Lemma Soft Forums

To be honest, I've been drawing for about 6 months steady...I've been trying to improve on my shading and proportions. The body is one thing I have to learn, and how the clothes interact with a body is the second.

...I don't mind brutal critique!

From a distance, it looks nice. However:
-He lacks ears.
-Has no nose.
-His neck is long and doesn't lead to the body/appears to connect to a tube
-His face is off-centered.

Like most artists here, I recommend you study facial structures and anatomy so as to get an idea as to how humans work.

For a first "serious" attempt, I must say I am really fond of the way you've drawn the eyes. As far as I care, you've got the shapes down well, and there's nothing bothering me about their distance from each other. They also look to be about the same size, which isn't easy to get right if you're not used to drawing.

I like the way you've done the hair as well. It's not entirely something I think is completely 100%, but it looks good at a quick glance, which is always a good starting point.

Colouring looks pretty easy on the eye. It doesn't resemble the more "professional" works, but for a first attempt it looks rather good. You already mentioned shading, so I won't do that for you. A word of advice, though: use a darker shade of the colour you're drawing the shadow on. So for the hair, a darker shade of yellow, for the eyes, a darker shade of green. Same for the body itself.

The distance between nose and mouth is a bit large, however. If you examine your own face, you'll find that the distance between nose and mouth is about the height of an eye. Since anime characters have huge eyes, this makes things a bit difficult, but your distance is well over the height of his eye. The angular chin gives him a manly look, so if you want to preserve that I'd recommend drawing a bigger nose and putting it lower. (By which I mean much lower.)

You mentioned clothing as a thing you need to improve so I'm not going to comment on that overmuch.

All in all, I think the drawing looks good at a quick glance, and reveals some errors when examined more closely, such as the position and size of the nose, as well as the grey shades instead of more common darker hues of colours. Of course, I'm just a novice myself, so there's a good chance there's some errors with my assessment here.

The way I see it, though, it's pretty good, but there's a lot of room for learning. Obvious, since this is your very first serious attempt, according to the thread title. Keep working at it, and I'm sure you'll find you can draw stunningly well if you practice and study drawing.


EDIT: Also, Hijiri, I don't think telling a beginning artist everything that's wrong with their drawing is a very good way to motivate them to keep trying. Don't just focus on what they do bad, also give attention to what they do right.

Applegate wrote:EDIT: Also, Hijiri, I don't think telling a beginning artist everything that's wrong with their drawing is a very good way to motivate them to keep trying. Don't just focus on what they do bad, also give attention to what they do right.

I can't help it if it comes off harsh (It's not), but one usually should suspect that something that isn't called to attention is probably done right.

Good for you for working on your drawing skills.

I have problems with anatomy myself, and I find that doing youtube tutorials (as opposed to static image tutorials) can really help. I'm not sure why, but drawing along with the artist as he/she is drawing seems to help solidify in my head what I'm supposed to do.

If you want to draw manga style stuff, you might want to try out this guy's tutorials:

http://www.youtube.com/user/markcrilley

I find them relatively easy to follow along, and fun.

Hijiri is right

While I always drew intuitivly as a child I found it was a lot easier after drawing the person naked at first - it's fine to exaggerate the muscles...
Don't focus too much on the details at first, it doesn't matter if the nose is too fat or something, just make sure everything is there!
A lot of artists barely draw a dot as a nose - but if you're just starting, I recommend to just draw it!

You just have to get the feel how the body works - where are bones, muscles, how do you move your arm etc...

The (in my opinion) most frequent mistake of new (and not so new) artists are proportions. I'd start on that. There are a lot of drawing guides that help with that, too.

Don't get too frustrated if it takes some time to learn everything (I still have trouble withflowing movement, too haha)

I am agree with Hijiri and Mangafee. I learn how to digital art 2 months ago . And , I practice how to draw manga 3 years ( I started from I was 8 .)
I remember my first time drawing manga . Even when the result is bad or good , I still draw. After day by day practicing , I've got better everyday. Even though the result isn't good yet still you're young and have many time to learning .Make your art better.

I tried to take in your guys critique, and here was the result somewhat...what do you guys think now?

Hanyuu_Furude wrote:


I tried to take in your guys critique, and here was the result somewhat...what do you guys think now?

When put side-by-side with the first one, I see a lot of improvement, excellent work. The only thing that stands out to me right now though is his jaw: it's off-centered. However, doing it right takes a bit of practice, so keep working at it. Another thing is the collar of his shirt. It wraps around the back of the neck as well (If you own one, you can see for yourself) it doesn't just cut off abruptly.

When you show the shadows the bangs make on the forehead, use a darker shade of the skin color and not dark grey if you're CGing in color.

Hanyuu_Furude wrote:


I tried to take in your guys critique, and here was the result somewhat...what do you guys think now?

I am sorry because ... WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE HAIR COLORING?!
This is like a quick sketch you don't even fix and just color it.
It's have a little improve since the first pic.
I'm not trying to be hard but I don't see any contact between the shirt and the body.
And, try to do it better, please ?
Just being honrst with what I think

I don't want to criticize what already done (and it's already past), so I just suggest a practical way to learn arts:
It's OK to draw your originals (because it's fun), but it barely improve your skills. If you want to lean arts efficiently, just keep coping someone, and sketching reals or photos alongside. Also, learning logic and knowledges is really important. Don't underestimate it.

I don't know if this is really any better than my second, but I had a go at it.

You tried to use a grid, which is great, but you didn't take the time to use it properly. Line things up properly. The jaw is still lopsided, the neck is uneven, and the hair and ears are really different in height to name a couple things. I suggest using guidelines. Basically, do your drawing in steps. Draw the actual shape of the head FIRST, make sure it's even, then make things line up where they need to go. Use some references as a guide.

As nyaatrap suggests, you could try to get inspired by checking how other artists/illustrators do it. It's also easier when having reference material available regardless.

As the Art Goddess Tetiel says (sorry Tetiel, it just sounds so nice ! ^^'), try to use the grid for more precise placement if you're going to have one.
From the looks of it, you seem to rush it a bit. Just take your time and draw shapes to begin with, then work your way to clean lines afterwards.

You're using Manga Studio, right ? There are ruler tools available and more to help you set up guidelines. You can lay basic shapes on your canvas and work from them to your final product for example.

So yeah, take it step by step and take your time