Messages du forum par Icouldntthinkofaname

Oh, this looks good! I actually don't think the eyes are totally the issue here; I think the one that's further away may just be a little squished (I do this a lot myself). Eyes in 3/4 views like this are usually about the same height as each other, with the one further away being narrower (if that makes sense; I'm on mobile but can't find the simple guide I'm thinking of).

I looked at the artists you mentioned and I see the issue here, but I think you're close - you're drawing these features fairly realistically (and good job! That nose is seriously impressive), while, like you said, both of them are more stylized.

Peacchip's eyes in particular have very clear shapes to them (does that make sense), and I think both draw them a bit larger. In both cases, the rest of the face plays a role, too! Both of them draw simpler noses and mouths, and I think have more dramatic line weight differences (thicker upper eyelash, thinner lower eyelash, a more "anime" shape, less detailed folds). I also think pushing the eyebrows and mouth will help achieve the expression you want. You know the rules, but you aren't quite breaking them yet.

I don't think you have to do much to get where you want here - you're really close! Good luck! I'd also suggest checking out some Satoshi Kon movies for another style that's fairly close.

Edit: Sorry for bringing up stylization, I'm a bit sleep deprived and missed that you had already mentioned that.

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 6, 2024 9:14pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 6, 2024 9:16pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 6, 2024 9:17pm.

Hey, good job on these! I think you have a pretty solid understanding of the actual poses, so I think you'd benefit from doing more muscle and anatomy studies instead; really train those 3D shapes. There's a lot of overlap, but they aren't quite the same skillset.

Anatomy for Sculptors is a good, thorough resource for that, and I'd also suggest Taco1704 and Michael Hampton. Proko can be hit-or-miss but is helpful for a lot of people!

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 5, 2024 10:23pm.

Yeah, I've had my fair share of issues but I don't agree with the other user's advice either. It's counterproductive to learning. I think it's in poor taste to tell someone who's learning that something is completely beyond them or unachievable; bringing other people into self-deprecating talk isn't "being realistic", it's really just insulting the other person. Having good teachers helps, but the internet is a solid resource, so why not use it? Plenty of artists start off being self-taught.

You can't tell what a person is or isn't doing or what their life is like just from looking at their art; find people who are interested in your journey to get critique from. You want folks that ask questions about your work and what you're trying to do.

I think starting late might give you some mindset advantages; you'll likely have an easier time knowing what works for you. Additionally, lot of Japanese artists are in their 40s - 60s, and a lot of their early work looks pretty different. Don't have too many examples of late bloomers off the top of my head for manga or game artists, but Van Gogh started painting at 27. Kandinsky started learning art when he was 30.

Circumstances can affect your ability to draw, but innate talent doesn't really exist. Art spaces tend to suffer from a standardized grindset mindset that doesn't account for disability or things like that. There's no one-size-fits-all approach; not every technique will work or click with every person. Not every experience is universal (I have trouble with general audience advice because my own issues with art are outside of most peoples' area of expertise). I had people tell me that Draw A Box would solve all of my problems. I learned nothing, hated every second, and still get people yelling at me about it. It's good for a specific type of learner.

For actual art advice, you seem to already know what you want your art to look like, and that's a great start. If you're looking for specific tips, I really like the guides from EtheringtonBros, Manga Materials, and Taco1704 (I believe they're all on Twitter and Instagram). Michael Hampton's book is good for more 'complex' simplified anatomy, and he also has a YouTube channel. I also really like Pikat (also on YouTube). A number of manga artists have YouTube channels (Akihito Yoshitomi regularly posts his sketch processes, and VOFAN posts speedpaints with express purpose of sharing the process), and a few episodes of Naoki Urasawa's Manben are available with English subtitles. Also be sure to study those artists you like, too! See how they stylize or simplify things.

But if you want to just keep doing what you're doing for a while, why not do that? Feeling like you have to do other things right now will make the process less fun, and so will only ever doing fundamentals. If you're not sure where to go, you can ask for more direct critique, too; people can usually point you in a direction.

Tiny edit: As a fellow TKRB fan, should add that many of the artists are also on social media (this goes for most gacha games with multiple artists' contributions), so it might be worth seeing if any of them post process or sketches or things like that.

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on November 5, 2024 8:15pm.

Best bet is to find someone whose opinions you trust. Reddit's art community can be really toxic depending on the problem, so I'd avoid it personally.

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on October 23, 2024 8:40pm.

