The VG Resource

EDIT! okay so I've changed this into an NSFW thread as some of the content may get a bit more adult themed, I will not be posting any form of sexual intimacy, but expect suggestive nudity.

For anyone curious as to why this is, I intend on becoming an Ero-Artist (an artist specialising / preferring erotic subject matter) this doesn't necessarily mean porn, I enjoy drawing the shape of the naked body and studying its form should assist me in matters of anatomy and gesture.

Please allow this to be your warning, proceeding past this first page you may expect pictures intended for a mature audience and may be seen as unfit for a public and or working environment.

C&C is appreciated, but in particular I'm concerned with the proportions.
Thanks for reading,
Bombshell

Hey there Bombshell!

I see you're going more for a cartoon/animator way of drawing. Now, I can see you're using shapes to build your character, but I feel as if they aren't coming across as volumes. Another issue I have with what you've done is that these shapes don't feel like they're coming together. Mh. Why?
Well, I think it's the underlying anatomical knowledge that's lacking- first the skeleton, then the muscle groups. Here's an edit of your character, with variations on the face/bust:

You may note I changed the proportions. I think what you had before was on the high end of anime, which if is what you want, then fine, it just seemed unnatural.
The knees that you've done are an example: knee joints support the weight of the torso, which is over half the body mass; this is why they are usually so thick, especially on women (they carry the newborn):

Then, you seem to go over your lines so much that it creates problems with readability- try and be as clear and precise as possible! You have the advantage of being able to do things like erasing, going back in steps which you don't have in real life, so take the time to do and redo your strokes until you get the best ones and only them. Your second (grey) drawing's lines are similar to the first's, and this, as shown in your third version, means you've got difficulties placing and shaping dynamic lines. Staying clean early helps you work more efficiently.

I'll edit this soon with an explanation on making your character's chest look more 3d in the first pose.
Edit:

A cylinder turning into a ribcage, then placing neck, shoulders and breasts with the help of a central line. I think what made the way the breasts you drew look strange was how bunched up and vertically stretched they seemed. Gravity pulls them down, and they tend to part outwards.

I hope it helps. :B

the lines over lines problem, I typically go over the final lines a bit stronger, but I tend to do that just before the line art.
as for the dodgey knees and lack of boniness I agree, but part of it (agreeably not all and I will work on it) is because those guides I would not use for the final image, there is still work to be done on them (hence the feet still being triangles) BUT the problem is still noticeable in the nude pic where the clothing was never intended to cover that portion, hence the problem is of fault rather than laziness.

as the style goes, I'm trying to go for something along the lines of Peaches and Cream though doing a comparison I have got to work on that too.
I'll try another pic (same character for the sake of simple comparison) with some tweaks to fix the proportions.

oh! one last thing I did compare the lengths with anatomy study pictures and everything lines up cleanly so the shortening of the legs was not necessary in your picture.

EDIT (well its an edit while I'm writing the comment so not technically an edit but w/e):
seeing your edit I did have problems with placing the breasts, but I think the root of that was problems placing the arms, the shoulders are too smooth and the arms too close to the body which lead to the arm invading breast space (hence pushing it into the other)

thank you a lot for the help, I'll be back when I have a more structurally sound picture.

EDIT: new try, with the exception of the arms I'd say its looking a bit better

Proportion-wise: maybe you have the right number of heads in total, but it may be a bit skewed when it comes to the proportion of the torso compared to the overall height and/or legs, or even the width of her hips or shoulders...

Regarding the style, I think it's interesting to see the kind of sketches Miu does in comparison:


CookingPeach/Miu likes "sexy". Don't hesitate in making the breasts bigger, but more importantly look for references to get this anime/sexy/cute idea to shine through. What makes his art good is the way he can make one of his characters seem very innocent and naive whilst giving a sexual and voyeuristic dimension to them. In that sense, you have to think carefully about what you make us want to see: is it cleavage? A behind, perhaps? What is the character candidly doing which could emphasise on these?

theres a few sketches in that image that catch my eye, I prefer western cartoons to eastern in terms of style I like the eye popping proportions, just a slightly unrelated example, Team fortress proportions.
Proportion-wise I agree, I keep having an odd chest / hip ratio going, making the characters look manically top thin, I need to get things a bit more balanced.

In character design one thing I know I miss quite often is whats only been described to me as "The Gap" the spacing between the top of the legs (the detached explanation, the Gap is considered attractive because its a sign of healthy body mass and "Birthing Hips")
in terms of emphasizing characteristics its also a thing I've been overlooking, I've been trying to make the character real but smooth, which is kind of against the style I'm aiming for (As previously mentioned, the POP proportions, I'd associate with sharp corners into wild curves, so far I've only been trying for curves, which is kind of boring.)

EDIT (forgot to post reply so this is another not-edited edit):

trying to get a grip with pop-proportions.

EDIT (actual edit):
mild nudity
the spoiler isn't entirely necessary but this is already a very image heavy thread.

