Art Thread

[Blitz Walrus]

My friend draws things! She drew this and I thought it was super rad.

[DoNotDelete]

Nice work, princess brothel, but I haven't the cheddar for such frivolities.

My gut reaction is that the area of focus in your comic panel seems a bit vague, Dire, but I don't have a copy of the script so I can't really make a judgement call on how well your comic panel is communicating what is going on in your story at that point. Also I feel that you could play up the action! of the flamethrower being used by considering more dynamic/scenic angles on the robot/doorway.



Trying to figure out if I want to use 'floating eyebrows' in my comic pages; It's something I used to do way back before I drew digitally and - though traditionally reptiles don't really have them - eyebrows are kind of important re: expressivity*.

I wasn't really intending to use Paddelyn for any comic projects but my overactive mind recently unearthed some hidden depths to her potential in regard to some ideas I had lying around. No promises on anything yet, though.

Observations regarding this style are welcome but if you talk about 'side-mouth'** or anything like that I will have to punch you.


*I just made that word up but spellchecker can suck my dick.

**It's a legitimate strategy!

[Cori]

I'm curious as to what the legitimate strategy regarding sidemouth is--all I know is that it's used in animation to cut costs. You wouldn't have that problem in un-animated media.

[hotb]

Outside of animation it's regarded as lazy.

[DoNotDelete]

I'm curious as to what the legitimate strategy regarding sidemouth is...

Time saving - I have to draw less lines.

It's actually suited to characters like Paddelyn which have a very deep/long jawline - I won't use it as a shortcut when I have to draw her mouth fully open, though.

I'm generally aiming for a cartoony style - what with the floating eyebrows and all that - and I'm kind of out of practice too - it might be something I drop altogether in time, but for now it's a neat little time-saving trick.

Outside of animation it's regarded as lazy.

Hey man - all I know is that I'm drawing again - so don't begrudge me this.

[Tatzel]

I think it depends on someone's style if floating eyebrows and sidemouth work, and with the very simplistic style DND just used it fits pretty well imo. With long jawlines like for that character a sidemouth probably fits even better than if he drew the whole thing, and it's easier to draw expressions.
I guess just my 5 cents that I think it's not all that bad you guys are making it out to be.


Considering I'm also posting a picture with small effort and slapped on bad shading now, maybe I'm not the best ome to talk right now haha
Requested by Shadster

[hotb]

I guess just my 5 cents that I think it's not all that bad you guys are making it out to be.

All anyone has said is that it's lazy, which it is.

DND brought it up, knowing that it's bad and then intentionally disregards critique of when he knows it can be done better.

This Lackadasiy tutorial puts it nicely

http://lackadaisy.foxprints.com/exhibit ... ibitid=333

""Like the majestic flounder, some characters have features that drift to the side of their head. Side-mouth is how to avoid lip and chin motion when animating on the cheap. It's not a style or a good excuse to avoid learning to draw expressions in profile."

Learn to construct a face and side mouth will never be a problem. I'm currently working on my heads because I find my characters too inexpressive and samey.

[Tatzel]

The thing is, lackadaisy uses flat faces too, you could say human layouts, whereas DND has a long muzzle, where the expression works a bit different. She uses the "chronic C mouth" as an example too, and if her comic was drawn like that, it works, as it's really simple, and overexpressive expressions would look rather misplaced. Same goes in reverse for her style, the way she's drawing, overexpressive faces work better, than "simple" expressions.
Profiles with a sidemouth always look dumb when the character has a flat face, like a human or cat, no matter the style. It would also look dumb starting at a certain length, like a crocodile for example. Unless it's a middle nosed crocodile.

I might've explained myself better now, but I still think it's not too bad when it works with the character AND style.

[hotb]

The shape of the face is no excuse, if you can't draw a dinosaur as expressive as a human you shouldn't be drawing stories about dinosaurs. Lackadaisy would not be about cats if she wasn't confident that she could draw expressive cats.

If a head is a sphere then the head of a plesiosaur is a sphere with a rectangle sticking out the front, it's the same shit.

Like she said "It's not a style"

Sure it's "not too bad"

Do you want your work to be "Not too bad"? Is that what you aim for? It can be better and you shouldn't gimp your skills because something else is easier.

