Progress.

Welcome to my little thread on progress! This thread features my artistic style and what I wish to offer to the City of Heroes community. Well, what little I can give, anyways.

Awhile ago, I took it upon myself to strengthen my artistic abilities with the activities I was able to do in my spare time. Now, I've still got a ways to go, but I'm utilizing my strengths and exercising my weaknesses. Even then, I recognize that the fastest way to better myself is to present my work in front of an audience, and take upon the challenges that audience wishes to give to me.

Er... Just... Give me a moment to get this darned website to accept my pictures...



Here we go! Wow, I love these new forums. Anyways, the first piece I present is an exercise I did with shading. And as odd as it sounds, shading happens to be my favorite part of a piece. I don't really know why, either. It's just what I feel most comfortable doing.

To my understanding, art is more then just shading. It's the ability to bring object to life, or give it personality. So I took a picture I found off of the internet and decided to recreate it through a pencil drawing.



Took me about five days to get everything just right, and I found myself rushing just to meet my personal deadline. But I'm happy with how it turned out.

On the topic of cats, my favorite subjects ended up being wildlife. So, it figures that my next piece be something around that topic.

Work-In-Progress:


Reference:


Any advice or feedback would be welcome. I'm still trying to find a good way to color in the bird a little more, so any help on that topic would be nice.

Also, while I'm not exactly taking commissions, leave a picture you would like to have me draw and I'll try to do it. Especially since the most trouble I have is with the human anatomy.

All very nice! I don't really have any critique that goes beyond sheer nitpicking, you have a real nack in your shading ability.
As for the bird, I see your picture is exercising use of yellow and red mostly, So giving the tips of the feathers a gradually increasing red coloring (light at the top then darker towards the bottom or vice-versa) might be a cool idea, but that's my taste, gradients are cool.
I'm not really anything special myself, so take it worth a grain of salt, but Thumbs up.

wow. I've been practicing for months and I still can't draw for crap. evidently my mids to cyncical or mathmatic or something :P.

your art is great

You definitely have an artist's eye and your work is speaking for itself right now. I especially like the cat and the bird is gorgeous.

For the geometric shape shading, don't forget about your reflected light. For instance, on the ball it wouldn't just gradate all the way to the darkest possible, it'll lighten up again some at the bottom from the light from your light source bounced back to the object from the surface its on.

For your kitty kitty, she's looking just a little bit washed out. I'd like to see greater contrast. And for the dark area of her right eye, I can see all your pencilling directions. Try out using soft circles to lay in the shadow instead of back and forth so you don't get a hatching effect.

Great observation. =) The advice I was given in my drawing class is that if you're drawing something that is machine-made and non-organic, to use a straight-edge or a ruler. The height lines on the cylinder and some of the edges of your cube aren't completely parallel.

Thank you all for providing feedback! I understand that I've got a long journey ahead of me and I'm thankful for the advice I received.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wassy For the geometric shape shading, don't forget about your reflected light. For instance, on the ball it wouldn't just gradate all the way to the darkest possible, it'll lighten up again some at the bottom from the light from your light source bounced back to the object from the surface its on.

Very good point.

The dramatic shading was part of the requirements I was given. I was asked to go from one extreme to the other, giving extra attention to where the light wasn't hitting. The exclusion of surfaces underneath the objects were also intentional, but it's something I could go back and retry.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bayani Great observation. =) The advice I was given in my drawing class is that if you're drawing something that is machine-made and non-organic, to use a straight-edge or a ruler. The height lines on the cylinder and some of the edges of your cube aren't completely parallel.

You're right, and I was aware. Part of the my problem was that the outlines of the objects weren't really mine. I drew them of course, but I was given the generic shapes as starting point. I had a friend - who's an art student herself, although she's much better then I am - helping me to review the basics of art. Started out real easy by presenting a cut out of the shapes I had to fill in. I know, I know, I cheated!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wassy For your kitty kitty, she's looking just a little bit washed out.

Would you mind explaining: Washed out? I'm still new to these terms.