Welcome to Gaia! ::

Despite the fact that Gaia has forums meant for critiquing art, I thought this guild could use a thread for that exact purpose. As art shop owners, we need a place to ask for advice where our customers may not stumble upon it and see the art before it is meant to be seen. There are other reasons, too, but my mind is meandering away from me. sweatdrop


Example:



How NOT to Critique


Not helpful and just plain abusive. Don't do this. I'll personally set you on fire.


Again, not helpful at all. Nice and fangirly, but not helpful.

How to Critique



See the difference? Point out the things that need attention but also point out things that were done right.



Basic Pointers on the Critique System

• Post art that is no wider than 600 pixels and no bigger than 150kb. If you want to show something with a lot of detail, post the link instead.
  
• Don't post unless you want to be critiqued. This is not a place for empty compliments. That's what the Art Arena is for.
  
• Critique as you would like to be critiqued. Try to be helpful. Being polite doesn't hurt, either.
  
• Don't JUST post. Critique others' works, too.
  
• Remember that this is all for your benefit. Keep it all in good humor. I've seen critique battles start when people post art and only expect praise. Smile and nod, but take the critique for what it is. Don't consider it a failure on your part. Don't accuse the critiquing person of being incompetent, either. We're all friends here.
  

How this will work:

Post a piece and list some general concerns if you have them. All pieces posted in this thread will be addressed, hopefully. Once you don't want any more critiques, edit your original post and replace the url with the message that you're done. Simple. 3nodding

Bloody hell. Gaia's such a pain. *kicks Gaia*



- The face of the girl on the left is lopsided, which makes the fact that her eyes are uneven even worse. I drew a few guidelines to show that her eyes aren't level and one side of her jaw is lower than the other.
-I think the reason that her legs look "chunky" is because the calf muscle is wider than the thigh. I made a couple lines of where I think the lines should go. Also, the folds in her pants make the leg look like it's shaped a bit strangely.
-The middle girl's ears are a bit low; ears span the distance between eyebrows and the bottom of your nose.
-She looks flat because of the style of the shirt combined with the fact that you didn't add any folds to it. There should be folds at the top from gravity pulling down from the shoulders as well as folds where there's tension at the bottom.
-The girl on the right seems to be looking up because her mouth is positioned so high. Is she supposed to be?
-I think her hand might look "fat" to you because you see too much of it. Viewed from that angle, you shouldn't be able to see all of her fingers. If you could, they'd be curled in a lot more. *blink* I just confused myself.

Aw, you caught me in my pajamas. xd You can only see three fingers (excluding the thumb) from this angle. 3nodding

-I really like the folds on the middle girl's skirt. You're really good with folds and shadows. And I want a pair of gloves like the girl on the left has. *jealous*

Hope that helped. sweatdrop

First of all, Chemie, I have to say that you're awesome for using vectors. whee I'm trying to get the hang of them, and they're pretty difficult.

First picture - I know you said that you weren't intending the proportions to be very correct on this picture, but I think the girl on the right would benefit a lot from thicker legs and larger feet. Compare the feet of the two girls, and you'll see a major size discrepancy that can't really be reasoned away by the fact that they're wearing different kinds of shoes. I've had a lot of trouble with that certain pose too, so yay you for actually being brave enough to draw it. I tend to avoid stuff like that which is why I progress so slowly in art. sweatdrop

Second picture - Overall, good job! The only thing that really doesn't sit well with me is the hand. 3nodding It looks like it needs be larger. I don't know if this is how anyone else is shaped, but when I put my hand on face, my hand is long enough for the tip of my middle finger to touch my hairline while the very bottom of my palm touches my chin, so that's the guideline I use for hand size. ^^; The knuckles are about halfway in between, so if her hand is balled up in a fist around her sword, it'd be about as big as the distance between the tip of her chin and the bridge of her glasses.

Third picture -

- You were right about the boobs not being too far apart, in my opinion. It's just that in anime there tend to be a lot of females with big squishy cleavage, and I guess it made people think that they were too far apart. To fix that, you might want to accentuate the curve of them more with some extra shading. 3nodding
- Another thing that lends itself to the boobs appearing too far apart is that her right (our left) shoulder seems a little too wide. Cutting that down and then altering the armpit line makes it look a little better too.
- Collarbones connect to the shoulder, somewhat. If you're disgustingly skinny like me ( sweatdrop ), you can feel where the bone ends/connects to the shoulder above your armpit. Her right collarbone seems to be angled a little funny to end at her shoulder, but you did an awesome job with her left one. biggrin

Hope this helps a little bit. ^^;

First of all, I would like to thank AD for the valuable help, I relly needed some advice and not empty flattering.... Now I think I can begin with the new version of this picture, and will post the progress here... as soon as I get a scanner, that is.

