Overall Art Critique 2018

[nightwingwife]

Hello there! Long time, no see! I posted my art on here for critique back in 2016 and I wanted to do another one for my art for this year since I improved much from then! I got one critique from smackjeeves and I would like some more opinions! Here’s some good artwork that I did, starting from oldest to recent. Tell me what do I need to improve on, whats good, bad, etc.

[ZombieOwl]

Nice work! The main thing I think needs work is the angles of the arms. Some of them are a bit off.
For example, poses like these, where the character has the hands on the hips. The elbows are pointing directly to the back of the character, when they should be pointing to the side(to the camera, in the case), or maybe a little to the back. Practicing foreshortening will help achieve the correct angles.

Other than that, I really like the use of color in your pieces; they have very nice harmonies in my opinion ^^
Keep up the great work! <3

[qwerty]

The main recurring thing I see is that while the poses don't look anatomically wrong (for the most part, as far as I can tell), they usually do seem a little stiff. I would practice gesture to make them seem more natural.

Overall though these are nice and I agree that you use colors in a very pleasing way.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I would say you're just about perfect in most areas, one notable exception being your profiles (heads turned to the side). The chins aren't long enough; the faces look squished into the neck. Not an uncommon mistake.
This picture was good, though:

But only for the girl on the left. Your 3/4 views look a little iffy as well; I'd suggest doing studies of head turns in order to cover all the bases. It'll probably help your already-fantastic necks to look even better.

Also, I respectfully disagree with @ZombieOwl: when I put my hands on my hips in a mirror, my elbows look exactly like that. ^^; In addition, I think it may be one of those things where trying to be as realistic as possible actually does more harm than good.

Unless you are training to be a photo-realist, your job as a 2D artist is to convey 3D shapes in a 2D format as clearly as you can, and sometimes that means bending the rules. For example, a real fist looks mostly like a stub from the back, but many artists like to pull out the thumb and even the forefinger to help show what's happening. The same goes for a finger pointed directly at the viewer: sometimes pulling the fingertip up to show its surface is more easily-understood and dynamic than trying to copy the foreshortened mess that you actually get in real life.

In conclusion, a good cartoonist knows when to start studying, but a better cartoonist also knows when to stop.

[A-weird-girler]

Hey! I'm a novice artist, so my critiques are going to be very obvious or not in depth, but I would say you need to improve anatomy on the head, a notable example being

and

The human forehead is 1/3 of the whole face, and while I get it may feel unnatural at first to include so much forehead, it's really needed to get an accurate grasp on faces.
Another thing (that I struggle with a lot) is arms. Your arms are sometimes too short

or too long

(girl on left).
I would say the best way to solve this is to study arms and knowing that the elbows fall underneath the ribcage but further up than the belly button (unlike what some people say) and wrists align with the crotch.

(edit: Wait, why the heck did this thing reply to zombie owl? I meant @nightwingwife )

[ZombieOwl]

(i was wonder what that was lol ^^;;;; )

[ZombieOwl]

Hmm.... I'm still not convinced. Maybe you're more flexible than I am, but having both elbows(which is what it looks like in the drawing) pointing backwards so straight takes a lot of effort to do(it's like the elbows are being pinched together at the back). That's what makes me feel the pose is unnatural.

Foreshortening is how to portray 3d in 2d formats. When done correctly, the viewer shouldn't have any trouble discerning the pose and orientation of the body/objects. People will understand that the character is forming a fist without the artist needing to skew the anatomy.

There are many skews that can be done, but that's a matter of style.

[crayon_witch]

The colors are gorgeous! So is the shading— you do a good job of using contrasting values.

I think your poses could benefit from a line of action to make them more fluid!

Quick Tip: The Line of Action, Make Your Character Poses More Dynamic!

https://line-of-action.com

Practicing figure drawing will help you quickly see the shapes that make up different bodies. Being able to break bodies down like that will make it easier to draw anatomy wise, which in turn will make your drawings more dynamic! Good luck!!

[DokiDokiTsuna]

People will understand that the character is forming a fist without the artist needing to skew the anatomy.

Of course they will. But artists do it anyway because it "conveys the message" better.
My point wasn't that accurate foreshortening isn't worth the effort; it's that it's not always the best way to "convey the message", or make the pose in question deliver the right emotional impact.

Like I said, unless you're aiming for photorealism, you're under no pressure as an artist to make everything look exactly the way it does in real life. It's called 'artistic liberty'.