Need help/feedback on a drawing

[zombienixon 330]

Here's a drawing I finished a while back, but I'm not fully satisfied with.  I know some of you have seen the intentionally and gloriously horrible OC I made, but that's not really representative of what I can do. I do actually have some drawing talent, but not much experience doing artistic drawings. Most of my experience is with drafting software, so working with Photoshop is very different. (click for the full view)

 

 

I like the way it turned out, but looking at it, you start to see things that are a little off.  One of the things I'm looking for advice on is how to get Celestia and Luna looking like they're more integrated with the background rather than on top of it. I think Luna especially needs to be worked on, but visualizing perspective views is a little more difficult for something like a pony.  I also feel the perspective of the background is a little off and wonder if anyone else can see it as well. This image was based off of an album cover, but I extended the view out to make the image rectangular since I planned on making a poster out of it, and I think it may have thrown the perspective off.

 

So if you've got any tips for me to help get this looking better (particularly with the topics I already mentioned), I'd appreciate it.

[s.slug 218]

The lighting seems a little off to me.  I think I see what you were going for...  Try thinking more 3 dimensional.   By the direction of the moonlight casting on Luna, should it hit Celestia at all?  Try darkening her up a bit.  Not just her mane, but her entire body just slightly.  Maybe add a bit more brightness to the back of Luna's head.  Play around with it, and it might help out.  Those are my thoughts.

you may have to change the position of the moon afterwards also.

Edited January 27, 2015 by s.slug

[Torn Page 19]

Its really coming along! 

If you don't mind me saying, Have you tried practicing on just there faces? trying drawing out the shapes in there faces till you start feeling pattern. 

After you start getting a feeling for each face, then you can apply it to each new picture. playing around with emotion and features.

 

i really like it, and hope i can see it again if it changes in the future. defanitly following your work.

 

  

[Tameless 979]

Very nice. I really like it.

 

If you want feedback, check the lighting and Luna's body.

 

Overall very good!

[Sceethe 704]

if you want to integrate characters more into the background, you need to understand perspective:

 

 

 

there are multiple types of perspective, 2-point-perspective(as seen in the picture) is just the most common.

 

the idea is to lay down a horizon line, which basically determines the height of the viewers eyes in the picture, and put focus points on it.

Try to put them outside of the actual picture, though, or you might get some weird foreshortening!

 

Anyways, these focus points will allow you to place horizontal planes( as in: 2-dimensional, flat shapes) in correct perspective.

As you can see, with this method, you can construct simple geometrical forms.

Everything below the horizon line, or "eye level", will have it´s top part visible.

 

This can also help you with placing figures in your picture, or determining how big a character should be.

by drawing lots of these lines in the part below the horizon line, you can make yourself a "ground plane",  which makes it a lot easier to place characters or other objects correctly.

(It´s hard to describe this purely with words and i can´t use my tablet at the moment; i recommend you to just play around with it for a while, and you´ll see what i mean^^)

 

 

There is a loooooot more to this than what i just covered; it´s actually a very advanced topic, but it´s also important.^^

 

Sorry if this it too long, or very dry-written^^

 

I still hope that you learned something from it

[zombienixon 330]

if you want to integrate characters more into the background, you need to understand perspective:

 

 

 

there are multiple types of perspective, 2-point-perspective(as seen in the picture) is just the most common.

 

the idea is to lay down a horizon line, which basically determines the height of the viewers eyes in the picture, and put focus points on it.

Try to put them outside of the actual picture, though, or you might get some weird foreshortening!

 

Anyways, these focus points will allow you to place horizontal planes( as in: 2-dimensional, flat shapes) in correct perspective.

As you can see, with this method, you can construct simple geometrical forms.

Everything below the horizon line, or "eye level", will have it´s top part visible.

 

This can also help you with placing figures in your picture, or determining how big a character should be.

by drawing lots of these lines in the part below the horizon line, you can make yourself a "ground plane",  which makes it a lot easier to place characters or other objects correctly.

(It´s hard to describe this purely with words and i can´t use my tablet at the moment; i recommend you to just play around with it for a while, and you´ll see what i mean^^)

 

 

There is a loooooot more to this than what i just covered; it´s actually a very advanced topic, but it´s also important.^^

 

Sorry if this it too long, or very dry-written^^

 

I still hope that you learned something from it

 

No, this was some good advice. It actually reminded me that I can just go the Perspective chapter in my drafting textbook. I've never had to use perspective drawings in school or work, so it kind of slipped my mind.  I should have re-done the background anyway since this picture has different dimensions to what it's based off of. I was kind of hoping it would still work even though the field of view was different.

[Pineapple Bloom 511]

Hi! It looks great If you want Luna and Celestia to look more integrated with the background, maybe you could give them shadows?

[Odyssey 5,713]

One thing that sticks out is how you've dealt with the anatomy. It isn't horrible, but it could use a little bit of polishing. If you want help on this, I suggest these two things. Firstly, always use references. It is possible to draw things from memory, but references give you better results because you pay more attention to little details (i.e., eye size, where to place wings, etc.).

 

Secondly, break down your character and figure out how he/she is structured. I highly recommend you to get the head height of the character to maintain size relationships. For example, Princess Luna is about 3 heads tall, but from what I can examine she's about 3 1/2 from how you drew her. It doesn't help that her torso is rather fatty, compared to her slim one.

 

It's also best if you check out tutorials on art. DeviantArt has plenty of them, but the one I'd recommend is this pony tutorial. It sums up what I've said, really, but it also talks about other little things.

 

And like the others said, perspective and shading need a little work, but for some reason I don't think this is all that bad of a piece. It's better than what I usually see, honestly. I do wish you the best of luck on your future artwork, though. Keep it up, and you'll be good in no time.