The Fullmetal Alchemist

I think the picture speaks for itself, no? ^^



Drawn entirely in mechanical pencil (#2) with blending stub. Referenced from The Art of Fullmetal Alchemist 2 (as it says at the bottom of the picture, if you can read it >>). I'd display the original for comparison, but it's in a book so that'd be kinda difficult. >> Sorry. ^^;

To clarify: Ed's the only thing I referenced directly from the original drawing. The flamel and FMA logo were sorta referenced (the former drawn from memory and the latter from the book cover). ^^ lol

And as soon as I get it done, I should be adding the colored version of this to the post. ^^

(Yes this is my newest obsession, ranking up there with LoZ. For those of you that know me, you know that's impressive. >> )
~Glad

Ps--I know the hand is terrible. It took me forever to get to it, and I got lazy by the time I got there. I worked on this for almost every day of 10 days; gimme some credit here. >_> ^^;

Pps--The coloring is done! ^.^

Hey Gladius!
I have to warn you that I have no experience with art and drawing, and because of that I don't know much about it, but I think this is great.
Do you post any written work on this site? If you do, let me know on my WRFF thread (it's in my signature below).
Again, sorry I can't give you any criticizm, but I like it. xD
Keep up the good work!
-Alex

I disagree with your comment on the hand! I like that it looks different. I like that it points to the difference between the steel and the boy. Keep drawing! It is excellent.

Hey there!
I'm a huge FMA fan, so the title caught me on this one.
The clothes are VERY well done, I love the dark shading, and the folds look completely realistic. Awesome job.
The hair looks like Ed's, but to me there's something off about his facial features. His eyes don't look quite like Ed's, and neither does his lips or nose. I'm not saying that it should be copied from the original, but to me the face shows no similarity to the actual character.
The hand is drawn nicely, but I think it's the arm that is the problem, especially the wrist. The wrist looks bulky (I mean it's mechanic, but still) and I think that your shading is off. I think it should be darker more towards the right side of his arm, and not so much straight down the center.
All in all, a nice drawing! And I'm extremely jealous of how you can draw clothes!
Great work, PM me if you have any questions.
~blacksheep

(Procrastinating? Yes.)


1- I'm mildly shading obsessed, so looking at your light-source and the way there should be a very inconspicuous light patch pretty much right where the arrow is. If you look at the hem of his shirt, there are some ripples so that spot should be just a bit higher and catching the light. Just a very light erasing job that's mostly just a bit of a patch. Veeeery light.

2- What's happened with the chin/jaw is the head angle. His jaw is at a slightly different angle than the rest of his face (ie- it's facing the camera more than his nose/eyes/forehead) which is the main reason it looks square. By listing up the line under his hair just a bit, and extending that line so his jaw isn't twisting towards the camera so much, the problem will hopefully be fixed.

3- Told you about the forearm/wrist's thickness already. But what I didn't tell you was the shading. The way the light's hitting his shirt, this image is back/side lit from the top— so the bottom of the arm there should be slightly darker shading, and the dark stripe in the middle should be extended towards the bottom. (This technically also makes the hand's shading off, as it indicates the light source comes from the bottom instead of the top)

4- Pretty much the same shading comments, but I also had another comment in here. Primarily, the way the bicep is shaped. You have some indication that the automail is shaped to look muscular, like the outlines themselves and the detailing near the shoulder, but near the elbow it smooths out to look more metallic. That could have been an artifact of the reference pic, but it looks a bit odd. Especially as the outline near the elbow indicates a more muscled shape while there's nothing in the shading to indicate this.

It's a nice image overall, but there are just a few minor details that throw it off. Hope I've pointed them out/will help in the future.

~Rosey

Blacksheep wrote:The hair looks like Ed's, but to me there's something off about his facial features. His eyes don't look quite like Ed's, and neither does his lips or nose. I'm not saying that it should be copied from the original, but to me the face shows no similarity to the actual character.

