The Artist Army

[EncyOf]

@reydiant
Which artist(s) influenced your art style the most?
Hm, probably Mary Doodles, Will Terrel, Jaltoid, and JaidenAnimations. They're all YouTubers.
As well as shows like Steven Universe, Fairy Tail, and *sighs* Panty & Stocking. Don't judge me plox ;n;
My best friends also seriously influenced my style.
Mostly I just took aspects of the face (eyes, chin shape, mouth shape) and body types.
I... Don't know where I got my habit of weighting the lines so much from, though.

If you had the opportunity, what kind of professional (specific) art career would you want to pursue? (freelance artist, storybook illustrator, animator, character designer, fashion designer, web designer... etc.)
I've always wanted to be an animator. But, so far, I have only achieved the humble GIF ^^;

[Solarizing]

@reydiant When I was younger I had an art teacher who sold art around the village but also offered individual lessons. I thought it was so cool how you could make a living mentoring other people in all different types of art. Later I moved and found another mentor, this time much younger, who did the same thing. I've always found it really cool and wanted to see if I could be an art teacher like that myself. I don't think I'd want to teach art at the high school or middle school level because you wouldn't get as personal of a connection with your students.

Which artist(s) influenced your art style the most?
Mostly other artists on the Internet, especially on sites like YouTube, deviantArt, and CS.

If you had the opportunity, what kind of professional (specific) art career would you want to pursue? (freelance artist, storybook illustrator, animator, character designer, fashion designer, web designer... etc.)
Probably freelance illustrator. It would be so cool to do an array of different things, like book covers or game art or personal commissions. Also I'm a huge writer and freelance illustration pairs well with the life of an author.

[Mr.Milo]

@Reydiant: Wow overall that looks great!! I'm horrible with pencil and even worse when it comes to drawing humans, so i can't give red lines or much critique. However, i can notice that these is some unevenness with the jaw lines, for example the right looks a tad sharper than the left. Not exactly sure but i feel like the eye on the right should be a bit more open considering she is raising her eye brow on that side. But like i said its really a great piece of work!!

Which artist(s) influenced your art style the most?
I had several artist that i kinda of became "apprentices" to i guess you could say. Each taught me something different but I tend to look at the styles of many realistic artist along with those who tend to put that realism into mythical creatures like dragons and such.

If you had the opportunity, what kind of professional (specific) art career would you want to pursue? (freelance artist, storybook illustrator, animator, character designer, fashion designer, web designer... etc.)
I would probably like to be an animator, i think making your drawings come to life is really cool and i would love to see my characters interacting on a screen!

[Hush]

Hi, I'm new to digital media so I'd post her for some advice/critique :3

I drew my oc's Myra and Laith

[amithea]

@Hush Those look great! I'm not the best at giving advice, but I can try to help with some skin tips. I feel like Myra's skin looks quite dull, but that might just be me.

- if you use a palette like the one on the left, the skin'll look kinda dead, because it lacks warmth and, ultimately, is a set of shades of the same colour. If you use a pallet like the one on the right, the skin'll look warmer and more natural. You can achieve this by instead of simply making a darker shade of the same colour, moving it closer to red as well.

I hope I explained this ok.

I'm looking for some help on drawing male torsos, if that's ok. It's not like I can just study my own body for it, like I can with females. I don't really want 'male torso' in my search history either.

There's this, if anyone would be willing to do a redline.

[Solarizing]

I have a question for y'all
I'm trying to release a webcomic in a couple of months, but the problem is, I don't have a big following at all! No matter what I do, I can't seem to get one! Does anyone have any advice on how to get more people liking your art more quickly?

@amber looks nice to me! i'm not too good at humans, so i cant redline it ):
@hush those drawings look great!

Frankly, the amount of people who follow you shouldn't be a goal or point of focus. Take this from an artist who had hundreds following her but then ignored social media and consequentially lost the followers. Only temporarily, though. Make serious art, put your heart into it, and then it doesn't matter if you post it on Tumblr or Instagram or what. People will find good art. People will latch to artists with character and a good workflow. Your art comes before your platform - always. Sacrifice the platform and your social networking if it is eating up your time and serenity for art, that's what I had to do.

But to answer your question, you'll be best off following other artists in your community and sharing content, be it a tutorial or free sketches or an advice blog or something. You have to give before you take.

