LadyJudgement

Yeah the legs aren't my favorite part, but I didn't want to redraw her because I was happy with the pose... oh well live and learn. Thanks all for the comments.

Finally got some free time tonight... here she is all done:

Missy K

On to ... DonnchadH next, well when I have more free time.
Oh and in case I forgot to mention it, all future pieces will be screen saver size.
(800 x 600) So the close up on the right is a blow up...

see ya next time,

LJ

Nice costume... kudos to the fiancee.

Of the 7 I like the last 2 the most, watch your limbs, you seem to be leaving out wrists and ankles. That is to say your arms stop short and then the hand begins, while your legs are too short because they almost go from the bottom of the calve straight to the heel.

Now for some positive reinforcement: Anime, good anime pays attention to detail. The loops on a pair of pants. The folds of a coat blowing in the wind. While you're expressions are down pat for it to be easily recognized as Anime, where you fail I think is in the details.

Detail is not piles and piles of overdrawing on a figure, that's clutter. I'm talking about one hand being different from the other, the left side of the head being different from the right. The arms drawn from different directions, because they can't possibly be flat and occupy the same space unless you're drawing someone prone.

These kind of things add character to your character, and it can go on and on. If you have two figures in a piece, each one should be decidingly different from the other, and not just a mirror drawing with another color hair.

Try this excersize. Draw a new figure lightly. then erase one of the arms and draw it in a different position still connected to the same body. Then erase the other arms and change that. This will keep you from drawing the same pose every time, and teach you new poses forcibly.

To go even further, you could turn the body 45 degrees, and redraw it that way. Try to rethink your perspective, so you're not always drawing the same character with different outfits. Challenge yourself, and also work with other materials, try some fine marker or pen drawings. You can't erase with those, so you're forced to think about every line and swiggle as how they connect to each other and how they build your figure.

Goodluck, that webiste above is a good start... come back and show us some more.

LJ

Good to know, someone corrected me and I wasn't sure... alas the edit time has expired or I would correct it. I'm glad you liked your piece... that's why I did it.

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Good thought, I didn't think about the way out of the hold.

Now if only she didn't have a mask, I'd have NN biting her!

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I've heard that objects of clothing are sometimes ahem loosened while in intense female gelatinous skirmishes. You could always have her unmasked. Btw, love your DA gallery, great stuff!

Yeah she is lumpy, a kind of after effect of vector doodling. I'm just learning it, and I still don't do those mega precise lines one can get. I think it's because I am just whizzing the pentool around with no regard for safety (ok that didn't sound right LOL). Also I wanted to finish fast for Katfood, because it was kind of a surprise...

Shego: I get what you're saying, but I like thin lines, they're just asthetically pleasing to me. I use to do that thick layer on the outsides of the body, but sometimes I forget. Also these pieces are reduced in most cases. My screen is set at 1024 x 768 and my photoshop images are in the 3000+ x 2500+ range at 300 dpi, not to mention the little 4 x 5 wacom I have to spank to keep it all in line (no pun intended).

I try to make the images 1000 x 800 to be seen, but I think I will reduce that to 800 x 600 for screensavers from this point on. It was a thought that occured to me for those who might want to use them that way...

In some cases these are cut and pasted because depending on my mood I will clean up my wacom doodle in Illustrator, then put them back into Photoshop for coloring. With Sithius I just drew color on color in Photoshop, it was the fastest one to do. Replete was a earning experience but probably because it was a very intricate costume.

With MM, I was more concerned with getting expression right. Normally I don't work this way, I take weeks to finish something I really am obsessed with, and even then as you can see from those examples, they might sit on the digital shelf until I "feel" like getting back to them if ever.

But in this case, these were meant as gifts, so it was more important to get something back to the requester than for me to be overly satisfied.

The next few pieces will be longer in between as I have to get back to my day job. Thanks for the input, it's definitely noted and appreciated!

LJ

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Parroting here the lighting rocks , care to share some tips on how you did it ?

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Sure, np. However you should know this was done in Photoshop and Illustrator. The lines from the original sketch were cleaned up in Illustrator, and then a jpg of that was placed into Photoshop.

