New artist Looking for Critique

[abeisel897]

Hello,
I'm trying to develop my skills as a comic artist. Here's my latest rough ink. My big concern with this is the shadow. there will be blue lightning coming from the space marine's eyes and hand but I am not sure if the shadow looks natural or not. any other critiques welcome.

[Stoat]

His right hand is anatomically wonky. The rest of the anatomy is a little off (head too small, for example), but that hand, definitely (which is unfortunate, as it's the focus).

Set up a small mirror on your desk, stretch your left hand out toward it and do a whole page full of studies of what you see. Pencil and paper, whatever you have to hand. It'll do you a world of good.

[abeisel897]

I've been working on my texture in pieces of late and my anatomy. This is is my latest piece since working with concept art.

[J.R.Hollis]

All you're going to hear from these guys are perspective (The main problem), anatomy, values, reference. The whole nine yards.

Which is great advice by the way, you should have just posted this in your last thread.

[Panjo]

Also, This isn't quite relevant, but I just linked into your website, and your first page bio says you're interested in writing, and is filled to the brim with grammatical errors. Just be careful about that stuff. Would be an instant rejection from me.

Also, several of your image links are broken..

[abeisel897]

Is there a better placed to post my work? I'm coming at this with no art school so to be frank, there are some critiques that are wasted on me. Also, I'd like to get something more practical i.e. move something let or right, scale something etc. I don't mean to be dismissive but I feel like I don't always benefit from the high caliber critiques i receive here.

[Panjo]

I would just start by drawing people from life
for using your computer, get high res images and zoom in on facial features, such as eyes, and just stare at them and look at all the subtleties in them, memorizing them
dont use black and white or dodge and burn as making shadows and highlights, they are really really hard to use (the exception to this is working in pure gray scale.
A big problem people have when they are starting art is trying to smooth things out. Smoothing things out is the absolute last step you take, and takes a lot of talent to do it properly.. Therefor, block out colors first.
study up on the rules of composition, google how photographers make compositions, the same rules apply.
it takes years of practice! you have to keep at it. http://conceptart.org/forums/showthr...s-and-Sketches
That is a guys 9 year journey to becoming a badass-artist, it's super inspiring.
Use rough things to make rough texture. for example, on your door youve used oddly smoothed brushes to make the door seem battered up. Metal is either shiny,(high contrast, straight lines) or textured, rusted, eaten through. Learn by doing tutorials, Watch http://www.youtube.com/user/sinixdesign Sinix, follow along with his tutorials, theres a whole tutorial sub forum on here filled with tutorials, do a ton of them! but never think of them as a chore, youll lose any form of passion you have for drawing/painting as soon as you consider it a chore.

Baisically, you seem to be trying to delve into the details of the painting (the scuffs on his armor, lightning bolts, reflective light) when you aren't even understanding the basics of the processs. (sorry if that sounds rough, it really ground my gears the first 40 times I heard that, until I got over my pride and just started accepting that it wasn't personal, it was just criticism. In fact it should make you hopefully, because you can only get better)

also, I would take out any idea of selling your work right now. You need to get better at it before you can be respected by a buyer. Too many people rush into, I need to start making money on it, or I can make money as I go, and its simply not true, A lot of people once they start making money, begin to settle at the level they are at, because its good enough to make money at that point. Focus on training yourself if it is your goal, spend your freetime working on it, and It will come, I promise, you just have to draw draw draw draw draw.

[Stoat]

Let me get this straight -- you want us to tell you if there's someplace you can go where they don't say your anatomy sucks? That's mess up, yo.

[Ever]

Why did you create an additional thread for this? You already had a thread for this specific drawing, you should've posted your updates there. Also, you haven't listened or applied any of the criticism you've received in your last thread :/ We're not just saying you need more practice to annoy you, you know, we just want you to get better.

[abeisel897]

no i certainly don't mean that at all--i want the criticism i was referring to a different forum--something more oriented towards beginners.

[abeisel897]

thanks--that's really helpful.

[abeisel897]

I'm sorry for the confusion--I'm new to this forum and frankly new to social media in general. what's the best process to show my progression?

[Stoat]

Well, that's handsomely said, abeisel. I apologize for my rudeness.

The standard advice is to start a sketchbook, but honestly, it can be hard to get anyone to look at a sketchbook. You might want to try one of the community challenges, like character of the week, maybe. People of all levels join those, and you tend to get lots of good feedback. (Or did; I haven't followed any of those subfora for a while).

Alternately, you can just continue posting images in this forum.

[Elwell]

Merged.

[Swamp Thing]

Is there a better placed to post my work? I'm coming at this with no art school so to be frank, there are some critiques that are wasted on me. Also, I'd like to get something more practical i.e. move something let or right, scale something etc. I don't mean to be dismissive but I feel like I don't always benefit from the high caliber critiques i receive here.

You need to learn by yourself, people here can only guide / push you into the right direction. I've suggested it already but anyways - read those books by Andrew Loomis, try applying the right techniques and do a LOT of portraits/nude drawings. You have to fill your brain with all those bodyforms and faces and learn to understand and reproduce them.

There's no reason for pointing out all the issues with anatomy, every panel shows problems with fundamentals and pointing them out wont change the fact that you have to develop a certain understanding for yourself by drawing a lot from RL.

[abeisel897]

okay, I've made some revisions with the perspective and tried to add some more texture to the door based on stoat's suggestions. hopefully this is progress.

[Nineaxis]

The anatomy of your figure needs work before anything else is done with the piece. Look at the proportions of the head, chest, and legs. I'm guessing it's a Warhammer suit-thing (excuse my lack of familiarity with the IP) and those are bulky and bottom-heavy, but even so, they still follow the proportions of the body, and pelvis and knees of whoever is inside are presumably still in the same place as any other human. Look at the size of your legs compared to the rest of the figure, figure where the knee is supposed to be (I'm looking at the back leg in particular) then throw on the bulky suit.

After you've gotten your anatomy sorted, evaluate the pose. Right now he doesn't look particularly balanced for standing. He's kind of squatting, like he's sitting on a stool (or about to fall over backwards). I'd bet this has to do with his left leg and arm. Just by standing up and mimicking the pose, it seems that the back leg shouldn't just be sticking out to the side and bent like that, especially if he's leaning forward and putting weight on the front foot. The left arm right now is just out there (rather awkwardly). Again, just mimicking the pose yourself and seeing what the natural position for that arm would be could help.

Finally, consider value structure. Contrast should be at your focal point, which is presumably the guy's hand. But all I want to look at is your messy black and white checkered floor. Grating, presumably, but it doesn't look much like grating - it should probably look like it would support a guy in a massive armor suit, have some kind of structure to it, and it's likely there's something underneath it other than the endless void. Reference would help here.

There's also numerous issues with perspective that should be fixed as soon as possible.

[abeisel897]

You're correct on the warhammer front and I see now what you're referring to with the stance. I'll correct it. Here's a picture of the anatomy of a Space Marine just to give you a reference.

[Swamp Thing]

Uh Space marine anatomy? Well, in any case, they don't have human anatomy.
I don't know if that's intended, but be careful with your sources, they often share strongly customized/stylized proportions.

Perspective is a lot better. I wouldn't spend so much time finishing paintings though, you learn more if you do sketches on paper.