Sunflora's Art

[Sunflorazumarill]

Okay. I may be new to thse forums, but I have joined a good number of them in the past. I'm going to bring to you pics that I've made of various female Pokémon Trainers. (It's kind of my deal.) Some of these pics were redone over time and my skills got better and better over time as well, so if they don't seem too good at first, don't worry. They'll get better. I have a lot to show you, but I plan on posting only 4 a day. Now let's get this started.

For my first pic, it's one of Tracey and Melody lying down on the grass looking at clouds. Nothing more to say about this. Here it is:

My second pic is for all you Misty fans out there. I have here a pic I made of Misty dressed in her mermaid outfit surrounded by all her favorite Water Pokémon. I hope you like it. Here it is:

My third pic happens to be one of the Hoenn Elite Four. Which one? Phoebe, out unsually dressed Ghost Trainer. Here she is:

My fourht pic is of someone else from Hoenn. Our new but fiery Gym Leader from Lavaridge Town, Flannery! This won't be the first Flannery pic you'll see from me however! Here's Flannery #1:

Comments are appreciated here. I'll be posting 4 more pics tomorrow. I'd like to hear what you think of each of them.

 

[Kadabra]

Sorry for sounding so harsh, but... I've shown these to some guys who're quite good artists, and their comments basically said that if you're 12 or under, you should try harder. If you're over 12, art is probably not for you. :s

 

[Pacific Pikachu]

Generally, I like the solidity of your coloring and the choices of color you used. It looks like you took a lot of time on the coloring, and that in itself looks clean and nice. Also, the variety of characters is great. I think this is the first fanart I've seen of Phoebe, and it's nice to see a Flannery fanart, as well.

However, I do believe you should definitely do some studying on human anatomy before you do further drawings. You have a start here, but you need to work on the fluidity of your lines and the general body structure. I think one of the best things you could do is purchase an art book that goes over the basics of human anatomy, or find a good tutorial online that goes over these sorts of things.

I think, in part, the problem is that you're using too many straight lines. This is particularly problematic in the arm area (the arms in general could use work), but it pops up a lot. Humans are curvy animals. Straight lines do not fit them. Also, the lack of such vital things as shoulders and chins is a little troubling.

Basically, my advice is that you have some nice ideas and intentions, but I think you should make a conscious effort to study up on human anatomy and how it works. Don't be ashamed to trace or copy anime (or realistic) pictures for a little while while you get used to the anatomy--the more used to it you become, the less reliant you'll be on source pictures.

Good luck with further drawings! I'm sure that if you try, you'll improve over time. Everyone needs some work in one area or another. If you need some good tutorials or advice on what you need to work on most, I'd be happy to give it to you. You may PM or e-mail me any time you want.

 

[Sunflorazumarill]

Actually, that's just about an eighth of the pics I'm showing here. Yes, even to me those tend to pale in comparison to my more recent ones, including the ones I'm posting now. These first two pics go together as they depict one Shipping couple I like; Whillimena x Trixie. Well, here it is:

This next pic is one of my favorite Gym Leaders; Cissy. As you should know, she's from the Orange Islands. Also, you'll notice in this pic that she's dressed up for hula dancing. Here's the pic:

My last pic for the day is one of Misty's sisters, dressed up for a performance. They may look scantly clad, but that's the way I intended this pic to be. Here's Daisy, Violet, and Lily:

I know some of these pics don't look to good, but that's because these were my first. How my pics look tends to improve later on. Eventually, I hope they look even better for you.

 

[Kadabra]

Commenting on your current drawings would be a waste of time, so I'm going to give more general advice instead.

Pacific Pikachu said what I would have, only in a much more friendly manner. To be honest, your current drawings... require much improvement (they suck). Spend more time doing pencil sketches and less time playing with colour markers, or whatever it is that you're using. Because you seem determined...... I'll give you this:
http://www.bakaneko.com/howto/main.htm
It's one of the nicest tutorial sites, in my opinion. Search the net for more stuff, if you wish. What I also suggest you do is find some kind of an action figure that you can pose as the character you want to draw. It'll help you with ensuring that your character will have correct proportions.
How old are you?