I completed the challenge myself; it's very common to get tired or burned out at the end and phone it in, rather than progressing in a linear fashion. Are you getting feedback / logging your challenge on the website?

Alternately, DAB may just not be a good fit for you. A lot of people praise it and swear it's the only way to improve, but it's only effective for certain experiences and learning styles; I found that it wasn't very helpful for me, personally.

I've been seeing your posts, and I think what might help is to slow down a bit and really get into the nitty gritty of studying forms and anatomy (some of yours are very strong, so you already have a decent foundation that might make the curve easier) - right now it feels like you're subscribing to the idea that practicing more will automatically improve your skills, but are you stopping to absorb the information? Are you learning anything?

Doing things like this can sometimes cause you to reinforce your bad habits, and will eventually burn you out. It might be worth adding longer timers, or trying to do things without the use of a timer at all - just take your time and really observe your subjects.

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on June 29, 2024 4:01pm.

Have had similar issues to you!

I'm not sure what your skill level or experience is currently, but you could either try to keep working on ten-minute poses (it might just be a matter of trial and error and coming to understand what 10 minutes "feels" like to you), or you could stick to shorter timers for now if your attention span isn't having it (I know mine doesn't always). You could also try doing poses without the timers at all, which might take off some of the pressure of trying to fill things in.

I've been exactly where you are with the issue of staying aware of an entire piece. What helped me was just to try to get all of my basics down "at the same time", and then refine them later. This site's tutorial is part of what helped me (starting with the two lines of action, one for the body and one for the arms), though I think I'd need more detail to offer better feedback. Would also recommend Michael Hampton's figure drawing book, which provides a good, simplified breakdown in a similar vein.

Have dropped off of LoA a bit in favor of doing slower, more careful studies and finding methods that work for me, with a small amount of success!

I've filled several sketchbooks (as well as practiced digitally again), and I'm working on learning to design things that I feel are a ways out of my current skillset (elaborate machines, for example), but I'm not sure what to do to further my studies when it comes to drawing people.

I've gone through Proko's courses, as well as Anatomy for Sculptors and Figure Drawing: Design and Invention, and while I'm practicing things from those still, I feel like I've fallen into a bit of routine, and I want to add more variety to my practices. I have tried Draw A Box and found it wasn't a good fit for me.

Ideas? Thoughts?

Thank you!!

Hey, thanks for the speedy reply and comments!!

I'm glad I was wrong here - that's genuinely good to know, thank you for clearing it up! I totally forgot about this, but I had a lot of internet problems (outages, etc) when I first started using the site. I'll keep an eye out and see if the problem persists! Thanks again!

Saw the other suggestion re: critique, so offering something based on that. I second the emojis not being all that helpful!

I think that the giving good critique guidelines are good in theory! But I needed to go out of my way to find them, and, having had some unpleasant experiences trying to get critique both here and elsewhere, it might help to put them somewhere a little easier to see than a direct link from the Your Studio page (stickied to the top of the critique forum, a shorter version in a small window above the new thread or comment sections, etc).

The critique forums and the critique requests section also contain the same posts, but are treated differently by the site (the forums don't have that "giving good critique" pop-up); it might also be helpful to have the button on "Discuss" go to the latter rather than the former, or to have the site treat them as the same section (if that makes sense).

Hi, I just checked my profile and noticed that it says I've logged... five hours.

I've been doing 30-minute classes a few times a week for a number of months now, and there was a stretch of time where I was doing them daily. In some cases, I had closed the window too early (did all 30 minutes but didn't see the end screen) or had been interrupted and didn't get back to completed class. Those ones don't seem to have been counted. I know for some I wasn't registered / logged in, but the ones I have done while logged in should be more than that.

Is it possible to have the site count by something like the images you've completed times for, rather than the entire class being marked finished? Or at least to not tie it to seeing the end screen.

Small suggestion spinning off of that is to have an option to opt-out of the tutorial or notifications about completing the tutorial. I've done it twice, but it was only just now marked completed (for possibly the same reasons those hours weren't logged). The tutorial is great for beginners! But I'm here brushing up on existing skills rather than learning to draw, and only completed it much later.

• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on May 10, 2024 4:47pm.
• Icouldntthinkofaname edited this post on May 10, 2024 4:48pm.

Maybe some of your problem is that you don't have an aim. Why are you drawing? What's your goal? Are you doing anything outside of studies?

Also, I've similarly had trouble with Loomis. Someone sent me