Basically I lock the sketch on the bottom layer, make a new layer above it, set that to multiply, and color over the sketch. In this case however, the brush was unique.

So first download the free lightning brushes from the Adobe Design Center. Then use the wand tool to select the background, this should allow your figure to be safe. The brushes have like 10 to choose from, but you could use any brush to mimic a bolt if you find good reference.

Anyway, make the background dark so the lightning shows up. Put your brush tool to screen, at about 30 - 50% and vary the size of the brush occasionally. The more you click in the same spot and don't move, the brighter the brush will make the effect.

I switched up several brushes, and used a simple round for around the fists, doing the same technique. Also your color should be bright to begin with for this light effect. Screening with dark colors sometimes doesn't work very well.

For the arms I did the reverse, I highlighted the torso with the wand tool, thus not effecting the background, and used a white lightning color, brush at the same settings but at smaller sizes.

I'll try to put up a tute tomorrow, along with some links, but right now I gotta sleep.

LJ

Not exactly the chart I was looking for, but this will do... I made this up from some guy dressing up like the man of steel. His body is shall we say less than average, but that's okay, if you can draw normal people, you can exaggerate that later to draw superheroes...

Normal Human Anatomy

The 7 head rule applies to most of us, however most heroes are 8 heads high, and that's not counting taller or wider heroes who might be 10 heads or 12 heads, and 5 heads wide. You get the idea. But you can use this ratio no matter what, if you want to draw someone shorter, make your basic head measurement smaller... and viceversa for taller people. This should keep your frontal figures in proportion.

Good luck!

LJ

I was hoping you'd ask, I love your character... gonna squeeze you in, but THAT's it! Sheesh, at this rate I'll never be done...

I don't mind the off topic stuff... I originally didn't want to post any of this seperately, as I consider them "gifts" and not discussions. I forgot to mention that time willing, I'm gonna tackle MM and ** again... for now I'm off to play!

later all...

LJ

Thanks everyone for the feedback, I really only took this on to keep from getting rusty. And it's been ages since I drew something fun... well no that's not true, I did this about 2 months ago from an older piece I did 2 years ago.

Point is, while critiques are welcome, I'm not asking for them... I just wanta a) give back to the community, and b) draw something cool.

Here's my rundown so far:

1) Replete
2) Siberian Knight
3) Feral Kat
4) Marvel Maiden
5) Sithius
6) Mr. Shock
As I see it, my list for who's next is this:

8) Missy K
9) DonnchadH
10) Migrayne
11) Radey Ayte
12) Mr. Majesty
13) Mistress Vine
14) Bayani
15) and then the big kahuna, TA.

Sad to say I'm not gonna take anymore requests for now... I do have a day job, and the Missus is none to happy I am not drawing cowgirls. Besides that list alone will keep me busy for a month. Thanks again for all the feedback, I love COH!

LJ aka Bobby

Well by popular demand, placing this in a new thread, however I will continue to sketch dump, and take requests in the other thread. And btw Migrayne was already on my list...

Hope you like it, I took some liberty with the costume...

Mr. Shock

LJ aka Bobby

Been drawing up a frenzy, and thanks to all the requests... I think I've opened up a can of art worms!

Anyhoo, gonna post the pieces I've done so far here, but first I have to make steaks for 8 people tonight. In the meantime, here's 2 up coming pieces in the wings:

1) Mr. Shock

2) Missy K

Eventually though I'd like to tackle the big guy, TA, and my filipino heritage is crying out to do a Bayani. And just for pride's sake, Feral Kat one more time...

later all,

LJ

Ah, cool, I'll look it up... I'm so rusty drawing these days, but these past few days it's been a real gas getting back to what I love to draw. Usually I spend days on pieces, but I don't have that time to spend. If I do, I'll try to use some reference next time, I know that right leg looks like a steroid embellism... lol.

Glad you liked it.

LJ

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LadyJudgement. Holy crap. You could be an art teacher.

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Lol. Actually I am an art teacher. A retired one. But in college while taking boring graphic design classes I took an elective on Comic Book Illustration taught by a small time inker in the industry back then.

He like me, was a much better teacher than an artist, and when I was teaching 6th grade in my hometown, I offered an after school class on Comic Book Illustration, based on what he taught me, and what I had learned on my own.

