[KingDiesel]

so this is a thing I made, deer dragon thing with gills and little glowy antennae things. . .

whatchya think?

I decided to make this as an experiment with shading/lighting/perspective, and I t hought it'd be a good idea to draw a little creature stalking my sketchbooks.

I might give him a story, but for now, I'm simply calling him Florous beast, being counterpart to a rather freaky looking wolf, a scapegoat, framed as a monster for simply having to balance his life, and for said wolf, Faunous beast to be able to provide for carnivores. the world is now painted in black and white in the animals' perspectives, seeing Florous as an almighty savior, rather than a stubborn stick in the mud, and Faunous to be the terrible monster that causes death merely by walking.

In reality though, the world is really a bunch of greys, but the animals are simply too foolish to understand that, thus starting a war with eachother; territories are a VERY precious thing, and if an animal owns any territory, they have to take care of it like their own offspring.

since this was an experiment, although compliments are nice and wholesome, I'd really like some critique on anything, so I can further improve. thank you for reading, and thank you even more for any critique you have to offer; I really appreciate it!

[KingDiesel]

casually bumps only minutes after posting

[KingDiesel]

bump again-

[KingDiesel]

I'm bumping this for a reason I just really want some critique on this h-

[KingDiesel]

letter h

[KingDiesel]

please critique-

[KingDiesel]

I'm not sure if I'm spamming or not, but here's a bump from the future as a request for

C R I T I S I S M

[gardog]

You asked for criticism, so here's criticism. I will not apologize for how long it is.
Criticism:
Let's do this in parts
--------------------------
Part 1- The Creature:
In my opinion, this is a well-drawn creature, but we're not here for opinion are we? Let's start with the antlers. The placing of the back antler doesn't make sense; if the front antler is behind it's left ear and if the little bump that the back antler is behind is supposed to be part of the right ear, then that back antler is just floating behind it's right ear... unless this creature has some sort of alien powers that allow that to happen, that's not where the back antler is supposed to be (but I also understand that antlers are very hard to draw, so kudos to you for even attempting antlers). The antennae seem to be in okay placement, so we'll skip those. The body and head of the creature in general make sense in regard to placement (there's not a lot of rules you can break when making your own creature, just have an explanation for everything that seems off, basically). I will mention that the creature seems to be floating a little bit on the front end. Unless this is a hill (or unless it can fly), it might need to get that checked out.

Part 2- The Environment:
The creature seems to be hanging on a hill... like on the side of a hill... unless that's supposed to be a smaller hill next to a bigger hill, that creature should either be tilting or holding on for dear life (again, very hard to draw, so we'll move on). As for the trees, the placement of the trees and what they are supposed to look like is confusing. Are they supposed to be branchless? Also, the way they are placed, it looks like the creature is walking through a circle of trees (one, creepy; two, I don't think that was your intention). At least the placement and variety of the rocks sort of make sense.

Part 3- Shadows and Lighting (making this it's own part to cut down on environment length):
According to your artwork, the sun is to the right of the creature. Even if there was another sun in front and above the creature, which is what would create the shadow you put down, the shadow placement does not make sense. Shadows are very tricky to place, but as long as you start a project with the knowledge of where the light is going to be at all times, they become easier. According to your drawing, the shadow should stretch from underneath and to the left of the creature. Also, where are the trees shadows? Or the shadows of the rocks? Just asking. As for lighting, it's the same process; keep in mind of where the light is going to be and coming from at all times.

Part 4- The Lore:
I have many questions, but I also know that this is a work-in-progress, so, I'll try to keep it to what I know so far. So, the Faunous beast (great name, by the way) represents the carnivores and their territory; and then Florous beast (again, great name... but it's also a word talking about plant-life, so... is the creature technically a walking plant?) represents the prey and their territory (do I have this right?). The Faunous beast is the "bad" guy, even though he's literally just trying to survive and the Florous beast, although also trying to survive, is put on the pedestal and the Faunous beast becomes the villain. I'm confused, but I am also kind of guessing, so I'll move on. I am very confused about the 'grey world' part. You probably came up with that after drawing this, so I'll keep that in mind, but does that mean that the world is actually grey or do the creatures just see everything in grey (literally) but the world itself is not actually grey but in color and they just have no idea. This is now more of a questionaire than a critique, so let's move on completely.

