Aqacia's art thread- please critique + accepting requests

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Aqacia
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Aqacia's art thread- please critique + accepting requests

#1 Post by Aqacia »

Hi... i really don't know how to start this off i guess i'll just go off on some weird ramble. I have been drawing since a very young age however my arts all over the place and very very slowly improving year by year. I want to improve my drawing and i'm never satisfied with the results of how i draw now it just seems bland and awful when it comes to anatomy while still better then my drawings many years ago.

I have a bad habit of lets just say don't draw anything you've unsure of or can't draw which has been keeping me from improving and since the start of this year i've been trying to shake it off by trying new things like drawing hugs, hand holding e.g and not just people standing doing nothing...

Edity blob: I've decided to accept requests as i want to draw more and want to try drawing all kinds of different things and people and what better way to do that if not by doing requests.

This is some of my most recent drawings:
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Last edited by Aqacia on Sun Feb 08, 2015 9:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Aqacia's art thread- please critique i want to improve

#2 Post by MaiMai »

If you want to improve from where you are right now, I suggest focusing on improving your anatomy instead of staying with cartoonish drawings. Learning the basics always helps makes your more stylistic art look better. Our Art Resources thread has a huge list of fundamentals you can learn from:

http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... 46&t=14980

Another way to improve is to do your own research and collect images of art you like. I keep a huge folder of art that inspires me and that I can reference from when I want to.

You don't necessarily need to do this, but you could ask yourself which artist/style you like and make that your goal. For instance, I love Arco Wada and Takashi Takeuchi's anime/manga styles and I keep a bunch of their work to look at when I try to incorporate elements of their work.
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Re: Aqacia's art thread- please critique i want to improve

#3 Post by Aqacia »

Thank you i've already been researching anatomy and slowly bringing in pieces of realism mostly the eyes, nose, face shapes and hair for now and have started to work on my hands which have been improving quite a bit but are far from being correct.

I really want to improve my way of coloring as right now i feel like it doesn't do anything special and is just there but i'm not sure how to really make it pop out or bring anything to the work.
MaiMai wrote:Another way to improve is to do your own research and collect images of art you like. I keep a huge folder of art that inspires me and that I can reference from when I want to.

You don't necessarily need to do this, but you could ask yourself which artist/style you like and make that your goal. For instance, I love Arco Wada and Takashi Takeuchi's anime/manga styles and I keep a bunch of their work to look at when I try to incorporate elements of their work.
Unfortunately thats something i cannot do, it's quite weak of me but looking at styles and art that i'd like my drawing to be like doesn't inspire me but instead kicks me down and makes it very hard for me to keep going.

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Re: Aqacia's art thread- please critique i want to improve

#4 Post by MaiMai »

Aqacia wrote: Unfortunately thats something i cannot do, it's quite weak of me but looking at styles and art that i'd like my drawing to be like doesn't inspire me but instead kicks me down and makes it very hard for me to keep going.
Ah, that's definitely unfortunate. I guess people just have different mindsets when it comes to inspiration, but I do think you're able to get over that mindset if you think about it in these terms. All those good artists that are better than you so far? They didn't get there overnight. That was years and years of practice and it was never easy for them and they have other artists they're envious of too.

That being said, the reason why I brought up saving up images in the first place is that I don't look at them and think, "Oh my god they're so much better than me, I'll never get there." I ask myself, "How did they draw this line, get these colors, align their eyes, draw their body parts in their style?? I'm gonna copy that and then reproduce it on my own again and again and again."

So think of the images you're studying in technical terms! Break it down! Dissect it! If you can't get into that mindset, then that's fine. Just teach yourself the fundamentals and keep practicing, practicing, and practicing. It's just the basic way to get better.
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Re: Aqacia's art thread- please critique i want to improve

#5 Post by Aqacia »

I guess thats another way to look at it and i'll try to get into that mindset but it might be a little difficult as i've had the mindset i have now for a long time now. Well new year, new opportunities and time to break old habits.

I drew a little skethy person out of boredom.
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Re: Aqacia's art thread- please critique i want to improve

#6 Post by CSV »

As someone who only begun practicing seriously a few years back and is still somewhat a novice, maybe I could share some tips. These have worked for me so far, though I cannot guarantee they will work for others.

- First one is a given. Practice as much as you can, even if it's just silly doodles when you are bored.
- Start with something specific instead of trying to improve everything at a time. I agree with MaiMai that anatomy is the best place to start.
- If you have Tumblr, follow tutorial blogs. Some of them post a a lot of different things that you can try for yourself. Of course, don't try them all at once - but tutorials are very useful.
- Also, follow artists' blogs, but not just any artist. See the end of this comment for my opinion on this.
- If you don't have any formal art education, find internet resources that can help you. Here is one for figure drawing.
- Find other novice artists and then help each other by sharing helpful insight and techniques.
- Show your work and ask for honest critique, which isn't to say mean critique. Ignore people who are just being mean and unhelpful.