Good luck though! ^_^

[nimuulap]

Hi, I'm new to digital media so I'd post her for some advice/critique :3

I drew my oc's Myra and Laith

I can only help with the human one for now OTL

overall, I like your general idea of the pose and the mood *v* Very nice and the face proportions are okay. So I'll only be giving advice on colouring rather than the actual "drawing" part ;7;

1. When colouring. remember to use all of the colour wheel *0* Just because the hair is red, doesn't mean you're going to stick strictly to that one red and shade with the same colour except darker. Use different colours to make it look alive! *7* Same thing with the skin, use orange to shade, use pink, use allll the colours *0* (I use purple sometimes). For the hair, use purple, orange, colours arounddd the red *0*

2. Try to avoid using airbrush all the time for shading ;v; Adding the concept of strands in your drawing is good, however perhaps use a brush instead? ;v; Maybe perhaps one with a more solid look idk :') Play around with the brushes in oekaki and see if there's something you like *7*

3. Indicating to yourself where the light source is coming from is a lot of help when colouring and shading *v* If you exaggerated the lighting (only shading the dark parts), it'll make the drawing look dramatic and alive *0*

Of course, these are only my opinions ;v; Your work looks great! Keep going! //sorry about the quick doodle don't have much time to draw more diagrams to help :')

also, you can find lip tutorials here

I'm looking for some help on drawing male torsos, if that's ok. It's not like I can just study my own body for it, like I can with females. I don't really want 'male torso' in my search history either.

There's this, if anyone would be willing to do a redline.

I've been trying to draw anime guys for as long as I can remember :') Still don't have the complete hang of it but here's some suggestions :')

1. Guys tend to have broader shoulders than females. Their torsos are generally less curvy and I like to think of it as almost as if it was made of two trapezoids combined (don't know if that makes sense :'))

2. If you're looking for something more "manly", then slimmer eyes and thicker necks are helpful '^' Rosel-D has a tutorial here on how facial features can change how "manly" a guy looks ;v;

I'm not the best at drawing guys, but hope this helps ;o; //watching Free! might help too because that's what I did *v*


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So recently, I decided I did want to go into art as a career and my friend introduced me to a college not far from where I live which offers an honours bachelor in animation. It sounded great at first, with the fact that jobs come looking for you as soon as you graduate and the high salaries at the big animation companies that hire students from that college (like Disney and Sony). It seemed rather nice and I made it my goal to go there and audition for the college.

However, I asked a friend of mine who's also interested and she said that they don't like anime styled art :'( She's an amazing anime artist as well, and she told me she gave up on her beautiful style for the sake of her dream to go to that college. She's also taking figure drawing classes to improve anatomy because that's one thing they really look for in the portoflio (where you submit some art of their description and they evaluate it)
After looking at some of the students' artworks, I realized that their style is really different from my style. I've never entirely liked the art style in cartoons, neither did I find them too inspiring (except for the exception of some disney and dreamworks movies). As much as I'd love to go to that college, I would have to change my style and possibly give up on my anime style :'(
I've always found anime more inspiring for me... so my question is:

Should I go for this art college or give up on it?
Would you give up your favourite art style that you've been working on for so long just for the internationally first best school for animation?

my friend said it would be worth it all in the end if we get into the college, but she's been dreaming of this ever since she was a child ;v; I just found out a few weeks ago. I also have a back up in case I don't get accepted; which is study bioinformatics... but that might just mean I give up on my art career entirely ;o;
I decided to try this "cartoon" art style too... //trying to develop a new style

It's rather easy to draw compared to anime *-* Not too many details needed and face proportions are supposed to be exaggerated to demonstrate the character's personality... //it's a bit too simple to what I'm used to :') which is why I can see people animate in this style a lot

Any responses are helpful <3


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Which artist(s) influenced your art style the most?
asdfjkl; there's so many *0* But I think the ones who influence me the most are all of them really <3 Especially artists like rainbronii, yuumei, rosuuri and rosel-d

If you had the opportunity, what kind of professional (specific) art career would you want to pursue? (freelance artist, storybook illustrator, animator, character designer, fashion designer, web designer... etc.)
I think I would actually choose freelance artist *0* drawing in my own style and for my own enjoyment just seems very free and relaxed. Animation requires a lot of work and anatomy skills (not to mention repetitive drawing), but seeing that it's the only art job I think I have a chance in and one that has a stable income, I think in the real world I would choose animator :') //but I still prefer freelance artist if money wasn't a problem

