Critique much wanted!

[Kaluna]

Hey furries, I've been feeling down about my art lately and rather directionless. I feel ready to give up....but I know that I really dont want that. I think I could benefit from some constructive criticism about my art in general. I'd really love for someone to look through my gallery or this thread and give me some feedback about what they think is and isn't working, and where I should focus on improving. I don't really know what else to say. If you want, I can offer critique in return, or if you are particularly thoughtful I can make you a quick thank you sketch if you want.

http://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/zomiee/
(check my scraps too if you wanna see WIPs and sketches)

Thanks for looking!

For the most recent sketches, scroll down. I will continue to periodically update with more sketches. I'm going to aim for at least one a day.

 

[UnburntDaenerys]

You are much more likely to get feedback by picking a few specific pieces for people to critique. Most aren't going to dig through your gallery to find something.

Good luck! It's always nice to see new sketchbooks.

 

[Arshes Nei]

Once you start progressing on a sketchbook, it will be good to look at your previous works to see how you're coming along. Good luck.

 

[Kalmor]

EDIT: I'd like this to be my sketchbook thread, I'll start posting sketches here tomorrow. If an admin could add "Sketchbook:" to the front of my thread title I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm certain this is not the first time I've posted this type of thread, and I may as well prevent myself from doing it again.

Edited. We'll be waiting for those sketches.

 

[Taralack]

From glancing at the first page of your gallery, perhaps it would be to your benefit to explore other styles, especially if you feel like you're in a rut.

 

[Kaluna]

Sorry for the shitty quality of these, my scanner broke apparently, so I had to use my camera phone which is no good.
These are all from my sketchbook in the past few days.



Some plans for a slow loris fursuit I am making:

here's some stuff I drew while watching JewelPet, some are from screenshots, some are from my imagination:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10809179/ (could only fit 10 images, this is just more jewelpet doodles)

Here's a fox I drew from a photo, to work on my feral canine anatomy:

Here's a sketch of my character Zomiee the Foxcoon:

Here's a red panda anthro I drew using an old pose sketch from my life drawing class last year:

Here's something I did of my boyfriends' skunk character smoking:

And lastly, here's some sketches I did while helping my friend create his fursona. He is Suricatos the meerkat. The top left and bottom right are referenced from google images:

So that's it for my first sketchbook entry here. Thanks in advance for any and all feedback.

 

[strayokatoknight]

Hmm, not bad I have to say. Your sketches look really good, although I have but one complaint. Your smoking skunk, he just doesn't look right. Unnatural, I mean, the way he's holding the cigarette looks really painful to me. If you give me a minute, I can pm you some references if you'd like, so you can see what I mean. ^.^ Other than that great work.

 

[Kaluna]

he's holding a pipe not a cigarette...not sure if that changes your opinion or not...

EDIT:

Here's what I did today. Didn't want to doublepost so I'm editing this. Is that what I'm supposed to do? I would have preferred to make a new post because it would show on the front page that theres new stuff here but I know doubleposting is against the rules...

Anywho these are both of my boyfriend and both based of photographs of him. I struggled a lot with the second one.

(photo: https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd......48222590_n.jpg)

(photo: https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd......51_80503_n.jpg)

 

[Kaluna]

I've noticed other people 'doubleposting' in their sketchbooks so I guess it's okay in this case? Sorry if it's not, I'm just kinda confused but I think I should go ahead and make a new post for my sketches from today:

no photo refs used today

 

[Centradragon]

The reason you struggled with the second sketch in post #8 (the one dealing with the skateboard) might have something to do with the fact it's kind of a poor reference image. The darks are a little too dark to pick out any detail, and because of that you had to guess at the leg lines. B:

Having a pipe or cigarette or lollypop wouldn't help the skunk look less awkward. The pose doesn't reveal anything about his personality at all — he's just smiling and you can't really tell the rest of the body because it hasn't been rendered in. Not many people stand so straight and stiff! Maybe do a few life drawings of your boyfriend while he smokes (just quick gestures to get the general shape) and go from there.

It's good that you're using references (as in, the photos... eyeballing someone else's cartoon work doesn't help you learn)! You should really draw from life, though — cameras have the inherent problem of only using one "eye" to most people's two. You also seem to be staying in your comfort zone of pencil lines, instead of branching out to try shading or different mediums. You seem to not like doing hands, which only means you have to focus on that even more until you're comfortable with it.


