Artist Association Thread

[JezMM]

Welcome to the Artist Association Thread!

 

If you've already participated in the you may have an idea of what to expect here.  Here's the basic idea:

 

Each post will contain a piece of art the poster has created, following a critique of the poster above's art.

 

Each poster makes a post to "claim" the member above.  They then edit their post to critique on the above artwork.  What do you like about it?  If it's an emotional piece, how does it make you feel?  Once you've said what you like about it, perhaps offer some constructive criticisms.  Is there anything about it you feel misses the mark?  What do you think they could improve upon?  Can you recommend any tutorials, references, activities or tips to avoid making the same mistake again?  If you really can't think of any criticism and like something that much, it's fine as long as you articulate what it is that makes you like it so much. Once you've posted your thoughts, you then include a piece of your own at the end of the post.

 

The next member after you claims and then comments on yours, then posts something of their own, and so on and so forth.

 

I feel this will be a fun way to achieve a whole bunch of things: one single topic where you can discover artwork by all sorts of SSMB members without having to go through every single topic (free advertisement!), a chance to get written feedback on pieces that were sadly ignored in your own topic, and motivation to give such feedback to others when normally you have a tendency to Like/Fave and run (I know I'm guilty of this).

 

Naturally, a few rules:

 

You may not post your own art until you have completed your comments on the previous poster's art.

This is to prevent people from claiming someone, posting art, getting feedback, and conveniently never getting round to giving feedback themselves.  You cannot post your art when you claim the previous poster, you may only post your art when you edit your claim post to contain your comments.

 

Once you have claimed someone, you must complete your critique within 24 hours or the next poster has the right to skip over you.

Because of the previous rule, unlike the regular Member Association Topic, the thread cannot move on until you have completed your critique and posted your art.  If you do end up getting skipped over, nothing is stopping you from posting your comments late anyway out of the goodness of your heart.  You CAN claim someone even before they post their own critique and art if you really want to, but naturally you're going in blind by doing so, and it might back up the topic if we got a bunch of slow people in a row.  Also of course, don't post if you don't already have some artwork ready to include after your critique, the time limit applies to that too.

 

Keep posts where you don't participate in the activity to a minimum.

It's fine to respond to someone's comments on your piece, or comment on another piece from before the post above you if something has really caught your eye that you simply must comment on, but it must be at the end of your post, after commenting on the member above's art and posting your own art.  For responding to someone else's comments on your own art, consider quoting them and then responding to them in your own art thread.  For commenting on another piece that has grabbed your interest, consider going to that member's own art thread to do so.  If you have any suggestions for how the topic works, either PM me or just clearly state that your post is off-topic and to be ignored as far as the feedback activity is concerned.

 

When posting a form of art other than a single image, it should take no longer than 2-3 minutes to consume.

Posting comics, writing, music or animation etc is fine, but consider that such mediums require more viewing time than illustrations.  Apologies to those whom these mediums are your livelihood, but this is in order to keep this thread relaxed and the pressure off.  For some busy adult members, a larger time investment might disinterest them from posting.

 

Not everyone here is an expert and that's okay.

When commenting, don't be afraid to give just your thoughts even if you don't know technical terms or find it hard to articulate how they could fix issues you have.  All the same, try your best to avoid meaningless words like "cool" or "nice", without following up with WHAT makes them cool/nice.

 

You are welcome to post a Work-In-Progress if you want to directly incorporate feedback into the very work you asked for it on.

With completed or WIP works you may also post a few words underneath if you want feedback on a particular aspect of it, or ask whether they feel you achieved a certain thing you were going for, (but best to keep it minimal so they aren't biased in their judgements).

 

If you quote someone, be sure to trim any artwork present out of the quote.

This topic is gonna be image intensive as it is without having to scroll past doubles!

 

 

 

Okay, think that pretty much covers everything...  To start us off, I've enlisted my glamorous assistant Mollfie to serve as an example post by posting right after me, so... pretend I just gave critique to the person above me, annnd I post my pic:

 

[Mollfie]

Jez wanted me to do an example post, so here we go.

