Dancer

[Little_Miss_Kitty]

Hi, Im Miss Kitty, and this is my first post on the forum. Basically, this was a quick sketch to practice figure, but for some reason, I really want this to become better and more complete. I'm working on it already, but everyone at CA seems to have sharp eyes, so I was wondering if you would notice anything I would miss.

[Little_Miss_Kitty]

Just some quick flat colors.
Saved on another file.

[Swampdigger]

Hey, not a bad start, but if you want to take this to more of a finish, I would work on it a bit more before trying color on it.

First things first, your files are really huge, so for someone to view the entire thing, it means they have to save that file and view it at something like 25% of the original file size. So it'd be awesome if you could size them down so people can take a better look at them.

The first thing I would do about the actual piece is to work out some of the anatomical problems with it. I would probably get reference, but even sketching out what's underneath her clothes would give you a really good idea of some problems. For example, I did a super quick paintover with what that might look like below. Just from that you can see that her legs are really too long. For simply seeing big stuff like that, you don't even have to know anatomy very well to connect her legs to her hips and see it.


I went ahead and placed a super simple measurement of how many heads tall she is. So she's at 7 and about a half. The correct number varies depending what person you talk to, but that's on the tall side for an average human. It wouldn't even be a big problem except that she's not wide enough proportionally so it looks like she's very stretched. Here's a sketch I did that is in a similar position as your dancer but, i think, a little more realistically proportioned. Bear in mind that my sketch is far from perfect and has it's own share of problems. I would suggest looking at photos of real dancers to use as reference.


Also, before adding color digitally, I would some nicer line art, right now parts of your line have a very nice quality to them, but when you put color on them like that with the pencilish lines it looks a little funky.

Good luck, and if you have any questions go ahead and ask away.

[Little_Miss_Kitty]

Thank you so much!
I added a few of your suggestions, going back to fix the lines now.
Made it a bit smaller, will make it even smaller next update.

[Little_Miss_Kitty]

Sorry about the double post, but heres an update

[Kya Hill]

Your image is still too big. I'd say the size in Swampdigger's post is a good size. Also she either has a reallly long torso or reallly long legs.

[Avvatar]

In all honesty I think you're better off scrapping this and learning the basics of drawing. The anatomy is extremely off, same with the proportion, and there is no form or structure what so ever. The best thing you can do is pickup some anatomy books such as those from Bridgeman, Loomis, Vilppu etc...and just practice everything in there. You can also probabaly find online versions with the help of Google. We could give you all the critique you need, but I think that at this point you lack the understanding to apply it properly.

Oh and as a side note you guys can simply right click the image and select "view image" to fit it in your browser...

[Swampdigger]

Hey little_miss_kitty, I'm going to have to respectively disagree with Avvatar. I think you should definitely work on this and finish it. The things he mentions are indeed things you need to work on and things you should do, but I also think it would be beneficial to work on this one. One of the big mistakes I've made is doing too many studies and not actually trying to do the stuff I was doing those studies for in the first place. So I say, finish this piece up so you can see your actual skill level when you put hard work into a piece. Then study anatomy books while you are working on your next piece and apply what you learn. If you aren't sure where to start with the anatomy books, feel free to PM me and I can hopefully give you a place to start.

Anyways, back to your dancer, she's definitely looking better with the corrections you've made. Her legs do still look too long and especially her right leg, the front one, looks like it doesn't connect right with her upper leg. Her entire lower torso definitely needs some work.

My advice, keep your original work on one layer, make a transparent layer on top, then reduce the transparency of your original layer so it's a light gray. From there you can experiment on the top layer all you want without risking losing everything underneath. When you've done something you like better then the original, just erase out what's on the bottom and combine the two layers. It's pretty much the same thing you would do with tracing paper, but a little easier on the computer.

Otherwise, you can move things around pretty easily using the lasso selection tool, assuming you're using GIMP or Photoshop. Just select what you want to move and use the move tool to drag it around. I did that to your piece and then did a little erasing and drawing to make it fit. I pretty much just moved the legs up and maybe a little over and it definitely looks a little more natural.


Keep on working on it and if you're not doing this already, zoom out to look at the entire picture. That'll give you a better idea of proportions.

[Nezumi Works]

I'm on Avvatar's side on this one. Unless you grow in understanding of the underlying structure, you're not going to learn very much from endlessly tweaking this piece. Go to Loomis, go to Vilppu, go to a life drawing class if you can, and start learning structure and construction. It'll help you improve far faster than getting hung up on this one piece will.

Things you badly need to work on: line of action, basic forms such as cubes and spheres, the main body shapes (head/ribcage/pelvis) and how they relate to each other, gesture drawing, how to use reference, general anatomy.

The thing to ask yourself at this point is, am I learning any of that from the piece that I'm working on? If not, you need to set it aside and really concentrate on learning those things before coming back to it.

To Avvatar: An artist seeking critiques does not serve their own interests by making it harder to see their work.

[Whyatt Thrash]

One of the big mistakes I've made is doing too many studies and not actually trying to do the stuff I was doing those studies for in the first place. So I say, finish this piece up so you can see your actual skill level when you put hard work into a piece. Then study anatomy books while you are working on your next piece and apply what you learn.

Not only important, but VERY important. Otherwise you might just kill your love for your work. Seriously. Do your studies, but don't stop doing what you love.