Mini Art Post

[celarania]

I've been taking a few art requests on an art site for gift sketches. I've been having fun with them. I've been pushing them a little more, and I've been working from my head more. Again, in large part to help me realize what I don't know. It also gives me a chance to play with different character designs.

Comments

[stormslegacy]

I like the second one, I think it has some potential. I like the pose of the legs despite the issues--not that coloring should be *used* to hide flaws, I'd be willing to bet they'd look fairly natural colored provided you indicated something of the other foot--it kinda disappears there. I think her right thigh may be a touch too flat as well, since there should be some volume there to show foreshortening. The body looks pretty good =) You're right about the head--it doesn't fit the rest, almost like it was added as an afterthought. You kinda lost the gesture that the rest of the pose conveys--that and the proportions on the face are off--the eye furthest is a touch too high (same mistake I always make =P)

I like the stylization in the first one, it's cute, consistent and doesn't rely on exactly average proportions. Again, furthest eye from the viewer is a little high. I do think that a reference for hanging things may have helped it read better--it took me a bit of staring at it to figure it out. Part of it is the angle, part of it is the spine of the character--for someone who looks so loose he would have to be quite tense to hold his upper body up in any fashion. The body is also twisted funny.

For quickie gift sketches they're both pretty nice =) I will say--I've found with my own work that it's better to have twinning than a stiff-unnatural pose. Many natural poses have the body symmetrical, so don't make *too* much an effort to avoid it, provided you are aware what you are doing and not just being lazy!

[celarania]

The girl's head, I knew the pose was off, but I redrew it at least once, I think several times, before deciding it needed to be done, right or wrong, and moving on. I had issues I think in part because a line of action tends to push the head really far in one direction and I haven't learned how to deal with that yet.

I knew the guy's pose wasn't entirely natural, but I was also going for a more comedic effect on him. I don't think it would have been quite as funny if I had his back convex instead of concave because then the viewer couldn't see his face as well. Reference definitely would have helped, but that's part of how I was challenging myself.

I'm really glad that they both have merits despite their flaws! I was really pushing outside my comfort zone, so it's nice to know that there were some things I hit well. In the guy I was pushing for caricature and humor, with avoiding too much twinning in his legs in particular. In the girl, I was more comfortable with her proportions so I tried to get the body right (her face I was less comfortable with). While there are definitely so issues with both, I'm really glad that they each have some stronger aspects too.

The whole exercise was a little embarrassing, just because I can see my flaws really really clearly. I just have to remember that I am working at a subpar level and I don't suck as much as I feel like I do!

[stormslegacy]

Oh yea, I totally get the subpar thing--I try to limit myself to mo more than a half-hour on freebies, and also take shortcuts--scribble backgrounds are my friend >.>. My quick human face sketches shame me ._.

You did nail the caricature-cartoony style, and I like that he has some character to him. I agree, the legs do look good =)

You may have already done this, but a good challenge to try to learn without reference might be the type of gesture drawing where you observe something and mentally draw it (a pic works well), wait 5 minutes/go do something else and then try to recreate the pose on paper from memory. I've found it really forced me to think about the parts and how they fit together, and also to build a mental library to later work from.

[celarania]

Yeah, these were probably around a half hour. I'm really glad that I'm not the only one ending up with embarrassing art when not going 100% all out. I still feel bad that freebies aren't my best efforts, but I need to keep my sanity. ;) Freebies aren't paid work and I need to remind myself of that.

That's a neat exercise. I'll fiddle around with it. :) I'm also going to take what I messed up on on these and work on that too.