What do you honestly think of my art?

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YaminoOkami
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What do you honestly think of my art?

#1 Post by YaminoOkami »

I recently got into making digital art but I have nobody to ask for feedback, so what do you honestly think of my art? do you think it is good enough or close to good enough to use for VN (since I plan to eventually make art for a VN I plan to make). Additionally could you help me decide if I should convert art I make into srbg or not as I can't really say witch is better.

https://preview.ibb.co/k6xt5F/5_1.png
https://preview.ibb.co/hUT0kF/5_2.png
https://image.ibb.co/gaouCv/4_1.png
https://preview.ibb.co/mNBxXv/4_2.png

PS: The ones with lighter colors are the ones converted in srbg
PSS: Characters aren't original

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Re: What do you honestly think of my art?

#2 Post by SundownKid »

It's definitely good enough to make a VN with, but I use "make" very loosely (as in, if you put it out there, people won't scream and run away from it, but they probably won't care enough to pick it up either). It's not terrible, but it's not great either. The lineart is very sketchy and the shading is barely there. The first thing they teach you in drawing class is never to pick up your pen when you're drawing lines, or sketch back and forth.

With the 2nd one I get the feeling you are just tracing pictures instead of drawing them yourself. It's important to understand that anime artists learn to draw from life, in order to draw cartoons, they don't just start out copying other anime artists. That's a recipe for iffy proportions and other problems, because every anime artist has their own style, so if you try to ape one you will be stymied.

The lighter ones definitely look better color wise.

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Re: What do you honestly think of my art?

#3 Post by ComputerArt.Club »

Like Sundownkid said, the first two are very sketchy, so if you want to bring the quality up to the next level you need to add another stage to your illustration process. Take that as your sketch, and go over it again in a vector graphics program (e.g. Inkscape - it is free and awesome). Things like the hair will need to be done with multiple layers/objects, so when you are redrawing it, don't try to use one shape for each part, combine several layers. This is important step. If done correctly, this will improve the polish of the piece. It won't be the most amazing art that the world has ever seen, but it is the next step! Next time you don't need to have this level of finish in your sketch.

For me, personally, I don't think you need to aim for super detailed or realistic art, it is more important that is finished and polished (it can be simple or stylized but it shouldn't be messy.

I believe that anyone can create great art, you just need to have the time and persistence to continue working on a piece - find what is not up to scratch and improve it. High quality art can take a lot of time, especially if you have less experience. That is how you improve.

Source: I teach art and digital art (to elementary school students... but we do awesome stuff). I am also an experienced animator and I once made a living as a portrait artist. I have also taught life drawing classes. Life drawing is a great way to improve your skills.

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Re: What do you honestly think of my art?

#4 Post by YaminoOkami »

Thanks for the replays. I do tend to move pen up and down when drawing lines, I have a hard time to get lines to go the way I want if I don't do that, but since I did improve a lot since beginning in this meter I wasn't sure if it is still something that is visible in finished art or if I am just being over conscious about it. It helps to know it is still something other people notice and therefore something that still needs improving. I never tried using vectors, I should give it a try. (I am currently using Krita and that one has vector options as well).

@ComputerArt.Club I don't understand what you mean by not using one shape for hair, could you explain what you meant.

Yea I also don't like the idea of heading in direction toward realistic art as I am not a fan of it, I don't see why I wouldn't learn from other anime artists. That doesn't mean I just want to copy-paste one specific anime style but rather develop my own styles by learning from anime artists rather then real life, and not having realistic proportions isn't something I see as a problem as I was never aiming for realistic in a first place.

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Re: What do you honestly think of my art?

#5 Post by MaiMai »

YaminoOkami wrote:
Yea I also don't like the idea of heading in direction toward realistic art as I am not a fan of it, I don't see why I wouldn't learn from other anime artists. That doesn't mean I just want to copy-paste one specific anime style but rather develop my own styles by learning from anime artists rather then real life, and not having realistic proportions isn't something I see as a problem as I was never aiming for realistic in a first place.
You don't have to draw realistically, but it is highly recommended for any artist to learn by drawing from real life. You learn the rules to break them, essentially.