Part 5- Art Tips and Conclusion:
Tips section:
1. Before you start drawing, even if you are unsure what you are going to draw, place a dot where the sun is going to be and, if it's off-screen, place the dot in the general direction. Make the dot in a color that you are going to notice later (like red). If the drawing is going to be set at night, then put a dot where the moon is going to be.
2. Forests are especially hard to draw because figuring out the placement of trees is almost impossible. My suggestion for this, and literally anything else you might have trouble with, is to look up a reference and do not feel bad for doing it; even the most professional of artists end up using a reference at some point in their life.
3. Use many layers, not just one. More layers equals less of a chance of screwing up something and having to start all over (for Oekaki, what I do is immediately make a new layer so that the first layer that they give you becomes a layer to create an easy background behind your art piece; it just makes things so much easier in my opinion).
4. Tree roots and branches bring a forest to life and adding sticks and tinier rocks on the ground makes the background seem more believable.
Conclusion section:
This is a beautiful creature you have made and you asked for critique, so, here's a mile-long critique that I know you didn't expect. No one expects the mile-long critique.
Good luck in your art endeavors and have a good day/night.
-gardog
P.S. DISCLAIMER: I am not a qualified artist in any way, so you do not have to take this advice. Thank you for reading.

[KingDiesel]

You asked for criticism, so here's criticism. I will not apologize for how long it is.
Criticism:
Let's do this in parts
--------------------------
Part 1- The Creature:
In my opinion, this is a well-drawn creature, but we're not here for opinion are we? Let's start with the antlers. The placing of the back antler doesn't make sense; if the front antler is behind it's left ear and if the little bump that the back antler is behind is supposed to be part of the right ear, then that back antler is just floating behind it's right ear... unless this creature has some sort of alien powers that allow that to happen, that's not where the back antler is supposed to be (but I also understand that antlers are very hard to draw, so kudos to you for even attempting antlers). The antennae seem to be in okay placement, so we'll skip those. The body and head of the creature in general make sense in regard to placement (there's not a lot of rules you can break when making your own creature, just have an explanation for everything that seems off, basically). I will mention that the creature seems to be floating a little bit on the front end. Unless this is a hill (or unless it can fly), it might need to get that checked out.

Part 2- The Environment:
The creature seems to be hanging on a hill... like on the side of a hill... unless that's supposed to be a smaller hill next to a bigger hill, that creature should either be tilting or holding on for dear life (again, very hard to draw, so we'll move on). As for the trees, the placement of the trees and what they are supposed to look like is confusing. Are they supposed to be branchless? Also, the way they are placed, it looks like the creature is walking through a circle of trees (one, creepy; two, I don't think that was your intention). At least the placement and variety of the rocks sort of make sense.

Part 3- Shadows and Lighting (making this it's own part to cut down on environment length):
According to your artwork, the sun is to the right of the creature. Even if there was another sun in front and above the creature, which is what would create the shadow you put down, the shadow placement does not make sense. Shadows are very tricky to place, but as long as you start a project with the knowledge of where the light is going to be at all times, they become easier. According to your drawing, the shadow should stretch from underneath and to the left of the creature. Also, where are the trees shadows? Or the shadows of the rocks? Just asking. As for lighting, it's the same process; keep in mind of where the light is going to be and coming from at all times.

Part 4- The Lore:
I have many questions, but I also know that this is a work-in-progress, so, I'll try to keep it to what I know so far. So, the Faunous beast (great name, by the way) represents the carnivores and their territory; and then Florous beast (again, great name... but it's also a word talking about plant-life, so... is the creature technically a walking plant?) represents the prey and their territory (do I have this right?). The Faunous beast is the "bad" guy, even though he's literally just trying to survive and the Florous beast, although also trying to survive, is put on the pedestal and the Faunous beast becomes the villain. I'm confused, but I am also kind of guessing, so I'll move on. I am very confused about the 'grey world' part. You probably came up with that after drawing this, so I'll keep that in mind, but does that mean that the world is actually grey or do the creatures just see everything in grey (literally) but the world itself is not actually grey but in color and they just have no idea. This is now more of a questionaire than a critique, so let's move on completely.

Part 5- Art Tips and Conclusion:
Tips section:
1. Before you start drawing, even if you are unsure what you are going to draw, place a dot where the sun is going to be and, if it's off-screen, place the dot in the general direction. Make the dot in a color that you are going to notice later (like red). If the drawing is going to be set at night, then put a dot where the moon is going to be.
2. Forests are especially hard to draw because figuring out the placement of trees is almost impossible. My suggestion for this, and literally anything else you might have trouble with, is to look up a reference and do not feel bad for doing it; even the most professional of artists end up using a reference at some point in their life.
3. Use many layers, not just one. More layers equals less of a chance of screwing up something and having to start all over (for Oekaki, what I do is immediately make a new layer so that the first layer that they give you becomes a layer to create an easy background behind your art piece; it just makes things so much easier in my opinion).
4. Tree roots and branches bring a forest to life and adding sticks and tinier rocks on the ground makes the background seem more believable.
Conclusion section:
This is a beautiful creature you have made and you asked for critique, so, here's a mile-long critique that I know you didn't expect. No one expects the mile-long critique.
Good luck in your art endeavors and have a good day/night.
-gardog
P.S. DISCLAIMER: I am not a qualified artist in any way, so you do not have to take this advice. Thank you for reading.

Hello! I'm sorry for the late reply, I honestly didn't expect any critique at all because of how much bumping I did!
Anyways, allow me to start; I can definitely see the problem with the antlers, as they look awkward, and I didn't use a reference for this; I will say that the back antler is actually in an antler socket, where some skin is vertically winding around the base of the antlers. However, because of how I elongated this skin, it sort of looks like the base of the ear.
The ground was actually supposed to be the camera being at a semi bird's eye view, maknig the ground look a bit like a circle, but I will admit, it looks like he is standing perfectly fine n the side of a hill.

now the trees . . . honestly the trees look like they were purposely planted that way even though the whole point of the background is that it's a natural forest erhftjdtjtrdgnnn
I honestly agree on how the trees look unnatural let alone on placement.



As for shadows, I get it. The shadow under him would stretch out under him, more towards the viewer, right?
And. . . honestly. The trees in the background and the rocks are in desperate need of shading. . .
And for the lighting, like on the glowy antennae on his tail, a shadow on the leg could do, being in the opposite direction.


For the lore, I can answer a few of your questions here; yes, Faunous repesents carnivores, and Florous isn't necessarily a plant, but is "inspired" off one with the luminescent markings. as for the "grey world part," the world isn't literally grey, but rather metaphorically; black and white would mean that things commonly renouned as prey animals, (deer, birds rabbits etc) obviously hate carnivores, but for reasons such as thinking they are bloodthirsty monsters that want nothing more than to murder for satisfaction, not understanding that carnivores are merely trying to keep themselves alive. carnivores equally fear prey animals aswell, for hating carnivores, taking the lengths of actually trying to kill them. carnivores believe this is an act of revenge, but in reality, it's more of a matter of defense for prey animals. it circles around in what animals believe is a matter of right or wrong, but no one's really a "monster," or a "hero," but simply just a bunch of creatures trying to protect their lives.


and for your finished critique, I'll definitely try the dot thing. I've kind of been looking for ways to improve at lighting, so I appreciate your advice on that! and. . . I'll look up a reference! It's not often I do, but I think I should; and as for layers. . . I think I should use more than less than 10 erfdzsgfhfdhg
and for the forest floor, I think I should add foresty details.

thank you very much!