Mademoiselle Scarlett Presents:

[MademoiselleScarlett]

Hello, and welcome to my sketchbook.
Please leave feedback and comments if you are so inclined.
I'm not some great professional by any means, but I am improving daily.
I'm very proud of my style, and wouldn't change it for the world, now that I've finally found it.

Jouir.

[element1988]

The thing about having a "style" is that you cannot be critiqued... Because if anyone says somthing is not right you can just say 'well thats my style'. This prevents you from progressing.

[Jared D]

I like the girl's face in the 3rd pic. As element said you do have to do more "real" studies for us to judge in detail and for you to get better fast (this will not change your style, only make it look more solid) Like the way the shirt in the first and second pics is done, they don't have any thickness and you don't have them warping around the body right so they make the bodies look flat.

You remind me of my sister. You have the basics of a style but you need some study of more realistic art or cartoon form art to make your style better. My sister did long study into Andrew Loomis and Preston Blair to help make her art more real within her style.

Here's what her life drawing look like now: (they are safe for work)
http://www.melissadavidson.net/defau.../DSCN02671.png
http://www.melissadavidson.net/defau.../DSCN02431.jpg


And here's her art:
http://www.melissadavidson.net/defau...00555376_o.jpg
http://th00.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/...blinglight.jpg

Her life drawing are done in her style. Long thin body, arms and legs. Big heads. All value is done with 3 tones, Dark, mid-tone, and light. The ear is almost always drawn small or pushed down to the bottom of the jaw. She doesn't do this because she doesn't know better, she does it because of her style but she KNOWS she's breaking the rules. The ear would look like it's flying or be flat if she didn't go about changing the way the ear hooks to the head but it looks "right". If you don't know your breaking the rules it will look off to layman. So start real in your life studies and then move it more and more into your style.

Here's something my sister did back when she was still doing awkward realism:
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs36/i/20...blinglight.jpg

Very little of her style is showing there, she had the same style back then in her non-life art but it looked falter and lifeless. (this is the only old life study of her's I can find, I think she set fire to all the others lol)


Here's Preston Blair's book for free online: http://animationresources.org/?p=2091 don't mind the style in the book, it's things like the line of action and basic shapes with wrapping lines that you can take away and apply to your art. Loomis is great if you can, the ideas in his books apply to everything from western cartoons to anime to realism. One other thing you can do is find art by people you really like and study it. Figure Drawing for All It's Worth is the main book of Loomis you would want to study but all of them are great. Successful Drawing is one great one for starting out as it's the basics of art.

Sorry for the wall of text there, and sorry again if I just said a ton of things you already know, better safe then sorry with it

[MademoiselleScarlett]

The thing about having a "style" is that you cannot be critiqued... Because if anyone says somthing is not right you can just say 'well thats my style'. This prevents you from progressing.

Well that's completely not true. I'm very open to critique; always have been and always will be!
Why, did you have something you wanted to say about it?

[Momucat]

Element has made a good point though maybe a little more elaboration is needed to clarify. He means that if you attach yourself to one way of drawing/painting or whatever you limit your ability to grow because you're clinging to the idea that there's a specific look your work needs to have in order to be special or unique. It's a beginner mindset that brings comfort when facing new challenges. Examples being when someone trying to give constructive critism you have the ultimate defense, "This is my style". I guess what element as well as myself are trying to say is... At this stage in your growth you should be trying a bunch of different styles and copying from master artists. Keep exploring and practicing and don't limit yourself.

As work the work itself. I think you should try doing some life drawing. Like still lifes, plants, people, etc. Master copies will help too. If you like anime copy from your favorite anime artist frequently. Currently your drawings are very flat and only the eyes and nose seem to have construction. Anime may look really flat but in reality it's simplified complex forms. Practice real people and you'll start to see what shapes the simplified lines in anime are describing and leap in skill level.

[MademoiselleScarlett]

I like the girl's face in the 3rd pic. As element said you do have to do more "real" studies for us to judge in detail and for you to get better fast (this will not change your style, only make it look more solid) Like the way the shirt in the first and second pics is done, they don't have any thickness and you don't have them warping around the body right so they make the bodies look flat.

You remind me of my sister. You have the basics of a style but you need some study of more realistic art or cartoon form art to make your style better. My sister did long study into Andrew Loomis and Preston Blair to help make her art more real within her style.

Here's what her life drawing look like now: (they are safe for work)
http://www.melissadavidson.net/defau.../DSCN02671.png
http://www.melissadavidson.net/defau.../DSCN02431.jpg


And here's her art:
http://www.melissadavidson.net/defau...00555376_o.jpg
http://th00.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/...blinglight.jpg

Her life drawing are done in her style. Long thin body, arms and legs. Big heads. All value is done with 3 tones, Dark, mid-tone, and light. The ear is almost always drawn small or pushed down to the bottom of the jaw. She doesn't do this because she doesn't know better, she does it because of her style but she KNOWS she's breaking the rules. The ear would look like it's flying or be flat if she didn't go about changing the way the ear hooks to the head but it looks "right". If you don't know your breaking the rules it will look off to layman. So start real in your life studies and then move it more and more into your style.

Here's something my sister did back when she was still doing awkward realism:
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs36/i/20...blinglight.jpg

Very little of her style is showing there, she had the same style back then in her non-life art but it looked falter and lifeless. (this is the only old life study of her's I can find, I think she set fire to all the others lol)


Here's Preston Blair's book for free online: http://animationresources.org/?p=2091 don't mind the style in the book, it's things like the line of action and basic shapes with wrapping lines that you can take away and apply to your art. Loomis is great if you can, the ideas in his books apply to everything from western cartoons to anime to realism. One other thing you can do is find art by people you really like and study it. Figure Drawing for All It's Worth is the main book of Loomis you would want to study but all of them are great. Successful Drawing is one great one for starting out as it's the basics of art.

Sorry for the wall of text there, and sorry again if I just said a ton of things you already know, better safe then sorry with it

Thank you for the links and advice Jared. Yeah I kind of threw the clothes on to make them not naked... and didn't think about detailing or anything important. I'll try more and update soon!

[MademoiselleScarlett]

Element has made a good point though maybe a little more elaboration is needed to clarify. He means that if you attach yourself to one way of drawing/painting or whatever you limit your ability to grow because you're clinging to the idea that there's a specific look your work needs to have in order to be special or unique. It's a beginner mindset that brings comfort when facing new challenges. Examples being when someone trying to give constructive critism you have the ultimate defense, "This is my style". I guess what element as well as myself are trying to say is... At this stage in your growth you should be trying a bunch of different styles and copying from master artists. Keep exploring and practicing and don't limit yourself.

As work the work itself. I think you should try doing some life drawing. Like still lifes, plants, people, etc. Master copies will help too. If you like anime copy from your favorite anime artist frequently. Currently your drawings are very flat and only the eyes and nose seem to have construction. Anime may look really flat but in reality it's simplified complex forms. Practice real people and you'll start to see what shapes the simplified lines in anime are describing and leap in skill level.

Trust me, I study the masters.