Quinn's Art Thread

[Quinn-G]

So, I started whipping up the various character sprites of one of my future VN's heroines and wanted the community's opinion on it, considering it's my first time drawing in anime style. Not asking for a critique or anything, but some friendly pointers to see if I'm going in the right direction would be appreciated.

The character in question is Helen Sinclair, the protagonist's commanding officer and captain of the ship the story will mostly take place in.

Cropped, watermarked and non-transparent PNG to avoid theft. It's about as big as the player will see her in-game, though.

[indoneko]

Her skull looks a little off; the base of the back of her skull is located a little too high (it should be around the same level of the base of her ear).

And her cheek can be made more curvy/rounder (unless you're aiming to make her looks masculine or skinny). In general, female characters usually have curvy/round features (compared to the "edgy" males).

[LateWhiteRabbit]

Her skull looks a little off; the base of the back of her skull is located a little too high (it should be around the same level of the base of her ear).

And her cheek can be made more curvy/rounder (unless you're aiming to make her looks masculine or skinny). In general, female characters usually have curvy/round features (compared to the "edgy" males).

I don't have anything to add beyond that, except to watch out and make sure you are using consistent shading across the drawing. For instance, you used multi-tone shading on the hair and used color holds on it and the face, but didn't do the same thing on the body.

[Taleweaver]

Moved to Personal Art threads, where it belongs.

[Quinn-G]

Moved to Personal Art threads, where it belongs.

Thanks and sorry, I'll check more thoroughly next time. #BakaDesu

Her skull looks a little off; the base of the back of her skull is located a little too high (it should be around the same level of the base of her ear).

And her cheek can be made more curvy/rounder (unless you're aiming to make her looks masculine or skinny). In general, female characters usually have curvy/round features (compared to the "edgy" males).

I do indeed wish to give her a more edgy look to emphasize her authority and the fact that she's the oldest of the four heroines I planned. I appreciate the criticism, but placing the base of the skull near the base of the ear would make her skull too big for my tastes, not to mention that the perspective is slightly different from the image you showed.

I don't have anything to add beyond that, except to watch out and make sure you are using consistent shading across the drawing. For instance, you used multi-tone shading on the hair and used color holds on it and the face, but didn't do the same thing on the body.

Relax, it's not the final picture. Each sprite will be properly shaded in the final game and I have yet to draw her other base poses and expressions. Character sprites are a lot more work than I thought they'd be. -_-'

[indoneko]

Fair enough....

Maybe it's helpful if the next time you ask similar question, you also add some insights about what you really wanted to show with the character(s) that you post in your thread so that we can give you the "useful" pointers instead of a generic feedback like what I mentioned above. For example, I didn't know that Helen is supposed to look edgy, or that you have a specific taste in art style...

[Quinn-G]

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that you went out of your way to create a comparison image in order to illustrate your point. Anime (and character design in general, I might say) has such a wide spectrum on how to draw a character, it's no surprise you or another artist will find my way of drawing characters strange.

For instance, another big difference between Helen and your screencap is the ear's placement. It's been ingrained in me that the ear should always be drawn with its top at the eye line and the base slightly higher than the nose line. Yet for Darkness, the ear is smaller and much lower than that.

If you take into account the fact that everyone has different tastes when it comes to style, and (if they're artists themselves) that they have very personal ways of drawing a character, then pleasing everyone is impossible.

But you're right, I should have mentioned details about Helen's personality when I asked for pointers. The other heroines have "bubblier" personalities, so their features will be much rounder to account for that.

I might just rename this thread The official "Blazing Skies" art progress thread to keep people updated on its progress.