The last one is the most expressive and these are improving! I think you can still go cheekier and more candid.
I've made some edits to see if I can get close to Miu's style, according to what I said previously:
edit: agh all this lurking on his da profile has filled the da homepage with porn

haha yeah tag based systems never work. likely a tag saying "sexy" made DA think "ALL THE SEX!"
ofc it might be because peaches and cream started as pin-up portfolio pieces whos first comic appearance was... naughty.

it seems to be a lot harder to get the pop into the shapes of characters, making a character attractive short of big head-little bodying it is turning out to be more of a challenge than I originally thought.
anyway here is the entire sheet so far,
EDIT:
I'm going to need to practice quite a bit more before I can get the "pop" right at some point I'll hit the right mix between sharp and smooth.

trying a trickier pose


and trying to draw faster (I didn't time myself but this didn't take long, I know at least faster than the previous pics, I'm also happier with the face and the body shape.
EDIT: so I decided to try without guiding lines to see if the repetition has sunk in
I checked it against proper proportions and for the most part its good, no real glaring problems with anatomy, I quite like the looks (the style was not meant to be Miu style but it seems to be a warp of my initial attempts into something more toony)


EDIT: sorry accidentally posted a reply when I meant to edit, I'm really tired so I'm screwing stuff up, sorry again.

if I can keep myself consistently recreating good proportions from eye I might try a comic strip,

I have characters and a setting in mind for a short series (I do enjoy drawing the "sexy" proportions and poses in particular, so the comic would likely be ero-based, but I'd not draw porn, if slightly sexy images (without nudity or sexual interaction itself) are allowed on the forum I'd like someone to clarify, as I'd like to continue posting in this thread, it'd be helpful to look through both my progress and how consistent I can keep things drawn)

(03-06-2013, 08:45 PM)Bombshell93 Wrote: [ -> ]I have characters and a setting in mind for a short series (I do enjoy drawing the "sexy" proportions and poses in particular, so the comic would likely be ero-based, but I'd not draw porn, if slightly sexy images (without nudity or sexual interaction itself) are allowed on the forum I'd like someone to clarify, as I'd like to continue posting in this thread, it'd be helpful to look through both my progress and how consistent I can keep things drawn)

As the Creativity Board Rules state, artistic nudity is fine, just be sure to label it (either the whole thread in the title or each individual piece in spoiler tags) so noone can complain, and of course, don't post porn! What you described should be fine.

okay great, thanks!
before I get started on that I might as well give male anatomy a try, female anatomy has always been what I've sucked at but it seems the tides have changed, this pic is particularly... poo
I think I may have based him on the feminine features I've been working with hence him being unnaturally thin, the head is also off and the legs too close together.


EDIT: as you might imagine I'm not too fond of male nudity, its just not my cup of tea, so I'll be sticking to either clothed or ambiguous, but I will work with whatever features necessary for a proper understanding of the proportions that come with male characters (and yes I'm still drawing this furryish which given the style of the pic may have been a mistake)

EDIT:
okay so I've given it another go, this one is looking a lot better but something about it still seems wrong, I just can't figure out what.


EDIT: another try though I went a bit overboard with the whole width thing so the character looks a little tankey

I think that generally your characters feel rigid because of the straight lines you use. Breaking down the lines in curves and counter-curves will give a more dynamic feel to the pose.

The original is farthest to the right; it's made up of three points/two segments, which means roughly one curve. The edits try to add at least one more curve.
Doing this to the legs is very important, as it accentuates on the idea of supporting weight. You may notice that in both edits, one foot follows the same axis as the head, for balance.

so I've been doing a mix between designing for the comic and anatomy practice,

still needs work, also your most recent pic would tip because of the body tilt.
Anyway I think I should go back to using head measurements and reference material, I can draw a female character by eye now but I think it'd be best if I do the whole process over again for male characters.

also not entirely related but I've got the start of a group shot of the main trio for the comic strip,
it being based in a fake MMO world I figured I'd stick to typical MMORPG archetypes,
Jessie the summoner,
Gabriel the knight,
William the blacksmith

thread is now sketchbook thread, that doesn't mean much, just that when I'm done on this particular subject I'll recycle the thread for anything following it.
anyway I have a problem, I need to get the hands and feet sketched up properly but absolutely suck at it,
in the mean time I've had to stop at this (there are mess ups in the sketch which I've addressed here, mostly the woman to the left (her leg is malshaped and her breasts are placed wrong)


I expect to be doing some hand and foot study next time I post, they've always bee a problem for me but its essential I can draw them properly so hand and foot study it is.

so I have 2 things to show,
first is a finished pic for a musician on youtube, Ken Ashcorp, brilliant music, anyway he has an avatar that I liked the looks of so I did some fan art of which I'm quite happy with.


next is a progress update, I've got over the hands problem to some degree and the line art is starting to pick up.
EDIT: updated again, almost done for the characters, I think for the background I'll have them standing in a field in front of New Town

The dudes facial features are all jumbled. Don't forget that facial features are also tridimensional and not drawings over a surface. This means, noses should have volume, as well as the bony part over the eyes, and lips. They also can't slide over the face too, so avoid putting his mouth on the cheek. The females' breasts are too big if you think about it (they are about the same size of their heads!) and it doesn't look convincing IMO.