AzureXtwilight's corner (Working on requests)

[Doggy Nino]

This art is so COOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm gonna keep praticing!! Your art has really inspired me!

[azureXtwilight]

Ta-daaah~

Phew, tired >.>

[azureXtwilight]

I dumped a song I just made, well, first time trying making music so please forgive me if it sucks a bit~



http://www.mediafire.com/?qqnxiic4kbcubl9

[Lumen_Astrum]

The music's cute, really matches it's title.

[Elemental-Butterfly]

Awww, so cute! Azure, do you do commissions? I know you're busy now with Fantasia 3.. ^_^;

It's all right, but.... What kind of commissions? =3

You are so lucky. Nobody cared when i started commissions.

[yummy]

I've listened to your tune.
I think the melody is okay, but there are lots of things that don't sound quite right.
The main problem is the tempo, as you're using a 3/4 measure your basic note duration is a black dotted note, and sometimes you don't stick to it, thus causing something like a lag when you play it.
There's also a discordance between the waltz-like violin and the flute progression at 0:36, and it sound terrible because of the difference between the different chords.
After this at 0:43, the tempo adjustment makes all the tune sound lagged.

Overall, creating a waltz tune might be a little complicated if you begin composing, because you make use of classical counterpoints, which are really really hard to adjust if you didn't study classical music.

Anyway, I hope you don't feel down because of my critique, because you have some potential and best of all, ideas.

[Elemental-Butterfly]

I dumped a song I just made, well, first time trying making music so please forgive me if it sucks a bit~



http://www.mediafire.com/?qqnxiic4kbcubl9

did you make it yourself?

[azureXtwilight]

I've listened to your tune.
I think the melody is okay, but there are lots of things that don't sound quite right.
The main problem is the tempo, as you're using a 3/4 measure your basic note duration is a black dotted note, and sometimes you don't stick to it, thus causing something like a lag when you play it.
There's also a discordance between the waltz-like violin and the flute progression at 0:36, and it sound terrible because of the difference between the different chords.
After this at 0:43, the tempo adjustment makes all the tune sound lagged.

Overall, creating a waltz tune might be a little complicated if you begin composing, because you make use of classical counterpoints, which are really really hard to adjust if you didn't study classical music.

Anyway, I hope you don't feel down because of my critique, because you have some potential and best of all, ideas.

Thank you, now that I've listened to it, I realize what you have pointed out. That's what I really need to fix
*MAGIX Music Maker is hard to master :/*

I dumped a song I just made, well, first time trying making music so please forgive me if it sucks a bit~



http://www.mediafire.com/?qqnxiic4kbcubl9

did you make it yourself?

Yeah XD

[lordcloudx]

Hello, Azure.

I realize that this is the first time that I've actually tried talking directly to you, so well met; I'm lordcloudx or just cloud as my friends call me. My enemies call me whatever they want - behind my back, that is.

Anyway, I've been silently observing your progress as a visual artist for quite some time now, and as a self-taught artist myself, I think I can offer you a few tips.

Note that I'm actually not that good, either, but as a self-taught artist who knows how it feels when people offer me art advice with too much information that's usually beyond my head, I'd like to offer you the kind of advice that I think would actually result in almost immediate improvements to your drawings. Also, remember that this advice sometimes (or most times) borders on the realm of personal preference/opinion, so feel free to take what you think would be useful to you and to discard the rest.

The most glaring mistake I've noticed that I think could be improved immediately is in the way you place the facial features in your drawings.

I'll use one of your recent pics posted in this thread to illustrate what I mean.



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I've cropped it so that it's easier to point out a few things (I took the liberty, so sorry if you don't like that.) Moving on, observe that pic carefully and try to scrutinize it as if you were the one giving critique. Focus on the facial features and you'll realize that the eyes are assymetrical, which also affects the soundness of the placement of the nose and mouth.

Now I'm going to try to redraw it in my own way and attempt to fix the problem with the facial features that I've observed. Again, this advice is highly subjective since I don't really have a solid foundation for my "drawing skills."



