Mabelma's Thread of Stuff (Art)

[JarJar]

Before you even jump off coloring/inking that thing, you need to fix it, the eyes are uneven, he's slouching over too much. And is he suppose to be sad or something?

I honestly think you're jumping at this TOOOOOOO FAST, if you wanna be real good, you gotta master aspects of basic drawing before moving onto digital. I understand if you wanna try new things, but I think you're just trying to be considered "good" at a fast rate, you need to slow down. You won't develop all you need in just "1 year", art doesn't work that way, kid. Takes time and patience.

[Mabelma]

He's suppose to be sad and slouching a little to much, I did noticed the eye problem and I already fixed that in the inked version. Thanks for the comment.

[Mabelma]

Finally got around to uploading this. Hope you guys like it.

I'm quite happy with it and I know the background is disgusting but I didn't want to make the bg to distracting so I just made that. Hope you like it.

[Mabelma]

Comments? Critics?

[Codestar]

His feet look awkward and the lines on them are very poor. It seems you made one of his knee's higher up than the other as well.
The cross on his stomach looks really sloppy, the shield looks sloppy and you forgot to erase one line there on the top part.
He's also a bit of a hunch back. Make his shoulders at an equal level.

[Mabelma]

His feet look awkward and the lines on them are very poor. It seems you made one of his knee's higher up than the other as well.
The cross on his stomach looks really sloppy, the shield looks sloppy and you forgot to erase one line there on the top part.
He's also a bit of a hunch back. Make his shoulders at an equal level.

Yes the feet are awkward and the lines on them are really poor. Those aren't his knees they are more of an accessory for the show. Yes It is and I will fix that cross soon. I'll erase that line but why does it look sloppy? He's suppose to be that hunched and I'll try to fix those shoulders. Thanks for your feedback.

[Mabelma]

A little animation I made and want you to see. Hope you like it. I will fix that turn around motion as soon as possible.

http://mabelma.deviantart.com/art/Fallin...-154617006

[Cshad]

I think you should have used a movie or a camera outside and captured the frames of a leave in the wind, because atm it's really choppy and does not flow all that well. I wish I could go into some extreme detail other than saying "use a reference, a whole plethora of references" but really that is exactly what you need to do. Also, stick to one thing at a time, work on your drawing skill before jumping right into animation.

[Mabelma]

Thanks Apparatus, the feedback is greatly appreciated. It got around to fixing a little more of the turn around but I still need to fix the first falling downward frame but for now hope you like it.

http://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/f9b7...138b46f4cc

C+C is greatly appreciated.

[Baegal]

....it looks the same

[Mabelma]

Woow, sorry about that. I'm back, I guess. So here's a few things to let you all know what I have been up to.

Falling Feather: http://mabelma.deviantart.com/art/Fallin...-154617006
It's still messed up but I don't plan to fix it any time soon, I will probably scratch it and redo it completely.

A Knight's Sorrow:
I don't think you saw this but I might as well show you guys.

Even trolls need a leader:
I made this piece because at the time I was being harassed by a troll on NG and he inspired me to do this.

That shall be all for now. I will post some more things I have done but in the meantime feel free to comment on that.

[Alpha Six]

You have a huge issue with line consistency, your characters are awfully messy and the background looks like it took five minutes at most.

Please note that I'm only critiquing the first piece, although there are consistency issues with the second one as well. They look too much like doodles and not enough like polished products.

And I can't read what the guy on the chair is at ALL. I don't know if he's facing at an angle or what.

[Mabelma]

You have a huge issue with line consistency, your characters are awfully messy and the background looks like it took five minutes at most.

Please note that I'm only critiquing the first piece, although there are consistency issues with the second one as well. They look too much like doodles and not enough like polished products.

And I can't read what the guy on the chair is at ALL. I don't know if he's facing at an angle or what.

Yes I have, I'm really bad with line consistency but I'm learning how to make it better so already on it.

The background didn't take much time since I was trying to focus most of the attention on the characters but I guess I failed. I think you are right, they look more like doodles than anything else.

