I need some feedback

[Kellzbellz91]

I really need some feedback, I'm really kind of a beginner with cs5 and ive been to school for a year, but i had to post-pone, right now I'm pretty much in love with illustrator and this is what ive come up with. Based on what you see what do you think would be best for me? what should i be doing more of?

[Stoat]

These all look like graphics from a vector program like Illustrator. You can use Photoshop for this, but it's kind of a misuse of the tool -- it's not against the law or anything, but you're not taking advantage of what P'shop does well and you're probably causing yourself grief in the process.

If you want to do highly graphical images like this, I suggest you switch to a vector program like Illustrator or Corel Draw. If you want to learn what Photoshop can do, hang out on the Finally Finished forum for a while.

If you just want critique and shut the hell up about process, Stoat -- try posting a single image. Multiple images will give critics brain freeze.

[Kapri]

The first thing you need to realise is that illustrator (or any software package for that matter) is only a tool. It's true that illustrator can easily be used to create the type of stylized images you want to create, but realize that style is only a final layer. It's the fundamentals of drawing / painting that count and determine werther an image is succesfull in conveying the intended meaning or not.

After taking the time of training the basics you must first get to know / try different styles. Since you can only make a good choice if you know what you are choosing from.

Next actions I advice you to take:
learn the fundamentals:
- drawing people (read Hampton's "figure drawing: design and invention")
- perspective (read "perspective for comicbook artists" by Chelsae)
- composition (read "how pictures work" by Molly Bang)
- color theory / tonal rendering (read "color and light" by James Gurney)

But above all: learn to see by drawing from life AND photo's constantly.

While trying your hand at these fundamental skills you can experiment with different styles and tools.

Hope this helps.

Cheers from Amsterdam

[hueonpao]

i really don't mean to sound rude, but i don't see anything of substance that can be criticized here. I mean, you've been testing different brushes, gradients and photoshop tools, and that's good, but tracing pictures isn't an activity that will substantially improve your work if you don't work on your fundamentals. kapri's list is good advice for getting started. on top of that, if your aim is graphic design, you could add some courses on typography and working text into a picture (i suppose that's included in composition, though). good luck!

[Stoat]

Oh, wait, that WAS Illustrator? God, I'm such a banana.

[Kellzbellz91]

The advice was very informative, I do feel somewhat silly but I'm definitely going to look into the resources you have provided for me, and thanks again. Heres a few paintings I've done since my other work is not crtique worthy. Tell me what ya think.

[Kapri]

It's not that the first ones aren't worthy of critique. But if they were indeed traced as suggested by hueonpao then the only critique would be: draw from live or photo ref and post that, since tracing is a skill thats very differen't from drawing / painting.

First 2 paintings: are they done with oil paint? It's a nice start but pay more attention to the anatomy (see recommendation from my previous post).

Last painting: nice study, did you use ref or was this done from imagination?

[shiNIN]

As Kapri said, anatomy.
The last one: the composition could be better and the whole thing more interesting and balanced. The house wall rules the picture but it's not so interesting, really. The tree and background is crammed into the left. I don't criticize your colors because I don't know what was your intention and I'm surely not very tolerant with unrealistic stuff I don't find "nice" and it's so subjective.