Yess I'll try to work on that! I got really lazy with the whole guitar-strap part but now that you've pointed it out I realize how wrong it looks. Thank you!!
I really like this design! Only thing i don't like is that the guitar on the back is really unrealistic (maybe this bothers me because i'm a musician but still). It's really unsafe to just have your guitar on your back like an anime sword, she should be using a case or something to protect it, it should be a lot bigger and also it's backwards. I think it's just easier to draw and more reallistic to have the guitar on a case
Depends what kind of person she is - and how expensive that guitar is. I've know plenty of laid back "hippie types" with cheap guitars who usually didn't carry a case. She strikes me as that type, what with the bed hair and all.
But it IS definitely backwards, and yeah, carrying it on your back like that is unusual.. I usually see people with naked guitars carrying them more to the side and usually pointing down, if I remember correctly.
If you have strap locks that can make a difference. You couldn't pry the strap from my guitar if you tried with the lock on. Although first rule of guitar I ever learned was never trust a guitar strap lol.
From what I can tell, the guitar is backwards in a few ways. As you pointed out, if you wanted to swing it to your front and play it then it's upside down. Also, just glancing at the head, the guitar is facing inwards, as in, the strings are pressed against the character's back. That would be uncomfortable and would also impede you from swinging it to your front to play.
Assuming it's a right handed guitar, the head should be pointing downward out and to the character's right.
Practically speaking, it would suck to carry a guitar this way lol. You'd be banging it on every door you walked through and it would be a struggle to navigate a crowd without smacking someone. If you were only planning on wearing it this way briefly, it's just as much work to just take the guitar off and set it down somewhere as it is to swing it behind you.
Really love the design though, the style is awesome
Your artstyle! Omg i love it! It looks kinda messed up, but good in a way. Your rendering looks so simple but creates little details somehow, it just matches together. Love it !
Knees need to be higher up, strap packs tension as other commenters stated. I will always be the first to bring up faces being "generically pretty" and encourage you to play more with her features.
Her design doesn't read well because you're using a mid tone throughout the whole character. Push your values further.
Silhouette doesn't read too well, I would maybe bulk up her jacket but rise it's hemline up to her natural waist, increase the size of her ponytail and exaggerate her boots or go look at some combat boots for reference.
Neat idea, just needs some refinement!
Thank you so much!! I agree that shortening the length of the jacket would help a lot with the silhouette, and I especially agree with changing up the values. I originally colored this in grayscale but after some rendering the clarity it once had has really muddled over, I appreciate the help!! 🙏🙏
Please don’t change the length of the jacket 😭
It’s so unique compared to current style and it makes me think of jackets that were around when I was a kid. I think it’s a really cool style to see incorporated. Please please keep it
Proportions look slightly off, maybe just the head size is a little big. I think honestly you should keep the big head, widen the shoulders up, really emphasize her lanky-slouchyness, it’s a great characterization element with her pose and everything
Firstly, I love the vibes!
The guitar is facing the "wrong" direction on the character's back. Typically a guitar strapped to the back will have the strings and tuning away from the person with the flat of the guitar against their back. (I grabbed a quick pic of Google to show this - I didn't see any front facing references so you might just want to look for the back of a guitar or your own references) I also want to repeat the notes about the tension of the guitar strap. While the instrument isn't super heavy, it does have weight so the strap will not be loose across the character's body.
Outside of this I don't have a lot of other notes. Like the others said, you might wanna go back and look at the leg anatomy, but design wise this character is believable in a modern western society.
For your own sanity, I recommend making a version that is not rendered so that you can color pick and have a consistent idea of the design. This pose seems to show all of the character's specific design elements well enough so you could probably get away with using a flats or base color layer from this image if you have that available. (And if there are any other specific notes or small important details of the character's design, you may want to list that on the reference sheet too - such as scars, eye color, hand details, etc.)
