# Style Critiquie?



## raaky-draws (Jul 11, 2017)

Hi everyone! My art hasn't gained many comments just posting to the main FA site, and I'm hoping all you artists and art connoisseurs here can give me some style advice.

I've been drawing for a while now, and I used to do painterly-style pictures a couple years ago (under a username far far away). I took a break from drawing and recently started again. This time I'm going for a more cartoony, cel-shaded style. I want bold lines and bright colors, but I don't want my pictures to be too garish.

I've shown some of these to my IRL friends and they said they liked them, but of course, they might just be saying that. And as the artist, I obviously like my own stuff a lot. So I need you guys to give me your knee-jerk reactions, and any advice you can think of.

I drew all these within the last month. So without further ado, I'll post them in chronological order.

I just realized my images are huge, so if you'd rather view them on my profile page, you can do so here: Artwork Gallery for republicofdragons -- Fur Affinity [dot] net


Judy Hopps:








Summer, a zebra OC of mine:







July 4, with another OC:







Summer and another of my OCs getting up to some hijinks:






Thoughts?


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## MsRavage (Jul 11, 2017)

oh your art is different!! and don't be so focused on getting likes...if you want likes draw fan art of stuff...that will get you likes...i barely get any likes...doesn't mean my art is crap or anything...maybe people prefer a specific thing? that being said we, as artists, are always improving. My advice for your would be to continue improving!! continue working on anatomy and blending and trying stuff you may not be comfortable with!! if you are on FA add me its my same name and i'll add you too!!


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## raaky-draws (Jul 11, 2017)

MsRavage said:


> oh your art is different!! and don't be so focused on getting likes...if you want likes draw fan art of stuff...that will get you likes...i barely get any likes...doesn't mean my art is crap or anything...maybe people prefer a specific thing? that being said we, as artists, are always improving. My advice for your would be to continue improving!! continue working on anatomy and blending and trying stuff you may not be comfortable with!! if you are on FA add me its my same name and i'll add you too!!



Just added you! Your art is pretty cool. BTW I glanced at your journal, feel free to draw raaky any time! And if you ever want to collaborate or something, just send me a note on my FA or ask me here on the forums.


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## GreenZone (Jul 11, 2017)

this is just a small gripe but blue tipped grenades means its a dummy round not live they're usually made of chalk


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## raaky-draws (Jul 12, 2017)

GreenZone said:


> this is just a small gripe but blue tipped grenades means its a dummy round not live they're usually made of chalk



That was intentional. I'm glad you noticed! Buck (the horse) and Summer are the good guys, so Buck has some nonlethal weapons. I didn't bother to mention this in the description because I didn't think anyone would notice. He has two 40mm grenades (the gold ones), and two sponge grenades (the blue ones), which are designed to be fired from a 40mm launcher: Sponge grenade - Wikipedia

Here's the backstory: Buck and Summer are spies in a cyberpunk semi-dystopia, and they work for a law enforcement agency. They live in kind of a Blade Runner world. In this picture, they're breaking into a bank to steal some important thing (maybe information, maybe a bio-weapon), but they need to hide the fact that they work for this agency, so the bad guys don't catch and come after them. So Buck and Summer dress as bank robbers, gear up, and bust in.

The thing is, the bank guards are just your average everyday joes - how are they supposed to know they work for an evil corporate cartel? Buck and Summer don't want to kill them. So Buck brings along some sponge rounds to take out the guards, and uses the explosives on the drones, or on inconvenient doorways. Unlocking doors is slow when you're under fire. 

My intent is to eventually develop this into a comic, where Buck and Summer team up to go on sci-fi inspired adventures across the solar system. I have more of the world developed, and I intend to draw more concept art. Right now though, this was just a fun scene to draw.


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## MsRavage (Jul 12, 2017)

you put a ton of work into your pieces and it shows!!


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## raaky-draws (Jul 12, 2017)

MsRavage said:


> you put a ton of work into your pieces and it shows!!



Thanks!  I'm glad to hear that. Finishing one of these usually takes 8-12 hours.


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## GROZENTAL (Jul 13, 2017)

Hello,
I see a lot of mistakes in your work, but you have potential. And your problem is not in the way you stylize your creatures, but more in the way your creatures are drawn. I'm not talking about their anatomy, because it is rather good and I'm sure that you will improve imperfections overtime, but in your shading and your understandment of colour. It's downright wrong, because all of your shading is extremely rough and cubical and the colours are out of place. I understand that you have listed that you went for more cell-shading, but I strongly recommend to master usual shading in the first place and then try cell-shading.
Of your drawings I picked this to explain what I think is wrong, since other works have those problems only mildly.




