For Criticism, ???? and Profit.

Professor Irony

CYBER FUNKER
Moderator
As my usual art forum is... well, not dead, but rather sleepy these days, 'thought I'd post some stuff for criticising. These first two are set to be part of a character sheet, so hopefully they should all look like the same person. Anyway, I've still got one more sketch to do for it before I start on colouring them all, so any thoughts on what needs fixed at this stage would be most appreciated.
 
Those are really good, you done a good job with character continunity, something i have a problem with from time to time.

Also nice thread name :p
 
You've got a really nice style there. I especilly like the one of him smiling.

If anything, I think theres something about the fullbody shot that looks off.
I'm currently practicing with anatomy, if you'd like to join me in doing so, try out this site.

Otherwise, thats a neat character, I love the sketchy style and the way you use the direction of the lines to make his hair lie realistically.
 
Brilliant work on the face there, the only thing I'd say needs fixing are legs in the last one - they look a tad too thick, although perhaps that's intentional stylising.

Aside from that, bring on the colour!
 
Cheers for the comments guys - not used to people getting back to me so fast. I reckon the legs probably are off in the full length picture right enough; I'll try maybe thinning them down a bit to see if that helps. Full length shots like that always seem to give me trouble, so I'll have a look at that posemaniacs site as well - until now I've just been trying to use stock photos from getty images and deviantart.

Unfortunately I'm a horribly slow worker, so I usually just stick to using photos rather than trying to draw people on the spot - although I'm trying to improve on that a bit at the moment as it certainly helps kill time at work...

Also yeah, oddly enough I was recently trying to do a character for something else who was based on John Cleese, so may have carried some of that over without realising.

Anyway, will post more when it's done.
 
I suppose we see the things we want to when looking at pictures like this, as Otaku has demonstrated.

On a more relevant note, the way you choose to ink those sketches will affect the facial definition -and even the art style- quite significantly. Is there a particular type of character design or studio you're trying to emulate?
Not that I'd know of course. I myself very rarely pick up a pen to draw anything these days.
 
Hmm, tough one. In terms of character design, if I had to name just one artist that I want to emulate, it would probably be Tsukasa Hojo. I always liked his character designs in City Hunter; they're realistic, but still just slightly exaggerated and cartoony at the same time.

Generally though, I'm not that hung up on copying any one style in particular. Whenever I see something I like, I'll get a couple of examples of it and maybe try to incorporate into whatever I'm doing to see if it works. I'm open to just about anything so long as it's fairly realistic.

But inking, yeah ... confession time I think. I'm horribly lazy about inking things to the point where I'll often just adjust the image levels until the pencil looks reasonably black and then use digital colour under the pencil layer.

Still, I would like to get back to inking sometime soon. I'm hoping it might be possible to maintain the sketchy quality by crosshatching over the pencil, but any time I've tried that in the past it's generally not come out too well. Anyway, last thing I inked -
 
A59 Eh? We must have used part of that road today. Of course, taking the A64 is another viable route. It takes a little longer to reach the A1(M) that way, but it takes you through some interesting places.
 
Heh, nice to see someone spotted that the road really does lead out of York. Sadly I've forgotten to put a mini-cab company logo in the back window, but never mind.

Anyway, first batch of coloured images from the original post. There's still some guidelines to erase, but I'll get those when I'm putting all the sketches onto the same sheet.
 
Oh I particularly like the last one coloured, it brings it to life and adds character to the expression. It's pleasant seeing someone draw normal-looking people from time to time, as great as bouncy alien catgirl maids are ;)

R
 
chaos said:
What's was this guy's name again? Kurt Russel, isn't it?

"Snaaaaake Pliskin!".. sorry..

I liked your one page comic anyhow, I found quite amusing as a fan of Escape FNY and an inhabitant of Yorkshire. The colour version of your character is impressive too, as Rui says it adds a great deal. :thumb:
 
Thanks again for everyone's words of encouragement - I do pride myself on trying to keep it real(istic).

@chaos:

Sure, I'd be happy to take a stab at it. Might take me a little while though as I'm still on a 40 hr week at the moment, but if you've got a pic to hand just shoot me a link or whatever.
 
Colour version of the full-length shot as it's looking at the moment. I've reworked the legs a bit to try and make them thinner, along with tweaking the hands, eyes, etc. Something's still not quite right about the way he's standing, but I'm not sure if I can sort it without starting over again. Could also do with some more texture in the clothes and a little darkening to the skin tone.
 
I seem to have gotten a bit stuck with my character sheet at the moment, so here's something else in the meantime. As I spend quite a bit of time in the office drawing with a ballpoint pen (the excitement is just too much), I thought I'd have a go at doing a proper portrait with one to see how it turned out. Could do with a little tidying on some of the details, but I'm happy with it in general.

Would admit that I'm kind of hoping this might be recognisable without me saying who it is...
 
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