Young Writers Society

So my present for Christmas was a new drawing program. I've seen a lot of good things using SAI and I've used the trial version before so I've been really looking forward to it.

It's taking a little bit to get used to, but for the most part things are going really well with it. These are the first things I got to create on it.

This only took me around two hours total, since I did all the sketching on SAI as well.


And I used a little help from GIMP on this one.



So hopefully I can keep making better stuff x)

Ahhh I like them! They're really cute.

So do you like SAI? I've tried it a little, but I don;t really like it that much XP that and I just don't think it has as many options as GIMP.

I think the only thing I have to comment on, is the shoes in the bottom picture. You should probably curve the toe of the shoe more, so that it doesn't look like the character is standing on her toes. Your proportions are lovely, your hair is perfect as always, and I love the eyes, too! Especially in the first picture, they're really well done, it's just those shoes that are a little iffy ;P

I never would have guessed that you had trouble with kneecaps! They look pretty perfect here haha.

Niiiiiicely done, daaaaaahling haha ;*

Very nice and colorful. I just wish the pictures were of better quality. JPEGs can only support 256 set colors, and oftentimes the default quality settings are horrible, so it tends not to be a good format for exporting art. PNG is much better, and it also supports transparency, which opens up a number of interesting doors for exploring.

The hair in the first picture is just lovely. It's very detailed without being overwhelmingly so, and the gradient coloring gives it a nice comic book feel. I just wish the rest of the picture were as detailed. As it stands, the hair is the main focal point of the picture, simply because of how detailed it is compared to the rest of the piece.

In the second picture, in addition to the shoes, her left wrist is very thick compared to her right, and her right leg has a bend in the calf, which makes it look malformed. She also looks like she's about to lose her balance and fall over. A general rule of thumb is to make sure the character's head is aligned with their feet when standing, otherwise they'll look unbalanced.

As for backgrounds, although the colors work well, right now, your characters are just floating there, especially in the second picture. Try adding a bit more of an environment, so that your character and the background feel like they belong together; it's not always the easiest thing to do, but it really adds a lot to your pieces if you do it.

Mickixoxo wrote:Ahhh I like them! They're really cute.

So do you like SAI? I've tried it a little, but I don;t really like it that much XP that and I just don't think it has as many options as GIMP.

I think the only thing I have to comment on, is the shoes in the bottom picture. You should probably curve the toe of the shoe more, so that it doesn't look like the character is standing on her toes. Your proportions are lovely, your hair is perfect as always, and I love the eyes, too! Especially in the first picture, they're really well done, it's just those shoes that are a little iffy ;P

I never would have guessed that you had trouble with kneecaps! They look pretty perfect here haha.

Niiiiiicely done, daaaaaahling haha ;*

Micki! Thanks for the review !!

I like SAI a lot. I've never been able to get color so bright before and the program's response to pen pressure is amazing for details like strands of hair. Blending colors is also very fast and simple; with GIMP is took a bit more effort with the smudge tool. But you're right, GIMP has more options and I still use it for editing/manipulation.

Thanks for the advice about the shoes! I tried to do something different but you're right, they do look strange x) I'll fix em.

Kyllorac wrote:Very nice and colorful. I just wish the pictures were of better quality. JPEGs can only support 256 set colors, and oftentimes the default quality settings are horrible, so it tends not to be a good format for exporting art. PNG is much better, and it also supports transparency, which opens up a number of interesting doors for exploring.

The hair in the first picture is just lovely. It's very detailed without being overwhelmingly so, and the gradient coloring gives it a nice comic book feel. I just wish the rest of the picture were as detailed. As it stands, the hair is the main focal point of the picture, simply because of how detailed it is compared to the rest of the piece.

In the second picture, in addition to the shoes, her left wrist is very thick compared to her right, and her right leg has a bend in the calf, which makes it look malformed. She also looks like she's about to lose her balance and fall over. A general rule of thumb is to make sure the character's head is aligned with their feet when standing, otherwise they'll look unbalanced.

As for backgrounds, although the colors work well, right now, your characters are just floating there, especially in the second picture. Try adding a bit more of an environment, so that your character and the background feel like they belong together; it's not always the easiest thing to do, but it really adds a lot to your pieces if you do it.

Wow, thanks for the advice on picture quality. I never actually gave it any thought, but now that you mention it the pixels do look a little worse than on the actual drawing program. I will try a PNG next time and see how it works!

The part about having the head aligned with the feet makes perfect sense, too. I'll remember that tip.

And thanks for the rest! I'll keep working on adding more details and environments with my pictures. Once I get a little more used to SAI I'm sure that I can experiment more.