Wacom + Gimp…
This took waaaayy too long (~4hr over a week with many reversals)
Proportions are deliberately askew.
C&C (esp. on drawing hands easily) very welcome…
Alex
Not that I could do any better, but you asked 
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Both “girls” each have one of their eyes/eyebrows showing through their hair when the composition strongly suggests that both of those eyes should be partly hidden
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The middle girl has her ears growing out of her temples
She also appears to have bit of a mustache, and as Jerry Seinfeld said “she has Man Hands” (main thing being the palms being too thick especially on the left hand)
The girl on the right’s hands are way off. The thumbs, especially the left one are gigantic, the left fingers are too stubby. The right index finger is too long and the back of the hand is caved in instead of slightly arched.
The girl on the right also appears to have a moustache and the afore-mentioned eye-showing-through-the hair. Her nose should be narrower (if you’re trying to draw cute/attractive).
Frankly it looks like you spent a lot of time with the painting / coloring and not enough on the facial details / hands / “raw” drawing shapes / basis. The facial details shouldn’t be hard or take long to fix. The kneeling girl’s hands will probably take the most time.
Mike
Heh, thanks for the input…
Oh, firstly, all are meant to be the same girl, so I guess I failed there…
- Both “girls” each have one of their eyes/eyebrows showing through their hair when the composition strongly suggests that both of those eyes should be partly hidden
Manga- style -> give the impression of eyes seen through whispy hair by drawing both. Not accurate, but stylistically intended.
- The middle girl has her ears growing out of her temples
She also appears to have bit of a mustache, and as Jerry Seinfeld said “she has Man Hands” (main thing being the palms being too thick especially on the left hand)
Hmmm… maybe revise top lip to thinner / defined by shading. Hands are crap. Can’t do them for toffee.
The girl on the right’s hands are way off. The thumbs, especially the left one are gigantic, the left fingers are too stubby. The right index finger is too long and the back of the hand is caved in instead of slightly arched.
Hands are claws / left hand curls to towards the viewer -> hence stubby appearance. Once more, hands are crap.
The girl on the right also appears to have a moustache and the afore-mentioned eye-showing-through-the hair. Her nose should be narrower (if you’re trying to draw cute/attractive).
Cute/ attractive, not really, but not ugly either. Sort of looks attractive from some angles but not others (eg: Uma Thurman -> devastating from some views, quite unattractive from others)
Frankly it looks like you spent a lot of time with the painting / coloring and not enough on the facial details / hands / “raw” drawing shapes / basis. The facial details shouldn’t be hard or take long to fix. The kneeling girl’s hands will probably take the most time.
Heh, quite the other way round, but “cleaning up” kills the shapes/ basis to some extent. Mainly when I revise shapes in cleaning up and don’t take account of the effects on other features. Again, heh, hands are crap!
Lazy b* that I am I won’t change owt, but I will bear in mind your comments for later sketches.
Thanks,
Alex
I’m just going to be frank about this, you really shouldn’t be working on stylistic conventions until you have a proper understanding of the underlying subject.
Essentially, do you think that the professionals become great at drawing people in the manga style because they studied manga the entire time? No, they spent their time learning to draw people first because the basis to drawing it stylistically is to be able to draw it end of story.
I’m not saying this because i have something against the style, it’s because that too many people get caught on the style aspect and don’t recognise that it is seperate thing from skill itself, realism and all that crap is the basis to anything you will draw.
My advice is to forget about the whole “manga” thing for a while and study realistically, it’s much easier to tell when something is wrong and build your understanding of it.
At the moment i’m doing the same, i’m pretty Disney inspired but i have seen enough of the skills required to be studying skeletal and muscular anatomy, figure drawing, painting/colour theory.
You got to take the journey if you plan on reaching the destination.
If you are open to what i have said i could readily make some recommendations of what to study, but i’d like to hear from you first before i dig up the resources.
I look forward to hearing your response.
Basically my response is this:
This is the first Mangaesqe thing I have posted here, and one of very few I have ever done. It isn’t even really Manga, just draws on it for some of the facial details.
The vast majority of my time is spent on more realistic endevours, although that is not to say I do not believe that the same care should not be given to subjects such as this.
For this sketch the heads were constructed in the Loomis style, skeletons were sketched to try and get proportion (exaggerated though it is), muscles and body structure were added over the top including ribcage and what muscles are defined on a skinny girl like this, even when clothing would cover them. Then the clothing was added, the lot inked on a seperate layer, the coloured briefly (and rather poorly).
The fact that I am no good at these techniques should not detract from the fact that I practice them in everything I do.
Rant over, I am always willing to get more tricks and tips and methods of construction, so would gratefully receive any sources you could give me, esp. the painting colouring theory.
Alex
Good to hear, i just have to mention it to be safe since more often than not people don’t.
Well if you’re already practicing that i have to ask how much you study from life? It’s just as essential as the guidelines provided by Loomis etc.
Speaking of which last time i checked his Drawing the Heads and Hands book had a far bit of info on the subject but you really should set aside a daily exercise if you’re having trouble with it.
At the moment i do a daily self-portrait since i royally suck at facial construction, but the main thing is you always do it, even if it’s 2am and you just arrived from a long tiring party, do a 3 minute half arsed attempt and get to sleep.
The thing is if you let it slip once the chances are you’ll be inclined to let it slip many more times.
So just set aside atleast one hand study every day and you should notice the improvement as you better understand it.
I got these two on colour theory:
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9504
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9505
And this on general digital painting:
http://itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm
Hope that helps. 