sparrow attempts to draw

[sparrow]

I like to sketch and draw stuff sporadically. Recently I've started to attempt to draw my characters, since none of them have pictures to go with their profiles, which makes me kinda sad...

Anyhow, just wanted to post a few of the ones that I'm less embarrassed about here in the hopes of getting some feedback. I know that there's a good number of artists and graphics people on this board, and I'd love some comments, suggestions, and tips.

Here goes...

Zarene, a dark jedi and my first character on this site

An idea for a male character that I've recently started brainstorming



Once again, any feedback and criticisms greatly appreciated!

[Mr.Bøbert]

Pretty good, especially the left one of the first pic. That one's great!

[sparrow]

Tried to draw again today, but this was the only one that I felt satisfied with to any degree. It's supposed to be Sierra, my MoD assassin.



Once again, constructive criticism greatly appreciated.

[sparrow]

Several of you were nice enough today to let me attempt to doodle your characters, so I might as well share. Apologies to Rugs for making Locke look like a monkey.

[syndrias]

Beautiful drawings Sparrow! They all look very good . The way these pictures look kinda make them seem like you are flying through them, like not taking enough time to draw? Might be wrong, but maybe being patient and slower with your drawing strokes would make it better? But then again, some awesome artists draw extremely fast so idk lol just trying to point stuff out. Great pictures, sparrow!!!

[Otterling]

Hellos!

Ok, as a fellow artist, I would like to help out! Nothing worse than putting effort into a piece and then not hearing anything about it. So, here goes. I can already see a style beginning to develop in your work. This is good. I encourage you to keep doodling. Seriously, this is the BIGGEST piece of advice that will help you along. Doodle. Draw anything. On anything. Just keep doing it.

The pictures themselves are fairly good, all told. I think your number one real problem here is just anatomy. I can honestly say that most of my friends are artists and we almost all use references to help us get our proportions right. Try finding a picture that matches or is close to the pose you want to use. Then look at that to see where things line up. The angel figure at the top actually has some fairly good proportions but her legs are a little short. Don't be afraid of the edge of your paper. If your drawing runs off the end, so be it. It's better than shortening the figure.

With the Locke drawing, I think I know what you were aiming for as far as pose but it doesn't translate over. I would say try drawing out a quick stick figure first. Think about where the arms and legs go, how the curve of the spine would place his hips and such. Again, references come in handy. You can then draw right over the stick figure and erase it when you're done. It'll act as a guide though and can help with placement.

Final bit of advice, go to an art store and look for the colored pencils/specialty pencils section. Look for a pencil that says "non-photo blue". This will be your best friend. I carry a ton of them. Do all your original lines in that. Then go back over them with a normal pencil, picking out only the ones you want to show up in your final image. Now here's the magic part, take it to a photo-copier (local library, whatever) and have it copied. The blue pencil is just the right color so that the photocopy machine cannot detect it. It'll give you a copy of JUST your nice clean pencil lines.

[sparrow]

Thanks for the feedback, Otter and Syn! Anatomy is a definite problem for me right now. I have a consistent tendency to make the head too big compared with the rest of the body, and the legs too small. Guess I need to look at some more pictures.

And the blue pencil definitely sounds like it could help clean up my messy pencil lines.




Echani sisters

[syndrias]

That looks really awesome, sparrow. I like that one! I need to try and draw...hmmmm...maybe i will post something soon, you have inspired me!

[sparrow]

Study break...



Comments and advice appreciated, as always. I seem to have some trouble with head to body proportions. And fingers...

[sparrow]

Otter, your earlier advice about using reference pics for poses was right on the money!

Still need to work on those proportions, but having a reference pic of a hand definitely helped.

[sparrow]

Haven't attempted to really draw in a while, but Wolf's recent art post inspired me.

One of my first attempts at Ki'ang, Nikto Jedi Master:


Zarene and Visari (sorry Rugs!)


As I said, I can't do poses... yet.

[sparrow]

Haven't attempted to draw in a while. Trying to learn how to do some actual poses. So let's start with eating...

As always, constructive criticism and feedback appreciated.

[Kella]

xD I approve. These look great.