HOME | DD

arrow-san [2008-09-12 12:05:46 +0000 UTC]

I think, you are drawing better and better! Lovely picture, the girl reminds me Lucy from Elfen Lied

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

ArdentNinja [2008-09-08 20:14:53 +0000 UTC]

Hmm. Critique enabled, I will be gentle.

Okay, first thing that stands out is a running theme in most of your work, which is that the legs are elongated. Now, before we go further, it is clear that this isn't purely human anatomy, it isn't done in a hyper-realistic style, and thus it does not have to be perfect to be good. I'm not going to apply the same sort scrutiny that I would toward something that is intended to be a hardcore hyper-realistic anatomy study. If you do one of those, I'd be happy to take out the anatomy stick and whack at the piece all you like Not going to do that here.

So back to elongated legs.. This figure is about 8.5 heads tall. If you take the standard proportion of height determined by halfway from the top of head to the crotch, the legs look about a head longer than they should be, using that measurement. So, if you chop out a head's height from the legs, you still get a very tall character, which is not a bad thing. The proportions suggest a more amazon-like style, something that makes me think of the Elvaan from FFXI.

I like the overall general shape and form that you've created with the character, and the limbs feel like solid objects and not flat shapes, which is good. I like that you've added enough value to the piece to really allow for the feeling of three dimensions.

Now for the picky stuff. Feet aren't fully defined, but you know that already. Ankles - you really seem to have looked at the anatomy of how feet attach to legs, and I see you've really tried to show some of the muscles and tendons, and for that I give you big points because a lot of people fall flat there. Keep that up, I think it works well. Calves are generally the right sort of shape around the contours, but you haven't shown the main bone that runs from the knee to the ankle, so it remains a sort of cylindrical cone that tapers into the knee. Go ahead and see how the bone stands out from the muscle and draw it in there, it'll work with the ankle and the muscles in the ankle (since the bottom of that bone forms one of the ankle bones that stick out).

Already talked a bit about thighs, but they are also cylindrical, which is the right contour shape, but I'd love to see more muscle definition, even if it is just hinted at with the shading. Hips - I think you have the right overall idea of the contours that hips form, but this is a tough spot to get right without digging into the anatomy and seeing how all the muscles interact with each other. It'd be great if you could better define the pelvic crest and how the muscles wrap around the torso above it. The line you have moving around from the back towards the front to define the stomach is not wholly wrong, as it defines clearly what I am thinking it defines, but I think it is hard to tell if it is a fold or if it is simply definition. I think that you could easily have just let the contour line move up from the hip and not used that line wrapping around the torso, and instead used a separate line coming down and then across within the torso to suggest that lower stomach area across the abdomen. Also, I'd love to see the rib cage defined more specifically above the abdominal muscles. This isn't so much to make her look super thin or anything, but just to gently define where the rib cage stops and the abs start. The softer, the better, with this character.

Breasts look fine, and actually they are very well-shaped, not to put too fine a point on the matter. I hate to sound like a perv, but they look good. The collar bone is where it essentially should be, and you made sure not to define it copy-paste style (where it seems pasted on instead of working with the anatomy around it) so I think you did fine there. The arms are sort of like the legs, in that the contours are essentially correct, but the form of the arms are less well-defined and could use a bit more shading to bring out the underlying muscles. One note about her right arm (on our left), the muscle that causes the fold in the inside of the arm is correct, but missing is how the muscles tie into the bone and actually sort of meld upward into the bicep. In this case, it'd be pretty subtle, so don't fret much about it at this point. You'll see what I mean if you dig into arm musculature and see how the forearm muscles insert into the bicep/tricep muscles to attach to the bone underneath.

Hands aren't bad. I like her left hand better than the right because you went for full splayed hand position. The proportion of the hands are a bit off, with her left seeming a bit smaller than her right. Interestingly enough, you really tried to better define the wrists, and you caught some things about the wrist that work well. Left forearm thickness is a bit thin towards the wrist of the left hand, compared to the right. Shoulders are definitely sort of pieced onto the torso, her left one much more so than the right, which is okay. Her neck shows that you know there are muscles and tendons there and they often show up generally speaking, but they don't quite work like that. The muscles towards the bottom actually attach towards the back of the jaw, and there are other muscles which arc upwards from the collarbone to attach to the front of the jaw under the chin. You've combined the two together, but the fact that you've shown them is really good, in all honesty. If you soften them up a bit, it'd probably be fine. I also like how you included the top of the windpipe, which is nice and soft as expected since it shouldn't protrude enough to qualify as an 'adam's apple'. You did it soft enough that you get big props for having it there in the first place since a lot of people leave it out on women thinking that it doesn't exist.

The head is stylized, so I can't dig into it with any sort of anatomy issues, but it is very cute and I like the hair and the ears ^.^

I hope this critique helps! I also hope it wasn't too harsh.. We regularly had students burst into tears in my college-level drawing class when my drawing prof would critique their work. He was just brutally honest, rather than being mean. I don't like to make people cry, so I really hope that this was gentle. Honestly, you have shown that you know the anatomy is there, and that alone is a step above many others I've seen. Keep at it, I want to see moar ^.^

👍: 0 ⏩: 2

AlexanderYan [2008-09-08 05:10:36 +0000 UTC]

wow, love the shading and art style.

👍: 0 ⏩: 1