The class was a big success, and I had to turn kids away regretfully. We took 10 from each of the four 6th grade classes, and had a room to ourselves after school for an hour.

I wish this kind of thing was taught today, comics not only teach children to further their imagination, but it also includes the basics of anatomy, perspective, composition, and ofcourse color.

I will look for that 3 head width chart for you, I'm sure I saw it again online somewhere. If not I may have it in one of my old books gathering dust downstairs. I'll try to scan it later.

Well gotta go draw some cowgirls for money... glad to be of help.

LJ

A bit rushed, but I like most of it... hope you do too!

Sythius

LJ

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All of those are not from a lack of determination or practice, I just have my own absolute limits to my abilities at them. I keep trying to do those artistic things because, honestly, the ease of learning the logical things makes them boring to me and I'd rather be interested in what I'm doing.

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I think we're getting off the subject here, it's not that we should accept our limitations... Will we all be Da Vincis in our lifetime? No, and that shouldn't be the goal. The goal is to get better at something we love to do, and that's draw and or create art.

A lot of artists start with stick figure sketching, and they do it so lightly that when they draw over that, you could never tell it was there.

You asked me what to do on those first 30 pages. Try this:

sketches

1) Pay attention to your proportions.

Do - make a head that sits evenly on the shoulders.

Don't - make a head that is equal to the chest in size, and has tiny shoulders that couldn't possibly support it.

Do - make the shoulders symmetrical if doing a front or back view, meaning the space from the neck to the deltoid is the same on both sides.

You probably know the 3 head width rule, where the shoulders should be as wide as if you drew a head on either side of the ears. For some over exaggerated heros with lots of bull necks, that might even be 1 and 1/2 heads on either side. Up to you...

Do - as in figure 3, make a bunch of ovals and lines to indicate your skeletal structure.

Naturally the space from deltoid to elbow is SHORTER than from the elbow to the hand. This applies also from the oval of the pelvis to the knee, is LONGER than from the knee to the foot.

Do - make an egg shaped oval to indicate your rib cage, dozens of muscles go over this, but if your ribcage is too small, you'll end up with a puny looking figure.

If it's too big, you'll be drawing hulk width normal people.

Rule of thumb, a person's torso from the clavicles to the groin is about 3 heads long. I'm using some anatomy terms, if you don't know them, LEARN them asap, they will help you be a better artist. Look them up on Wikipedia, and google them in iimages if you need to see one for reference.

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And that's something I forgot to mention earliar.

You'll need a lot of reference, keep a clip file of everything you want to draw. Get one of those accordian folders, label them men, women, kids, cars, buildings, animals... whatever, then go get some magazines and put the pages into the categories.

That way if you need to know what 3 figures look like together, you can go to it, and have something to jump start your brain. I use old sports mags for multiple figures, football players always make a great fight scene. Muscle mags are great for reference, as are model mags for faces and hair.

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Anyway this is what I did with your drawing. I elongated it first to show you the difference in the proportions. If you have doubts, redraw your pieces longer, it's a good excersize because we won't always be drawing perfect figures, and sometimes you want foreshortening.

I thought your hands were quite good, and I didn't change them, just hastily traced over them. But as you can see your legs are too short, watch that running out of room on the page habit. You can work on feet later, first I think you should get the structure right.

I put the ovals and lines over the elongated figure to show you the guide you can use, if you wanted to redraw it. And lastly I did a quick correction on the feet in my version, just to show you a semi finished example.

You asked me what to draw in the first 30 pages, I would say redraw all the pieces you like of your own work, and then whatever you've learned from that, put it into a new piece. And don't forget to show us your progress...

Good luck!

LJ

I understand your frurstation, while it's taken me years to be "happy" with my own skill level, style and or aptitude. I go crazy insane when I see the works of geniuses and the people I admire, because my brain and my heart says, "I want to draw like that".

Reality check first, we are all different, so wanting to be as good as another while an admirable goal is the kind of goal that could and probably should take years. You're only 23.

Looking at your work, my first critique is bone & muscular underwork, and facial structure. These are basics, these are mathematical, they can be applied in a universal formula that is the same in every detailed work you can find. You can't ignore them, and usually the sign of a bad drawing is the lack of these things.

