[ROBOTICK]

Hello, everyone. I'm new to this board. I'm 16 years old, currently in high school. Please take a look through my gallery. All criticism is welcomed. Give me your harshest.
My Gallery

[tyron]

woah! adhuntress is simply awesome!
great work!

many anatomy problems on some of the others though. krswordsman for example looks very odd.

[Little Beefucker]

I like 'adpilot' -- reminds me of Evangelion.

Your vampire is balls-out awesome.

Nice work!

[melted petal]

as the others I really like adhuntress. also the swordsman does look a bit odd. please do tell us where your inspiration comes from.

I wish I had been as talented when I was 16. Would be a lot further along now. You should try some background shots and some less static poses. Start going for something dynamic. Also tighten up the anatomy. nothing wrong with reference pics.

[Sukhoi]

I just want to say that it looks really nice! Especially the really weird ones
It's really nice when you let yourself loose, and create characters that aren't the classic arch types.

Sukhoi

[mumpizz]

Hi!
looked quickly through your gallery.
I thinks the pics are very good, especially "adhuntress". have you created the characters yourselve or are they a part of some anime series or so?
the legs of "krswordsman" look a bit thin btw

• mumpizz

[Awetopsy]

hey man very nice.. with the exception of a few *very* minor anatomy crits I think your drawingas are very well done..

good stuff.

[Duncan]

yeah, those are quite good. and i too especially like the vampire and huntress.
keep it up.

[ken]

damn, that's awesome, especially if you're 16. i started out on a manga/anime basis too, but i'd strongly advise you to branch out as much as possible. a lot of people get caught up doing one genre, without really innovating. like sukhoi said, avoid the stereotypes. this is just my opinion by the way, i know a lot of people can make a career in one genre, in one style, like a lot of manga artists.

'amvampire' is awesome, it's not your usual vampire, but still so creepy. would be really cool with a background.

it looks like you're using coloured pencil, kind of hard to tell because your pictures are so heavily compressed. scan better, or better yet, develop your digital painting skills.


-Ken

[ROBOTICK]

Everyone, thanks for the comments. More are certainly welcome.
Sukhoi, which are the really weird ones?
Mumpizz, these are all original characters straight from my imagination, with the exception of "adpilot," which was almost wholly inspired by Neon Genesis Evangelion's Rei Ayanami. "Krswordsman"'s thin legs aren't the only problem. I think it all-around sucks ass, but it does make the others look better.
Awetopsy, I'd love to get some detailed anatomy crits! Please?
Tyron, same to you too. By the way, everyone seems like like adhuntress the best. What is it that makes her more likable?
Little Bee, thanks again. You're right about "adpilot". About "amvampire," it's actually the oldest drawing in the gallery. Back then, I suppose anatomy didn't matter at all to me (Now it continually plagues my mind when I should be making my work more cartoony).
Melted Petal, my inspiration comes from my friends, mostly because they're the ones I'm drawing for. I give away all of my work, which is the reason I even keep a gallery. In rare instances, I do draw inspiration from other designers, but then I end up with stuff like "adpilot" that I don't feel like I'm responsible for. I'd try some background shots and better poses, but I'm really only drawing these for the actual designs, not for artwork. My friends don't seem to mind. I'd like to work on my anatomy, though. Got any pointers? By the way, there IS something wrong with reference pics v_v . It hurts my ego.
Duncan, thanks a lot. I really appreciate it.
Ken, I'd start to go toward a more realistic style, but that seems to be my problem. I'm trying to get into the animated film industry, and I'd really like to use a more cartoony style. My old work was way more anime style, and most of it I think is better than the stuff I'm doing now. Feel free to use any of my images if you really want to paint a background. I'd love to, and I can do it, believe me, but I just don't have the time. You're right; I'm using colored pencil <sigh>. I'd like to paint them or use a different medium, but I have trouble with smearing and mixing colors wrong. Any recommendations? My scanner is awful, but it gets the point across. I wish I could afford some digital painting equipment, but I'm trying to pay for my car and stuff.
Everyone, once again, thanks so much. I'd love to get some more crits.

[Spooky]

You too have an Amano look to some of your pieces. The colors are especially reminiscient of his work. I think you're doing a great job. Keep it up!