 

I really like the background on this piece because although it's pretty simple, it's effective while not drawing away from the main focus (Alice). As usual I think that you make smart colour choices but I do think that you should look into colour palettes more to get a bit more variety (I like using Colour Scheme Designer). I also particularly like your highlighting on Alice, it makes her hair look thicker and as if it has some body to it. My only real criticisms are small, I think that you could do with spending a little more time on your character's hands and feet. I know that you don't like drawing them but they're important because while the overall figure is great, the hands and feet could be more delicate. 

 

Here's my piece:

[no one]

You certainly have the proportions, shapes, etc. of the body down to a T. The colors are well-balanced, and the shading/lighting is all good. No complaints here, honestly.

 

Keep in mind I'm still very new to digital art ^^'

 

(I aim to give this a gradient background eventually)

[...]

I've got me a Condor. Let me critique your artwork on this fine evening, I say. First off, for somebody new to digital art, I gotta say you're already getting the hang of things. The anatomy and shading are rather good, and the way the drawing is done in general looks appealing, and I especially like the melting wings. The picture definitely leaves a lot of room for interpretation and creates a somewhat sad mood, or you can just view it as an angel dude feeling down in the dumps. My only criticisms are that the feet look more like something that'd be on an animal than on a human. I understand you have a very cartoony style, but that's prolly the only nitpick I have. I'd have the toes be smaller too.

 

Now, it's time to share a doodle a did sometime ago (excuse the quality of my shittylicious camera):

 

[Zaysho]

So I'm associating Felix for a second time...

 

She looks like a fun character, and I can imagine a story for her already based on her expression and dress and the kinds of things you could do with what appears to be an upbeat, adventurous character like her. Wacky tour guide, perhaps? One thing that sticks out to me is that you hid (perhaps unintentionally) her other arm from view. Hands can be very interesting and expressive, and with this type of character, as well as her overall gesture it'd be cool to see her doing something with her hands, such as holding a map or compass or just gesturing as she's talking. It'd be nice to see a whole figure too, just to see what more you could do with her. The proportions appear to work (in their own, cartoony way, but the arm, for example, does appear to be around the right length you'd expect it to be). My only real suggestion is to consider doing some life drawing/anatomy studies and your drawing overall will take a leap. Keep it going, dude.

 

Hopefully that was helpful... I tend to just be blunt and straightforward with critiques and life drawing is something I tend to harp on...

 

Anywho, I have something to share:

 

[Dr. Mechano]

I'll post about Zaysho's art! Check back after I edit the post!

 

Zaysho, I'm not familiar with who this character is, but the way you captured his expression and pose definitely give me some vibes about what sort of personality he probably has. There's always something adorably amusing about an anthropomorphic cartoon animal interacting with its ordinary, real-life counterpart; There's a hint of hesitant curiosity here on the big guy's part.

 

I think what jumps out to me first about this piece is the coloring. It's mostly flat colors with minimal shading, but it looks very crisp, clear, and sharp. There's some stylistic pixelation in the linework and shaded sections that evoke the feeling of a particularly detailed video game sprite. Did you create this in Paint or a similar program? It looks like you did, which just makes this even more impressive, considering the level of detail here.

 

I think this might be the first time I've really stopped to look at your work, and I'm glad I finally did, because I like this piece! I'll be sure to check out your art Tumblr and see what else you've got!

 

And now, for my submission:

Just a little doodle of Dr. Eggman in his Sonic OVA suit.

[JezMM]

I'm familiar with your personal style for drawing Eggman from various sightings of your art as well as your tumblr ask blog for the character.  I always feel your personal way of drawing him is very cute and reminiscent of the sillier selections of super old Eggman concept art of the 16-bit days.  The way you draw his face always comes off as almost a little more cheeky and proud of himself than the regular Eggman, which are most entertaining traits of his to exaggerate of course.

 

The use of coloured outlines is a nice choice here, as they give the image a softer and slightly more "alive" look than plain black.  The only thing to be careful of with coloured lines is to try and observe which elements of the image go behind one another.  It's hard to tell due to the small size of the image, so it's hardly a picture ruining thing and I only noticed it when analysing in-depth for this feedback, but the lineart for his head goes over the top of the lineart for his mustache at the points where they connect, even though the mustache, as an object in 3D space, would be in front of his head at all the points where these lines connect in the 2D space.  Likewise, the light blue lineart of his shoulder in that tiny gap between mustache and bow-tie there, should be behind the lineart for his head.