 

[Sunflorazumarill]

I get what you mean by your remarks, but I'll still post my pics here. You'll see that eventually my pics will tend to look very good. I'll just keep posting them here as I have a few more to show you. For this pic, It's one of my "Shippy" pics, depicting Brock and Erika at the beach. Nothing else to say, here it is:

Now this pic is just someone I thought up on my own. I've given her the name Rachel, standing in a grassy area. Here she is:

Now I decided to do another pic of Trixie, this time by herself. She has a Spheal with her, however, and she having it practice tricks. I'm just going to go ahead and post it. Here she is:

For my last pic in this post, it's another "Shippy" pic of Cissy and Danny together. Here they are:

You may think my drawings right now don't look good, but I've done maybe 30 pics already and my most recent ones look much better than these. When I get to those pics, I hope there's a good response for them.

 

[Purple Kecleon]

@_@ I really, really don't know where to start. It seems like what you need to do is practice a lot, but if you're not guided in the right direction I can almost guarantee you won't make much progress at all. I've seen some people who have the same style and KEPT the same style for YEARS and it WAS NOT GOOD AT ALL. I'm not saying these aren't good, you're... sort of on the right track... but you can't make everything all symmetrical and with lines and such. You really need to learn how to draw bodies that have curves and how to do positions OTHER than head-on (like in EVERY SINGLE PICTURE YOU HAVE POSTED)... I suggest you seriously look at the tutorial that Kadabra posted the link to, I checked it out and it is DEFINITELY something that would benefit you greatly. You won't get anywhere if you can't learn to do new, interesting positions, different angles. You may want to look at other anime stuff for references for drawing people, as for the Pokemon anime style, if you START with that, your stuff is often... erm... not... you make less progress, it seems like. I mean, I've seen a lot of people whose art looks just like yours, who started basing their pictures off of Pokemon people. I hope what I'm saying is making sense... If you must, use the Official Artwork of people rather than the anime pictures, because Sugimori's style is more of an ideal choice to me, and a good place to start if you wish to draw people like this.

Now, take a moment and look at your people. Do you see how the legs are all thin, NO variety whatsoever? This has to be fixed. No one looks like that! Not even in anime/manga! There are limits, you've breached them. I really suggest you study people and their shapes before continuing, and PLEASE try some different positions or angles-- you won't get anywhere in art if you don't.

As far as backgrounds, I'd... um... start trying to use curves. All of yours have TONS of straight lines that look like you used a ruler to obtain. This is not good. It's pictures like these that make art teachers NOT want to let kids draw in animeish styles in middle/highschool, I'm quite sure. Nothing against you or your art, it's just a lot of people go about learning it the wrong way, in my opinion.

In conclusion, I'd continue if you're willing to try hard to improve. If not, you'll never have very good art at all. I'm very much so interested in seeing the progress you make if you decide to continue ^_^

 

[Pacific Pikachu]

As PK here was saying (and I was saying earlier), you really should seek out any anatomical help you can. Find a picture (perferably a photograph or another sure-shot anatomically) you like, and begin to do some measurements. For instance, except in the cases of some children and/or chibi characters, shoulders should measure about twice the width of a person's head. Those types of "rules" are the things you really need work on. Your proportions are definitely not up to par, and, in fact, I don't think you even really are near where you should be with how many drawings you've done.

This is, in my opinion, a case of someone who needs to go back and learn the basics in order to improve. This is going to sound tough, but try to forget what you think you've learned already, and start from scratch. Try to learn to draw as if you were learning all over again. Try to think of things from different perspectives, work with different styles, and use lots of references. Hunt down all the tutorials you can and practice by hand what they teach you. Do this repetitively, until you feel confident that you can copy what the tutorials teach you with a certain level of competency.

Like PK was saying, if you want to become a real artist, you're going to have to work. A lot. Don't think your art is just going to get better overnight, and without daring yourself to do things you didn't do before. You're going to have to challenge yourself and work in different ways than you're used to, and it might make you uncomfortable sometimes, but you will get better if you return to the basics and learn what makes a good drawing of a person.

You especially need help with poses. I'm sorry to say this, but your sitting people are just...not right at all. Don't be afraid to watch people for references. I know I watch people all the time--I just watch how their bodies move, what some rules of proportion are, I watch how their clothes wrinkle when they're in certain positions. Sounds creepy, I know, but I think you direly need it. Drawing is, in my opinion, almost entirely a mental art. You have to learn to capture, in your mind, a certain set of proportions, colors, and just the way things are in order for your artwork to improve.

