[anime] c'mon daggers!

[meat]

Did this to try and get back into painting. The goal of this is to 1.) practice painting and 2.) paint faster, to get over a bad habit of grinding every minute thing. Picked fan art to skip coming up with idea, which I would drag feet over for days. Anything else is up for crit. Don't be shy... *waits for the daggers*

...can't get attachment to work.

[EduardoGaray]

12 kingdoms!! youko was so awesome.

But i suggest you to be more specific. You are going to get better and faster the more you practice, solve problems, learn new tricks, etc.

If you want critique for this specific piece, then we really need to know the purpose of this picture, what kind of artwork you really want to make.
But even without knowing anything about the picture i would say that the face perspective of that annoying girl (i dont really remember her name) is off.

Also watch out for Youko proportions, you gave her manga like facial features while trying to render her realistically at the same time, and it isnt working.
Korean artists are really good when it comes to mix manga and realism in a special kind of stylization. You could take a look at what they do.
And doing cloth/drapery studies wont hurt either.

[DK]

Cool work meat. I think if you just build the figures slowly with some structure and proportion lines, you can have a better foundation to work on. Doesn't matter if it's anime or real.

Just a quick paint to show what I mean. I know it's not the same exact angle as yours, but I think it gets the general idea across. Try to get a good foundation to work on before you begin to paint and don't forget to flip the image a lot to look out for errors. Lower the opacity on worked-on layers and keep working over them till you get exactly what you want. Even this drawing I did has a ton of errors, I'm sure.

[meat]

Eduardo: I want to mix manga style and painting. Like this guy: http://cpt.ninja-x.jp/. Also I want to achieve something like Fullmetal Alchemist's manga where it's got a feel of solid space and form in the drawings (more western-like), if that makes sense, but not simply copy her style.

I like mixing stylized with painting, but traditional arts background makes it hard to shake off the temptation to paint forever on a portrait. Do you have any specific Korean artist to recommend?

Will do more clothes studies, probably from reference photo though. I'm surprised someone else remember this ancient series, haha!

Dennis: I see your point. Do you think it'll be worth it to make some studies (copies) from anatomy drawing books to get used to drawing underlying structures?

[DK]

Dennis: I see your point. Do you think it'll be worth it to make some studies (copies) from anatomy drawing books to get used to drawing underlying structures?

I especially recommend Andrew Loomis's book figure drawing for all its worth, if not all his books. You can easily find them on the web.

[darktiste]

i suggest you to set time to gather reference so that you do not lose a lot of time doing it.Contemplation is one of the artist sin

[meat]

Okay, thanks Dennis!

darktiste: Yeah I sin a lot.

[EduardoGaray]

Haha 12 kingdoms was very popular back then, they even translated it to spanish, i watched a few caps as a kid first thats why i remember.

After taking a look at the style you are going for i gathered these examples for you:

You have this concept art from Mabinogi heroes (Dont mind the snake back lol)
If you take a look at her face, the proportions are all manga but realistically rendered in a beautiful way.



But, if you ask me what works better are this artworks Shunya Yamashita did for Last Exile.
Its just lineart, then you add the base colors and paint over to give depth and solidity to the characters. Kinda like the ones you mentioned from FMA (well, this is a common technique in manga, but i specially like this particular ones haha)





You could also take a look at the great master Takehiko Inoue, this is by far my favourite style when it comes to mixing reality and manga.





As you can see, this stylizations arent that different from painting something real, you just need to know whats beneath your drawing, like Dennis said, having a solid Knowledge of the human body structure is fundamental.
So grab some anatomy books and start studying like there is no tomorrow, thats what i´m doing right now haha.

[meat]

Haha 12 kingdoms was very popular back then, they even translated it to spanish, i watched a few caps as a kid first thats why i remember.

After taking a look at the style you are going for i gathered these examples for you:

You have this concept art from Mabinogi heroes (Dont mind the snake back lol)
If you take a look at her face, the proportions are all manga but realistically rendered in a beautiful way.



But, if you ask me what works better are this artworks Shunya Yamashita did for Last Exile.
Its just lineart, then you add the base colors and paint over to give depth and solidity to the characters. Kinda like the ones you mentioned from FMA (well, this is a common technique in manga, but i specially like this particular ones haha)





You could also take a look at the great master Takehiko Inoue, this is by far my favourite style when it comes to mixing reality and manga.





As you can see, this stylizations arent that different from painting something real, you just need to know whats beneath your drawing, like Dennis said, having a solid Knowledge of the human body structure is fundamental.
So grab some anatomy books and start studying like there is no tomorrow, thats what i´m doing right now haha.

I forgot about Last Exile! Yes, now I have plenty of artists to look at other than that Japanese dude, thanks man!