(nudity) gut feeling says I'll regret this

[The_shaman]

OK you've said this before and to the best of my knowledge never explained it. my guess is it's the condensed version of a 'you need to use thumbnails speech' in which case realize that whenever i 'use thumbnails' really all i get is a sad attempt to make a full picture in a 1"x1" box, simply put when i start drawing i don't stop until i stop as it were, a minute or two on a sketch 1x1 concept of a piece rinse repeat for different takes on said concept doesn't really work for me in practice, and i have tried on numerous occasions. I am not a spontaneous guy and i never put pencil to paper without a seriously thought out (often over though out) plan, the culmination of which is putting pencil to paper to get it into the rough draft stage at which point i edit and revise ad nauseum not unlike i have been with the Nyuujou Megami piece that seems to be the current centerpiece of this thread. Of course i am wholly open to the idea that i am misinterpreting what your trying to get at but if so explain it and enlighten me.

Ok before I do this, let me say this to everyone else who may have a problem with what I have to say, Deal with it, I'm not talking to anyone Bardic, so anyone other than bardic can really go fuck off.

Ok to you, since you say I never explained I'll try to go into this as simple and clear as possible, No it’s not a condense version of my use thumbnails speech, and I'm going to explain that to you as well since you... first I'll start with the thumbnail The thumbnails has 2 purposes, 1, is to help lay out composition which is one of the first things that should be studied along with anatomy, even before. Whether you’re doing environment or character, composition is the single most important element and make or break your art work. To help with this, because truly explaining composition will have me sitting here for hours going into the element of design, and the rule of large medium, and small. To shorten it, imagone your paper divided in 3s
Looking at this painting as an example its divided in threes, the most dominant element is to the right, the weight of the painting is to the right.
http://www.stepbystepwatercolour.com...omposition.jpg

when doing a thumbnail sketching process, keep everything simple, don’t try to do a finished piece in the thumbnail. 2. The second purpose is to try and get your idea on paper, simple. Its also used for doing paint layout, and tonal lay outs.
http://blogofthoughts21.blogspot.com...sketching.html
http://augenwurm.blogspot.com/2007/0...-imposing.html

These thumbnails aren’t clean, they aren’t amazing, they are simple and get the idea on the paper, here are a few more example
http://www.explore-drawing-and-paint...il-sketch.html
Do you better understand the thumbnail process now my friend?, don’t just stick with 1x1 inch, do some 3x2 inch, 2,x3 inch and so on. Everything you say you do, I do to, I always over think my drawings and paintings, and usually end up dis satisfied, even with thumbnails, I can easily run through 20 thumbnails without working on a final piece. This is when I rest and start again.

If you worry about edit and revising, than stop doing stuff digitally or with a pencil, and grab a pen or well I would even say acrylic paint. These are harder to edit because there is no control z or “Eraser” so you won’t be wasting time trying to edit and fix. Yes there is stuff like white out, but using stuff like that will make your stuff look even worse than it originally did.

Here are some pen thumbnails
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lbbv9ytGeY...thumbnails.jpg

Ok moving on from thumbnails, when drawing people one of the most two sided things I’ve seen are gestures, I and many other artist feel gesture are the most important part of a figure drawing. Other artist don’t do gestures at all, so I can only tell you what I feel. When say gesture, I am not talking about one of those stick figure drawing , and not trying to grab at the pose, but actually grab at the energy and emotion of the figure in whole
Gesture drawing exampels
http://www.mde-art.com/art-blog/char...ture-drawings/
http://www.jaimetreadwell.com/pafa-drawing-figure.htm
http://www.artistsnetwork.com/wp-con...1_gesture3.gif
Yay gesture shapes!!!!!
http://ryansavas.blogspot.com/2008/0...-gestures.html
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uDkeMQfqrm...8703f3c50.jpeg
http://3kicks.blogspot.com/2010/04/g...harles-hu.html
We start simple and work to complex which is shown here
http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/junk/parleydressconst.jpg

All of this is simple gesture shape, these artist work simple, but will build further off this if they want, its started simple and become more complex
http://kidfrodo.com/gesture-drawing_20100917
http://briansydnor.blogspot.com/2010...ming-soon.html
I feel I’m stopping too early, but I think I’ve dumped a lot of stuff ontop of you without you being able to question me clearly.

[GunZet]

Also I don't know if you can read your own page. But your thread title has ellipses in it, take those out or people won't be able to see any further than page 1.

