Crombie

Yeah, well the blowjob picture I sent them the other didn't get featured either. Also they don't feature anything pornographic/political/religious, as far as I know. [/EDIT] Because the reply box was like "Looks done. Herp-a-derp." Anyway, getting featured on EQD doesn't really do anything for you. It's better to build an "audience" (if you want one) through networking. It's a business tactic a lot of people use on the webs or at least on Tumblr that's very efficient. (You should also research other business tactics, that's how you get popular, not features.) Just keep in mind an audience on the internet is worthless unless you just like people looking at you, or you intend to sell them something like commissions or comics.

The main problem you need to focus on at the moment is volume. You need to be able to create the illusion that what you've drawn takes up space. Remember back in school, when you went to art class and they made you draw those boring 3D shapes like cubes, spheres, and cones and shtuff like that? Well, those are basically guidelines to help you in creating the illusion of volume. (As well as help you check to make sure a drawn object has depth). Now, you shouldn't follow them exactly because, flesh doesn't work that way, but that's a subject for another day. (Wanna focus on one problem at a time.) Anyway, your first task is to breakdown what it is you're attempting to draw into basic 3D shapes/objects and use these to help you make sure it looks like it contains depth. (If you're drawing traditionally use very light lines and look up a few pencil techniques to help you get them lighter if you're having trouble.) Once you've gotten used to doing this, try moving on to drawing with perspective, and proportion. (I guess you can figure out sphere for head, cone for a horn, and cylinder for legs. Because that's pretty obvious IMO.) I doubt I said anything new or something you probably haven't heard like 15 billion times already, but it really does help. On a side note: I've noticed that a lot of you don't seem to like it when I post criticisms on multiple things, so I'm going to try and think what is the most important thing for the person I'm commenting on to learn and state that.

Eh, not bad. Way too much posted at once for my blood, but I can try to critique on where your general mistakes are. (The ones you're commonly making over and over again.) > Wobbly lines. It's not that hard get good line structure, you just need to draw them more gracefully. (It's also a lot faster, and I'm having a hard time explaining the technique I'm talking about.) > Anatomy. A lot of misplaced structures. For instance, the back legs on the first one: one's missing a bone completely and the other looks more like a penis than a leg in it's placement and shape. > Your color saturation is way too harsh, making them painful to look at. (Read up on color theory, this shouldn't take that long to correct.) > Proportion. Now I tend to make this mistake a lot too, but that's because I suck at drawing. (Or well checking over my rough sketch before going through with inking and all that fun.) But yeah, just checking over things and making sure they're the same length should work. > No shading. I don't see any shading on these. Are they not effected by any light sources? and if so, why would you shade the legs in the back and not the front if that's the case? > Generic poses. Now I do this a lot too, mostly when I can't think of anything new or unique to draw, but still wanna get something down for at least some practice, but yeah the simple way to avoid this is to just come up with a situation/story for the image and let that help you think how the characters would be positioned and acting. Overall just keep studying and practicing and you should get better.

Okay, quick apology. I promised to post this Saturday, but then I got caught up in a ton of physics and yeah. . . . Anyway, I don't have my sketches from studies, but that's cause they're drawn traditionally and I don't feel like dragging my scanner out. (None of that was pony art either, most of it was birds, bone structure, and stuff like that.) Anyway, here are the results on how I plan on drawing the wings. Anyway, first thing I'd like to state is I did draw them a little bigger than what I wanted, or well where they attach is a little bigger than what I want. Overall, just need to work on the proportions and making them attach better, and I'll be happy with them. Also, I changed my profile pic. It's now a DJ-Pon3 with G3 goggles, and a Ghastly Gibus. Because nothing strikes more fear into another player than a Pyro running right at them with full stock weapons and a Ghastly Gibus. lul

Don't save as a .Jpg unless it's a picture out of a camera. Use .PNG for posting images online. ^ Nope, it's better to just use an overlay layer that puts a slightly dark purple over the entire image. If you just make the values darker you don't achieve good lighting. You need to saturate a hue into it the darker values, and purple is the best one in most cases. (If you want to make a more power/action heavy scene than use red, or if you're aiming for a cooler/calmer scene use blue. Purple's just the color you roll with on general when there really isn't any strong emotions/moods in the image.) Basically: Shade with purple, not black.

You're not going to get that much spam about drawing TF2 pony crossovers. I did about three and a few people said I should do a set, but I didn't because I didn't feel like it. (Mostly ran out of ideas, and wanted to move on to trying out more experimental and harder things.) Also, don't draw on lined paper, get a sketchpad or some copy paper out of a printer. Seriously, printer paper is like 500 sheets for $3.00-$5.00 or something like that, and it's so much better than lined paper for drawing. (Even though that's not copy paper's purpose, it's still okay for people just learning.)

