Blique

Trying out a new animal and new digital painting style based on MLP type proportions. It's an aardwolf!

Top right as first choice. Bottom right as second choice, I'm not too fond of the brown overalls and the yellow gloves, but they could work with the right tweaks if you end up going with them..

http://www.amazon.com/Sakura-30067-8-Piece-Micron-Graphic/dp/B004QHI43S/ I've used micron pens for years, and they're great. They come in a bunch of sizes, so you can change the lineart width as you like so it looks more natural. The above set includes one of my favorites, the brush pen - it makes some awesome lineart once you get used to it!

A tad belated, but in the assumption that you might log back in and still want critiques: I recommend making Luna's hoof angled towards Nightmare Moon rather than flat. Currently, it gives the impression of a flat "stop" handshape rather than a pointing/gesturing one.

I like your style, dark things are always a favorite of mine. Is there anything in particular you want a critique of? For now, I would recommend studying/practicing anatomy since it's very useful for the style you seem to be going for. In particular, the deltoid and head of the humerus should push the shoulders outwards a bit more, and in bony/starving bodies, in addition to the other ribs, you should see the bottom edge of the ribcage very defined (it looks like a W). Something like this: You might find it useful to draw a skeleton and then just put skin/muscle on top of it. Of course, no need to make it super realistic, just simplify things as you go

Any problems people would point out would be due to them looking at a reference and telling you that it is inaccurate compared to the reference. Ask any halfway-decent artist at all. Anyway, I will just state that the issue you are concerned about in your first post is indeed that your art is not good enough. Improve it and you will get more people interested. You'll eventually figure it out for yourself, may the odds be ever in your favor.

First off I'd like to mention how awesome the suit looks. You seem to be using white and black (or something close to it) to shade your picture, and I think it'd look much better if you use color instead. For example, check this out: Things look much better the more color you add into your shading. Here's a good guide for using color: http://glitchedpuppet.deviantart.com/art/How-I-See-Color-A-Tutorial-184642625

Here's my DA if you want to check my art level and knowledge on the subject: http://blique.deviantart.com/gallery/ References are very important to use. Your art has mistakes that could be fixed if you used references, including your last four pieces (if you're referring to the last four on DA). The wings in particular in your Lightning Dust and Pony Arcade images could be improved by using bird wing references, or even just references to other cartoon wings. The anatomy/joints, proportions, and perspective in Breaking the 4th Wall are inconsistent within the piece, and could use a closer comparison to the Pinkie Pie version. The Shadow Strike image has an eyepatch too small for the eye, and the ears are not very pony-like. These are just some basic pointers. Yes, you can draw without a reference - art can be whatever you want it to be - but if you have a goal in mind for your art, which you do, then there are limited paths you are able to take to get there. You are still early in the development of your art skills, and it is extremely important during the learning process to use references. In fact, it's important to use references even once you've mastered a style. Yes, you personally prefer to not use them, but your work will continue having errors until you do. Every beginner prefers not to use references, it's just easier. But it's not a matter of personal preference if you want to advance your drawings skills. It is how you learn art. So to answer your main post, I think the issue is mainly that your skill level is not high enough. Usually, if people have work that is less skilled than yours yet receives a lot of praise, it is because they have a lot of friends who are posting comments. If you want more comments on your work and don't have a huge personal social network, you need to start using references so that your art can improve. References don't have an effect on your style by the way - it doesn't change your style, it just raises the quality of it.

