NDA Art Critique Message Boards

This is a WIP of a few of my OCs for a story I'm still writing. Zach, Liberty and I.V. Not sure how long it's going to take me to finish, but I figured while I was working on it I'd post up occasional progress pics here. ;)

Who knows, it may even become my very first finished image that I'm happy with. Also, if any of you guys are into DeviantArt at all, there is an excellent new group on there called SeriousArtists. You should check it out if you are seriously interested in improving your art (and can handle honest critique).

Anyways, the pic. Sorry, it's a link to where I posted it on DA. I know clicking links can be annoying sometimes. :P

http://valthecon.deviantart.com/#/d4cwd7t

You're on DA? Sweet! Oh, and I agree about SeriousArtists! It is an awesome group for people who are driven to become better and can handle some hard critique (if you can't, you probably don't want to join it).

I think it looks great. I can say you draw better humans than I, so... XD Although, I think I'm having trouble with the little guy's pose. I have not idea how to fix it though

I've been playing around with I.V.'s pose for a little bit now because the way I had the legs positioned was getting really frustrating. xD I'm basing his basic anatomy off of an infant, so his body is going to be oddly proportioned overall. The reason behind him being designed this way will be, sad to say, saved for later when he's coming closer to completion. :P

Anyway, his new position is him just sitting on the floor with his legs right out in front of him and staring at us. I'm mostly drawing his body just for overall practice, because his whole body except for his face and hands are covered with a heavy cloak anyway so he just kind of looks like a lump with a face and hands. :P

The original sketch was only, like,1 inch big, so I'm actually quite surprised the little thing turned out as decent as it did.

So, I'm back to work. ;P

Edit: I have some very grandiose plans for this piece, so even though I said otherwise in my comments on DA, it probably will take about as long as I said in the description. For every stage of the piece there is a whole new stage of learning. Not only am I starting out new with a tablet that keeps acting up, but I've never seriously used GIMP before. I have to study hands, faces, hair, fire, clothing styles, fabric, plus I don't even have a good understanding of light and shadow. So yeah, this is going to be a big project for me. xD

I was considering posting the above in the comments on DA, but thought better of it. Looks too much like an excuse when put next to the critique. :P (It's not one though.)

Edit2: Dangit, this happens every time. Accidentally saved the file as a jpeg so all my layers are gone. Ah well, it's a good thing I saved it when everyone was visible so I didn't have to re-do everything. xD I'll post the update here in a minute as a new post. It'll show up on DA tomorrow...maybe. I may just save DA for the multiple progress reports and let NDA have the special privilege of seeing current updates.

There...now it's time to spend the next couple of days studying human anatomy. Whee!

Edit: Just realized the way I sketched out I.V. has him sitting right on Zach's left foot. Sort of awkward so I'll have to fix that.
As for how scribbly and chaotic the lines look, I'm working on that. I'm having a hard time getting used to this tablet. Of course, the clarity of my pencil lines need work too, so the tablet isn't really the entire problem.

I think it looks really good actually! I think if you just make the little guy come forward a little more, he won't be on the guys foot.

Thanks Hydra! Yeah, I'm actually planning on re-drawing this on separate layers again once my studies are done. I want to draw the three of them as separate pictures because I would like each character to be used as their own separate reference sheet when it's done. :P

I did absolutely no anatomy studying yesterday. -.- I get distracted so easily. Ended up watching TV re-runs all night. :/
So, today I will do the opposite and draw, draw, draw. ^^

Interested to see this finished. I hope you don't mind if I make a couple of suggestions: I think the feet of the two standing characters need to be bigger and their arms shorter. On the left character, if the fingers were extended he'd almost be reaching his knee!

Keep it up!

Wow, I didn't even notice that with his arms! You are so right. xD When I do the quick paint-over later I'll be sure to fix that. And I have to agree about their feet too. I always have a terrible habit of giving my people small feet. :P

(edit) Agh, laptop crashed again. I am getting so sick of this thing. xD Oh well, I'll just consider the work I did before it crashed a practice run.
(another edit) I love critique! Pile it on! Be honest!

My laptop crashed yet again. I think it's about time for a new one. But yeah, enough of my complaining. ;P



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I'm far from satisfied with Liberty's outfit color scheme, because it looks like he's wearing some sort of woolen pajamas or something. I originally pictured his outfit in white with blue and silver accenting, but for some reason switched over to grey. I will be switching back to white later. Feet are still too small, but it's midnight and I'm getting tired so I'm going to call it a night.

I dunno. I'm beginning to think I chose too grand of a subject to use as my first digital piece, especially line-less too. There has got to be an easier and less time-consuming way to do this. Also, hand positions are temporary. They look too weird right now.

Maybe the drawing is too big? I have it at 2000x3200pixels.

Oh! And he is going to get some shoes, I just haven't been able to imagine any yet that would go with the outfit. xD Any suggestions would be lovely.

EDIT: Following the suggestions of my fellow SeriousArtists on DA, I am going to take a break from this for a while to study the basics of drawing. Only when I understand the basics can I really improve to the level that I want to. But do not fear! As I study these basics of light and shadow and movement and form (and line clarity ;p), I will occasionally practice my newly learned information on this piece. In the meantime, I am banning myself from the internet because I find it to be too much of a distraction. Wish me luck! (Actually, willpower, patience and determination might be a better thing to wish for in this case)