You didn't tell which program do you use to draw, but I can see that you don't use layer modes, which is a huge problem for you, because you don't understand which colour you should use for dark and lighted areas and you just went random - I can see shades of deep blue and robin here, which make zero sense in this envoriment, since your shading should be purple and your light is supposed to be strikingly bright cyan colour (also, I'm not going to include the red light from the tip of the flame because it makes even less sense than the shading, so it's just blue light here.)
For some reason you also included those ginger reflections, which, even if red light included, are placed randomly and look really weird. Example - the one on the knee came from outer space, it shouldn't be there. I have a lot to say about those ginger reflections that also ended on the grass somehow, and the awkward red shade on the ridge of it's wing, but I think you understand that they shouldn't be there, so I'll skip that.
Also what really bugged me is the sky that lighted up near the flame, it also is physically impossible unless you're in an extremely foggy enviroment, which even if it is so on this piece, is illustrated incorrectly.
I have corrected all the shading and lighting mistakes on this work, and this is how it looks.





What I recommend you to do:
1. Even if you want to try cell-shading, you first need to understand how the light works, because you really don't.
2. Following my thought from my first paragraph, I recommend changing the programme you draw in or, if the programme you draw in has layer modes included, use them to your advantage. Simple advice on that - if the light is warm, then the shadow is cold and vice-versa.
3. Don't be afraid to use really dark or really bright colours, it will give more life to your work. I corrected this work, which I actually really like, to match those preferences that I'm talking about - be bold to use any type of artistic technique to make your work more *appealing* to the eye. (Even if it doesn't make sense, but don't tell anyone  )





Thank you,
I hope I helped


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## raaky-draws (Jul 13, 2017)

GROZENTAL said:


> if the light is warm, then the shadow is cold and vice-versa



Thanks - I've heard this advice before, and I'll start doing it.



GROZENTAL said:


> I can see that you don't use layer modes, which is a huge problem for you, because you don't understand which colour you should use for dark and lighted areas and you just went random



Which layer modes should I use, and when should I use them?


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## raaky-draws (Jul 13, 2017)

GROZENTAL said:


> I have corrected all the shading and lighting mistakes on this work



Hey, I also want to say thanks for taking the time to edit my pieces and show me how to fix them. You could've just told me I did the lighting wrong and that I need to improve it, but instead you showed me exactly what to fix, and where. That's extremely helpful, and it's way more effort than most people would've spent. So thanks! I checked out your gallery and your art is really good too. I also watched you, I'm 'republicofdragons' on FA.

Right now I'm using Krita. I've heard that some people really like paintstorm, and I'm thinking of trying it out. Which program do you recommend?


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## GROZENTAL (Jul 14, 2017)

raaky-draws said:


> Hey, I also want to say thanks for taking the time to edit my pieces and show me how to fix them. You could've just told me I did the lighting wrong and that I need to improve it, but instead you showed me exactly what to fix, and where. That's extremely helpful, and it's way more effort than most people would've spent. So thanks! I checked out your gallery and your art is really good too. I also watched you, I'm 'republicofdragons' on FA.
> 
> Right now I'm using Krita. I've heard that some people really like paintstorm, and I'm thinking of trying it out. Which program do you recommend?



I recommend either PaintToolSAI as a starter or Photoshop. If you don't feel confident enough with your graphic tablet, I advice you to try SAI first, because brush controls in Photoshop are quite finicky.
Knowing that sometimes drawing in one programme can get boring, for sketches you can use MyPaint and Drawpile (which also has a cool option of making an online server where you can draw with your friends.)


raaky-draws said:


> Thanks - I've heard this advice before, and I'll start doing it.
> 
> 
> 
> Which layer modes should I use, and when should I use them?



As of about layer modes. If you use old SAI, shadow should be set to multiply and light should be set to overlay (a couple of overlay layers, because overlay light is very bleak) or overlay + screen.
If you use Photoshop, shadow should be multiply and the light can literally be anything that doesn't make the draw part look like fog or extra shadow, there is a lot to choose from.
If you use SAI2, there is quite a lot to choose from, but for shadow I recommend, again, multiply (or shade/lumi & shade), and for the light the best would be either dodge or 50% transparency dodge with overlay that has a bright colour.
Good luck testing all those! If you have questions, PM me, I'll help you


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