^^ heart

And, Chemie... It has been a long time since I saw YOU! I love your vector drawings! (And I remember you were interested in a sawp.. PM me, huh? ) wink

I think it would also help to add a bit of "a**" (enlarge the hip bone just a bit) to the pimp girl you had, Chemie, so that she looks more balanced and feminine... whee

This is more to settle an argument than anything else, but I just drew a sketch for a fellow Gaian artist/schoolmate and we're having a few disagreements about the picture. (Not too bad though. sweatdrop )

The sketch is here. I've linked to it because the image is a little large and I don't want to stretch the screen for anyone. ^^; This is just a sketch, and a pretty sloppy one at that since he wanted me to get it done so quickly, so keep that in mind.

- He says the legs are out of proportion. I agree with him on that, but I think they're a bit too long. He thinks they're too short. A possible cause of that is that I made the crotch of the guy's pants a little low since they were so baggy, but other than looking a tad bit lengthy, his legs seem fine to me.

- He says the way that the guy is holding the sword looks painful. He knows a heck of a lot more about holding swords than I do, but what's so painful about it? sweatdrop The only thing I can think of is that his hand is too close to the guard.

- He says the back is too arched. I don't know what he means by that, it looks fine to me. o_o;

I guess mainly what I'm looking for is critiques on the proportion. My friend didn't mention the guy's head, but I think it looks a little small for his body too. Any comments would be appreciated. 3nodding

Iyou!!! I'm going to work on a critique picture for you. ^^

I'll be right back or so. ^^;

One thing about the head that I can't show you on it though, it is too thin in width, it should almost be as wide as the waist.

EDIT: It's done! ^^



Okay, the thing about his face is that the chin was out of alignment. Try mapping out faces with lines next time or something like that. I really loved his face though, you did a great job on his expression, and the length of the face really adds to the manliness. It's just awesome! =D

His legs are the proper length, but if you want to give him longer legs, that's fine too. wink And make sure to show that crease in the elbow on his left arm. His left. ^^ And make sure the neck is thinner and that muscle shown is higher. His neck attached to his head oddly, but it's not that bad. =) And I don't think you should define the wrists like that, it's too announced and looks like that hands are attached to the arms in an odd way.

What I really liked, is his chest! It looks very good, broad and manly. ^^ Very powerful stuff. 3nodding And the hair you make looks very good too. It flows very nicely and isn't stiff at all! And you draw good folds and wrinkles. ^^ I like how you did his crotch too, but I'm not perverted! It just looks nice! ;o;

Your sense of anatomy is good too, like how you drew the muscles in the arms, though I think the arms may be a tad long. I just noticed that, so it's not drawn in, I think it just may be the fact that his hands are too big or something, but that's okay. ^^ I think that's what making his legs look short, so try making the hands smaller and shortening the arms, it should fix your problem with the legs, because they weren't about his legs! ^^;

All of what I think you need to fix, I've marked in red and made notes all over. I hope I didn't mangle your picture... sweatdrop I really liked it.

Eep, I wrote a lot. sweatdrop I hope that helps you though.

Chemie:

Thanks so much for pointing them out! I really did draw the body leaning on purpose, yeah, it does look kind of weird now. ^^; The hair, I drew it like that in pen, so I can't fix it now, but I'll keep the tip in mind. Yeah, I thought there was something weird about that arm, but I just couldn't put my finger on what is was. Hmm, I didn't know that about the ear! when I look in the mirror to do ears, mine stick out! O_o;; Eek, my ears must be big. xD Heh, I don't know really how to do frontal noses, so I guess it does look like a pyramid. o_O;; I'll have to look more at pictures pretty soon. =D The folds in the gloves are weird, I need to study gloves more too. >.>

Oh and the fan, I put it behind her hair because I didn't want to hide her hair! Mweh, I'm so childish. xD I'll try to remember to put it in front of the face if I ever have to draw fans again. ^^;

Thanks a lot! You helped out a bunch! =D

I'm also often end up with leaning pictures. You should keep track of that center with some sort of help lines. 3nodding (I'm too lazy thou... xd )
FAN is the word! Thanks I did'nt know that. We call them (translated) sun feathers in Swedish. Kinda cute, huh? :3
I'm sure your ears are perfectly normal! 3nodding But mine looks differnt from the side, then you can see all the funny curves that I've never even tried to draw. xp Props to you for having the currage.

Keep up the good work! If you're changing your picture show the result to me, will ya? biggrin