Art Critique - Blog Posts

Here's another Nightwing, I actually drew this one before the other one I posted, but I don't really like this one, I think something about how I colored the skin is funky. Any suggestions?

someone tell me what needs to be changed before i get too into this

Making a new oc

This is just a quick sketch

Doe anyone have name ideas and ideas for design while keeping the trashy aesthetic in mind? Plss tell me 🤗🌟

Back with Chapter 7! How are we feeling about the balance between povs's and flashbacks? Trying to balance the emotional integrity of the scenes and worldbuilding can be difficult.

The aftermath of the surprise siege is upon them, May and her men needing to prepare for what comes next.

tw: mentions of death, bodily horror and harm, murder, war, blood

Ch. 7

It took what remained of May’s men another hour to clear the courtyard of all attackers, and another few hours after that to properly barricade the main square of the small town surrounding the manor. There was a line of destruction straight through the middle of the once beautiful yard, showing where the other troops had marched through to get to the Manor—to Oryn.

Scouts were sent out into town to assess the damage and bring as many townsmen into the barricade as they could. Although most men of the duchy were already wielding weapons under May’s command, any that couldn’t still find themselves wanting to serve her in any way that they could. The entire population was loyal to May’s blood, not a single one of them turning down the chance to defend their homes when asked.

As May paced back and forth in front of the main gate to the courtyard and watched her men scurrying back and forth to make sure everything was set before they were attacked again—which they most definitely would be considering the slaughter wrought today. The only thought raging through her pained head about Oryn and their safety and whether or not this attack could potentially have anything to do with them.

It’s obvious, she thought. They wouldn’t have gotten into the attic… they were tracking him, listening to me. This had everything to do with Oryn.

Demetrius came limping towards her, still a hulking form despite his burns and other miscellaneous injuries.

“The barricade is sufficiently guarded and secure, my Lady. Scouts are being directed to their designated areas as we speak,” he said through a hoarse throat, hacking up a glob of ash-stained phlegm, the bit of blood staining the dirt beneath them.

May shook her head, worry plaguing her. “I can’t afford to lose my Chief General, Demetrius. You need medical attention. Go,” she commanded, looking him up and down with scrutiny.

He held her gaze longer than usual; he never liked letting her know how much pressure he held. And yet, just this once, he let his eyes meet hers.

May shuffled where she stood, crossing her arms. “That wasn’t you, was it?”

“No,” he only let the shock play on his face for a moment. “But that wasn’t you, either, I surmise.”

Word travels fast. It’d been a half a day since May had skewered one of her own men, the blood that served her own staining her blade. How many know? Does he? It was a question that had never crossed her mind before: how much would it take for her men to betray her?

Demetrius towered over her, and yet his presence was that of a scared child. “Do you think it was him?” he murmured.

May took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment. “I do. But I don’t think he knows.”

Demetrius shook his head. “How can he not know?”

A small group of scouts was seen scurrying through the growing crowds, the townsfolk clearing the way with loud shouts and demands of clearing the way.

~

Maureen paced the length of the cabin, her long hair flowing softly behind her in a graceful waft. Elisa sat upon the cushioned stool with her back as straight as a board, following Maureen back and forth. Starla was merely prepping the afternoon tea, humming a soft song to herself.

Oryn sat beside Starla on the soft wooden counter. It always smelled so lovely when Starla was the one to make the tea. Oryn could never figure out what made hers different from the other two; it just tasted better.

They could all but see the haze of tension cascading over the room. It was terrifying in a way that made their hair stand on end. Oryn couldn’t think of a time when any of them ever expressed so much fear before. Well, once. But that was another matter entirely, nothing like this.

“When he arrives,” Maureen mumbled, “we need to have a plan. We need to be ready to strike before he decides to do anything drastic and—”

“He won’t,” Elisa interrupted. She slowly stood up, stretching her neck and back. “It won’t come to that. However, I do think a plan needs to be set, just in case.” Her hard eyes met Maureen’s, something unspoken being shared between them.

Oryn all but jumped in their seat as Starla stopped her humming and spoke up. “You’re both so cynical,” she chided, sighed as she grabbed a few mugs from the cupboard. “He’s the one that left him with us. If anything, he’s the only other living thing on the face of this good land that shares our goals.” She started to set the small table with their finest placemats.