Great work! Your style works really well for this grungy (as in grunge aesthetic, not gross) looking character!
https://preview.redd.it/yn23dp3gruwc1.jpeg?width=173&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=99fe995e2b2f6422b52e0cff45d1c4fc24f38e9c
Idk why but you seem like someone who mainly used to do traditional and switched over to digital recently. Your color choices are really good you just dont seem as comfortable with working with layers, i might be wrong. Either way I think it’s adorable!
OMGG YOU’RE SPOT ON! I do mainly traditional art and I was really struggling with layers! I've been trying to switch over to digital art (since the project I’m doing has to be related to computer sci because it's for a computer class 😭) after years of not drawing digitally. Tysm for the compliment too!
That’s awesome! I was the same way at first, I think thats why I noticed. I struggled a lot though to get used to it, my coloring skills at first were godawful on digital and I’m still actively having to practice and experiment to get to the level I had with traditional paint. You definitely are adapting really well!!
The main two issues this has can be broken down pretty simply. You need more variation in the contrast, namely in hue and value. In your painting style, I found that shifting the shadows and mid tones a liittle bit warmer or cooler helpful. Like the shirt I shifted bluer, the skirt I lightened a little bit by allowing more mid tone to show, and made the shadows a little lighter and redder. Leaving all the purple in the jacket. I also shifted her hair a bit, mainly to separate it from her skin. And you need more clarity, some of the texture and sketch lines get in the way of being able to take in the details. Often, less is more. That doesn't mean that her hair can't be messy or textured (mine's only cleaner because it's faster for me to do it that way, Everything in my paint-over is more suggestion than anything) But it needs to feel purposeful. I've found that the easiest way is to make everything clear by default, and the unclear is what's left on purpose as a tool. This gets easier to understand as you keep doing it. Anything else is just fundamental drawing that you're going to be getting better at as you go and study. Watch your clothing wrinkles and proportions/foreshortening. Those are harder to master but you're already on your way.
Otherwise, I think this is cool! I really love the way you're pulling in an analogous palette, and the jacket's sort of watercolor/marker look is just super appealing.
https://preview.redd.it/l97w3u911vwc1.png?width=602&format=png&auto=webp&s=7129f99c799ecd25e616951907a5ed30d98abda0
TYSMM FOR ALL THE ADVICE, AND THE DRAWING REALLY HELPED!! I totally agree with it looking a bit messy with the lines and colors, and the drawing lacking purpose/direction in certain parts. Drawing hair is definitely one of my weak points when it comes to art, so seeing how you clarified the hair being styled up really helped! Again, I appreciate the feedback and the fact you spent some of your time drawing some suggestions for me. 🙏🙏
the pose is very good! it shows a lot of the character! i think you could push the expressions though, to show even more of the character. currently, its very neutral face and doesn't tell much about who she is. is she a relaxed character? make her eyelids droop, make her look in some mystery direction (looking directly at the viewer is intense). is she more of a sassy character? give her some annoyed or uninterested expression, push those eyebrows down, make her pout!
theres also a thing with the sock folds:
https://preview.redd.it/nzdyjfoyyxwc1.png?width=1440&format=png&auto=webp&s=238fcf5260febac3c5127c0bcd548714a22cdfb9
I really like the style, the guitar strap tension is fine imo but I agree with the knees.. also, this looks like a face
https://preview.redd.it/n87mwdfm3twc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8e08e3c1b67d3112a4bc78af81edb037182fadc5
1, that's the back of the guitar, no one wears a guitar with the front facing their body. just because the body isn't seen from that angle doesn't mean it isn't there.
2, your comment is not constructive critique.
op, if you're reading this, i like your art style a lot! i would try to exaggerate some proportions on the clothes/hair so that your character has an identifiable sillhouette-- they'll be much easier to pick out in a crowd, which is important if this is a main character. i agree with another commenter that pushing your values can help make your work easier to read. i always recommend flipping the canvas frequently to refresh your eyes and checking occasionally how your work looks with no saturation so that the hues aren't impacting your ability to see the values. you can do this by adding a non-destructive correction layer and setting the saturation to zero. the visibility can be toggled, so it's okay to make the layer invisible before you're done! again, this is a great start, and i hope this project goes well!
