Ana's Art Returns!

[Anacybele]

Ah, thanks! :) I'm glad this came out as well as it did! And don't worry, I can see that you're not trying to attack me at all. You're being really nice, but also giving me good and helpful critique. :)

Yeah, I've used color holds before. I dunno why I never felt like continuing doing so though. I actually liked that look better. I'll do that next time I do a more "realistic" piece like this (I prefer the black lines for cartoony artwork). I do also have the lines on a separate layer, so I'll try that whenever I get a chance. :)

Yeah, I do use a 1px line width a lot normally, because when I used thicker lines, people told me they were too thick. xP

Ah, Tetra's pirates from Zelda: The Wind Waker. Yeah, I really like that art style! I really would like to vary my line width, but it seems really hard to do without a tablet. I intend to get one someday though.

[Samias]

When you work at a low resolution or a small canvas space (like1000x1000 pixels so it fits on a display easily) it's hard to make your lines thicker without them becoming too thick since you have less room to finesse the details. However, going into choice parts like where limbs bend and where shadows hit the most (like under the chin, close to the edge where it meets the ears) you could benefit going with more black outline and filling the corner bits a little to make them feel more shaded. Overall though I think this picture is a big improvement since you removed the overly defined abs. The shading could use work but the clothing folds are pretty good and not over or underdone. Maybe if you added a little more shading around the wrist area, it would beef up the look of his hands.

[Anacybele]

Ah, I see. And what kind of wrist shading exactly? Like where should it go?

And thanks, Samias. :)

[Samias]

There is a bone at the base of the wrist that is near the side. This is where the arm and hand bones join up. On the left side of the picture, go in from your existing shadow and go beneath the hand, tilted a little down the arm. On the hand above the hip, shade on the top side, following the hand's shading out and across in an arc since the skin folds there. It should make his hands more defined.

Edit: phone based typos

Edited September 14, 2013 by Samias

[Anacybele]

Oh, okay, I think I see now. Thanks. :)

It's a little late to do it now (since it's night and I'm tired), but I'll get to this when I can.

[Anacybele]

Argh, I completely forgot about making that edit to the Frederick pic. xP I'll still do it though, I've just had a lot on my mind lately...

Anyway, I also have a new sketch. :)

I call this "The Honeymoon's Over" Haha. XD

It depicts three of the OCs from my Fire Emblem fic, Dawn of Darkness. Owen, Bryan, and Faline from left to right. Bryan, ahem, becomes a rather important figure in Astryn by the end of the story, and this is what he has to go through afterward. His father barking at him to get to a meeting and his wife begging for help with their infant twins. Poor guy. XD

If you want to know exactly what sort of important figure Bryan becomes, here's a spoiler tag.

He's crowned Astryn's king. Though here, he hasn't yet had a chance to put his crown on, lol.

Can you guys guess what class Owen has gained? ;)

I decided to use a chibi style cause I felt it looked cuter and funnier this way. :P Oh, and I'll be making some adjustments to this when I color it, like moving the whole thing down a few pixels and making neater dialogue bubbles.

Edited September 28, 2013 by Anacybele

[deleted35362]

what image editor do you use?

[Anacybele]

...I didn't use one to make this.

[Anacybele]

...Haha, oh snap, I just noticed that you can tell I drew that on the back of the same sheet where I sketched Wii Fit Frederick. Oops. lol

[Samias]

If you have a copy of Photoshop, you can use levels to adjust the grey tones in a picture, and it can be used to "erase" unwanted tones from your picture. So long as you set your colour mode to grayscale, it should work. It takes a lot of fiddling around, as well as adjusting brightness and contrast, and it has the side effect of slightly reducing the quality of the lineart, but it's one of those things that makes Photoshop an excellent image editing tool.

If you want, I can fix up your picture if you'd like an example of what you can do to fix a bad scan.

[Anacybele]

Thanks, but it's no big deal really. I can still go over it in lineart on Photoshop well enough. :P

Now, the picture itself? lol

[Samias]

Well, it's chibi so I know you want to keep it simple. Still, I think you could make the posture less symmetrical of Bryon, and sink his shoulders down. If you want the people yelling at him to feel more aggresive, lean them forward a little.

[Anacybele]

But he is supposed to have his shoulders sunk down, you just can't tell because he's wearing armor over them. I think...?

And nah, I don't want it to feel THAT aggressive. Just kinda comedic. lol

[deleted35362]

what image editor do you use?

...I didn't use one to make this.

Nobody gave me anymore critique, so went ahead and colored this. :D

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/256/2/e/frederick_s_fanatical_wii_fit_hour__by_great_aether-d6m5m82.png

I fixed it up some more too. Decided to shade the hair a little differently than I normally do and I like it better this way! This definitely looks like Freddy Bear now. <3

what image editor did you use to color this?

[Anacybele]

Okay, thanks for being more specific, but I'm looking for comments on my current sketch.

I use Photoshop to color all my work though. Why does it matter?

Edited September 29, 2013 by Anacybele

[deleted35362]

I use Photoshop to color all my work though. Why does it matter?

lolol i just wanted to know what you use to color so i can try it myself becuase you colored him so cleanly. i don't know what to say about your last drawing...except well that trap that a lot of people get into where you start writing in a bubble but you realize you don't have enough space halfway through so you start trying to squeeze words in

[Anacybele]

Oh okay, sorry. xP I've just been really unhappy lately due to a family issue.

Photoshop gets pretty expensive though, just to warn you. But all I really used were the pen tool and brush tool pretty much. As long as you use a program that has those tools or similar, you should be able to make some nice stuff. Dodge and burn tools can be of use on occasion too, but not often. I find that dodge works best when you're doing an outdoor scene and you want to add that yellow tint of sunlight to some objects (mainly brown ones).

And yeah, I fell into that trap. xP The bubbles will look neater in the colored version. The shape tool includes different kinds of dialogue and thought bubbles, so yeah.

[Anacybele]

All done coloring! :)

I added some more details to the background, as you can see. I decided not to shade this one cause it's just meant to be a quick little comic thing. lol

Full description here.

Edited October 1, 2013 by Anacybele

[Anacybele]

I've got something new, seeing as pumpkin-carving is a form of art and Halloween is right around the corner. ^^

I did King Boo this year! It's for the Year of Luigi and he's Luigi's ghostly nemesis. I think it's the best pumpkin I've ever done too! At least all by myself. :D

[Garland Chaos]

By any chance, is that Dark Moon's version of King Boo?

[Anacybele]

Yeah, because I consider him to be the canon design. :P

[Myke]

B- trying new things is really healthy! the more styles you become familiar with, the more perspective you have

B- keep practising

[Anacybele]

Um, alright. Thanks. xP

[Anacybele]

So, I've finally drawn something again! I haven't done one of these in a long time either. A new character art for FE: Dawn of Darkness, my main FE fic. :)

Yes, I know the head and torso are a bit off, I will correct these issues in the lineart. I really do try to fix errors like these during the sketch phase, but I find it so much harder for some reason. It just takes less time to fix them on the computer.

Anyway, this is Natalie, a Blade Paladin that serves as deputy commander of the Talgrian knights, under General Leyon (one of the two main male characters). She's quite serious about her duty and tends to look down upon those that she deems unable to go very far as a warrior, such as Marc (due to his bad memory). She also tends to quarrel with fellow knight Eliot, whom Leyon seems to think is a good match for her.

Yet it's also shown that Natalie has a sensitive side, as she holds unrequited love for Leyon and develops a bitter rivalry with Azura (the lord character) when she notices Leyon's newfound interest in the red-haired swordfighter. She seems troubled when Leyon and Azura finally realize their love for one another as well. However, when Eliot saves Natalie's life, it's hinted that she seems to have gotten over her old feelings and might have even developed a new interest in Eliot.

It's also revealed that Natalie has a fear of heights, paralleling Azura's fear of spiders.

Edited November 19, 2013 by Anacybele

[Anacybele]

And it's colored! :) Unfortunately, I don't have a fuller description for it yet because Deviantart's file uploading is being stupid and giving me an error. I sent a message, but then I saw that the help desk is closed on weekends. >_> So the description will have to wait. For now, I've put the pic on my Photobucket account.

I think Natalie is one of my better character designs, personally. I really like the pastel-like color scheme I came up with. ^^ I've changed something about my lineart, btw. Can you tell what that change is? ;)

EDIT: I finally managed to get this uploaded to my DA, so here's the full description. :)

Edited November 23, 2013 by Anacybele