“But what if—”

“You shouldn’t expect—”

Starla shot them both a glance, the fire roaring in the mantle behind Maureen dulling under her gaze. “We are more than capable of handling ourselves. How much do you think the poor old man truly knows of us? Of our capabilities? Whatever you assume of him, stop. He’ll be here sooner rather than later and the last thing I want is for him to feel as if he’s unwelcome. We need to discuss what comes next. And Oryn,” she said, turning to them. “Don’t ask too many questions. In fact, ask none at all.”

It was rare of Starla—of the three of them—to set her boundaries with such brute force, letting her powerful senses overtake her and express themselves. They decided to listen.

She continued to set the table and arrange the baked goods and tea, letting Oryn have a small taste of the honey and sugar. As Maureen and Elisa sat down at the table to wait, their gazes towards one another never broke. The air was electric with their fear.

There was a knock at the door.

The forest was silent with anticipation.

Maureen and Elisa stood from their seats. Starla opened the door.

The man who stood there was old and frail, the white wisps of hair on his head matching the scraggly beard flowing down his chests. The gray robes were modest and seemingly understated for someone of his status.

“Hello, High Councilor,” Starla said, smiling with pride and bowing just slightly to show her respect.

“Please,” Jonas said, “No need for such formalities.” As he returned her smile, Oryn saw a heaviness in his eyes. He reached an arm around Starla’s shoulder, Starla leaning in and hugging him.

“It’s good to see you. You look well,” he said, pulling away to take a look at her.

Her smile softened as she looked him over, a different weight heavy in her own gaze. “As do you. Please, come sit,” she said, beckoning to the set table full of pastries and tea. Maureen and Elisa both curtly nodded their heads as they waved towards the man, sitting after doing so and starting to fill their own plates. Oryn took that as the queue to fill their own.

They sat for a few moments in silence as they ate and drank, Oryn delighting in the fact that they were being allowed so many treats. They didn’t notice the odd glances and long stares from the four adults at the table with them.

“You look well, child,” Jonas said, setting his napkin down on his emptied plate, letting his cup sit idly on its saucer.

Oryn looked from Maureen to Elisa to Starla, each of them glaring into his soul with their own piercing gaze as if they were each willing what words to come out of their mouth.

“I’m sorry,” Oryn said, making eye contact with the man as they swallowed the last of their pastry. “But I don’t think I know you.”

Jonas nodded, leaning deeper into his chair. He took a long, deep breath. “How much have these lovely ladies told you about how you came to be here?”

Oryn’s brows furrowed in confusion as they once again looked from one witch to the next. Now, though, the three of them each avoided their gaze, squirming in their seats.

They knew an opportunity when they saw one.

“Not enough,” they mumbled, their own gaze darkening as something deep within them said it wouldn’t be smart to ask.

Jonas nodded yet again, maintaining his gaze with them. The witches sat silently in their seats.

“Your mother,” Jonas started, tapping a finger on the table, “she died.”

Oryn nodded. “Yes. And that’s why the three of them take care of me,” they said, gesturing towards where they sat.

“That’s right,” he sat up straighter in his chair, leaning forward as his gaze grew deeper. “I’m the man that got you here. To make sure someone could take care of you.”

Oryn nodded, not understanding the behavior of the witches; what could possibly be so nerve-wracking about an old man with a soft spot for a motherless baby?

“My mother,” Oryn’s curiosity had gotten the better of her. “You knew her then?” their voice was innocent, yearning.

Jonas smiled widely, finally breaking her gaze. “I did,” he said, a small frown creeping to his face. “I knew her well.”

“What was she like?”

The three witches’ necks all but snapped as their heads swiveled and their gazes met Oryn’s. It must have been one of the questions she wasn’t allowed to ask.

They were all silent again for a moment, a solitary tear brimming in his eyes and running down Jonas’s cheek. “She was wonderful,” he muttered more to himself, “and dedicated and beautiful. It was a shame she had to pass so young.”

The relief was palpable, everyone’s shoulders relaxing and sighs being let out.

“Oryn,” Starla said, a forced smile splayed on her lips and an edge behind her voice. “Go outside and play. We have important work we have to do with Jonas today.” Her eyes flicked to the door.

Oryn sighed, looking one last time at each member of the table before hopping off of their stool, grabbing a final pastry, and heading out the door.

Jonas shivered, his gaze becoming cold and hard as his fist slammed down on the table. “What is that?”

