frogman & female sketch, advice and c&c welcome complete noob here

[Sward]

here is my first attempt at any digital art.
to let u know ,
complete noob here, hoping to get better with your help.
used photshop 7 and mouse (have to get myself a wacom.
and i know how bad the hands and feet are in this pic but ill work at them for next image.
the female drawing is just a quick sketch.[IMG][/IMG]

[emily g]

I like the picture of the girls. The large head is nice and so is the body of the girl in the upper right. There are lots of emotions, which is good.
The frog looks like a cut-out--in fact it looks like you used some kind of filter on it? It doesn't have very good form. It looks like you tried to put highlights and shadows on it, but the form doesn't look very rounded. Plus, I don't understand why the lens flare is there.
Keep going with the figure drawing. It will help you learn the most.

best,
emily

[jasonarthur]

yeah, if I've learned anything about Photoshop filters it's that everyone hates it when you use a lens flare effect.

The frog looks almost like it was pasted onto the background. There are too many jagged lines around the form and you can see little chunks of white background. Wander around on the "It's finally finished" portion of this site and see how some of the pros do it. Also check out the tutorials section for more solid advice.

The blueline sketch figures are fairly well done and look great in comparison to the frog. Looks like you need to work on her hands though.

-- J

[Sward]

i see exactly what you mean about the frogman, i did flatten the image in photoshop and cut him out using the lasoo tool onto the new background, tho i think ive learned some new photoshop techniques when doing this which was all good.

thanks guys

[Bammer]

Augh! Dude... Just say no to lens flares.

Aside from that (seriously though, don't do that) you have got some potential. The green thing I feel could have been good. I actually feel pretty certain that if you stick with it you'll be very good at coloring. The thing that makes the green guy an eyesore is the lack of logic behind the shading. Volume is revealed through shading by the consistancy of light. The more a surface faces a lightsource, the more light that surface receives. If a surface turns away from a lightsource or something blocks the light, that surface will be be in darkness. On the green guy (who I like) there is a highlight on the lower right of his face and a shadow on the upper left . However on one of the guys knees there is a highlight on the upper left portion of the surface and a shadow on the lower right. Unless his knee or his head are actually concave like a bowl, that lighting is impossible, and the coloring is rendered worthless and ugly. If you only looked at the characters head or say his left arm, the shading works. But the lighting needs to be consistant throughout the peice in order for the illusion of volume to be created.
Wow that got complicated. Sorry about that. It's all pretty simple once you get the hang of it though.

The other issues with the guy are unsteady lines and muddy shading, but you'll easily loose those problems with a little easy practice.

You're pencil sketch is good by the way. The proportion on their faces is well done. Nice job.