I used to just only look and study anime artists when I was younger, but my art massively improved when I drew people from real life in my art courses for life drawing and human anatomy. When you have a better understanding of how real people look, you apply it to your stylized art. Looking at other anime artists will help develop your style, learning from real life develops your basic skills.

Right now, your lack of anatomical knowledge is reflected in the pictures you linked, especially for the Nep Nep picture. There's no underlying structure to the body, making the forms look blobby and uneven, not helped by the shaky lineart. One arm looks bigger than the other and the eyes aren't aligned evenly either. Given time and with serious enough study, you'll probably overcome those kinds of flaws if you continue working.
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Re: What do you honestly think of my art?

#6 Post by sendo »

Agreed with MaiMai. You don't need to draw realism, I personally don't because anime style is what I live for, but studying real human anatomy will give you a solid foundation which you can build from or stylize however you want.

Think about it this way, if you can see yourself drawing anime girls/guys for the next 5-10 years, wouldn't it be worth investing a year or two to study and really understand anatomy? I'm not saying you shouldn't draw whatever you want, but take studying seriously, give yourself homework, do a bunch of studies, fill pages with studies or just take classes. If you have say 2 hours of drawing time, use 1 hour for studies and 1 hour for funsies. It worked for me personally, and now I'm quite comfortable with drawing figures.

Apart from that, from what I can see from the images you posted, I think you're still at the stage where you're copying stuff - you get the overall pose correctly, but it's marred with proportion errors. Copying isn't bad, especially when you're starting out, but don't overly rely on it because that will limit you. The way to fix that is, once again, study real anatomy, because the human body is balanced and proportional. Once you know how the human body is constructed, you can twist and turn it, break and bend it, do whatever you want with it, it's a power on its own really.

Man, I sound like a shady merchant hustling some illegal shit. But yeah, I just thought I'd drop my 2cents because the topic has been brought up. Cute Nep and Underling though, keep it up! :3
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Re: What do you honestly think of my art?

#7 Post by Taleweaver »

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Re: What do you honestly think of my art?

#8 Post by Moonpearl »

It looks like you're not comfortable with your pen yet. I'd say you need to train more before you can make art that's good enough for a video game.

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Re: What do you honestly think of my art?

#9 Post by ComputerArt.Club »

@ComputerArt.Club I don't understand what you mean by not using one shape for hair, could you explain what you meant.

I was suggesting that you go over your art in a vector art program, such as Inkscape(free https://inkscape.org/en/). In case you are unfamiliar with them, vector art programs allow you to create images that you can render at any resolution and they will remain crisp and clean. The lines are smooth and would eliminate your current issue. When first trying to experiment with vector art, you may be tempted to try and do one object with just one shape, but this will make the image appear flat and ugly. With hair, for example, there is hair behind the head and hair in front of the face, in addition to multiple overlapping bangs in the fringe of the hair. It can be complicated as shapes are often given outlines (strokes) and this makes it difficult to create a realistic effect. To do this you will need to use multiple shapes without outlines, or you can find ways to create shapes with partial strokes or alternatively to cover the strokes. Basically the drawing approach is very different from that of drawing with a pencil or a raster art program, but it can have many advantages and, if done right, it could help you very quickly transition to making more professional looking art.

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Re: What do you honestly think of my art?

#10 Post by YaminoOkami »

Again thanks everyone for replays.

Honestly I am still not sure how is drawing from real life suppose to improve my art that drawing from anime can't, but since so many people told me about it I will keep it in mind/give it a try.

@ComputerArt.Club I need to thank you especially for letting me know about vektors, using them has improved my lineart a lot.
I still haven't finished this piece as I still need to add background but I finished a character so take a look on how vektors improved my art.

https://image.ibb.co/mTvNkF/4_8.png

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Re: What do you honestly think of my art?

#11 Post by MaiMai »

There's a difference in HOW to draw and WHY one draws a certain way. We're suggesting learning from realism so you know why bodies work the way they do. I guarantee you that most anime/manga artists have used and still use realistic references in their art for body and facial proportions, poses and at some point probably did realistic studies.
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Re: What do you honestly think of my art?

