Simple stuff I'm trying to get a handle on

[luesang]

Hello everyone!

I'm currently an illustration student used to working with charcoal and markers and I'm trying to get a better handle on working digitally.
This is developed from a sketchbook page so the pose is pretty generic. I tried adding a more dynamic background to help ease the stiffness of the figure, but I haven't dedicated much time to that aspect of the piece.

It's not coloured because this was just for practice and, honestly, I don't that much about colour just yet. Just trying to get my tones correct.

Please help me out with whatever comments/criticisms you have.
Thanks very much,
b

[MiniGoth]

Based on where the shoulders end (not the armor) this guy has no neck.

Think on your character in terms of simple 3d shapes like cylinders and cubes to get the shading right.

[Line]

Minigoth is right.

What you should do is restart. You are generally using tones that are too closely related, and you don't have the ability yet, to use them correclty.

Your goal should be two things, correct drawing and the conviction of the 3rd dimension.

As far as drawing is concerned, is not bad, but you should use your reference more closely. Take your time to draw the face and body well in one layer, then add another
with the clothing, another with the armor and then go to another for tone. Trust me, it will be great practice and well worth your while.

3d space. Again Minigoth said it all but let me elaborate. Think, at first, of all the masses in the image as simple big blocks. Not even cylinders. Think of where the light is coming
from, then paint each side with the correct tone. Use 4 tones, black and a dark grey, and white along with a light grey. Do, not think or worry about the atmosphere you are
trying to convey. This is practice right? So use it as practice, and use it well. Use your full tone scale, but few tones. Don't worry about smooth transitions at first. Make a
blocky image that convinces us of it's 3d solitidty first, then 'cut' the blocks into smaller pieces, use more intermediate tones, and keep going, making smaller planes of light and using more intemediate tones to convey the 3d feel and construct the drawing.

Oh and one more thing. Stay away from fancy brushwork, expressive marks, weird brushes and textures like the ones you've used. It's not important yet. Learn how to walk
before you lean how to fly.

[gumberoo]

it looks like you need a dark gray between your darkest dark and you lighter gray. painting with a mid gray helps pop your highlights and shadow. kind of a 50% gray.

given you put your character in an environment you probably need to work out a light source. and shadows. I do my characters with no background more like a concept rendering so I do not have to worry about complex shadows. digital rendering is quite different then working on paper. painting nice mid tones really makes the difference imo.

[Livoshka]

Interesting fabric folds on the mid section as well as the gloves. I can't tell if the weapon is a round staff or a blade right now, if it's a blade, give it an edge, it needs a lot more shadows/highlights too. Also, the top right of the weapon gets lost in the background, the shades are too similar. I think you could use a lot stronger light source on the figure, since your background structure seems to have strong shadows. Also, might want to consder adding something to the bottom right or breaking up the space with something.

[luesang]

Minigoth, Line, Gumberoo, Oblivia - thank you all very much for taking the time to comment. Each of you are very helpful!

Line, I really appreciate you breaking so many things down for me. I'll restart this one and approach it with all the points you and Minigoth bring up.

You're all correct to say that my tones are too closely related. While I'm working I see that happening and I wasn't really sure how to correct that but now, from your comments, I see where I can probably curb that problem.

The background really ended up detracting from all this. I'll redo this one with better focus on anatomy and forget the background. I'll add to this thread as I go and hope to hear your thoughts as I go.

Thank you all again!