the glowing red bars with his eyes too- so he could see. Right now, he's looking through a metal bar :nods:
• This is the last one! I swear! In sketch stage, fast jagged lines are fine, but for a final, if you can draw your lines longer, it looks alot nicer :) Always draw an arc from the inside of the arc, and I think you'll find that it's not so bad after a bit of practise :) Keep it loose, keep it flowing. You have an eraser to fix up lines that are too bad. Otherwise, for REALLY long lines that must be 1 line, you can use a bendable ruler. I don't like usin them all the time cause a bumpy line has personality, but they're good if you really think you'll get it wrong, or that it needs to be accurate.

Besides that, you do have the Godot flare about him. The smirk is nice, and overall the picture looks good. I hope I was of a help :)



His hair has an overall shape of a triangle. If you make the over all shape rounder, then that's all you'd need to do ^^ Good job!

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That. That is one freaking SEXY Doctor. Seriously good work. Seriously. I've been hounding the internet for good tips when it comes to colored pencil artwork. Anyway, I'll be sure to return here often :3

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Thanks ^^ I'm not sure how many TIPS I can give however, cause alot of it is colour mixing and stuff. I could try giving tips thoguh I guess ^^; I'd need to see where you are with coloured pencil first. I may not be able to help. I've never done coloured pencil crit specifically before.

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Hey I drew this edgeworth and I was wondering if you could help with anything like shading. (sorry about the messy outline)

Edit: Here's the frame too if its any help.

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Shading is a little difficult to give critique on cause shading adopts ALOT of artistic liscence. The best idea for that would be to go off a photographic referance till you can get a better idea of it. All I know is based of where the shading on his fringe is, the left side of his nose would also cast a shadow... unless there was a secondary lightsorce to cancel it, but that'd flood out the shading on the left side of his face too.

Shading I'm just starting to learn. Essentially, you need to know a few things before you start on it.

• Light colour- this tells you what the shade tone will be, which is the opposite. Without artistic liscence at play
• Gloss level of surface- If the surface is matt, like skin, it'll reflect a flat even light. If it's shinny, it'll have a sharper reflection and probably a white spot.
• Light direction- Obvious as it sounds, you see art all over the place where people shade on all adngles to give it a 3D effect. This is 'incorect' but I guess could be artistic if it's what they wanted and did it right...
• Light intensity. Brighter the light, brighter the shadow. Dimmer the light, less it effects the surface and the shadow isn't as contrasting.

The face however- if that layout sketch a 1:1 of the final picture? Cause they layer on eachother ABOUT right, but you haven't used any of your lines to make the final picture. I'm not sure why. Could you tell me if I'm right? ^^; Cause the layout design looks about right, btu the final looks totally different.

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Well I'd guess the sketch would look different because it was originally it was going to be Godot but after drawing the outline I had to change it too edgeworth because I felt the face didn't really match Godot. But I'm pretty sure I did use it with the parts of the chin and such. It might be easierto see with the outline on top.

Thanks a lot for the tips on shading I'm not very good at it.

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Nargh- forget it. I think it's just a style thing. The way you do jaws look like front on jaws rather than 2/4 jaws, and it's throwing me off a little, but that's only for critiquing. The rest of it works for a 3/4 view so it's fine. If it does concern you though, the face becomes more flater in a 3/4 view like this.



^----- This picture has a similar angle, but don't change it if you like jawing your draws like that cause that's a style thing. Years in the future, it'll be one of those things that make people go 'Oh hey! That's Qwerven's art!' or something like that. I don't want to deter you from your art style with this crit, so I'll leave it up to you :) If you pull it off right, that can end up being a pulling factor to your art.

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Thanks for that Arky. I'll remember that next time I draw Godot, since my rubber is BAD and it dosnt rub out a thing. Thanks again!

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Just press really lightly with your sketches :) I use 2H pencils for my sketching. Sketching should be light. Lineart should be flowing :nods:

In the end though... Get a new eraser? Or it may be the paper. If you're not already, cartridge papr is ALOT nicer to work with than printer paper. Printer paper is too thin, and tends to lose texture fast. As soon as you lose texture, your lines are harder to erase.

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I'll try and post some of my AA art here soon, but something always troubles me...

I always have trouble doing different poses than what I find, you know? Like something that hasn't been drawn, and I can't see it in front of me (I'm a visual person), and it's really difficult to draw (for me) if I can't see it... what would be a good way to learn how to or have a way that would be easier to draw without the pose in front of me?

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Hey Arki ^^

Could you give me some crit on this? I've always been terrible at realism, but, taking Art as a GCSE next year, I'd like to improve. XD





Sam(right) looks like Shane Dawson. O_o

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Sorry, but practise. Practise lots of various poses off photographs or real people. Adapt them to your own art style, and eventually you'll be able to do them without reference. To be honest though, drawing without a reference is a higher feat than people give it credit for cause you have to know the body SO well to pull it off. Specially for more realistic art styles. Remembering where eyes and noses and muscles and everything goes is alot easier said than done. If you don't do so already though, always start drawing the figure as if it were naked (You don't have to detail it) and when you're happy with the naked figure, put clothes on it. That way they'll sit right. On top of that, if you draw a straight line straight down where gravity is pointing (If your picture is tilted on the page, it'll be to the side) a balance character has 50% of their body on either side of the line, so if they're hunched to the side, their legs will counter weight the body. Action poes are different of corse, or if a higher force counters gravity. The last tip I can give you is to hold your picture up to the light and flip it. Seeing the reverse image can help to spot mistakes. IF the pic looks right on both angles, it'll be 95% there :) Don't be discouraged if the first 5 of your pics look wonky when you do this. As you're correcting your art, your mind will learn how it should look and eventually you'll need to flip less.



What's GCSE? O.o Is it an American thing? I'm in New Zealand so I don't know ^^;

Before I begin, if you're serious about taking up realism, the BEST book you could read is Drawing from the right side of the brain. It's a book about leearning to draw from your creative side rather than your analytical side which is where you're currently drawing from. You'll find that you approach to art will change 100% after reading this, and it'll help out SO much if that is an art school you're talking about. Essentially, this book tells you how to look at the picture, and see it for it's true form, rather than the analytical side, which looks at it and simplifies it down to 'this is an eye. You always draw eyes like this so draw it'

I don't think your picture is that bad. You've spotted alot of shape things are at- it's just that the left side is fighting your right, telling it to draw things how you always draw it- in an anime style I assume? That's something I should meantion. It's REALLY difficult to draw two art styles at once, so if you're serious about realism, you manga style will likely be outted mostly, if not completely.

Like... I'll show you what I mean cause I actually went through it. For a long time I draw closer to realism than I do now, and I then became a fan of DBZ. After about a year of drawing DBZ fanart in Akira's style and my own art, my own art suddenly started to look like this



Not bad, but certainly not what it SHOULD'VE been. I eventually stopped drawing in manga style all together, and tried to recapture realism again and got this:-



Do you sort of see what I mean there? Even though I was trying REALLY hard to do realistic, it still looked very manga. To get my old style back again (mostly I had to ditch the manga style all together. It's very difficult to draw one style so frequently and then move on expecting it to change.

*****

In saying all of this, I can give a few tips right now on pencil drawing.

Rule one- Pencil art is about TEXTURE. Use your pencil to show it. IF you're drawing hair, follow the flow of the hair with the pencil- even if it's black, cause you'll always see the texture even if it's black. If you don't, then you should use charcoal.

Rule two- you're drawing in pencil. Pencil is monotone. Make life simple on yourself- you're only learning :) Turn your picture into grey scale



Shadows easier to spot now? :D

Rule 3- If you're doing a pencil reder of the picture- don't do heavy pencil edges on the picture. The idea with pencil render, is that you use tone to show the difference in levels. If you have a light beside light, or a black beside black, you either make one lighter/darker, or you let the two merge- this can be a cool effect



Rule 4- Sharp pencil. Woodless, wooded, mechanical- it doesn't matter. a picture without some defined edges it one that has nothing for the eye to focus on.

These tutorials may help too- Sketching and the face

And don't worry if it's not 100% accurate :) Mine never are. IT's the feel of the pic that you want. Not necessarily the accuracy.


Um.... Tell me if any of that helped >.>

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Hello there. I guess I liked your previous advice and I'm asking for it on something quite different: my sprite comic character. I have redone all the face and it now looks a lot better than before (I think) Anyway, I'd like your opinion. Here's the link: Post
I should've posted it here, but it seems to have slipped my mind at the moment.
Thanks for your time!

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Sprites aren't really my league hon. If you want crit on sprites, you should go to the sprite thread. They'll be able to give you tones of help there :) I'm no good at spriting myself. I can only work from scratch. the only thing I can say is that the top of his head seems a little flat. Other than that, I'm not big help ^^; Sorry.

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Ahh! I hadn't noticed you'd replied! I'm sorry!



Blue is me, by the way. :D

It did!! I'll read through the book and tutorials. Thanks~!!

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Your mother has it? Omg- use it now! XD At first it's kinda tedious, but that's cause it's teaching you how to get into a creative mindset. It's realy important to do. I notice when I'm not, everything is rigid and not flowing. Ideas don't come and I use generic poses that I know I can draw. I'm still working through the book myself, but stick by it- k? It'll be a challenge at some points. It's been ok so far for me since I've got little attachment to the left side of my brain, but I'm starting to get into some exersizes that are useful to me, like negative space :)

It's VERY difficult to return to a style when you've changed it as much as I did. To draw manga right, you have to immerse yourself in it completely, and I did. To get out of it, was heart breaking. I didn't draw for months cause I felt useless and that my style was crap. I was still unknown on the internet at that point cause I had just joined DA, so I didn't have the support there. What reinspired me to draw was a comic artist named Greg Land. Untill that day, I never realised that I was already a fan of his old works in Nightwing (drool), and Supergirl. Reading the comic he primarily did art for- Soujorn... his art made me cry tears of joy, cause I found art could be beautifull again. Nowdays his art is still pretty stunning but I think I like his old stuff better. I started to draw again in his art's image, fighting to shrink my proprtions. It took years before I felt I got my old style back, but you know- that's art. It's fluid. I don't regret any picture I've drawn. It's made me who I am today :)

You can blend charcoal- it tends to go Black, then the blending starts at a medium tone... depending on the charcoal your using. You can get hard charcoals now and soft ones. The soft ones go EVERYWHERE- oh, buy pencil / charcoal sealant for your art if you haven't done so already. I'm still annoyed at myself for not having any when I was younger. Most of my old art is smudged to death. It destroys what ever it touches too T.T

If you have anymore questions, then go ahead and ask :) I don't want to crit ALL your art, but if you draw a few then show me one it's cool, otherwise you get reliant on help to draw.

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Hey, thanks for this thread! Here's a piece (a pic of a character from my AA fangame) that I just put together as a quick sketch on my Wacom tablet in Paint:

Most all of it was quick...except for the arms. I fooled around with them and fooled around with them, and they just...don't look right. I know her hands are a bit small, too. Also, in case it's not obvious from the dreadful shading, I have no idea how to crosshatch (er, if that's what it's called). Any ideas on how to improve on shading and foreshortening?

The hairline also seems too "sharp" to me. I didn't really know what I wanted her hair to look like, so that's not very detailed (my lack of skill at hair should wait for another time :P), but does the hairline seem off to you, too?

Also, my grandpa gave me that "Drawing on the Right Side" book so many years ago - I had completely forgotten about it! I think it went over my head at the time that I got it.

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Hrmmm- rather not do that level of crit on a 'sketch' cause a sketch is usually only for layout purposes, like this. I'll assume that it's meant to be a concept sketch instead? ^^; I'd still rather crit a picture that has had maximum effort put into it. I'll crit it as if I didn't know it was just a concept sketch though...

First thing- there's nothing wrong with quick. Quick is good if doing a layout for a sketch to get the idea out as fast as possible to not lose the movement and feeling. Quick can be developed further, but most importantly, quick's primary objective is to give the broad impression of what you want Unimportant things like details get filled in later, and just block lines are put in, like in this unused comic page. I that page I render arms as cylinders, large scenery as general shapes, only rendering facial expression to a higher level. I say this so hopefully you'll understand me when I say fast is not always bad. Fast can be artistic and spontaneous too.

Not sure if you want me to crit the hands, but on average, an open hand is as long as from the chin to the middle of the forehead. This ofcorse can be played with as long as it doesn't do what hands cant do. I suggest taking referance shots for hand gestures.

