Lemma Soft Forums

Umm yeah. I've been drawing more lately, and among sketches of other characters, I suddenly felt like drawing Reiko again.
Since I quite like the way it turned out I figured I'd put it here because it would be nice to get some C&C on it, and it sort of relates to the forum. Thanks :rolleyes:

The character looks really good. She looks like she's going to be sporty and bold and it's good you've managed to capture that. Her hair is cool, seems to fit her well and it's nice that you're done lots of smaller strands. The colours you've used are also nice.

Crits (hope you don't mind):

The mouth is a little too far up the face. Anime takes alot of liberties with facial features but usually it would be somewhere underneath the nose and if off center, then off centered underneath the nose.
The neck, because we are facing her dead-on, wouldn't go into the body I believe, it would naturally curve out into the shoulders (so no lines cutting into the body), I think when the neck cuts into the body is when you're facing above the character, and then usually the rest of the body goes somewhere behind that, by a considerable amount, due to the overhead position allowing you to see more.
I think the arms, I'm not too sure, but the top half of the arms seems to be considerably shorter than the bottom half.
Also the fingers seem a little too long, and rounded. Thinking about how bones in the fingers go, you may have to make them a little more angular. Also remember the flat of the hand and account for it. I think where the thumb joins the rest of the arm would be more curved, I'm not sure, maybe something to check in a mirror ^^;;
The clothing design is cool, and as I said, the colours are nice. I think you need to consider folds more though, and how they fall and shape. It adds a whole new dimension to characters, even if it is hard to get a grasp of at first. Maybe research up a Google.com pic of a Japanese uniform on a girl and see how the folds fall. Especially if you're doing skirts! Skirts are soo hard (for me anyway), getting the folds right on skirts can be difficult but it's worth it to get clothing that flows around the character more.
Light would also be bouncing off the skirt and because of the folds, there would be areas considerably darker than others.

You may want to consider using the circles and shapes method for determining the shape of the head and body. I rejected it for quite awhile, because I didn't think I'd want to use silly circlesetc. However it is what proper animators use and once I started to use it I realised how helpful it is. It helps give you a rough idea of where to position parts of the anataomy in a simple and easy way. There's an example of the circles/shapes method here:
http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/tutorial/tutorial.html
And one for heads here:
http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/tutorial/tutorial.html

Anyway as I said it's looking really good, just need a few things tweaking.
Hope I helped.

*Nods twice, since Sai has said everything that was planned to be said* Yup yup, that it be. The picture is good, but I'm certain with practice it can become greater. The one thing that gets me is how THICK her thighs are. If she's into sports, wouldn't her thighs contain slightly more muscle and be a bit more staccato perhaps...I'm going by the pic here, about 2-4mm thinner. Of course, colour doesn't matter to me, I'm almost fully colourblind!

The pose is dynamic, but it seems 2D-ish, which is pretty much how I draw! So don't think to little of yourself, keep on practicing, and it'll have an even greater dynamic level soon! How I love using musical terms! So fun!

One thing as far as a game point of view is that Reiko and Seisha have very similar faces and expressions. This may be intended for the drawings, but I thought that I'd just point that out for you. Personally I would find it a bit strange to have multiple characters with the same facial expression. Anyways its looking alot better. Good luck with your artwork.

Rowr. Me likes.

Since I'm a dunce when it comes to art, I can't say anything else.

Why not make an Art Forum? You know, so you talented folks can show off

Trinity Riot wrote:Since I'm a dunce when it comes to art, I can't say anything else.

Agreed. Me too.

The only thing about the drawing that doesn't fit for me is the mouth, although I already take it as Grey's trademark so I guess that's OK.

Thanks people, thats really helpful

Sai

Thanks for all the detail you went into, The problems with the hands and stuff seem obvious now >_< . The lack of folds etc in the clothes though is because I scanned the picture in, in some different clothes, and then decided to change it on the computer itself >_<

Maybe I'll print it out, then draw the uniform by hand and rescan it in. It's worth a try And practice drawing damn hands at the same time.

Though I have to say I'm suprised how much putting longer fingernails on them makes them look more handlike than my previous drawings.

And thanks for the tutorial links as well, there's some very useful stuff in there.

Jerails

Yes, I wasn't too keen on the thighs once i'd scanned the original picture in and finished doing the lineart. I even considered cropping the picture down to the end of the skirt

I was trying for muscle, though, I just need to do more research and practice.

Optimus

Thanks for the comments. I think I'll have to go back and check up on that. I think my style of drawings partly to blame.

Trinity

Thanks

Mikey

Oh dear, Grey's trademark wonky mouth >_<

I think it just makes my pictures look more expressive than otherwise. I shall experiment though!

Buy How to draw Manga: Bodies and Anatomy. It's the only how to draw manga you'll ever need I think. It'll teach you the body under that skin so that you'll know what you are drawing It'll help you figure out right away why something doesn't look right as well, as well as cool things as what the muscles look like.

Well, Sai has done most of the work so I'll keep this
short.

For me its the Eyes. The eyes gives life or realism to the characters
and u should dedicate most of ur time to the eyes.

The thighs look O.K. to me - doesn't really need muscle

Oh, and your drawings are getting better and better.