I'm...kinda not sure how to respond to that. >> I think part of it might be my proportions not being quite spot-on, or like Rosey mentioned (below), I got the chin/jaw angle wrong. I'm not entirely sure I can fix that, but I'll keep it in mind for future pictures. (Hopefully coloring it will help with this issue, too, but we'll see. >>)

Rosey wrote:What's happened with the chin/jaw is the head angle. His jaw is at a slightly different angle than the rest of his face (ie- it's facing the camera more than his nose/eyes/forehead) which is the main reason it looks square. By listing up the line under his hair just a bit, and extending that line so his jaw isn't twisting towards the camera so much, the problem will hopefully be fixed.

I'll see what I can do to tweak it. Looking at my original, however, I'm thiiinking the angle of the chin on the right (his left) side might make it more difficult than it seems to fix that line without adjusting the nose and mouth, too. Hmmm... (It could also be me having an epic fail moment when drawing the eyes, because they don't look in the same direction as the reference pic... >>)

Blacksheep wrote:The hand is drawn nicely, but I think it's the arm that is the problem, especially the wrist. The wrist looks bulky (I mean it's mechanic, but still) and I think that your shading is off. I think it should be darker more towards the right side of his arm, and not so much straight down the center.

Rosey wrote:Told you about the forearm/wrist's thickness already. But what I didn't tell you was the shading. The way the light's hitting his shirt, this image is back/side lit from the top— so the bottom of the arm there should be slightly darker shading, and the dark stripe in the middle should be extended towards the bottom. (This technically also makes the hand's shading off, as it indicates the light source comes from the bottom instead of the top)

I think I see what you (both) mean. It might just be that I'm not transferring the shading from the reference pic very well, or the scanner's not doing it justice (though it actually did better than it has in the past this time), but the reference pic has more of a directly-behind light source at least to that part of the arm, I think? >> (And we discussed the hand thing already. I tooootally forgot to finish the shading on it I was so tired of working on this/frustrated with the hand shape. ^^;;; )

Rosey wrote:I'm mildly shading obsessed, so looking at your light-source and the way there should be a very inconspicuous light patch pretty much right where the arrow is. If you look at the hem of his shirt, there are some ripples so that spot should be just a bit higher and catching the light. Just a very light erasing job that's mostly just a bit of a patch. Veeeery light.

That miiiight be either a) I didn't extend the shading from the reference enough in that spot, ooor b) over-exaggerated a fold that doesn't have shading in the reference pic. >> *shrug* I'll play with it, though, and see what happens.

Rosey wrote:Pretty much the same shading comments, but I also had another comment in here. Primarily, the way the bicep is shaped. You have some indication that the automail is shaped to look muscular, like the outlines themselves and the detailing near the shoulder, but near the elbow it smooths out to look more metallic. That could have been an artifact of the reference pic, but it looks a bit odd. Especially as the outline near the elbow indicates a more muscled shape while there's nothing in the shading to indicate this.

I think I see what you mean. Again, I probably either didn't put enough shading in there, didn't do it properly, or the scanner washed it out just a bit. >> When/if I get around to fixing this, I'll play with that aspect, too, as well as the others you mentioned. ^^; *hates tweaking a completed picture in case it gets more badly messed up* >>

Thanks so much for all your comments! I'll definitely remember them in the future. ^_^

Hello, Gladius.
Your artwork looks really detailed and accurate.
I really like the shading of the first one and the way you used the colors of the second piece.
Fullmetal alchemist is really awesome.
And... You should creating your own characters, that way people can see what a true artist you are.

Keep up the good work!

Thanks for stopping by Candy!

Sweetcandycanes wrote:And... You should creating your own characters, that way people can see what a true artist you are.

I don't know if you want to see how my original characters came out in drawing. There's a reason I've stuck to charries with known appearances for my posted drawings--they actually turn out like this one. ^^;;; But thanks for the compliments; they are muchly appreciated. ^_^

~Glad