[song&storm]

@Paluumin
I'm in no way an expert?? I just kind of want to give advice in general.
I would say, yes.
I love your art style because it's vibrant and distinct. You already have an amazing understanding of concepts/elements of art like colors and shading and anatomy, which you incorporate into your drawings seemingly effortlessly.
But I've noticed that you don't have much artwork in different styles ;u; like realistic, cartoon, etc. which is totally okay, but in animation, being flexible and adaptive is key.
I'm sure you already know this, but in animation, there's going to be a lot of artists, each with their own personal styles, strengths and weaknesses. But somehow the set animation and style has to stay consistent throughout all the scenes.

You will really need to get out of your comfort zone. But isn't that always the thing in art? Always try new things, even if you think that you wouldn't like them or you would have a hard time with it.

I don't really see why you have to "give up" on your current art style. You can always go back to it in your personal time.
With your skill you can easily study/learn any sort of art style you want.
Just keep on experimenting until you find something that works for you. Personally I already like the female headshot for Hush that you posted. Of course if you're not happy with trying to do a new style, then maybe you can work something out with your current one.
Trying to develop a whole new art style takes a lot of patience and determination so I wish you the best!
Ultimately it's all your choice, do what you think is best for you, but I think it wouldn't hurt to get out of your comfort zone c: which goes for all artists.

Some tips?
- practice realistic art. Why don't you try some realistic portrait studies? My old art/animation professor worked at disney in her prime, and she has told us that clients look for realistic studies. It doesn't have to be your style, but I guess it shows off skill.
- practice other styles? There was like this challenge where you copy famous styles like disney style, adventure time style, your friend's style, even lego style, so idk it'd be fun to try that.
- try to animate in your style? Like a simple walk cycle or a scene or something?
- research! I'm sure you can find a lot of animation tips and guidelines that will help you a lot more.

Sorry if my words are a bit lacking hhaha it's early morning here and i'm only starting to eat breakfast, if you want to talk more then my PMs are open anytime <3
Good luck!

[Silverhart]

Should I go for this art college or give up on it?
Would you give up your favourite art style that you've been working on for so long just for the internationally first best school for animation?

Normally I just sort of browse through here without saying much, but I figured I'd offer a response.

Who says you have to give up your own style? You don't have to stop drawing what you love in the style you love in your freetime. This sounds like an awesome opportunity, and if you're passionate about it it's definitely worth the try. It's actually really good for artists, and especially animators to be able to adapt and work in a variety of styles. In fact it's pretty much a requirement for an animator to very adaptable to different styles, so if that's what you really want to do, you'll need to learn how to work in a variety of different ways. Don't think of it as 'giving up' a style - because you can't really give up your style. Style is something that's personal and unique to you. It's something that's constantly developing and changing. And learning new ways to work will improve it, not destroy it. Just because you switch into drawing realism doesn't mean you loose your ability to caricature. If you look at work animators do outside of cartooning you'll find all types of different styles - landscapes, impressionism, abstract, fine art, etc. You'll never lose an ability to work in a certain 'style' so long as you dedicate time to practice, and you'll often find that working in other ways, or emulating different styles helps you to improve as an artist overall.

So don't let it stop it. Instead, use it as an opportunity to grow and learn more styles of drawing and art. If you keep to the same style and never experiment outside of it, you'll never grow as an artist. I can personally recommend taking figure classes as well - they're amazingly helpful! I've been taking classes in figure drawing for years now, and I can definitely say it's only improved my 'style', and taught me many new ways in which I can express and improve that style. Now when I feel like drawing something cartoony the result feels much more solid because I have that foundation of knowing how light and shadow work, how to construct the body, how to show the anatomy and musculature. It still looks like my style and I still (usually) like the style it has. But I can also easily switch over and do a pretty good fine art drawing. So really, there's nothing that says you have to give up your style, just that you have to explore other styles - which is good advice for all artists.

[Sunniedew]

I mostly just stalk this thread but I thought I would post something I've been working on:

Can someone please tell me how I can make this better? It obviously isn't completely done but I'm not sure what I need to add to it ;v;