Before I start let me state that I'm sorry for delays, I've been really busy working on physics and programming stuff lately and all my professors decided to put their tests, homework, and reports due this week. (Next week's fall break, so expect me to be posting some stuff.) I like the idea of attaching the wings to the body completely. I've recently been doing studies on birds and how their wings work. Learned a lot of cool stuff about them too. (Bird wings fully attach to their bodies as well.) So I'll probably be trying that out. Also, I see what you mean about the legs being bigger than normal, I was trying to get them to reference the structure of an actual pony's back legs a little better, but I got the proportions a little off and they ended up too big, it's not that hard of a problem to fix though, so I'll probably watch it a little better next time. Thanks for the constructive criticism. I appreciate it. First off, capitalization is important, as well as apostrophes. lul (This is a learning thread, no exceptions.) Anyway, the "style" I tend to use is like a 24/7 Frankenstein's monster. Sometimes I want some aspects to be more cartoonish, sometimes I want them to be more realistic. I try to keep it inconsistent with something new almost every time, unless I'm working on a project or (in the ungodly circumstance) a person wants me to do something specific for them. Also, the main problem with the back wing is that it's really misplaced I know how to fix it now. As I said, I've been studying wings in my spare time, so hopefully that'll really help me find out in fixing those problems. What you talkin' bout?! The wings are the most messed up thing on here. lul (I think I already posted about the legs.) Pit, one "t", not two. (I had to, sorry.) Thanks, but I think you need to work on your detection skills. In a more RPG-ish way of saying this, art requires two elements to be leveled up (they both have their sub elements under them that need to be worked on to get the total level up, but that's another discussion.) One is detection, this is your ability to see problems and know where they are forming in the image. The other is drawing skill, basically knowing what to do and how to fix the situations detected. Your detection skills will normally exceed your drawing skills,or at least if you're me, and this'll make you know where your mistakes are, but be fairly unsure on how to correct them. Leveling up the skills requires you to do studies and learn how to handle situations and detect problems earlier. Anyway, I'll probably be posting my study on bird wings Saturday, and to keep it in the Fan-art category I'll draw some Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy in it, and apply the method I plan to use on tackling this problem. (I'd get to it earlier, but physics!)

Followers, watcher, subs, are just numbers, they don't show how skilled one is, but how popular one is. That's why they don't matter. Also, cartooning is basically making a simplistic form based off real anatomy. That's why you need to know anatomy for cartooning. If you don't than your work just goes down hill. And with a "style" like the anthro one Jay uses, the anatomy would need to be very precise. It's not simplistic enough for him to get away with breaking the rules. The show, which breaks the rules of anatomy a fair bit for better personification reasons, is however cartoonish enough to get away with it and make the movements still feel fairly natural. Though on other problems with Jay's art aside from terrible anatomy is that he's stolen backgrounds from other artists without permission, his character are incredibly stiff, and his coloring is immensely lacking. Has he improved? Some, but not enough to actually be noteworthy. In order to make note worthy improvement he would need to be studying almost 6-8 hours a day for a few months, but he's set himself up in a position where he can't make time to study. Another thing that bothers me about him is the lacking of experimentation. He reuses the terrible "style" he's made over and over again without trying anything new out. Anyway, I've carried on enough. Bottom line, Jay needs to study anatomy, color theory, volume, and quite a few other things a bit more. He also needs to start thinking outside the box he's made for himself.

I don't want to come off as a jerk, but your friend might wanna work on getting a little better before considering commissions. Let me say this in an MMORPG sort of way. It'd be like trying to sell level 5 weapons in a level 40 zone. It's just not going to be easy, and you're not going to have many customers. (Commissions on their on are a horrible source of income, most artists only do them when they really need money or have plenty of spare time.) Also, never heard of a person commissioning for a fan-fic before. . . .