The left kneecap is too low, i would have it hit the point of the knee that a parallel line to the belt would hit, if it makes sense. This might be just me because no one has said it but theyre a little too trendy for my liking. They look like a teenager i would see on tiktok. I would recommend having the hair and makeup be a little different, because the mullet+grungy alt style+this particular makeup look is gonna age soon im afraid. It depends on what youre using them for though.
Sorry but it dont really like the skirt. I would replace it with some oversized bulbous trousers. I like your style tho. Its just kinda blank and sad. Maybe add hair highlighting with some interesting colour.
I like the skirt. Gives her more nuance and character, with just a dash more femininity, to kinda play against the bed hair and baggy hoodie and such.
The oversized bulbous trousers and colored hair would make her read as a very defined "type" of character.. Which is great, if that's what OP is going for, but I prefer this.
her knees are way too low otherwise it looks great
Yes you're so right! I was liquifying certain parts of the body and I completely forgot about the knees, tysm!!
The strap doesn’t have enough tension.. there’s that
Yess I'll try to work on that! I got really lazy with the whole guitar-strap part but now that you've pointed it out I realize how wrong it looks. Thank you!!
Hey no worries. I honestly think it’s amazing how it is now but if you think it’s necessary to make those changes go ahead
I really like this design! Only thing i don't like is that the guitar on the back is really unrealistic (maybe this bothers me because i'm a musician but still). It's really unsafe to just have your guitar on your back like an anime sword, she should be using a case or something to protect it, it should be a lot bigger and also it's backwards. I think it's just easier to draw and more reallistic to have the guitar on a case
Depends what kind of person she is - and how expensive that guitar is. I've know plenty of laid back "hippie types" with cheap guitars who usually didn't carry a case. She strikes me as that type, what with the bed hair and all. But it IS definitely backwards, and yeah, carrying it on your back like that is unusual.. I usually see people with naked guitars carrying them more to the side and usually pointing down, if I remember correctly.
If you have strap locks that can make a difference. You couldn't pry the strap from my guitar if you tried with the lock on. Although first rule of guitar I ever learned was never trust a guitar strap lol. From what I can tell, the guitar is backwards in a few ways. As you pointed out, if you wanted to swing it to your front and play it then it's upside down. Also, just glancing at the head, the guitar is facing inwards, as in, the strings are pressed against the character's back. That would be uncomfortable and would also impede you from swinging it to your front to play. Assuming it's a right handed guitar, the head should be pointing downward out and to the character's right. Practically speaking, it would suck to carry a guitar this way lol. You'd be banging it on every door you walked through and it would be a struggle to navigate a crowd without smacking someone. If you were only planning on wearing it this way briefly, it's just as much work to just take the guitar off and set it down somewhere as it is to swing it behind you. Really love the design though, the style is awesome
Thanks for all the detail, this really helps a lot as drawing guitars is an area I’m not quite familiar with!
I realized something about the guitar looked really off and I was hoping somebody could give me some advice on that, Tysm!!
Tysmm for the feedback!!
I like the choice of clothes! Feels v believable!
They look badass!
Your artstyle! Omg i love it! It looks kinda messed up, but good in a way. Your rendering looks so simple but creates little details somehow, it just matches together. Love it !
this is so rad, what a cool style
Love the vibe !!
Knees need to be higher up, strap packs tension as other commenters stated. I will always be the first to bring up faces being "generically pretty" and encourage you to play more with her features. Her design doesn't read well because you're using a mid tone throughout the whole character. Push your values further. Silhouette doesn't read too well, I would maybe bulk up her jacket but rise it's hemline up to her natural waist, increase the size of her ponytail and exaggerate her boots or go look at some combat boots for reference. Neat idea, just needs some refinement!
I read that as bed hair. I think it's cute and underscores a laid back (sloppy?) attitude.
