A major flaw of mine. (Character Critique?)

[MiranTheWolf]

Hello there! So this is my first time posting any thing here and I guess, I dunno where to post my stuff (some confidence would help XD). Since I started drawing, I've always had...a character or rather a Muse in a sense but my problem is. In consistancy.

The character's name is Miran.

This was a comparison of how I drew him in 2008 to 2012.

After that, I started trying to draw him more but...there were alot of inconsistancies. ALOT.



This was a later piece in 2013




If the face isnt right, the body isnt right, if the body is right, the face isnt right. I'm having inconsistancies with my own character and it's upsetting. I'm losing confidence in my ability to be able to even draw him. I wanna be able to crack him out one after another, again and again and get him right in my eyes every single time but...I dunno, it just...nothing's sitting.

Please help :(

[Madzia]

Your pictures are not showing :(

[MiranTheWolf]

So these are some of my pics, I got better over time, but...as you can see it lacks consistancy with the character :(

Your pictures are not showing :(

[Amit Dutta]

The problem is you are developing your skills and render style while working on this character through time. Unless you specifically stick to one style of doing things, there is no way that your improving skills will be consistent with your older shitter ones. :) That's actually a good thing!

So what are you actually asking for? Do you want to improve the most recent thing and get crit on that, or do you want us to give you advice on how to make things look like your old work style (more graphic and comicy)?

I would say you are improving, your render quality is improving, your understanding of volume is improving. What you need to focus on is anatomy study. Then once you're done with anatomy, focus on anatomy. And then when you're absolutely sick of anatomy, do some anatomy just to mix it up. Finally look at perspective and how to construct....you guessed it....anatomy in perspective. :D
I'm being a dick, but what I'm saying is if you want to improve as an artist overall, focus on the fundametnals. If you only want to learn how to draw something one way, just keep drawing things one way and that will sort itself out. I think you should take it as a positive that you are improving and changing. What you decide to do with your character is up to you.

[MiranTheWolf]

The problem is you are developing your skills and render style while working on this character through time. Unless you specifically stick to one style of doing things, there is no way that your improving skills will be consistent with your older shitter ones. :) That's actually a good thing!

So what are you actually asking for? Do you want to improve the most recent thing and get crit on that, or do you want us to give you advice on how to make things look like your old work style (more graphic and comicy)?

I would say you are improving, your render quality is improving, your understanding of volume is improving. What you need to focus on is anatomy study. Then once you're done with anatomy, focus on anatomy. And then when you're absolutely sick of anatomy, do some anatomy just to mix it up. Finally look at perspective and how to construct....you guessed it....anatomy in perspective. :D
I'm being a dick, but what I'm saying is if you want to improve as an artist overall, focus on the fundametnals. If you only want to learn how to draw something one way, just keep drawing things one way and that will sort itself out. I think you should take it as a positive that you are improving and changing. What you decide to do with your character is up to you.

Actually what I would like is to be able to find a way to advance the appearance of my character along with my skill, kinda like stepping stones and each advancement in his appearance working as a marker for where I am at one point or another.

My biggest goal is that I can be able to crack out this character at the current highest skill level I'm at, in the least amount of time of any other illustration. But to do that, I want consitancy. I've had alot of really great advice from users on this forum about how I can go about advancing my fundamentals and learning new tips and tricks for getting better at my form and it has been phenomonally helpful...unlike my spelling which SUX.

So yeah, A critique of my most recent one would be fantastic! Also I started another one of him

---

One big thing I already know about my own work on this one though is, it seems like his muscles are physically melting off his back, they're not a sturdy furry texture, and his eyes are too far apart :(

[Amit Dutta]

I must admit I'm a little bewildered by your goal. You want "consistency" but I'm not sure in what way you mean that. Consistency in design, rendering, style? You also want to be consistent have your character change along with your skill level? I am going to assume this character is destined for a comic of some sort, which is why you want consistency?

Anyway the advice I would give you is twofold, one you've already heard:
Anatomy study and application. This is the main thing that will help you.
The second is design. Are you happy with it? The design is plain and to be honest there isn't a lot of design involved because he is half naked. Why not iterate the character design with each piece to try out different things like accessories, culture, hairstyles, colouring etc, rather than just draw him the same way each time. This way you will get more practice for your time out of each piece. There is not much point learning how to do one thing over and over when it isn't the best it could be to start with.

For your last piece (not the wip) the anatomy is very off. Musculature isn't in the right place and it is overly defined. The values of the piece are too blown out on the high end. You need to work on your volume and think about how to show 3D form as it wraps around. You should also practice drawing the body in perspective and with foreshortening (again fundamentals). Loomis, Bridgman, Hogarth, Bammes Villippu etc etc all these guys are anatomy resources. Villippu is the best hands down, but the videos are expensive.

Hope that helps.