The Artist Army

[Stonefly]

@Salem - It looks great so far, I would be interested in seeing the finished piece. The only thing I can suggest is maybe adding some type of slobber connected to the teeth and flying off?

I've started drawing some of my human characters and I started this sketch and I really like how it turned out and start lining it..but I got to the hands and arms and well I am stumped. I want the non drawn hand to be holding a smoke and the other just hanging off a ledge thing? I've tried a few positions for the hand with the smoke but I cant seem to get something that looks slightly correct..any kind of help would be great! I also forgot the thumb on the other hand..My bad.
link

[misted]

Hey >,< I finally found this thread it took me forever and I had to ask someone where to find it. ;-;

Anyway, currently i'm working on a chibi and i'm thinking of doing commissions for them on DA, could you take a look? The 1st one won't be up for a while because I just finished the basic sketch, but yeah my DA is puggitypug <3

edit; today I looked at my 1 Oekaki drawing
I cried

why was it so bad
how was I not capable of drawing even slightly good lol

[honeydont]

Which artist(s) influenced your art style the most?

haha definitely kazuki takahasi. i was super into yugioh as a kid and his art style (especially in the early manga) really influenced how i draw my eyes and expressions. these days i also look up to jim aparo, tom mandrake, and marie severns!

If you had the opportunity, what kind of professional (specific) art career would you want to pursue?

honestly my dream career is like, a comic book historian or archivist

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@amberwonder that's a pretty good start! guys have always been trickier for me to draw too ha

if you really want to improve drawing guys looking at men's anatomy is the best way to do it! here's a link to senshistock's male stock (they're gr8 pose refs i use them all the time)

some stuff to keep in mind is that men generally
-are taller
-have wider shoulders & narrower hips
-have thicker necks, a visible adams apple & stronger jawlines
-the curve of their outside thigh is straighter than a woman's (women usually have more cury legs bc of the way their hips are slanted)

keep it up you're doing great so far!

___

@jadatato there's two key steps here: promote yourself on every social media site you can think of, and persevere. a lack of followers can be disheartening but remember first and foremost you should create for you! if you enjoy making your comic than that's the most important thing (also you should shoot me a link i'd love to check it out)

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@paluumin ahh yes art college

it was the same for me when i first went into college tbh (i'm majoring in comic art)

the reason why a lot of colleges tend to dislike anime-style is bc it generally isn't firmly rooted in proper anatomy. that doesn't mean it can't be. taking figure drawing classes is enormously helpful and i highly encourage you to enroll in some if you can. the thing is, they'll help improve your style a lot! you absolutely don't have to give up your anime style - most likely what's going to happen is that it's going to grow and believe me, you'll be happy with the change!

here's some of the more realistic stuff i did in my figure drawing classes (x x) and here's some of my more stylized art (x x)! those classes helped me so much

i would highly encourage you to keep experimenting with your style! it's something i wish i had done a lot earlier than i did

overall i would say yes, absolutely do apply for that college. and if you find your art style developing into something else, go with it. it's ok

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@.Salem. it looks great so far! the teeth especially are fantastic. the only thing i'd say is that the texture of the teeth & fur reads the same; maybe try adding more to the fur so it feels more realistic?

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@stonefly i like it a lot! have you looked up reference pics of people smoking? that will really help you nail that hand

it might also help if you moved that arm further away from the body and angeled it out a little more, bc as is it's reading a little stiff

___

whew boy i drew this a while ago and didn't get a lot of feedback but i still rly like it so



i'm also working on a comic for an anthology so if anyone wants to check out the first page & comment that'd be great!

[~Jaded]

*slides in*
I didn't think I would be much help since I'm only a first year illustration student but I see the last post was Flash related and I actually do quit a lot of Flash work. I post some of it on my Instagram (@xmissmermaid) and I have some on my shop as well. Just fyi, I draw eye trauma and studies of corpses just incase that's triggering to you. Anyways.... Feel free to pm me if you need art hello and I'll be glad to help in any way I know how.

Questions~

Which artist(s) influenced your art style the most?
Leonardo Da Vinci, Jim Lee, Lucas David, Michael Humpries

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 want to be a character designer for Dc or Nintendo. I'm double majoring in fashion and illustration so I'm able to work on live action and animation. Pm me if you need work done, lol.