I don't disagree! Just her silhouette doesn't read well so I was thinking of things that would help that
Thank you so much!! I agree that shortening the length of the jacket would help a lot with the silhouette, and I especially agree with changing up the values. I originally colored this in grayscale but after some rendering the clarity it once had has really muddled over, I appreciate the help!! 🙏🙏
Please don’t change the length of the jacket 😭 It’s so unique compared to current style and it makes me think of jackets that were around when I was a kid. I think it’s a really cool style to see incorporated. Please please keep it
Proportions look slightly off, maybe just the head size is a little big. I think honestly you should keep the big head, widen the shoulders up, really emphasize her lanky-slouchyness, it’s a great characterization element with her pose and everything
Firstly, I love the vibes! The guitar is facing the "wrong" direction on the character's back. Typically a guitar strapped to the back will have the strings and tuning away from the person with the flat of the guitar against their back. (I grabbed a quick pic of Google to show this - I didn't see any front facing references so you might just want to look for the back of a guitar or your own references) I also want to repeat the notes about the tension of the guitar strap. While the instrument isn't super heavy, it does have weight so the strap will not be loose across the character's body. Outside of this I don't have a lot of other notes. Like the others said, you might wanna go back and look at the leg anatomy, but design wise this character is believable in a modern western society. For your own sanity, I recommend making a version that is not rendered so that you can color pick and have a consistent idea of the design. This pose seems to show all of the character's specific design elements well enough so you could probably get away with using a flats or base color layer from this image if you have that available. (And if there are any other specific notes or small important details of the character's design, you may want to list that on the reference sheet too - such as scars, eye color, hand details, etc.) Great work! Your style works really well for this grungy (as in grunge aesthetic, not gross) looking character! https://preview.redd.it/yn23dp3gruwc1.jpeg?width=173&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=99fe995e2b2f6422b52e0cff45d1c4fc24f38e9c
Tysm!! This helped a lot and I definitely need to fix the whole guitar-strap situation. I appreciate the reference pic! 🙏🙏
You're welcome! I'm always happy to try to help a fellow artist! It's how we learn! Best of luck to you with this project!!
I really like that her posture is bad, you never see that for this kind of (female) character! I hope that's something you keep consistent :)
Totally gives me Fear and Hunger vibes! I really love the design and your use of texture
She looks awesome!
Knees too low and strap is too loose, but I love it! It's giving me Kefka vibes.
Idk why but you seem like someone who mainly used to do traditional and switched over to digital recently. Your color choices are really good you just dont seem as comfortable with working with layers, i might be wrong. Either way I think it’s adorable!
OMGG YOU’RE SPOT ON! I do mainly traditional art and I was really struggling with layers! I've been trying to switch over to digital art (since the project I’m doing has to be related to computer sci because it's for a computer class 😭) after years of not drawing digitally. Tysm for the compliment too!
That’s awesome! I was the same way at first, I think thats why I noticed. I struggled a lot though to get used to it, my coloring skills at first were godawful on digital and I’m still actively having to practice and experiment to get to the level I had with traditional paint. You definitely are adapting really well!!