I'm not talking about exaggeration, the best artists use these building blocks: eyes, limbs, torsos, and piece them together like jigsaw puzzles that you and I have no clue where to start first.

But that is style.

Learn your basics first, memorize and beat those to death, till your arm falls off, and you will know these basic mechanics "without thinking". You'll be able to shape a bunch of ovals and lines into an amazing depiction from your imagination, and it will make sense.

That said, no one can teach you to have an imagination. You either have that, the drive, the unseen spark to put something 2D down from nothing, or you don't.

I went to art college for illustration, and switched majors because practically speaking graphic design would pay my bills faster. It's something I regret but here's the thing. You can never stop learning, never stop discovering, being inspired by great art.

And that doodle you've done since you were 5 will someday be something more to you, if you apply some vigilance, and ofcourse hard work. Talent IS innate, but passion to me is more important. Otherwise all we are left with are carbon copies of things already out there with little to no life in them.

If I were you I would work on your anatomy, your faces, and here's where I differ from a lot of art teachers. Trace! Trace, trace, trace...

The reason you trace is to SEE the lines. To break down the pattern of how they connect, how they simplify shapes, how they are intricate and how they can make what we think of... a visual end.

Don't trace to blindly draw like someone else. Try and figure out why did they use 3 lines to do what others use 12 for, or viseversa. Tracing is the best way to make your brain learn shapes, and memorize them into second hand drawing.

That said, there can be no excuse for NOT drawing from life. From observing life, observing light and shade, and form and movement, and memorizing those into your own style.

Even Anime which is a generic almost mathematical approach, by mathematical I mean it is easily recognize by everyone who does it. Even that, has tons of real life observations that add amazing details to the final image. It is those details that make the difference between a doodle and a masterpiece.

I have a friend who can doodle armor and pattern, and weaponry the way other people write the alphabet. It is an innate skill he has, but it is not an unlearnable skill. HE got it through practice, through passion, and through observing not only what he loves about those details but what he has read about them, self taught his brain to remember, oh this is why a sword is made this way, and that is why chain mail links the way it does.

Get yourself a sketch book, and fill the first 30 pages with your doodles, fill every corner of every page, doodle on top of doodles till it all looks like one color. On the next 30 pages, draw everything in sight, and everything you can "people watch". Draw them as their moving, draw the details, and WRITE down what you just did.

IF you design a great costume, weapon, car, put some lines and arrows around it, explaining how it works, what colors you want it to be. These notes will help you redraw it later.

On the 3rd part of the sketchbook, clip a magazine picture on one side, and your freehand "trace" on the other side. This little excersize will help you be patient with seeing the details, you can't rush your drawings, even if you have seen other artists go at lightning speed. That is them, that is not you. Maybe someday, it's something to reach for, but for now you're not in a race.

Anything we love takes time, and if we put enough of our energy positively into it, you'll get the results you're looking for... Good luck.

LJ

I'd be happy to give it a go tomorrow, but could you upload a better screenshot with more detail, not sure what's going on with his face.

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The above techniques are good, but extremely meticulous. Hand-selecting with the lasso tool is beyond my personal patience level.

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Yeah I use to hate the lasso tool also, until aduh I realized if you click the icon that looks like 2 boxes together, the "add to select" tab, it makes it so that you can select little sections at a time, and they all add up together.

If you mess up, press & hold down the ALT key, and the lasso becomes a minus tool, and you can take out sections. Using this method, I can breeze through most intricate shapes.

Infact I tend to work in reverse, I lasso the whole figure in quick ovals, then go back, and minus where I went too fast.

Here ya go... I think this is my best one yet, say where is your avatar from? Is that MM also?

Marvel Maiden

LJ

Yeah I was gonna write it up, and then I thought, umm I'm sure someone's done this way better than I could explain. AND with visuals... aduh!

And now I can go play, having done my good deed for the day.

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Okies Photoshop question

I have a bunch of indvidul Charater pictures or lil toons , but I want to merge them together in a group shot (some standing behind others )
any idea how to do it ?

any help is appreciated (greatly appreciated )

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Read and try this...

LJ

Hope you like... was fun to do.

Siberian Knight

Bobby