Katara

I don't draw much, but when I saw this contest: Draw your TV favourite I decided to give it a try. So I drew Katara from The Last Airbender. She's practicing her water-bending.

Spoiler

Katara One.JPG (87.56 KiB) Viewed 254 times

I know it has lots of problems, but whatever.

- Calli

Calligraphy -

I wanted to start off by saying that it's nice to meet you; I'm quite sure we haven't spoken before. Also, your username is super-unique! I like it. Alright, now that that's over with, I will get on with the actual review and stop dillydallying. Let me say, however, that I have never watched The Last Airbender so I might as well say that I am clueless to who Katara (erm, that's how you spell it, right?) is and what she does and such. For the sake of this review I did look up a picture of her on Google, though, so this should be pretty accurate, look-wise. Ahem, no promises, dearie.

Alright then. If I am correct, this show is on Nick, that TV channel with the orange splat logo, hm? If so, I assume Katara and the other characters are probably in their teens, then - or something like that. Well, I shall go with that. The hip and bum area is huuuuge. Shakira, Shakira! Teens - especially the ones on the younger spectrum - don't usually have such an overwhelming large hip like that. From the pictures on Google, as well she does not seem to have such of an "apple" shape, which you have almost depicted in this picture. She seems like an active girl, actually, with a very slim and petite build - nothing like the voluptuous figure you have drawn here. With the assumption that you are going to redraw this - which, I know, is a pain - it would be wise to "tone it down" in that area.

I think one of the components making her out to be such an apple-shape in your sketch is that her thighs are very large, almost lumpy. They are quite awkward-looking, as well, I must say. The hips and thighs look like that of my grandmother - my quite large grandmother, whom has had one too many Serbian breads in her day. They are far too lumpy in appearance for a girl of Katara's age (which, I assume, is not ninety-five and a quarter). Tone the thighs more when you draw them: meaning, sharper lines to show the definition of well-musceled, young, lean legs.

The stance Katara is in is also quite awkward and a fact that immediately caught my eye when I looked at this. She looks slightly as if she is going to fall backwards quite violently upon her rump at any giving second. Perhaps one of the things that make this come-about is the lack of being able to see her feet and to see solid ground, in this sketch. Being able to see a solid ground and rooted feet give a sort of balance and solidness to a sketch and without the two, it looks shaky and unsteady - as we see in your sketch, here.

Another tidbit I noticed in this sketch that unsettles me. The right hand (or the one that looks like a ball of cookie-dough) is very inhuman. It is . . . very resembled to ball, I suppose? To remedy this all you should have to do is add in a few simple lines to show finger definition and lines on a hand - the wrist, etcetera. It's just a little, simple thing, but a very awkward one if left uncorrected.

Okay, okay. Now for my biggest nitpicks! Her face, her face, her face! It looks emotionless - or, if anything, very, very sad. She doesn't look powerful and determined as I see in the photos on Google - there's no wild glint in her eyes, like, aha, I have water shooting from my hands, you lose. And, to be frank, it makes me very, very sad. Because that glint in Katara's eyes that I see in the photos on Google and the brief video on YouTube that I watched seem to embody her personality and without it, I feel like your sketch is another person, if that makes any sense at all and isn't as tangled as the tinsel I tried to put on my Christmas tree early this morning. Also: her eyes are blue, not green - it's in all the photos on Google. I think blue eyes are an important trait for water-girl, here. She also doesn't have a unibrow, so I'd give her a good eyebrow wax to clean that up.

I liked the sketch. It was good - but what I didn't like was that it was nothing more. It wasn't great. There is a lot of area in which you could improve, but I still am impressed - it's better than most fans of Katara could have done, I reckon. I do hope this helps you if you decide to re-draw it, but if you don't, it was fun!

- roach

Thank you Roach. I probably won't redraw this particular picture of Katara, but I will keep your comments in mind for the next time I sketch her! : )

I really liked this pic I've always kinda liked fighter girls, and this pose is cool! My favorite thing about this is how you used a different medium for the blue flame stuff. It looks like either watercolor or marker to me, and I just love it . The color is bright and electrifying and it's great how you did two shades of blue and drew a few splash marks around it.

The hands look really good in this too, as well as your sense of proportion. I know you already got comments about the hip and thigh being a bit wide, but besides that I think you did really well, especially considering how difficult this pose is. I mean, you have her arms stretching out in different directions, and legs tilted into a fighting stance, and it's really hard to do. I always mess up with stuff like this x)

I think you could work on facial features in your next drawing. Here, I expected something with more intensity. Her eyes are too round too me. I would've drawn them a little sharper. And her eyebrows are too thick, I think they need to be thinned out some. Also, one is curved up and the other is straight, which makes her expression look a bit confused. The nose is a little squiggly and the mouth is too far down her face, you didn't leave any room for her chin.

Keep drawing! This is definitely not a bad pic.

Thank you BlackSheep! : ) I have been reading up on how to give expression to eyes after your comment. I'll keep drawing!

Cool I know this isn't quite anime style, but if you look up the different expressive anime eyes it might help. It'll give you a general idea of how a person's features contort when they are angry/confused/surprised etc.