Shading via cross hatching... Theat's nt something I can really teach. First you need to know how to shade, THEN comes crosshatchiing cause it's a method of showing shade. The best I could do is red line crit this picture and show you where I think she has shading, but the biggest thing to remember is that she's a 3D object so you have to shade ALL of her in a similar way- not just one area. What you need to decide is what the purpose of this picture is. If it's a character concept, then I'd leave it plain and clean up the lines. If it was to be coloured, give it subtle colour shading. If it's a serious cross hatch picture, then you need to concider it a final picture and give it a backdrop as well. I don't want to sound mean or anything here if I do, but doodles, sketches and concepts don't take shading, unless shading is important to the picture, in which case it is a rough scribble till it can be properly rendered. Shading via cross hatching is more an inking process, and is all about texture to show shading rather than a pattern to show depth. It's an inking technique. If I were you, i'd learn shadows first in a less busy fashion like with grey tone shading. It doesn't have to be in grey thoguh- I usually use a middle tone to show shading on a drafty picture like this :-



It can look effective and cool. and non obtrusive. Actual toning can come after that when you learn how you can screw around with lighting to get an effect you desire. Till you learn lighting, it WILL be a messy method of giving depth. You're actually better leaving it flat and less confusing.

Foreshortening- Oh man. If you're not using a reference picture and you're trying to do foreshortening you will get it wrong. There is no real advice I can give you on foreshortening except these things- You MUST draw them naked first before you clothe them for foreshortening. Specially if you're new to it. Foreshortening is a concept used to distort a picture enough to make it seem like it's coming towards the viewer. Not an easy venture to step into. I've taken 2 terms of life drawing and just started hitting it. Use a referance. Don't try to make it hard on yourself. There is no shame in referencing if you're not making money off your art as a career. Second- use shapes to map out the position the body is in cause shapes are easier to make '3d' The human body isn't. Elbows and knees make things go at weird angles though. Use a referance. Otherwise it'll look flat. A PHOTO referance- or a real person. Not a picture. You'll just flatten it out cause you wont know why they put lines in specific spots.

Hairline... I'm not sure what her hairstyle is suppose to look like, so all I can talk about is aesthetics to me. Now- if you squint your eyes at her head, it's over all shape is a downwards triangle. If you're happy with that shape, then it's cool, but I'd try for something that looked rounder. I'd say lop off a little from the top extremes and see how that looks.

One last thing. Read the book. I know it sounds like pansy fluffy stuff at the beginning, but that is teaching you a valuable lesson- how to get into a create state of mind. I don't know what NOT being in a creative state of mind is cause I managed to learn it on my own as a kid, but it's something that you do need to do. I know if I'm not in it. My pictures become rigid, and instead of fluid and relaxed, the poses force me to use my knowledge of the human body to make it work.

Art is like Martial arts. Serious. It's not called martial arts for nothing. You can teach yourself to fight a black belt, but you will get your ASS whipped in a fight if you don't learn the 'mind of no mind' See, the Japanese go it right! Mind of no mind means that insteed of thinking, you just DO. Your body knows the knowledge, but your thought process is slow, uncreative and unresponsive. IF you let it go and clear your mind, your body does amazing things. That is what the first chapter of exxersises teaches you, and it'll hurt apparently. Not physically. Shutting off your mind thoguht process is not practised in western society at all. Once you can do that, you'll find art alot easier and more enjoyable. Like meditation.

It also teaches you ALOT about all you are asking here and more. Negative space for instance- do you know that that is? It's the shape that is made when two ojects meet- like the triangle in under her arm. It teaches you how to use negative space to help you draw from life.

Anyways- hope I was a help- I'm very tired right now so if I seem grumpy it's cause of that. Give the book a go and see how it helps your art, and if you still want crtique, then come back after you've done atleast 6 pictures. Give yourself some time to absorb the info into your art. If you have other questins then don't be affraid to ask :)

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Awesome, thanks a lot for the help! I have 0 formal training outside of one art history class (so...not even really an art class), so anything helps me a lot. I mostly leave everything I do in "sketch" form, and that's why I asked about shading, but I will stay far away from crosshatching for now. :)

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Formal training means jack to be honest, and I hope you don't give that to yourself as an excuse :( No offense or anything, but I didn't take any formal training till late last year where I took 2 terms of life drawing as an after work thing. I learnt to draw from a book 'Drawing the head and figure" by Jack Hamm, and that's all I had for YEARS. No internet, not critique, just me drawing cause I loved it to pieces. Noone ever saw my art till I was about 13 and reluctantly did a hobbies badge on it in scouts.