Keep going at it!

 

[Kaluna]

@CentraDragon: Thanks for the well thought out reply! I too think that the reference for the longboarding one was kinda poor, I'll try doing some more with other photos. I wish I could just do life drawings for that but that's not quite feasible. I also will try your suggestion of life drawings of my boyfriend. As for other mediums...I just don't know were to start. I have prismas, which I know how to use okay but its essentially just coloring and inking in the same style I already do. I have this thing called "aquwash" its like watercolor crayons and a water brush. I want to try some stuff with that but I'm pretty lost when it comes to technique and color blending. I'll try looking up someo tutorials on it and show you guys some different stuff soon. :3

 

[Kaluna]

i could really use some critique on this one. i couldnt find a photo ref of what i wanted and my bfs asleep so he cant just take it for me so i tried just trying to do it from my head and i think its failing. she looks like shes floating, and im pretty sure you cant twist your body like that.....



EDIT: Im retarded....I just tried again to find a photo ref and i found one....why wasnt I able to do that earlier....or maybe i just missed this one, it was tiny in the image search so i had to go to the site to see the big one but here:
http://www.pixmac.com/picture/kneeling+naked+girl/000046030421

suddenly my drawing looks completely off to me
head/desk
ill redo this sketch tmrw, is also gonna be inked and colored at some point

 

[Arshes Nei]

Well some things I can see very quickly is that the neck is too straight. Necks actually pitch forward, they're not straight. You can see it in the photos from this ipad App https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/skeletal-head-neck-pro-iii/id501332627?mt=8

The proportions of the shoulders look uneven as the foreshortening is a bit too extreme. You have arms at different thickness.

It's a little hard to judge some parts because you need to work on the line economy - too many lines making it difficult to see.
The other thing I have seen is that the feet are a bit flat, need some depth to the heels, and the "toes" of the paws.

 

[Kaluna]

Thanks for the critique, Arshes. I agree about the line economy, the more unsure I am, the more difficult it is to decide on where to put the line, so I put it everywhere. @~@ I see your point about the extreme foreshortening though, I've always struggled with making things too flat, and so I guess I took it too far because I'm generally just focused on making the foreshortening more intense. I'm going to re-do that pose again with the photo refs and your critique to help me.

I've been lethargic the past few days, and though I had been on a rol I haven't been drawing everyday again... :/
But yesterday I did a sketch for a badge commission, and right now I'm working on inking it.
Here's the sketch:

Here's the WIP of the digital sketch, which has been changed a lot, and the inks for the face:

 

[Kaluna]

Finished the coffee badge:

And heres more sketches for badges on the same theme.

The theme being drugs, obviously. XP

 

[mapdark]

Finished the coffee badge:

There's something I've just noticed with ALL of your drawings. The irises are ALWAYS in the same spot. On top of making your characters look cross-eyed , it sorts of makes them soulless because it looks like your characters are always staring into nothingness.

Compare:

On the left is your version , on the right is the crappy 12 seconds PaintNet manip I just did.

You need to have those eyes focused on something logical. In this case , I thought it would be appropriate to have the character break fourth wall and look at US.

But they could be staring at an object or something. It just needs to be logical in the context.

 

[Kaluna]

That's a really good point.
Pretty funny because I changed her eyes to be like you showed them during the stream at one point, and ask the commissioner if she liked that better because it looked less derp......but the commissioner said that their character is a derp puppy and wanted her cross-eyed (really...)
But I agree, it makes her look rather vacant.


EDIT: I feel like showing this to her and asking her if she still wants a derp pup. I'm really liking your ms paint version more than mine. XP

 

[Arshes Nei]

I think the one on the right needs more work because the shadows don't follow the form of the eye. It's making the "stare" confusing with the wrong shadows.

Again Proko, has great stuff on the eyes and structure.
http://www.proko.com/how-to-draw-eyes-structure/

To give you some nightmare fuel. This is a very closeup view of an eye, which is essentially a hole that lets light in.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/9794374151a375c8e67fa8208fe051b1/tumblr_mmy8n5jC9Y1qigj88o1_500.jpg

The "highlight" in our eye has to do with the shape of the cornea and where it reflects.
http://eyeanatomyblog.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/the-cornea-and-its-highlights-part-2/