Artist looking for advice on art~

[Vynuxys]

Okay, so I think it's time for me to show my art here and get some advice on how to make it better. One thing I got to tell you guys, I have no tablet, so all my works are done by mouse. I'd love it if someone could tell me how to soft shade though, so it's all nice and stuff, I'm sick of my hard shading D: Here goes some of my most recent works.


^ 5/9/10


^ 9/9/10


12/9/10

I come upon the realization that it's animal art and most of you probably specalize in humans, but please bare with me on this one? My recent human art's not appropriate -facepalm-, and the latest I have in digital was done a year ago, so. Anyway.

I'll start off by saying what I dislike about my art.

The thing I hate the most is my style. If I can get any advice on how to change my style, I'd love that D: Because mine's driving me crazy, ew.

Right-o. As mentioned, I also dislike the way I do shading. In a month or two, I might be getting a Wacom Tablet, but I've no idea how pressure stuffs work so I'll need some help too XD'. Otherwise, I think my anatomy stinks and I lack creativity when it comes to clothes. I also lack it when it comes to hairstyles, and I don't know how to draw hair properly anyway. I need to work on how to make my characters look like individuals, rather than copies of each other whom have different hair/eye colours as their only difference -cry-. I also need to heavily work on poses .o.' (The last picture was a pose practice, 2/3 images have been based on a pose reference drawing I found somewhere on dA).

Yeah. I'm open to anything anyone wants to post.

[Morhighan]

Personally, I think your art looks pretty good considering the lack of tablet.

At any rate, a note about style: Everyone's is unique. However, with much study and practice, by looking at a preferred style and imitating it, you can hone the ability to make it habitual--that is to say, you can produce it on your own without a reference. Or you can wait for your style to develop and grow. Either one. ((Trust me, I know it's hard.))

Good luck!

[Vynuxys]

Thanks a lot for the tips. I'll try to imitate Lucky Dog's style then, I love their art ahah.

Thank you c:

[Sapphi]

As a person who was indirectly introduced to character design, photoshop, and HTML and CSS through Neopets, I must first say one thing: What a cute Gelert! >/////////<

And don't worry about drawing just animals. I used to only draw animals because I was at a loss for how to draw humans without making them look wonky, and it is quite fun ^_^

I feel ya about hating your style. I always felt that way too. While mine was alright, I'd always admire everyone else's art and wish mine made me feel as fuzzy inside. The solution to "changing" your style is to really analyze other artist's works and incorporate what you like about the way they draw things into your own work. It works for me, anyway. Of course, since I like a lot of styles, my "style" could be described as schizophrenic... so I use a different art style for my VN that I might use for, say, a painted piece. (Think Leiji Matsumoto meets Kouta Hirano meets your typical moe moe visual novel style... I have so many influences that my works are always confused about which way they want to go.)

The important thing is to make sure you don't copy too much of one specific person's style to where you feel "locked in". Mixing it up is fun and fresh and you won't become bored with your work.

A final note, don't stress about hair. The best way to draw nice hair is to be loose and relaxed with it, and it will come out looking more natural than forced. I like to incorporate a shojo-inspired technique (lots of lines not necessarily connected at the bottom) and then go in and fill stuff in. It helps to loosen up my hand and just have fun making quick strokes.

[Vynuxys]

Oh yes, I'm a Neopets addict indeed XD Thank you!

Style's always been a problem for me. I do admire you for being able to use different styles though; I'm bad at even trying to mimic someone else's stuff into my own. Just doesn't go right somehow. I try though.

Ahaha, you make it sound all too easy XD It's a good way though, I shall try that with my next piece.

Thank you very much on all the tips you've given me! C:

[pkt]

I'll give you this. I also use a lot of styles but even if you do you still have your own artistic properties. Like making your lines a certain way or liking the hair to be a certain style or color. It's not a bad thing at all to stick to a certain style so long as you don't let it become a crutch for you to learn new stuff but their are people who make money making stick figures and such. Basically you will always end up your worst critic.

Some of the issues I do see though is that the anatomy and lighting could use a little work. If you learn to think of things more in "3d" then it might start to make more sense as you go on. I can't really show what I have made to practice soft shading but I can say that I used the airbrush tool in the various art programs. That and layers to a much lesser extent.

Also I noticed you mentioned not having a tablet. I have a cheap one and though Wacom fans say their brand is the only thing that matters, I'll say it does the job well enough most of the time. I still however use my mouse more than anything else. Especially in art. It really depends on the person so if you can do fine with out it then your good to go. Also if you do get one you'll need to practice as it's not like using a pen or pencil much at all.

[Jake]

Wacom fans say their brand is the only thing that matters

As someone who recommends Wacom tablets all the time: that's a bit of a misrepresentation. Wacom is a good choice because Wacom tablets have a lot of desirable features that other brands' tablets generally don't have, and simply have the best support both in terms of applications and drivers, at least on Windows and Mac. It's nothing to do with blind loyalty or brand cachet, it's to do with getting a decent tool which isn't going to let you down, same as if you were going to buy an electric drill or a car (only without the risk of painful death).

There are cheaper brands which are decent enough, and there have been threads in which they've been discussed in the past... but an awful lot of cheaper tablets simply aren't very good. If you have a non-Wacom tablet yourself which is genuinely good, you would do people a favour by mentioning the brand and model, because there are a lot of crap ones it's not easy for a newbie to avoid.

[shatteredfox]

Wacom fans say their brand is the only thing that matters

As someone who recommends Wacom tablets all the time: that's a bit of a misrepresentation. Wacom is a good choice because Wacom tablets have a lot of desirable features that other brands' tablets generally don't have, and simply have the best support both in terms of applications and drivers, at least on Windows and Mac. It's nothing to do with blind loyalty or brand cachet, it's to do with getting a decent tool which isn't going to let you down, same as if you were going to buy an electric drill or a car (only without the risk of painful death).

There are cheaper brands which are decent enough, and there have been threads in which they've been discussed in the past... but an awful lot of cheaper tablets simply aren't very good. If you have a non-Wacom tablet yourself which is genuinely good, you would do people a favour by mentioning the brand and model, because there are a lot of crap ones it's not easy for a newbie to avoid.

Wacom is beautiful. Bamboo are good tablets too but it doesn't count cause I just checked and Bamboo are Wacom too lol!.

[pkt]

Just to set it straight Jake, I agree with you. I was just saying that it certainly seems like that. If you want to be sure you get a decent one then go the Wacom way. I may get a Bamboo as my next as well. There's nothing wrong with the ones I have currently though.

[Fawn]

My bamboo was only 20$ more than both of the old tablets I've had to replace within 2 years of eachother (two tablets about 50-60$ each, that's $120, and they both gave me problems and had horrible pressure sensitivity that hardly worked, even when I reinstalled the drivers) So yes, get a bamboo!! The small ones are actually just as good as a larger less expensive brand, and the pressure sensitivity (which is vital to making a good looking drawing in most cases) hasn't failed me yet.

As for your art, it's pretty good so far, but doing studies of animals and people can make it even better. When you know how something looks exactly in real life it's so much easier to stylize it and make it look great