If you're interested, here is a Meme I did on DA showing my art from when I was 7 years old till now:-



Only the last line had formal training. The rest is me just giving it a go, using photo references, and spotting shadows and shapes etc...

If you want to get better, you need to move past sketch format, and start looking at art as a final picture. As soon as you start trying, it'll start becoming easier to do. I promise. IT'll improve your sketching process HEAPS too cause you'll inherently learn ALTO of things. IT's easy to sketch better if your final art is improved, but not easy to do final art even if your sketches improve.

I'm saying this cause you sound like you want to improve. The only way to do that is by challenging yourself. Give it a go :) Final art takes longer, but it's really worth it ^^

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I can't link to my own pictures directly.

http://hearts-soul.deviantart.com/art/D ... -149230305

It's of Dusky Bridge (duh) and I want to know if it was good. Colors are not for me... yet.

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Sorry- I'm not sure I get what you mean,,, Are you wanting critique or a compliment?

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A critique of it. Oh, and this is my first drawing in about a year, so... I know it's not good. :insert a happy Larry Butz smilie here:

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Well, without a reference it's very difficult for me to say anything that is directly related to the picture. Is this the bridge in PW3? Or the real Dusky Bridge? If I knew if was based off a picture or an actual bridge I'd have a better idea sorry ^^; Unless it is all off the top of your mind?

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Okay, let me explain what it is:

This is the exact same Dusky Bridge after Dahlia jumped off the bridge and took the crystal with her. It is from PW3 and is quite similar, but not a copy. It was also how I saw it and I edited it accordingly.

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Awww cooool! There's a critic thread here on Court Records!!
Your critiquing skills are so good, Arkillian... O:
I read through most of the critiques and they all made sense to me! XD

I want to draw a picture soon and ask for a critique of it... Sometimes there are some things that look off and I can't find out what...
ANYWAYS! I just wanted to give a thumbs up on how this thread is running so nicely. SO COOL! ^ w ^

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Hi, what can I do to improve this?

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Heart's Soul-

Ooooh- Ok... I was hoping you wouldn't say that cause I'm pretty weak on landscapes myself. I'll try my best, but My advice would be better if it were off humans, or atleast an object that you can tell if it's correct or not.

I'll see if I can think of a few things atleast though:-

• Contours- I can see where you've started making contour lines to give your scenery texture. That's a great start ^^ You'll need to however studdy cliff edgings in photographs however, cause they have a complex system of erosion which gives it a neat texture. Sometimes these textures are horizontal like this, and sometimes they're more vertical like this. I can't go too indepth about it cause it's not my subject, but you need more of these textures on your scenery.
• Light- Lighting in landscapes plays a huge part on the focus of the picture. The eye will concentrate on details, but not on masses of dark or light. Depending on your mood and light source, you may want to make the forground darker and the distance light, or opposite. Just remember the rule of atmospheric distortion, where the atmosphere can play a part in what colour things are- when you look off into the distance it gets bluer cause light is having alot more atmophere to get through than stuff closer to you. Deciding which you'll use helps give depth too.
• Sky- never forget the sky in a landscape pic. Even if it's a cloudy day there is still a texture and colour up there.
• Focus- The focus in this picture in the bridge, right? Is it silhouetted? If so, use a sharp pencil to detail the image to give it a distinctive edge, or it'll look scribbled.
• The ropes- I know the lines are long, but if you can't draw the line in a reasonably straight way, then use a ruler or bendable ruler. Scratchy mark for straight lines don't look good.

Other than that, I don't have a huge amount sorry ^^;

Miyani-chan

Thanks I try to look at everything in a picture and find good and bad, and explain why cause I believe that you can't learn something if you don't know why you're learning it. There's the basics on art, and alot of people don't pick up on them cause some need to be taught. Once you have the basics, then the rest comes natrally. I hope to teach that to people if I can :)

SnowWright

Improve? Heh- Improving is a weird word with art, cause you don't really 'improve', you kinda... get better at portraying. If you want me to suggest ways of making it more aesthetic though, I'll give it a go!

• Curves- A straight up and down figure can be dull to look at even if it's rendered nicely (which it is). This is why in pictures you'll rarely find art of someone that isn't bend somewhere in their body. Why? The more angles and cuves there is to look at, the more intersting the picture is. The simple act of her tilting her head gives off a new personality of chirpyness even. Tilting the head down can suggest dominance. Glancing aside can suggest ignorance. The body can do this too and it makes it no longer rigid. Try giving her a twist in her body next time and see how that goes :)
• Expression- This is SO important for grabbing your viewer. I own a book specifically on expressions, cause the face by itself can tell a TOTALLY different story with every shape it makes. Anime can do that too. It doesn't have to be about ugly lines. A half smile can be sassy, and a high lower eye lid can suggest a light sense of humour.
• Texture- The hair has some... it'd be nice to see more, even if it's only the jagged edges of the hair. Pencil is all about texture. Otherwise, I'd suggest useing the side of your pencil rather than te tip (which is why I use woodless pencils :D ) One thing thoguh- Hair does give off a gloss, but don't make that gloss halo her head. Make it a zagged line in the direction of the hair to suggest that it wasn't flat and smooth. It gives an appearance of 3D space.
• Eyes- You may like the eyes as they are now, and if you do, then that's cool, but they're very wide apart. That's a taste thing though. I draw noses too big. We all have our quirks :) It's something to look into if you think there's anything wrong with them.

After that, I start to get a bit nit picky. Suggestion- do you have access to coloured pencil? It'd really spice up your art giving it a subtle glow of colour- like a water colour. Give her a bit of warmth, and perhaps some subtle shading :nods:

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Thankyou so much, I'll work on it again. I have colored pencils but I'm just worried if I made a mistake (and cant get rid of it).
Now that you mention it, the eyes do look far apart xD

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It's the only way to learn. Even if you do screw up the first two, you'll know what not to do in the next :) Never be afraid to try out new things. It's how your art will progress *nods wisely*

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Sorry for the newbie barging in, but does anyone mind giving me critique on this (the whole picture)?
http://heurim.deviantart.com/art/Peace- ... -150685204
Thanks!

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I'd like for you to critique this last image I posted up on my thread. Looking back I feel like I can improve this picture some, but I want to hear a second opinion on this one so I can confirm what I should be doing. Thoughts?

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I'll give it a go, but first could I ask a small plee? Please don't make your comment on the pic 'Meh'. It makes the viewer think that you dislike the picture. Even if you write "Please enjoy my picture' or something, It's alot nicer to read

• Form- the boy from his waist up is on a 3/4 view and facing slightly towards the viewer, yet his bottom half is sideways, giving us a profile of his legs. This makes his body look too elongated, cause he doesn't look like he has a bend in his body to counter the initial angle. This is where a photo reference is helpful.
  
  
  Spoiler:

  
  
  
  The above image is a similar angle to yours (It's more towards the viewer than yours is), but do you sorta see what I mean? In this pic, his torso will be stretched out, but on a further away angle.
• Clothes- be careful with clothes, I think you're drawing them straight onto the body without mapping out where it all goes, right? His right shoulder has a chuck missing cause of how the clothing bends inward where shoulder should be. If you map out the naked (you don't need to detail it) body first, then it's easier to see where the clothes drape.
• Arms- His left arm is a tad skinny. That may be a bishounen thing, but it's skinnier than the other arm, so it makes it noticeable. If you give it a bit more flesh it'll even out and be fine :)
• Shading- Good start with the shading. You look like you're giving it a go, but there's a few things to look out for still. Light source, light intensity, and refection. Right now, you light source is down very low cause his back isn't highlighted. It's an unusual place to give the primary source of light. I'd normally expect a light source from above or to the side to suggest a lightbulb on the ceiling, or a desk lamp, with some ambient light (Like reflected off another surface) on his lower half to cancel out some shadow. This is fine though, as long as it works. Keep an eye out though- tee-shirts have a matt, non glossy surface so they'd give a dull refection, where the hair has an oily protection on it and would give a glossy reflection. So um... yeah. just keep a bit of an eye on where your light is coming from and what shadow it casts. Tip, I've found that if you turn your picture into grey scale, it helps to see if your shadows are dark enough and if you have a good range of tone on your picture if it feels a bit too difficult.

