Dre Illustration Options

[dre]

Hello,

I first want to introduce myself as this is my first post. It's always great to be able to communicate with others
who share the same interests. Second, I want to start posting my artwork for feedback and critiques. I want
to engage my illustration career more aggressively and started revamping my portfolio recently.

I believe that others who enjoy the same type of art will be very up front, honest and open of their opinions
and help me grow.

Here is my first pic. Thanks in advance to anyone who responded.

[MasonEasley]

I like where your style is headed, but I think you're focusing too much on the coloring and not enough on the fundamentals. And let's face it; the fundamentals are boring as hell, and no one wants to do them, but you HAVE to do them, and do them over and over until its in your muscle memory. When that's over, you need to do them again.

I recommend laying off the colors for a while and focus on your figure work (unless you want to be a colorist).

Your form is solid, just work on the overall definition of your figures. The arms on a lot of your characters look like balloons, you need some definition in there, and it will make your figures pop.

Also I noticed that you're stopping almost all of your pictures at the waist, its an easy way out of drawing the legs and feet, which can honestly be the toughest part of figure drawing. Try to draw some complete figures, it will help out a lot.

Here's a great link;

http://www.fineart.sk/?cat=1

I go back to it almost everyday, and honestly, I should be looking at it a lot more than a should. Its an incredible resource. If you get bored doing that, I recommend studying guys like Jim Lee who have the anatomy down to a science. A lot of people say that learning anatomy from comics is a bad idea, but if you're learning anatomy from Lee, you're doing fine in my book.

http://www.google.com/images?q=Jim+Lee&...680&bih=850

Good luck man, and keep drawing. Your stuff is looking good overall.

[Carl Shinyama]

A lot of people say that learning anatomy from comics is a bad idea, but if you're learning anatomy from Lee, you're doing fine in my book.

Unless you have a keen analytical mind capable of breaking down human figures into proportionate shapes and executing the drawing of a human figure into a believable one, it generally is inadvisable to try and learn anatomy from any art form other than those that explicitly try to illustrate anatomy.

[MasonEasley]

Unless you have a keen analytical mind capable of breaking down human figures into proportionate shapes and executing the drawing of a human figure into a believable one, it generally is inadvisable to try and learn anatomy from any art form other than those that explicitly try to illustrate anatomy.

I do understand your point. One problem I see when people only study from anatomy books and real life is that their work is missing something. I call it "flavor". Jim Lee's work had flavor, and that's why he's so influential to so many artists. Madueria had flavor, and that's why he's almost as influential as Lee.

Consider that the top artist all swiped their styles from someone else. Lee himself is a mixture of Byrne, Silverstri, Buscema, and Arthur Adams for example. Hell, he was literally swiping Silvestri when he first started X-Men. Terry Dodson was an Adam Hughes clone, but now has a pretty nice style of his own. etc.

In the end, if you're doing a particular artform, it pays to actually study the artform you're attempting to do.

This post has been edited by MasonEasley: Mar 22 2011, 06:06 PM