 

The pose compliments his expression nicely, the only critique I'd have is his feet are a little too downwards and left/right pointing, as if he were a cuddly toy hanging from a display hook in a shop.  I see the "camera" here as being about level with his chest, so you would see some of the tops of his feet, they wouldn't be pointed -straight- towards the viewer, somewhere inbetween that, and what you did, would look right.  Feet are a pain at any angle though, I still have trouble with this sort of thing myself lol.

 

My final tiny little thing I'd say is that the pole of his cane looks oddly flat in comparison to the 3D-esque colouring effect you did on the jewel at the top.  Very nicely done, but does clash with the flatness of the rest of the image's colour a little.

 

I should wrap up positively though that none of these criticisms are ones that jumped out at me and only emerged as I studied the image for feedback giving.  Overall it left a good first impression, and many of these issues are easily forgivable on a doodle that isn't intended to be looked at for a very long time.  So my critique is mostly just things to keep in mind for more detailed/larger sized pieces, perhaps.

 

 

 

 

...Oh and... since this is my first "proper" post here, it was only after saving it that I realised I went into a LOT of detail here by accident lol.  Since, as the OP, I might be setting an example with my first on-topic contribution to the thread. I'll just say to general members that you don't have to type out this much, just type as much as you can think of, be it one paragraph or ten!

 

 

 

 

I guess for my next piece I'll use the Mario 2 art depicting World 5-1 that I did a few weeks back, since I'm steadily trying to improve on my background work when the mood takes me to put the energy into them.

 

 

(I also produced a version this piece with the SNES version's aesthetics, in the spoiler below).

 

Edited March 20, 2014 by JezMM

[ElectricAngel]

I guess I'll do JezMM. Well, this is gonna be a little hard since you're one of the best artists here on SSMB. I'll try my best though.

 

Alright so right from the start I can see that pretty much everything is perfect. I mean, seriously. I love the lighting on both the environment and characters. Colors seem to be very accurate, as they look almost exactly like the ones used in the official art. Very nice. The blurring on the foreground bring out a nice immersion and gives the drawing a 3Desque feel to it, making it pretty impressive. I really can't find anything negative here. Maybe Luigi is a bit too tall, but that's a minor issue. Man, I don't know how you do it but you always create amazing art.  It's always a pleasure to see some new work from new as it's always a nice treat for the eyes. (Even though this isn't recent art. But it's still really impressive!)

 

And now time for my submission. This took me around 4 hours and a lot of layers to make. Yeah, I can already tell there are a few problems but I've only just started exploring the magic of digital art. And with the help of someone's input, I can hopefully improve .

 

So here's my little piece here:

 

 

This is supposed to be an original character, and looking back the color choice and hairstyle remind me of Sailor Moon. Wasn't my intention, but, yeah... My original random (generic?) anime style character here. 

[ProfessorZolo]

Y'know what, I'll bite. Gimme a few minutes to gather my thoughts.

Right, well, as you said yourself, the character is a little generic. In order to avoid that happening, I find it helps to imagine your character is naked, and completely shaved. Try to create a way you could pick your character out in a crowd in such a condition. It doesn't have to be a physical trait, like a scar or tattoo, but those definitely are easier options.

Onto the art itself! Your style is quite pleasing to the eye- bouncy, colourful and clean. A couple of issues I can see that might need addressing though. For one, there's an awkward lack of detail/ structure to the bow on the shirt, and the pigtails. The bow in particular is an oddity, appearing to be directly stuck to the collar.

Of course, if I'm interpreting it wrong then... Apologies.

Her right arm is my final thing to bring to attention- as much as there's no problem with using unusual character structures (most of my own art is like that), it does help if the character's body is at least symmetrical in that regard. This particular arm is far too stretchy. Reign it in a tad?

Well, I hope that'll be of some help? I've not really tried to properly crit art before.

So, here's mine for whoever to eyeball- a scene that kinda happened when me and some mates were playing Mario 3D World:

[gala]

-

[JezMM]

Quite a nice vector piece here.  Don't have too much to say, other than, like my advice to Mechano, careful where you put your coloured lines.  The lineart of his scarf shouldn't go over the lineart of his face, because his face is in front of the part of the scarf those lines contain.  Likewise with the arm going under the scarf there.
 
