Sketchbook and critiques

[Psychotime]

Oh, and there are a few four-star sketchbooks. My theory on those is they got rated five stars, and then a sufficiently large number of people came along and thought, "come on -- it's good, but it's not quite five star enough for CA" and down-rated them deliberately.

Sometimes those people who down-rate it are the thread owners themselves. It doesn't take a large amount of people to downrate a thread. It just works off of an average.

I yapped about this on some earlier thread.

Here's an idea of how my thread ended up as a four star, when it should be a three. I know a mod could get the full readout of the people who''ve overrated my thread, but still.

I have no idea who the first person to overrate my thread was, but when there was only one vote, it's easy to fix. And that's what I did. I downvoted it myself so it would average into a three. But then every once in a while I'd get a post like this.

hi mate ... at first: WTF?! are the voters drunk in here?! i mean ... 3 stars? thats a joke ... its alot of funny cool work with a solid style. you can see that he is putting alot of heart and sweat to this, so is that you way to say him that he has to work more?! ... i even think that is stars-system is wierd but whatever.

Much better than the 3 stars you had. Take 4.

I love your style, very inspiring work! That would be awesome to see your comic. Keep it up and update more, I'm subscribing and leaving 5 stars

Of course, this is only from the people that bother leaving a post when they leave a star rating.

But over time it got to the point where I can no longer fix the rating with a single vote.

[Stoat]

Hahaha...people got into a bidding war over your sketchbook? That's hilarious.

Well, shoot...I just had a look at your SB. The cartoons are great. You shoulda just taken the compliment!

[Arshes Nei]

Well if the OP wants some comments about the sketchbook. One of the things I noticed is that the girls are kinda "dainty" I like the fact you have them in rather sensible armor, but there's still some of that "girl power" or well silliness in the poses? Yes women walk differently than men, but a girl that is ready to fight should not look like she's strutting down the catwalk. In addition, I noticed that the girls don't even seem to be holding their swords. Swords are heavy! They're Metal! The grips seem loose like they're about to fall out of their hands.

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...10#post2245010

There was one sketch where the girl was doing that T&A pose with some knives. Like...it was a bit off setting because you have this girl looking like she's ready to do stealth, and then "hey look at my azzz!"
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...45#post2417645

In your later sketches you are improving on it for a bit, but I think you need to put more emphasis on action in your poses. There's still that dainty girl quality coming through when some demand a bit more strength- http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...75#post3621975 like this ogre/female monster dragging something.

So while your sketches are nice, you need to work more on body language.

[Frida Bergholtz]

Well if the OP wants some comments about the sketchbook. One of the things I noticed is that the girls are kinda "dainty" I like the fact you have them in rather sensible armor, but there's still some of that "girl power" or well silliness in the poses? Yes women walk differently than men, but a girl that is ready to fight should not look like she's strutting down the catwalk. In addition, I noticed that the girls don't even seem to be holding their swords. Swords are heavy! They're Metal! The grips seem loose like they're about to fall out of their hands.

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...10#post2245010

There was one sketch where the girl was doing that T&A pose with some knives. Like...it was a bit off setting because you have this girl looking like she's ready to do stealth, and then "hey look at my azzz!"
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...45#post2417645

In your later sketches you are improving on it for a bit, but I think you need to put more emphasis on action in your poses. There's still that dainty girl quality coming through when some demand a bit more strength- http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...75#post3621975 like this ogre/female monster dragging something.

So while your sketches are nice, you need to work more on body language.

Ugh! Thanks a bunch! I looked my drawings over and I can see what you are talking about. I knew about some of the issues (like the loose sword grips.) but I really don't want my characters to look dainty unless they are supposed to be.

That T&A pose you mentioned was a mistake from the start. The idea was that she would be sneaking around and then heard a noice behind her and whipped out her throwing dagger. But it ended up to posy and contrived. And yes I was trying to make her sexy to please the person I made it for. I usually avoid that kind of stuff.

I better go and do some gesture drawings. Thanks a lot for pointing this out to me because this is really not the impression I want to leave.

[sone_one]

But over time it got to the point where I can no longer fix the rating with a single vote.

aww man cmon... just appreciate it.

you feel like youre 3 star? fine... i do feel so myself, did so for the last decade, and will probably continue untill eternity. [edit] 3 is also very comfortable... not too high, not too low... totally mediocre, avoiding any statement... being mushy and trying to swim along. [/edit]
seeing your art is rated higher by others... just enjoy it (seeing it as your hard work and countless invested hours paying off).

i dont get that rant tbh.

[edit] worry about and invest your effort to make pictures, rather than some forum-star-rating. i got a 5 star sb... do i deserve it? probably not. do i enjoy the fact others like what i do? hell yeah, keeps me going. would a lower rating have me working harder? pretty unlikely. so where does it matter in any way?

[Candra H]

I've looked at much longer ones, but they did daunt me when I first came here. If it's very long (like mine) I go 1. 2 skip a few 8,9 skip a few etc. Try to catch the last few pages and read what the OP has posted

That sounds like a good approach. I'm going to try applying it and see how I get on. Your monster will be a good practice go.

[Flashback]

Sone_one said it.

People are so fucking obsessed with the fucking star rating system. are those fucking star so fucking important? are those stars going to get you a job or something? Stop it with that "Oh, poor is me" fucking attitude.

If you're committed to something then it shouldn't matter if you have one star, or 5 stars.
If you think maybe people are commenting on your sketchbook to get the same treatment then maybe that true or not, but you don't know. they might like the stuff your doing and saying "good job" and so on, or maybe they are just giving you critiques, and tips.

Sorry, if I touch a nerve.

P.S: Most swords aren't that heavy, only weighting around 2.0 lbs to 5.0 lbs.

[Psychotime]

The cartoons are great. You shoulda just taken the compliment!

aww man cmon... just appreciate it.

you feel like youre 3 star? fine... i do feel so myself, did so for the last decade, and will probably continue untill eternity. [edit] 3 is also very comfortable... not too high, not too low... totally mediocre, avoiding any statement... being mushy and trying to swim along. [/edit]
seeing your art is rated higher by others... just enjoy it (seeing it as your hard work and countless invested hours paying off).

i dont get that rant tbh.

I must admit if it was someone other than myself repeating what I was saying, I'd agree with you and would probably be saying the same thing. I'm a hypocrite that way, heh.

I already met two classmates last week who really seem to lack confidence in themselves, and it's so frustrating to hear decent people who appear to feel low about their own abilities. And they're the only people in the class who can draw worth a damn, as far as I can see. So that makes it sound worse.

[fxEVo]

Right now the technology provide us with many marvelous ways to communicate, ironically it's when people tend to be more inactive about seeking new friends and new potentials. I open up my FB and other social network and there is tons of cool stuffs from very world-class level artists jump into feed, it's just like lots of people on CA they've subscribed to their favorites thread and that's what they check regularly, cant tell they are wrong, it's very normal when people stick into what they used to. So I always give my appreciations for people who always try to dig around and help new people and threads, if you want to receive, please give.