Welcome to Gaia! ::

So this is my Mentee thread. You can call me Sam. I'm 16 and I've never had any proffessional teachings of any sort. My style is heavily anime influenced, but i've spent the last year trying to stamp it out of my art.

My current goal is to learn how to draw realism. The following pictures are from last year and will have the media used and comments below them.


This is a picture of a roleplay character I came up with a few months back. She is a genie, she is from greece and her name is Nyx. She was named after the greek goddess of night, because she is an insomniac. She was trapped in a conch shell, and left at the bottom of the ocean for a loooong time. Her clothes are greek styled, or as best as I could do from the top of my head.

Used assorted colored pencils and a normal pencil to do this.


This one was a present for a random person I found giving out free art.

Done with a normal pencil, lined and colored in photoshoped.


This one is a character from a comic I started about a month ago. She is based off of the World of warcraft video game. Her name is shadeblossom and she is a night elf child.

Drawn with a normal pencil, then lined in photoshop.


This is a personal favorite of mine. Done early last year, this is a picture of my beloved character, Patch. She is a pirate, a seasoned one at that, and I drew her for the sake of a roleplay I got into around the first time I joined Gaia. Her leg is off, and I could have done better on her hands, but I still love this picture.

Used a normal pencil


This one I gave to my friend as a gift and consists of three parts. It's his character Ivy, and the first part I did off the top of my head. The second I did with reference. and finally, the last I lined and colored. The friend I gave it to said my faces are off, and the coloring could use some work. it was my very first shot at shading, and the colors were murder.

Used a pencil, lined and colored in photoshop.



So this is a picture fo my baby brother max. He's not really baby like anymore, he just hit his first growth spurt, and I give it another year before the b*****d is taller than me. He got the italian nose from my dads side, and i think thats the only thing I got entirly right. I am however proud of this picture. My first shot at a portrait, took me about 30 minutes.

Used a normal pencil.

So, I guess I'll post more after I go through things a bit. Please please please offer constructive critique. It's more important than encouragment.

First off, thank you for being my first helpful critic. Like ever.

I'll try and explain myself on some of the specific aspects of the picture. Hands are a terrible thing, and most of these pictures are from before I started learning how to draw hands more. The cat-ish girl's hand actually has the thumb tucked into her belt, and the rigidness of her posture doesn't really credit it. Her hands are a bit too long, but again I'm still trying to get the hang of hands. Her hands are actually claws. They're supposed to be like that, but again thats no comfort because I don't know how to make actual claws look like actual claws.

I am terrible at textures. Terrible. I tried so hard to work out textureing on the tail, and my friend said it look like I tried to make her one of those nine tailed fox thingy's. I can agree it's no good, but I personally don't think it's like more than one bushy, tangled tail.

That is the first piece I ever shaded. Ever. and I also am a noob at photoshop on top of it, and I thank you so much for including a tutorial in your post. I love you for it whee

I've been trying to change my faces but I've been doing the exact same thing for years, so it's hard to stamp out, but thank you for confirming my suspicions.

The ears I debated with myself about, and after 4-5 failed attempts at changeing it, I let it be. I'm not good at ears, another thing I intend to work on. I've just barely got the concept of normal ears down.

Thank you thank you for your helpful critique. As I said, I've never gotten a helpful critique before. whee