[silber]

hey that's some really nice stuff
-Do some (life)figure drawing
that will help with the anatomy
-don't give away your drawings to "some" friends -you will regret it later, believe me (so I do)
one can learn pretty much from old drawings
and besides that it is really nice to look at them from time to time and see how one improved

[ROBOTICK]

Spooky, who is Amano? Someone else mentioned that we have something in common, but I didn't bother to ask. Could you link me to some of his work?

Silber, I'll never regret giving away any of my work. It isn't good enough yet to matter anyway. These are just designs. I haven't posted any of my serious work. Also, one of my main goals is to inspire people or make other people feel better through my work. So many times, people have come to me years later and shown me a picture I gave them, and, almost daily, someone will tell me how much something meant to them or I'll see a picture of mine hanging on their bedroom wall or in their notebook. I even have a friend who writes stories about my characters. That means a whole lot more to me than my own little hoard of worthless drawings. Of course, I'll get around to building a portfolio for college someday, but I'm probably not going to put in any of these character sketches. Also, the only reason I started keeping a gallery online in the first place was so that I could look at my old designs, so I'm not worried about losing them. Thanks for your concern, though. I'll try to draw some real people, but it's just hard to get around to doing that. I don't want to sit there for hours getting every bone and muscle in place. I'd rather go straight to the design. I can see how that's hindered my progress.

Could anyone give me specific anatomical errors in any particular drawings, excluding "adpilot" and "krswordsman"?

[silber]

obviously you missunderstood me-but it's my fault
what I meant about giving away drawings:
-it's great other people are inspired by your pics and do interpretations of them-that's even the best thing which can happen
but.....arggg sorry can't explain exactly what I mean with my week english without being misunderstanding.
One point though:
I didn't think you would like to put these drawings in a portfolio or something
what I meant is that drawings no matter how crappy or old they are are valuable(at least to me)
Giving away drawings is ok
as long as you don't give away everything.

figure drawing isn't drawing every muscle and vain of human bodys and knowing each bone by heart.
It's practicing to draw what you see
(and what you see is what you get;quote V-Garage)
and to draw propotion accuratly (and fast).
No matter what artist you want to be or what you want to specialice at
figure drawing will help you a lot in everything -believe me

[ROBOTICK]

Okay, Silber, sorry about the misunderstanding. I'll try to do more figure drawing, but finding a good source that still allows imagination can be tough. Drawing what you see might look better, but drawing what you cannot see brings so much more purpose and creativity into it. You can always take photos of what you see, anyway. That's just my opinion, and that's probably because I'm more of a designer than your typical artist.

Any specific anatomy tips, anyone? Or any tips at all? Comments?

[maceface]

hey pretty good looking stuff...my one main crit that im going to post is on the anatomy...everything looks squared off. there isnt any muscle definition...now this could be because this is an anime style that you are drawing with...but still try and get some sort of muscles in there!

take it easy and great work

[Novacaptain]

http://www.amanosworld.com is amano's website.

He did the original character design for finalfantasy 7 if i'm not mistaken.

Anyways, nice drawings...I suggest shuffling the 3 first ones into the pile a bit better: they all have the same static pose. That's probably one of the reasons why adhuntress looks so great . Nice stuff.

[ROBOTICK]

Thanks for the comments.
Maceface, I took your advice and threw in a little muscle definition (even though I didn't use a reference) on my newest picture, a new take on "amvampire." It's called "vampire."
In fact, I was originally going to cover his arm with a sleeve, but your advice came to mind, so I ended up having one sleeve ripped off. Overall, this version is more Western in style. He's heavier and a little more realistic, but I kind of like the lanky, surreal look of "amvampire." (by the way, the initials preceding most of the designs are those of the friend I gave them to, but the ones without initials had no owners when I scanned them in)

Novacaptain, thanks for the link. I'll go check it out when I have some time. All of my poses are rather static, and I've been trying to work on that, but when I'm just designing a character I don't really see a need for a great pose. That's why I settled on a pretty uniform system: full-body view with minimum foreshortening, maximum exposure of the full design, white background. Admittedly, I could do better, and I will when the man demands it.

By the way, several people have mentioned trying more dynamic poses. Could someone expound on this? I'm not sure what you mean.

[ January 25, 2002: Message edited by: ROBOTICK ]

[Sukhoi]

I meant the weirder characters like the vampire.
Sorry for being this late.

Sukhoi

[ January 26, 2002: Message edited by: Sukhoi ]