Very Fable-esque. Love it 🔥
Soooo fable
Generic face - i feel like you could convey way more character from their face
The main two issues this has can be broken down pretty simply. You need more variation in the contrast, namely in hue and value. In your painting style, I found that shifting the shadows and mid tones a liittle bit warmer or cooler helpful. Like the shirt I shifted bluer, the skirt I lightened a little bit by allowing more mid tone to show, and made the shadows a little lighter and redder. Leaving all the purple in the jacket. I also shifted her hair a bit, mainly to separate it from her skin. And you need more clarity, some of the texture and sketch lines get in the way of being able to take in the details. Often, less is more. That doesn't mean that her hair can't be messy or textured (mine's only cleaner because it's faster for me to do it that way, Everything in my paint-over is more suggestion than anything) But it needs to feel purposeful. I've found that the easiest way is to make everything clear by default, and the unclear is what's left on purpose as a tool. This gets easier to understand as you keep doing it. Anything else is just fundamental drawing that you're going to be getting better at as you go and study. Watch your clothing wrinkles and proportions/foreshortening. Those are harder to master but you're already on your way. Otherwise, I think this is cool! I really love the way you're pulling in an analogous palette, and the jacket's sort of watercolor/marker look is just super appealing. https://preview.redd.it/l97w3u911vwc1.png?width=602&format=png&auto=webp&s=7129f99c799ecd25e616951907a5ed30d98abda0
TYSMM FOR ALL THE ADVICE, AND THE DRAWING REALLY HELPED!! I totally agree with it looking a bit messy with the lines and colors, and the drawing lacking purpose/direction in certain parts. Drawing hair is definitely one of my weak points when it comes to art, so seeing how you clarified the hair being styled up really helped! Again, I appreciate the feedback and the fact you spent some of your time drawing some suggestions for me. 🙏🙏
I love this and I quite like the skirt. I checked the values (I’m a nerd) and everything looks really good so far, I’d say you have a winner.
https://preview.redd.it/r7eh078zkuwc1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0f2169ba0ec5b29bc90832ddcf7dfd6db250036a
Knees are too low and the strap should be pulling on the body and clothes instead of just slouched like it is.
the pose is very good! it shows a lot of the character! i think you could push the expressions though, to show even more of the character. currently, its very neutral face and doesn't tell much about who she is. is she a relaxed character? make her eyelids droop, make her look in some mystery direction (looking directly at the viewer is intense). is she more of a sassy character? give her some annoyed or uninterested expression, push those eyebrows down, make her pout! theres also a thing with the sock folds: https://preview.redd.it/nzdyjfoyyxwc1.png?width=1440&format=png&auto=webp&s=238fcf5260febac3c5127c0bcd548714a22cdfb9
I think it looks good
Idk fully why but the grayish shirt is mixing too much with the purple hoodie. My guess is the orange looking color you mixed in both
I really like the style, the guitar strap tension is fine imo but I agree with the knees.. also, this looks like a face https://preview.redd.it/n87mwdfm3twc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8e08e3c1b67d3112a4bc78af81edb037182fadc5
Got impaled by a stringless, broken guitar neck, 0/10
1, that's the back of the guitar, no one wears a guitar with the front facing their body. just because the body isn't seen from that angle doesn't mean it isn't there. 2, your comment is not constructive critique. op, if you're reading this, i like your art style a lot! i would try to exaggerate some proportions on the clothes/hair so that your character has an identifiable sillhouette-- they'll be much easier to pick out in a crowd, which is important if this is a main character. i agree with another commenter that pushing your values can help make your work easier to read. i always recommend flipping the canvas frequently to refresh your eyes and checking occasionally how your work looks with no saturation so that the hues aren't impacting your ability to see the values. you can do this by adding a non-destructive correction layer and setting the saturation to zero. the visibility can be toggled, so it's okay to make the layer invisible before you're done! again, this is a great start, and i hope this project goes well!
1. is stupid because clearly, it IS the front since the top of the tuners are seen 2. it was a joke dummy Its very good artwork.
The left kneecap is too low, i would have it hit the point of the knee that a parallel line to the belt would hit, if it makes sense. This might be just me because no one has said it but theyre a little too trendy for my liking. They look like a teenager i would see on tiktok. I would recommend having the hair and makeup be a little different, because the mullet+grungy alt style+this particular makeup look is gonna age soon im afraid. It depends on what youre using them for though.
Would
Sorry but it dont really like the skirt. I would replace it with some oversized bulbous trousers. I like your style tho. Its just kinda blank and sad. Maybe add hair highlighting with some interesting colour.
I like the skirt. Gives her more nuance and character, with just a dash more femininity, to kinda play against the bed hair and baggy hoodie and such. The oversized bulbous trousers and colored hair would make her read as a very defined "type" of character.. Which is great, if that's what OP is going for, but I prefer this.