「Nay's art stuff」(critiques / feedback welcome!)

[Nay]

Hello! I'm currently working on sketches for a VN idea that I want to work out.

I don't have much to show at present, but as I was working I realized my anatomy was a tad wonky, so I was wondering if anybody could take a look at them and critique where I'm wrong? :-0


(MC)

In particular, I feel like the way I draw hips is a bit unnatural, but I can't seem to fix it any further.
I'd love to hear your thoughts regarding any character designs as well!

I'll be posting more art in this thread later as I work through the VN. Thanks for taking a look!

[Nay]

Here's an example of a sprite I'm using!



It looks terribly giffy, but I'm hoping a better program will help compress the gifs into better shape.
Or something. I don't have Photoshop at the moment, so.

And some concept art/

of the airship that my VN will take place on.
I'm so excited about this story! I always get really excited about ideas.
Hoping to draw lots in order to motivate myself to completion!

[Rozume]

I really like your style, especially the thick lines and bright colors. I'm not an expert on critiquing art, but what I will suggest is to vary your line width - lines near the light source are thinner than lines away. Your poses also look a bit stiff - look for the gesture, the movement of things.

It's harder for me to critique your anatomy, since you stylize and simplify things. If you feel your anatomy is off look at references!

Also, for the airship and cockpit concept art - keep in mind for the final art that these are mechanical objects so there will be no organic lines/shapes going on.

I hope this helps!

[Nay]

@PheonixStardust -
Ah, I see. Thank you, that does help a lot!
It hadn't occurred to me that the stiffness was why they looked kind of awkward.
I've seen a lot of people do gesture drawings to overcome that, so I think that's what I'll try next!

[pineapplepocky]

You have a tendency to draw your legs slanted to the right. Draw a straight line down from the middle of nose/chin if it helps. It's not that obvious, but it seems like a common trend in all your sprites. Sometimes their thighs are kind of on the skinny side.

[Nay]

@pineapplepocky:

yeah, figured that was it! i've been trying to make my legs a little straighter using refs. thank you!
the problem was because i wasn't drawing to the feet and stopping at the knees, i think. i still have trouble making poses look more natural.

here are a few things i've drawn since last update:


(all of the same character)

they're just sprites/people for now, but as i need to draw backgrounds later, i'll post studies too!

[Nay]

thought i'd drop in on this thread to post some progress...

the vn i was planning has been postponed in favor of improving my art skills - i meant to improve a little then move ahead but arting is a lot of fun! here's some of the stuff i've been doodling the past month

as always if anybody has any crits i'd love to hear them, especially about the last pic and the relation between bg and characters.. (??) i'm trying to figure it all out on my own but input is always appreciated. ^_^

[Disciple]

Uhm I'm not an expert, so just take it easy with me ^^;

I think your style is ok, but if you want to achieve smoother and crisp line art, you have to work on it. Also, I like your new colour pallette more; I love soft colour. But you have to work on your gradation, make it simpler and cleaner, and look at the lighting source.
For your last picture, hmmm... maybe try to look at references, and draw from photo. Again, it's about your understanding with gradation and how nature works. Like that water, if you want to show clear water, you have to make it 'transparent', show the sand and feet, and getting more... un-transparent (if it's a legit word, I'd be shocked).Learn how to colour rock, ground, sand, sky, clouds and all. Where the lighting goes, be steady with everything. Where will the shadow fall, how about putting more highlight where the light falls, and shadow for the other side? Put more depth in it, and you'll get more volume in your drawing. And don't forget, perspective rules.

Also, try to draw real life photos. Look at references and recreate the same thing on another canvas. That way, you'll understand everything better, and probably will make more wonderful cartoon and anime style. Or better, your own style ;p

Sorry for my limited words, but I hope you get it.^^
Keep practicing, that's how everyone get better. (Yeah, I know, I have to practice more too instead of playing all the time -_-)

Good luck!

[miraiparasol]

I think your two main areas that you need to improve are convincing that the character is 3D(Perspective) as well as a little anatomy

I had a little time so I went over the girl with the sword (sorry not the best quality because I don't have my tablet)

so first off you tend to make the arms a little long (as well as in the other two images), as a rule of thumb I normally align the wrists at the crotch. Shorten those up her hand should be a little bit smaller as well.

The second thing that could be improved upon would be the legs. They're just a tad too long. Normally they're equal to the size of half the body. Since this is stylistic it doesn't look abnormal and you can really make the legs however long you'd like. I'd say they look fine.

Another thing I'd point out about the anatomy would be the feet. Naturally if she is facing forward the feet should as well.
You can also see that the shorts on her right leg appear to be straight. That line should be curved so you can convey depth. You have to remember that legs are cylindrical in shape so if your drawing a cylinder from an angle and you place a cloth on it, you should see the curve.
Oh and don't forget about the direction of the wind. I don't think I need to say more on that.

Now here comes the tricky part I'm going to attempt to explain. with the way that she stands. You've put her right leg at an odd position. If she's lunging out towards her sword, her body would also be twisting in the direction of that sword. But she's not. To make this look a little more natural (without changing the stance too much you're going to be using forced perspective (other wise known as foreshortening. Good skill to learn but takes a lot of patience) So here I provided another image (also poor in quality, I apologize)

You can see that the thigh was shortened and pulled up a bit more to achieve that foreshortened look.

Overall I think you have a really nice style developing, I agree with @Disciple about references, don't be afraid to use them!
I think you know this, but keep practicing. Not only practice, but know what you need to improve!

Best of luck!

[Nay]

@Disciple - ahh thank you so much for the critique! it slipped my mind completely that water is supposed to be transparent. no wonder it looked strange.. >__0 i'm not very good at using references, so i hadn't been using them very often up til now, but that will change, thank you!

@miraiparasol - i'm really grateful for your redlining and detailed critique! i was trying to figure out why my people all looked very stiff but i can see it's because they lacked volume. definitely need to work on that more. you also pointed out all of the things i thought looked weird but didn't quite know what or why it was wrong, so your reference is really helpful. T__T again, thank you so much.

sorry that my replies are comparatively short, but i'm really grateful for the feedback!