RedCaliburn's Artwork - Forever Road to Improvment

[RedCaliburn]

Hi, I'm new here. I've been lurking sometime around this area quite a bit. I've decided to join because you guys have some awesome artwork, or excellent references to idea's and concepts that I could possibly use in the future. I've been drawing since I was a child and I'm still trying to learn/improve everyday. I'm not a crazy anime fan, but for years I have been wanting to be able to do and draw everything that is either realistic or cartoon/anime/western, etc. I draw in both traditional and digital; photoshop and illustrator is what I'm working on, so I may need a hand setting it up. This is my first time ever posting on any website to get critiques because I'm more of an indepedent artist who's learning on her own. ^^;

I'd also appreciate any kind of feedback- in fact, give me your harshest crtique; even if it sounds mean, but that's how I learn, so that I understand what I am doing wrong and I will be willing to improve on it. It would be nice to let me know what you like about a particular peice/style etc. I also like looking at references or using visual guides like red lineing to see things that I clearly messed up or I did not see. I will promise to you and myself that I will get better and only better, thank you everyone .

Here's some artwork to begin with, I will post more in the future for sure.

Warwick sketch
http://redcaliburn.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d5gqm5l


References used to sketch these animals to study a little bit of fur.
http://fav.me/d5h4ite


Orianna sketch I did for my friends birthday
http://fav.me/d5hyckd


(origional peice of work) Ancient mechanical Hydra thing...
http://fav.me/d5hy4qq


Some Capcom art that I heavily used for references, or to be copied to study/practice techniques.
Oni/Asura
http://i46.tinypic.com/2uiynnr.jpg


Ibuki sketch/concept Art
http://i47.tinypic.com/11t2xhj.jpg

[JJJorgie]

Cool art so far. Next time, you you actually post the pictures on here, it's kind of a pain going from link to link and I can't the third one.

On the first picture, the arm on the right is shaped a little strangely. I'd try to make is more symmetrical with the other arm.

On the profile face of the last picture, the chin is extremely large and the ear is a little too far back.

Keep up the good work and welcome to MT! Glad you could join us!

[RedCaliburn]

Thanks for replying!

I wasen't sure if the images were going to strech out of the page or because of the quality size it could strech out the page too far and scrolling would be a pain, but there we go, I submitted my artwork on a different website and posted the original on deviantart. Other images that are not on deviantart also has a link ontop of it to view the image incase it came up as an [X].

I wanted his hands to look more natural. My original sketch has them both facing in the same direction symmetrical. I wasen't sure if I should change it because at that time I was worried that it didn't look right, that may have been very well a mistake.

I apologize, wich one are you refering to? Is it one of the faces, or the one in standing pose?

Thank you, I'll do the best I can. This website did help me understand anatomy a bit better and I'm mostly struggling with faces in general. In perspective, angles of faces certain area's of the features of the face can shrink, grow, or even dissappear. Second challenge is the accurate placement of ears, and nose. The only thing I can get a real reference is by touching my end of the jawbone which connects right below the ear.

[Rubisko]

Hi, welcome to MT

I'd like to start off saying that you have a good ability for observation; the drawings you did from reference looks very nice. If you want to be able to draw from your imagination though you'll need to learn how to project form in a drawing. Perspective is probably what you'll want to begin with. Mix in a few simple still life drawings in the batch and you'll have your studies and practices cut out for you over the next few weeks

[RedCaliburn]

Thank you for the advice Rubisko, I've been on the lookout to study 1 point, 2 point, or multi-dimentional perspective for some time now. Also note the lack of backgrounds in my scenes. I'll be doing some studies on landscapes from photographs, still life and simple/complex objects. I used to do still life in school, but I feel that I've lacked in practicing perspective art.

[theAnimeRebel]

Great. One thing though... Your ninja lady's face changes way too much, try to make sure there is some consitency between photos

[RedCaliburn]

That's a good point that I'd like to talk about. I've been expirimenting with the changes in her face to find a style that I like and recently about 2 weeks ago and I've started to develop it pretty recently so the style shoulden't change too much. I'm going to be producing a portriat version so, look out for that in the future.

Somthing I'd like to say, is that Ibuki was a difficult character to get a consistency because I haven't established my own style. I know it will come in time as I practice and draw what I like on my own, to shape that style. Thanks for the advice, it is definately what I've been thinking when drawing her.

[BunnyVoid]

nice. I like the details you put in every drawing. The details have some sort variation instead of a pattern. You seem like you're good at "looking" at things.

