Do not use posemaniacs, using 3D models as a reference isn’t as useful as real photos. Here’s a summary of what makes a good reference photo: http://www.freshdesigner.com/good-fi...ference-guide/

Here’s a few sites that let you do timed drawings from photo reference (beware, the links below contain NSFW nude photos!):

http://artists.pixelovely.com/practi...igure-drawing/
http://reference.sketchdaily.net/en/

And some more photo references that you can use at your leisure:

http://characterdesigns.com
http://www.freshdesigner.com/figure-drawing-reference/

Also a nice little summary and some tips for line dynamics: http://nsio.deviantart.com/art/Nsio-...mics-411098876

e: This video helped me out a bunch, it goes over how you can control your pencil to get different lines:

Lots of really good critique here so I'm going to reply to each post in order:

@Slog Bait-

Give me your skills.

I did, actually ;_; I used the Mudokon concept art and renders on TOGG. Though I can see why you'd say that. Usually, the first time I draw a creature/species, they come out a little wonky and it takes a while to study them and understand how their anatomy works (you don't even wanna know how long that first digital drawing of Stranger took me. Now I can slap down a steef pretty quick). Looking back, I can see where I got proportions or form wrong--likely because, as you said, I was focusing too much on details instead of overall form. I've caught myself doing this before--I'll spend an inordinate amount of time tweaking little details, then be like "aw fuck I messed up that part's shape and now I gotta do it over again".

I'll have a couple doodles of them coming later :fuzsmile:

You're absolutely right there. 90% of the things I've ever drawn were animals/beastlike creatures, and I've only started to acquire any kind skill with humans/humanoids in the past couple years. Something I gotta work on.

Really? I'm not the first person to have drawn a she-steef, though I've only shown that drawing to a couple people in the past. Freakova is that you?

@Vyrien-

Give me your skills too.

I can definitely see what you're talking about with the two sketch comparisons, the one one the right is much smoother and crisper. For the steef sketch, did you put down shapes/guides beforehand, or just go straight to lines?

I see what you mean about the line colors too, I'll experiment with that the next time I'm in front of my tablet.

@Manco-

I'll be sure to use those resources. That video's intro and the bits on hairy lines were embarrassingly relatable, but he had a lot of good tips.


Thanks all for the tough love, you all had really good advice.

I agree that for life drawing you should absolutely use photo or live references, however, for the 30 second gesture drawings posemaniacs is fine since it's more about training your efficiency with lines. Also they have a great variety of poses so it's useful if you are uninspired for a pose. Which I often am because I fucking suck at posing.

For the steef sketch I drew a kind of oval for his head shape first and a line of action down from that for his body.

Ah, okay.

I'm going home for spring break tomorrow, so while I will have my tablet, I won't have access to an internet connection that's actually strong enough to upload anything. I'll have some new art ready to post by next Monday, hopefully.

(If I shouldn't be double-posting like this let me know)

I did some more things. First, some fan art of A Fan Art:
http://orig06.deviantart.net/76f4/f/...re-d9v4bs9.png
I still can't draw a goddamn Mudokon.

And second, an idea that was a lot funnier in my head. Potoos are birds with big yellow eyes and a funny voice. Abe is a bird(ish creature) with big yellow eyes and a funny voice. Therefore, logically, Abe is a potoo:
http://orig04.deviantart.net/16bc/f/...re-d9v4c73.png

Good job!

I'm sick of your trolling, Vlam.

I'm not.

He did posrep me, but you can never be sure with Vlam.

That was more me being a dick, but nevermind.

I was pretty aware of that. You've been rather dickish as of late.

You only joined last month, what counts as "late"?

Well, you apparently thought my first Stranger picture was "badass", but I guess that was just an off day for you. Or it was sarcasm and I was too dumb to pick up on it.

Nepsotic is a nice guy, in fact (liberal and really buying the darker AEHD thing).

Somebody can't take a joke.

See, now I know you're trolling.

Were you joking, or being a dick? Make up your mind and then I'll react.

What do you think?

Hm...a little o' column A, a lot o' column B?

FennecFyre, Nepsotic is only a poseur.

Guys stop being cunts.

Potoogirl, this is very good arts, your expressions are pretty damn g-rEEh

See STM couldn't even finish his sentence.

Yeah, that might work out for people in OT, but not so much here. Those rare people who come up with an idea for an artistic piece and put effort into realizing it generally expect feedback, either positive or negative, but constructive all the same. Generic banter isn't really done here.

