Advice for a budding artist, please!

S

Siobhan

Brigade Leader
Hi everyone! :D

I'm new to this forum, and pretty new to the world of anime in general. However, whilst bored in my lunchbreak the week before last, I decided to randomly have a go at drawing some characters. Below are the first two that I feel are enough to display, and I would be very grateful if those with a more experience eye could take a look, and give me pointers on what I need to improve.

Both of these are line drawings, either composed entirely in Photoshop (the girl) or converted from a scanned image (the man). Both are entirely original and my own fault. I am attempting to colour them at the moment, but keep on deleting everything when I'm not happy with it! I have not even attempted to draw bodies yet.

Anyway, any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y244/S ... Girl-2.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y244/SibbieG/Man1.jpg
 
First off, welcome to the forums! If you want some inspiration to get you fully immersed into the world of anime I (on behalf of everyone here) recommend this boxset

http://www.theworks-art-books-music.com/shop/product.php?xProd=1512

It's got a great mix and you're bound to find something you like. It's the same thing the people on here recommended to me when I first started out a couple of weeks ago and now I'm addicted! :D

Secondly, in regard to your pictures: WOW!!! You really have got some talent there, if you ask me. My first pictures are a bit iffy, and I'm taking a while to get good, but I liked yours. The only help I can really offer is the book by Ben Krefta:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/203-0142843-4709563

I stumbled across it randomly in Waterstones, and I found it's step by step guides pretty useful.

Hope this helps. I look forward to seeing more of your work!
 
:oops:

Now I'm a little embarrassed. I'm very flattered that you think they're quite good though. They did take an awful long while, I decided to redo the fringe on the guy on Monday, and it took me 2 hours. :?

Just wondering, if you like step-by-step tutorials, have you found the ones at http://www.howtodrawmanga.com/tutorial.html yet? That's where I started the other day (came home from work with two pages filled with eyes).

I'll check out that book when I get the chance, I've already ordered "How to Draw Anime and Game Characters: v. 1", which I believe is less of an instruction manual and full of examples, so it sounds like it might complement it very well. Thanks.

p.s., just taken a look at the one you posted, it's really cute! :D
 
Cheers for the link! I know a lot of people don't approve of using guidelines, but I don't really have much natural talent when it comes to drawing, so I need to use them to get used to proportions and all that.

I'm really impressed (and more than a little jealous! Lol) that they're some of your first attempts! We've both got a way to go yet (bodies are pretty daunting!) but I reckon you'll get better before I do.

p.s., just taken a look at the one you posted, it's really cute!
Click to expand...

Cheers! :D Anyway, enough ranting from me. I'll let other people comment.
 
Thats your first attemps, i think they are great, i really love the style of the girl, and the man coloured is great. And hey, don't worry about taking a long time, everyone seems to be able to do pictures in the shortest time, but not me, drawing takes me ages and ages, i have pictures that i've been working on the longest time because i can't manage to draw them how i want them
 
The amount of time and effort you must put in to your pics really does pay off! The longest I've ever spent on a picture was probably when I made a Christmas card for my mate today. It was the first time I tried drawing hands but I was so pleased with it that I used it rather than just having it as a rough sketch before the real thing!

Anyway, great work again! ^_^
 
Oh my! :eek:
I'm actually impressed a lot there! The 1st drawings I thought 'Hmm, good but much more practice is needed..."

Now I feel like I shoul fit my fist into my mouth to shut it up... :roll:
You've definately improved since the 1st pics. I like the folds in the clothes... I'm still fiddling with proportions etc. (I somehow always make my characters anorexic... :? ).

Very nice work. Keep at it!
(BTW, those are the best looking sketches of hands/feet I've seen in a long time... Congrats)
 
Wow! I love these, especially the second one - Dusk and dawn. Also I'm impressed with your feet (your drawings, that is, not you're ACTUAL feet... But I'm not saying that they're not impressive, they might be... I've just never seen them... Not that I want to... Or don't want to... Ah ramblings! :D )

Everytime I see your work, it inspires me to keep trying until I get a little better! Keep it up! :p
 
Really good, i think you are definitely improving, and you have the makings of a really good anime artist, very good.
As where's my cow? says, it makes me want to make my skills better, good work always does that to me, that, or make me utterly depressed at how rubbish my stuff is, lol
 
Well, now I've finally got off my ass and drawn something since Christmas...

It's only an outline at present, have just finished CGing the outline (need to practice), so I've still got to deal with the background, colouring etc.

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/27809161/

I can't decide whether I want to try cell-shading this or not. So far, I've found it's a lot harder to get right, since there's no smudging to hide errors... :?

Thanks to everyone for their kind words, I feel a lot better about my abilities now. I'm now starting to branch out into drawing things straight from my imagination, tricky...

And there's absolutely nothing wrong with my feet! :wink:
 
STOP BEING SO GOOD!!! Lol! This one's amazing, even as an outline! (You may have noticed that I get pretty excitied and a lil weak at the knees around well drawn anime!)

Looking forward to seeing what you do with the colour :D

Could I ask a favour of you...? Stop drawing until I get as good as you!!! (could take a while! Lol) :wink:
 
As the others have said, your newest one is very good, i really love her pose and the interesting angle of the face (i've yet to successfully attempt doing that angle myself), and of course it will be enven better coloured.
Why don't you have a rough go at the cell shading style colouring and see if theres bits you like the look of that you are doing, but if not maybe stick with what you know until you feel more confident
 
A lot of good talent I say ^^

The colouring and poportions are good, practice is always the way. There's no short cut to draw manga (Like how Naruto say about being Ninja ^.~)
 
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