I want to improve

[Desu_Cake]

For quite some time, I've been practising drawing, but I feel like I'm hitting a bit of a wall where I can't get any better without someone pointing out all the numerous things I'm doing wrong.
So I created this thread to get some feedback.

This is Abby. She's supposed to look angry and stiff, since she's such a stick-in-the-mud. Her outfit is supposed to be a sort of pseudo-17th century military uniform. Does she look how she's supposed to? Are there many glaring anatomical errors? I'm aware that the shading is dreadful, but I really don't know how to go about improving it.


Thank you in advance for any help.

[evgaming]

Hi desu_cake!

I'm sure many other extremely talented artists are going to help you out, but I'll throw in a few thoughts. The design is great - you didn't need to tell me she's a stick in the mud, as I can already tell. The sour expression, stiff arms, and curled fists work in your favor. The costume design is great too, as are the colors. My only design critique is the mid-step pose is awkward. Consider having her standing at attention.

As for the art, the shading isn't bad either. The biggest obstacle for you to overcome is anatomy. The head it far too large. Give it another go, and good luck!

[Deji]

I agree with evgaming (:

Your major flaw is the anatomy, you need to study and practice more of that!
Also, the shirt collar looks awkward where it is; it's almost as it was a t-shirt with the shirt neck like and tie printed on it >_<. But worry not! That is easily fixed with a quick google search for shirts, to see how they look in real life (: (that's what I did, I used to have that same problem with clothes in general, haha ^^;; )

Now my redline redraw thingie. Hope it helps and you like it!

[Desu_Cake]

Thank you, both of you!
Looking back on it, I think all of my art has an oversized head problem :V

Is this any better, anatomy-wise?

[dramspringfeald]

I would suggest you learn to Walk before you run.

Pose Maniacs is an awesome source for learning how to draw the human anatomy in various poses. Look at how the Muscle slopes doe the sholders.

Other then that. Your neck is too thick and long for her body/frame Try making it about 1/3 to 1/2 the thickness. sloping in from the back.

[CosmicKitty]

you need to extend the line of her chin, it looks like her head/neck are all one blob. Her back hand is really small and boney compared to the front hand, and she's standing on her tippy toes instead of flat on her feet, she's about to tip over Like the uniform and the folds on the bottom of the pants look pretty good. she needs so crease lines around the crotch of the pants.

[100puro]

I think that all the mistakes were pretty much fixed in deji's redraw. Even the ones pointed out later (like the neck and feet) are pretty good in Deji's. So my advice would be to really study what Deji drew for you because I think she really did a good job there while still capturing the personality of your character.

But I second pose maniacs. My anatomy is still wonky but pose maniacs got me at least from failing terribly to scraping by 8D Good luck!

[Desu_Cake]

I would suggest you learn to Walk before you run.

No fear.

Other then that. Your neck is too thick and long for her body/frame Try making it about 1/3 to 1/2 the thickness. sloping in from the back.

you need to extend the line of her chin, it looks like her head/neck are all one blob.

Oops, when I shrunk the head, I forgot to shrink the neck with it. :V

Her back hand is really small and boney compared to the front hand,

Someday, I will be able to draw hands correctly! That day has not yet arrived. ;_;

and she's standing on her tippy toes instead of flat on her feet, she's about to tip over

Umm... Is she? I honestly can't see that at all.

Like the uniform and the folds on the bottom of the pants look pretty good. she needs so crease lines around the crotch of the pants.

Derp. I forgot about that when I was redrawing.

I think that all the mistakes were pretty much fixed in deji's redraw. Even the ones pointed out later (like the neck and feet) are pretty good in Deji's. So my advice would be to really study what Deji drew for you because I think she really did a good job there while still capturing the personality of your character.

Except that may get me a nice picture, but just blindly copying someone else's picture won't help me learn what I'm doing wrong, which is why I created the thread.


version 3:

[MaiMai]

and she's standing on her tippy toes instead of flat on her feet, she's about to tip over

Umm... Is she? I honestly can't see that at all.

Unless she's wearing high heeled boots, her feet shouldn't be slanted like that. She's wearing flat heels so they need to be perpendicular to the ground plane. I made a redline so you can see it although you can also see it Deji's correction where the position of the feet are slightly changed from what I just sketched.

[100puro]

I can't seem to be able to see version 3.. and I wasn't suggesting blindly copying sorry. I just meant to take a good look and how her's is different from yours. But I'm sorry yea knowing what and how to fix isn't really easy if you just study a picture.

At the time I wasn't at my own computer so I couldn't give you a redraw or visual but this time I am so hopefully this can help?
---
In the picture I've addressed the feet, both hands, the face alignment, "swollen" head, neck angle, and crotch wrinkles

The feet like someone said before should be perpendicular to the ground. the way I drew it, the foot closer to us is slightly angled towards us while the the farther away one is angled so that we see more of the side of the foot. Just some minor things were off with the hands along with the neck. The "swollen" head thing is that the back of our heads aren't perfectly round but actually tapers more towards the neck while the top is rounder. The right eye was a bit high and I adjusted the nose and mouth a little to fit to the center line better. The crotch wrinkle thing is optional but I felt like it might look a bit more natural if there were a bit more.

I hope this makes more sense and explains things more clearly!

[Desu_Cake]

Soo, the foot problem is because I've mentally put the horizon line too high? Because the feet are parallel to the ground. (I assume you mean parallel, perpendicular would be weird )

@100puro: Don't worry about it, it's just that I have had people suggest that to me before. Sorry if I snapped at you.

[MaiMai]

Soo, the foot problem is because I've mentally put the horizon line too high? Because the feet are parallel to the ground. (I assume you mean parallel, perpendicular would be weird )

Blah, yes that's what I meant. Thanks for the correction.

[SundownKid]

Right now, it seems like her body is suffering from scarecrow syndrome, e.g. it looks like it is far too stiff to be a normal human being. The arms and legs are all made of straight lines, which makes it look like a cardboard cutout. You should consider re-doing the entire body using oval shapes in order to make a more free-flowing figure that has weight and heft. Think of the body as a sandbag: if you bend it, it will curve rather than just stay stiff as a board.

[Desu_Cake]

Umm... did you read the part where I said she's supposed to be stiff?

[Deji]

I third (?) pose maniacs; it helped me a lot when I was having problems with anatomy and posing the body. You need to learn how to properly use body structure before drawing any clothes on top of a character (if you want to make sure it'll look good/believable).

Try practicing drawing naked people/3d anatomy models for a while in different poses until you understand more or less how the body as a whole and each part of it *works*, and then worry about the rest (and when you get to that point, keep practicing more!)

Also there's nothing wrong on copying for practice! I don't know why people make such a big deal about it ^^; Copying something as you study how it works (disect it! find shapes and patterns and volumes!) is a very good exercise (: