GIMP Drawings, Critique/advice etc.

[Ad Foedera Cresco 188]

I got my first GIMP Photo done last night, as a test for getting used to the tools and such.

I do terribly need some Criticism though, it just feel like there's something wrong in my photos, or that I need to do better . Help, tips, advice, tricks, anything of the like would help me a great deal if anypony could be so willingly to. (Made this in an hour with a mouse)

Edited August 28, 2012 by Ad Foedera Cresco

[XUNUSEDXXX 3,459]

THAT'S BEAUTIFUL! Without the shadowish shading I couldn't tell the difference between the show and yours! Grand job~

[Mirad 217]

BEAUTIFUL!!!

 

the only real thing I can say is the face-- is seems a bit dusty, if you understand...

Beyond that, I love it. You are talented with GIMP, I can only draw on paper .

[Argent Artique 47]

Woww!!

 

No need for criticism, this is great!! very detailed, for your first GIMP drawing, this is pretty darn good!

[Lonewolf 127]

That's a fine job you did there. The shading is well placed and it looks really good. I bet you had to draw over the original image pixel by pixel (or maybe not)

[Ad Foedera Cresco 188]

That's a fine job you did there. The shading is well placed and it looks really good. I bet you had to draw over the original image pixel by pixel (or maybe not)

 

There's thing that make it a lot easier in Gimp or pain.net, but I did use afew erasers time to time Thanks!

[Dusty Soul 2,611]

OH MY... That is unbelievable especially being your first GIMP Drawing. Seriously it is really good.

[Ad Foedera Cresco 188]

BEAUTIFUL!!!

 

the only real thing I can say is the face-- is seems a bit dusty, if you understand...

Beyond that, I love it. You are talented with GIMP, I can only draw on paper .

 

I got the same thinking while I was shading the body, does look like she cleans chimeneys or something . Thanks! and thanks for the crtiqiue, I'll try to work on my dust fetish

[Pinkie D Pie 1,035]

Dang you drew that in Gimp. I've been trying to draw in Gimp for the past months but I just fail at it. That is absolutely amazing.

[Enigma 200]

Very very nice~ I love it! Especially the gradient highlight on the eyes.

May I suggest you torrent photoshop and buy a tablet? That's the next step up from using a mouse and Gimp! XD Trust tablets are cheap but they're very clunky and flimsy. Wacom tablet's are one of the best brands for tablets.

As for criticism, I'd say to remember where your light source is as all times. The higher the light is, it'll be more difficult for it to reach say on the left of the tail at the bottom where you have put in highlights. Try using a different light colour except from white and a different shading colour other than grey/black. Try something interesting like a cold ice blue light with a warm orange-red for shading (when the light is warm it casts a cold shadow, just as when the light is cold the shadows are warm). The shadow on the ground is too solid compared to the shading of the pony. It looks like you have used the smudge tool (I don't use GIMP so I'm not familiar with the tools and names) for 90% of the shading. Try using a low opacity brush and build up the layers with only minimal blending from blending tools. Also, I know that I don't do this but in real life there are edges to shadows and highlights as well. Lastly, if you want to add more detail to your image, have you thought about painting the hair? As in going over it on a new layer after the tones have been laid down and going over it with a 1px brush?

A video you may find helpful:

[XUNUSEDXXX 3,459]

By the way, who ist hat pony in the actual picture? Never seen that cutie mark.. Or it's just me being forgetting and ignorant http://mlpforums.com/public/style_emoticons/default/dry.png

[GEROMY 41]

You drew that with a mouse?

 

0_0

 

Holy crap, well done! I really look forward to seeing more from you!

[Ad Foedera Cresco 188]

You drew that with a mouse?

 

0_0

 

Holy crap, well done! I really look forward to seeing more from you!

 

Thanks man! Yeah, mouse takes alittle longer to use than a tablet, but tablets are Quicker imo.

100 char.

[~Chaos~ 3,966]

This is looking very well done, I'm excited to see more from you, you have talent, looks amazing

 

Great job for your first one in Gimp!

[Modphase 1,270]

This. Is. Amazing! Seriously, and for your first? You sir, have a gift. I can't wait to see more from you, keep it up!

[Ad Foedera Cresco 188]

Hey guys, I made another drawing without the colour shades (on accident). I learnedthat I should shade with colours first then go to darker colours . Any critique anypony could offer? Thanks!

 

I feel like I've done much better with this one, and that I made the hair much better as well. I'm getting better, atleast!

