Scout and Mayella

Hey, everyone! I do not know if any of you are familiar with To Kill a Mockingbird but I got a new sketchbook and a drawing book. We are studying To Kill a Mockingbird in English at the moment so I decided to draw two characters from it. Excuse the bad quality--these were taken from my phone. I may eventually decide to draw more characters from the story; I will see! Due to the size of my sketchbook, I've had to take multiple pictures of each character.

Mayella Violet Ewell






Jean Louise 'Scout' Finch

I have to read that book also...lame.

I was fortunate to study that book for my O'level Lit
I like your drawing of Scout!

Li!

A quick set of coimments.
Use a simple editor like Picasa to up the contrast so we can see things better.
Mayella's proportions are pretty okay. Only her head needs a little to be refined. It's like too squashed. Also, you need to work on the feet - both Scout and Mayella.
The legs should have an almost similar width, not one skinny. Unless, it's deliberate.
Scout - The shoulders are too stiff, broad, like a coat hanger. Smoothen it out.

I loved that book! These are good drawing, you just need to practice on getting the proportions right.
~Lava

Hey, Elinor! I'm Jash, well, I think you know me. LOL Anyway, I was roaming around WRFF forum for something to review 'cause my thread has been pushed to the second page, and I kinda ended up with Skin's. LOL Whatever. Haha! I just thought I'd leave a review for you, well, 'cause I personally think I review sketches best. LOL Don't mind that.

Um, I've never read the book, so I'm sorry if I won't be able to point out if your drawings fit the character or so, but I'll try my best to help you. Here it goes...

Spoiler

This first drawing, I can tell even it was cut in two, has a problem with the legs part; they were too short. The feet looked twisted (though I get what position you were trying to do: left foot behind right), good try anyway.

Spoiler

Second drawing is a bit better.

Okay, here's what I think. Sorry if I might sound harsh. First, the shoulders are too hunched over. Try to relax the them and pull in the armpits, that way they won't look like tense. Second, I don't know if it's just the shots, but the eyes look like black dots.

What I'll suggest (I'm no pro but I'm also a sketcher) is that you study proportions. If you want to improve, try observing your own body--the way you stand, how the shoulders lay back, how your legs stand. That would help you improve a lot, I assure.

Next thing is, I think it's the way you sketch. When sketching, you first do a skeleton, like draw lightly (throw in your feminism) a circle for the head, sausages for the arms and the body, and so on. That way, you'll avoid distorted proportions.

Another thing is when you take a picture, especially when you're using a low pixel camera, i.e. phones, try downloading a free image manipulator program such as Google Picasa or GIMP. That way, you can adjust the contrast and lighten up the image even though it isn't the best. Nothing compares with a scanner though. LOL

All in all, this is pretty good. Practice and practice and practice! Remember, practice does not make perfect. I'll quote something I read: perfect practice make perfect. When you practice, apply what you learn (what others suggest or so). I assure improvement.

I hope I've helped! You can always shoot me a PM if you have any questions.

~~ Jash ♥

P.S. I really like the dress of Miss Violet. =)

jashbagabaldo wrote:I was roaming around WRFF forum for something to review 'cause my thread has been pushed to the second page, and I kinda ended up with Skin's.

Perv.

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Heya, Ellie.

I know more or less nothing about sketching and drawing, so please don't take this review as a very formal one! This will be more of a critique based on my opinion than anything, due to my lack of knowledge.

Overall, I think these are pretty good. I've never actually read To Kill a Mockingbird before, so I'm not familiar with these characters. I don't read enough... Anyway, because of that, I can't really tell you how they compare to my interoperation of the characters. As a whole though, they look like interesting characters and I like the clothing you've put them both in. For someone who hasn't read the book, I can tell that the first is rich and the second is poor. Well done for being able to get that impression across to me.

My critique is more or less what Lava and Jash have said. The one thing that seems to be standing out for me is the proportions. There are some areas where I feel they're a little off. When it comes to proportions, I think that the second drawing is the best. The only noticeable proportion issue I see there are the shoulders; they look a bit too high and hard looking. I'd suggest relaxing them a little, and at the same time, lowering them. I think they'd look a lot cleaner then.

As for the first drawing, it's harder to tell because we haven't got a picture of the whole thing. From what I can see though, the shoulders are similar to the other drawing. They look a bit hard to me. I'm not sure how to describe it... Hard is the only word that I can think of. Do you understand what I mean though? The legs are the biggest problem with this photo though. One of the reasons is because they both look different widths. I also think that her feet look a bit off. I'd suggest making them a little cleaner and better proportioned with the legs and the rest of the body.

Other than that, there's nothing obvious that I think you need to work on. I would like to see you shading in a bit more details, but that is pretty easy to do. All that you need is a little practice, and I can see these getting even better! I'm sorry I haven't been much help... xD

Keep drawing,

xoxo Skins

Hey there! As I said in my PM, I am here to review your pictures.

So, first things first--general impressions. The drawings were good representations of the characters, even though they were blurry, as you explained. There's some proportion stuff to fix, though.

For example, in your drawing of Mayella, the gap between her armpits and her body is a little too large. Her head could be a bit bigger, and her right leg (that's right as in facing me) looks backwards, like her heel and the back of her shoe is facing us. Her left leg is better, but the ankle seems wider than her calf. Also, I think if you could have her put her hands on her hips (or is she already? I can't really tell), it would look better, and it's befitting of a Ewell.

Still, I absolutely loved the dress and her hairband. The hair style fits with the movie (yeah, my class had to watch that as well as read the book) and her face is very well proportioned.

I think you did a little better with Scout. The overalls totally fit her, as does the expression on her face. Even before I saw the names, I knew exactly who this character was. Good job in that.

Her shoulders seem really hunched-over, though, and she looks cross-eyed--her left eye (facing me) is looking out to my left and is smaller than the right eye, looking to my right and which is bigger than the other eye.

Also, with Scout's legs, there is no clear spot where her knees are. I could tell by looking to see where the upper leg ended and the lower leg began, but Scout's knees would be bent if she was in that position. And don't they seem a little skinny for the overalls? I know Scout's young (or at least she is at the start of the book), but I don't think the overalls would be that big around her legs.

But I will say that the hair was excellent, like with Mayella.
And now I will stop blathering on and end this long review. Good job and keep drawing!