The Artists Help Thread

[Ashenjay]

soo....here is a gigantic dragon face! It's WIP currently.
I want to attempt at realism but even if I try it still has a cartoonish-sort of look?
I would love to get critique so that the finished drawing can look real >3<
Thank you guys <3

[kiel]

Anyone here know how to draw realism?
When I draw I cant seem to be able to draw without lines, and I have seen a lot of people use watercolor or smoothed brush to draw lineless drawings

[Silverhart]

soo....here is a gigantic dragon face! It's WIP currently.
I want to attempt at realism but even if I try it still has a cartoonish-sort of look?
I would love to get critique so that the finished drawing can look real >3<
Thank you guys <3

Looks great! I love the eye! I think you need stronger shading. Try to find the planes of the dragons face and 'carve' it out with lines and shading before you start getting into fancy stuff. Think about how the muzzle curves around, or how the eye ridges stick out over the eye, and the eye sits further back in that skull, how the cheek bones stick out, how the neck muscles bulge etc. And maybe try finding some references of scales to look at when drawing?

Anyone here know how to draw realism?
When I draw I cant seem to be able to draw without lines, and I have seen a lot of people use watercolor or smoothed brush to draw lineless drawings

You need a strong drawing before you can start a watercolor/painting. It's not really about getting rid of lines. A good painting usually starts with a good drawing. You need to map everything out first in a sketch. I mean, I have seen people who can just paint without a sketch, but that takes a lot of practice. For myself I always start with a drawing, then paint over it. Starting simply, and then getting more complex as I add in more layers. Without lines you need to rely on shadows, highlights, and color to create those 'lines' you see in real life. That's pretty much all those lines that we see are anyway - just places where the plane changes or the color changes.

Oh, and having a good reference, or model is always good. ^^

I'm just gonna throw you both at Aaron's Art Tips. Obviously the animation videos aren't what you're looking for, but take a look at how he does his animal paintings. It may help you guys out better then I ever could:
http://youtu.be/HWcAfem5NLA
http://youtu.be/CSciMPwYRB0
http://youtu.be/oN44jmyvUK4
Here's another of a fantasy creature if you need inspiration Ashenjay: http://youtu.be/G7WyEbOqp7Y
He's a genius. XP

[Startedraining]

I'm working on not using reference photos for my art (anatomy wise)

I think it's working a little bit ^u^
boop

I did it in a minute or so~ I think I'm improving

[tharrot]

I recently drew some fanart of teen Kakashi, so how does it look? I'm not
sure if I got everything right about him. I'd like critique! Thank you c:

[Tundra]

Hey this seems interesting, And I was looking for some helpful ideas on how to add to this


It was my first time using photoshops animation program. CS2 is somewhat confusing XD, but it worked out i guess. I want to add rain somehow, im figuring it would be hard to see since the picture is dipicted at night. To see rain, you need a light source, so it would have to be only visible on the frames when the light increases from background lightning.

I also plan on adding a section that shows a shadowy Ancient...yes..its for Eld XD. For an RP I plan on opening that involves massive change or chaos..would be an..active RP. Haven't quite decided on what ancient though.

Anyway, any comments appreciated.

[Silverhart]

Huh, you know I always think I respond to this thread, and then it turns out I didn't. XP Anyway, let me go through and give my opinions.

I'm working on not using reference photos for my art (anatomy wise)

I think it's working a little bit ^u^
boop

I did it in a minute or so~ I think I'm improving

That's awesome Started! Better then I could do in a minute. XD I hope you've worked on it more recently. This was posted months ago, so maybe you've improved even more since then!

I recently drew some fanart of teen Kakashi, so how does it look? I'm not
sure if I got everything right about him. I'd like critique! Thank you c:

I don't know that character so, I can't really judge it by that, but I think it looks great. ^^ The line work is nice and clean, and overall it just looks very nice.

Hey this seems interesting, And I was looking for some helpful ideas on how to add to this


It was my first time using photoshops animation program. CS2 is somewhat confusing XD, but it worked out i guess. I want to add rain somehow, im figuring it would be hard to see since the picture is dipicted at night. To see rain, you need a light source, so it would have to be only visible on the frames when the light increases from background lightning.

I also plan on adding a section that shows a shadowy Ancient...yes..its for Eld XD. For an RP I plan on opening that involves massive change or chaos..would be an..active RP. Haven't quite decided on what ancient though.

Anyway, any comments appreciated.

Wow! That's very impressive Tundra. I'm not familiar with that program, but it turned out great! Animation like that it hard to do, but the effect really works. The only thing I might think to add is some soft back lighting to the tree and grass during the strike, but honestly I think it works just fine without it. It might actually work better without it, but it was a thought. I'd love to see it with the Ancient in it. ^^


I don't know if any one of you want advice or opinions on any specific areas of anything, but I'd be happy to try and help if you do. ^^ It's hard to simply "critique" art. XP

[Ashenjay]

Thistlestar:
I don't know the character either, but I do think you really concentrated on the hair/headband details well :'D
Although, I think practicing with freer lines and various poses will really improve your drawing :')

[tharrot]

Thistlestar:
I don't know the character either, but I do think you really concentrated on the hair/headband details well :'D
Although, I think practicing with freer lines and various poses will really improve your drawing :')

thanks for that, i'll definitely try c:
i need to work on poses speaking of which, i'm limited to side and front views,
so i really want to be more flexible with other poses ^^

This is my first fullbody in this new style of coloring i thought i'd give a try [old shading style omg ew lol]
I know my shading is a bit in accurate and I'm trying to work on it but any critiques or comments? ;v;
I really want to improve more haha but mouse is really hard to do it, i need a tablet x.x

[Silverhart]

Thistlestar:
I don't know the character either, but I do think you really concentrated on the hair/headband details well :'D
Although, I think practicing with freer lines and various poses will really improve your drawing :')

thanks for that, i'll definitely try c:
i need to work on poses speaking of which, i'm limited to side and front views,
so i really want to be more flexible with other poses ^^

This is my first fullbody in this new style of coloring i thought i'd give a try [old shading style omg ew lol]
I know my shading is a bit in accurate and I'm trying to work on it but any critiques or comments? ;v;
I really want to improve more haha but mouse is really hard to do it, i need a tablet x.x

For poses have you tried planning them with boxes? If not, try that. ^^ The human body can be broken down into three big boxes - head, ribcage, and pelvis. Depending on how they are tilted or rotated in relation to the others gives you different poses.

Eh, I'm bad at explaining, and I can't find a tutorial that really breaks it down in detail so here's some of my own sketches showing what I mean:

See? Boxes. ^^ Note how each box is three dimensional - some of them we're looking up at, others we're looking down on - some are tilted left or right, forwards or back. They have perspective. Doing quick little sketches like these may help you get better with different poses, and help you find strong poses you may want to work with. It certainly helped me. I personally start all of my human drawings with these boxes first, then build on top of them - as you can see I sort of started fleshing out the one on the far right. I find it more helpful then circles, since with boxes you get a clear sense of how something is tilted. You don't get that with circles or cylinders. (Should note I'm still learning, and there are much better artists out there with better examples. This one for example.)

So mess around with the boxes a bit. You may be horrible at first - I know I was - but keep practicing. Watch people in real life, and in movies and see how they move, and they poses they strike. Animation and comics are also great inspiration for poses. They are literally nothing but poses. XP

As for your new shading style - it looks awesome! Keep it up! I really have no critiques. To be honest, I've never really thought of digital shading as a strong suit of mine. XP

Also speaking of poses, while looking for (and failing to find) a tutorial that explained what I was trying to say, I found this amazing site where you can practice drawing the human figure, hands, faces, and animals in all sort of poses from real photographs! There's a nice option that let's you choose if you want to use nude or clothed models, and also male or female, so you can use whatever you're comfortable with, and then choose how long you want to draw. You can do a handful of quick gestural poses, or longer ones if you like.

So, just fair warning that there are nude poses, but there is a small warning on the figure drawing page and you can choose whether or not you'd like to use them before you start on that same page.
Also note, none of the images on this site may be used as reference in commercial pieces. It's purely for education and practice, so keep that in mind. ^^

http://artists.pixelovely.com/

Overall it seems like a fantastic resource, and I definitely plan on using it!