Mysti's Sketch Book - Need Constructive Critique

[Mystiqe]

First off, ohai CA.org

I'm Mysti, and I'm new here~

I hope to improve dramatically, and learn all about the wonders of digipainting and all other art~

Anyway, without further ado... arttt~

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Personally I think it looks better with the smiley face, buuuut, because I need to learn about how to do things, I'll post a version with the face showing.

click here for fail.

I need to either learn how to draw up and paint a face less... anime like.. idk, or learn to paint more stylized, and not assume that when it comes to painting, things MUST BE REALISTIC.

cos it doesn't work that way, and is a LAME way of thinking.

Anyway. Opinions? Criticism is welcomed, but please don't tear it apart too bad

[Mystiqe]

So I decided to add some of my other paintings to this thing. You know, give you epic people SOMETHING to look at.

First off is like... a little storybook kinda image with an idea that popped into mind when I was working on a Sunday and it was SO SLOW. So I drew on a receipt c:

The more monotone is of a character created for a project that I'm involved in with some friends. More anime-ish, because hey, it's what I draw. But I bounce around style wise, and I wanted to go for a maybe pseudo realistic look? Anyway. Opinions?

[Seage]

Yay, glad you made it! Now get rid of that happy face, and show some process of you working on it. And people here can give you crits on how to make it better! Go go go!

[Mystiqe]

Some little doodles!

I was just dicking around in Paint Tool SAI for a little bit out of boredom and these are what were produced. I was really just playing around with tools ^^;;;

[Mystiqe]

So, Got some new sketches and tests, and what not.

The dinky little fox head... I was just mucking around with a painting style that I wanted to try.

Same with the face. Wanted to approach painting a face non realistically, because I haven't been able to do it until then.

The serval? Uh... just something cute.

lowest painting is some doodling I fleshed out and refined.

[Mystiqe]

Yay doodles~

[Mystiqe]

Fixed her boobs a little bit. Now they look more naturallll~


Not to mention they have nips now~ Heeheee

[NecroPhone]

This isnt too bad for an anime style i suppose, just keep practicing proper anatomy (you know, loomis, hogarth, villppu, posemaniacs.com) and try to add more depth to your drawings. By studying them youll become aware of all the little mistakes youve made.

Ill just pinpoint a few to give you an example of what you should work on. IM SORRY IF I SEEM MEAN HERE, really, im trying to help, but maybe my approach is a bit too blunt.
In your first drawing: The chest seems to be pointing a bit to the right of the viewer while the hips seem to be facing the viewer, (perhaps im wrong on this one, dont take this comment too seriously) this looks odd. The pink part of the hair seems alright but the purple looks weird the way its puffed out like that. I dont really understand why her legs are squatting like that, is she supposed to be flying? Also, her chin should be a bit larger, thats probably one of the main reasons it looks a bit odd.

For the third drawing: the forearm are a bit off. (Look at some musculature diagrams, that lump of muscle you have going to the left (our left) of her left arm should be going to the right, thats not to say that the other side should be flat.

For the fourth and fifth drawing: the heads just look massive, this is what i mean by having a heavily stylised way of drawing. Also, that thick outlines take away from the depth.

For the seventh drawing: You should study the general shape of the face, Andrew loomis has a great book dedicated to drawing only the head and hands (i believe the .pdf file of all of his books are free to download somewhere).

For the tenth and eleventh drawings: Again, forearm muscles are a bit off, also, your hips seem a bit off to be as well, but idk really.

Well there you go, i hope my critiques help, and i hope i didnt crush your spirit with them.
Good luck with your studies,

[Mystiqe]

Ahhh thank you soo much for the critique x) I've been waiting for one like that! I appreciate it quite a lot, and I hope I can learn from it xD;

[Mystiqe]

New doodles for everyone to see!


ok I lied. I just have one, and I was just messing around with a brush. Anyway. Enjoy!

[Mystiqe]

So, remember that old doodle I did in my first post? Well, I worked on the face XD

Check it out!

[Mystiqe]

So, today I hung out with a friend. Decided I'd do some life drawing sketches for a portfolio since last night I applied to a University! Woo!

Anyway. First drawing is of my friend Diane that I drew when we were hanging out at her place. Second is a drawing of two girls at the Tim Hortons that I was chillin at.

For the drawing of Diane, I know that there's somethin' wrong with her right shoulder, I'll fix it sometime tomorrow. In any case, enjoy, and if you have some helpful tips it would be awesome ^^

[Mystiqe]

Messing around in Paint Tool SAI. Just drawing and stuff with shapes mostly, it evolved into a face, which then evolved into a bust. Trying to break into stylistic realism I suppose? Breaking out of the box that is anime.

Took around 20-30 minutes.

