Review my boys? (Please?!)

[BADapple]

...

[HigurashiKira]

Hello there apple-chan~

1.Tell me if you like the look of the characters in general.
Honestly, I don't like their look. They appear too feminine to get off with the bishie flag, especially Ryuu. Also, the lines are quite grainy, almost MSPaint-ish. (If you do do your drawings on MS-Paint, I reccomend you move to something like GIMP, which is free)
2. Is there one that is your favorite? Why?
I like Jun's design, he's not only the most masculine-appearing of them all, he looks like the kind of guy you want to hold you during a bad time.
3. Is there one that you don't like? Why?
Ryuu; he's a boy only in description.

[BADapple]

Thank you so much for looking at this for me.
1. I'll work on making them look more masculine. That was something I was concerned about, that they look too young or feminine. The only one who's supposed to be kind of 'feminine' in appearance is Ayama. These pictures were made on paint.NET with the line tool. Would you suggest I use a tablet instead? (Thinking of ordering one.)
2. I like Jun's colors :3 Cats rule!
3. I see your point and will work on making him masculine... well... all of them more masculine.

[papillon]

Tastes vary, though - some of us like our boys as girly as possible!

(Which is to say, you will need to rely on your own taste as well, because nobody agrees on anything.)

[BADapple]

I know but I don't want them all to look like girsl! *spazzes* XD
Jun and Ryuu via personality and what it is in my head, are supposed to be the most masculine. Kou hits somewhere in the middle... :/

[CosmicKitty]

You have to remember that the structure of the male body is different from a female body unless you are looking for a more androgynous character. Here's a couple tutorials on the male body I found real quick but if you look around I'm sure you can find others

http://browse.deviantart.com/resources/ ... e#/d2zn5k9
http://snigom.deviantart.com/art/Male-A ... 0male&qo=0
http://wingedgenesis5.deviantart.com/ar ... 0male&qo=8

[Fawn]

I don't like any of them because they're traced from Wanko To Kurasou sprites.

Here's an overlay of the sprites on top of your "drawing":

And here are the original images:
http://anime-blog.org/wp-content/upload ... boobs3.png
http://img2.lln.crunchyroll.com/i/spire ... 7_full.png
http://moe.animecharactersdatabase.com/ ... i_Yusa.png

I couldn't find the first one because it's not Wanko style, but I bet it's traced as well.

Shame on you for trying to pull off traced "artwork" as your own! The rest of the artists on this board work hard to make original art, you have no excuse to use such a cop-out. If you want to learn how to draw there's plenty of people to help you learn. Don't be a jerk and steal other people's line work.

Also I find it amusing that you traced Risa's sprite to make a boy. No wonder they look feminine...

[MonoPiero]

I don't like any of them because they're traced from Wanko To Kurasou sprites.

Here's an overlay of the sprites on top of your "drawing":

wankotracing.png

And here are the original images:
http://anime-blog.org/wp-content/upload ... boobs3.png
http://img2.lln.crunchyroll.com/i/spire ... 7_full.png
http://moe.animecharactersdatabase.com/ ... i_Yusa.png

I couldn't find the first one because it's not Wanko style, but I bet it's traced as well.

Shame on you for trying to pull off traced "artwork" as your own! The rest of the artists on this board work hard to make original art, you have no excuse to use such a cop-out. If you want to learn how to draw there's plenty of people to help you learn. Don't be a jerk and steal other people's line work.

Also I find it amusing that you traced Risa's sprite to make a boy. No wonder they look feminine...

Lol! How did you actually find them?! Well.. You're right.. Its just like its traced.. But how did you know about that? Lol totally never thought of that >_>.

[Fawn]

I know for several reasons- for one I'm a huge Wanko fan so I noticed Kotarou's("Ryuu", here) ears and pose in a heartbeat (not many artists draw ears like that)
Second I'm kind of a art thief detective, I guess. I've been "busting" art thieves ever since a couple of my friends had their work stolen years back. I cannot tolerate such immature behavior so if I see something fishy I try to find proof and call people out on it. There's no excuse for tracing/taking other people's art and saying you made it; that's just wrong.

One thing to think about is the complexity of the folds... A newbie artist who would use such thick coarse lines most likely would not know how to place those clothing folds (I've been drawing for 7 years now and even I don't know how to place them haha). Not to mention the nice face shapes and nearly perfect bodylines... They're too good to be true.

[CosmicKitty]

I would like to say (if she/he hasn't run for the hills) there is a big difference between using references and stealing images. You should never use someone else's drawings, even as references because you'd be copying any mistakes they made. There are many websites with stock images to use, again not to trace just as a reference. Posemaniacs has a lot of poses and definately anything you could need for character art, and deviantart has a whole section of stock. You can't improve by tracing other people's work, and if you're not going to improve, then why bother making your own at all? Why not just use free sprites that are posted everywhere?

[papillon]

You *can* improve by tracing others work, it's not actually that terrible a first step at learning to draw. It makes you pay attention to every line and helps you think more about how art is put together. But it is only a step, there's a long way to go from there.

And yes, anime fans WILL tend to recognise things if you trace. Not everything! But fully expect that no matter how 'obscure' you think your source is, if YOU found it, someone else may have as well.

[Fawn]

Unfortunately when people hear that, Papillion, they think they can get by just by tracing It's just so easy to do and you have "nice" results afterwards; even if it's not yours.
I've only considered tracing as practice recently to polish my artwork by learning how my favorite artists make nice lines; but if you don't have a basis in everything else (anatomy, ect) tracing won't help. It's kind of like lifting a tiny weight and then thinking you can try a giant bench press- not going to work out well.

[Scarlet-Kokoro]

Apple... I would have lent you my anime instruction books... T.T

[Gear]

If you're going to trace, at least trace things that belong to you, I say. I trace, too, but I take photos of consenting individuals and trace them.

[sayuri]

I kinda feel like this thread should be locked since the original post is deleted...