Mini Art Post

[celarania]

I've been taking a few art requests on an art site for gift sketches. I've been having fun with them. I've been pushing them a little more, and I've been working from my head more. Again, in large part to help me realize what I don't know. It also gives me a chance to play with different character designs.

Comments

[tigrin]

What is going on in that first one??? I can't read it at all. After a long time staring at it I'm assuming the flacid thing hanging over his back is the tail and the really straight thing is like, his underwear hung up or something?? But the way his weight is hanging is all wrong if that's the point he's hanging off of? I'm so confused. I'm trying not to look at this in a dirty way and it's difficult. XD

The second one is not bad, I like how relaxed her pose is, but little things about the anatomy stand out as being a bit off... for instance, her upper arms and lower arms are the same length; the lower arm is usually shorter (try touching your wrist to the top of your shoulder). The crotch is also bothering me a bit, there's not enough definition where the pelvis and legs meet and it makes her crotch look unusually wide. o.o If it's a loose fabric like a skirt that's covering her crotch (I'm just now seeing the bit behind her) then it probably needs folds to show that it's bunching up in her lap.

[celarania]

Yeah, he's hanging by his tightie whities. I feel like that one reads better at a slightly smaller size where you get the whole image at once. I didn't quite get the spine right, I know! I just didn't want to have his head too down. I also changed the angle of the undies about five times, so I know that didn't help! It is his tail on his back. I couldn't quite tell what kind of tail it was in the reference and I almost left it out entirely

[stormslegacy]

I like the second one, I think it has some potential. I like the pose of the legs despite the issues--not that coloring should be *used* to hide flaws, I'd be willing to bet they'd look fairly natural colored provided you indicated something of the other foot--it kinda disappears there. I think her right thigh may be a touch too flat as well, since there should be some volume there to show foreshortening. The body looks pretty good =) You're right about the head--it doesn't fit the rest, almost like it was added as an afterthought. You kinda lost the gesture that the rest of the pose conveys--that and the proportions on the face are off--the eye furthest is a touch too high (same mistake I always make =P

[celarania]

The girl's head, I knew the pose was off, but I redrew it at least once, I think several times, before deciding it needed to be done, right or wrong, and moving on. I had issues I think in part because a line of action tends to push the head really far in one direction and I haven't learned how to deal with that yet

[stormslegacy]

Oh yea, I totally get the subpar thing--I try to limit myself to mo more than a half-hour on freebies, and also take shortcuts--scribble backgrounds are my friend >.>. My quick human face sketches shame me ._.

You did nail the caricature-cartoony style, and I like that he has some character to him. I agree, the legs do look good =)

You may have already done this, but a good challenge to try to learn without reference might be the type of gesture drawing where you observe something and mentally draw it (a pic works well), wait 5 minutes/go do something else and then try to recreate the pose on paper from memory. I've found it really forced me to think about the parts and how they fit together, and also to build a mental library to later work from.

[celarania]

Yeah, these were probably around a half hour. I'm really glad that I'm not the only one ending up with embarrassing art when not going 100% all out. I still feel bad that freebies aren't my best efforts, but I need to keep my sanity. ;) Freebies aren't paid work and I need to remind myself of that.

That's a neat exercise. I'll fiddle around with it. :) I'm also going to take what I messed up on on these and work on that too.