Fennec, try not to take any of it too seriously. This is basically the core attitude on OWF nowadays, which I find pretty sad (it doesn't really create a good image of a community gathered around a game they all like), but the majority consider it a camaraderie of sorts. Don't be discouraged from continuing making art (the pieces you shared before are pretty incredible) and sharing them here.

I'll be honest. When I first saw these lines, I found them a bit... condescending, maybe? But after that, I saw how it was elaborated upon and how everyone was very grown-up and receptive for the criticism SB provided, followed by further tips from others. So I'm kind of proud of all of you right now.

I will admit that I probably shouldn't have risen to the bait. No harm done.

And yeah I like a pat on the head as much as the next person, but if anyone sees ways that I can improve, don't hesitate to tell me. This is what I want to do for a living after all, so I'll need to get better and grow a thick skin sooner or later.

Doing an Oddworld-related art trade with someone on dA, they had me do their steef cub FC and some fuzzles:
Mostly looking for feedback on the lines and shading on this one, I'm not sure if I like it or not. Yes I completely half-assed the background.

E: @Vlam Thanks for the posrep but it's a girl steef so it's kinda supposed to be effeminate.

D'AWWWWWWWWWW

This art is pretty good! I found the criticisms put forwards by Slog Bait and Vyrien to be particularly helpful for my own work. I hadn't ever heard the term "chicken scratching" but it's definitely an artistic flaw of mine. It's great to see your art improve from picture to picture, Abe in the latter comic looks much more "mudokon" than the mudokons you'd drawn previously, keep up the good work!

Alright, so, this one took me a while to form a cohesive critique mostly because im distracted

The lines are still weak, HOWEVER, they're already looking better than they did when you started this thread. So, you're heading in the right direction and there's not much I can say for the time being except for: keep experimenting. This picture looks like it should have either had thicker lines with varying line weights, or should have been completely "lineless" with a heavier emphasis on form and textures.

You know those really annoying sphere and cube and what not practice paintings and drawings etc? The ones with a heavy focus on the values along it's form? Do those. Lots of those. Do one from life, do one from a flat reference outlining what values would go where, do two from different light sources, then do a bunch from memory until it's beat into your brain.

And I definitely would like to see a couple pieces from you focusing entirely on lineart. I don't just mean an outline of a figure, I mean using lines to tell the story behind the picture. Give the lines a life of their own. Make them bold, but not blocky. Try to focus on one of those before the other but have fun with it because I can tell you really want to improve and I KNOW if you keep on how you're going you'll have work of a high enough quality to consider yourself a professional illustrator.

No, that wasn't flattery nor was it an exaggeration. I've seen people at half your skill level turn into amazing artists and illustrators within months.

You definitely need to learn how to handle fabric, and the steef's facial expression is a little disappointing given your previous steef facial expressions. It falls flat, the steef looks like their gazing aimlessly instead of at the sky/the fuzzle on it's head like I pressume you wanted. I think some clouds or "birds" in the distance would have helped populate the image a little more.

The fuzzle on the right side of the swing looks squashed, and the swing looks like it's floating. Magical swings? Hell yes. It would have been more effective if you had shown tree branches coming in from some direction, or more trees in the background, or even half ass playground equipment, etc... There are loads of ways that problem can be remedied.

Digressing to form again, I'm noticing you're shying away from using dark-darks and light-lights. Don't be afraid to go all out with shading. Just remember, no matter what, you can always fix your mistakes with art. Period. Get really dark where a figure should be casting a shadow, or where light wouldn't be touching at all. Get really bright (not in this specific picture lmao) where the light is hitting an object head on.

Also, a fun fact you'll learn when you study form: Shadows are usually highly saturated and contain the complimentary colour of the objects main colour. I'm noticing for the most part you're keeping things about the same level of saturation all throughout. I can see some slight variation in the colours used, but it's not enough to give a "natural" feel.

I think that's it for now. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK

Thanks as always, Slog! Good advice.

https://41.media.tumblr.com/449a0ec4...1cxo1_1280.png
Conspirators conspiring.

http://41.media.tumblr.com/659e870c7...1cxo1_1280.png
Stranger demonstrates the ancient and venerable art of BEATING A MOTHERFUCKER WITH ANOTHER MOTHERFUCKER.

Uhm, wow that is... that's happening O: