Uh, trying to be less horrible at drawing.

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Uh, trying to be less horrible at drawing.

Post by J2 » Thu Dec 18, 2008 1:41 am

Here's another attempt at trying to draw Jess, age 22:

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Re: Uh, trying to be less horrible at drawing.

Post by Stretch_Dude » Thu Dec 18, 2008 3:18 am

Um...yikes. Seriously.

Jake, fancy-schmancy shading does not cover up your Liefeldian grasp of anatomy. Her fingers are boneless, and I don't know what those things at the ends of her legs are, but they sure don't look like feet. And frankly, I'm not wild about the shading itself, either. Jessica's skin appears to be metallic, and it looks like she's wearing a butchered black-light poster on her head.

I have two recommendations:

1. An anatomy book. Any anatomy book.
2. The Simpsons Handbook. Helpful beyond comprehension.

These two things, together with practice, will help you not suck. Perhaps eventually, your Jessica will look babelike, and your Maggie will resemble a physically-fit teen more than a midget bodybuilder. And most importantly, stop with the shading until you actually become less horrible at drawing.
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Re: Uh, trying to be less horrible at drawing.

Post by AssistantCrone » Thu Dec 18, 2008 6:33 pm

I've had a go at fiddling with a flipped version of your pic, and made some notes.

Disclaimer #1: I am but a lowly amateur.
Disclaimer #2: I really bungled the feet and can't figure out how to fix them. Any takers?


(Edited to fix some things).

1) I made the arms and legs more curved, and got rid of excess lines that give the unwanted illusion of flab. (In general the fewer lines you use the better).

2) I simplified the hair a lot -- again, the fewer lines the better, and I'm sure you're used to reducing Simpson hair down to its basic shapes. Hopefully now her hair still looks full without looking like it's about to swallow her. I also checked a few references and the hair should be fuller on the top of Jessica's head rather than having one bump for the fringe and another for the rest of the hair.

3) It's a good idea to use references for face structure. Jessica's nose is pointier, though small, and her eyes slant a little.

4) I've tried to keep the pose as close as possible to the one you used, but all the same it's unclear what she's doing or which leg is meant to be holding her weight up. (In this pose it should be the straighter one, imo).

5) I haven't done any shading, but when you're doing skin get rid of that little light stripe between the darkest shade and the outline; it makes the skin look far too shiny. (On your Jessica's right leg, the light bit is furthest to the left of the picture).

6) I see this one a lot around the Internet: unless fabric is really thin and loose, breasts do not create their own outlines when under clothing. In my pic Jessica's top stretches over the boobs but doesn't fold back underneath them.

This ain't perfect by any means, but I hope it was useful in some way. :) 
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Re: Uh, trying to be less horrible at drawing.

Post by J2 » Fri Dec 19, 2008 3:12 am

I actually dug through my boxes (just recently moved) and tried using the The Simpsons handbook as a reference and I think this is a bit better (but I think the neck is too skinny, though)

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Re: Uh, trying to be less horrible at drawing.

Post by Stretch_Dude » Fri Dec 19, 2008 3:35 am

HE CAN BE TAUGHT!

I see signs of improvement. Yes, the neck is skinny, there's still something amiss about the legs I can't put my finger on, and the left arm and hand need work (for the arm, think "tube;" the forearm bulge is unneeded), but this is definitely better than the previous one.
I memorized "Holy Grail" really well
I can recite it right now and have you ROTFLOL
- "Weird Al" Yankovic, "White and Nerdy"

"Any pile of stunted growth unaware that entertainment is just that and nothing more, deserves to doom themselves to some dank cell, somewhere, for having been so stupid!! Movies, books, T.V., music - they're all just entertainment, not guidebooks for damning yourself!" - Nny

I draw too, dammit!
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Re: Uh, trying to be less horrible at drawing.

Post by J2 » Sat Jan 03, 2009 11:24 pm

Here's trying to draw Marge, a little more businesswomanlike:

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Re: Uh, trying to be less horrible at drawing.

Post by Leif » Sun Jan 04, 2009 11:56 am

I always find it interesting to se Marge with her hair down. Nice way you have “humanized” her figure. The “standard” Marge works well in the show, but it is always interesting to make her a bit more sophisticated.   
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Re: Uh, trying to be less horrible at drawing.

Post by AssistantCrone » Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:48 pm

This one's very much better when it comes to pose and general making-things-look-plump-ness. There are a few superfluous lines and her left leg connects to her foot with a dodgy-looking lump, and her overbite should be much less rounded at the edge, but other than that it's my favourite so far. She looks nice and solid, and she's standing on a surface.

Couple of nitpicks: if this is Marge in businesswoman mode, I doubt she'd be wearing such a casual-looking outfit. Finally, her hair seems to be composed of two different styles – perhaps some of the same large bumps at the end of her hair would even things out a bit. (Alternatively, she could be approaching hair-straightening time again ;D).
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Re: Uh, trying to be less horrible at drawing.

