Paper.dragonflies wrote:Alright, I'm a bit rusty with critique so bear with me here.
I'd like to start off by saying I really like your artwork, you totally nail that anime-esque style!
I'm mainly going to be using this piece as an example.
1. You've got some pretty good color theory going on with your shading, but there are a few areas where it could be improved upon.
The yellow on the shirt is shaded with a darker, more saturated, and more orange color. This is great! An excellent display of color theory. However, in the places where you have used highlights they are done with solid or transparent white (I.e the stockings and the skin) It can work quite nicely in some places, especially like what you've done with the eyes! but although it's not a necessity, adding more diverse highlights can really, truly make all the difference. I think the drawing above would pop even more if you added a lighter color to the yellows!
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As you can see, highlights can make a piece of artwork pop, and oftentimes all you have to do is reverse the process you use to get a shading color!
2. Next up I'm going to talk a little bit about some of the proportions and anatomy. Overall, they're pretty solid and proportions can be suggestive but I notice the feet on this piece specifically are short, especially if compared to the hands! I'd recommend essentially stretching them out so that they're a bit longer and more proportionate to everything else.
3. You seem to draw the cheek bone bump(?) a bit low for the mouth placement. Where the head is facing can affect this a lot!
Straight ahead: The mouth and cheekbone are relatively equal
Looking up: The cheekbone is somewhat below the mouth
Looking down: The mouth is somewhat below the cheekbone
Here's a good reference of this!
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4. Now as for the hair, I notice some of the tufts are a bit too thick for that flowy anime style you're going for! I recommend breaking them up into smaller sections or making them thinner. :>
5. And this is my last piece of advice but perhaps it's a minor detail! The way you drew the ears here goes against ear canal anatomy for both animals and humans! The ears always kinda connect to the side of the head. This tutorial here puts it into words better than I can!
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Whew, hopefully I was able to give you some helpful advice here! It was a lot of fun examining your artwork and finding where it could be improved upon. :>
I've also drawn up a redline for the last two points to give you a better idea. ^^
★★★★★★★★ 8 stars! Woooh, I actually liked a lot of stuff here that I will find useful! :D
First off, love the visuals for for shading! I know I've seen that reference before, but it's still nice to look back on stuff. I also agree on testing out different colors for highlighting, since white isn't the most natural highlight unless something is really pale-colored. (Btw the skin isn't actually highlighted, the base is completely white ///w/// I just slathered it with a bunch of shading).
I've also been trying to get better at anatomy, so I'm glad it's shown! Obviously still need to work on hands and feet since those are where all the itty-bitty-gritty stuff is (fingers & toes along with just proportions in general) so I'll make sure to pay more attention to those next time.
And alas, the head pretty much my worse enemy next to hands and feet. I always thought the problem was that I make them too pointy, but it could also be because I place the cheeks far too low. Fixing this particularly could solve the problem, so I'll be sure to test this out!
As for the ears, I actually just don't like the appearance of how the anatomically correct one looks .v. Realistically, yeah there'd be a lot of problems if such a thing existed, but I just don't find them as appealing. Besides, if I decided to make the ears anatomically correct I would move her horn far closer to the center of her forehead as well as no loved creature has a horn right at the top of their head. I might decide to make the base of the ears bigger or my fluffy at the base anyway since they're kinda thin anyway.
Overall I liked this! It's all definitely useful and I'll be sure to start practicing right away!
Also, feel free to send me a reference! (btw by bust I meant half body but I'm dumb and only just realized that the bust is only the shoulders up, whoops-)
