A bit of a showcase

biscottidecake 2016-10-10 12:53:20 UTC #1

Hello, i made this thread for a bit of a showcase of my own works in recent times and i also i would like to have some feedback of my works so yeah, not much needs to be said.

Evan_Bee 2016-10-12 03:45:05 UTC #2

The outer glow around your characters is very interesting, it creates a bit of a third dimension effect but it also confuses me a bit. Would you might clarifying your usage of it for me?

biscottidecake 2016-10-12 08:17:59 UTC #3

I mostly use it as a method of adding lighting in some things but also to try to make the lineart seem a bit, how do i say this .... less focused.

genjiOtori 2016-10-12 10:44:38 UTC #4

Try to make your illustrations more interesting. They look (sorry for the harsh words) boring and flat. Read a bit into composition, color theory and how to create depth (I don't mean shading, but foreground and background).
Your third picture looks most interesting in my opinion, because you have a dynamic and interesting perspective and it conveys "depth".
Try to work more with light: where's your light source, what kind of light and what atmosphere you want to create.

The last girl looks cute, but also "boring". She looks like an empty template character. Try to think of her habits, what makes her unique, her gestures etc. Then you can incorporate that into her pose to make a catchy character sheet. E.g. if she's a happy and energetic character, make her pose open and full of energy like they did with Misty from Pokemon:

biscottidecake 2016-10-12 11:13:18 UTC #5

genjiOtori:

make your illustrations more interesting. They look (sorry for the harsh words) boring and flat. Read a bit into composition, color theory and how to create depth (I don't mean shading, but foreground and background).Your third picture looks most interesting in my opinion, because you have a dynamic and interesting perspective and it conveys "depth". Try to work more with light: where's your light source, what kind of light and what atmosphere you want to create.

The last girl looks cute, but also "boring". She looks like an empty template character. Try to think of her habits, what makes her unique, her gestures etc. Then you can incorporate that into her pose to make a catchy character sheet. E.g. if she's a happy and energetic character, make her pose open and full of energy like they did with Misty from Pokemon:

Well thanks for the reply, also for the girl sketch, it was meant to be a basic portrayal of one of my friend's characters (meaning it wasn't meant to give out much personality and life, but just a general visual idea) but i will account most of your advice. But i will ask you these questions.

How flat is it and what advice can you give me to combat this issue without me researching first ?
What parts of color theory should i study the most ?
I have studied much of indoor light sources, but what should i do if i am dealing with works on which it is in an outside environment ?

That is all i could think of also, i don't get affected by harsh words much, it is the way that the sentence can be arranged that is the issue for me, but your reply seems informal rather than offensive to me.

genjiOtori 2016-10-12 11:50:35 UTC #6

E.g. your first image and fourth image dont have specific backgrounds. You don't convey any depth: There is no distinguishable foreground and background, just your characters. Ask questions like: Where is your character, in what situation, how does the environment look like? If you need inspiration, go outside, take some photos. You can even use them for reference. The artist of Scurry gave some good advices on background on his Facebook-Page

For these I collected some nice tutorials on my Patreon. They explain how light affects objects. For example you can use indirect light for outdoor settings. Back light is also really fun to make. Important tipps: the sky doesn't need to be blue, the sunlight isn't white, and grey is wonderful to emphasize color.

For example I recently made this picture:

As you can see my shadows aren't black but grey. It supports the colors that are illuminated perfectly. The light is mostly yellow-ish to get a warm feeling. The background is cold to contrast my character. Care that the further away an object is to the viewer, the bluer it gets. Use that to convey depth.

I hope this helps

biscottidecake 2016-10-12 12:00:38 UTC #7

Well thanks, i was meaning to intend to use more complex background work in the future but this is good advice to work upon for now, i think i probably should have chose some more art showing my usage of backgrounds a while back, but i think i last time i did such things were months ago.

But anyways i have a thing to show for feedback.

I did this a few months ago.