Overall though it's a simple but well done pose, and despite the majorly stylised look, the anatomy makes sense and is in proportion with the other pieces.  The only other thing I'd say is the shoes look rather asymmetrical.  There's a green colouring under the laces on his left shoe that isn't there on his right, and the purple stripe on his right looks thinner than the one on his left. 

 

Pretty cool. It gives a funny feel to it. Mario looks like he's pretty worn out and Toad looks like he's a teenager now.

I know you're young but try and do at least a couple more sentences if you can next time.  It's disappointing to only get a single line of comment like this.
 

Here is me and Sonic.

I also just wanted to give a couple of small criticisms to your art.  I won't overwhelm you since, as I said, I know you are young, but here's a few little things to look out for when you draw:
 
The hand that Sonic is making a fist with is a little bit smaller than his other hand.  Try and make sure opposite body parts are the same size in your drawings.  Make a fist with your own hand and you'll see the fingers don't go completely out of sight like you've drawn here.  You also gave him five fingers and a thumb on in his other hand.
 
The only other thing I'd say is that where you draw them on the page, Sonic looks like he is standing closer to us, as his feet are lower down... and yet his spikes go behind your character as if he's standing further away from us.  Be careful of little details like that and think about how what you're drawing would look if it was standing in a real 3D space in front of your eyes.
 

So, here's mine for whoever to eyeball- a scene that kinda happened when me and some mates were playing Mario 3D World:

And I just wanted to give a few extra words on this because I felt it deserved them.
 

As usual your eye for character design makes its way into your fanart, I love your takes on Toad and the Princess.  My only critique would be that Peach's dress looks quite thin and drifty around her as oppose to the way it sort of plumps up when she's floating.  The implication might be that she's just finished a float though, so my bad if so.  The only other thing is I found her expression a little hard to read - she doesn't quite look as determined as Toad, more on edge or confused.  Again, this might've been your intention.  Great expression work and posing overall though, and I instantly recognised the level despite the fairly minimalistic backdrop.

 

 

 

Guess I'll go with this piece I did of my character Laura as part of a meme last week.

 

Contains some mild injury detail so I'll stick it in a spoiler in case that'd bother anyone.

 

[Remynaka]

OH HEY I spot JezMM. This IS going to be hard, cause quite simply. I LOVE YOUR STUFF. From the designs of the characters to the style it's always an eye pleaser. I love the picture you have right above me too cause it's cute and dark at the same time. The colors are warm and the style is VERY eye catching. Seriously I could look at it for hours and it'll never get old. My fav thing about her is the blood spots. I can't for the life of me get that effect. Everything I do is cell shaded. I like the paint effect or air brush effect you got going on there. Seriously good stuff. - mind if I did fan art of some of your characters sometime? - 

 

 

 

 one sec while I get something I did.... which doesn't compare but hey.. I'm here to learn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sega DogTagz]

Dibs

 

!!!

 

A thread just for art assessments! Awesome. Its getting harder and harder to find help vettng your work these days. This is a great thread to have hanging around. It will be nice to learn from you guys.

 

I guess I can do my part, and start by chipping in on this image done by Cammi.

 

First off, I gotta say that I am really digging the stylized approach you took to building your character in this one. The way the bulky clothes around the shoulders and below the waist add layers and depth to the character, but also emphasis the form and fitness that the picture is meant to portray via midriff is a pretty snazzy effect that pushes the theme.

 

Even with the bold outlines, the character still remains vibrant through the usage of a good color scheme and an attention to detail when it comes to shadows and hues. I do think your coloring really sells this image for me. It’s very fitting.

 

I think I would like to see your attention to detail expand in a few other areas though. The biggest shortcoming that comes from this picture (for me at least) is that it seems you didn’t follow through with your light source enough. You have a very strong blue light rising from the bottom of the page impacting parts of her body all the way up to her hair. However, for some reason, that same light reflection seems to be missing from a few areas that I would expect to see it, such as the cuffs of her orange jacket. Whenever you invoke the special effects, you always want to be as complete as possible. In light of that, it comes off as sort of a missed opportunity. A slight to the possibility of an even better end result. In other lights, it can be seen as lazy, and we don’t want that. Commit to your design choices and see them through 110%.

 

You also seem to have a pretty good grasp of the body. I can understand ducking muscle detail on the arms and such, as they are covered here, but there is no harm in sharing some of that detail with ears, or necklines. Even the forearm that is visible could gain quite a bit from a little angle work. Just to sell her curves that much more. The more you play with that, the more you can do within your given style.

 

 

Hope that helps a bit. Just my 2 cents is all.

 

Okay, here’s one the first pics I drew up on my tablet. ^^

 

[Dr. Mechano]

Sega DogTagz, I'll talk about your art!

 

You have a unique way of drawing Sonic and Blaze in this picture. Whereas the official games give them basic, stylized features, your approach gives them a more animal-like appearance, with tufts of fur and hair that don't adhere to the more uniform neatness of the original designs. I feel you've exaggerated (in a good way, of course) the characters' expressions to, causing their personalities to really stand out: Sonic looks especially confident, while Blaze's "cat face" expression (:3) is adorable.

 

I like the mix of gradients and the more meticulous layered shading. The use of gradients here is subtle, and just adds a touch of lighting to the characters where needed. The coloring and lighting on the characters' eyes and shoes is particularly impressive, creating a nice reflective effect.

 

The art itself is nice, with dynamic poses that suit both characters well. One minor thing to point out is that Sonic's right (our left) shoe seems proportioned and positioned a bit oddly, compared to the position of his leg and his other shoe. As with JezMM, I'm going to go on record and say that feet/shoes give me some trouble too though.

 

Oh, it's a minor thing, but I really like how the characters' outlines are thicker than the rest of the lineart, and include a second white outline on top of that. It helps them pop off of the background a bit better, and it's a nice effect.

 

And now, for another of mine:

Concept art from a fangame project I'm working on, loosely based on that I started where Eggman threatens to melt the ice caps.

[Remynaka]

 EGGMAN, on vacation! Love it overall. The coloring does it for me the most, and the outfit. Now I want to go to FL cause of you. Think he'll plot out eggman land plans in this outfit? Or is he truely on vacation? Either way  love how the emotion in your pick is light and fun. - Don't see many Eggman fun pictures. - Do you draw this on the computer? If so.... DUDE..... I need to know HOW that is done. I'm old fashion when it comes to drawing and anything other then pencil escapes me. Kudos on the line art being colored also. - took me awhile to get the hang of doing that myself... and I STILL haven't mastered it. D:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 And Lamont Raccoon for no reason. - I will have updated art SOON. Matter of fact. I'm plotting out pictures now. But here's something I'm proud of in the meantime

 

 

.

[Zaysho]

Cammi Speed/Smooth Jazz

I think I remember you showing me this piece when you showed me your DA a while back! Was it a comic cover or something? I dig the style of the characters, and I sorta envy the way some people can do that sort of exaggeration, as my brain just isn't wired to do it. I also like the character designs, they've got a lot of energy to them.
 
My main criticism of this piece though, as I've seen each of these drawings individually before so it sticks out to me, is how the characters are pasted on top of each other and the composition feels cramped. It really sticks out with the bunny girl's hand and the duck guy's feet being on the same plane of the picture, when he could be moved back/up slightly to give the picture some depth. Also, just looking at the thumbnail, I think a lot of the colors are sort of getting "muddy" and blending together. The duck stands out since his color scheme is complementary to everyone else around him (the blue on his shirt stands out against all the reds/oranges in the piece). Brightening up their palettes a bit would really help them pop out more, even if you're looking at the piece from a distance/as a thumbnail.
 
That's all I got, hope that helps!
 

Here's a WIP I'm doing right now. It's basically a fix of something I posted to my blog the other day, but the version I posted was bugging the heck out of me for various reasons. However, I'm starting to struggle with it and I'm hoping someone can help me out... That hand is driving me crazy!

I'm beginning to think I broke her wrist... D:

[Mollfie]

Best thing I can suggest with the hand/arm/wrist situation is trying out the pose for yourself or find similar photos/pictures to use as a ref. I'm not sure if it's the hand itself that's the issue or the arm? I think that maybe the arm needs repositioning a little to look more natural. If you look up something along the lines of 'taking a selfie', even just in google, you can get a better idea of how that sort of pose might look. It's sometimes had to think of something in a 3D space, so looking at a few reference pictures might help you get a better image in your head. It might not be exactly what you want, but it could help?

 

Overall I really like this. It's a strong pose and it seems to be really coming together to be something great. The character looks really cute and the anatomy all looks spot on. I look forward to seeing it when you finish!

 

Mine, girly in bikini btw:

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

You know what, especialy since I want to give myself extra motivation to draw, I will take you molfie, even if you dont have yours up, I've seen some of your stuff and dont mind taking the gamble(I mean if I have to I will do one of my older pieces, but it is my motivation to have something new up tonight

 

Lets see about your peice, you have a really nice feel for colors, you mainly used just a handful with some careful shading, and made an extremely nice feel for the overall look of the piece. overall the proportions are nice, and overall the detail, pose, and positioning is all correct. overall you have a good feel for it, and there isnt too much I can suggest outside of perhaps messing with a tad more diveristy, and getting out of your comfort zone, perhaps add more items, or work on interactions with multiple characters at the same time

 

Working within your strengths isnt a bad thing, but trying something new can be equaly rewarding, but overall you for sure have a large understanding of proper anatomy and detail, trick is to see how you can build upon that

 

Sigh, do hope to have a new one up today, but I can afford to delay this any further, so here is a decent one from a couple weeks ago, used a piece of manual art as a rough ref for this, its Mike Jones from Star Tropics

 

[azoo]

If Mando would've posted a picture, I would've responded, lol. May do the next one he posts sometime later to make up for it!

 

EDIT: Alright, I see you posted a thing. I was trying to get my page to load and I didn't know what was up. SSMB's been making a lot of pages not work recently..

 

Okay, so your piece.

 

I never got around to playing Star Tropics, but going by how many people seem to love it, I think they should maybe bring it back and revitalize it. Sounds like it'd be cool.

 

The drawing you did's high points really stand out in the detail you put on his clothing. The puffy pants and the tattered jacket look really nice in how you sketched them up. The pose on the upper half of his torso isn't so bad either, it's actually pretty well-positioned.

 

I'd say the main places you could improve though would be how you draw the legs and their positioning. There's got to be a sort of realistic foundation for the upper half of the body to make the subject look solid in his stance. Maybe a bit of perspective on his legs would help that too for both the direction the pant-legs "go"; so that it doesn't look like he's standing straight but leaning forward diagonally or something. Here's a really good reference that seems to do the trick!

 

Overall I think it's a very good effort. Keep practicing, dob! Smoothing out some lines from being so wobbly and fixing your perspective will do wonders!

 

----

 

But yeah, this is a picture I did a good month or two ago.

 

 

It was mostly a test to see how my art style would do in a comic, but I was both sort of satisfied and sort of disappointed with the results. I feel like I'm getting better at stylizing an using color wisely, but everything is so blotchy and messy looking, at least when blown up (not as bad when it's in a smaller resolution).

 

Is the blotchiness really that barfy on the eyes or is it actually okay from a stylistic perspective? I'm leaning on the latter, really, but I still wanna hear what anyone else has to say. I guess that as well as how the characters look I'd like to hear from, I guess. Or any crits for that matter.

[JezMM]

I did say in the OP not to post art without first posting your critique.  I know Mando hasn't posted his yet but his 24 hour time limit to do so before he gets skipped over hasn't expired yet (and if it does you'd be obligated to give a critique on Mollfie's art... this kinda messiness it all causes is why I laid out the specific rules in the OP to keep things organised).  No need to respond to this, I know the topic is fairly new so it's not a big deal, just... yeah.

I'm of course, not saying I distrust you to stay good to your word and edit your critique of Mando's post in later, but I just want to avoid setting any examples for anyone who might forget to and get free feedback on their art, or selfish people who might "forget" to as well.  Just want to keep everything fair and organised here, so try not to post art before critique again, regardless of the circumstance, thanks.

 

It's fine to claim Mando before he posts his art, but you still have to wait until he has so you can write your feedback before you post yours.

 

[This post is of course "off-topic" and should be ignored in terms of the activity, the next poster is to give comment to Azookara's art].

 

EDIT: Damnit, of all the inconvenient posts to be first on a new page lol.

[JezMM]

Okay feels like there's been a hiccup in activity here so I'ma do both Mando and I'll be extra nice and do Azookara too even though he didn't comment on Mando's work.  You really should go edit your post to do so Azookara, I don't want people thinking they can jump in when someone hasn't posted their art yet and get "free" feedback just coz there's nothing to comment on yet.

