Zolens attempts to learn art so he can make his own covers

Digital Avatar (for myself): Attempted to draw myself


Pencil Sketch: Attempted to draw a landscape as I was looking at it.


Digital monster drawing: Tried to make something that was semi-game styled


Twitter bird: At the request of someone I made a twitter icon for them


Ditigal Avatar 2: You see I learned how to draw by basing to some extent on myself, which does not work for female images, so I tried to go about it another way, trying to imagine up a female version of myself, this is the result. I feel like I still gave avatar a man face. :C What am I doing wrong?


A full body image of a female orc/human assassin: A rush drawing but my only recent example of drawing someones entire body it seems.




Any thoughts on how I could improve?

Also, I must mention, I am interested in any ideas on ways to test my skills in ways that would help me improve.

You drew your avatar. That's so cool! I'm not good in arts but I liked everything except for the pencil sketch. It was very light. You could have made it darker. To actually make it visible for your viewers.

PS. Sorry, if you intended to keep it lighter

Hai!
Welcome to YWS, by the way, I hope you're finding your way around and liking it in the process

Alrighty, so. I'm always glad to see new artists around here, and I know how much fun is to make your own covers, hence I'd gladly assist you to do that, if I can.

I'd like to see more shading, and maybe done a bit more carefully - especially in the landscape. @Dreamy already pointed out that it's very light, and adding shades and contrasts really helps to give depth to it and makes it more realistic. You seem to be getting perspective nicely, that's good (means one of the hardest parts is mastered, heh) ^^
Also, I feel like you could use a bit more patience when it comes to colouring in hand, hm?

As for the full body pictures, make sure to watch the proportions! She's good in matters of shading, but if you look carefully, something is slightly off with her right leg. I'm not completely sure if it's about perspective or proportions, though. That thigh is bigger than her left one, and the left should be closer to the viewer and hence in general more visible than the right. The proportions, such as the sizes of hands/face, head/body, feet/legs etc, are done very well.

When drawing human faces, I find it the most important to find the right amount of details to show. That means, one too many is as bad as one not enough, and both make the picture look less realistic - which applies even if you don't want it to look completely realistic, same same. For example, when you look at a person, you don't really see their teeth so clearly, do you?
About drawing women..well, there 's a lot of different women, and not all of them look equally feminine, of course.. But in general, softer forms and shading will make a face seem more feminine.

I suggest you to try practicing drawing people from photos. Actors, family members, whomever, both male and female, alone and in pairs, to get a grip on how to show the differences between them

Have you ever tried making a cover before? If yes, I'd like to see that ^^

Feel free to let me know if you need anything c:
Aria~

AriaAdams wrote:Hai!
Welcome to YWS, by the way, I hope you're finding your way around and liking it in the process

Alrighty, so. I'm always glad to see new artists around here, and I know how much fun is to make your own covers, hence I'd gladly assist you to do that, if I can.

I'd like to see more shading, and maybe done a bit more carefully - especially in the landscape. @Dreamy already pointed out that it's very light, and adding shades and contrasts really helps to give depth to it and makes it more realistic. You seem to be getting perspective nicely, that's good (means one of the hardest parts is mastered, heh) ^^
Also, I feel like you could use a bit more patience when it comes to colouring in hand, hm?

As for the full body pictures, make sure to watch the proportions! She's good in matters of shading, but if you look carefully, something is slightly off with her right leg. I'm not completely sure if it's about perspective or proportions, though. That thigh is bigger than her left one, and the left should be closer to the viewer and hence in general more visible than the right. The proportions, such as the sizes of hands/face, head/body, feet/legs etc, are done very well.

When drawing human faces, I find it the most important to find the right amount of details to show. That means, one too many is as bad as one not enough, and both make the picture look less realistic - which applies even if you don't want it to look completely realistic, same same. For example, when you look at a person, you don't really see their teeth so clearly, do you?
About drawing women..well, there 's a lot of different women, and not all of them look equally feminine, of course.. But in general, softer forms and shading will make a face seem more feminine.

I suggest you to try practicing drawing people from photos. Actors, family members, whomever, both male and female, alone and in pairs, to get a grip on how to show the differences between them

Have you ever tried making a cover before? If yes, I'd like to see that ^^

Feel free to let me know if you need anything c:
Aria~

Hm, I will look into your suggestions, thank you for being so helpful

I tried to make 1 cover before, for a story or more to say the sequel story to a story, never finished it, but here. The sequel to the story, Diamonds in the Mist, is Castles In the sky, of course I have yet to even finish writing a single % of Diamonds in the mist.

Dreamy wrote:You drew your avatar. That's so cool! I'm not good in arts but I liked everything except for the pencil sketch. It was very light. You could have made it darker. To actually make it visible for your viewers.

PS. Sorry, if you intended to keep it lighter

Yes the best avatars are ones you make yourself, even if your a horrible artist it feels more awesome!

It was darker, but that was before I took the picture, sadly my camera sucks, not sure how to darken without messing with the pencil textures.

Anyone interested in me drawing anything for them, for the sake of practice?

Some quick draws, yarg, I still failed at woman-ness. I think I am screwing up the jaw.

Quickly made because I wanted a background

As I discovered I can't stretch the image, so I will go for something that looks good as a grid pattern.

That's funny... I have trouble drawing guys!

Also you are female, it seems from what I can tell most artist have an easier time drawing their own gender.

Yeah, it's weird.

I like the monster, and the orc lady the best! I don't draw realisticaly very often... mine are always a kind of soft, cartoony, weird thing...

My only abvice to you is; keep drawing. When I was little ( 10-11-12... haha... ), I loved horses ( yeah! )... so, of course, I would draw them. Horrible picture, after horrible picture, until I finally got it right! ( I personaly think that almost anyone can be a artist... If they really, really, want to )

You probably already are doing that, but oh well.

Female faces tend to be softer in the jaw line and have fuller lips. Other than that I think you're doing excellent.

You are very good. Afraid I don't really have any tips because I am not an artist.

@Holysocks @Bugslake Hm, I have tried many things, my new theory is I need to see other peoples take on my drawings, see how someone else does it differently, might help me figure out how to draw it right. Also thank you.

@TheMessenger Everyone is an artist, they just have to be willing to scribble things. To have the creativity and will to show their inner world, if you are on this site I am sure you are.


Also while I have nothing to add on here, the Alice drawing, was actually a...cut off, you see I tried to do a fully body but it kind of failed horribly the more of the body I drew and colored.

Drive-by comment, but the one consistent issue I see is that you sketch your lines. Your drawings are all very outline-heavy (which isn't a bad thing), but having a bunch of mini-lines making up all the major lines makes for a very messy outline, which breaks up the flow of the picture.

It takes practice, but if you focus on drawing single, smooth, flowing lines, your images will look much better and also flow much better.

Another thing you'll want to look into is varying your line weights. Objects exist three-dimensionally, and shading aside, one of the ways to show this three-dimensionality is to vary how thick and thin your lines are. Generally, the stuff that's closer to the viewer and/or in shadow has the thickest lines, with the stuff farther away and/or brightly lit has the thinnest lines.

One quick Google search finds this image, which is an example of both things I'm talking about. If you compare the sketched lineart (especially the skirt and hair) to the finished lineart, I think you'll see what a big difference unbroken lines and varied weights can make.