If looking at great artists' works brings you down instead of motivating you... I have that problem as well, and might have found a solution for it, though this might be a somewhat controversial opinion. Please take it with a grain of salt.

- Don't go looking at great artists' work yet. Don't try to emulate the work of the masters. Instead, find artists you admire but that aren't all so great yet, that are maybe just a little above your skill level. You will see they make mistakes, so it won't demotivate you; at the same time, you will notice what they can do well and maybe that will help you improve.
- When you improve, move on to admire even better artists, of course.
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Re: Aqacia's art thread- please critique i want to improve

#7 Post by Aqacia »

CSV wrote:
If looking at great artists' works brings you down instead of motivating you... I have that problem as well, and might have found a solution for it, though this might be a somewhat controversial opinion. Please take it with a grain of salt.

- Don't go looking at great artists' work yet. Don't try to emulate the work of the masters. Instead, find artists you admire but that aren't all so great yet, that are maybe just a little above your skill level. You will see they make mistakes, so it won't demotivate you; at the same time, you will notice what they can do well and maybe that will help you improve.
- When you improve, move on to admire even better artists, of course.
That sounds like it could work and the rest of the tips are helpful as well thank you ^^

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Re: Aqacia's art thread- please critique i want to improve

#8 Post by CSV »

As for your latest picture, I hope you don't mind me tracing over it to show you what I meant by using shapes. This was done very quickly and I didn't set the tools properly, but it should give you the basic idea. Hopefully, I didn't change your chibi style too much (my chibi are usually smaller with very short limbs).

[attachment=0]ChibiExample.png[/attachment]

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Re: Aqacia's art thread- please critique i want to improve

#9 Post by Aqacia »

I don't mind at all and i see what you mean. Your styles really cute by the way. Are the three circle things on the forehead meant to be eyes? I ask this as i once heard someone using three eyes to measure the distance of where the eyes should be but i never thought it worked.

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Re: Aqacia's art thread- please critique i want to improve

#10 Post by CSV »

Yup, the distance between the eyes is usually around the lenght of one eye, so I just draw three eyeballs in sketch phase. :)
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Re: Aqacia's art thread- please critique i want to improve

#11 Post by Aqacia »

I'll keep that in mind then next time i'm drawing.

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Re: Aqacia's art thread- please critique i want to improve

#12 Post by Aqacia »

I have tested out the "three eye" trick and it does help from what i've tired, i also experimented with lighting as i've never really included it in my work and already i can see it add a bit more to my art so i'm going to keep these two things. And yes i know no boobs i just don't know how to draw them without making it too weird looking.
Image

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Re: Aqacia's art thread- please critique + accepting request

#13 Post by Aqacia »

I have given a new coloring way a try and i love it so far, i feel like it brings out a bit more to my drawings then the coloring i've been using so far.

Image

I've also decided to take requests to help me practice drawing more, so thats that.

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Re: Aqacia's art thread- please critique + accepting request

#14 Post by LIZM »

Don't worry, I only ever draw people standing around doing nothing and never bothered studying anatomy, color theory, or anything like that. So if I somehow managed to improve, I'm 100% sure you can too.

Before I possibly start giving advice, can you specify how you're trying to improve? Just "improving" is very vague. What kind of style are you aiming for? Semi-realistic with "proper" anatomy? A cartoony chibi-ish style? Something dynamic and stylized or more down-to-earth and realistic? Also, do you use a mouse or a tablet? What kind of drawing software have you been using so far?

Sorry to bother you with questions when you're actually looking for answers, but I'd like to see if I can help and I'm much better at giving specific advice than general art advice. :P

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Re: Aqacia's art thread- please critique + accepting request

#15 Post by Aqacia »

lan wrote:Don't worry, I only ever draw people standing around doing nothing and never bothered studying anatomy, color theory, or anything like that. So if I somehow managed to improve, I'm 100% sure you can too.

Before I possibly start giving advice, can you specify how you're trying to improve? Just "improving" is very vague. What kind of style are you aiming for? Semi-realistic with "proper" anatomy? A cartoony chibi-ish style? Something dynamic and stylized or more down-to-earth and realistic? Also, do you use a mouse or a tablet? What kind of drawing software have you been using so far?

Sorry to bother you with questions when you're actually looking for answers, but I'd like to see if I can help and I'm much better at giving specific advice than general art advice. :P
I want to go for Diabolic lovers kind of style- https://littlecloudcuriosity.files.word ... ep-2-6.jpg

I have a tablet and use it the majority of the time but sometimes settle for just using my laptop pad.

As for programs i have photoshop but never really used it as i cannot figure out how to make the lines smoother and instead use chibipaint which i feel satisfies all my needs.

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