Welcome to Gaia! ::

Oooh he looks interesting! Nice scene :3 and thanks for sharing!

I am struggling on finishing up the piece I began with OOC... LOL... its getting a repaint. I'll post it when its not like a huge effing mess.

I might need more help with the anatomy/posture and some compositional/lighting help too...

urgh.. im actually going to ask for help on these.. as they are for myself and i was really wanting to work real hard on something really pretty for myself of my own characters.



i dunno the upper half doesn't bother me so much, but when it comes to the legs *head desk* i dunno, just nothing i doodle in looks good enough to start really putting effort into. that and her body armour (chest piece) annoys me. because the lower bodies were giving me so much trouble, i was almost tempted to cut the drawing off at where her hair (is going to be) swirling about.



and this one.. i despise both hands.. one looks too small, and the other.. good god its hideous... as per animal anatomy... humans is hard enough - does it even look reptilian? should i just get rid of the lizard entirely? (it was supposed to be a small dragon)

alright.. ladies and gents, shred it apart and help me piece them back together correctly mad

Jitsu - Wow those are fantastic, I like your stylization of the faces and the design elements, lemme take a look at one at a time.

1 - That is a tough position you began, and the top definitely looks nice and natural. I will be guessing anatomy wise here without breaking out photoshop, but I think you will want to bring forward her lower half, make it pressing against him. Imagine you are in that pose, you will likely be pressed against the other person even with the top part a little farther back.

edit - I did get the redline out, I think the lower half needs to bend in more, her back in specific, and be semi pressed into him at the upper thigh/hip.

2 - The second one, looks really great... I think you are moving in the right direction with the hands. I think its perfectly ok to finish what you feel like finishing and design away, prettify it however you like in order to accomplish that. I remember once removing a rockface out of a pic because it was just beyond me and I wanted the piece to look nice...

Anyway, I would suggest, so you don't rub the paper too much more and ruin your lovely designs, would be to trace the hands onto another page and practice it a few times. Take a look at your own hands and really think about where the fingers would be.

Dragons are fun, man I love dragons... I think it looks quite reptilian enough in my opinion. I used to draw dragons a lot and there are so many different ways to do it.

One thing I heard someone say that was helpful when drawing dragons was to try to choose some animal to base their bodies off of. I think I go with horse... but even so I really struggle with anything more than a basic dragon profile. I am working on some now actually, heehee!



-----------------

Croon - no crit needed, its lovely! :3 So cute!

On crits, in case anyone *does* want them. I actually do not crit except in specific cases, hehe... I prefer to encourage, because it is usually (not always, some people *are* motivated by crits or helpful comments, I myself can be moved to fix things like a maniac after a comment, which is why I try hard to put the pen down when I am done with something) the best motivator, and motivation > feedback, imo.

But if you wish, here are a couple of criteria, of course, directly asking for one will definitely get a reply as best as I can.

1) A finished piece where someone specifically asks to be critted. By finished I mean, refined.

2) You need help with the piece, struggling to complete it or otherwise.

3) You would like a pair of eyes before finalizing the piece, for major detractors.

I'm not very good with crits either. XDDD

Jitsu - I always love your Mucha influence. *__* And your pencil work is so pretty!

Croon - Awww, adorable! XD <3

Kim - Omfg cuuuuuuuuuute. ^O^ I especially love those little dragons! :0

Jitsu - I totally ruined a personal piece by having lots of problems with the perspective... I keep meaning to redraw it for myself, its so sad because one half of the piece turned out good.

I did a vague redline if you want to view it/have it PM'd, but if it will hamper you, I will keep it to myself!

Thanks for the color ideas! Gem scales sounds pretty! I don't know if I can pull it off but I will give it a whirl.

Carty - Thanks! I am actually going to be offering them, LOL. In my dalkania shop.... for fun, mostly just so I can have a dragon section. It bugs me how they are a tad different stylistically but I've messed with it for a bit and I am moving on.

------
Crits - I am actually totally fine with them, but it took a while. I always remember my first mean one XD. Some of them really helped me to force myself to try certain things and work hard developing skills (like this one artist told me something looked like cardboard and I was like, omg it does! And worked hard to fix it - failed, but learned a lot)... but not everyone is that way and there is nothing wrong with it!

Best environment I ever had for crits was by trying to submit to epilogue and then bringing the failed piece to the WIP area. Really great community they used to have, very very few elitists - and being declined really helps with the accepting and trying to improve.

The redline is thick and fuzzy, so hopefully it won't hamper your artistic inclination (redlines never bother me but I know some artists do not like their work redlined) and still illustrate whatever I was trying to say in words. XD

http://dalkania.com/gallery/redline.jpg

I will definitely post those guys when they are done. I am switching between three pieces at the moment LOL... haven't worked on the splash image for like a bit over a week now though.

For dragons, we go with a home brew system which is sort of weird. But it allows us to make whatever kinda draggie we want. I was thinking of making the dragons based off of the RP world and those characters but I will probably go with what looks best instead.

My favorite types of ours are crystal/gem based, like fire agate or opalite. I dislike wearing jewelry too XD

Is that avi art or an OC?! I love the clothes.