Boredom prompted art

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!

A promising start. Keep practicing and you'll skyrocket. I've tried to draw at least one thing everyday over the last month (I started May 29), and I've noticed a huge improvement in my work.

Two things about the piece:
1. Feet: Whenever I draw feet, I round it out to sort of a flipper shape, depending on the type of foot (shoe, spandex, etc.).
2. You *can* draw out an electrical effect. For example, try drawing a rough circle, and arc out electrical bolts from that circle. Viola: Electric orbs. You can come up with different (and better!) techniques, but I'm just giving you something to start with.

Just keep drawing and drawing. Study other people's art, and how they use their technique (shading on certain parts, etc.). Knowing anatomy helps a ton too. Just keep going and develop your own style. The more dedicated you are to improving, the faster you'll improve, IMO.

It's good that can critique yourself. Many times when you want someone's feedback, they will only try to say positive things about your work. Sometimes (most of the time, actually) it will be up to you alone to stand back and judge the value of what you have made. I've been in enough art classes to know that people are uncomfortable with giving "negative" opinions about other people's work, especially to their face.
Sorry, went on a bit of a rant there....

This shows promise, and you seem to have the right kind of attitude for self-improvement. Just make sure to draw something every day. Like you, I took a about a month off from drawing and now I'm regretting it.

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. I've been in enough art classes to know that people are uncomfortable with giving "negative" opinions about other people's work, especially to their face.
Sorry, went on a bit of a rant there....


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In the classes I teach, I require one person to same something positive and one person to say something constructively critical about each piece that's critiqued. It's not about the person, it's about finding the flaws in the work so they may be fixed. Critiquing is an act of LOVE!!!

Anyway, I like that the OP put up his self critique, so we don't have to tell him things he already knows. I would disagree with him about the pose. I like the pose. I just don't think all the forms are fitting together properly to sell it.

And don't go all Liefeld on us! You HAVE to draw the feet! If there aren't any crappy feet for us to look at, how are we supposed to tell you how to make them better?

Feet are easy. They're just wedges. thick in the back, trailing thinner and widening out as they get to the toes. Start with a wedge and work from there.

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?

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who is Liefeild?

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Better you not know.