Trying out some new things and sucking at doing so. Anyway, let me just post my image, and let me state what I think I need to study and work on. (Just a self criticism, don't get mad at me or say I'm "fishing for compliments", because I always go over whatever I just got done drawing in a matter similar to this.) First off, I wanted to draw this after seeing Pix3M's archer pixels. It looked cool so I wanted to try drawing a pony with a bow and arrow. Now, I hate how I was lazy and didn't even bother looking up visual reference for the bow and arrow. (It would have really helped out if I had.) I just tried drawing from memory and failed. (Really want to kick myself over it.) It's starting to bother me how much of the anatomy the image as well as the show breaks just to get a much more humanized feel. In this image for instance look at the "front legs". They don't work that way on a real pony!!! For some reason every time I'm drawing a pose like this I'm constantly fighting my mind to try and break the anatomy rules in a way for something like this to work. The only way this works in my mind is to go uber cartoonish and apply anthropomorphism. I'm sorry it's just something that's been bothering me lately because I did a small anatomy study on ponies the other day. (I did get to apply some of my learnings to the back legs though.) The coloring is the most experimental thing on here. I've never used a coloring technique like this before. What I did was use the marker tool with a low opacity and a different brush than what I'm used to and it was fun to study it, but IDK. I'll try and keep up with it some more. The wings annoy me because on birds the feathers completely to the body, but in this image I stopped them at one of the joints. Also the wing in the background doesn't look connected to the body at all. I tried to get its placement right but I just couldn't get anywhere to work I moved it around like 30 something times, nothing. I just gave up and went with it, which makes me feel lazy and stupid. Parts of the hair (again I've never drawn with this shading technique before) seem to work with the shading and some don't. (Mostly on the head.) I feel I didn't detail the feathers enough to where people can tell they're feathers. The background is way too unreasonably rushed and boring. Like I feel I could've done something elaborate and decorative, but no I couldn't think of something, so you get boring, hardly any effort at all clouds. ^Anyway that's my self criticism. Got anything you can add or a good tutorial you can send me that would help me? Because I'm considering just doing some more realism studies, but on items like weapons and stuff. (They tend to show up quite a bit, so yeah.)

Of all the artists to like in this fandom, why Jay? He has some of the worst anatomy I've ever seen, and he doesn't even bother to try and get better. He just does the same stuff, over and over again with no experimentation at all, claiming it's because he has a "style", like a 13 year-old who just got on DA and is all like "Nobody should criticize me, and if they do I'm going to throw a tantrum." He could be better and actually get somewhere but he's stubborn and unwilling to learn so screw him. Don't waste your time on any admiration for him. Anyway, sorry for the mini-rant. Just tired of people liking his stuff. He's so misleading to beginner artists and a bad example in teaching people how to act in online art communities. First off, no. Stop trying to imitate other artists' (and I use that term way too lightly) works. You won't learn anything about how to draw things on your own doing that, and when you start to break away from that your art will not be original, but an imitation of the artists that you copied. You can try out other people's styles, but make sure you have their permission and they're willing to teach how to draw in it. Mostly, start drawing original things.

^Kind of what I was trying to say. I'm just terrible at phrasing or even simply typing at 4:30 AM. (Staying up late on forums is probably not my best idea. lul)

I'm with Pix3M on this one. It really does look like you just cut out a few vectors from screen caps and just put some shading on them, which is really naughty and won't teach you anything except the basics of lighting principle. Unless that's all you aim to study with this, then I don't have as huge of a problem, because getting to the point where you start shading can take a while, and not knowing it can be bad, also if you're doing that, you shouldn't take any accreditation to these images because you didn't make them. Now what you need to know about lighting principle is this. First off know where the light(s) is(are) coming from, secondly keep it(them) consistent. Next, Light sources tend to have a color to them. Take sunlight for instance. Sunlight is actually white, but due to the nitrogen in the air reflecting it on Earth, it turns blue. (Look at the sky, it's not white, so why would you shade with black and white if you're drawing something outside?) Basically, what I'm saying is shade with colors depending on the light source's color.

The wing seems to be fluttering a little too fast in my opinion. Not much, but just enough to where it feels inconsistent with the rest of the animation. As in the body's moving fairly slowly in comparison to the wings, which are moving really fast, almost as if it's a humming bird. Aside from that, the frame rate is pretty good, I have no problems with that. I'd just say slow down the wings animation by about 1 or 2 (at max) fps if you can and try that out. (Let me see if you decide to try that, I'd be curious if whether or not it looks smoother or not.) [/edit] Actually considering the smear in the animation it may not work as well I thought. . . .