 

Sigh, do hope to have a new one up today, but I can afford to delay this any further, so here is a decent one from a couple weeks ago, used a piece of manual art as a rough ref for this, its Mike Jones from Star Tropics

 

Your anatomy is certainly improving here.  His limbs look a little short and flat, but ignoring that they do all match up and are proportionate to each other.  There's a nice sense of 3D to the weapons, especially the dagger on the table.  The table looks a little out of perspective, it feels like the camera is too much "above it" in comparison to Mike, and seems a little short and going behind Mike for something he's interacting with in this way.  The only other tip I'd say is the weapon he's holding, the handle looks a little off compared to the blade - if you draw a character holding an object it's a good idea to faintly draw the object in its entirety, including the parts we can't see (draw them faintly then erase afterwards) to make sure it all matches up.

 

But yeah, this is a picture I did a good month or two ago.

 

It was mostly a test to see how my art style would do in a comic, but I was both sort of satisfied and sort of disappointed with the results. I feel like I'm getting better at stylizing an using color wisely, but everything is so blotchy and messy looking, at least when blown up (not as bad when it's in a smaller resolution).

 

Is the blotchiness really that barfy on the eyes or is it actually okay from a stylistic perspective? I'm leaning on the latter, really, but I still wanna hear what anyone else has to say. I guess that as well as how the characters look I'd like to hear from, I guess. Or any crits for that matter.

 

I see what you mean when you say it's blotchy, but I don't think it looks bad at all.  The random patches of colour probably look bad to you because you remember putting them in, but my first impression is that it implies a cheap sense of detail (and I don't use the word cheap negatively here).  Overall I think this is very nicely detailed, especially for an individual comic panel, and the characters look good, I like your style.

 

My only real suggestion would be the background.  Using grey lines for the background to make the characters stand out in the foreground is a good choice, but it should extend beyond just one layer of background.  The immediate background would be easier to differentiate from the distant background if you use a sliding scale of darkness to your grey lines, where the further away something is the lighter you do the lines etc.  At first glance I thought the city view back there was a poster of a city view on the wall since the line thickness and colour was exactly the same as the posters to the left.  Careful with your line thickness too, if you can, use thinner lines for further away objects.  The red canopy(?) has quite thin lines while the buildings and lamp post beyond it have quite thick lines indeed.  This is another little trick that can confuse the eyes a little about the sense of scale.  The stylisation looks fine though, you can still be fairly rough and simple with your background work as you've done here, just yeah, try and have a consistent scale of line thickness/darkness depending on distance from the camera, even if it's just a few or even a couple of differences just to separate immediate background from distant background.

 

 

 

For my next piece, guess I'll use my most recent pic:

 

[Mollfie]

I didn't really want to comment on Jez's art again, I mean... it's awful. Ugh.

 

No actually I really like it, I helped him out actually with the dress a little because his original lines were a bit too straight. Peach is one of those characters that looks really simple, but is actually really hard to draw so I must commend you for getting her to look Peach like while also staying true to your own drawing style.I also really like the background, it's simple but it works. My only small suggestion would be to take a look at 'rule of thirds' when placing your characters on the page because Peach is off-centre, which is fine, but not quite in that sweet spot on the page that would really pull everything together nicely. Nothing major because you're right on the edge of it anyway, just a suggestion.

 

I actually didn't want to comment on his art because I've already commented on a piece of his earlier, and I'm his wife so it's a bit weird. I can tell him what's wrong in person. But no one had posted in a while.

 

My work-in-progress. I was going to put a second character in, but I think that the pose I went with would make it too awkward now TT_TT  Colours are not final. I can't decide what to do with her left hand.

 

[no one]

I'll get Molfie.,..

 

The pose is nicely done and dynamic enough to catch they eye. The body overall is well sculpted (if thats the right term) My only thing to say really is the hair touching the floor feels... i dunno liquidy? Just chisel that out a smidge. Hair is tough as it is, anyway.

 

 

(I'm gonna go in and color this later on)

 

Also does anyone know how to fix the spacing error with images?

[Xtremer Sadiqachu]

I have an animation I made. It's for an upcoming cartoon series called Flashnotes, about the comical events between stick figures in white space

[JezMM]

I have an animation I made. It's for an upcoming cartoon series called Flashnotes, about the comical events between stick figures in white space

 

Read the opening post.  You don't just post your work here to get feedback, you have to give feedback to the person above you too, that way everyone gets some.