apenpaap Draws Pokémon

[apenpaap]

My latest drawing:

I've never really seriously tried drawing anything on a computer before, but I decided to start drawing some pokémon to see how it goes. Since I'm new at this, some tips and constructive criticism would be highly appreciated.

Bulbasaur:

Ivysaur:

 

[Shade]

Re: A Newbie Draws Pokémon

Did you draw these with a mouse? Your use of shading is great. That is what stood out to me the most. I used to draw with a mouse but I picked up a Wacom Intuos4 USB tablet and was almost immediately surprised with how smooth my lines were. It took a little while to get used to, but I wouldn't draw with anything else.

Everything seems very well proportioned, too. I bet you do quite a bit of drawing on paper. This was not done by someone who hasn't drawn before!

What software are you using? Gimp is free, and has a lot more drawing tools than MS Paint. I also like Anime Studio as a fun (and relatively cheap!) alternative to Illustrator. AS/Illustrator use vector points instead of pixels, so your drawings look much cleaner and can scale to any size.

 

[apenpaap]

Re: A Newbie Draws Pokémon

Did you draw these with a mouse? Your use of shading is great. That is what stood out to me the most. I used to draw with a mouse but I picked up a Wacom Intuos4 USB tablet and was almost immediately surprised with how smooth my lines were. It took a little while to get used to, but I wouldn't draw with anything else.

Everything seems very well proportioned, too. I bet you do quite a bit of drawing on paper. This was not done by someone who hasn't drawn before!

Thanks. I have indeed drawn on paper quite a lot, but not in the past few years. To make these, I am using GIMP (and a mouse). I have considered getting a USB tablet, but I'll see if I'm going to continue drawing first (I'm really bad at finishing these kinds of projects).
Here's Venusaur:

 

[Bubba Jo Hep]

these are good for doing it on the pc

 

[DRaB]

The lines are pretty shaky and the shape value is kinda messy. Even if you're drawing with the mouse, you can still zoom in and smooth things out. There are also a lot of rogue pixels that just never got colored in and a lot of coloring outside the lines on Ivysaur and Venusaur.

It's possible you colored outside the lines on purpose, attempting a common shading style, but it doesn't come off that way, due to the other errors.

Red Circle: These lines should not connect unless the face or arm is in front of the other, and at that point, the outline of the object in front should extend beyond the vertex (even if just by a little bit), to show that it is overlapping the object in back.

Orange Circles: The claws, usually, are sticking out the front of the paw. As such, they should be overlapping the front. You did this well on Venusaur's left paw (to our right on the image). If you do it more like that in the future, it will look a lot better.

Yellow Circle: Why does the arm come back in so far? Blbasaur's arm does round back in a little, but not nearly that much. It looks like Bulbasaur wouldn't be able to support itself. It makes me think he has a skinny arm with a big saggy fat deposit or something. It's funny how drastically one little line can change something like that.

Green Circles: These are the rogue pixel areas. I know you can zoom in with GIMP. They're rather distracting.

Cyan Circles: You have some problems with the overall shapes. Bulbasaur's head is a little caved in, and his arm got a little bit extra. It doesn't look very natural. The only way to remedy this is to use refernce and pay more attention to shape value.

Blue Circle: Same as the cyan circles. Not sure why I even did this in a different color, other than it's on the bulb. In any event, the bulb is aupposed to be round, like there's a round core inside of it, and then the leaves flap off at the top a bit. The shape you have is a bit more like the suction cup of a plunger. It's a great shape, but not the right one for this situation.

Magenta Circles: You have some shading errors. Personally, I would either use a hard edge for the shading like you did with the lines, or just use a soft edge for the lines, to keep it all uniform. But that's more a matter of personal prefernce. I know these are just extra little mistakes that you missed, but that's kind of my point--you need to pay more attention. Take more pride in your artwork.

Not circled: Look at Bulbasaur's ear. The one on his right (our left.) Look at how the lines around his head kind of dip down. That's wrong. Look lown at your Venusaur picture. Although the lines probably shouldn't extend all the way across, you have the right idea in that picture. You need to imply a round shape. That dip in the line at the top of Bulbasaur's head makes it look wrong.

I'm not going to critique your other drawings right now, but most of the same advice applies.

You show potential, and I like your color choices. Just pay more attention to the underlying shapes and you should improve a lot.

 

[apenpaap]

@DRaB: Thanks for the tips. Now that you mention it, that arm looks rather bizarre indeed. I kept your tips in mind while making Charmander trying to light up the Rock Tunnel:

 

[apenpaap]

Charmeleon wonders if he is really based on a salamander:

 

[apenpaap]

Here's Charizard flying over a volcano and some mountains:

I guess I'm not very good at drawing mountains.

 

[apenpaap]

Doesn't anyone have a comment about the Charmander line? If you didn't like them, feel free to point out why not, as that kind of thing will help me become better. If you did like them, feel free to compliment. I won't consider it a legally binding marriage proposal.
Well, here are Squirtle, Wartortle, and Blastoise fishing:

 

[Psidra]

I love the Charizard picture and the Squirtle family picture. They're really charming and have a nice atmosphere to them.

My advice is just to practice.

Have you seen Bulbagarden's Oekaki section? If you're interested in drawing Pokemon online, that would be the best place to do it IMO. (If you're already a member sorry I didn't recognize you.)

 

[apenpaap]

Caterpie and Weedle eating a leaf:

 

[apenpaap]

Butterfree flying over a forest:

Don't worry, I'm not forgetting poor Metapod. I was planning to have a couple of them hanging in the background from trees, but after I drew Butterfree I realized that the Metapod either had to be hanging at a 90 degree angle from the trees or Butterfree would be flying sideways, so I didn't do that. I'll just draw Metapod together with his buddy Kakuna:

 

[apenpaap]

I'm back from vacation to Switzerland, and now that I've actually seen mountains myself, I realize how poorly the mountains on my Charizard drawing look, so I've made a better background for it:

 

[raychuu]

I'm not very good at drawing, but there are some things I noticed:

-Metapod looks so artificial, standing against the tree like that. It should be holding itself like the Kakunas. Maybe you should make it be on the diagonal to use its curled tips to hold itself?

-Charizard's backlegs are too tiny. Charizard's anatomy is based loosely on the T-Rex. As you can see here, only their arms are short, the legs are sturdy and large.

-Also, Charizard's wings are made for flapping, and they aren't so long horizontally, they go more vertically. Here are two good references.

Well, that's all I got for now. Keep on drawing, practice makes perfect!

~ghaskan​

 

[Casual Cnidarian]

Hehe. I like these.

Shiny Kakuna.

 

[SaintJimmy]

All of those are really, really great.

I'd never be able to draw that good on a computer. XD
Your charizard was much better than my attempt at him.

 

[apenpaap]

I'm not very good at drawing, but there are some things I noticed:

-Metapod looks so artificial, standing against the tree like that. It should be holding itself like the Kakunas. Maybe you should make it be on the diagonal to use its curled tips to hold itself?

-Charizard's backlegs are too tiny. Charizard's anatomy is based loosely on the T-Rex. As you can see here, only their arms are short, the legs are sturdy and large.

-Also, Charizard's wings are made for flapping, and they aren't so long horizontally, they go more vertically. Here are two good references.

Well, that's all I got for now. Keep on drawing, practice makes perfect!

~ghaskan​

Metapod is supposed to be hanging from the tree on a string farther to the front then the trees and Kakunas, but it seems the string disappeared when I coloured the tree.
Charizard's backlegs are mostly behind his body from this angle. It's mainly his thighs that are big. You're right about his wings, though.

Hehe. I like these.

Shiny Kakuna.

All of those are really, really great.

I'd never be able to draw that good on a computer. XD
Your charizard was much better than my attempt at him.

Thanks.

A new trainer just caught his very first pokémon:

 

[apenpaap]

Falkner flying on his Pidgeotto:

When I get to a pokémon that a notable trainer (Gym Leader, protagonist, rival, etc) has as their signature pokémon, I'll draw the trainer along with the pokémon. Falkner happens to be the first in pokédex order.

 

[Casual Cnidarian]

I love how you do the landscape.

 

[apenpaap]

I bought a Wacom Bamboo USB tablet, and with it, I drew a Pidgeot who just caught a top-percentage meal: