... Attempts with Photoshop.

[Arthil]

Hello all. I actually dabble in art sites and tend to make my own stuff in photoshop from what I see. Recently I've done a few things that I'm pretty proud of and I want to share and be critiqued so I can improve.

NOTE: CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM OR I WILL IGNORE YOU -u- I don't deal with drama, I just want to get better and hone on my skills as an artist so please please please respect me and my artwork.

Here's a new one... I was going for a Horai symbol design... but we see how THAT turned out
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/264/7/b/horai_symbol_design_by_animenae455-d2z7ydm.png

This was supposed to be a Kingdom Hearts character Purely photoshop~
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2010/253/4/c/cassie___kh_oc___by_animenae455-d2yg87h.png

This one is purely digital. x.x;; It took FOREVER xD I'm not particularly happy with the shading, though. =\ I wish I added more sparklies to the background and maybe fixed the girl's face. But overall it turned out better than I hoped.
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/253/3/6/willyoukissthestarswithme__by_animenae455-d2yff0x.png

Oh heh-heh. I watched my brother play Left4Dead and so wanted to make a character, so this is my L4D huntress Deviette. She doesn't talk whatsoever... and she prefers to play with her food.
http://th05.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2010/200/4/5/Deviette_by_AnimeNae455.jpg

This is a sad attempt at drawing a 'dragonhawk' from World of Warcraft. Since it was so fail, I doodled other things on it to make it a different species xD
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/088/b/2/Fey_Sundragon_by_AnimeNae455.jpg

This is an old old old OLD sketch I did back in... what... '08? But I love it and it's currently mounted on my wall next to my bed XD She, too, is from World of Warcraft (she's a blood elf warlock)
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs50/i/2009/338/2/5/Chantress_Of_Darkness___Daly___by_AnimeNae455.jpg

Well that's all I have for now... but please tell me what you guys think~~

[Maeve]

Interesting pictures.
You might want to do a bit of anatomical study/ proportions for the characters. Not that they are bad, but I'd help make them more believable, and it helps with the shading too.

As far as critique goes, I'd like to know what tool(s) you use (mouse or tablet) before I add more, since it changes the way of drawing and all.

[Arthil]

I know I know =C I have a manga/anime style though which makes drawing realistic things ten times harder.

I use a trackpad to draw in photoshop as well as color~~

[tavis harts]

Not bad.

Because you are drawing from start to finish in photoshop I would suggest getting a tablet. Things like the new bamboo are actually pretty reasonably priced.

http://www.wacom.com/bamboo/bamboo_pen_touch.php

About 100 dollars for the pad and pen and you can find them at most electronic stores.

The reason why I suggest this is because while the trackpad is able to make it a bit more natural the wacom pads make feel like you are actually working on paper. They are capable of understanding pressure to adjusting the width of the lines and new ones like the bamboo can even detect the angle of the pin and mimic what it would do on real paper.

As for each of the pictures.


1: horai symbol

Overall very nice. I like the composition and colors. Everything works well together.

What I suggest actually is a different way to use photoshop tho. Most of the time photoshop is a good raster program (which is how you have been using it) but it can do vector work. Vectors are actually very nice because they can produce clean lines at any level and tend to give illustrative work like this a crisp look. The secret is you have to use the pen tool.

Sadly I tend to avoid the pen tool myself so I wouldn't be able to help you directly. I suggest searching for pen tutorials like this one.
http://www.melissaclifton.com/tutorial-pentool.html

#2 Kingdom hearts

Good composition again. I like how you use the background as a frame.

As for CC. I would say to make the lines a bit more consistent. So far they vary a lot in size. Of course this could be due to your trackpad. ^^;;

#3: The sparkle girl.

She is very nice. Good use of color.
Incase you revisit it one thing I always do to check faces is flip the canvas horizontally. It actually makes thing you never noticed before stand out and it makes it easier to correct any errors.

Have you already learned how to create brushes? If you haven't I would suggest it because it makes things like sparkles easier.

I can somewhat tell there is shading, mostly on her neck, but it's not very apparent. Due to how you color I take it you are wanting to do cell shading. Theres actually a pretty easy trick for cell shading that allows you to adjust the shading.

I'm going to use this image of mine as an example.

What you do is start with the base


Then on a new layer you make a flat mat of solid color where you think any shadow might possibly go. It's not going to look very pretty at this point I will admit it, but hey it's its own layer so don't worry about it.



In photoshop there is something that lets you adjust the opagency of a layer so now you can use this to your advantage.

You can choose to make it darker for something dramatic or lighter for a softer look.



I chose 44%

Afterward you work on the highlights and basically do the same thing. After a bit of trial and error you can get the shadows exactly how you want.



#4 left for dead

Nice concept for a character.
I noticed you are using some hard things to draw. The arm up can be very tricky.

For suggestions: I say try to make the definition on things like muscles a little stronger.

#5
Fey-sundragon

Very nice.

I don't have anything to really critique.Its very cute and I love the face.


#6 WoW

Very nice. I like the character design. As you mentioned its an old sketch so you are probably aware of some of the anatomical problems.

What I generally suggest tho is learning a head height system as well as some of the major muscles for drawing. It helps a lot of learning anatomy. Its best to draw from reference if you can but sometimes its impossible to find someone in the position you want to draw.


I hope this helps. ^^;; If you have any questions let me know.

[Arthil]

Thank you very much for your words~ I'm pretty new at shading so this helps a lot ^^ Thank you for your critique~

I'm going to go back sometime and redo a couple of them (maybe) but I wasn't sure what I should improve more than the obvious. I am pretty proud of how I drew the scythe, but going down the waist she was a real problem for me. i have a lot of anatomy problems, so I've been looking at anatomy books for a bit. My biggest problem is muscle detail. I don't have a plethora of money, so buying a tablet will be difficult (or finding a new pen for my old one, which is a Wacom Bamboo).

I really appreciate the time you put in to look at my artwork~ thank you so much. ^^ I will submit new artwork sometime and publish the links here.