Trying to learn how to draw [Feedback&Requests]

[Hoyuu]

Welp, hello people.
I've been registered in this forum for some time, but I decided to post only now because I'm pretty shy.
Actually managed to complete a VN (yay) but it's in portuguese and I'm pretty much self taught in english, so I don't really have any confidence to translate it by myself... Well, anyway!
I've been drawing for, I don't know, two or three months, maybe? My friend gave me a drawing tablet for birthday this year and I always liked to stare at pretty pictures that other people made, so I decided to try drawing said pretty pictures myself.



So, this was actually my first serious attempt to draw and color in a tablet. I was actually pretty proud of myself when I drew it, because even if it's kinda bad, drawing in a tablet was hard and coloring even harder, haha.

Then after some horrible drawings, I made some more that were not so terrible:







I know most of them are head shots, but at first I was kinda scared to draw full bodies because they always ended very wonky. I drew the girl without much reference and just slapped some base colors, really.

And then after some more practice and some staring at photos of ladies in underwear (for reference ok! ), I drew these two pictures, my most recent ones:





I've been practicing the eight head method to draw full bodies, but I still think my attempts are pretty terrible so I won't post any of them for now.
Drawing is really hard, but fun at the same time. Hopefully someday I'll be able to draw some pretty art too.
Also, for me, making lineart is suffering
I know I need to study anatomy more and my coloring is not really good, hm...
So, what do do your guys think?

[akemicchi]

Hey there, welcome to the forums! ^^ (Or congratulations to your first post, ahaha.) Your art looks really good so far! Just keep up with practicing anatomy; your recent attempts at bodies look much better than the earlier picture of the dark-haired girl. Using references will help tremendously with your skill; I really can't recommend it enough. You can learn colors, the way folds fall, the way clothes conform to the human body... Be sure to use them, even if it's just to study them. :)

One thing I want to mention is that your colors are flat. You should chose colors that aren't just darker versions of the base color. The skin of Leila, for example, is a good example of use of colors: a very light yellow base and a orange/pinkish color for the shades. Shift the hue to another color, and choose a darker color there. If you're feeling bold, try complements like purple for shading the skin, or changing to a cool color for shading warm colors (or vice versa). Knowing how to use color effectively can vastly improve your art.

You'll also want to experiment with brushes of different hardness. Airbrushing is fine, but everything has form and is made of unique materials. The way shadows and highlights appear is different on silk as opposed to cotton. Again, you can learn a lot using references while you draw. :)

... I also totally understand that feeling about lineart being suffering. I feel the same way. *stares into the horizon* I'm still trying to figure out how to have extremely neat art without lineart. I guess you could just treat it like a painting (one layer, and you edit it as you go), but it won't be as immaculate as it could be...

Anyway, good job! :) Keep practicing!

[DarkSin]

An artist needs to be his/her own harshest critic in order make any considerable progress. And you seem to be doing a good job of that :p Seriously though, it's a good approach to always scrutinize your drawings, comparing them to real photos or works of successful artists, accept the flaws and shortcomings, and keep looking for ways in which they could be bettered.

There seems to be a big improvement in your skill from what I can see I like the last two images, especially. You seem to be on the right track already, looking up references and following tutorials, so just keep at it. You'll keep getting better with practice and study. And being critical about your own art will only drive you to improve, speeding up your progress. Also I'd advise you to start with simple "cel shading", 2 or 3 tones. Once you're confident enough in your cel shading ability, you should have an easier time applying more complicated shading styles to your art.

[kisa]

Probably not what you're looking for... But...
I think your shoulders and torso-limb-width-ratio (If you understand that) could use the most help (It does look pretty awesome though! OuOb )
One of the things I did to help with my shoulders is practice drawing a heart shape for the shoulder blades and then build the neck on top of that. I mostly draw guys though. So, I can't guarantee how it'll turn out for girls.
With the torso width thing... Try making the torsos thinner and the arms just a smidge thicker.
Leila seems pretty okay on that front though.

Anyway... Almost definitely came across as unhelpful and awkward... But, that's my opinion.
Hope I helped at least a little.

[CSV]

I really like the style of the second and fourth pictures. However, the coloring in said fourth picture looks a bit too blurry to me. Unfortunately, I can't offer much help on how one would go about fixing that, as I am still very much a beginner at digital art.
Anatomy-wise, the neck in the fifth picture is too long; in the Leila picture, the face looks too triangular and the right eye is just a little too much to the right. Remember that the distance between the eyes is usually the lenght of one eye.
Still, you seem to be progressing very quickly. That's great.

