Thanks - More advice please!

Comments

• Li_Akahi

  April 2009 edited April 2009

  What kind of style are you going for? Realistic or a more stylized, cartoony style? If you are going for a realistic style, the hands and lips are incredibly over sized and you should add more information to the face. I would also tone down the size of the eyes a little bit, but that is just me. If you are trying to do a more cartoony style, you need to know your proportions very well. You need to understand what you are working with before you can truly play with it.

  Post edited by Li_Akahi on April 2009
• gomidog

  April 2009

  A marked improvement, I would say! The faces are much better, I think. The girl in the first picture has a rather large forearm, but you have definitely been practicing. A question: Do you block out the pose skeleton before you draw the detail?
• Funfetus

  April 2009

  Glad you're working through the Loomis books -- those will give you almost everything you need to know. Like I said in the other thread, your stuff is getting more structural -- more 3-dimensional. Like Gomi said, the arm on the first one is much too big. Also, the inside line of the bicep overlaps the forearm -- it would work better if the inside line of the forearm overlapped the bicep. Overlapping lines is one of the most important ways to suggest form when you're working with simple line drawings. You seem to have done it well everywhere else on the drawing.
• Sarai

  April 2009

  @Li_Akahi: I want them to look more cartoony - I just don't know where to draw the line between how much realistic "detail" to put in. Hee hee - I really didn't like the face in general!
  
  @gomidog and Funfetus: Well, i try to do a rough sketch... when I go for more detail, I actually try and build a skeleton as realistically as possible. Think I should be focusing more on that? I struggle with getting the perspective right, and it feels like if you get it wrong the first time, your mind almost learns to "see" it wrong and I only seem to notice at the very end. Do you know what I mean?
  
  Am having fun working through the books - I have actually shared with a few of my friends and they love them too
• Funfetus

  April 2009 edited April 2009

  I want them to look more cartoony - I just don't know where to draw the line between how much realistic "detail" to put in. Hee hee - I really didn't like the face in general!

  Keep in mind that there are (at least) two "dimensions" to cartooning -- simplification and exaggeration. For instance, compare this caricature by Sebastian Kruger, which is heavily exaggerated, but not really simplified:
  
  
  with this one by Moebius, which is heavily simplified, but sticks pretty closely to actual human proportions:
  
  
  Both are a type of cartoon, and most cartoons will fall somewhere in between these extremes. I think the way to find your style is just to do a hell of a lot of drawing. But however you choose to draw, a solid understanding of fundamentals like anatomy and proportion are essential.

  Well, i try to do a rough sketch... when I go for more detail, I actually try and build a skeleton as realistically as possible. Think I should be focusing more on that? I struggle with getting the perspective right, and it feels like if you get it wrong the first time, your mind almost learns to "see" it wrong and I only seem to notice at the very end. Do you know what I mean?

  I also build up a "skeleton", but it's a somewhat simplified skeleton -- you certainly don't need to be drawing every rib or anything! A block for the pelvis, and egg for the ribs, and a sphere for the cranium are good enough. Some people treat the torso as a large block, but I like to break it down into the ribcage, collarbones, and shoulder blades. Now, I don't ALWAYS draw a full skeleton -- when you've been doing this long enough, you can kind of visualize a lot of this stuff without having to work it all out. But with any tricky pose, or awkward angle, I still have to work out a full skeleton. Here's an example of the type of skeleton I usually use:
  
  
  A REALLY great site for learning anatomy, and I've found it particularly useful for learning about the skeleton, is VisibleBody.com. You can really get in there and see how everything connects. I feel like I leveled up my anatomy skills after only spending a few hours there.
  
  You also mention perspective -- I think perspective is very underrated by a lot of beginning artists, who tend to think it's only for drawing buildings and cars and whatnot. Drawing ANYTHING is all about perspective. It's all about being able to build a 3-dimensional shape on a 2-d surface. Everything else is just understanding what you're trying to build. Loomis' Creative Illustration has a great chapter on perspective which should teach you just about everything you need to know.
  
  Glad you and your friends are enjoying the books.

  Post edited by Funfetus on April 2009