Sarrate

Thats a nice sketch Celsia! It looks like she has some sass to her from the body language. You also did a great job coloring her boots. I can't shade that texure to save my life!

A couple things that I noticed about it though. First, her right leg seems a lot longer than the left. For example, the foot is only positioned slightly higher than the other, but theres a lot of bent leg that, if straightened, would push it below the other. Also, her thigh(s) seem a little thick to me, but it could just be personal preference seeping in.


I know what you mean about drawing things on a different scale thorwing you off. Whenever I try to draw a closeup of someone's face (like I did for AK), I invariably mess up the shoulders / chest to be too small. You'll get the hang of it. Good piece!

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Would you rather see batman eating a dounut, or crouching in the shadows ready to pounce?

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I'd rather see Batman eating a donut.

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okay.

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Hahah, that one got me chuckling pretty good... several time... Breatkfast of champions, with the Dark Knight!
As for your "Batman cleaning a catbox" challenge, I accept! Talk about destroying the atmosphere for poor Bats. What's next, Juggernaught walking the dog?


Anyways, about your suggestions: My problem is I tend to draw dark (outlines and sketches included). Even when I do have a working eraser it's not a clean process for me. I've tried to clean up my pictures on the computer in the past, but they never turned out too well. I don't know, maybe I'm a sucker for all the 'character' that the smudges bring, I dunno. I have used the paper trick a couple times, very handy; I just often forget to while I'm jumping from part to part getting it right.

Don't worry about the tangent, it was well worth it.

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well you can always look at my gallery Nadya. I have all the links needed to get ahold of the artists just above the pieces.

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I think this means i had better so some more recent pics for you. Those are months old and a few paces behind me now.

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But... but... think of the Regen scrappers! *looks at sig*

I had a little bit of a drawing bug tonight, so I decided to get it out of my system. Once again, pose in brain turned out entirely different... for the better! I don't know what it is, but by the time I get the head's shape and angle sorted out, I see a different pose to fit it.

Before commenting how sloppy / dirty it is, I just realized I'm fresh out of eraser! I have one itty bitty eraser piece, but it's smaller than a pea (which split in two while working on this btw).

Without any further delay, I present my representation of Dragonberry. (I'm a sucker for the costume, and so I had to draw it.)


I'm pretty proud of how this came out. Sure, there are things that look a bit out of whack (waist seems a bit thin to me, left hand could be repositioned, better job shading, details such as scales, tail seems flat), but... I still like it despite the short comings. I'd say this took me about an hour from start to finish. I'm such a slow poke.

Okay, finally had the time to snap a couple screenshots of my Ice Tanker, Eis Geist:

Front / Description
Back
Side
Close Up 1
Close Up 2


For whenever you get a moment to spare from your current exploits, if you'd be so kind as to give her your artistic touch, that'd rock! If you need anymore info, just hollar.

Well, I'm glad you like it AK! It didn't come out quite as I was planning though, gotta work on the brain to paper translation a bit more.

I've read a couple books several years back about how everything has shape, volume, etc. I try to keep that in mind when I draw things in an attempt to avoid the "flat" look. Of course, when I try to envision all the sub-objects in my head, it gets completely overwhelmed and I make mistakes. (My brain isn't a graphics card able of handling 10 billion polygons. )


Oh, you have no arguement from me about poses. I know how important they are to capture the personality of characters. Again, just because I have a good idea for a pose doesn't mean I'm able to draw it properly.

Exaggerating, so true! I often look at other peoples' art and see how much more 'style' they have than mine. While exagerration is great for adding flavor, I'm scared of finding myself adding a bit too much flavor, and not enough content. Get the basics down, then start exagerrating has been my philosophy so far.


Thanks a lot for the compliments AK, they mean a lot. /bow
I'll be sure to keep an eye on your thread for your examples (and awesome sketchs too)

Wow, thanks for posting that. As mentioned before, watching other people draw is really a neat experience for me. really puts into perspective what the better people do in terms of their technique, etc.

Besides the cat (which was hillarious), I found it really neat how he put down another sheet of paper to reach areas past what he had already done. So thats the secret to avoid smudging!

I decided that I needed to keep my drawing hand busy, so I decided to give this a whirl. Here is what I came up with. I tried a few new things on the piece, but it doesn't leave me totally satisfied.. Anyways, instead of hijacking your thread are welcome inmy art thread.