“He grows fast,” Maureen mumbled, “much faster than a human.”

“His appetite…” Elisa whispered.

Starla shook her head at them all, meeting Jonas’s gaze. “That’s a young boy,” she said, her voice firm and back straight. “A young boy who has been loved and provided for, even when the things we must provide are challenging and… unethical.”

Jonas closed his eyes, resting his fingers against the bridge of his nose. “It hasn’t even been a full five years,” he muttered to himself, “and he’s seemingly twice that age.” He lifted his head, his eyes meeting Starla’s. “Don’t you forget what he did to her. Do you understand me?” He stood from his seat, walking towards the window that overlooked the yard where Oryn had gone out to play. “That boy… that thing… the things he’s capable of…” he trailed off.

“You think we don’t know that?” Maureen snapped, twiddling her fingers in her lap. “You think we haven’t taken the utmost care in nurturing something your people think is the devil?” She scoffed, getting out of her own seat and standing next to Jonas, following his gaze out the window towards Oryn.

Starla stood as well, starting to clean the mess of the table. The daggers in her voice were sharp. “My good High Councilor, don’t you forget who have been the ones raising him all this time; the ones fighting to understand his nature, his abilities, his…” she trailed off, stacking cups in the wash-bin. “The things we’ve had to witness. And the worst of it is the fact that he has no idea what he’s capable of.”

Just got ibis paint recently (don't judge) and I decided to draw some eyes. Any critics or tips? (Please be a bit gentle)

Hi, so I wanted to know what could I improve based on this drawing, you're free to do a paintover. Thanks! ^^

so first off i really like the colours I see a lot of artists use grey for shading because they don't understand how light and shadow work but you're using saturated colours which is great!!

although I like the colours for the shading, my biggest critique would have to be the shading itself, and especially its placement and how it's blended so much. there's also not much depth with the shading since one colour is used to shade whole parts, when in reality you need to use a big range of colours from only very slightly darker than the base colour all the way to even a colour close to black.

the kitten also looks a bit off with its anatomy, but I wont critique the kitten that much because... i cant draw animals either 😭.

the way her hands are positioned around the kitten look very separated from the kitten, it almost looks like she's praying and the kitten was just copy pasted on. her hands should be tilted towards the camera more to show that the cat is actually being held in her hands.

there's also some slight anatomy issues with rei like a lumpy head and uneven breasts. also the right arm is longer and bigger than the left, and her waist seems to end very low. make sure to draw the underlying anatomy, even if it's being covered up by something! below is me tracing what her chest would look like if I followed the lines that are drawn

you have a very cool art style and I like you draw eyes, but I would make the eyes slightly less wide and the irises a bit bigger so that it looks more like rei, but in the end that is kinda optional since character art doesn't have to look exactly like the character.

also this is optional but some more line variance, especially thicker lines where shadows are makes lineart look a lot more interesting and pop more

a lot of the problems can be simply solved by flipping your canvas regularly while drawing, since people arent usually good at being able to draw symmetrically or even tell when something is asymmetrical

rei's face is also kinda short and her hair is very round, especially at the top. rei's mouth is also really close to her nose, so I just moved her nose down a bit.

below is the paintover, but just the anatomy and design part, not the shading (I didn't do the hands because there's a lot of stuff in that general area and I would have to redraw everything and also I'm lazy)

i tried my best to retain your style while still making corrections. i hope this is ok!

ok now onto the hardest part: shading

the biggest mistake you can make is just adding shadows to the edge of everything, it suggests roundness and so if you're shading something like a face, which is actually relatively flat and definitely not a sphere, you don't need those shadows on the edge of the chin. well, technically a face and chin are slightly rounded, but if you look at a side view of a person, the face is still pretty flat (excluding the nose)

also that shadow right next to the arm that's being cast onto the chest doesn't make a lot of sense since the light seems to be coming from above, yet this shadow makes it seem like the light is coming from the left. make sure you have a consistent light source when drawing, you can mark the location of the light physically if that helps. if the light is being cast from above, then naturally shadows must go downwards

going back to that image of the sphere and cube, you can see that the sphere has blended shadows and the cube has sharp shadows, this is very important to apply into art, because it helps differentiate different surfaces. because every shadow in your drawing is blended, everything looks soft and round, but the human form definitely has some sharper areas. also, there's a thing called a cast shadow, which is a shadow that's caused by some object blocking light. it also has sharp edges and there's many cast shadows on a person (the nose casts a sharp shadow onto the face, and the head casts a sharp shadow onto the neck for example)

idk if you wanted a lesson or not lol but yk there's a saying about teaching a man to fish vs just giving the man a fish

also the shiny parts on her outfit are shaded incorrectly, explaining how to shade reflective surfaces is really difficult and I don't even fully get it myself, but if it's just clothes, all you have to do is shade clothes as you normally do and then make the contrast much higher (highlights brighter and shadows darker) and add some reflections ofc

FINALLY DONE this took all day i'm not even kidding but I really like it

i lied, i did edit the kitten but just its head

anyway hope i helped i worked pretty hard on this

also thanks for letting me do a paintover!! paintovers are so fun but I can understand why ppl wouldn't want their work touched

Hello! You commented on something I posted in the art critique community, and since I don’t really want to flood that space with asks about the same thing, I figured I could ask here, since you have a post saying you like doing critiques?

Since this is just a base drawing, I haven’t done textures and shading yet, but I did adjust some anatomy bits (including the sets of hands you pointed out) and made the foreground characters larger, but I’m not sure if the perspective is much more obvious.

Of course, I’d like to hear about other things you think I should revise. Thank you :)

person in suit at the top's hair is really close to touching the purple light person in the dress, its called a tangent when two objects are touching like that and it messes with differentiating foreground and background. i think it would be important to either make it clear that the characters on the bottom and the characters on the top are separate, or to make them overlap a bit so we know which ones are in front.

i know you havent done shading yet, but when you do, you should consider making the characters in the bottom brighter so we know that they are in front. also, theres a blue gap on the bottom of the image (its a yellow gap in the first image and blue in the second image) that you should probably fill with clothing or something because it's negative space and inadvertently draws the viewer's eye to it.

i think the drawing overall looks a bit dim, especially the characters which are meant to be the focal point. i HIGHLY recommend turning the image to greyscale and seeing how you can make things stand out more that way. its a strategy i use all the time, and even when your image is blurred and in greyscale, you should be able to see many different values and understand whats going on in the piece.

honestly, this is something you dont have to follow, but you could push the perspective even more and make the characters in front even bigger and the characters in the back even smaller. but then some of the characters would be less visible, so thats why this is just a suggestion.

also the background text/constellations should be much brighter/thicker, at a glance i cant see it at all and it just looks like negative space.

this is something i do A LOT in my drawings, but it really helps, and that's to add a gradient to the background making the bottom of the grey background part darker would help push contrast and make the characters stand out even more, I've just done it in my most recent artwork, it works wonders.

very long post, hope i helped. this is a very complicated composition and organisation, so well done, I don't think I could do much better lol

free art critique and paintovers

I really wanna do art critique/paintovers I do them for my friends lol but I just love doing it it's so fun, and i wanna help ppl, ask me pleaseeeee

i swear I have... sort of expertise check my other profiles i just haven't posted my art here that much nvm dont check my other profiles my old art is genuinely atrocious

also since ppl keep asking no i dont do commissions maybe one day but please read this lol (although pretty sure most of the ppl asking are bots or scammers)

since this is my pinned i will say once again I am BROKE MONEYLESS ZERO CASH please don't tag me or ask me for money, even if it's not a scam I have literally nothing to give even if I wanted to help

I'm trying to figure out Alka's face. While this attempt is far from perfect, it manages to give me a good idea of in which direction I want to go. However while I was working on this piece, somebody commented about it being drawn in an anime style. I don't necessarily view that as a bad thing in other circumstances but I have been doing my best to get rid of that type of style. I asked them where they saw those anime characteristics in my art so I could try to work on making these less anime-ish. The answer that I got was that they could't really pinpoint it but it was probably the eyes. Even though I had followed the proportions for a normal face (1 eye between the eyes 1/2 - 1 'between the edge of the face and left/ right eye). So could I get some pointers/ critique from somebody of the things I'm doing wrong or should improve in? ( I know that the jaw looks kind of weird but I didn't have a reference at that moment)

A bike with a lamp + flower palette for Lady Me (apologies for the complete lack of background)

freaking critique it to heck and back PLEASE

Flower scene for my friend Demon using my stuffed animals as a palette. (Please for the love of god give me some criticism)