[Tatzel]

Isn't it up to one self anyways what to use? If I want to draw a simple comic, I will use simple drawings. It's up to each one if it should be quality over quantity, or vice versa. If if I only need "not too bad" , then I'm going for that. Like for quick references, or a small sketch to get an idea of something, or to get back into things or, well, anything that doesn't require much effort.

Sure I'm serious about my art, but that doesn't mean I have to be serious about it all the time. When I get an okay sketch, I keep it or maybe even post it, otherwise I throw it away because it was nothing else than messing around anyways, and if a free time sketch comes out crude and wobbly, so be it. If I want to make good looking sketches, I'll do that.

Guess what I'm trying to get here is, everyone takes things in a different light, some people want to be serious all the time and do better with their next piece, some people take it easy and occassionally do a piece that's only "not too bad", or occassionally a serious one.

I feel like this conversation got too serious aswell, I'm still staying by what I said, given the circumstances, it's alright to use a sidemouth and it works there.

[DoNotDelete]

Yep. It got too serious. Chill out princess brothel.

I have enough examples of characters in my gallery to prove that I can draw without using this 'sidemouth' shortcut - so I'm not afraid to use it on a comic book character like Paddelyn who has always had leanings toward a more cartoony style anyway.

If you're gonna get bent out of shape about cartoony styles you might as well rip into anyone who uses lines at all - lines don't exist in real life - lines are a construct of the human mind - to draw using lines is lazy - but near enough every comic book artist uses lines.

Like I said first off, this piece was more about playing around with 'floating eyebrows' - and I don't see how that's any less 'lazy' than 'sidemouth'.

I mean - for christ's sake - isn't 'lazy' just a synonym for 'quick' or 'shortcut'? That's kinda what I'm aiming for, yeah?

Man, I was kinda hoping to get some positive feedback on this piece - but it's just been turned into a circus all up in here.

I appreciate you advocating me, Tatzel.

[hotb]

Chill out? I'm sorry trying to discuss art in the art thread is "too serious" for you but for what it's worth I'm perfectly calm.

I was trying to give you advice so that you don't fall into bad habits and can improve your work.

Also yeah floating eyebrows are just as lazy as side-mouths, I forgot about them. The fact that they float shows that you haven't thought about constructing the face enough.

You act as if I'm making this huge fuss and attacking you when all I'm doing is telling you something is wrong when you know it yourself. Seperate u from your wurk.

And that junk about lines is so silly, lines describe form and form certainly exists.

If all you want is praise you can stick to DeviantArt.

[corsica]

a friend of mine took a class all about drawing muscles technically and being able to draw how they bend and look. i would suggest trying to practice that, since a lot of your drawings, dnd, are usually human or mixed with human features

[DoNotDelete]

I appreciate the thought, Lolita but I've kinda been there, done that - and that's not really applicable to what I'm currently trying to achieve.

Chill out? I'm sorry trying to discuss art in the art thread is "too serious" for you but for what it's worth I'm perfectly calm.

Hahaha! No, you're just trying to get under my skin and you've completely misunderstood where I'm coming from with this piece.

This style is an intentional 'step down' from my more detailed pieces which take too much time to finish up in regards to creating comic page artwork - which by its very nature needs to have a quick turnaround. So while you may think that I'm in desperate need of your 'expert advice' - distilled from your many, many years of artistic training, discipline and wisdom - I can guarantee you needn't fret so much.

It's not always about producing a masterpiece - sometimes you need to use all the shortcuts in order to turn out the work as fast as you need to - that means a lot of sacrifices in terms of detail and 'perfect' construction and it's why a lot of comic art is so stylised.

You also forgot about cel-shading; It's not realistic but it's quick - kinda like using lines - kinda like using floating eyebrows - kinda like using 'sidemouth'.

Don't pretend like you're such an authority on the ins and outs of artwork when you have such a unidirectional view on things like this; You need to start forming your own opinions about stuff instead of just running with everyone else's opinions.

[Dire]

We could just let DND do his own thing too. While I don't have any plans to include floating brows or side mouth in my own repertoire, it doesn't bother me that D does.

I don't think it will necessarily hinder him either. He's drawn it that way because he likes the way it looks, not because he can't draw it any other way.