How do I give 3D effect on shirts?

[Celianna]

Ugh, I can't get it right -- I tried two styles, a regular shading (like the blue shirt example of yours) and the "︵ ︵" shades.... Neither looked good

https://puu.sh/uHPLZ/17515b2521.jpg

The lighter shading just below the nipples look alright, but the darker... Ugh.

You're still trying to outline the breasts, but it's an improvement Don't make crescent shapes like yours, only start the shadows from where her nipples begin. Yours are going into a loop, and then turn away from each other, if you ended it right below where they separated, it would look a lot better already. See what I mean:


Also, it would work out a lot better if you shifted her chest a bit away from the viewer, right now it's kind of awkwardly placed. It's better to do the inverted camel shapes for your perspective.

Here, I red-lined it, and redrew the dress to show you where the shadows would go.


If this is troubling you so much, how about checking out some dress-up games? This one for example, just study the style and how the shadows form the breasts in a very simple style.

[indoneko]

@Viniciuskk : instead of focusing all of your effort on shading the breast, I think it will benefit you more if you start with fixing the perspective first. Don't be afraid to redraw it. You can follow Celianna's suggestion above, or try your own.

Tips : draw the nude sketch first, along with the chair and the table. Please make sure that they're in the same perspective, and have no problem with anatomy or pose. If everything is fine, then you draw the clothes and additional objects (like the ice cream on the table). ideally, you draw them in different layer than your sketch layer. After the lineart is fixed, then you add color & shading (also in different layers).

[Viniciuskk]

Thanks! Here's what I have now. It looks much better, but perspective does seem to be still off: https://puu.sh/uJl4W/4d79708b6d.jpg
(And I'll get rid of the crescent shape )
I did it this morning, before your help today. I'll update the art again tomorrow

And, ugh, I REALLY need a tablet to draw. I swear it took me 6 hours to get to where I am now. My index really hurts -_-

@Celianna -- How long did it take for you to draw all that?? I spent 1 hour just to make the legs without any detail/shading/whatsoever ;___;
I think it is because I draw with the mouse -- I have to stay in max zoom in order to get some decent linework -- that's where I screw perspective and stuff end up too small or oversized

Edit: I've been keeping track of how long I spent in this drawing. I'm currently at 36 hours.

[Celianna]

Thanks! Here's what I have now. It looks much better, but perspective does seem to be still off: https://puu.sh/uJl4W/4d79708b6d.jpg
(And I'll get rid of the crescent shape )
I did it this morning, before your help today. I'll update the art again tomorrow

And, ugh, I REALLY need a tablet to draw. I swear it took me 6 hours to get to where I am now. My index really hurts -_-

@Celianna -- How long did it take for you to draw all that?? I spent 1 hour just to make the legs without any detail/shading/whatsoever ;___;
I think it is because I draw with the mouse -- I have to stay in max zoom in order to get some decent linework -- that's where I screw perspective and stuff end up too small or oversized

Edit: I've been keeping track of how long I spent in this drawing. I'm currently at 36 hours.

About 20 minutes, and I use the mouse

The difference is I'm drawing from experience, and you're still just a beginner. Beginners take way longer! So don't be too hard on yourself. Be sure to zoom out a lot though, so you can always check to see if everything is still okay. I pretty much zoom back out after every single stroke I make.

The shading on the breasts look better in your example (especially compared to your first example), so I'm curious to see what you're going to make with my suggestions on where the breasts should go, since that's mostly what's off right now.

[indoneko]

If you have a scanner, digital camera, or even a decent enough cell phone with a front camera, try this :
1. Draw your initial sketch with traditional pencil & paper. Don't worry if it became dirty/smudged.
2. Go to a mirror, and check any mistake by looking at your sketch via the mirror (this is horizontal flip view).
3. Take a scan/photo of it, and open it in your photoshop or any image editing software.
4. Make a new vector layer above it, and trace your sketch there.

[Viniciuskk]

How's this? I mainly used King-sama's advice: https://puu.sh/uM0IT/b781ad12f7.jpg (The hand on the tale looks a bit weird, any ideas about it?)

[Celianna]

It's better! But the perspective is still off. Her breasts aren't centered with her spine. See here:



I just shifted most things to the right, and straightened out her arm (you should redraw that arm though).

If the hand is giving you trouble, just look at reference pictures. This one for example.

[Viniciuskk]

Uh... Let's just say she has scoliosis... Yep. Poor girl. ;---;

Anyway, I tried copying your skirt -- Despite using the exact same colors, it looks much worse .-.

https://puu.sh/uMpUk/207cb1235d.jpg

WHY?!?!?! Did you blur the fringe effect? I tried messing with brightness, color deepen, etc but nothing made it better.

[Koete Hoshi]

If you have a scanner, digital camera, or even a decent enough cell phone with a front camera, try this :
1. Draw your initial sketch with traditional pencil & paper. Don't worry if it became dirty/smudged.
2. Go to a mirror, and check any mistake by looking at your sketch via the mirror (this is horizontal flip view).
3. Take a scan/photo of it, and open it in your photoshop or any image editing software.
4. Make a new vector layer above it, and trace your sketch there.

Totally agree with that! Drawing with a mouse is very hard. I've have done that for a while before getting a tablet. One suggestion though if you are using a mouse:
Don't use brush tool or pen tool to do your line art. If you use paint tool SAI then the best option would be to use a line work layer. This layer provides you with curve tool and pressure tools which would be easier to use. Plus it would be less time consuming. Or otherwise, as indeneko said, draw on paper then trace it on your computer.

As for the skirt there is nothing wrong with the colours. I am not too good at coloring myself, but anyways here is a small advice. You just need to draw the shades along the folds like in the sample you used. These are some markings (sorry I was using my phone so it's kinda messy) If you draw along the folds then I would give you a good effect.

And draw the skirt in this way to give it a more natural feel. (Again sorry drawing with fingers Is hard as well XD )
Anyways hope that helped!

[Celianna]

I used two colours, no blurring, I figured it would help you out more if there was a clear line where shadows go and where not.

The difference is the type of skirt you're drawing. Judging from your initial drawing, the skirt is either a knife pleated skirt like this:


Or an accordion like this:


My edit made it a box pleated skirt.

The difference between knife pleated and box pleated, is that the knife pleated will overlap each fold, going in one direction like this. Box pleated will have one large fold, and it'll have a small fold in between (which is drawn by a shadow in my example). It looks like this.

So depending on the type of skirt you wish to draw, your shadows and hemline would look a lot different. Right now you are unsure what to draw, that's why it looks different from my own example

If you decide on the type of skirt you wish to draw, I can help you out how it would look like.

[Viniciuskk]

I see How's this then?

https://puu.sh/uO4Hw/fc5f4620db.jpg

[Koete Hoshi]

That looks a lot better! It needs a bit more work though but you are making good progress!

[Viniciuskk]

Thanks! The ends seem alright, but the waist is still quite weird.

[Koete Hoshi]

For the waist draw the one side along the spine and curve the other one a bit. (If that makes sense) Curving it would make it look better. Female bodies are mostly like hourglasses (unless she is flat chested) So drawing her flat in this case would look a bit weird. I've attached some samples with markings so that you can understand. Again messy stuff coming up.

[Ghost of Crux]

I'm not very good at explaining this, but basically your problem is not taking into account how fabric spreads.

So uh, a bit of a background.
Pleated skirts like that tend to have its pleat sewn at the top, which would mean that the "movement" of the fabric at top part of the skirt will always be limited. What will move, however, is the free bottom part, which can unfold and stretch. In cases where the girl is sitting with legs crossed at the thigh, oftentimes the skirt will unfold around the area of the thigh, with areas far from them generally staying folded.

That makes no sense, probably, but basically remember that skirt folds can unfold and extend and that the top parts of the pleats, being sewn, don't move. A good way to think of it is that in general, the lines of the pleats will be straight, but usually spread out like a circle? ///makes even less sense sorry it's 2 am