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[Urist McScoopbeard]

Well... I finally decided to man up and color something!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

...plus I got make him funny afterwords

(In seriousness I would appreciate some critique on the shading!!!)

[Askot Bokbondeler]

forget the shading. get a pencil and a notebook and start working on the human proportion

[Urist McScoopbeard]

well he's pretty deformed, what parts are the worst?
the ribcage? the arms? the chest?

[Askot Bokbondeler]

i really don't want to be cruel, but i wouldn't save anything.
the torso is too wide, the arms too short, the anatomy is very weird overall, and god, are those his nipples?
you need to study proportion, anatomy, and the geometry of the human body, even if you want to make deformed caricatures. especially if you want to make deformed caricatures

[Urist McScoopbeard]

meh lad, there is no cruelty in constructive criticism! Thanks.

Anyways, Im fucking terrible at the tablet My anatomy is actually half way decent on paper and I can draw recognizable shapes. Hopefully practice will improve my tablet skills.

I'll try to get my old scanner working so I can post something a bit better

[Svampapa]

I'll agree that there are some overly harsh crit in this thread at times. But if you look past Askots lack of politeness and proper punctuation, his advice is actually good.
 
As for coming to tablets from traditional pen/pencil, it's as you have noticed not at all similar. Where pen/pencil work often is precise, thought out hand movements, tablet work is often more chaotic and more prone to the fabled "happy accidents".

[freeformschooler]

It is especially bad when you have a tablet much smaller than your screen as that makes precise movements very difficult. It's why I do all my serious studying on paper and leave tablet-work for crappy forum game panels and such.

[lordnincompoop]

Thanks for the critique.

Are you really learning art all by yourself? If I hadn't know who you are, I would think that you are a student of some old and prestigious Russian fine arts academy. The technique is too old-school and academic for a hobbyist.

Also, the eyes look suspicious.

EDIT: "old-school" means classical.

How do you know who I really am? Perhaps I am a student in a prestigious Russian arts academy, and simply posing as a self-taught forumite to garner fame and admiration.

More seriously: I've had a few standard "arts & crafts" classes in school. I don't believe I benefited from those lessons much. I have at least one real-life (and real) artist to turn to for advice, though I receive no active instruction.

I don't see at all how this is "too old-school". Why can't a hobbyist learn from the old masters?

Lordnincompoop's fine portrait got me inspired to do some portrait drawing myself. Since (apparently) studying photos is bad, very bad, overwhelmingly bad and endangering the sanity of others, I've decided to draw the only person I can ask to pose for me — myself.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Just look at all these fucked-up proportions. Oh, and I still can't shade for shit.

There are three common reasons for "bad shading":

  1. Sloppiness
  2. Laziness
  3. Lack of practice

Rarely, you may encounter a fourth reason - improper pencil grade. I personally love my 4B, but if you don't have the Touch, you'll likely find it difficult to make all the shades you need with just a 4B. Try 2B, 6B, 2H, 4H and 6H as well (if you have them).

There is only one solution to the first two, and that is discipline. Try to have patience, a light touch, and plenty of care.

As for the third, you simply need to practice. Draw from life as carefully as you can (lack of practice is made worse by sloppiness, and often the two are confused) and practice drawing those balls. You can never escape the balls. Balls are for life.


EDIT: I'd just like to add that there is nothing horribly wrong with drawing from photographs, and that the person who gave you that advice should be slapped for hyperbole. Drawing from life is simply better.

[Guardian G.I.]

How do you know who I really am?

By "If I hadn't known who you are", I've meant "If I hadn't known that you live in Sweden".

I don't see at all how this is "too old-school". Why can't a hobbyist learn from the old masters?

No, no, no! I don't mean that being "too old-school" is bad. For some odd reason (the absence of contours, perhaps?) your art reminds me of the studies from Russian art academies (and most art academies of the former Soviet Union, because they teach relatively the same), although your art is not as professional as those studies, obviously. Not many places in the West provides such education nowadays (as far as I know).
Your (apparent) very good knowledge of anatomy combined with the aforementioned really make you sound like you belong to a prestigious educational establishment.
You know, it's kinda difficult to guess who the person really is, if you live hundreds of kilometers away in a completely different country.

Oh, and thank you very much for the advice.

[slowpokez]

I've found myself lurking around in this thread from time to time but I've never really posted anything since I'm not sure how you run things...
Could I just drop some engravings(that may or may not have been seen in an other thread) here and get some constructive feedback?

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Your welcome to post any image you want critique on, at least no one has told me otherwise yet (and my images are terrible!)

Anyways, I finally got my scanner set up and to rectify the horribleness of the last pic (which has become apparent to me) I think this one is a little more together and critique-able

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

sorry about the fuzziness of the left side but this was drawn in a notebook.

the right-hand arm is too far out from where the shoulder SHOULD start I think, other than that can anyone tell me if the neck/trapezius/chest area looks ok? I feel like its too large vertically. ofc other critique would be great too!

EDIT: can someone help me on drawing the ribs?

[rarborman]

Your proportions are off, your musculature tone is unballanced and it looks like you've never seen a naked person in your life.

Go look up muscles and try to keep your proportions similar scale, your arms and legs are short the chest is wide, I'm not going to say anything about the groin, its just that bad.

Its like you drew it through a fishbowl.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

2nd try, this time I refered to some other sources.

Also relatively large sized pic.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

also: feet continue to elude me and I forgot to erase some lines where the chest meets the shoulder.

EDIT: when you said the groin I assume you were talking about how the crotch was shaped?

[The Fool]

You're definitely better on paper right now. Keep working on the tablet until it's second nature.

The ribs need to be a little more evident, but only a little more since this person is fairly muscular. Personally my ribcage ends after the first set of abs. All you would see from the ribcage on someone like this would be the last couple ribs to the left and right of the first abs with the connecting bones being hidden by the ab muscles.

The ribcage also affects the tapering at the sides. The torso narrows a little before the end of the ribcage, but once the ribcage ends it tapers noticeably. If you look at pictures of muscular people you can see what I mean.

[rarborman]

I'm going to say your guys arms are not muscularly even to the torso, if you have pecks like (even though they are very unnatural) that your going to have thicker arms...

The best way I've found for feet is a cone with a sloped rectangle attached from there you can draw in details.