[Bardic-Dragoon]

Update art thread with no pictures. i hate doing this, but i haven't drawn much of anything lately and really had one or two things i wanted to respond to

@The_shaman

Do you better understand the thumbnail process now my friend?, don’t just stick with 1x1 inch, do some 3x2 inch, 2,x3 inch and so on. Everything you say you do, I do to, I always over think my drawings and paintings, and usually end up dis satisfied, even with thumbnails, I can easily run through 20 thumbnails without working on a final piece. This is when I rest and start again.

If you worry about edit and revising, than stop doing stuff digitally or with a pencil, and grab a pen or well I would even say acrylic paint. These are harder to edit because there is no control z or “Eraser” so you won’t be wasting time trying to edit and fix. Yes there is stuff like white out, but using stuff like that will make your stuff look even worse than it originally did.

The_shaman, this bit here makes me think you were taking what i wrote to literally, if you weren't ignoring it in total. I never said i was worried about editing and revising, i was describing how i did things, which tends to have a lot of revision (look at picture one on each of my prior posts to see what i mean) and honestly one of the things i really enjoy about drawing is that i seem to sometimes hit a, pardon the cliche, sort of zen like state as i touch up and edit a drawing. also i did not literally mean every thumbnail i ever made was 1"x1". honestly i don't know the size on most of those thumbnail attempts i just draw a small box of similar 'aspect ratio' to the idea in question and go. Also, great job on explaining what in your own words is "not a condense version of my use thumbnails speech" by explain what thumbnails are and how to make them.

Ok more seriously, 90% or so of what you typed i already know, I know what thumbnails are, why they are used, and how to make them. My issue is more in the fact that i just don't stop once i start. As a somewhat parallel example; I tend not to write more than two drafts for anything i write, however i go through so many more drafts before i ever write/type a word and once i start writing/typing i keep going self editing along the way until i'm done (or sick of writing) with the second draft coming after a final spell/grammar check and a few pass arounds for opinions. When i 'try' to use thumbnails i tend to fall into the same approach; by the time i'm drawing i've reviewed and over analyzed the idea to within an inch of it's life and theoretically worked out most of the big issues, so i start drawing, and don't stop till i stop and edit the small (or big if i find them) issues as i go to the best of my ability, hence the tendency to try and fit full pictures into tiny boxes that often leads me to just saying f*** the thumbnails it ain't for me (unless of course i find another way to do them/get over this issue)


@ GunZet, yeah i figured the problem after panicking that i couldn't see the second page of my own thread and noticing someone mentioning the whole 'ellipses are bad' thing in another thread, problem fixed and life goes on for what it's worth (though i am curious why that happens as i've stumbled on threads with that problem, well i think, page two was the only one blocked generally)


feh, must draw and make up for bad post... or something.

[Gedeon]

^do that.

People i think i have been here long enough to know what those ellipses are all about?

[Bardic-Dragoon]

...Why am i doing this again?

1. Leiana (two or three months old)

SPOILER! :

Shin Megami Tensei Imagine is a game that i don't like but on principle love (many of it's mechanics and ideas i love, but it's a chore to play and not all that much fun) Anyways this is an unfinished drawing of one of my characters from the game: Unholy Celestial Matron Leiana a LV 26 Demolition Dasher

2. Lord Stone (month or two old)

SPOILER! :

Interesting story for this as it's basically fan-art of a character i created. He is a character from a game idea me and two acquaintances were working on based largely on a vague thought experiment of mine (a game about talking that eschewed typical conversation trees framed as a medieval political drama) although Lord Stone was initially my idea he was for all intents and purposes nothing more than Generic Nobleman #1 given a name tied to what his lands were known for (mining and minerals) To see the original Design by one of said former acquaintance of mine click This

3. Amanda face (month or so old)

SPOILER! :

More of Amanda, she's kind of a default go to character for me

4. Amanda Expressions (week or two old)

SPOILER! :

More of Amanda, this time playing around with a few expressions nothing much...

[ScarletHue]

Your style is interesting, particularly the noses.

Anyway, to give your style that real polish I suggest you vary the line weight. It will make images feel more 'complete' and profesh.

Anatomy-wise the full body character will be my focus.
Her left arm is significantly longer than the right. The left arm is too long compared to the body, and the right too short. Pay real attention to measurements like this, because they really throw drawings off.
Her head- for an adult is far too large and I assume she is an adult from the fullness of her lips and the breasts.

Other stuff: Be careful about getting lazy when drawing hands and feet. Not a good habit.

- scarlet

[Bardic-Dragoon]

@ScarletHue this is why i like posting older drawings on here that i have long since moved on from, helps me see issues i never noticed (mainly arm lenghts, as i was under the impression 5 head heights was acceptable proportions for an adult) also line weight is the bane of my existance in many ways, i've alwasy had a heavy hand and never was good at controlling pencil pressure...

anyways on with the show


1. Racial Facial practice (2-3 months old)

SPOILER! :

just practicing trying to convey race in a drawing. i think i succeed but not sure. also credit where credit is due bottom right portrait is meant to be a character of pagod7 (NSFW?) named Donna.

2. Ponies (4-5 months old)

SPOILER! :

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ONY/Pony01.jpg
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps9436e8ca.jpg

Yeah i like ponies, yes that's an original character of mine. done for the second ATG on Equestria Daily a few months back in an attempt to get me drawing more, stopped doing it after two days though...

3. Chubby Nyuujou Megami test (week old)

SPOILER! :

just attempting to try and draw someone who is a bit on the pudgy side. not completed but considering that the whole point was trying to draw the torso with the extra pudge and had no plan or ideas how to go form there so just stopped. like how the torso turned out though.

4. Nyujou Megami Chubby pinup (NSFW?)

SPOILER! :

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...ps787500db.jpg

just be safe not putting direct image as she is technically nude and her undraw undetailed naughty bits are visible. anyways just started this today, need some help, i can figure out what to do with her arms. i had orignally intended to have her right hand on her hip while holding a jug of milk in her left hand, however this was just bland boring and the more i thought about it the worse the idea sounded as it was little more than "LOL lactophilia" rather than actually being interesting. oh also been having issues with lower legs but i erased those before deciding to scan so...

[Bardic-Dragoon]

1. Amanda new 'do (hot off the presses)

SPOILER! :

was origanally a quick sketch to try a different hair style for amanda, however i got this random urge to try and do some digital inking and coloring since i have a tablet that i hadn't used much or at all lately. mostly curious on impressions of the line work (having never done this) as the color is intentionally quick and dirty (mostly getting a feel for her coloring as i haven't done that in a while with her character.) also if any are curious the onrignal sketch/drawing i inked is bottom image of this.

(top was me forgetting her facial proportions)

2. Another NM pin up (hot off the presses)

SPOILER! :

again not putting direct image as technically nude even if i have covered or not drawn the naughty bits

playing around with trying to do another pin up style pose using Nyuujou Megami. still working at conveying chubiness. also just curious whether her legs seem too long or not.

[Blue_Dragon]

The nude is quite interesting: I like you're making a heavier character-it takes talent do something most won't tackle. One thing I might point out is that the hand on her hip is looking like it's going to be too small. It should probably be close to the size of her face. There's also something up with the tip of the tail, I think it's splayed out a bit much, and needs a wee bit more detail.

One other note, is that she seems off balance. Here legs can still meet like that, but they need to be spread further apart to spread the weight out, otherwise she's going to tip over to the right (her left.)

I like the style! You know, her face reminds me of something the great Ralph Bakshi would draw (He did Wizards, Fire and Ice, The Lord of the Rings, Cool World, etc.)

[Bardic-Dragoon]

Had to pull the lightbox out, must be posting on here again...

@ Blue_Dragon Yes, absolutely talent and other admirable qualities, not borderline fetishism(mostly sfw). In seriousness it made so much sense as her status a cowgirl/ushimimi and cows being known as large and somewhat fatty animals not to mention breast of the size i oft attribute to her looking more correct/natural on a chubbier frame. as far as your commentary, yeah the hand is small and half finished,it was sort of an after thought after shifting the arm position cause the pose looked off (likely the fact she was off balance you mentioned.)


well anyways more pictures

1.Another NM Pin V2 (Hot off the presses)

SPOILER! :

you should know the drill by now

so took a shot at redoing the pose to look less off balance, also changed the the design for the tip of her tail per blue dragons comment. not sure why i drew her tail tip the way i did before this is more in line with how i draw it anyways. at this point the main thing bugging me now is her arm, it looks oddly positioned and the less said about her wrist the better (it looked off before but now looking at it looks outright broken almost) well that and the fact i ran out of room for her feet, but this is Evan after adjusting the positioning on the page to try and make room for them from the original drawing, so that's likely not going to be fixed anytime soon.

2. Amanda new do full color (Hot off the presses)

SPOILER! :

figured i'd try and finish up the digitally inked and colored image of Amanda from the prior post. though I used to download and color in line art from other people never made my own line art and thus never colored my own work. its kind of different from how i typically did things but i rather like the look of it. still wanting opinions on it though.

NM Bust shot full color (Hot off the presses)

SPOILER! :

I liked the way the Amanda one looked so much i tried it with a second image (this one from earlier in the thread for those curious (contains undetailed but visible naughty bits)) not quite as happy with this one but still rather like it.