#12 Post by YaminoOkami »

I had been drawing a lot and had improved some points in my art, I would like to get some feedback on my improvement if possible.

https://image.ibb.co/mismhF/5_5.png
https://image.ibb.co/iKBwhF/6.png

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Re: What do you honestly think of my art?

#13 Post by skyeworks »

YaminoOkami wrote: Thu Aug 03, 2017 10:06 am I had been drawing a lot and had improved some points in my art, I would like to get some feedback on my improvement if possible.

https://image.ibb.co/mismhF/5_5.png
https://image.ibb.co/iKBwhF/6.png
I love the shading! Especially on the second one, it's really well done. The eye coloring is great.

first image need a white area for his eyes. And probably more shading like the second image,

The second image knuckles need to be a tad longer. I also think you might want to fix her eye (whites?)

Also, can I ask what program you are using? It seem like whatever method you used, (Magic wand?,paint bucket?) did not fill the shape all the way and left some spaces. So we see weird white/grey jagged areas. Otherwise, I think you really improved lots!
Image

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Re: What do you honestly think of my art?

#14 Post by YaminoOkami »

skyeworks wrote: Sun Aug 13, 2017 11:02 pm
YaminoOkami wrote: Thu Aug 03, 2017 10:06 am I had been drawing a lot and had improved some points in my art, I would like to get some feedback on my improvement if possible.

https://image.ibb.co/mismhF/5_5.png
https://image.ibb.co/iKBwhF/6.png
I love the shading! Especially on the second one, it's really well done. The eye coloring is great.

first image need a white area for his eyes. And probably more shading like the second image,

The second image knuckles need to be a tad longer. I also think you might want to fix her eye (whites?)

Also, can I ask what program you are using? It seem like whatever method you used, (Magic wand?,paint bucket?) did not fill the shape all the way and left some spaces. So we see weird white/grey jagged areas. Otherwise, I think you really improved lots!
I use Krita, from all programs I tried Krita is by far the best one for me, but it does seem to have various bugs witch can be quite a pain, one of witch is that whatever I use select option or bucket most of the time it will live this white line between line-art and color of various sizes, I go back latter and manually fix those most noticeable white lines, but I guess I missed some if you are noticing them.

Thanks for feedback!

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Re: What do you honestly think of my art?

#15 Post by skyeworks »

YaminoOkami wrote: Mon Aug 14, 2017 7:12 pm
skyeworks wrote: Sun Aug 13, 2017 11:02 pm
YaminoOkami wrote: Thu Aug 03, 2017 10:06 am I had been drawing a lot and had improved some points in my art, I would like to get some feedback on my improvement if possible.

https://image.ibb.co/mismhF/5_5.png
https://image.ibb.co/iKBwhF/6.png
I love the shading! Especially on the second one, it's really well done. The eye coloring is great.

first image need a white area for his eyes. And probably more shading like the second image,

The second image knuckles need to be a tad longer. I also think you might want to fix her eye (whites?)

Also, can I ask what program you are using? It seem like whatever method you used, (Magic wand?,paint bucket?) did not fill the shape all the way and left some spaces. So we see weird white/grey jagged areas. Otherwise, I think you really improved lots!
I use Krita, from all programs I tried Krita is by far the best one for me, but it does seem to have various bugs witch can be quite a pain, one of witch is that whatever I use select option or bucket most of the time it will live this white line between line-art and color of various sizes, I go back latter and manually fix those most noticeable white lines, but I guess I missed some if you are noticing them.

Thanks for feedback!
It's more of the method then program. I asked for the program so I can tell you how to avoid that. (Photoshop has the exact same problem as well) Basically those spaces are because of of anti-aliasing; pixels of lighter colors are generated along edges in order to make it look smooth. (So like your lines are actually a black line with grey so it looks really smooth.) The paint bucket doesn't fill those other colors, just the empty pixels.

I never used Krita so I don't know how to fix it...but if there's an option to use increase the tolerances for paint bucket that might help. I usually use the colors on a separate layer with the magic wand tool (Easier to clean up those white lines without messing up the black ones. ) AND IF THATS FAILS, you can always draw really big and then scale it down.

Here's an example of using my work.Excuse the terrible animation, I'm no animator. (See no white, and it was made from a huge image so even if there were, you can't really tell.
Image
Image

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