[FightingSeraph]

You should be updating this more often, because while your anatomy and proportions are good; they still need a bit of work. Also, I would recommend that you study perspective and composition when you get the chance.

[Mystiqe]

I haven't been posting much because much of what i do is anime and the sort like it and i hear its not very welcome here, but i will post more :3 and I'll try to do some studies. Thank you!

[Mystiqe]

It's been some time since my last picture post! Here's some stuff I've had for a while. I guess Ive decided I'll post my usual stuff, maybe get some tips, but yeah. Be warned realism is not too frequent in my work. I like to be more... stylized I guess.

Anyways, heres a few painting tries that never really got past what you see here, a character concept for a costume I really want to make. And my first real background that I actually used in an image. I'm very proud of it, and for my first go at it I think I did fairly well.






opinions?

[Mystiqe]

Here's an update to one of the images above. Fleshed it out a bit more :3

[Sulphur]

Be careful when drawing breasts not to start them in the middle of the chest like in this drawing. - breasts start from around the armpit area.
You're a chick so this should be easy to check if you don't believe me

[Mystiqe]

oh yeah i know :3 I just like drawing squishy boobs half the time XDDDDD ahaha cleavage.

but thank you! ^^

[Mystiqe]

After flipping through a sketchbook or two on here. I have noticed one main thing.

I have gone about art all the wrong way. And it kinda sucks.

I mean yeah, sure, I can draw, and I'm very good at it. But its freehanded and my style and a crutch really. All of these studies. Like pose studies, gestures. I never did them ever and now its seriously lacking.

I've never done a still life drawing seriously, or even finished one as far as I can think. and it's affecting my art heavily. I'm doing this all backwards. Or at least that's how it feels.

This sucks because its crunch time to get a portfolio out to get into university. Goddamnit.

I need advice. I know I need to use this place. I will. I promise you this. I will show you guys my improvement when it happens. I just need a little help to get there. I don't really know where to start. But I know I want to.

I need to be criticized. Not really on my style, but my method.

Artistic revelation/epiphany GO!

[aks9]

I have noticed one main thing.

I have gone about art all the wrong way. And it kinda sucks.

I need to be criticized. Not really on my style, but my method.

Artistic revelation/epiphany GO!

hehe i think thats what happens to most of us when we discover this place. more or less same for me!

what helped me was... to basically look at all these different techniques/methods people were using, try and understand what exactly each one is practiced for and what it teaches you, and then look at my own work and see which ones would be most helpful for me. so this took a short while of investigating techniques/analyzing my own drawing blindspots, but it was helpful, so thats what i suggest to you!

im not really in a position to offer specific advice, but i do suggest the investigation, good luck

[Mystiqe]

Thank you aks9 <:3c it's good to know that I'm not the only one that realizes their going a different way then they prolly should be.

I will definitely keep that in mind :3

[Mystiqe]

Did a ton of 60 second gesture sketches from posemaniacs. First time doing the exercise so it was definitely an experience. Took pictures of them because my scanner isn't really liking me... bah anyway. what do you think?

[Jessibelle]

Your stuff has a lot of potential, I think this is a great first page and it's good to see you starting to think seriously about what you need to do to improve. Studying anatomy will help your structure loads, and you can probably get some anatomy books at your local library; keep an eye out for books by bridgeman, hogarth etc (you can usually get a good idea of which authors help by going through peoples sketchbooks and finding out who they've studied :] and loomis books are pretty easy to find online) Also, maybe you could gain alot from going back to the basics and building up your skills from there? Still lives, first looking at line, then tone and form, drawing from life helps tons, and when you can't do that, photo studies are a good replacement.
Also, with your gestures, alot of your lines are scribbly and you've used many lines; in gesture drawing it's best to try and use as few lines as possible and capture the flow of the pose rather than the precise details.
I hope this helped at least a little, looking forward to seeing where you go.

[Mystiqe]

Oh gosh biiiig help there. Thank you so much Jessibelle :3

[Mystiqe]

Here, have a tigerlily that I painted up for use in a background for an icon that was commissioned.

[mike butkus]

Charming sketches and i love your color.

[rass]

I had the same revelation as you, except it was a couple of years ago (just after I found this place) and I just stopped drawing instead of trying to correct it - I commend you for not stopping! It's surprising how hard it is to get back into it.

With your posemaniacs gestures, work on using more solid lines/less scribble and then work on getting the poses done faster until you can get the feel of it in 30 seconds (I can't do this, but it's what I'm working towards). my 0.02c
And studying anatomy should help your stylized stuff immensely.

Keep at it and good luck!

[Mystiqe]

@mike butkus: thank you very much!

@rass: Yeah, I need to break out of the scribbly XD use more solid lines, but for a first try it was definitely a learning experience! Thank you very much!

[Mystiqe]

Have a bunch of sketches of Caracals that I did to put in my portfolio :3