# Seeking Feedback



## FlamelPhoenix (Oct 9, 2016)

Hey guys, so while I've been on FA for awhile, I really haven't gotten any decent feedback, critques, or tips on my artwork, so I was hoping that by going to the forums, I could get some help.  I'd appreciate the feedback and tip on how to better my art.

Link to my Gallery: Artwork Gallery for FlamelPhoenix -- Fur Affinity [dot] net


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## acommabeforedark (Oct 10, 2016)

Hey, welcome to the forums! I apologize if this gets long, but I want to offer a few pointers.

My first tip is, work on anatomy, since that's a really important cornerstone of any kind of representational art. I'd suggest trying to do some loose figure drawings, either using live people or photographs as reference. My emphasis here is on 'loose,' since I feel like the poses in many of your pieces feel quite stiff. Maybe try to look at how, say, animators represent motion, since they tend to play up the dynamism of it. Just keep it loose, keep it flowing. Also, it might be good to practice drawing hands (especially from life, just drawing your own hands can be really useful), since it seems like you sometimes just leave hands fingerless or otherwise simplified.

Second, it might be good to work on painting/shading. For instance, in this piece you can clearly see the striations between light and dark, and as a result it looks kind of choppy and unnatural. Thus you might want to spend more time blending the colors until the boundaries between them look softer. However, it's important to vary the kinds of brushes you use as well. For instance, something painted only with hard edges may appear flat, and something with only soft edges may not be ideal either. Thus you have to think about how each shadow should be rendered. In other words, a shadow created by a specific object that is jutting out from a surface may be quite hard, while there may be softer  shadows on the edges of a curved surface. (I'm not sure I said this quite clearly, so if you want me to draw an example, let me know.)

Third, I'd say to work a bit on creating more harmonious color palettes, and maybe look up a bit on color theory. Something that might be good is looking at art or designs you like and just using the color picker tool to pick out the main colors and make palettes out of them. It can be from others' drawings, photos, movie screenshots, anything you like! This might seem really basic, but it can be a good way to find out what you like, what works well together, etc.

Anyway, I hope all that was helpful, and feel free to hit me up if you need any clarification!


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## FlamelPhoenix (Oct 10, 2016)

Thank you so much.
It's ironic, I took my first life drawing course last semester and I'm actually one of the life drawing models on my campus (and I'm the senior male model).  I guess I've never been able to figure out what 'loose' really feels like in a pose.

For the straiations, I use the basic photoshop brush with 0% hardness with transfer set to pen pressure.  Naturally, more practice can be had to prefect it.

Finally, I know that the last few images that had backgrounds that feature the blue/green character weren't successful in their palette as I was basing it on the halls of my dorm than on color theory.

While it may be problems I knew about, I'm happy that you were able to help by breaking things down and helping me understand.


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## Synthet (Oct 16, 2016)

Let me start from the beginning. Because it doesn't matter on which level you are, the idea I want to share works for everyone.
Let's draw some random shape






How can you be sure is it flat of bulky or may be it's a cavity? We have drawn a silhouette, it's what most beginners draw every time they want to describe an object.
I don't mean they draw just an outline and nothing inside, I mean this is how your brain sees objects for now. We can't turn it, can't draw from the bottom view and we definetely
don't know how values will work.

Let me change something.





We constucted a shape and our brain now can guess what is it like. Construction is a basics of drawing, it can show any shape, gives an opportunity to draw an object from any angle and
we even haven't drawn any value at all!

Also,





We can guess what our object looks like with even more percision, helping our brain to determine the invisible parts and how they connect to each other. With this aid we can draw an object from
any angle, connect it with other objects and add as much details as we want - if you construct an object correctly, you'll make it look believable without help of any other mean.

So, how exactly can we construct an object?
For intance, what the hell is this in terms of geometry?





It is a shape. Like cube, cylinder, car, building, sexy furry cat...
What can we do to describe this shape and draw from any angle, using only this photo?

That's how:





It's called simplifying an object to basic shapes it consists of. If you can draw basic shapes like cylinder, sphere, cone, cube, etc, you can basically draw any object you want.

Constructing human body is no exclusion





Again, no values.

So. How to approach this target? I'd suggest you to buy/download a book by Scott Robertson, called "How to Draw". Also, you can watch his DVDs which are also about constructing objects.
Don't get scared of technical stuff in these materials, believe me, it's easier than proper drawing of human body. Try it and at the same time start to learn anatomy because it's what you need at the end of the day.

If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask.


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