Hart

Posted Nov 13, 2005, 6:03:03 AM UTC

Ok, my brother has pointed out that alot of my original characters tend to look alike so I'll be posting a series of headshots of my characters and you guys can tell me what to change to make them not look alike. So here's the first one and I'll be posting the second tomorrow so you won't have anything really to match it with yet but here it is anyways.

Comments

BogusRed
Nov 12, 2005, 10:24:06 PM UTC
Wow this is the first artwork to be placed in the Crit Wall (other than my own artwork since I'm the person who put the darn thing together). Anyway yeah here are my thoughts...
It's really great that you are venturing out and trying different styles and such. Not to many artists make the effort to do that.
I think what you might want to do is start learning about solid drawing. Solid drawing is where you learn to construct shapes to make the human form (and other things). It makes drawings look more solid. Right now this drawing is looking a little flat (but that's just what comes with the anime style). I think you are at a proficient enough drawing level that you can start learning about solid drawing. George Bridgman's books on figure drawing are actually a really great way to learn solid drawing.

I don't know if you want to hear about the solid drawing stuff so here are some more specific comments. I think the hair looks really good. I like the intensity of the eyes and his expression. His ears are also nicely done. I think that little strap on the front of his jacket looks a little odd though. I think it might be because it's so long and strait. Perhaps if it was shorter and had a little more wrinkle to it it would feel a bit more natural.

Sorry I hope that wasn't too much of a roast for you
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- Jilly
  Nov 12, 2005, 10:32:34 PM UTC
  Not too much of a roast at all. That was alot of help. Everytime I ask my brother all he says is "fix it his face is wierd" or something like that. I've actually been attempting to use shapes to bring together a picture like that pencil Gohan pic I did way back when. But it's just so frustrating and alot of times when I'm frustrated I tend to give up. But I'll definately keep working at solid drawing and check out some antomy books. Anatomy is the area I'm weakest in. Huge thanks for the comment.
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  BogusRed
  Nov 12, 2005, 10:46:25 PM UTC
  Oh I'm glad it helped. The important thing to remember about the solid drawing thing is that you work with 3D shapes not 2D shapes. So you need to use these three shapes: spheres, boxes, cyllinders. All of those are covered in Bridgman's book. Actually, I recently found out that this one artist never studied anatomy. His stuff is really solid though. So you can do solid drawing without even knowing anatomy! lol!
  His name is Stephen Silverman. His art is really good. Anyway, what really helped me in drawing heads was I bought this plastic skull model and I drew it 100 times. Try that out. Don't do anything detailed or anything. Just try to get a feel for the porportions of the skull and how the forms move in and out of each other. Spend no more than 3 minutes on each drawing. That will really help.
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  Jilly
  Nov 12, 2005, 11:09:25 PM UTC
  I'll try that. But I'll have trouble with the 3 minute thing I have a tendancy to draw every little detail. I'm thinking that I should start using models instead of creating poses in my head. That should help with the anatomy thing right?
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  BogusRed
  Nov 12, 2005, 11:20:28 PM UTC
  yeah the whole method of solid drawing is to NOT do any detail until the very final final step so it's like you are just constructing the shapes and getting the shape right first. Most artists are the same way where all they want to do is detail and then they learn about starting off with light construction and such. using models would be a good idea. an even better idea would be to go to live nude figure drawing sessions but a lot of people have trouble finding those. There are books out there with photographs of people posed in different positions as a reference for artists. You might want to see if you can find anything like that anywhere.
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  Jilly
  Nov 12, 2005, 11:24:51 PM UTC
  I'll try looking for books and stuff like that and actually my brother goes to those nude drawing sessions every saturday and comes back with amazing looking pictures. I'm so envious of him but anyway thanks alot for your advice it'll really help push me in the right direction.
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  BogusRed
  Nov 13, 2005, 9:42:08 AM UTC
  no prob. yeah figure drawing is really hard but it's work the struggle.
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