On another topic, are you planning to post the portuguese version of your vn? I'm curious to know what it's about, I guess. X)

[Hoyuu]

So, it's been a while since I posted something here. I've practicing a lot recently, mostly drawing bodies, so I didn't really practice much coloring (or lineart making, cofcof), sooo I'm still pretty terrible at it ;w;''

@akemicchi: Thank you for the feedback! Especially your advice in colors, I've experimented a little and you're totally right, the colors look flat. I've tried some new things, but I put most of my time in learning to draw better bodies so my skill in coloring is still bad. More practice, I guess :´D

@DarkSin: Thanks! And well, I did practice a lot. The begining was the worst since even though I followed the tutorials closely my results were horrible :´D I persisted though, since I discovered that I like drawing and I really want to make pretty art... One day I'll get there, I hope. I have some dificulties with cell shading, probably because I know absolutely nothing about color theory and where shadows and light should go... Welp, at least I know what to learn and practice now xD

@kisa: You did help! I tried drawing that heart shape thing and the neck and it was useful! I think my proportions are a little better now, but thanks for pointing that out :3

@CSV: Thank you! And even though you're a beginner too all the things you pointed out were right, so thank you for that :p
I'm actually shocked someone is interested in that VN xD only one person played it, and I guess he liked it? At least he said so. It was more an attempt at learning to make a VN than a real VN, but still, it has a (pretty short) history, almost 6000 words, I think. I made it in halloween, so it was supposed to be dark, but in the end it turned out nor scary at all xD
Still, I made it in three days, so there's that. You can download the VN here if you want: Link
I only own the story, really. Almost everything else (the sprites, GUI and music) I got from the Creative Commons of this forum, there are really nice things in there.
Oh and btw, it's in brazilian portuguese.

Thank you very much for all the feedback everyone!
So, I've been thinking of making another VN, probably BxB, and this time I'm totally doing the art for it! I've only got a vague outline of the story, but I finished the sprites from the protagonists!
... Well, to be completely honest, I cheated. I just put down the base colors and applied a lot of filters in photoshop to make it blend with the background, but I think the result is kinda nice at least? The only thing I really "colored" were the eyes.
Soo, what do you guys think, would you play a VN with this kind of art? The middle one is the protagonist of the VN btw.

Oh, and I probably wont do anything drastic with the sprites at this point, but I would like to know if you guys think anything about them look strange, awkward or just plain bad. I still have some dificulties with folds and some other things, so be honest, I can take it!

[CSV]

@CSV: Thank you! And even though you're a beginner too all the things you pointed out were right, so thank you for that :p
I'm actually shocked someone is interested in that VN xD only one person played it, and I guess he liked it? At least he said so. It was more an attempt at learning to make a VN than a real VN, but still, it has a (pretty short) history, almost 6000 words, I think. I made it in halloween, so it was supposed to be dark, but in the end it turned out nor scary at all xD
Still, I made it in three days, so there's that. You can download the VN here if you want: Link
I only own the story, really. Almost everything else (the sprites, GUI and music) I got from the Creative Commons of this forum, there are really nice things in there.
Oh and btw, it's in brazilian portuguese.

I played your VN (and got the true end on my first playthrough).

It was a bit sad that Elise disappeared, but I think that was the most interesting part as well.

Even though everything but the story was from Creative Commons (as a coincidence, I am also using that particular GUI for my KN ), it all blended really well together, and I think the music suited the plot nicely.

[kisa]

Yay~ I'm glad it helped!
*looks at the most recent picture*
Oh my~<3

[Hoyuu]

Hey guys! It's been quite a while, huh?
Welp... I'll admit I didn't practice very much, had to study a lot for my university and I simply didn't have the energy to draw a lot... But I did draw some little things, and actually surprised myself at how well some of these came out, actually.
Sadly, I can't continue the VN I was working on, since my pc stoped working and instead of fixing it, my father just bought me a laptop, so, yeah, I lost pretty much everything *sigh*
Welp, here are some of the drawing that I liked the most:

I started experimenting with my coloring in these two drawings, and wow, the way you color can really change a picture, huh?

For these two I tried to do a more... Painterly thing? Lol, idk, I just did everything in only one layer, and while the result isn't completely terrible, it was painful painting these two. I mean, seriously, when I finished it my hand was hurting.

And finally, these last two are my most recently finished drawings, just ignore the portuguese phrases. Actually I'm a little surprised at how well these two came out, very happy with the result.

(AHahaha, what even is lineart??? *sobs*)

Thanks for everyone who gave me advice, hopefully I'll have more time to practice this year and become even better <3
Oh yeah, I signed everything under "Silyn" because most people call me that, but yeah, it was still me who drew it.
Any type of feedback is still welcome btw =w=7

[runeraccoon]

THE LAST TWO. They're so good. <3
I love the lineart-less style. That's only sketch + color, right? But the coloring is still very neat. Congrats, I think it's huge improvement from 2014! * v *

[Hoyuu]

Thank youu ;w;!! I was happy that the last two ones came out so well!
And yep, in all of these last drawings I just made the scketch and slapped the colors.
Idk, making the lineart feels really boring to me, I know it makes the art look more neat, but for me it sucks all the fun that I have in drawing... Scketching and paiting are so much more fun than making lineart >.>...
Glad you like the style, though <3 I'll try to make more neat lines while scketching at least.

[Hoyuu]

Hey, I made lineart this time!
... Well, kinda.

I'm just messing with some new brushes to be honest.

Welp, I'll try taking requests this time, see if I can draw your characters.
Ask away people.

[Hoyuu]

Scketch dummp, I guess? Mostly, I was just messing with some new photoshop brushes.

Ahahaha, what is consistency???

Also, I still suck at anatomy, can you tell? ;w;

[Coren]

Your art is really cool! Can I have anyone you like from any game in Soyasushi productions please? Thanks!

[Hoyuu]

I only saw your message today, sorry for the wait :'D

I admit, I only wanted to draw him because of his hair.
I hope you like it, and sorry for having butchered your character, asjknkasj.