Train your mind to capture nuances and relationships between things. You're going to have to work on it a lot, but if a good artist is really what you want to be, then I'm all behind you. Like I said, if you want any help or specific suggestions, just ask.

 

[Kthleen]

Uh, people, Sunflorazumarill said that (she? he?) has become better, and that they're just posting older pictures and moving to more recent ones: "Some of these pics were redone over time and my skills got better and better over time as well, so if they don't seem too good at first, don't worry. They'll get better." I don't know Sunflorazumarill's current level of skill, but according them, they're better. However, if their style were (or is) still like this, then I must agree with what has been said.

 

[Purple Kecleon]

It just seems that from what (he? she?) has shown us, with all of those pictures being very, very similar in style, that to me, I don't think the new, "better" ones will infact be all that much better, but I'm waiting in hope that when Sunflorazumarill posts them they're better in at least some way. If there are still no curves, then I'm going to stick with what I said above (and point to what else was said by others).

 

[MondoTR]

If you're 12 or under, you should try harder. If you're over 12, art is probably not for you.

Age has nothing to do with skill.

Anyways, I think the drawings are nice but the arms and stuff are a bit messed up.

 

[Sunflorazumarill]

Okay. I'm going to show 4 more pics today. This next pic is one of Liza (I'll admit that I made her a little too wide.) Out in the scenery you should be able to make out her Charizard. Nothing more to say, here she is:

For this pic, It's another one of my fan characters. I've given her the name Milane. Aside from the fact that she's standing in a grassy field, I don't have anything else to say for this pic. Here's the pic:

These next two pics go together. They're of the Kimono Sisters (other than Sakura). If you notice, yes, they're dressed as hula dancers. If you're wondering why, it's for a fic I'm writing and might be posting here. Well, there's nothing more to say here. Let's show the pic:

A lot of these pics by the way are over a year old. Also, I might go back and redo a couple of my favorites. (Did you know that the current Misty Mermaid and Misty's Sisters pics that I've posted are my third drafts (or second remakes) of them.

 

[Purple Kecleon]

o_o Could you post the new stuff? I'm not too sure many people are interested in seeing the old stuff, because it does need a lot of improvement. If a lot of these are over a year old, and you claim you can do better now, wouldn't you like to show us?

 

[Kasumi]

I definitely agree with PK here. It would have been better if you posted your newest stuff in the first place.

 

[Sunflorazumarill]

Okay. I'll go straight to my 3 most recent pics. For the first of these pics, it's one of May on the beach with her Pokémon. Nothing more to say but that she's waving hi to us. Here's May:

Now I've also done another Flannery pic. As you might already notice, her pants sometime become loose and this is one of those "sometimes". I refer to this pic as "Low-Riding Flannery". I also put in a neat slogan to go with the pic. Well, I guess here's Flannery:

Move over, Misty! Looks like there's a new mermaid (well, someone dressed as one) here! Yep, Erika dressed as a mermaid! I couldn't help myself! I also put Brock dressed as a prince in there as well! However, since none of Erika's Grass Pokémon can't usually be underwater, they're not included here, but I did throw in some Luvdisc in. This happens to be a pic I'm very proud of. She happens to look so pretty as a mermaid. Maybe she could give Misty and her sisters some competition. Well, here's Mermaid Erika:

 

[Kadabra]

x.x;; I'm afraid that these suffer from the same problems as your earlier ones. Like those two have said, scrap this style! If you are willing to do this, and are willing to work hard, here's another excellent tutorial site for you: http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/index.htm

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kadabra
If you're 12 or under, you should try harder. If you're over 12, art is probably not for you.

Age has nothing to do with skill.

Anyways, I think the drawings are nice but the arms and stuff are a bit messed up.

OH? And what exactly do _you_ know about this subject? Judging by your comment, I'd say that you know next to nothing. You shouldn't debate with the pros.

 

[Hyatt]

Polycarbon may be good for some but if you REALLY want to pwn with your art, go to mangatutorials.com. They have the most intense, amazing tutorials I've ever seen in my entire life. You will NOT be sorry.

 

[Kadabra]

Hmm, that site's not bad at all... *_*

 

[Nillatale]

ok....to be honest

I am a professional comic desighner and to let you know, not to be mean...but the legs are way to long. the arms should reach the knees, and the eyes should be in the length of the ears. I don't lie. If you would take a couple of my tips, make the legs thicker... You could be an OK artist.

 

[Te-em]