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I did a drawing! It sucked! Any advice on how to make it better?
I'm trying to get back into drawing. Ye gods, my skills have gone downhill. As a total pro, I started out drawing a head and went from there with no care for composition and no clue where I'm going with this one—guess it should be some sorta chibi barbarian or something? Anyhows, any suggestions appreciated.
I know I need some darker tones to give it that spatial feel. Some pencil pieces, even if they're merely sketches, manages to get the tones just right. I think some of it is about having degrees of shading, where some smaller detail have even darker shadows. But it is hard to get right, don't even know if there's a word for it.
It's a fun drawing! I think you're right about darker tones, but it might not necessarily be where you want to focus your improvement next.
It's quite common for those who practice a certain style to enjoy drawing one thing and start to neglect how it all pieces together - focusing too much in one place and rushing elsewhere (because, let's face it, a lot of things are boring to draw).
It's clear here you've practised drawing eyes - it's possible you drew the eyes first and the rest of the head around it? If you like drawing eyes, it's definitely worth practising drawing head shapes - just starting with circles and bringing in the two lines to align the direction the head is facing. From there you can detail as much as you want, but just those guides are a great foundation.
Similarly, I think this causes a kind of imbalance of detail. Little simple hands like that can look really cute, but seem a little off when you've gone to the trouble to render the reflection in the eyes and each eyelash. I think you can go either way - either pull back the detail of the eyes, or spend some more time on the hands.
And a never forget the neck! I remember going far too long drawing characters without necks. Just imagine it coming down from the ear behind the head and draw some shoulders from there, then the body should form more intuitively.
Yeah, tones absolutely should come after getting the overall shapes right! Thanks, getting back to drawing is a bit of a struggle for me, so getting some feedback means a lot. I have gone from wanting to just forget about the drawing to wanting to start over, doing it right this time.
I'm a big proponent of drawing what looks 'good' vs what looks 'right'. Those head guides are just about the only guide I use because they are so helpful - but don't stress yourself over redrawing something until it's right - unless that's what you enjoy!
If you do want to go back, maybe try two passes this time and see if that works for you - do one sketch where you just plot where everything should go, spending no more time on one thing than another, then do the line art over that. If you're using pencil, you could use two different colours.
The screenshot you linked, just gave me a flashback of a book we had at home when I was a child, the drawing style is the same. I believe it had a brown cover with a drawing of a person perhaps sitting. Would you be able to tell me the the name of the book?
Sorry, I just did a google image search to get an example! I did a search of the text and it returned 'The Head' by Andrew Loomis
Could be a solid beginner drawing with some minor touch-ups:
Thanks, good advice all around! I hadn't though about the pose at all (obviously!) and bushy eyebrows simply isn't something I have ever tried, for whatever reason. Will give it a try. But even so, I'm still very insistant that orcs should be shy of eyebrows, like in this illu
If the purpose was just to have fun doodling and getting back into drawing then it's fine! It's a bit difficult to say how to make a drawing better if the drawing had no specific purpose other than to play around on the paper 😊 which btw is already a great goal in itself.
For quick drawing tips I recommend https://instagram.com/etheringtonbrothers "How To Think When You Draw". Enjoy!
Love this (especially the sandals made from toes), and any jokes aside, this is probably a really good reference for things like eye size, nose positioning, expression etc.
Really subtle changes to the pose can make a big difference too, something I wouldn't have immediately considered. The AI character here is just leaning forward ever so slightly more, leading with his head, and that makes the character immediately look steadfast and ready to fight. Goes to show how you can probably make any composition ultimately work.
Not just the toe-sandals but he's literally wielding the earth.
Always the correct answer. Gotta include the original of course: https://imgur.com/gallery/RadSf
We just had a chat about learning to draw and I got very good recommendations on this: https://www.drawlikeaboss.co.uk
They have two books out and a third one is starting on Kickstarter in October. I joined and I'm hoping for a well priced bundle for all three books =)
One area I have not seen addressed is the defensive “sucky” qualifiers given to your drawing. Please don’t do that! Putting yourself and your work down is totally unhealthy for your growth.
There’s lots to improve with the anatomy, posing, etc. I’ll leave that to others as it’s an active area of work for myself as well. But lots to appreciate as well. While your drawing could use more contrast, the sketchy line art has a maturity that I don’t have in my own work. Hard to describe, but it has purpose? The wrinkles and shadows on the pants, the little notches in the sword. It’s nice to zoom in and look at!
I would personally recommend a figure drawing class, if there are any near you. I think you would be great at capturing the rough forms and all the weird ways people can stretch, hang, and move. Getting that better grasp of anatomy (the head looks like this when it turns this way, the muscles stretch across the rib cage like that, I can capture the feeling of the leg with a swoosh like this, etc) will then help your translate it into whatever style you want.
Another big recommendation is to keep your old drawings and when you made them, which is another thing I worry about when artists say they’re sucky. This is your first step back into a wonderful journey!
I agree with Caracoles. You don't need to preface your work with "sucky" when you're already asking for critique. (:
Paint Coach specializes in oil painting, but he has given some pretty universal art tips IMO:
"Degrees of shading" would be the values or how light/dark something is. The chibi's pants blend into the rocks behind it because their values are too similar. This cross hatching video demonstrates how too much rendering or shading can overpower the subject, especially in comic or manga work.
There are various ways to draw lines, but I see inconsistencies in the linework between your hero's jaw (thick, dark, confident strokes) vs. the rest of the body (short, light, and wobbly strokes).
Construction refers to breaking objects down into basic shapes such that your 2D drawing can be believed to depict an object taking up 3D space. It's hard to read the shape of the chibi's torso, arm, and legs. The form of the body is not defined by supporting details such as the direction of the folds and shading on the clothes. The design of the one-strap overall is also a bit confusing; it looks like it's lifting up the shirt but we don't see the stomach.
However, I think you've captured the plucky spirit of your barbarian. Keep it up!