Hello, waverun here again. I figured it's time I continue with the uploading of my progress images into the forums instead of uploading them to the posts. So here's another one, give me critique, and then advice right after the critique as to not be so nitpicky about everything.

imgur.com/a/nK1sU

Advice? Maybe don't be so demanding about what is essentially a favor with pretty low looking odds of a payoff?

In terms of this image, the body is absurdly tapered. I guess it's something I take for granted due to how long I've been drawing but I find it hard to fathom that you could look at this and fail to notice that the legs are way too narrow compared to the upper body. I'm not even sure what to suggest for honing a sense of scale short of just saying 'be more mindful of this'.

Are you doing any observational drawing or just working from a mental image? Because I'd say you're definitely still at a stage where the best thing you can do is try to recreate an image as faithfully as possible rather than try to make something up, just to get a feel for the relative lengths and positions of things.

Also, and this is perhaps the most important question, how many drawings have you done that you haven't shared with the hub, between now and back when you started posting traditionally?

Okay, so there's definitely improvement here. The head is looking better, and the hand is muuuuch better. The fingers are still a tad spindly, so try filling them up a bit more, and the thumb looks slightly broken, but it's nothing practice can't solve. Overall though, the hand is vastly improved. I think you took my advice, because it's a lot better proportioned.

I'd say keep practicing the head and hands for now, but the next goal is working out the body:limb ratio. They're far too long for the torso, so try to figure out if you want to enlarge to torso, or shrink the limbs. I'd go with the latter, because you seem to be getting the head down, and you'd have to enlarge the head, too.

The upper body has certainly improved, but it might be a tad early for you to start foreshortening. Lower body is a right mess still, I frankly haven't the faintest what's going on there. I'd suggest you pay close attention to proportions, especially regarding width, as well as general anatomy, particularly with the pelvis. Regular image search should suffice for reference pictures at this stage.

In general I'd advise you to stick to getting the very basics right, and if possible drawing kendolls for the time being. Drawing clothed figures can create a bad habit of ignoring the finer points of anatomy.

I'm not trying to draw realistic people unless I'm replicating a real image, I feel that it's just not fun to completely replicate a completely-realistic person since their proportions aren't exactly something fun or visually appealing to draw.

So far I've done about 12 hand drawings, starting when I was back in high school, including 2 of dear Hypno-Tan, but one of those 2 was while I was back in school.

And the drawings from my high school days weren't all that good in terms of anatomy and proportion.

And trust me when I say this, it certainly isn't visually appealing to most people here to draw a completely realistic human being (all the way to the smallest lines on the fingertips) , which is why I'd like to stick with anime-style.

Look at Penken, Monochrome, Marsminer and Sleepymaids work. None of it is realistic, yet you all love it.

Which is why I'd rather stick with a style of my own, just with proper anatomy, instead of straight-up drawing anatomic and realistically-full-on-complete human beings. I sure as heck don't like to do so, and I'm sure none of you want to see a human being with an enlarged head, a friggin cobras-hood-wide neck and eyeballs too close to the nose for gosh sakes.

As far as I can tell, Pastel isn't asking you to draw realistic people. He's asking you to draw based on images to improve your style -- but those images could be whatever you wanted. I can understand wanting to stick with anime-style, but that doesn't mean that you don't have anything to use as a reference. Pick an anime character, find an image of him/her/it/etc., and recreate the drawing yourself. Do it again. Pick a different one and do it again. That way, you've got a reference right there, and can (somewhat) do the critiquing process yourself.

If your grand total is 12 drawings you're not drawing even remotely near enough, regularly enough, to actually develop any degree of ability.

And you've been told, repeatedly, that you need to learn to draw realistically first. Even people who draw in a stylized way need to understand how the actual object works. It's pretty much an old adage at this point that you need to know the rules before you break them, and you clearly don't know them yet. It being boring to you is NOT an acceptable excuse. No-one ever said learning to draw was fun, it's going to take a lot of effort, and a lot of practice in areas you probably wont care for. If you're not prepared to deal with that just give up now and put that effort towards a pursuit that suits you better.

*coughshecough*

If he uses anime as a baseline he'll probably just pick up bad habits common to the style, tbh.

I mean, I started anime first and I'd say I turned out in the low to mediocre range in terms of drawing capacity so I wouldn't recommend it. [though that's probably just because I'm somewhere between lazy and genuinely perpetually exhausted so idk] :x Either way, you end up having to try to go back and unlearn things and that's harder than just learning it right to start with.

Well the 12 images I mentioned were just MC/hypno related. I have WAAAY many more than I can even count. So much that I now have folders for their categories.

I can confidently Reinforce this.

<<i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/236/792/3c2.jpg|Wave is a huuuuuuuge Code Geass fan.>> I personally like the style (makes collectables a bitch to pose from what I hear though), but not only is it a controversial style, it's extreeeeeemely high level. I don't think Wave should try emulating that at this point. Hopefully, I'm making a difference with my focused feedback, but idk. I'm taking credit for the hand looking better, though.

them legs look like fettuccine noodles

no but seriously, even if you're drawing in an anime-esque style, you need to have consistent, and realistic proportions. like i want to know what anime has the characters lower body look like a half empty tube of toothpaste, because really, that is incredibly distracting. like the neck is thicker than the hips, that does not look healthy. i understand if you just want to draw in an anime style, but in order to get there you have to learn the basics, and to learn the basics, you have to get those realistic proportions down before you can feel confident enough to exaggerate them. i have been drawing for years and because i stuck myself in this rut of drawing the same things in the same way for such a long time, i stagnated and i've had to reinvent my style from the ground up, and i'm still not confident enough to post what i want to post because i know i have such a long ways to go before it even comes close to good. also, basically everything pastel said. you may not want to draw realistically, but you have to if you're going to take drawing seriously. there's nothing wrong with drawing as a hobby or as a means to kill time, but if you're dedicated and passionate about it, you simply have to work hard at it, so seeing you post that you don't want to learn how to draw from life because it's "boring" or "visually unappealing" is kind of infuriating.

<<i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/236/792/3c2.jpg|May I refer you back to CG>>

see but code geass characters are consistently thin. it's not like they start off looking like joseph joestar from the waist up but they skipped leg day at the gym. it's very clearly a style, one that i'm admittedly not a fan of, but with this drawing it doesn't seem to stem from style, it's more like he got to the waistline and below and simply didn't know what to do at that point.

"I will follow through with it this time."

...welp, guess that wasn't the case at all. Like you failed to improve with the anatomy as to somehow not see what's even remotely off about the legs, and now you're going so far as to defend this tripe by saying, "Guys, trust me, if I did super realistic art none of you would like it at all! That's why ANIME art's the way to go!!!"

The quote from me and you above,
Came from a forum post,
Where you asked for tips on human anatomy,
And from what I can tell you've done absolutely nothing with the advice we gave you.

Like this isn't remotely an anime style, and even when anime styles have like bigger heads they're still anatomically correct to a degree, and you still haven't been able to do just that.

And I said I was done helping, cause I really am; rather, I'm commenting cause I'm just flat out peeved at how you asserted that "hey guys, we've all gone through some shit; I've gone through some real bad shit! But when we work together, we can really make anything possible!", yet once again, still have failed to follow up with what people offered to help you utilize.

I just hope you know I gave up with helping you cause you couldn't do something so goddamn simple when it comes to sketching outdoors, or just sketching in general. All you keep doing is attempting to make more of the same old art without taking any advice, and as per usual it always comes out with the same issue. You know I figure nothing will ever change with ya rn, and honestly, I want ya to prove me wrong, but you've shown absolutely no signs of such a thing coming to be... .______.