The VG Resource

(08-22-2015, 10:49 PM)supersmashball Wrote: [ -> ]Just a terrible pen doodle. I've got a lot of work to do.
Should I stop posting here because of my bad drawings?
You tell me.

Well if you're gonna keep poopin on your drawings and being so hard on yourself, yes, stop posting
If you want to get better, and be proud of yourself when you cross those hurdles, then please, keep posting

Fun fact: We all used to draw like a 5 year old. When we were 5 years old.
We all start somewhere. We all think we're terrible at first - and years from now, you're gonna look back on your art, and you're probably gonna say it's terrible.
That doesn't mean some of us stopped trying. We hit art-walls too.
Some of us are up to 15 years older than you are, and are still terrible at art. But we try everyday - trying out new techniques and challenging ourselves to get better.
Ironically you'll probably think some of our artwork is great, but deep down? We're eternally terrible and draw/illustrate every day to improve.


When you're starting out it's OK to suck. Never be afraid to suck. Sucking is not bad.
Try posting some more art, but don't put yourself down over it. Ask for criticism if you want to improve.
(and none of us are gonna flat-out tell you "This drawing sucks" - we'll actually tell you what needs work)


Seriously - if you want us to tell you what needs improvement, just ask for it instead of publicly stating "look at this shit garbage drawing. i'm terrible and will never amount to anything" because putting yourself down like that is only demotivating yourself from improving.
like
don't be afraid to succeed, and keep on challenging yourself.
work hard, and draw harder


im gon give u homework:

draw on paper that doesn't have lines, and use a mechanical pencil (but a #2 is fine too)
just have fun
posting your homework here for us to see is optional. ;P

we were all terrible once upon a time. ask any one of us.

(08-22-2015, 11:25 PM)Kosheh Wrote: [ -> ]

(08-22-2015, 10:49 PM)supersmashball Wrote: [ -> ]Just a terrible pen doodle. I've got a lot of work to do.
Should I stop posting here because of my bad drawings?
You tell me.

What was said above!

I will do you're homework. One little '?'.
Can it still be Nintendo characters?
Un-lined paper is kinda scarce at my house so, I'll try!

(08-22-2015, 11:41 PM)supersmashball Wrote: [ -> ]

(08-22-2015, 11:25 PM)Kosheh Wrote: [ -> ]

(08-22-2015, 10:49 PM)supersmashball Wrote: [ -> ]Just a terrible pen doodle. I've got a lot of work to do.
Should I stop posting here because of my bad drawings?
You tell me.

What was said above!

I will do you're homework. One little '?'.
Can it still be Nintendo characters?
Un-lined paper is kinda scarce at my house so, I'll try!

of course. draw whatever you want. u_u

Try visiting a hobby shop sometime with your parent or guardian, and buy a sketchbook. You'll probably fill it up in no time :V

Well I found some more paper and a mechani-whatever pencil. And
I could probably pick up a sketchbook whenever I get a chance. Not rich, you know.
Currently drawing Ness right now. Probably some other chars soon.
I'm gonna leave my laptop on then take a photo of it with my phone and upload it on here!
Not offline, gonna leave VGR open.

I'm just gonna create a bunch of clichés to keep in mind while drawing:

The paper/medium doesn't matter as long as you're actively drawing and trying to improve. In order to improve, you have to obsess over the ACT of drawing (NOT over a SINGLE drawing)

When a single line is all that you worry over, the rest of the drawing will cease to matter and may inevitably come out as "bad"

Use your passions to launch you into the process, then when you become passionate about drawing itself, you'll find that you'll enjoy branching out and drawing just about anything.

Challenge yourself; after completing something you're proud of, try to draw something even better than it.

Don't measure the worth of your work to others'; they are not you, and you aren't them, own your own struggles and measure your work against your own.

Learn all that you can; not only about drawing, but about everything. If you don't have any knowledge outside of art, you'll have nothing to draw.

At this point my pencil is most likely out of lead now,
so I'm kinda put off for a while.
Great tips, dude. Gotta keep 'em in mind.

ARMS:0

Well here I am, God knows how long later. I did your homework, Kosheh.
And I've gotta say, it's kinda decent for when I'm tired.

I started drawing with a mouse because why the heck not? This is my second mouse drawing; first one was... eh. I'm not done with this one yet, I still gotta fix a few things, and start shading it. (Note: this isn't an oc. it's a character from Brave Frontier)




Drawing this reminds me that I need to practice more on drawing on paper without any references, because I'm honestly not that great at doing that

:I

(08-23-2015, 08:36 AM)beltsupersmashball Wrote: [ -> ]Well here I am, God knows how long later. I did your homework, Kosheh.
And I've gotta say, it's kinda decent for when I'm tired.