~
@corrigan,
You're off to a very nice start! The motion, perspective, and composition are on the right track! I'd just say to keep drawing scenes with multiple characters in different settings and posss to perfect anatomy and perspective. Your background is on the right track too. You've got the lightest color in the back to show distance and if you were to add trees/buildings in darker shades building up to the darkest background shade, you get more of a sense of depth. Also, try to refrain from adding a background shade to the foreground because it pulls everything in the foreground back/makes it look flatter. You're doing very well so far! I hope this makes sense/helps. Keep up the good work.



~
This is my latest painting. I have no idea how to work with acrylic/I have no idea if the proportions are correct.

IMG_20160812_234230.jpg (224.52 KiB) Viewed 171 times

He's a character from the Fire Emblem series. This special boy (but sorcerer class instead of swordmaster)

images (1).jpg (7.93 KiB) Viewed 171 times

[nimuulap]

ahhh firstly, thank you to everyone's opinions and support on the "whether I should try for that animation program" topic /////A///// after reading them all, I've decided that it will be my main goal for now and I will surely take figure drawing classes //once I'm old enough :')
thank you to everyone who gave their input! ;7; I've been drawing cartoon, anime and realism recently just to get the hang of shapes and the basics of other art styles while still keeping my anime style ( ' v ' )b

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ahhh I don't know if I have enough time to write a long post but I'll help where I can help ;v; Everyone's art looks amazing though! ;o;

@Stonefly
it looks really nice so far! I love the idea you have going on there and to be honest, don't worry, I have trouble with the hands and the arm proportions the most as well :') It went from 5 minute sketches to 1 hour sketches just trying to fix my anatomy mistakes OTL My advice for you is to fix your own sketches a million times before doing the line art because that's what I do and that's an advice an artist once told me ;v; Make your sketch as messy as possible and work your way up to clean things up. I usually have maybe 2 to 7 sketch layers just erasing and editing the original rough sketch. It also helps to draw rough shapes that you see in the picture you want to draw (e.g. circles, triangles, trapezoids, rectangles, etc.)

so the red is my rough scribbles and that's what I always start off with when I draw. Really messy, just simple shapes I see. The black is like the refined shapes and details, like putting all the shapes together to make it look like the picture ( ' v ' )b
For your situation, drawing out where you want the platform (?) to be would be helpful and so would drawing hand shapes. It took me quite a while to learn how to draw decent hands and it was never easy :') But now whenever I have trouble drawing hands, I break it down into shapes. This takes a while to get used to so a good practice would be taking pictures of your own hand in different positions and drawing out the shapes you see then outlining them. It's something I do in my spare time //strangely// and it helps a lot ( * 0 * )9
I also follow @xxxmamekoxxx on instagram and at the time she posted a lot of her characters who smoke. After constantly seeing the similar hand shapes and her amazing hand-drawing skills, I got used to seeing those shapes in hands and what position hands are positioned given the situations/context. That's where I got the hand position idea for your picture ;v; Of course, you don't need to use it but that's how I usually draw people holding cigarettes and it's an easy hand position for me to draw.
Hope this helped ;v;

-----------------------------

@Lotus Petal
It's always a good feeling to see that you've improved *q* I keep finding some old drawings I drew a year ago and I cringe at them all but at the same time it feels accomplishing to know that you've improved with all this hard workd ( ' v ' )9
While it's good to keep drawing and start taking commissions, it's probably best to first start them on CS in my opinion. From personal experience, selling commissions on dA can be quite competitive and challenging at times, especially with all those professional artists selling their art and those with more "fame" tend to get more customers. I started off by taking commissions on CS and I still do today. I feel like CS is easy and not as competitive in a way because my art was not the best back when I first opened but people still bought them. If I had started taking commissions on deviantart right away, I would have been very discouraged because no one would have wanted to commission me. CS is like a practice almost, getting you prepared for the big stage in my opinion ;v; After getting your name known across CS and improving your art and not to mention getting used to how this commission system works, that's when you should open commissions on deviantart. You'll feel a lot more confident and even if dA commissions don't succeed, there's always CS commissions ;7;
I think opening CS commissions really helped me adapt to the responsibilities as an artist who draws for people. It really helps you as a person, increases your courage with each customer and let alone, you're improving your skills with every drawing *0*

My first commission from my current art shop was done maybe 2 years ago for Somber Cheza

look at that old art :') I was still a fetus back then
and now up to my somewhat recent commission two years later for gold:


I think it wasn't really dA commissions that changed me, but really the CS community and all the customers I have served here :') I don't think I could have been successful in other art websites without CS so personally, I think CS commissions is a good start while dA is more for those who are experienced (because there might be a lack of customers and that might lead to discouragement and insecurity like I have seen in the past)

[misted]

^^ that is so sweet and I can't ;v;

edit;
so, this is my proper style:

(a new doodle I did a few minutes ago ^^)

do you think digitalized it would be good for commissions? because rn i'm setting it up with a different cute style that I find easy to do on the computer. I could do both? Idk what do you guys think of my main style?

