I'm not particularly active on this site, but I do draw rather frequently and I intend upon taking an arts course in university. In essence, I'm looking for some criticism regarding my work, be it about my sense of anatomy, color, composition, ect.? Having now lurked throughout the myriad of posts and forums in Hypnohub, I've come to see this site as one filled with artists and those experienced with drawn material to the point that I feel comfortable with asking for constructive criticism about my artwork.
I apologize for the rambling nature of this topic, but I feel that this input would be hugely important in my development as an artist, what with the aspirations for a career and for contributing more interesting pieces to this beloved site. :D
Thanks for any and all input!

It seems like you do this a lot but haven't studied any one particular thing in depth. You've got a style, you pay a lot of attention to coloring and shading. On the other hand it looks like your using low end tools to get the job done. This isn't to say that you should go buy (or aren't using) Photoshop. It seems like you colored with the dodge and burn tools though.
If your great strength is your shading and understanding of basic shape and dimension, your weakness is line and line quality. Also, beware of lettering, as it is a black beast that demands your soul in exchange for looking pretty.

Your pic of a dom with a candle looks like a pic of a sub to me, because someone would have to not be feeling any pain to hold a candle like that. But I tend to be over-analytical so that's probably just me. She's probably just hardcore.

Where do you want to go with your artwork? Is there a particular artist you admire or is this something you do for fun?

Thanks for the reply!

I do draw quite often, though it's generally with traditional mediums as opposed to digital. Digital art has always been a finicky avenue for me to work in, mostly due to my inability to find a style of coloring that I actually like. Despite perks such as layers and the frequently-mashed undo button, I can't settle into a particular coloring method like I have with traditional media. I actually don't use the dodge or burn tools, but my use of the paint tool tends to produce the same results anyway. :/

Line quality has only recently become a major regret of mine. I tend towards a sketchy style of work that forfeits sharp line art for rendering an idea faster. I've been attempting to fix it in traditional media, but it's bloody difficult to fix it digitally. Creating nice lines via tablet feels nigh impossible for me, no matter how much I practice it. Hopefully it can be resolved with further practice. Also, could you expand on the lettering comment? At the risk of sounding stupid, I don't know what you're referring to there. ._.

That candle dom picture is a old one, and it really shows. Whatever the concept was, it did not come through. :p It must take considerable force and care to hold that candle in place without setting herself ablaze.

I don't know exactly where do go with my art. I've talked with my uncle about doing commissions for a living, I've thought about trying to break into the gaming industry, and I've spoken with friends about assembling a development team of our own. University is something I'm looking to as an avenue for figuring this out, yet I haven't developed an expansive enough portfolio to apply.While I do draw for fun, I'd love to make a half-decent career out of it if at all possible.

To end this long-winded ramble, I draw inspiration from Cyriak's works. None of my work on this site really shows it (if it did, every piece could qualify for the nightmare_fuel tag), but a sizable portion of my traditional work consists of weirdly drawn humans and other miscellaneous monsters.

Been there, done that XD

If you want to improve as a digital artist, instead of traditional, you have to stick with it. Eventually, it'll become second nature to ya.

I used to hate digital. I loved how it looked.... when it was done by anyone other than myself. Eventually I got a tablet and started to seriously use it instead of bitching how I couldn't ink. Also, programs can SERIOUSLY help.

If you want it to feel more natural, do NOT, I repeat, do NOT try and ink with the Pen Tool in Photoshop! OMG that is SO NOT natural that it is scary. DX //dies

Ahem...

Anyway, to continue.

the Paint bucket can be so useful sometimes, but you really do need to be careful with it. I find it's better to [I'm assuming you have a program that allows layers - so not MSPaint] have a layer with your linework that you want to colour in. Make a layer beneath it and, essentially, trace the linework layer. Inwards a bit, so as to not go outside the lines [Unless that's the intention, of course]. And THEN use the bucket on the space to fill in.

For shading, Multiply is your best friend.
Overlay is your mistress for highlights.

At least, that's how I go about it ^^;;

Even if you find one style that you like for a bit, you may find a month down the road, or even just three pics down the road, that it just doesn't work for you. No matter what you do, you can't get it to work. You like it, but you don't like it. Trust me, I've been there. My shading methods change from pic to pic, I swear.

A style is something that will develop over time, so all I really can say is to just pick up a tablet and the pen, and just stick with it. Start with simple and stupid things.

Eyes for example. A piece of cloth. A sphere. A Cube. Etc. Just learn how it would all work. It'll help you decide HOW you want to shade, then you can just go from there.

<<hypnohub.net/post?tags=user%3ALunakiri|Just go looking through all of my 'styles' to see what I mean about the constantly changing shading for myself.>>

Oh
And Speedpaints.
Go through youtube, looking for speedpaints in whatever program you're using [I was using Sai at the time that I was watching a LOT of them.... and there are a LOT.] and that'll show you new tips and tricks that you never knew before.

The pen tools in Photoshop are probably there only to supplement saving selections to paths and to tweak imports from a proper vector illustration program. Vector illustration in general is different because you have to deal with the messy details of lines and shapes rather than the simplicity of a grid. But when you start playing around with blends and gradients it can be very rewarding. You also get to deal with the messy details of lines and shapes, which gives you a unique power over what you create.

If in theory you were to trip over a path in Photoshop, a way to color it would probably be to convert it to a selection and edit from there...



Try using the edge of a larger brush. An alternative would be to use the brush to edit flat fields of color or tone screens, which lends itself to cell shading, poster art and Lichtenstein style modern art. This could be done additively, by designing a brush tip that lays down a shape or texture over the area of its stroke or subtractively, by scraping away the edges of a shape.



A part of the issue there may be the brush tip and pressure settings you are using. The real issue is the apparent length of strokes you are drawing and the lack of stroke variation. A consistent nib shape leads to a particular quality of line regardless of the artists skill. For instance, <<markmcleod.org/wp_clevela...oads/2013/11/Crumb-2.jpeg|R. Crumb's>> work looks the way it does because he uses a technical pen. One of the properties of that device is that it gives consistent stroke dimensions unless there is a mechanical failure... like hard circular nib in most Photoshop programs. You can see everywhere he twitched and lifted up a pen...

A fun hobby is to draw a point. Then draw another point about 2 inches away. Then make a straight line to that point. You can vary this exercise by drawing diagonal, horizontal and curved lines. Given a few years you can trick all your friends into thinking you are genius because you can draw a perfect circle! You can find that joke and many others in "Drawing Dimension" by Cynthia Maris Dantzic. Includes illustrations of 24x36 newsprint of perfectly. Straight. Lines.

Tablets are also nearly frictionless. Paper is not. To solve this, pin paper to tablet.



Lettering is a deep technical skill. The further into it you go, the further you look into the abyss. Look far enough and you'll come out the other end a mathematician. Your probably safe if you pick up a calligraphy book and learn how to letter really well. Most of what you learn in college about kerning is probably fine too. When you may get into it if you ever try and design a typeface though.

The reason why I can tell that you haven't done this is because I've done it enough to know some of the quirks of 'F's. The crossbar is always shorter...



<<horrorbeach.tripod.com/si...ebuilderpictures/milk.jpg|Murder murder murda>>
<<k08.kn3.net/taringa/3/7/8/0/2/1/7/10_gamer_10/257.gif| And kids cartoon>>
The point being do what pleases you and do it well.

What's wrong with the Pen Tool? I use it all the time.

Thanks for the tips and advice! :) I'll be able to invest a fair amount of time into practice once my exams have been suffered through, cos belated studying is frantic studying. :p I'll repost to this forum once I've had a chance to attempt much of what was suggested.

And to what Lunakiri suggested about using speedpaints as examples, I can't believe I neglected that resource. Imma need to commit some serious time to this. >:I

The pen tool is really great for a lot of stuff if you don't have a tablet and don't know how to draw, like me. :( Sometimes you just want to make something that looks a certain way and you know there's no way you will ever get it with mouse drawing; in that case it's best to try the pen tool and then slowly shave off bits with the airbrush to get the necessary variable line weight.

The pen tool can get really cool results, I wouldn't write it off immediately. If the way you use it is just Pen>create stroke along Pen then you wont make an image look as nice. You should try to make the lines by using two lines from a pen and just filling them them in so you have total control over the line thickness and what not, I think Psi's art used the pen tool exclusively so if you dont believe me then look at his art, it shows that pen tool is super viable.

AS for the criticism I swear I should just have a copy pasta to post every time someone asks this because I find that I always say the same thing, mostly because what I say i think is what I would have told younger me when he was getting into art.

Ill just try to summarize as best I can since I usually end up in a huge rant.
FIRST, always draw from real life. Still lifes and figure drawings, you need to get a good grasp on anatomy and how lighting works in real life, then you can stylize it in your cartoony drawings properly.

SECOND look up tutorials on dA or tumblr and what not. Stuff like HOW TO DRAW HAIR, HOW TO DRAW EARS, HOW TO DRAW THE MIDDLE TOE, HOW TO DRAW GRASS, yes, even grass, learning any concepts like how to draw trees, grass, armor, will help you. As an artist you can be happy with just knowing how to draw hot nudes, you need to know how to draw the bed that nude is on, the pendulum the nude is staring at and the grass that the nude is lying in.

THIRD take all critical feedback you can, the only way to get better is to know what youre doing wrong, you dont need to be an artist to see if something looks wrong.

FOURTH you wanna draw pinups and hot newds? learn Composition, gesture drawing, line of action and perspective. You gotta know how to make an interesting picture using the human body and only the human body. Doing a pose where someone is sitting on the a bed touching boob is fine, but why not make it a POV where the girl is leaning in facing you on a bed with one of her hands reaching out to you while the other reaches down and plays with herself.