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As you can see, it's not a "light years away" improvement over your pic. My own sketch is far from perfect and comes with its own set of problems that I'm aware of (or might not be.)


Basically, all I did was draw the eyes while keeping their symmetry in mind and one other thing: I tried to define the muscle mass for the entire body - at least as far as what I've drawn. What I mean by this is that I drew the pic with a 3-dimensional image in mind. This is another point I'd like to bring up about your drawings based on my observations.



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This is a pic from the first page of this thread, so you might actually have improved in leaps and bounds since this was posted - still, the problem is also apparent in the first image in this post, so I'll go ahead and offer this piece of advice as well.

Anyway, what I can gather from the way you draw things is that you're imagining the characters and you have an idea of how they are posing, but you're not thinking of them in three dimensions - that is, you're only looking at them from one angle, which might also explain the problem with the facial features that I mentioned.

There's really no clear shortcut to improvement in this area, except awareness and practice. Anyway, if you're drawing the characters with their clothes on from the very beginning, I'd suggest drawing a basic outline of the naked body first. I'm not suggesting uber details like in most how-to-draw manga tutorials, of course (stick structurer, muscles, erase, body, clothes, add folds etc.) To give you an idea of what I mean, here's how I'd personally draw an outline for the same pic.



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Again, to a trained observer's eyes, I'm sure that there are a lot of problems with my *shudder* anatomy, but I think I have sufficient knowledge to make at least some passable anime style art.

So I guess to sum up my tips:

1. Watch those facial features.

2. Try to draw with a completely 3-dimensional image in mind.

If you really want to improve, of course. Read some anatomy tutorials and other stuff that them artist types like to push.

Also, good luck with your future games. I haven't started on the Fantasia games yet, but I plan to remedy that soon enough.

[Fawn]

(long post incoming) A better way for both of you to quickly improve would to be studying more realism. I've been studying it for about half a year now and my art has improved dramatically. Anime art is actually quite easy compared to realistic art, and once you actually get the proportions of the human body down and start to learn how light works, it's a piece of cake to make something somewhat good looking. It's not a bad thing that you tried doing anime style first, it's just not idea, because you don't know how bodies work to begin with if you don't reference real people. (Same goes for trees, animals, the list goes on)

Here's some examples of my work before and after I started studying realism, just to show you what I mean. I'm not good in any sense yet, but, you can atleast see the improvement:

it's not a walk in the park to do refs either, you really just want to draw your style and have fun, but like they say, no pain no gain. :3 However, here's some more tips to keep in mind:

-People recommend the site "Pose maniacs" frequently. DON'T start drawing from them. They have the basics of the body and a ton of poses, sure, but you're not going to learn how to draw human features from them well. Later on when you have more experience it may be helpful, though it's better to try your own poses.

-Draw from real life. Ask your friends, family or coworkers if you can draw them. Or if you're sitting around at work or on the bus with your sketchbook, make some quick sketches of random people. Copying from photos works fine too, but it's typically easier to draw from life.

-After getting down the basics, if you have the money, I'd suggest getting the following books: http://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-Manga-42 ... 4766117816 (yes, I know it says yaoi, but it actually doesn't have anything more in it but pictures of guys hugging and one kissing picture, I'm serious); How to Draw Yaoi is actually quite anatomically correct and makes it easier to understand the body structure, while still being in a beautiful manga style; and http://www.amazon.com/More-How-Draw-Man ... 925&sr=1-4 Mastering Bishoujo characters, which goes into depth of not only the many body types and personalities of bishoujos, but how to draw each style walking, sitting, eating; you name it.

In the mean time, you should start with copying photos or people around you and looking over tutorials like this: http://www.deviantart.com/download/1501 ... arseed.jpg I highly recommend getting those specific How to draw Manga books too though, they're a great help.

[charmwitch]

I think posemaniacs can help in the beginning, personally. It helps you loosen up your drawings, which is a huge problem with a lot of artists. They focus on the small lines far too often and sort of have a "scratching" look to their art because they're not confident in their lines. Learning when to loosen up and work fast is extremely helpful in learning anatomy.

