Hawkeye's Art

[Hawkeye53]

Hey!

Okay, so I drew a few today and I think I'm doing okay on faces and hair, but basically anything below the neck doesn't seem to look right to me. Any suggestions?



It's Kai Hiwatari from Beyblade. It looks a little better now that I've smoothed it out a bit in Photoshop. He has some random spikes coming from the base of his skull as well, that I can't seem to get right (I erased them for now).

[Psy]

just in general to improve (you will hear this allot sorry) study up on anatomy and how things are placed and fit together. Allot of people say not to copy draw from artist that you admire because you will get stuck in that style and learn their mistakes but i think its best to copy draw so you learn diffrent styles and see what you like and feel comfrotable with.
If you learn (if you havent allready) the egg drawing method (oval or egg with two lines dividing the oval into four sections) and learn to break down the elements of the face and body into simple shapes (circles triangles squares and rectangles) you will get much better at placing everything and even being able to break down other peoples drawings to see how they drew it and redo it yourself.

The hair seems to close to his scalp (not the spikes) and has no volume at the smoother parts. May i ask how long you have been drawing?

[Hawkeye53]

Yesterday was my first try with manga-style drawing, before that it was just the occasional doodle or something for school, so I'm pretty much a total newbie. I had never really used guidelines before, which I realized was why drawing people had already frustrated me before, lol.

Yeah, I'm not totally familiar with manga/anime yet (pretty much a noob in that area too) so I'm probably just going to start out drawing fanart of different characters I like and stuff, just until I feel comfortable enough to try original characters. I was sort of trying to do the egg drawing method for the shoulders, but I couldn't seem to get the proportions quite right, and after about a half-dozen tries, figured I'd ask for a bit of advice. I probably just need to practice the egg drawing method a lot until I get used to the proportions.

I hadn't noticed before but the non-spiked part does look pretty flat, how do I fix that?

Thanks!

[nisaren]

I was sort of trying to do the egg drawing method for the shoulders, but I couldn't seem to get the proportions quite right, and after about a half-dozen tries, figured I'd ask for a bit of advice. I probably just need to practice the egg drawing method a lot until I get used to the proportions.

I'm not familiar with this "egg drawing method". If you really are interested in just learning the basics of how to draw, I recommend reading the Andrew Loomis drawing books. The principles in those books, such as using geometric shapes as a base for various body parts, is pretty much standard process for most artists and can be applied to any type of art.

Also, remember to keep practicing. It doesn't matter if what you are drawing doesn't look good right now because you are basically teaching your brain how to see things in a different manner and your body needs time to memorize these actions and make them second nature. As one artist once said, "It takes a thousand drawings to make one good one." So the more your draw the quicker you can get those initial thousand out of the way.