Art critique #2

[Demy]

This one was for inktober's underwater theme.

There's lots wrong with this piece I know. The ink shading clashes with the pencil shading and it doesn't really look good to me. I mostly want to know how I could get better at drawing underwater scenery.

[Demy]

I guess I'll bump this. Any criticism is helpful really

[soju]

hey, it looks pretty cool!
i'm not sure about the style you are going for. so i can only speak about realistic human proportions.
the leg bothers me the most.. the length of upper and lower leg should be similar. the hands are also way too big.
that is what i mean:

if you are going for a more exaggerated style you should probably communicate it clearer since it appears you are trying to go for realism.
still... cool drawing!

[Demy]

Oh the proportions for the legs were off? Oh man, I didn't notice. Thanks for pointing it out.

The style I am trying to go for is a mix between realism and exaggerated cartoonish proportions (which is why some parts appear realistic while the arms and legs are almost rubber like unless they're bending). I'm still trying to figure out how to do it more effectively.

Also what do you think about the underwater environment? Does it look good to you? Any areas I should work on?

EDIT: Oh I also missed the part about the hand. I guess I didn't measure the proportions right. Though I thought I did...

[KytCordell]

So, doing something stylized is a matter of consistent exaggeration. A good shortcut is to remember that certain shape principles never go away.

For example, the fact that the femur and lower leg should be about equal should not change. If you want a character with longer legs, you'd just extend the overall leg, but the parts of the leg should stay equidistant. Anime for example often has super leggy characters.

The hand for instance. You might have larger cartoonish hands as a style, but the proportions of how long the fingers are compared to each other should stay the same. The head is one aspect where you can really play around the proportions of things and still have it work.

These rules aren't absolute, but it prevents things from getting super wonky looking when you're trying to figure out a style.