[Anathomy]

This is such an amazing thread, i love it, even though i am pretty new.
I am definitly hoping to improve my art, so hopefully this will be a good place

@~jaded
Your painting looks incredible, i love your different colored uses as shadows, its really
instresting and the clothes/suits looks amazing

But i have a question for anyone who has any knowledge on drawing horses
Do you know any good tips or tutorials on how to draw sabino horse markings, hopefully on Sai
I am really struggling at the moment, and it comes off as patchy rather than ''airy and fluffy'' i guess.
I am looking for tutorials on how to draw these kind of markings A andB

[satuurnity]

I hope it's okay to bring this back from the dead?
Anyway, I'm currently working on my pixel art and am really
struggling to make it look good. I would say my anatomy is
okay-ish, but my art isn't very stylised and for the life of me
I can't figure out how to make a smooth animation. Does
anyone have any tips? This is the best animation I've done
but ideally I'd like it to bounce - ideas?
Thanks! xx

[song&storm]

I hope it's okay to bring this back from the dead?
Anyway, I'm currently working on my pixel art and am really
struggling to make it look good. I would say my anatomy is
okay-ish, but my art isn't very stylised and for the life of me
I can't figure out how to make a smooth animation. Does
anyone have any tips? This is the best animation I've done
but ideally I'd like it to bounce - ideas?
Thanks! xx

Hi!
I'm still also trying to study pixel art and animation myself, here are a few examples I made for my videogame: 1, 2, 3 4
I know these aren't the best or the most polished.
I have recently finished a quick an animation class at school, here are some tips that I think would help, if you haven't tried these yet!

- Study the principles of animation. I believe whether its 2D animation or Pixel animation or 3D animation, it's really essential to study these first.
I think that you already have this great style and a good understanding of anatomy, so no problems there. I think the most important to learn is the Squash and Stretch, Anticipation/Follow-Through, and the Secondary/Overlapping action principles.
Squash and Stretch simply means that your object or character's appearance changes as they move. A classic example is the bouncing ball animation (stretches as it goes up, squashes as it hits the floor) or try rewatching those old-timey exaggerated cartoons. Even if it's just a simple action like breathing or bobbing up and down, there is still some squashing and stretching involved.
Of course not every action has to be exaggerated, so it's good to play around and see what visually works best.
Anticipation is the action before the main action, and Follow-Through is the action after the main action. Try jumping - see what actions you would do before and after the jump itself. Bending knees, bending the arms, absorbing the impact of the fall, etc.
While Secondary action just means that there may be smaller actions complimenting the bigger action. Example, if your character is walking, their hair may bounce along with them, their arms would sway too. They would still be blinking as well, I think these little actions are the ones that give life to an animation.

I don't know if I explained it well, I'm sure there's someone else better qualified to teach/elaborate on these :s

I think for your animation, the pose looks a little awkward for me.
I would also suggest to do is add secondary actions. Try making them blink, and the hair would be moving too along with the movement of the head. Maybe the same effect can be achieved with lesser frames too. Try to study other's animations as well!
Your other pixel icons are fantastic though, I would suggest adding maybe a black outline around the pixel, or a darker outline inside to better differentiate the faces/legs/etc of the creatures.

It all really depends on the sort of style you want to achieve.
Good luck!

Anyway I want to share my own progress with my digital art. I'm really pleased with how everything is going so far!
The first drawing was made September 13 (was struggling to create lineart), while the second was just made yesterday.
X Y

[cswolf.]

Hello everyone,
Just popping in to say that I love everyone's art and I am currently working on my style as well. I may post some of my art later but for now I am just here to oooh and aaah at all the pretty art c:
@Lotus Petal: I love your cutesy art style <3
@~Jaded:: That painting is amazing <3 It looks good to me and the proportions look good as well. I do not do much realistic work though so I may be a bit off. I love the character you chose as well