Medusa

[LucasPuryear]

I would like to know what I can improve upon for next time. I know there are no scale details yet, I plan to add such things in photoshop.

[Bai Fan]

What are you wanting it to be? Character design, painting prep, etc...

There are a lot of anatomical problems, and perspective problems, and design problems. Look at pictures of wings first off. If you are going for bat-like wings you have really missed your mark. The tail section looks too small to support her weight. That is not what a pregnant stomach looks like. The forearm looks too long.

By next time do you mean the next time you work this character or the next time you sketch?

[LucasPuryear]

I meant next time I draw Medusa. I was actually going of Quetzalcoatlus wings with an extra spine on the elbow.

[Stag]

I would probably take that from "next time I draw this character" to "next time I draw in general." The first thing I noticed was facial structure-- there's some but it definitely could use improvement. Second thing I noticed was that the hands are WAY too small. The third thing was that she seems to be leaning far to the left side, like if she were real she'd probably have fallen over.

Proportion seems to be the biggest issue here-- how are you starting your drawings, with an underlying structure, or are you just setting about drawing lines? I highly, highly recommend taking a look at the forms that things are made up of-- rather than drawing the outlines straight off. It's a help with proportion and then you can just fix errors like that right out of the gate-- I know how much it sucks to get all the linework done in a piece, only to realize that you messed up something silly like making the arms too long, or one hand bigger than the other, or whatever.

[LucasPuryear]

The good thing about being an artist and loving to draw, it takes as many arm strokes to redraw as it does to erase. Here is an earlier sketch, before I went with the magical pregnancy pic.

[Falchion]

Yeah, check your anatomy against reference if possible. Admittedly, anatomy's not everything, but if you don't even think to include it, you wind up with Gumby when you're trying for something more like Joe Mad's work. Or you could go with the modern Greg Land school of art.

[LucasPuryear]

Thank you for all the critiques. The more I look at this and read your insights, the more I see the glaring anatomica problems. I should also use some snake photo reference on the tendrils because I hardly ever draw snakes. Like I said before, I love to draw and I am trying to get through a sketchbook a month, so I can redraw the heck out of this until it becomes right.

[LucasPuryear]

Newest version with Crits in mind.

[Stag]

Definitely MUCH better when you're really looking at what you're doing with anatomy! I'd also look at some scale references too, if you're going to be drawing a lot of medusa/naga type things.

[LucasPuryear]

cool. I used photo reference this time for the woman and the snakes.