I'll be back later with some pictures of my hero (one who isn't in black! ), if you happen to get a spare moment to sketch/draw her between your comic / cover drawings. Which reminds me, congrats on that man! I'm sure they'll look awesome!

Well, I hadn't drawn anything in a few days, so I decided to break the rut and take a stab at drawing Atomic Knight. I had a few difficulties doing the piece. First, I chose a 'pose' (if you want to call it that) which always has given me trouble in the past. If I avoid it, I'll never get better, right? Second, I couldn't find many (read, none) zoomed in, detailed shots to use fo reference. They're very zoomed out, so I couldn't get much (any) detail in, despite having plenty of space for it. Lastly, I tried a different approach at shading than in the past. I took my fingers and purposefully smudged the lead.

For your pleasure, I managed to scan it in three places during it's creation, so you could have a peak at the process.
Basic skeleton
Fleshed out
Finished piece


Instead of boring you guys with my likes/dislikes, I'll just open the floor to you guys directly. I'm theorizing my old post style was intimidating others from posting, so we'll try it this way.

Really? Odd, looks fine on my screen. The text in the chat window is basically this:

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Arachnos Situation Monitor: The villains have taken Echo base.

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Of course, hes talking about the pillbox inside Recluse's Victory, but the first thing I thought of was Empire Strikes Back.

Hah, that's a pretty good one.


I just happened to see this last weekend. It makes perfect sense with regard to RV, but that wasn't my first impression.

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Light at the end


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I really like that one. Alot. What mission is this?

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Eden trial, yep - flying instead of jumping down the pits.

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I have to do that trial one of these days, I keep hearing how neat it is...

Thanks Squirrel! I'm really happy with the way that one came out. I know the face is a bit weird. I don't think the chin was originally as pointy as you see there. I think I erased around there and didn't draw it back in right, come to think of it. As for the particle effect being 2Dish, it doesn't surprise me. It's one of my first attempts at (in recent history at any rate). I was going for the "radiation" look, with all its green and red bubbles. Looks like I failed there.

Was kinda hoping for more opinions critiques on that piece, but I'm guessing people got scared off by the longerish posts here. That's what I'm telling myself anyways.


So what better way to continue this post then adding to the problem? Heres Blight Scarab's partner in crime (hah, I crack myself up) played by a friend of mine, The Pathmaker (Stone / Elec Brute).
Reference
Drawing

Personal Critique
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Likes
<ul type="square">[*]I like how the armor came out in this piece, especially in the upper thighs and shoulder pads. They just look sweet. (Could use some shading, but more on that later.)[*]The face. yes, I said it, I drew a face that I'm damned proud of. It's one of the first faces I've ever drawn that has an older look to it. Sunken in cheeks, thin/wirey hair, and I managed to get the head tilted back a bit. I'm sure there are flaws in it, but it's still awesome for me. [*]While not overly dynamic, I think Pathmaker looks really sturdy in the piece. Hes pretty thick in all areas (no skinny hips here), feet planted far apart. It's not perfect, but still looks pretty good I think.[/list]
Dislikes
<ul type="square">[*]Number one beef I have with the piece is when I decided "Hey, it'd look cool if I colored everything in by pencil!" Man, what a mistake. I'm no Gill Bates with pencils, should've just left the boots white and shaded them. (I didn't shade anything else because I was planning on coloring them black with, but after seeing how bad the boots looked, I didn't continue.) Bleh![*]His left hand is a bit out of whack. I swear, I redrew it about 10 times, and that's the closest to accurate I could get it. Still looks like crap though.[*]After I finished drawing I realized his arms were a smidge too long. Need to pay more attention late at night.[*]Did I mention I hate the shading? [/list]
I was originally going to play Blight Scarab and try to hit 14 for Super Speed, but I got fixated with the idea of drawing my friend, and so here it is an hour and a half after I started. I think it's a good piece overall, but could have been better.

Man, I forgot how draining, but rewarding drawing can be! I don't know if I can keep up this pace once work resumes on Wednesday (taking tomorrow off), but we shall see. Comments welcome on any of my 3 pieces!

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Right - I think your pose is very good, especially the way he looks like he's descending to the ground, looking up at the sky and thinking 'why?'

Thats what I got from it anyway &gt;.&gt;

Also, I love your wiring. You captured the feel of the 'tech wired' costume bits *perfectly* imho &gt;.&lt; So great job there. The visor and breastplate are both excellent as well!

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Shucks! My biggest beef with the tech wired part is well... I didn't get the 'connection' to look right. Seems like a lot of wires yeah, but not enough substance to hold them together I think. (I knew it was going to happen when I started drawing them too. D'oh!)