A critiquer has appeared, hello. The character anatomy is great, the only thing I'd might question would be that one of the pony's eyes is larger than the other height-wise. While it's true things get smaller as they recede into the distance, eyes are located so close together that there shouldn't be a noticeable difference in height. For colors, I think I read once that your darkest darks and your lightest lights should all be on your characters, not your backgrounds (unless your background is your main focus). Contrast draws attention, and you typically want attention to be on your characters. So, I suggest making your background lighter and making the shading on your characters darker; not everywhere, just in places where there would be particularly dark shadows, like in the dark areas where feathers overlap, or under the pony's jaw near where the hair would block out most light. A lighter background would also help showcase your background details, as they look vague currently due to everything being too dark. This color tutorial thing is nice and may be useful: http://glitchedpuppet.deviantart.com/art/How-I-See-Color-A-Tutorial-184642625 You have a pretty good grasp of anatomy, and color/value balance isn't too difficult to figure out, so I'd say you're doing quite well so far. Overall great job with accurate shading and anatomy. Humans can be a huge pain to draw right. The only things I find slightly off would be the forehead is a little too protruding and round, and his left hand doesn't quite go into his pocket. Maybe add a shadow near the hand too, where it's blocking light from hitting the suit. I think the main thing you should try focusing on is anatomy. If you're going for the show's kind of style, this anatomy and proportions study is very helpful: Here's an example of the MLP anatomy applied to your first image: The head should be a circle, while the nose and mouth jut out a bit. The top line of the nose also curves up and becomes the line for the eye, but that's largely a stylistic thing, and can be changed up a bit if you don't want to stick 100% to the MLP style. I also highlighted one of the legs, which is forming a tangent with the leg in front of it, giving a slight illusion that it's an extension of that leg rather than a separate leg altogether. It can easily be fixed by just moving the leg back or forward a little until it's clear that it's a separate leg rather than something connected to the leg in front. Your shading is also a little off in places, and you're overemphasizing what I think is supposed to be reflected light (that kinda halo of light around shadows on objects, made from light bouncing off surfaces and onto other stuff). Reflected light should always be darker than direct light, and should only be slightly lighter than the shadow it's near. Also, make sure to draw cast shadows, like the torso casting a shadow onto the legs, the same way the head casts a shadow onto the neck. This color tutorial has nice advice on shading (check the "Light Sources" and "Making Colors Work" sections): http://glitchedpuppet.deviantart.com/art/How-I-See-Color-A-Tutorial-184642625 The circle base is the main thing to pay attention to. The eye also goes closer to the front of the face, but that's another stylistic sort of thing; MLP gives ponies slightly more of a flat face like humans rather than a face like a horse's, which has the eyes kinda on the side of the head instead of the front, so it's up to you what you think looks best. Your Rarity is cute, I have no criticism for her. :grin2: The background is a little detracting though, I'd make it either a solid color background, a subtle linear gradient, some kind of drawn background, or just have no background at all. I'm not sure why they'd say your line work would need improvement, it looks fine to me. I guess at most, Jupiter Dream's hair could use some improvement to look more like hair; it currently looks kinda like a wig, as it's hard to tell where any of the strands originate from. And in the picture with him holding Starlet up, her hind legs are a little too short. But yeah, you're using the MLP style, and thus you have an end goal of "perfectly emulating the style", and I think you're pretty much there. Are you drawing everything using pixel/raster software, as opposed to vector? Maybe that's what they find a problem with, though I feel like it shouldn't matter... Your art's really good, you have a nice handle on your own style, anatomy, shading, and composition. I think your art could benefit from a round or two of refining, like cleaning up messy areas, smoothing out irregular sections of lineart, etc. I noticed it's a really common thing for animators to do, and even if they're just little things here and there, the little things can add up to create an "unfinished" sort of feeling to the piece. It only takes a few minutes, maybe half an hour tops to fix them all up though, so it's not a big inconvenience at least. Alternatively, you could just figure out a different style that lets you draw fast while still having the end result look good. Block shading or gradients might work, or you could draw on a really big canvas, and then any messy details would disappear when you shrink it down to the final size. Your avatar for example, looks like it has perfect lineart and no leftover smudges near the top. The only thing other than that is that I'd avoid using grey when drawing, as it has a tendency to make art look dusty and dull. I'd recommend a "colored grey" instead, like a desaturated green or blue. There's not much else I can recommend, it looks like you're doing well with your art.

I don't know how much time you spend on it, but make sure you pay yourself minimum wage at least. You should include the time you spend discussing it with the client, thinking up the concept, looking up reference images, in addition to the time you spend actually drawing it. For example, if you spend 6 hours on a drawing you get $20 out of, it might seem good until you consider you could get $60 if you had spent that time washing dishes or sweeping floors instead. The art industry on the whole is extremely underpaid, so avoid using other artists' prices as an estimation of value, because they're typically less than what they should really be asking. Underpricing is a huge issue in the art community, as low prices make people think art in general is worth less than it actually is, so just keep in mind that prices create impressions of value in the eyes of others, and that can have wide-reaching effects. It also depends on how desperate you are for money. It's true that you won't get many offers if you sell at minimum wage or higher, so if you have bills to pay and things to buy that you don't mind overworking yourself over, low prices are an option. Just always remember to value your work and all the time you spent to acquire your level of skills.