However I think you have no definite style yet. Your sketching style differs for every pic. It ranges from really soft strokes (lions etc) to almost restricted and angled (animu girl). Your inking style too. We have yet to see how you color, but I assume it also varies a lot.

Do you copy things more often than create? Or is it because you have had a recent hiatus in drawing and returned every now and then (this is the case for me)? In this case, I wish you to post some more drawings so that we will see.

If I may ask, how long did these take you? its just a habit of mine to count stuff, I hope you don't mind sharing lol. >.>

I can't fully critique yet since its still a bit inconsistent. So, I can't analyze your process that well yet, sorry. Maybe I'll wait for more draws. Hope this is fine.

[RedCaliburn]

Yes, it is a indentifiable trait that I have. I like being detailed and careful about my final products of my drawings. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so that's probably why it looks that way. I hope it's interesting to you guys...

There is different variation in sketching when it comes to somthing real, then somthing else compared to an fictional girl lol. When I see somthing that's already in front of me, it's easier to sketch. If there's no references, I get a bit uncertain or I have to imagine a little. The soft strokes are used to create fur pattern, in other words, my goal was to draw the lion more realistic to the real picture, then opposed to styling. Then the girl, I use human anatomy as a reference to build her. It almost gets to the point where if I try drawing anime, it gets too technical, but I'm trying my best to be more 'free'.
Inking is different compared to what I do between traditional and digital. However, I can make somthing very similar/exact if I knew what kind of preset I'd have to make, that copies somthing like an ink pen (copic muti-liner ink to be specific). That warwick picture for example, I used a custom hair brush (not made by me) to try out that style. Coloring long story short, I use prisma pencil crayon and conte chalk to shade and color traditionally. I'm interested in cel-shaded type and soft gradient type coloring for digital. So no, not really.

Copy as in tracing, or by original art? If you mean by tracing, no, I use references. Original artwork, would be yes, I am a bit lacking. I've been starting to draw more seriously to understand art that I've lacked in studies. But in order for me to create really good stuff, I have to understand that the more I draw other things real or not real, the more idea's I get so that I can make original content. Yes I will post more, but I also have school to worry about as well, I will surely display more for you guys soon.

Hours. I know when somthing looks rushed if they are just careless concepts and really deformed things. No problem, I can start with each one with you. Wariwck was 2 hours for sketching, 1 and half hour including plans to ink. Animal sketch took 1-2 hours each. Orianna took a full 2-3 half hours of sketching, inking and coloring. Ancient dragon snake thingy... Uh, hard to say since I did it awhile ago. 5-7 hours in total for sketching, inking and coloring? It was really big. Oni and Asura took 1-2 half hours of sketching and shading. Ibuki took like... 45 mins-1 half hours for each? Yea I hope these are accurate ><;

It's fine, no worries. Thank you for the insight.

[ClockHand]

Well most people have already critiqued these stuffs you uploaded, but I guess one more is not going to make any problem.

Its obvious that you are good at drawing what you can see, so it does make working with a reference easily but at the same time dangerous, as working with references (which is the best way to start) create in your head a catalog of pictures, poses, bodies and faces, it can also strangle your own work if you don't use that catalog, what I mean is, if you don't work references as a learning experience and you use it just as a "see-copy-done", you are going to develop problems when you try to do things from your own head.

Now, there is a lot to work, even so you are good using references I can still see problems. I don't have the references you used, but I can see how Gouki face is stretched and his nose use like 60% of his face, also there is no real light source as you casted shadows everywhere (the image might have color), or the animal drawings where you see the husky having his nose pointing in a different perspective than his head, the lower jaw being to thin, and the upper jaw having a weird volume that doesn't correlate with the forehead.

On full body, you need to work proportions, Ibuki size is ridiculous, basically being 6 heads big, in some one arm is larger than the other, the same for legs in other cases and you are relaying on anime face features too much for her face, which even so it might be acceptable for the character as its a fan art, it lose all the volume it could have. And again, no light source.

Finally on the lineart, the lines are too shaky (I can see in a finger how you made a bump), the anatomy of the "doll" are extremely irregular (again, human anatomy problem) and the concept of the hydra is extremely confusing and arise too many questions, like: "If its mechanical why does it have muscles?" or "why does the lower jaws have no volume and look like paper jaws" and my favorites "where do the other heads come from", "why does it open its mouth but its not connected to the neck?". Its okay to have these problems for a concept, but not for a design or final piece. Also anatomy of every type helps a lot to make more believable your "mecha" work.