Two drawings of my imaginary friend

[MarVelo]

OK OK

SOOOO>>> ..... I like the second one. Nice use of crayon technique. But most people with red hair have like whitish blonde eyebrows.

[Squinky]

My opinion on improving your art:

You need to find out a style that you like and think you can do to some degree, get a book or find an online tutorial about it and start practicing the basics, drawing a skeleton or frame when drawing people. If you really want to improve you can, just gotta want to.

[ildu]

Sorry, andail, but I gotta say this.

What is she doing in the first pic? She seems to be doing some martial arts or something... But cant really make out whats behind her

After the yeast infection joke, I thought I had gotten all the laughs out of this thread that I could get, but boy was I wrong. After reading this comment, I went back to see the image and I just burst into laughter and tears. How could you not see the bed?! Seriously, that was the best internet laughing session this year.

And about the images. Well...they look pretty juvenile. You should really look into some proportional drawing.

[PsychicHeart]

We had our fun, let's not sink too low now, ok?

oh please, i've had a flame-war on pretty much the whole AGS community... pfff...
amatuer 

[Andail]

Flukeblake, just to clarify; flame-wars are tiresome, pointless and everybody will be annoyed with you and wish you were somewhere else.

[esper]

Please.... I... can't..... Andail.... said.... no....

Okay, fine. Notice that she's reaching out the the left side of the bed.... which is conveniently cut out of the picture...

I've got to agree with everyone else. The art lacks anything that might allow it to be looked at as anything but a child's drawing. I'm supposing this was not done by you recently,, and if that is so, I wonder why you would post it in C&C...

Spoiler

especially when it's kind of... personal...

[close]

[Helm]

Here is my critique:

Try to not draw things as the symbols you have in your head. Actually study reality. Sit down and try to draw a human face as it is, not as you imagine it to be' Don't go 'eye, eye, nose, mouth, it's a face!' Stop thinking of symbols and try to interpret reality pretty much as realistically as you can, for many years. Many, many years.

[TheYak]

Recently?  The initial post states that it was done "today". 

As far as specific suggestions, it would seem you have difficulty representing 3D shapes and their corresponding perspectives.  One example of this is the deer's snout. Since a basic snout would be that of a tapered cylinder (cone with the tip trimmed off), see if you can sketch a representation of this and then make stronger lines for definition, erasing the portions that don't contribute to the shape and pencilling those that make it look snout-like. 

The poses are forced, but show enough variation to communicate what you wanted to.  What might help would be drafting basic stick-figures for angle placement and then sketching in basic shapes to find the appropriate sizes, lengths, and proportions. 

I would suggest not committing yourself to creating a finished product on the first try.  Sketch in a draft with light pencil strokes, and use stronger strokes for finished lines, correcting sizes and shapes as you go.  Even if it only comes closer to properly resemble a human face, it's still worked as a learning tool and definition will come with practice.  One thing I've liked to do when learning was to sketch out everything in pencil and then use ink to solidify the best lines.  That way, I can erase the pencil leaving just the finished product. 

Really, there are loads of tutorials linked in the sticky threads that would help.  There's not a single person here with admirable art that hasn't started from the basics and continued with lots of practice.  For me, I need to heed my own advice and do more basic anatomy studying so I can draw people properly.

Expanding upon what Helm just posted (sneaky bastard), one good exercise for faces is to try and minimalize them.  Don't kill yourself trying to add each and every detail and freckle.  See if you can make an oblong shape and give it personality.  Grab a diagram of facial proportions and practice placing features in their proper positions as well as seeing how much difference you can convey with slight variations.  If you do a face feature-by-feature, it'll end up looking skewed and amateurish, often with eyes misaligned or a nose not matching the face. 

[vict0r]

...I went back to see the image and I just burst into laughter and tears. How could you not see the bed?!

Well... As i look closer, i see the bed, but i couldnt understand why she was doing martial arts in bed! Also... Imho the hair kinda indicates that she is standing!


And i rock at pictionary!

[Gord10]

OK, I will do what you adviced me. Looks I need some working with drawing the human anatomy and I should read the tutorials.

I'm supposing this was not done by you recently,, and if that is so, I wonder why you would post it in C&C...

Spoiler

especially when it's kind of... personal...

[close]

I made it recently (just a few days ago); the reason I posted in CL was both getting advices and sharing what I have imagined. 

[offtopic]
And somehow I sensed that the people thinks it is funny that I've an imaginary friend (I hope I'm wrong). I didn't want to reply to the posts at first; but now I feel like I should... (and this will be a sad reply)

The reality isn't much better than your imagination; furthermore if you are someone lonely anyway. If the people around you -including your parents- always have expections that you can't manage, and they blame on you even if you do your best; then you want to move aside your inner universe. I still can't forget how my mum insulted me as "Dog" when I got a low mark on a school exam (and I swear, it wasn't such a low mark according on the class average, it was such a hard exam). And all my classmates were angry with me as I was complainant for a <insert_swearword_here> as he was always disturbing me. Lots of things made me alienate from my environment, and I created my own world (which includes Lost In The Nightmare).
And yes, we DO EVERYTHING with Melona, and I feel never bad for having a imaginary friend. Because any girl will not make me happy as her. I know this.
[/offtopic]

(Wow, I didn't realize how long I have written But guess I needed this.)

[Nikolas]

I can sincerly understand your off-topic (not so much in my opinion) story.

The thing is that the drawings do not correspond with your age (considering that indeed you are 17 years old).

Lonliness can be hard. And everyone must find a way to deal with it.

I foudn my weay by writting music, and poems, and drawing (maybe), and generally by creating. You have Melona and your games... Why not... ASince you know that it's just an imaginery friend, then I find this sincere and healthy, actually. About your grade,s the first time I tried to enter the univeristy I failed. The second time I entered to the Physics department. And I quit! and started studying music, seriously. So wtf, do the parents now?

Since you have a computer, I would suggest trying to start learning things about the human anatomy (and start browsing lot's and lot's of sites with different issues, if you want to do something lese than humans only...). I hear that poser can work for human drawing pretty well... Maybe try this and start copying with your hand.

Save some money and buy a tablet.

[big brother]

Wow, thanks for sharing. When I first saw this, I honestly thought it was a joke (the imaginary friend bit). Out of curiousity, when you say "we DO EVERYTHING with Melona", who is "we?" (Hmm...collective imaginations) On the bright side, if she ever stops making you happy or leaves you, you could always invent someone else to make her jealous.

There's a tv show on Cartoon Network, "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" that's actually pretty entertaining. It's amazing what people on drugs can make!

I have to agree with Helm on this. Draw from real life, lots. Don't try to iconify or simplify anything yet. As far as a tablet goes, the tools are only as good as the artist. You can build a good foundation with a mere pencil and a piece of printer paper. Or a lump of charcoal and a cardboard flap from a box. Or a welding torch and a few scraps of corrugated tin.

[Gord10]

Thanks, it made me feel better
Actually I don't think I need a tablet; I feel quite comfortable with hand drawing, and then scanning them to the PC (although I had to use my digital camera as I don't have scanner).
And guess the thread is getting too much off-topic; I will draw some more pictures.

[PsychicHeart]

Flukeblake, just to clarify; flame-wars are tiresome, pointless and everybody will be annoyed with you and wish you were somewhere else.

you don't really understand the meaning of the term "harmless joke" do you?
Here, i'll clarify it for you from a dictionary:
"something that you say or do to make people laugh, such as a funny story"

[IM NOT TEH SPAM]

Hell, i got myself a good chuckle out of some flamewars in the past...

[Kinoko]

That yeast joke just about made me relieve myself.

Everyone's actual advice has been good though. I'd suggest further, don't colour things yet (of course, do what you like for pictures to simply make you happy but as far as trying to improve your artistic skills goes...). Learn about anatomy, use wire frames, sketch ALL the time (carry a notebook with you everywhere and just sketch -anything-. It doesn't matter if it's half a face, or an eye, or a line). You'll slowly improve and develop a natural sense (as much as a natural sense can be developed) for the way things should look.

Once you think you've really improved yourself, start colouring again and you'll see HUGE improvements on what you can do at this stage.