-----------------------------

Well here we have a tankmen in my own 'style'

It was done for my profile image on NG.

Here we have a tattoo design I was asked to do by a member on the TBH community.

He will be getting it soon.

Well this was done for a collaboration back at the NewGrounds forum. It's called The NotePad Collab

You know he would.

3 more for now. I'm doing it this way because it's easier to reply to comments this way plus it gives me time to look for my art while I wait for comments.

Also do you guys remember this?

Those were my first drawings, to they were done only a year ago.

[Chutzpar]

My general tip: Slow the hell down.

This doesn't just mean what JarJar said, that you need to improve your general technique before moving onto more finished pieces (although he is 110% right), but when you are actually finishing pieces, you need to take it slooooow.

Seriously. You do not have a deadline. And as a beginner, you couldn't realistically work to a deadline, either. THAT IS OKAY. I am still a learner and I still take a long time to do what other artists can do much more intuitively and more quickly. It is totally fine to work slow, because you are not answerable to anyone right now.
It can sometimes be difficult to not just rush ahead and get something done for the sake of being done, but take your time.

First, I will suggest that you thumbnail ideas. Thumbnailing is super useful. If you're unfamiliar with the term, I'll explain; a thumbnail is a teeny tiny sketch that you use to plan out a finished image. Do them fast, no detail, just blocking out shapes and focal points.
These allow you to think of your composition really easily, since it's much easier to think of composition when a- you can take in the whole thing at once and b- when you're not distracted by details.

Second, with regards to composition, keep the rule of thirds in mind. Don't stick to it rigidly, but keep it in mind. Usually you'll want to avoid symmetry. I'm noticing in that King of Trolls drawing that it's very symmetrical, and the castle crashers fanart is a bit, too. Try and avoid this, it makes the drawing look boring and it doesn't lead the eye anywhere.
Sometimes you'll *want* a fairly static image, but with those two I doubt it's the case.

Third, when colouring, you really, definitely need to slow down. Do some colour studies. Think of them like thumbnailing, but with regards to colour.
This is a much nicer guide to colour studies than I could write up.

Personally, I usually do a colour study once I've already finished up my linework. It psyches me up to get on with colouring and feels to me like a more natural way of doing things to me. Usually I find I hit a "What the hell am I DOING?" point when I start colouring if the colour study isn't fresh in my mind. Other people do a colour study as soon as they've finished thumbnailing. Whichever works for you, really.

In your colouring: again, slow down. Think about your light source. Are the shadows all consistent? Have you shaded your forms as though they're 3D, or do they just look embossed? I think you need to study real shading more; do some pencil drawings focussing on shading. Make sure to use a variety of pencils; my bare minimum when studying shading is a 2H, 2B and 4B. Softer pencils are a must because they are much darker than harder ones.
Trust me, doing more realistic shading will inform your cel-shading. It'll make it easier to place shadows if you can think of how real shadows work.

Last but not least, here is a list of things to look at before you can call an image finished.

[Mabelma]

Thank you so much for all the tips. It is greatly appreaciated and thanks for the links, I will do use them all for my next pieces. Also some of this things are like a month old so I have learned a thing or two since then.

The Kings of Trolls one is really symmetrical due to the fact that I, well copy pasted it but I get what you are saying and a lot of people have told me the same thing.

Thumbnailing is a rather new concept to me but if it helps me
improve I will off course give it a try.

Thanks again for everything, right now I'm just showing somethings I have done since we last saw each other. I'll be back with some more things in a minute.

----------------

Here we go.
Well recently I started a project in which I take usernames from Newgrounds and turn them into characters.

Here we have the first one, the username was AbominableGod.
- it looks more like grumpy god than abominable
- his hands are very bad
the things above are little things that I will fix when I get back to them.


here we have another one.
The username or this one was AbueloDigital.
- I actually don't find to Anything wrong with it but I know there is something wrong with it I just need help finding it.


The third one was Afro-Ninja. I hope you enjoy.
-I think is the best one of them all but I should of had made the fro bigger.