Hope that helps ^^ I like the base colour range- has a sandy feel to it :)



It's not bad ^^ I can point out a few things in it, but alot of it is pretty good.

• Hair- I'm not sure how you draw hair, but in case it's a different method, try this- you know how you draw the body nude before you clothe her? it's the same with hair. Draw a blank skull, and have the hair coming off the skull evenly, and you'll find it looks alot more natural.
• X rated- I'm not sure if you meant it, but she's got some under cleavage, and separation of the top going on there which kicked up the mature rating of this picture. Mia gets away with the top she wears cause It's tight- a straight line from the neck to the join. This top her looks like its been unzipped a bit to distract the prosecutors (or their legal aids XD ), but I don't know if you meant that. Be careful when showing that much flesh in that area thatit doesn't become too much. It's VERY close to nipple territory. It's mostly the right boob. If the line curved the other direction it'd be fine.

I like the shading on the hair how it introduces a new hue into it for shading rather than the same hued brown.


Hope this helps you two ^^

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- Yeah, I kind of figured the hair would be brought up. Usually when I draw people they have hairstyles with some volume to them, so Mia was a bit of a challenge. I'll try out the method you suggested next time, thanks.

- The underboob was..well, how should I put this..I guess it was both intentional and unintentional. I'll admit that I meant to add a dash of fanservice to Mia in this picture, but I guess I showed a little too much boob. And looking back, you're right that the right one is a bit overexposed. Part of that is I kinda screwed up on where the zipper ends, haha.

Anyway, thanks for the critique. I'll be sure to keep these in mind when I fix this picture(thank god I'm not an idiot and save my psd files nowadays).

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I know that story The amount of high res pics I lost that I wanted to print later and couldn't.

A bit of cheeky fanservice is fine in art (Heck, I hide some in my art XD Most people don't spot it though cause I do it secretly *giggles* ), but Mia... she already gives out ALOT of fanservice in her outfit, and sometimes all you need to do is give her a hot pose. Or a cheeky wink. Fanservice can be VERY subtle, and people wont know why they love it but they will. As soon as you introduce skin into the equation though, tastes come into the situation, cause unless it's meant to be erotic, then you need to counter the exposure of skin with something else. Alot of people use humour, cheeky expressions, and embarrassing situations, but ALOT can be added to a picture if you make it emotional too



Above is an example where cheeky can be added to give a playfull feel to fanservice. The reason that it doesn't feel so obvious is cause she's giggling and wearing a cute outfit. This one is still a little NSFW though cause it's old, and I was still learning when to pull the break.



The above picture has MUCH less clothing, but because most of the important bits are covered, and the attention is drawn to the emotion and the face of the girl, the fact that she's naked doesn't make the picture sexual, but instead more beautiful.

The other thing you can do if you want to steam up a picture is hoe it up a little with high heels, lace, flashes of flesh, and a sexy pose. IF they're fully clothed when doing this, then this ALSO has a service quality, except this time its a sexual feeling one. In saying this, if they have clothes on, it can also not be classed as mature.



The above picture is one of my friend's OCs posing seductively, but fully clothed. Cause she's clothed, anyone can look at it and know she's a seductress. It's tamed back though cause she's clothed modestly.

Anyways- I'm not saying what you've done is wrong- I didn't mind it at all. I thought I'd point it out cause it did take me by surprise a little, and I had to think to myself if a nipple should be there. That's fine to do- the picture just didn't come across as if were your intention, that's all.

Sorry if this post is confusing. I think I confused myself in the process cause I'm a little tired >.< I'll stiop now before I start drivelling...

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@Arkillian: Thanks much for the crit and the tips ^^ I'll start working on being less sloppy, ehehe...

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Nar- you're not sloppy. I've seen sloppy and it doesn't look like that. Sometimes all it takes is a point in the right direction and it can do wonders for art. If I can provide just that then I'm happy ^^ I was never given critique as I grew up and would've loved to have to oportunity to learn at an earlier stage. If I can save a few of that then it's great ^^ It's not easy learning alone :(

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