That being said, I don't look at the how to draw books because I often feel they're really constricting. There's some neat books coming out now that have real people in poses that would be commonly seen in anime and manga and I'm interested in getting those personally. (Pleated skirts. Seriously. Why do you hate me?)

These types of books : http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/4416 ... N=44168096

I do agree that you should carry a sketchbook with you always and draw what you see. It's very helpful. :>

Also, when you're drawing on the computer, always "mirror" your images to see if you can catch any of your own mistakes that way. It helps me tremendously, no joke. I am a flipper on SAI.

[Fawn]

I think posemaniacs can help in the beginning, personally. It helps you loosen up your drawings, which is a huge problem with a lot of artists. They focus on the small lines far too often and sort of have a "scratching" look to their art because they're not confident in their lines. Learning when to loosen up and work fast is extremely helpful in learning anatomy.

That being said, I don't look at the how to draw books because I often feel they're really constricting. There's some neat books coming out now that have real people in poses that would be commonly seen in anime and manga and I'm interested in getting those personally. (Pleated skirts. Seriously. Why do you hate me?)

These types of books : http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/4416 ... N=44168096

I do agree that you should carry a sketchbook with you always and draw what you see. It's very helpful. :>

Also, when you're drawing on the computer, always "mirror" your images to see if you can catch any of your own mistakes that way. It helps me tremendously, no joke. I am a flipper on SAI.

Posemaniacs isn't going to help with the scratching lines, people just naturally get out of it. I used to do it when I was a kid drawing something new, it's more of a confidence thing.

It's true, I own many of those kinds of how to draw books. However those particular books are pretty loose, and are more realistic anime, so it's good for a transition between realism and anime art :>

Gaargh I know what you mean, skirts FUUUUUUUU... anywho those books look amazin And flipping on sai does help, though I'm usually like "screw it" and just keep drawing xD

[lordcloudx]

Just to be clear, I'm not a complete beginner nor am I looking to improve myself - but that's just me. As for making anime art that kinda looks good... I think I can manage.

I can do this much nowadays.





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I don't do DA, so here's a recent gallery that I'm using on facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1 ... dcf385f82d

I've personally read a few of those how-to-draw manga books - among other things. The point is, I just wanted to give azure some easy tips to immediate improvement. If she wants to improve even more, then yeah, I totally agree. Realism, how-to-draw, anatomy etc. the works.

As a person who is primarily a writer and not a visual artist, I prefer to learn at my own pace and take it easy/have fun while doing it - but again, that's just me.

[charmwitch]

Fawn >> I think posemaniacs helps with confidence, I guess is what I mean to say. Like, if you're too scared to try different poses then your scratchy lines will just persist. You have to get over it with time, yes, but that's by loosening yourself up and going for simpler strokes. By trying to get a whole figure in under 10 seconds or so is really beneficial for static artists. That's my thought on it, at least! :>

I'm all about the art personally, I think if we take a step back and seriously look at our stuff there's many ways to go about improving. I love flipping, it just really helps. I still can't do a full frontal image without flipping, it's so difficult- you know? It's easier to see where your shoulders slump weirdly and stuff.

It's easy for me to flip because I use a tablet with custom-buttons, though. Just click one of the keys and it flips back and forth, it's really useful!

[Fawn]

@cloudx:
Oo your art is very vector-y, I like it

Sorry I guess I read your post wrong.. I thought you were looking to improve too xD; but we all do. But still, if you ever do want to really kick @$$ at art... yeap!

@Charmwitch: Ah well, when you're actually ready to draw fullbody things, yes. But it's almost like drawing a leapord without its fur and skin on- How can you know how to draw the fine details of its fur and how the skin wraps around its body, if you only have its muscles? That's my problem with it being used by people who are trying to draw realistic people, because it doesn't help you draw hair, clothes... anything, lol.

ah man I need one of those buttony things D: I always flip when I've already started coloring and I'm like "CRRRAAPPP!"