I'll just simplify some stuff: "Drawings"/rasters are made with pixels. Vectors are made with math. Pixels are squares that can only contain one color. Raster art is made when you arrange a bunch of pixels to form a larger image. The process of making a raster is very similar to traditional drawings, and is very "intuitive". Swipe the brush tool across an area, and that area's pixels change color as if it was a brush of paint. Photos and scanned drawings are all automatically raster. The process of making a vector is not as "intuitive". To make something, you have to go through a series of steps. Place a dot. Place another dot. Pull a handle on one dot. Voilà, you have a curve. As mentioned above, vectors also have the special ability to stay "sharp" even when you resize it. As for visual differences, vector art tends to look smooth and flat (MLP is vector), while raster art tends to look like traditional drawings/paintings. There are exceptions in styles, of course, but that's the general idea. My personal style, seen in my avatar, is "vexel" - raster/pixel art made to look like vector.

The characters/dialogue/script of Gravity Falls. I appreciate the animation and the action/mystery-based parts of the plot, but the character and their interactions are just so bad most of the time.

Anyone here good with logical fallacies? This isn't exactly for homework, just for a personal project that I hope to be done with in the next month or two. Examples of things I need help with: Is "correlation does not imply causation" a formal or informal fallacy? I read that it's informal, but I also read that it's a type of "affirming the consequent", which is formal. Similarly, is the "fallacy of anecdotal evidence" formal or informal? I read that it was formal, but it's a type of "cherry-picking", which is informal. I'm also having a tough time figuring out what fallacies are types of "red herrings", not to mention fallacy origins in general. Even if you don't know the answers, if you're willing to discuss them with me in hopes of figuring them out, I'd appreciate it.

I find that the most important part of making a pony face look like canon style is this part here: The eye is at the edge of the face, and the inner side of it connects directly with the nose. Also, note that the eye on the edge is slightly thinner than the other eye (not pictured above, but seen in the guide). If you want perfect circles when starting out, try tracing a coin. Pennies for the two circles in the body, and a quarter for the head (the legs are also a quarter tall). The drawing guide that @@Frith is Magick posted is great. I used it when first learning how to draw the MLP style, and it worked very well. Tip: try and draw one of the sketches in the guide. When you're done, put the guide image on top of your drawing and see what parts are different. Knowing what parts you have right and what parts you need to work on makes learning go a lot faster. Repeat the process until you're able to get the drawing pretty close to the guide without making any big revisions.

I think I got into Steven Universe this year? If so, that's probably the best thing that happened in 2015. Nothing much else worth noting.

@ those who don't like the word "overrated": I always figured "overrated" referred to people who blindly like a show just because it's the "cool" thing to do, not because they genuinely enjoy it. Thus, the ratings would be higher than they should be because people are raving about it even though they don't honestly like it as much as they project. MLP had a lot of these types of fans back in the first few years it came out. I think Adventure Time does have a lot of these types of fans, and would thus be overrated by the above definition (and yes I know pretty much all fandoms have these fans, but I'm saying Adventure Time has an above average amount of them). Anyhow, I personally don't like Adventure Time. I watched maybe two seasons worth and could never really enjoy it. I'm more of a person who enjoys plot, and while Adventure Time does hint at a deep plot, it rarely ever does anything with it. MLP is somewhat similar, but the characters are more likable and the episodes actually have consistent morals to them. Steven Universe is my current favorite, as it's almost entirely plot (plus the characters are deep and interesting). You can see at the beginning of the series that it had an Adventure Time sort of feel to it, and similarly I didn't enjoy the series much until it found its own style.

You have to add the complementary color. If it gets too dark, add white (or erase a bit), and make sure not to use black or grey for anything.

