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[nikki]

I have to agree with Blambo.

you are still not looking very much. you're getting better at drawing lines though.
It's brilliant to goto switzerland for holiday, but don't wait until then to start opening your eyes.

just get some simple object; book, pot, pencil, and perhabs something harder like a thrown sweater or something . and just draw it.

don't draw what you know is there, just draw what you see.
don't concentrate on the outlines specifially but draw the volumes that are in front of you.


and also don't look for 'great view' and pretty babes on the internet.
just draw what is in front of you at this moment in time.
it's much better then those cliches.

have fun!

[pen]

Posted this in the art thread a few days ago, maybe it'll fit in better here...

I'm not exactly sure which thread this goes in, but I've been working on a cartoon-styled crate texture to practice texture making:

Any tips for improvement?

I need to know what this would be for before commenting, but as far as quality goes, this looks like something that'd take 1-2 minutes to do in ms paint, it's very flat. If you want to really push yourself don't aim for mediocrity, look at something you really really like and try to push yourself to make something as close to that as possible.

^This is the kind of stuff that comes to mind when someone says 'cartoony'.

Again, if this is an asset in a game you're making and it fits the style then it's fine, but if you're trying to improve: Aim higher.

@TheShard1994: Think 3d when doing 2d


Hardsurface doodle below.


If you want I can help you out more after work, send me a P.M. and I'll help you out mang! 

[solkar]

(moved to Workshop)

[TheShard1994]

Hm I'm sorry to say this again, but this is kind of my personal topic

I think you're better off asking your questions here 


Also, about drawing for example a thrown sweater in volumes: I find it hard to do so without outlines. If I try to draw the volumes I'd just get 1 big blur of gray on my paper :/

[gimymblert]

Just keep doing it.
Things you do in artschool that are not meant to be look good but to free you from habit:
- drawing from non dominant hand (or any device)
- drawing without looking
- drawing upside down
- drawing the complete scene just after small second of looking at it
- drawing on odd surface with odd tools
- drawing in uncomfortable position
- drawing only using 45° angle surfaces
- etc ...
It force you to reset how you see, how you think about form, how you process drawing, etc...

[pen]

Copied P.M to Gravity Games:

Well, the main piece of advice I guess would be to really look in extreme detail and study/copy stuff that's top-notch. For instance, here are wood textures from Team Fortress 2:



Here's some more "warcraft"-y wood textures from the polycount forums (forums that are really worth lurking if you want to get into 3d&/game art)




And something a bit more photo-based




When you do pixelart you usually work very small and then scale up, when you do textures you're gonna use on 3d models you want to work big and scale down.

Here's something I did for you super quick:

and here's a .psd so you can see how I made it:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/22917936/gravitygames.psd



If you want to do cartoony stuff I HIGHLY recommend you get photoshop(Or if you can't aquire it: GIMP) and a wacom (the bamboo ones are really good for beginners).

I'll crosspost in the thread as well if you're OK with it to possibly help others.

!!!!EDIT!!!!
Please notice the name of the layers to see which ones I created first - adjustment layers were created last and are horribly set up.

[TheShard1994]

Thanks for the advice again,
I was sitting outside and tried drawing something in front of me with a simpler shape than a human, focusing on volume.

[gimymblert]

your pot body is too round and too big XD

Your drawing skill isn't bad, the observation skill is really where it fail

It seems you biggest challenge is not to learn but unlearn habit first, you are stuck in a local maxima, you will need to go back to painful, uncomfortable and crappy drawing through unlearning techniques like those I have listed above. Or take lesson with someone, maybe life adjustment is what you need right now, theory might prove to be limited in your case.

[nikki]

good exercise,

try a few where you focus on light / dark.
try to not draw lines / outlines, but more try to draw areas of light and dark.

paste your result in this thread again.

