Time to get to work! I've been working on studying the hand and it's been really interesting. Let me know what you think.
Hey guys!
Long time no chat. I have been super busy, but I haven’t stopped drawing through the whole thing so no worries. I have been working on a new project, and I would love some feedback on how to make it better. Thanks!
Ok. So I received some feedback and reworked the concept. Here is what I have so far.
Progress report! I'm not satisfied with the face, front of the hair, or the way the hat sits on the head. It's getting there though.
aaddysonh I guess what I'm asking is what are you trying to communicate with these drawings? It looks like someone mildly enjoying sitting next to a stream in chillier weather.
Everything is overly blurry, which is okay; that can be corrected. The value range also feels quite limited. There are a lot of mid range values, but not a lot of darker values in the dress, hat, hair, etc.
Your face is also quite small compared to the hat and hair, which is also throwing off the rest of the proportions. The leg in the water is also longer than the leg curled under. That's okay, just double check in the future that the legs are the same length. The arm is actually pretty decent anatomy-wise. I suggest picking up some books on anatomy to help develop your understanding, like Figure Drawing for All It's Worth.
The colors could use some help from hue shifting to just make things pop more. It's a common beginner mindset to just make the base color darker or lighter, and that's okay, but that's not what is usually happening in nature. Take a look outside at different points of the day and really observe how the light interacts with the color of the grass, trees, the siding on your house. Are the shadows really black, or are they maybe a bit bluish? Are the tints really white, or are they yellowish from the sunshine? How do the colors change throughout the day? Color and Light is a great book that talks about this sort of stuff.
Anatomy and clothing go hand in hand since you need a firm understanding of anatomy to understand how clothing drapes over the forms. The dress is oversimplified, i.e. the clothing doesn't fold over the legs in a realistic way. Similar idea for hair, too. The hair feels like a straight tube, not strands of hair moving over and under each other. Hair also tends to taper at the ends a little bit because unless it was recently cut, the lengths of each hair will differ from daily wear and tear. References are your best friend.
The red is the anatomy outlined for better visibility, blue for the hair, and green for folds in the dress and how it would hang off the form.
I hope this doesn't discourage you; I know it's a lot of feedback. It's probably overwhelming and maybe you'll think creating art isn't worth it. I hope not because I wish I had someone to guide me when I was first drawing. Maybe I'd be better than I am today, but I can't change the past. I can, however, help guide others towards creating the best art they can today. Keep drawing and improving yourself. You got this.
silentheart00 Oh, ok. I understand. Thank you for your feedback. I appreciate it. I'll keep working on it. This picture is just an idea I've had and I wanted to develop it further. I figured that I would put it in my portfolio when I finished it so I definitely need it to be the best I can get it. I won't give up because I love being an artist and I appreciate and need the knowledge and guidance that people offer.
Ok. I wanted to focus on one piece at a time starting with the girl. I would love so feedback on her. I'm still working on the hair which is why it looks like so basic. Her foot is cut off in the back because of the composition of the piece. I'm thinking I will move her forward and shrink her down. I'm not sure.
aaddysonh Getting better! The face looks better, too. The back looks strange to me; the arc isn't quite right in respect to anatomy. There's the ribcage, which is rigid in this sense, a soft middle part that has your intestines, and then the rigid hip. The spine is also flexible and has an S-curve shape to it, so that should be reflected in the posture, as well. Again, one leg is shorter than the other for how the legs are angled. If the legs are together, the knee of the bent under leg needs to come out a little more. The pointed foot looks a little small, too, in relation to the rest of the body. Nice to see improvements to the braid, but maybe the taper is overexaggerated. Try making it a little more gradual, and there's still some thickness of hair at the end, so it doesn't disappear into nothing. God job on experimenting and finding limits, now refine it.
At the side I included an example of hue shifting and an example of value shifting. Which one is more interesting to you?
Overall, good improvement! Keep going!
silentheart00 Thanks! I will work some more on it. I was also told that I should shrink my focus even further and focus on just the head and then add the body later. I’m going to give that a try too. It will give me an opportunity to focus on that braid and refining the face even further. Back to the drawing board!
I think the value shifting interests m e the most. That is the braid on the right, correct?
aaddysonh Yeah, the braid on the right is value shifting. If you like that more, then alright, that's your preference. It would be worth experimenting with hue shifting because it tends to make things look a little more interesting and it reflects the natural world more realistically. If you just value shift, things tend to look dull or washed out. I also exaggerated the hue shifting, so something more subtle may work better. Experiment and find what works best for you.
silentheart00 Ok. Will do. Thanks. I'll experiment with both of those. It'll be good to understand the proper time and place to use them both. Like you said. I'll experiment.
New concept for Amaris! I have a really good feeling about this one. Any critiques would be great. I haven't decided on the background yet, but I figured I would just focus on her and let the rest fall into place.
aaddysonh Good start! You anatomy has gotten better in regards to proportion, so good work there! The shoulders are a bit wide (in red), and the wrist of the left arm is a touch farther out than it should be, but the rest is looking better. I can see the shoulders being a little wider if she's more athletic, but that's up to you if you want to keep them wide or slim them down. Keep in mind the spine (in green) and how it curves so the rest of the body follows that curve, even subtly. I'm not sure where the legs are, and maybe that'll become more apparent farther down the line. For clothing, give it some thickness, even a little bit, so it doesn't look like it's part of her skin. Good improvement. Keep going!
silentheart00 Great! Thank you! Thanks for pointing out those things. It helps a lot. Her legs are kind of tucked under her. Like when you sit on the ground with your legs to the side.
So I fixed up her figure. I'm still working on the chin area. It still doesn't look quite right. I went ahead and put in where I wanted the colors. The white lines are a reference to where I think creases in the dress would go. I've also started adding more detail to the face.
aaddysonh Whoops, this kind of slipped through the cracks for me. I think the chin looked weird to you because the lower lip was really big compared to the rest of the face, and you corrected it a little bit in the latest image. The top lip is a little flat; kick out the lip curve a bit for the fleshier lips. Take a picture of yourself from the side if you can and look at your own lips. The brow seems a little high, which is getting thrown off by the crooked eye. Try this: look straight ahead, put your finger on the bridge of your nose (the lowest part) and draw a straight line over your eye (don't poke yourself). Where does your finger go? Or, back to that side view of yourself, where does the bridge of your nose line up with your eye? A similar idea with the eyebrow, as well. It looks like an eyebrow you would see from the front, so how does it differ in the side view?
For the hair, where's your hair part? It looks like the hair has no starting point. The part can really influence how you draw the hair. Again, get some references and do some small studies.
The legs outlined in red are what I think you meant by the leg positions, which will influence how the wrinkles fall. Let me know if I'm on the right track.
Also, what is the main light source in this image? That could really affect how you handle the lighting, as well.
There's improvement, and I think you're starting to develop your eye. Good effort.