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Could improve -

His knee bends at a...disturbing... angle. &gt;.&lt; as does the hip on that leg - just need practice drawing legs really is what I'd say. That comes in time though &lt;@_@&gt;m

Too thin; overall TA looks just a bit too thin; like he's been fasting too long or something &lt;~.~&gt;; Its not so much his stomach, as his hips. I think they could stand to be just a tad wider or something &gt;&lt; I'm not sure what to describe it as &lt;;.;&gt; I'm only so good myself lol &lt;~,~&gt;

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Hmm, you are right, that left knee is a little... ow... I guess I wasn't 'seeing' that part in my head clear enough when I went to translate it to paper (which is never even close to a flawless process!).

He is a bit thin in parts, I agree. I'm not used to doing super human males, soo I don't exagerate some aspects enough to make them seem really imposing. Soo many things to practice...

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Thats the way I see it anyways &lt;@o@&gt; nice job overall, we want more! &lt;,&lt; &lt;holds up a sign /em demandart&gt; &lt;'x'&gt;

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Check one post above yours.

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http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j3...gineerPets.jpg

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My robot is bigger than yours!

I almost went ahead and started another thread, but I decided against it. In the end (if I do one piece a day) I'd just flood the forums and get people ticked off, heheh.


Without further delay, let me unravel my second piece, Blight Scarab (dark / rad corruptor).
Reference
Drawing


Personal Critique
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Likes
<ul type="square">[*]In this one, I like th pose, and I think it came out very well. It's a bit different than I originally intended (both feet planted far apart), but the drawing just "came alive" so to speak.[*]The legs (and feet!) seemed to come out pretty good in overall proportions and positioning. The left (our right) leg should have more insecty, but I didn't have any reference pics and was getting lazy. [*]The two effects (radiation / dark) seemed to come out pretty well too.[/list]
Dislikes
<ul type="square">[*]The face came out a bit wonky. In the past, I've drawn a *lot* of anime eyes, but I'm trying to get away from it now. The face also isn't too feminine (sp?), thou it isn't supposed to be overly. Definately need to pay more attention to how to draw faces. Oh, and mouths... I definately don't draw 'complex' mouths well, so I have been avoiding 'em.[*]Same as above with hair. I have problems making it "flow" right. For me it always looks clumpy.[/list]
I feel a little cheesy reusing the right leg position as on TA's piece, but since everything else is different, it's not that big of a concern to me. I'm really happy with how this came out. Especially since I got the idea when I was laying in bed trying to get some sleep, and remembered it this morning!

I'm curious to hear what you guys think though.

Is this Liefeild?


Heheh, well I'm glad you like it TA. It was a fairly experimental piece on my part, but I'm glad it came out favorably.

I was wondering how long it'd take you to say something. 10.5 hours, you're slacking!

Thanks guys!

One of my biggest problems is consistency. Not so much in what I draw, but when I draw. Sometimes I'll get in the mood and draw a lot, other times I'll go half a year without touching a pencil (except for getting the check book balanced *hiss* ). I just seem to have problems getting in the mood to draw quite often. Perhaps I just have to get used to drawing when uninspired just to draw something. Thats probably just a personal quirk I'll have to figure out on my own.

Hmm, feet as a flipper shape? I'll have to try drawing a foot with that in mind. I've always liked how others draw feet, but couldn't put my finger as to how they achieved their effect. I also look at my own feet, and they look more like tire-blocks (the things you put by tires to stop them from moving) than flippers. I have to keep in mind that somethings (comics especially) are very exaggerated, and may not completely match reality.

Braddock, I know exactly what you mean about feedback. I'm one of those people who doesn't like giving 'negative' critiques (maybe I should say constructive, they're only negative if you word them that way), but I've been trying to speak my mind more. I must say, it feels awkward when I look at some of the highly skilled here and think I see something amiss. After 10 posts of "thats awesome!", I feel like an jerk pointing out what I percieve as a flaw. Especially since I can't demonstrate mastery over the subject. Okay, that and often times they don't specifically ask for critiques...

Oh and PMD, since you mentioned it, what do you see wrong with "all the forms fitting together?" I can see that it's not quite right, but I can't put together a laundry list of reasons as to why.


Oh yeah and... (sheepishly)... who is Liefeild?

Well, it's been a pretty boring day so far, not much progress in my CoX characters (racked up 430k debt, d'oh), I haven't felt like WoW recently, so after doing a whole lot of nothing, I decided to do something.

That something was actually breaking out my pencil and eraser after a month of drawing nothing. I also decided to be a little bit different from my usual (female characters I've made), and draw a male character. I don't have many myself, but I eventually selected (unknown to them!) guinea pig.

Here is the result


Personal Critique
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Likes
<ul type="square">[*]The shoulder pads, I don't know quite why, but I like how they came out.[*]I think the torso came out pretty well, the wires near the belt too.[*]Foreshadowing on the right (our left) leg works well I think. I (in general) stink at foreshadowing.[*]I erased the right (our left) hand many, many times. I couldn't get it right without looking completely wrong. After spending some time staring at my hand, I think I drew it decently.[/list]
Dislikes
<ul type="square">[*] The left (our right) leg didn't come out right. For one thing, it's tilted towards the viewer instead of away (you can tell by not seeing the inside of the armor facing the groin). I was trying to avoid making the piece to symetrical (bad habit of mine) so I drew this leg's position differently. Don't think it worked too well.[*]I hate drawing feet. [*]Left (our right) forearm is messed up.[*]Right (our left) forearm looks like a turtle shell. [*]I can't color / ink to save my life, so the whole "theme" of him using an electrical nova type attack is completely lost.[*]Proportions, proportions, proportions! I always draw th!e head too big...[*]Pose didn't come out dramatically enough.[/list]

Despite the overly long 'dislike' list, I'm pretty pleased with the piece. Not only because I don't draw nearly enough to compare with people like Gill Bates (whose TA picture I used for many details), but I'm also being realistic. Besides, I'll never improve if I don't see flaws in my own piece. Half of drawing is just being able to "see" anyways.

Welll enough rambling from me, hope you enjoy the piece!

Last night I realized I had an extra button on my quickbar. Strange, I don't remember that being there... so I clicked it... Ohh, that's right, they let us keep those free lvl1-10 powers now. Wait a second... /em blink. I still have my BroadSword out! You know, it would be soo nice if they could make Recon / Dull Pain work that way.

People hate click heals for a couples reasons, one being micro-management, the second being it slowing down their attacks. Only two of our six primaries can blend the healing and fighting well. Why? The other four have redraws, thats 66% of them! I think that if they made our heals function like our origin power, there would be less fussing over it.


Pretty please guys?

That is a pretty neat screenshot! I love it when things line up just right like that. To answer your question, you're fighting Clamor, the Freakshow AV from one of the TFs. Sorry, I can't remember exactly which one that is off the top of my head...

That is an absolutely stunning piece of work! My first impression was that it was 3d, but then I noticed it really wasn't. (Okay, it's 3d in the sense you used real materials, but not a 3d model. ) The piece flows together beautifully. My favorite two parts are the pose, and the work you did on the body (armor and shine). I really really dig the final piece. Great stuff!

(I'd love to see my character done that way, but I'm sure you weren't intending for this thread to turn in that direction, so I'll refrain unless told otherwise.)

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Yeah, he's a cool-looking character. Nice screenshots. Especially that Buddha-inspired spiritual scene one. I haven't seen that in game yet.

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Thanks!
I absolutely love that character.
That screenshot is so old, but I think I took it in a Tsoo warehouse in some imd 30s arc.

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I remember that mission on my ice tanker. Very awesome map / graphics. I also remember acutely remember that mission because the Sorcerors wouldn't hold still! I'd only get a hit or two in before they teleported off. (Oh, and SS w/o rage or KO Blow = I couldn't kill his minion lacky due to O2 Boost. Gah!) I saw that map in my teens, the screenshots I have don't show me wearing a cape yet.


I'll contribute one of my single favorite screenshots I've ever taken. It's simply titled: "Headsplitter"

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Anyone that goes around calling other noobs is pretty much not show himself to be very informed, espically when it's aimed at someone like SF...

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But SF is a noob! I mean, he plays Claws! ...before they buffed it!

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IH as a toggle FTW

(Reduce it's heal rate to 300 and 1/3 enhanceable and I would still love it that much more.)

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Man, this reminds me of the days when I'd exemp down below 28 for a TF or whatever, and I couldn't wait to "get back to normal" with toggle IH. /sigh

To play Devil's Advocate, if it's not even much of a buff, then why bother with it? (Fully enhancable IH would be downright disgusting. Perhaps the two slots I have in it for healing wouldn't actually go to "waste" then... )