[Hamish]

Hey guy,

You look like you are doing better since the last time I checked in here. The upside down and grid drawings seem to be helping you draw what you see rather than what you expect (although you still have a way to go)

I'd echo what some other people have said. You need to draw less obvious subjects. While we would all like to be able to draw kickass eagles and hot girls in swimsuits they don't give you the right kind of training. You have too many preconceptions about what a nice smile looks like to effectively draw from observation.

You need to draw some very busy, unusual shapes from life. Things like screwed up paper, rumpled fabric, scrap metal, tangled wires. The complexity of what you're seeing and your unfamiliarity with the forms will force you to pay attention to what you are seeing with your eyes. you won't be tempted to full in the blanks with circles and manga eyes.

Another thing I have noticed with a few of your drawings Is that you need to make sure that your paper is facing you directly when you draw, if you look at a drawing from an perspective other than strait on, your finished drawing will be skewed.

You're doing well. Keep at it.

[TheShard1994]

While I'm currently busy with my finals, I've also started reading Loomis' "Figure drawing for all it's worth" (I'm only a few chapters in though), and I drew the drawing about proportions he made (as advised by Pen on Skype).

Might as well post it here, I guess this also counts a bit as observational practice, since I haven't had too much time to spend lately. After my finals are over, I'll do some of those drawings of unfamiliar subjects/objects.

Anyway, here are 2 drawings "copied" from Loomis' book.


If I need to post the references too, just say so!

[Blambo]

Your linework is getting much much much much better! Did you construct the first set from a final picture?

[gimymblert]

Let's be frank we have been "caling you" on some very specific shortcoming (observation), but not all great artist are god or do not cheat, some does have crappy art skill and yet are legendary (go nagai) however having strong expressive and singular style help a lot, some other cheat and only use a small amount of visual grammar despite of great skills(akira toriyama) some are downright crappy and yet successful (rob liefield). Be sure you to at least know how to draw different background, pose, face and hands.

What should win is your love for drawing, it should not paralyze you to do thing you want to do, but the thing you like and want to do is not an excuse to not evolve and try new things.

Keep studying, but keep drawing for fun. Plus since i'm not practicing enough it's not too long before you beat me at skills

[TheShard1994]

Your linework is getting much much much much better! Did you construct the first set from a final picture?

Thank you! I just looked at these two pictures and drew them like I saw them: Loomis1, Loomis2

Keep studying, but keep drawing for fun. Plus since i'm not practicing enough it's not too long before you beat me at skills

Ha that'd be great I am always doing it for fun (else I'd never be so determined to get better), I don't mind getting criticism all the time, because criticism is very helpful (besides, how many times do people in real-life actually have the gut to be honest?).
About the rest of what you said, I don't think I get exactly what you mean. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you said I just needed to learn some fundamentals (like backgrounds, poses, etc.) and from there on discover my own style or something?

[gimymblert]

NO not really I was given example of success and a minimum bar to at least achieve. Of course you should not strive for that minimum bar, but below that bar that's unacceptable You should strive for your own style AND make it as much expressive as you can, but it does not prevent you to always push the bar in other style.

Don't limit yourself but don't fear your limit is the message.

Don't worry for me, my skill has fallen but my knowledge is strong mwahahaha (disappear in a cloud of heavy black smoke)

[ANtY]

how do you develop your own style?

[Blambo]

By drawing neutrally for a long time and letting the little idiosyncrasies of your habits emerge.

[TheShard1994]

I tried the next thing from Loomis' book, which was putting the character "map" in perspective. I have no idea what I did wrong, the legs seem waaaay too long (even for being in perspective) but I think I did everything like I'm supposed to: draw a diagonal in the box to determine the middle, then do that again and again until there are 8 spaces, so that I can draw the character map in it (8 spaces = 8 heads).

The left one is a basic one in perspective, the right one is (supposed to be) the map for a character sitting up.

Loomis' work:

[gimymblert]

Tips the z scale unit should never be higher than the x or y scale unit. Look at yours now it's twice as deep as it is large

[Blambo]

^Not necessarily true and inherently limiting. But as a rule of thumb for depicting 3d space according to the human eye, then yeah.