Since everyone else is critiquing, I feel I should do the same. First off, feathers don't work that way. They work in "layers" so to say. Depending on the level of detail as well as the size of the animal, you should only have about 2-4 layers of them, however they will be fairly bunched up within their layer. They also sprawl outward and become much larger the further down you go on the layers. (The bunching up tends to happen around the much more fleshy part of the wing.) Here's a reference for what I'm getting at (It's really basic but it should aid my point.): http://hippie.nu/~unicorn/tut/img/basics/animalanatomy/wing-feathers.jpeg Secondly, you do seem to take your art fairly seriously. If you plan on continuing traditionally, I'd recommend a scanner (One that can get at least 600ppi). Most cheap ones cost about $30 at Wal-Mart, now-a-days, so don't worry too much about price. Though if you want to try your hands at digital I'd say start off with a cheap tablet, like one of the Capture, Connect, or Create. (Just fair warning, they don't have a built in monitor system, and the sensitivity is about half as strong as an Intinous, but it's for beginners. IMO) I'd also recommend some software, like SAI or Photoshop CS5 or higher. Third, your grasp on volume needs a little work, not much, but a lot of the parts feel discontinued and disconnected. Don't worry about simplifying things if it makes more sense to what people are viewing. (Don't start stacking on details until you have all the volume, proportions, and form exactly like you want it, or it's just gonna be a mess.) Fourth, I can't seem to determine a light source. The shadows underneath him indicate the it's above, but the shading on the tail and neck say there's a light source to his left, which would mean his wing would be blocking a lot of light on his body and face. Fifth, the anatomy doesn't connect up very well, but I already semi-hinted at that during the part about volume, so I'm not gonna go on about it. You don't have a huge problem on the placement of the limbs, mostly it's that they're detach from one another. Finally, you're not bad, but you gotta lot to learn. I would recommend you keep trying and studying. You'll get there.

Okay, well I did draw ponies, but I also needed to try and get some practice in on drawing humans. So I'm gonna apologize ahead of time for my poor attempts at drawing humans. ^ All I can say is FLAWS EVERYWHERE!!! Major flaws:Legs disproportional, setting and shading on character don't match, no easily discernible light source, best guess is a street lamp. Also, it's a humanized Rainbow Dash wearing Klonoa's clothes. . . . Yeah, IDK either. T.T Makes me wanna cry. Oh well, next. ^ Okay, on this one I do like the hair and eyes, but the front legs aren't proportional, the legs and background don't connect, the cutie mark is incredibly screwed up, and I'm confused to what I should do about the hair's shading. But wait, there's more flaw-filled work to share. ^Okay, and the final image, which is just a humanized Octavia bust. Quite simple, and not really riddle with as many glaringly horrible flaws. This piece doesn't bother me as badly. Mostly just needs better line work and shading. Do any of you have any tutorials on how to draw backgrounds I can look at? Or something on how to draw faster? Or some tips on how I can check for flaws much more easily whilst I work?

Really well done. I don't work in the pixel art stuff like you do, so I wouldn't exactly be able to give you the best of advice, but my critique would be this, and you can take it with a grain of salt if you want. As I said I don't work in Pixel art, so I wouldn't know much about it. Her right eye (The one behind her head at the angle you drew her at) looks like it's bulging off the head slightly, maybe moving the outline of the eyelid a little inward might fix this. The shadow from the ear doesn't seem to be follow roundness of the skull, it feels like it going around the skull somewhat, but it's not really catching the roundness of it as well as it should. Those problems stand out to me, but they're very minor. Overall thoroughly impressive.

Interesting designs for a generator. I'd rather you make your own and be more unique, though.

Pretty humorous. I really need to draw some ponies with wet manes sometime. All wet and dripping. . . Mmmmm that'd be nice. lul

They have really nice form, and you do capture their emotions pretty good. If you're using a mouse, line tool will be your very best friend.

Nice work. I hope to see more soon.

Really good for your first MLP drawing. I can tell you used a reference because I've seen this pose in the show before. Here's somethings you should study over for about a week, plus a few notes about working digitally. Tablet or mouse? And which tablet, if you don't. Also, I've never used Paint.NET, but I'm guessing it's a lot like SAI. Does it have a stabilizer? Things to learn: Drawing with volume. (Use basic volume shapes/prisms as guidelines, don't use 2D shapes like Squares and triangles unless an object is flat.) How to center the eyes. (I found a good tutorial on this about year ago if you want.) NOTES: Always export to .PNG when done, unless animating, then export to .GIF. (This is a quality thing.)

Yeah, initially was going to make her wear Confederate clothes, but thought someone might take it the wrong way, so changed it to Union. Yeah, I drew my profile pic. . . .

I've seen the Wonderbolts vs. Shadowbolts before, aside from that. Not a clue. Not a bad gallery though. Not a huge fan of vectors though. It requires some skill, but aside from that it doesn't feel as great as if it had been drawn. Oh well, it is opinion and it doesn't matter.

Okay, fixed it.