Yeah! They came out alright. C:

I did notice a thing with Marth - and I'm not quite sure how to explain it.  You'll probably want to pick up a drawing book - but basically, "set goals" for when you're drawing.
I can kinda tell you were drawing Marth, starting with his head...and then his torso....then his arms...his belt....and oh shit "I'm running out of room better just draw his legs"

If you look at some of the users' art here, they don't always erase their "guide shapes" when they're drawing.  Those "guide shapes" and lines in their art allows them to pre-plan their drawing and "set goals" with the piece they're working on.

If you're looking for SPECIFIC books that cover that (like anime. I assume you like anime) try "How to Draw Anime & Game Characters, Vol. 1: Basics for Beginners and Beyond" by Tadashi Ozawa.  It'll explain using those circles to plot out your drawings, and show mistakes that beginning artists often make when they're drawing their characters.
If you're looking to draw general cartoony characters like The KKM does, pick up "Fun With A Pencil" by Andy Loomis. The book was written in the 1930's and hasn't been printed since - so it might be worth it to peruse the Internet to see if you can find anything. ;O

Then, just adapt the techniques accordingly to the piece. You're not going to draw Ness like Jotaro Kujo from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, so use "guide shapes" accordingly to work out how his noodly body is set up in your piece.

It's arguable that the "guide drawing" technique kinda stunts your creativity a bit, but when you're just starting out, it's fine until you make your own original characters and establish your own style of drawing the character that may or may require less effort than what you originally put in ;O

Also yeah of course you're not gonna get better at art overnight! You've just gotta keep drawing and practicing. <:

Many thanks friends. I really appreciate it.

First of all I'll advise a little against studying from stylized medias from the get go. While your goal is to eventually draw cartoony/anime characters, DO NOT focus your power on these alone.

Try studying more realistic proportions and techniques first, look up anatomy, muscle groups and posinr/real life drawing (this also includes drawing objects, boxes, etc). Drawing from studying real life anatomy and observation, even if a little, is important because you'll understand how the body and proportion works. Once you gather enough experience in drawing from life, you'll begin to understand the stylizations and why they're done like that.

Of course I'm not telling you to abandon cartoons or anime style forever - you can do these in tandem while you draw from real life.

There's a few flubs here and there, but I'm happy with this. (yeah, backgrounds aren't my thing)

Aborigines need more love and attention in media and fiction outside of Australia. I feel we're underused even if the setting is Australia
Bishop from X-Men and Kiddy Phenil from Silent Mobius Are at least two characters I can think of that are Aboriginal.

well, your concern is legitimate and more aboriginal characters are welcome in media

however nothing you drew really reminds me of aborigines at all. They're just anime girls in swimsuit.

Of course, an ethnicity becomes harder to portray in anime styles, but with a quick look on google images, most girls seem to have rounder faces (in contrast to your long face drawing), wider and rounder noses (rather than just big and pointy) and a very definite eyebrow angle (they all seem to have a slightly 'angry' expression due to the angle of the eyebrow). [details like ear placement, eyebrow angle, eye shape/position, nose size/shape and head shape all vary depending on ethnicity]



this is just one stock photo and of course it only serves for facial reference, you'll get better results the more you research. I'm just saying that your characters really don't look ethnically aboriginal.

---

Also no matter the ethnicity, please avoid drawing tiny Y on breast cleavages. Those only appear if someone or something's pressing them together fiercely


No Y cleavage!

Not to say that professional swimsuit models don't leave space for breasts because it ruins hydrodynamics, as seen here

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ofc if you're going for full anime aesthetic you can ignore physics altogether

(once you confront more realistic images, this anime swimsuit becomes glaringly problematic)

anyway i just gathered some stuff that could be interesting for you to have in mind, it's cool that you feel happy with your work

I probably should've mentioned that I'm multiracial (Aboriginal mother, Australian father) And multiracial children are common here. 
You could see the girls in the picture as that, since they do have an item each featuring the flag.

Thanks for the advice. And yeah, I've seen on Pixiv pictures of Australian Aborigines and they do look like normal dark-skinned anime girls.
One even being an animal girl similar to a catgirl. In this case, a Budgie girl, and even bird girls are rare. When they're not harpies.