Osaka 2025-01-05 03:02:18

You're thinking too deep about it - don't allow outside opinions that go against your belief system to influence how you view your own art. It's true that people can become desensitized to their own artwork and how far along they've come with improvement and overall quality, but if you moderate the time spent between reflecting on your past works and making new stuff, you'll find that you were simply too hazed by your own thought processes. 100% of the time, you will always fall short if you compare yourself to others. Now, it's fine to derive inspiration from your peers, but NEVER scale your journey or skill with another person's artwork, because every single artist that there ever was, 'professional' or 'amateur', has their own strengths & weaknesses and their own individual path of expression and what mediums they wish to convey.

Personally, I think your linework is clean and there is a lot that can be done with various color palettes in your art, I'd say keep on the path you're set on so far with that. Also, it's crucial to remember your strongest influences and to play to your strengths.

Keep it up Chrono!!~

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SouSTAR 2025-01-05 03:15:51

There's nothing wrong with wanting support and compliments! We all want them after all, don't we? 〔´∇｀〕

Like @Osaka wrote, people can become desensitized to their own work! And we're often way too harsh on ourselves, because of comparison, etc...

So continue doing what you love, your style is really nice and shapely! It's as if you already knew how to draw it *before* even taking the pen, its really cool! :D

And I'll never forget the fanart you did :3

Don't hesitate to reach for help/support whenever you need it, there's nothing wrong with that :)

ShangXian 2025-01-05 04:20:38

The first thing I feel to say is: do what you like, don't be harsh with yourself as artist and avoid as much as possible comparing yourself with others. Each person has their own strength and flaws, and that's ok because it's part of this big experience called Life.

But now I want to directly answer your question because I don't see this post a begging for sympathy or easy compliments, but as a request of constructive criticism: like I said via PM I see lot of potential as artist. Your art is genuinely pleasant to look at because how well defined, clean and neat lineart is. It's also nice seeing a traditional artist here since many artworks tend to be digital and that's nothing wrong with that: I love both media. But seeing traditional art is a nice feeling to me. It brings me back when I only drew with traditional pieces and I don't rule out to post some in future if I fined them worthy enough to be posted on NG.

Another element that I like about your art is the variety of subjects you draw, it shows the many interests you have in terms of fandom and I like your ability to mimic the style of the fandom you are depicting. I like when people give a personal touch to a fanart but I also love seeing people being able to mimic the style of the original creator (as long as they don't claim it as their own even if in terms of copyright what's protected under it is the way, the creativity in which you made something and not the element itself).

But since I sense the will to get a bit of constructive criticism I also want to point out weakness elements: the first one is colour. I see in the pieces "Slushbucket (SLUSHIE-SWEETHEART)", "SiIvaGunner (Music Group)" and "Charlotte (Original Character)" that you tend to make colour look too pale compared to the subject depicted. To improve the element I may suggest to start by familiarising yourself with the colour wheel and the best way of getting to know the colour wheel, off by heart, is to paint your own. Do this exercise of mixing vivid colours and painting them each in place. You can add more white as you go towards the centre and add more black to each colour on the outer edge. This will create all the shades of each colour. Google, ‘Colour Wheel’ for more examples. It’s a really good exercise to do in order to learn how secondary and tertiary colours can be made from using only primary colours.

You can start with small steps by mixing vivid colours using only primary colours, so start with a limited colour palette first. Choose one red, one blue, one yellow and a black and white paint. Since you make traditional pieces I may suggest mixing them in daylight as they look different under an artificial light. Add only tiny spots of the darker colour at a time, into the lighter colour.

But ofc experiment and find your own colour balance, these are just suggestions.

The second element I would like to point out is the pose of characters. They all seem to have the same pose and the face and look they have tend to be 3/4 view. A 3/4 view is a form of perspective in which an object or figure is depicted at an angle, where the front is visible, and some of the side is visible. This term is used to describe both three-dimensional objects and two-dimensional drawings. But because of lack of colour the sense of three-dimensionality gets a bit lost, nice shading though.

To start making more dynamic poses you have to start first with action lines. Understanding action lines is the first step in drawing dynamic poses. These lines represent the movement and flow of the figure. Action lines are the backbone of your drawing. Imagine a person standing straight; the action line is a vertical line from head to toe. If the person is bending, twisting, or jumping, the action line follows the curve of their movement. These lines capture the overall energy and direction of the pose.

As practical example you can think of a dancer in mid-leap. The action line might curve from the head, through the torso, and down the extended leg. Drawing this line first helps you capture the essence of the pose before adding details. When I draw a figure I first visualize the movement: picture the figure’s motion. For instance, if drawing a runner, think about how their body curves and where the main lines of movement are. Then draw the main line: sketch the primary action line that represents the core movement of the pose. Add secondary lines. Include additional lines for the arms, legs, or any other parts of the body that have distinct movement directions.

Next, build on your action lines by adding basic 3D shapes to represent different parts of the body.

1) break down the human body

Think of the human body as a series of shapes: the torso as a rectangle or oval, the arms and legs as cylinders, and the head as a sphere. This simplifies complex anatomy into manageable parts. Always reduce a figure into geometric shapes.

