Hello, artists.

Local libraries tend to have scanners.

Read my stories!

@Diu: That would be nice. :)

edited 18th Oct '12 7:24:44 AM by Tidal_Wave_17

I had a scanner once... Had to get rid of it.

Anyways, I drew something a few days ago, and just took a picture of it with my 3DS Camera.

http://baconbaka.deviantart.com/art/Xylia-Hand-Drawn-333005961

What do you think of my stuff outside Paint?

edited 18th Oct '12 7:26:44 AM by DiurnalBrocolli

Just floating around...

It looks pretty much the same, since it's the same style. The lines are smoother, but that's to be expected, since not using a mouse.

Read my stories!

My character Asethotep in prayer (Sorry, but I'm on a roll with this OC)

edited 18th Oct '12 5:57:01 PM by Jabrosky

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@Diurnal: What are you aiming to do with your art? I can't give a critique/suggestions without knowing that.

"Doctor Who means never having to say you're kidding." - Bocaj

I'm hoping to be a children's book writer.

Just floating around...

Writer or writer/illustrator?

If the latter, then you have a TON of improvement to do.l

edited 19th Oct '12 7:01:59 AM by MrAHR

Read my stories!

@ Diurnal

I hate to sound like I know more about drawing than I do, but while your style might work for a children's cartoon, you need to practice with realism and dimensionality if you have grander aspirations. At the very least go to your bookstore's art section, buy one of those "how to draw" books (preferably one with diagrams of human musculature), and emulate the diagrams within. Alternatively, look for an art class.

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It won't work too well for children's illustrations either. You actually need to be pretty skilled to draw children's stories. Mostly because they have a LOT of art.

Well, not necessarily skilled, but if not skilled, then damn stylized and refined.

edited 19th Oct '12 9:27:46 AM by MrAHR

Read my stories!

Okay, then.

Diurnal, my suggestion is to work on these two things: line and colour. Practising realism is always beneficial to one's art, but let's assume for the moment that you're going to aim for fairly stylised illustrations*

. That's not to say you shouldn't practise other techniques, but make those two your focus.

What does this stylisation mean? Going by your art so far, there'll be a distinct lack of shading. In this case, line becomes crucial - it will determine depth and how adjacent areas interact with each other. Firstly, I recommending smoothing out your lines so that the ones you want to look similar are, in fact, even and similar. Make sure that you can draw curves and straight lines fluidly, with no squiggles and changes in width or darkness. Good, clear lineart is essential to colouring digitally for a cartoony style. I recommend practising with a pencil for this, since it will assist with the next step and it's a lot easier than drawing a straight line digitally.

Once you've done that, start experimenting with different sorts of lines. The texture, smoothness and weight (darkness and width) will have an immense effect on your work. Varying lineweight will give depth to objects, or change their importance to the image (a main character in the picture versus someone in the background; the difference between a shirt and a pattern on that shirt, for example). Try drawing the same picture in a sketchy, loose style, then a minimalistic, hard-edged, square manner. They will be wildly different.

Next, colour. Children love bright colours, but you have to learn how to use them effectively. Experiment with painting (watercolours or acrylics will do nicely). Find which colours go together, how to mix them to get the colour you want and what will be the effect of any colour (especially in terms of lighting and reflections). Don't rely on the eye-dropper tool or the limited number of colours available to you in MS Paint. Eventually you'll develop a colour sense - you'll be able to see a colour in life, and instinctively know how to make that colour.

As AHR said, children's books contain a lot of art showing many situations. So you'll need to understand how to make effective compositions, pose people, convey actions and exaggerate expressions. For the latter three, learning how to draw from life is the best method of learning. All of these are more advanced techniques, though, so I'd focus on line and colour (and maybe shading as well) for now.

I hope you find this post helpful. I'm not a professional artist by any means, but I think my gallery shows that I have a fair bit of experience with various media.

edited 19th Oct '12 6:25:18 PM by Yuanchosaan

"Doctor Who means never having to say you're kidding." - Bocaj

A cartoon on copyright infringement

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http://longcriercat.deviantart.com/#/d5go7qw

It's a burnt Frank.

Tumblr for ref: http://longcriercat.tumblr.com/post/32739737311/so-for-my-basic-drawing-class-i-decided-to-test

edited 19th Oct '12 8:20:51 PM by GREGTHECAT

http://www.longcriercat.deviantart.com I'm thirsty. Got any ink? Resident Pen Ward antagonist.

^ Terrifically smooth shading on that!

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Damn ancient Egyptians, always trying to take credit for other people's pyramids. Like they invented them or something. They probably take credit for the food pyramid too.

I drew some Beatles.

edited 20th Oct '12 1:03:33 AM by Talby

Very nice!

Also... Why did that booby trap in that pyramid had a copyright symbol on it?

Just floating around...

You know, Diurnal, if Yuan is going to all that trouble to give you all that advice, the least you could do is thank them.

Read my stories!

Very well...

Thanks for the tips, Yuan!

Just floating around...

My Artistic Influences meme

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@mrh

You should pos something!. I haven't seen your stuff in a while :)

Make your hearth shine through the darkest night; let it transform hate into kindness, evil into justice, and loneliness into love.

-facepalm-

I haven't drawn anything except sketches for physics homework in months.

And then this... thing happened last night. Guuuuuh.

Hopefully it will motivate me to work harder and improve, I've drawn worse things than that and still failed to scare myself into practicing my drawing.

How do you guys stay motivated? It's kind of difficult for me to remember to do some drawing the way I remember to do some writing because the latter feels so natural and I've forgotten how I got myself to make a habit of it.

edited 20th Oct '12 10:38:43 PM by SnowyFoxes

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!

Whenever I feel unmotivated, I look at this thread to remind myself that anyone can learn.

Fallen: Mostly because I haven't scanned in anything. All of my drawings have been idle doodles or me trying to desperately learn hiragana and katakana. I want to draw more blugh.

Read my stories!

All my recent drawings have been brains, or doodles on the margins of brains. D:

"Doctor Who means never having to say you're kidding." - Bocaj

Dang, I gotta upload my drawing of one of my characters looking at a brain on a plate, with the tagline "Any Questions"...

It was a parody of a Drug PSA for 4-20...

Just floating around...