Edited August 28, 2012 by Ad Foedera Cresco

[darkmist 38]

vary vary cool. vary good work. i would love to see other pics from in time. keep up the good work. keep bring us some great looing pics

[Ad Foedera Cresco 188]

Got another one done. Not too shure whether or not the hair looks more like hair than it does fur on this one. I know I messed up the tail, was trying something new What do you guys think? I'm really trying to improve, any advice would be great! (i'm still open for requests btw)

 

Ugh, got this one done finally.

 

Any good? I went with a different style sort of. I also shaded the eyes differently, and took away the line-art

4 hours to make

 

[Pix3M 607]

It appears that you took vectors from the show and edited them. Took at fluttershy's back legs. They do not match with her coat color on everything else. The flat vector work darkened the far legs to give an illusion of depth, and that doesn't quite work when you neglected to get rid of a trick that only works with 2d in something that aims to be 3d. You also forgot to remove the line work from Fluttershy's face.

 

Also, where is your light source on fluttershy? Look at all the light areas and think about the possible light sources lighting those areas up. The legs suggest a light in front of her, her body suggests one in the background, her wing suggests one from above, and her mane and tail suggests light sources from our right and left.

Edited September 23, 2012 by Pix3M

[Crombie 32]

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.

[Pix3M 607]

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.

 

I dunno about a blue sunlight. There are going to be two big lightsources outside, and that's the sun, and the sky. The light coming from the sky is blue, so if you're indoors or in a shadowy area away from the sunlight, you'll have bluer highlights. When something is out in the sun, you'll have bluer shadows instead. Just a little personal observation.

[Crombie 32]

I dunno about a blue sunlight. There are going to be two big lightsources outside, and that's the sun, and the sky. The light coming from the sky is blue, so if you're indoors or in a shadowy area away from the sunlight, you'll have bluer highlights. When something is out in the sun, you'll have bluer shadows instead. Just a little personal observation.

 

^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)

[Ad Foedera Cresco 188]

Okay, so....

 

@Crombie: I do take crops from the show and Pony generator which people hand me, or vectors for me to edit but I don't claim them to be my own. I do claim the photo editing though if it's given to me in default and I do them editing.

I didn't have a lightsource but a basic white light, no sun, but I don't think I added any warm or cool shades

I only do these to get better at digital photo editing, not actually to get better at drawing things like Line-art though. No graphics tablet and I stink with a mouse

 

@Pix3M: The light source is coming from the top-right of Fluttershy, not the right of the screen, so the light revolves alittle bit on both sides. I may have done the shading wrong and I may be wrong too though. Thanks for pointing out the line-art on the Face though, I didn't know what to do about it honestly

Edited September 23, 2012 by Ad Foedera Cresco

[Pix3M 607]

@Crombie: I do take crops from the show and Pony generator which people hand me, or vectors for me to edit but I don't claim them to be my own. I do claim the photo editing though if it's given to me in default and I do them editing.

I didn't have a lightsource but a basic white light, no sun, but I don't think I added any warm or cool shades

I only do these to get better at digital photo editing, not actually to get better at drawing things like Line-art though. No graphics tablet and I stink with a mouse

Unfortunately, that's not how human thinking really works. People don't spend the extra effort thinking about what parts of something that isn't yours. Ofc, there will be common sense parts like not claiming the character design as yours as we know that you're not drawing an OC but a canon character, but whether the pose and composition itself is yours is something you can very easily claim as your own.

 

By claiming something as your own, that could mean anything from saying that it's yours, or simply presenting it as if it was your own work.

 

See my avatar? You probably don't really go through the trouble deciding what parts of that art is mine and which are not. It's far easier to just assume that all of it is mine.

 

@Pix3M: The light source is coming from the top-right of Fluttershy, not the right of the screen, so the light revolves alittle bit on both sides. I may have done the shading wrong and I may be wrong too though. Thanks for pointing out the line-art on the Face though, I didn't know what to do about it honestly

 

As for the line art on the face, the line that defines the nose is probably your biggest concern.

 

Artists I know who don't really need line work to define noses include White Diamonds: http://fav.me/d5d9if3 , Harwicks : http://fav.me/d5e2n9r myself (sometimes, but getting there): http://fav.me/d5a2a5h and probably a bunch of other artists out there who have a style that does not really use lines. I believe that learning how to not use any outlines is a good skill as outlines don't really exist in real life. With the realism you're aiming for, that should be something you should shoot for.

 

When you start getting deeper into finding your own way of drawing ponies with actual three-dimensionality, you'll eventually realize that you cannot directly copy everything from vectors. You'll notice that show-accurate noses actually make no sense if you try to make them three-dimensional.

Edited September 24, 2012 by Pix3M

[Enigma 200]

Damn I hate the character count sometimes blah blah blah y'all know the drill blah blah here's a little critique/guide thingie for you.

Edited September 27, 2012 by Enigma