To better help you understand what I mean, here the link to the sketch I made for my Pico drawing: https://imgbox.com/pU904E9A

ShangXian 2025-01-05 04:34:02

Because the comment is a bit long I have to break it in two parts. I was saying; I posted the link to my Pico drawing where you can see how I tend to break the figure into geometric shapes. these basic shapes build a solid framework for the pose. This method helps maintain proportion and structure.

As other step: add details and sketch a more natural outline by refining the figure. With the 3D shapes in place, start sketching the natural contours of the body. Replace the geometric lines with smoother, more realistic outlines. Focus on making the figure look more fluid and lifelike. Add muscles, hands, feet and so on.

One of the most common issues in drawing poses is stiffness and drawing the same pose over and over may potentially lead to this. Here’s how to avoid it:

1) to capture natural poses, you need to understand how the human body moves. Learn about how people walk, run, and jump. Observe the fluidity in their movements. You can watch videos of athletes or dancers and pause them at different moments to see how their bodies align. Then apply it to the characters you want to draw.

2) study anatomy (fun fact: in Renaissance artists used to take anatomy lessons by studying dead bodies in order to grasp anatomy concepts, i.e. Michelangelo was one of them). Learn about the major muscles and bones, and understand how they interact. Knowing where muscles bulge or contract can add realism to your drawings. You don't need to take anatomy lessons, if dissections are too much you can always use reference models like Body Kun, which are highly posable action figures designed for artists. They help visualize different poses and muscle structures without needing a live model.

To draw dynamic poses focus on the weight distribution, the angle of the limbs, and the tension in the muscles. Exaggerate these aspects slightly to emphasize movement. For example, when drawing someone running, make the forward leg and arm extend more to show momentum. Athletes are a great source of dynamic poses. Look at photos of gymnasts, dancers, and martial artists. Their poses are often exaggerated and full of energy. This what I did with my Pico drawing: https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/shangxian/pico
(you can also see the animated WIP).

You can also experiment by yourself^^ anime is a good tool for dynamic poses. I look at them a lot when thinking about a dynamic pose even though I tend to stick more to photos.

Third element I feel to point out is the background. Your works lack of them but it's not always a bad thing, in some composition even backgroundless works are really cool and I've seen plenty of works being frontpaged without a background. Remember though that a figure must live within an environment and not simply be put as a sticker on a background. Composition is a key element but it's not part of what I want to convey here with these long comments

Besides these three elements I mentioned, I really like your works because I feel that you will eventually reach a high level of artistic production and I love to see how artists evolve during years. Keep having fun, asking for help (we are more than happy to help you!), and experiment, go out your comfort zone (but gradually^^).

Gekkotsuki 2025-01-05 06:14:20

Can you believe that these kind of thoughts tend to happen more to artists than people is aware about?

The thing here is that the majority tend to also try not think so much about it, by thinking on the other hand "...Eh, these inner thoughts are nothing to worry about. I'm pretty sure these will only last for a couple of days, and then I'll just forget about them, and continue living my life, in peace." - and while this can be true, I would say it's still preferible to take action against them, just in case, before they can get worse and worse, and you begin to enter into an inevitable artblock.

Never feel afraid of asking for help, or for advices - mostly here, on Newgrounds, which is supposed to be an ideal community for artists (of any kind, we aren't even talking about just drawing anymore). Everybody needs some help, sooner or later, so don't think that you're going to bother anyone with your questions/doubts.

Anyways... Putting that aside, and focusing on the main purpose of this news post now - I've personally never taken the time to look to your drawings (until now), but after doing it, I've to say that you're pretty talented. I'm no art expert, nor an artist myself, so I could be talking with a little less of basis compared to @ShangXian, or @SouSTAR (which both of them are awesome artists by themselves, and I enjoy what they do), but in my perspective of a regular consumer regarding this type of content, I mean it. You're good at what you do. There's always room for improvement, of course, but I think that's something you shouldn't really worry about, at the moment, since improvement comes accompanied with growth, and growth takes time, so... take it easy. Being an artist isn't a race, nor a competition - everybody has their own path in that aspect, and they take their respective time to cross it.

I hope that's enough feedback from my part. Take care, and have a good day.

SLUSHIE-SWEETHEART 2025-01-05 12:32:10

There will always be "pity praisers" in this world who view art as a linear progression, it's not, it's evolution. Your art is never lesser or greater than someone else's, it's just suited to your tastes, and people who have the same tastes will be drawn to your art.
Just keep what you like at heart and don't worry about the few phonies in this world when there's an ocean of genuine fans who love what you make! Just let your art evolve, and don't worry about people's opinions! If what you make makes you happy then it's guaranteed that other people will love it!
Don't let anyone discourage your art's beauty or growth, let praise be the fertilizer on your garden, not the weedkiller.

- Your friend and biggest fan, Slushie ❤️

DeaghlanNG 2025-01-06 01:49:41

I think the exact same thing. Most of my stuff is crappy doodles, and I almost don't want to post them - then people are like 'i love this' and I question it slightly.

Honestly? Fuck it. It's a bit of fun, and I think your stuff is generally of a better quality than mine LOL