VN Art (shading kills >_<)

[Sora is my name]

Here is my first attempt at shading...
can you please give me tips, on the wonderful shading, and line i see on fan-art, I use Paint.net, but am open to gimp >_<
I open to any critique

[HigurashiKira]

First thing's first: Dump Paint and get GIMP. GIMP has a lot more tools and plugins than Paint.Net and can do so much more once you get the hang of it.

Now, onto your eye.

From what I can see, it has a lot of things which it can do whithout. (Like those black lines in the highlight) Can I ask: do you do things all in one layer, or do you do each thing on a seperate layer? If it's the former, I would reccomend that you work on the shading and coloring in seperate layers in order to make things easier. It'll take practice, but eventually you'll get the hang of it.

Merely messed around with the eye here...Ellipse Select is a neat tool

Eyecolor.png (79.13 KiB) Viewed 1935 times

Here is a nice tutorial for the eyes if you're going to work with GIMP.

[Sora is my name]

I've learned that using multiple layers make things much better
:O
that eye is amazing
did you use a gradient to make the eye that color, and flow up with a soft white spot in the corner (same for pupil)
wow
But transferring to gimp will be hard >_<
Seeing as gimp is much more complicated....i will try

[HigurashiKira]

I've learned that using multiple layers make things much better
:O
that eye is amazing
did you use a gradient to make the eye that color, and flow up with a soft white spot in the corner (same for pupil)
wow
But transferring to gimp will be hard >_<
Seeing as gimp is much more complicated....i will try

The tutorial I posted is what I did, except without the last step.

Strangely enough, it really isn't that hard to go from Paint to GIMP. They're quite alike.

[kingjing]

Well I'm no master artist myself, but in my experience the best way to learn how to draw something is to reference it from real life. Doing a Google image search for 'Human Eyeball' might be a good place to start. You'll find plenty of medical diagrams which show the different parts of the eye.
I've attached an example of a super closeup of an eye. Don't trace it, but try to learn from it. Think about the way light and shadow work on a smooth, round and semi-transparent object (helpful tip- the eyeball is not perfectly spherical.)


You don't have to make it perfectly realistic, of course. But if you know how something works in real life, it's a lot easier to translate that into the anime/manga style, and people will shower you with praise and compliments and other assorted gifts forever afterword.
And of course, the old mantra of "practice, practice practice" holds true no matter what you're doing!

[TsukiShima]

I'm not sure, are you using a mouse or tablet for coloring? But I think for beginners, you're actually quite good ^__^ It's fine to focus one thing before going to another.

For anime style's of eyes, there are actually a lot. It's better if you explore and determine your own style of anime eyes. Anime artist love doing the eyes most, unless it's realistic eyes.

For shading.. Hm.. I don't really use Paint or GIMP, but I'm sure you can explore and use more brushes and colors. For a 'cool' shading, the more the colors blending in, the beautiful it will look.

If you want, later on maybe I can provide you with some tutorials.

[Sora is my name]

Thank you all for trying to help me ^-^
I am going to try GIMP now since it has more tools then paint.net...but seeing as I looked at the posted tutorial and was very, very confused -_- I think I'll browse around the basics, and when I'm comfortable I'll return and make something really nice (my first character: Capricia)
Thank you for all you help and in order
@Kingjing: Realism is how I improved my drawing from the scribbles it used to be (still need to improve but hey ) thank you
@Hanamori: I usually draw it and color it in slowly but often I try to use the tools so shapes, and angles are correct and proportionate
thank you, any tutorial posted will be greatly appreciated.
(the beginning is mostly directed towards HigurashiKura)
EDIT: I've returned with my skills improved :3
*Does not own original image