Trying to improve! Feedback is appreciated!

[Crystaline Spade]

Hello! I'm Spade.

I've always enjoyed drawing since I was little but I really want to improve! Especially when it comes to coloring. Right now I feel like it's not bad but it's not good either... I tend to use just regular colored pencils. I'd also just like feedback in general.

I mostly just draw what's on my mind. I'm working on a project right now and I draw the characters for the artist as an example. I'd love to hear a good honest opinion.

Examples:
Sorry about the poor quality resulted by taking pictures of the drawings.

Colored:


Other:

These two are a bit older...



Please tell me what you think!

[CSV]

Ah, someone else using colored pencils!
I like your colored drawing. About the drawing itself, however, I could say the wings look a little odd - bird-like wings usually have feathers in "layers", like this. About the coloring, I think you should work on shading. It makes a big difference even if you just use one base color and one shading color.

[Crystaline Spade]

Wow. Bird wings are more complicated then I originally thought!
I've been trying to practice shading with just a regular pencil but, I still don't quite get how to do it... Do you have any tips or tricks?

Thanks for the response, CSV.
From Spade

[n0tgin]

I'm not CSV, but I do know how to do shading with pencil! Although I've only done this with pencils and not colour pencils. You crosshatch. Basically what you do is, you shade lightly (important: move pencil back and forth in one direction only) through the whole area in which you wish to shade. That's your base. Then you do the exact same thing, but move your pencil in the opposite direction (if you laid down the base by sketching horizontally, your second layer should be done vertically/diagonally). Keep layering that until you finish shading.
(I'll provide pictures for this if you want, this is a bit hard to follow, I admit.)

Additional tips:
- Don't apply too much pressure on your pencil while you crosshatch, it'll only allow mistakes.
- Do not smudge, unless you are extremely confident in doing so. Often, smudging leaves marks on your fingers which can then leave marks on other parts of your drawing. Not cool.
- If you want to shade things which aren't flat (like a sphere), crosshatch in curves/other lines instead of just straight ones.

[CSV]

So n0tgin already explain shading with a pencil, which is actually something I am not very good at. I can tell you what I do for colored pencil shading, though, but please notice that I am self-taught and my technique might be wrong.
You need to use at least two colors, one for base and one for shading. The shading color shouldn't just be a darker shade of the base color; for example, I usually use a dark purple color to shade a red base. You start by lightly applying the base color to the entire area you want to color. Then you take the shading color and use it on the areas away from the light source; apply a lot of pressure, and then not as much as you get closer to the light source. Then take the base color again and do the same thing again, so it will blend with the shading color.
I am not sure I am making this clear. Like n0tgin said, it is difficult to explain without pictures, but I could show you the process if you'd like.

[Crystaline Spade]

Thank you both! I can sort of get what you're saying but, I think it'd be better(and easier to understand) with pictures. Once again thanks for helping me!

From Spade

[n0tgin]

I think this page explains it better than I do, and with pictures to show you what you need to do too... http://www.dueysdrawings.com/shading_tutorial.html
And, you're welcome!

[CSV]

Coloring.png

Here's an example of the coloring process I mentioned before. The photo quality is not the best, though.
Again, this is just how I color and I am not claiming it is the right way to do it, but I hope it helps somehow. I started with a pen drawing, but pencil sketches work the same way. I try to color in a circular motion to make the color even. Using Faber-Castell colored pencils: the base color was «orange», then I shaded using «violet red». «Orange» pencil was used again, and lastly I used «orange yellow» to make it more colorful and bright, though this last step is not necessary.

[Crystaline Spade]

Hi all!

I still haven't gotten much of a chance to practice shading but, I think I've improved a bit.
So I just wanted to show that.

This is actually the same character at the top just with a different style and red wings.



Once again any tips and feedback is greatly appreciated!
From Spade

[YuukiCrossPudding]

I think your drawings is quite good, because you have this unique style vibe, it'll get better with more practice!
Few pointers..?
1. Learn more about anatomy, and try to see your old drawings and learn from there? Sometimes I noticed the odd things on my drawings after seeing them again, then I try to fix the mistakes I made.
2. For pencil colorings, I'm not good at them, but I found a lot of useful tutorials on web, especially youtube, since we can see how ppl colors them online. You can try to search for more tips how to color here and there
3. There's no right way of coloring, just the most suitable ones, and probably some perspective about lighting and all that. By practicing and remembering the basic while doing so will help a lot! Don't be afraid to make mistakes haha but I tend to do so as well
4. Try mixing pencil colors with watercolors, or maybe some markers as well? I like doing mixed media while drawing traditionally so I can found something new while doing it.

Few tutorials I found useful: (For pencil colors)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRdAqrgAyVM
I totally love her way of coloring, just check other videos for more tutorials, I bet it'll worth your time!

I'm still learning how to draw myself, let's improve together!

[Drew]

Hi, I'm no great artist but I've made enough mistakes to learn plenty of lessons.

I'd second YuukiCrossPudding's comment about anatomy, getting that down at the start makes life much easier. You've obviously got a style you're very comfortable with but I'd recommend working on the basics first then developing/following a style after/around that, it will give you a stronger skill set in the long-run.

If you want to soften pencil sketches, why not try water colour pencils, I used them at school and found them good for illustration type work. Plus you can 'draw' your colours on then brush over them to blend and soften.

-Drew

[Lilan]

@Crystaline Spade: try to scale your drawings at the right size so that the body doesn't cut off midway. I have that problem too.

[truefaiterman]

Try to work on anatomy and light. You're developing an interesting style, and your designs are good, so it's a matter of technique.

Take a look at this two Youtube channels, they have awesome videos in the matter:

https://www.youtube.com/user/ProkoTV <- Specially with anatomy.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Sycra <- Specially about light and shadows.