Post by J2 » Sun Jan 04, 2009 10:04 pm

Assistant Crone wrote: This one's very much better when it comes to pose and general making-things-look-plump-ness. There are a few superfluous lines and her left leg connects to her foot with a dodgy-looking lump, and her overbite should be much less rounded at the edge, but other than that it's my favourite so far. She looks nice and solid, and she's standing on a surface.

Couple of nitpicks: if this is Marge in businesswoman mode, I doubt she'd be wearing such a casual-looking outfit. Finally, her hair seems to be composed of two different styles – perhaps some of the same large bumps at the end of her hair would even things out a bit. (Alternatively, she could be approaching hair-straightening time again ;D).
You're right, the correct term for this would've been buisness casual and for the hair, I was frustrated at erasing, redrawing, and erasing, I just gave up before the paper was destroyed. :)  Anyway, here's some new stuff:

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Bart, age 22 and Lisa, age 20.
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Re: Uh, trying to be less horrible at drawing.

Post by Stretch_Dude » Sun Jan 04, 2009 10:50 pm

Hmm, nice. You're definitely improving, but there's still work to be done. The right side of Bart's collar (that'd be left from our POV) appears to be cutting into his torso, plus the lettering on his shirt is totally askew. His hair looks...sloppy. Not sloppy on his part (as if he didn't bother brushing it), but sloppy on your part, as if you just made it up as you were going. You may want to create a fixed design for his hair.

Lisa's whole head seems off. From a 3/4 view, the eye closest to us should be centered on her head ball, whereas you have it off to the right, with both eyes being a bit too small. (I usually use a template a little less than half the size of the head ball for the girls' eyes.) Her overbite is still too rounded. You're improving with the feet, but something about the peace sign hand looks weird to me.

You may also want to consider using circle templates for the outer edge of their ears.
I memorized "Holy Grail" really well
I can recite it right now and have you ROTFLOL
- "Weird Al" Yankovic, "White and Nerdy"

"Any pile of stunted growth unaware that entertainment is just that and nothing more, deserves to doom themselves to some dank cell, somewhere, for having been so stupid!! Movies, books, T.V., music - they're all just entertainment, not guidebooks for damning yourself!" - Nny

I draw too, dammit!
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Re: Uh, trying to be less horrible at drawing.

Post by J2 » Tue Jan 13, 2009 5:33 am

It's Lil'Maggie and Eric:

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Re: Uh, trying to be less horrible at drawing.

Post by Tyrannus » Tue Jan 13, 2009 3:16 pm

Something bothers me about Maggies forehead and Eric's brow bump but they're the only outstanding problems I can see and both are relatively minor flaws. Like a lot of your recent drawings, it possesses that nice solid feel and the lines are very clean making it very pleasant to the eyes.

I presume at the age of four Maggie still had a good relationship with Lisa.
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Re: Uh, trying to be less horrible at drawing.

Post by AssistantCrone » Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:40 pm

As Tyrannus said, good job making things look plump and solid. I particularly like Maggie's hands and feet.

Concrit: The portion of Maggie's head above her eyes is too tall, and her upper lip seems to be too rounded. Eric's left eye should be higher than his right, considering the angle of the head. His left hand looks like it has four fingers or an incorrectly-placed thumb, and I'm not sure about this but I think both heads are a little large for the bodies.

All in all, cute stuff. :maggie:
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Re: Uh, trying to be less horrible at drawing.

Post by J2 » Wed Jan 14, 2009 8:15 pm

Thanks, guys for the comments/critique.

I'm not sure if this is too terrible, but here's a pic that's might not be safe for work:

http://simpspin.deviantart.com/art/Bart ... -109407525
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Re: Uh, trying to be less horrible at drawing.

Post by Stretch_Dude » Wed Jan 14, 2009 11:59 pm

Where to start...

Well, firstly, Bart's head is too far to the left and has a neck the size of a Dixie cup. No wonder his trapezius is all bunched up like that. He doesn't have an outie, either. His whole body seems stiff and...wrong, somehow. Kinda squashed, I guess. Something very wrong with his left arm, too. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be able to see the bottoms of his feet from this angle, either. At the very least, they shouldn't look like he's wearing too-small sandals.

What is that mess on Gina's head, exactly? I'm no master at drawing hair myself, but I'm quite certain it doesn't behave like that. Cleavage does not go up that high. And her forearm and hand are much thicker than her upper arm.
I memorized "Holy Grail" really well
I can recite it right now and have you ROTFLOL
- "Weird Al" Yankovic, "White and Nerdy"

"Any pile of stunted growth unaware that entertainment is just that and nothing more, deserves to doom themselves to some dank cell, somewhere, for having been so stupid!! Movies, books, T.V., music - they're all just entertainment, not guidebooks for damning yourself!" - Nny

I draw too, dammit!
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