okay, I'm not much of an artist at all as you're about to see, but I think it's fun to draw so every once in a while I'll pick up my tablet and draw a bit. Anyway I just did a few pieces, one today and one yesterday and I want comments on them, and constructive criticism to hopefully help me improve =__=

Here are the two pieces...




Here are other things I've done but those are all kind of old. I'm glad to see I've improved since then... I think so anyway XD;
http://i36.tinypic.com/2h7p91f.png pixel thing
http://i33.tinypic.com/2lm4dj9.jpg art for friend
http://i38.tinypic.com/332ry89.png another pixel..
http://i36.tinypic.com/2myoqkz.jpg more art
http://i34.tinypic.com/ayotjr.png one more


Thanks!

Wow!

Your graphic art is way better than what I can do, so I'l critique your pixelart~

The pixel head is good. Shading could be a bit smoother, though. Cant help you there, I've never dolled before~The other doll is very good too.It looks a bit copy and paste from the real Mene items, but the effect is still good. Again your shading needs a bit of work, but its still great stuff <3 Well done~

Originally Posted by kemii

Wow!

Your graphic art is way better than what I can do, so I'l critique your pixelart~

The pixel head is good. Shading could be a bit smoother, though. Cant help you there, I've never dolled before~The other doll is very good too.It looks a bit copy and paste from the real Mene items, but the effect is still good. Again your shading needs a bit of work, but its still great stuff <3 Well done~

Aww, thank you! ^^;

For the pixel doll I did just copy+paste+shrink the pot of gold, the rest I did by hand though. And haha yeah, the shading gives me a hard time XD;
Thank you!

Nice!
Your traditional drawings look neater, you can try to draw them by hand and then scan?
I find that a lot easier, then you can trace over the lines.

Thanks jesseh ^^ Yeah, I suppose I should try that one day to see what it looks like. It's just easier to draw with the tablet from the start XD;
Anyway, did two more pieces today for a contest on avaricia >__>;



I really need to work on drawing faces...

you need to make use of bone structures.
The faces are off and they don't have solid cheekbones, jaws etc
same goes for the arms and such.
Simplify things into cubes, cylinders and circles from that you build the entire character

edit:

What kind of shading you want to add to the pictures? CG of some sort of realistic shading?

when you say simplify things into cubes etc., you mean at the sketch phase right? And yeah, I really just need to practice on the faces.. a lot xD; again I'm no artist, I just like to draw every now and then.

as for the shading... I guess more realistic? I don't get the question. Do you mean cell shading or soft shading?

Thank you! ^^

Yeah in the sketch phase.
That way you have more clear vision on where the outlines will go ^^

Okay my question was: how would you like to shade the drawings?

My advice for shading: Don't stop with a base colour and one shading colour. Try to look around and see how things are shaded. Most things have a lot of different colours of shades. but using one base colour and two shade colours will do fine for now.

I've only scanned through the available pics, and I'm by no-means talented at drawing with computer programs. But, I will say that the one thing that stands out to me is the shape of your heads... they seem a bit unnatural. I think everyone has there own strategies when approaching the outline of a human head, but there are two techniques that I was given, which seem to really help... The first being to draw a "U" shape, to start, and then add all of your details (eyes, nose, mouth, etc). The second is to think of the human head as an upside-down egg.

I hope that helps.

Originally Posted by Jack Macgaven

Yeah in the sketch phase.
That way you have more clear vision on where the outlines will go ^^

Okay my question was: how would you like to shade the drawings?

My advice for shading: Don't stop with a base colour and one shading colour. Try to look around and see how things are shaded. Most things have a lot of different colours of shades. but using one base colour and two shade colours will do fine for now.

Alright, I see ^^ I'll try that next time! Thanks!

Ohh, okay. Well I'd rather try and do soft shading (mixing the colors). Cell shading is easier but I find soft shading to be more fun xD; And okay! Thank you for the advice =)

Aryah- Hmm... upside-down egg. alright, thank you for the advice! ^^

Soft shading is almost like cell shading, but instead use a soft brush with a lower opacity.
And don't be afraid to use a darker shade colour.

isn't soft shading where you kind of blend the colors so there's no real 'line' where the colors change? and cell shading where you can clearly see where it's shaded and where it's not?
like this would be soft shaded and this would be cell shaded? or am I getting the two terms confused with something else?

no you are right,
But to start off with cell shading is better. from cell you can always move on to soft. And you also have soft cell shading, which I mentioned.

Oh!! I thought you were talking about soft shading before, and not soft cell shading XD;
Thanks for clearing that up ^^ but okay, maybe I should try doing normal cell shading then, for now. Thanks ^^

hey, yo, crepsley-veve <3 like jack and aryah, i think you can try working more on the facial structure. it doesn't have to be perfect or anything. use guidelines and such. you can just start with a pretty circle (i usually do) and then adding guidelines into it. i also notice that your positioning on the eyes is a bit too close together, but that could be just a personal thing, too XD; i usually still have problems with drawing faces, too, especially if they're frontal view. i never really thought about it, but yes, the guidelines thingie should definitely help :3

as for coloring, may be you can start off as cell-shading first, like jack suggested. it's easier to control in a way (and personally, i find it more fun, even though sometimes, i just go /KAY, COLOR COLOR WTE lolol). try to pay attention to where the light source is as well (though i tend to forget this myself OOPS haha)

Mm yeah, I just have a lot of problems with faces XD; just the main thing I need to work on imo~ and hands =__= but faces are more important XD; Anyway I'll be taking art in school this year so hopefully it'll help me improve a bit as well. ^^;

Lol xDD I tried cell shading earlier (I'll show you in what pic farther down), but it ended up looking really bad. I dunno why, but for some reason I just didn't think it looked right x__x maybe it was just me though, heh xD; so I just went back to soft shading. I'll try again next time, though >>;

Thanks a bunch, sho!! ^^ I appreciate the help =)

Anyway, I did this yesterday and I think it turned out okay. I'm satisfied with it anyway ^^;
http://i38.tinypic.com/24c6was.jpg

It seems to have some more structure there ^^
Very nice.

yah, i agree~ it's got more structure there 8D <3 one of these days, may be i'll do a bit of a guideline on the face thingie for you, to show you what i mean. but the key thing is that you should keep practicing! even try referencing from your own face! <3