The hues are good, and the design and concept are cool. In general, there are just three things to keep in mind when dealing with color: the hue, the value (lightness/darkness), and the saturation. You usually want to keep these varied in order to create contrast and thus "interest" in your image. The hue and value are good here, so saturation is the only thing to alter. If you eyedrop the image, you'll see that almost every pixel in the image is highly saturated, which makes it hard to look at because there's nowhere for your eye to rest. The trick is to figure out what parts you want to stand out, and make those the only parts that are saturated. If everything's saturated, nothing stands out. I'd make the orange background desaturated since that's not the point of focus. The sun would probably be the point of focus, so I'd keep that saturated. If you desaturate the blue, that will cause the sun to stand out even more, and create more impact. If you have an art program that has a "replace color" function, you can make these changes pretty easily. Try it out and see how different options give different results!

It looks really nice, especially for someone new at non-vector art. If you want anatomy tips, I can help. Are you going for the show's style, or your own style? If it's the show's, then I think the body should be shortened. When I first started drawing ponies, I was really surprised at how tiny the bodies really are; it takes some getting used to. If you're going for your own style, I suggest lengthening the neck. Since you've lengthened the body, it feels more proportional to do the same to the neck as well. The legs as well. I guess aim for something in-between normal pony and alicorn pony. Or, when in doubt, study real life horse anatomy and simplify it!

Sorry if I'm too late to the critique D8 I think my suggestions are mostly kinda minor at least, probably... You typically want to make sure things line up when drawing heads. I drew a red line to show the alignment of the tops of the eyes. This alignment should be mimicked in the bottom of the eyes, the nose, the mouth, and the ears. I drew a blue line where your current alignments are, so it's only the ears and the bottom of the eyes that are off; the nose and mouth are perfectly aligned, which is often the hardest to manage on a pony. I also drew a green line where there's a tangent. Because the top of the pack is so closely aligned with the bottom of the windowsill, the tangent gives the illusion that he's supporting the windowsill on his pack. This is a really easy fix, just move him maybe 20 pixels up and the tangent will be gone. That's about all I got for criticism. The color palette is very well done, with a subtle but pleasant and unified feel to it. I love the light blue shadow cast by the fishbowl, excellent attention to detail. The shading is nice, especially on the body - it makes it look properly soft, which can be very difficult to pull off. I can tell you put a lot of work into it, and it's lovely overall. Good job, I wish you luck on your continued ventures!

Hello! I started rambling about the two tablets I own, so if you want to read all that, it's in the spoiler tag. It looks like the Intuos Art Pen & Touch tablet is mostly nice. It has a lot of the important things - pressure sensitivity, ExpressKeys...I personally hate the touch functions and turn those off, but it has that too if you end up liking it. The biggest problem I have with that tablet is the lack of an eraser. It's not a terrible thing, but drawing does take longer when you have to manually switch between brush and eraser and back again every time you want to erase. I went a year without an eraser since my pen was malfunctioning, eventually replaced it because it was so tiring to deal with. If you're the type that traditionally draws with a pen or doesn't use an eraser much in general, it could work alright for you. I read some reviews, and apparently this is an older model of the Intuos Art Pen & Touch. It has pressure sensitivity, ExpressKeys, touch functions, plus an eraser, and it costs the same (and has better ratings). In terms of price, I'd definitely go for this one. It's the one that @@PrincessWubsy in the post below has. 8D Size is another thing to keep in mind. Most of the time, small tablets work fine. If you plan on using it a lot though (like professional level), invest in a medium tablet to avoid carpal tunnel syndrome (the finer control is also nice). Or you could just buy a small one now and buy a larger one later if you ever feel like you need it, whichever works best for you. Hope that helps!

Don't use black when shading, it ends up making art look dusty and desaturated. I used to do it all the time before. Here's my favorite drawing comparison of someone using desaturated shading vs colored shading: (x) You can use any color you want for shading. I personally like using purples, but it depends on the piece. In the above example, the face and hair are mainly orange, red-orange, and yellow - thus, to create contrast, the complementary colors were used for shading: blue, blue-green, and purple. Take care when combining complements though, or you'll end up with greys. I usually just throw color on my art, see if looks right, and tweak as I go. Shading is also great for helping a character seem more like they belong on a background. For example, let's say I have Applebloom on a background of green grass and blue sky. I'd use blue shading on her, because that ties her in with the sky, plus blue on yellow makes green, which ties her in with the grass. I'd also put some yellow and red in the sky and grass while I'm at it. Gotta make things unified! Here's a really awesome guide to color and shading with color. It's my favorite - it's fun to read and easy to learn from.