FIVE do studies, sit down, and draw hands 20 times, then faces, then eyes, just draw, draw drawdrawdraw, wanna get gud? drawdrawdraw

2 channels i recommend to everyone
www.youtube.com/user/Sycra
www.youtube.com/user/ProkoTV
watch some of their tutorials, they are super basic and fundamental. they helped me ALOT they can help you
Ctrlpaint is also really good, they taught me how to do lighting properly like ambient shadows, rim lighting, directional shadows, etc, but they are really good for overall digital art

there was a thread recently with someone looking for art advice, i pretty much said the same thing there too but its worth looking at hypnohub.net/forum/show/15581 i do mention stuff about developing your own style in there too if you want to skim that

also luna mentioned using multiply for shading and overlay for lighting, and its not TOTALLY wrong, I used to do that and sometimes still do for shading but what more important is to understand color theory and lighting properly. You need to know what color the shadow should be, how dark is it, is it a soft shadow? is it a hard one? how far is it from the source, how blurry does it get, how hard should the light be, where is the light coming from, how much of the light washes out the color. etc. Looking at your art you should really practice this, you seem to be falling into the PILLOW SHADING trap.
Please google PILLOW SHADING, you'll understand what I mean immediately, i hope.

NOW FOR YOUR ART SPECIFICALLY
the first thing that stood out to me is your figures are all really blobby. I may sound a little mean, and I don't want you taking it the wrong way, critiques can be rough and im kind of a dick sometimes so bear with me. I kind of felt like the body's style and proportions are based off of teletubies, everything seems chubby, soft and rounded where it shouldnt be. Also the way you draw faces seems far too simplified, you need to draw real life faces before you start doing stylized stuff, gotta know the rules before you break them. Your lines are also a tad shaky, the way i do it is draw with quick long strokes, avoid chicken scratching when you draw lines, thats fine for sketches but unless you have a edgy rough style its not gonna work out. And dont trace over them slowly either cuz thats why they come out jagged. Overall all i can say is just draw real life figures and follow as many tutorials as you can. Watch other people draw, speedpaints are okay but they can be intimidating because someone draws something masterfully so quickly and you barely even see how, livestreams and real time drawing is better imo so you can see what the person is doing. Your shading is all really soft too, you need to know where a shadow should have a hard edge and where it should be soft, and again, you learn that from real life drawing.

I have a lot more i can say but those seem to be the dire points, the first few months drawing are the hardest but they are also when you improve the fastest. once youve been drawing for a long time its harder to improve, at least for me so bear with it, all those amazing hot girls people draw were drawn by someone who drew pointy chin giant eye'd dA tier art at one point so dont be discouraged.

Anyway I ended up ranting a real long on AGIAIN GODAMNITWHY DO I KEEP DOING THIS I hope this helps you a bit. I know of some artist who when they got some criticism for their art instantly call those people haters and tell them if you dont like it ignore it. and THATS BAD, WRONG, STUPID AND IF YOU DO THAT I PITY THE HELL OUT OF YOU. Good luck on your art things. Also I've done commissions before and I'm currently doing game dev stuff myself at school so I can tell you that you have a long way to go, im saying this not to discourage but hopefully to motivate you to get good and get good faster, whenever i see an artist who is better than me and at my age, my first thought is I'M GOING TO BE BETTER THAN YOU AND I WILL WORK SO HARD UNTIL I ACHIEVE MY GOAL. I say that is a good way to go about it.

@Zko
If you are anything like me you wish to confirm yourself as you are now or live vicariously. I personally try and say just enough to destroy myself as I was (it oddly confirms what I am now) and just enough that another person makes more porn.



The pen tool is a gateway drug to vectors and illustration that does not rely on muscle memory; instead pure technical and conceptual skill. The position I'm in though, so much has changed since I stopped working on art (about two or three years ago) that any advice I offer is dated.

For instance, Photoshop used to cost a grand or so, Illustrator about a hundred bucks. Now illustrator costs twice as much as Photoshop if bought as an individual subscription; it really changed the economics of Adobe's products. Inkscape is about to leapfrog from version .48 to version .91, so it might finally be stable enough to use as seriously as Gimp. Corel claims to have updated their user interface... but I think that particular company is a bunch of snake oil salesmen (even amongst software developers) and I only ever bought their products for Swiss 721 }:

I feel like that list of, what are essentially the basics of art, is kind of what I needed about now. I haven't really sat down and tackled things like shadows and anatomy (to name a few concepts amidst the multitude of them) in a long time, which has probably resulted in some stagnation I direly need to fix. I don't have a huge amount to reply with to Zko, but I hugely appreciate you writing that criticism about my work. It'll be instrumental in pushing me to improve as I both learn how to draw digitally as well as just draw in general. :D

I'm currently practicing anatomy and faces by drawing stillframes of Mike on Idea Channel, so I'll make sure to post the results of that once something has been rendered.

The basics tend to be called 'art elements' and 'art principles'. Sometimes people put in the word 'design' in place of 'art'. Food for the local search engine. Solid books tend to give you perspectives of thinking on these things, you may want to try a few out at a library. You will probably be sold one or more of these at the local college.

Each college department tends to have a section of books for bored students to read. Or take (looks at hard bound, early edition instructors copy of textbook). Also, a college library (as opposed to a public library) will have a variety of these. Since they are geared to students and not the general public you will have a much different selection. Some of these libraries are open to the general public. Worth checking out.

Not giving a list because they tend to change by profession and interest. Better if you write you own from a couple of different sources.