Pubic Enemy's Sketchbook

[Pubic Enemy]

I am seeking feedback from fellow human beings. I have been posting art on social media sites for 4 years but usually get no responses from other people, which makes me think I have a serious deficiency in one or more areas. I already have suspicions of what they are, but I would like to hear it from other people, since I currently have no idea of how strangers react to my images. It's great that at least one old-school art forum is still reasonably active.

Perhaps you find the faces hideous, or the rendering to be nauseating, or you notice other serious issues. I want to know your first impression flat-out. These are in order from newest to oldest, so the top 3 images are the most representative of my current skill level.

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(look, sometimes you're all out of ideas and you just need to draw a silly catgirl maid picture)

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(The only traditional thing in this post, and it's about 50% attempts at drawing photos from memory)

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[Artloader]

Welcome to Crimson Daggers Pubic Enemy!

First impressions from my humble perspective are that you are already quite accomplished. Nice digital rendering and nice use of perspective on the last piece there.

Personally I would have liked to see a little more reflected light in the shadow areas but take that with a pinch of salt as I still have a long way to go on my own art journey.

Looking forward to more from you :).

[darktiste]

Prepare for some harsh word.I just think your subject matter are mostly borderline cliché they seem to express you emotion without truely being free to express something.Like your struggling to push your standard to risk sometime new and original.

On a good note you have some nice figure i think what you need to invest more into is more dynamism in your pose.I would also suggest going on pinterest or anything with image and study fashion to push your costume to have more flavour.

[Pubic Enemy]

Thanks to both of you for the responses.

Artloader: The reason for the lack of reflected light is that I like the stark look it can create... and it certainly lets me be lazier. Some of my images would probably benefit from a realistic amount of it though.

Darktiste: I agree with you about the images' general dullness. I will have to try different approaches, like you suggested.

[chubby_cat]

Welcome to Daggers :)

It's hard to provide tailored feedback without knowing what kinda of direction/style you are wanting to head in, but I have some feedback below. Of course, take it with a grain of salt as these are just my personal opinions.

Overall, the pieces look pretty good. I've noticed though you do have a tendency to render a lot of it with hard edges - especially the faces. There's nothing wrong with this but when painting women the more you hard edge render every detail in their face, the more you age them. It could be worth experimenting with more softer edges. Below is a quick paint over I did on one of your images. I basically just took a soft brush to it and toned down the edges. The colours you pick for skin are very saturated and when you add such strong highlights to it, it gives it almost a plastic feel.

The paintover ain't that great lol, but hopefully it'll give you an idea of what I'm talking about. It's the whole ides of sometimes, less is more.
Also in some pieces watch your values - her hair was almost the same value as the sky.
Yours left - paintover right

[Pubic Enemy]

I see what you're saying. I almost always bungle drawing pretty young women for the reasons you mentioned. Hard habit to break, I guess.

Your paintover does look younger and has a bit nicer contrast. Thank you for your time!

[Pubic Enemy]

My attention span has been in the crapper lately, so I've got two aborted paintings and a sketch:

Both of these guys probably needed some more midsection. Oh well!

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The next post will contain at least one attempt at skin tones that are not of uniformly eye-searing saturation. That's the truth.

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[cgmythology]

Nice updates here, really enjoying your clean style and brushwork. I love the concept sketch on the seconds piece as well, hope you paint that one in as it would make for a stunning piece!!!

[Pubic Enemy]

Thank you for the kind words, cgmythology!

I've been trying to draw prettier faces. This is some poorly free-handed perspective, but I wasn't intending to render it beyond a sketch level.

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There's a contest on Pixiv to design new characters for a phone game called Houchi Shoujo/Girls Chronicle (some kind of idling game where you collect large-boobed anime girls and level them up), so I made a submission. My design sensibility is extremely poor, but it was fun to try. I think I will go with less obvious line-art next time, or at least reserve thick lines for contours.

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[Artloader]

I'm loving your rendering dude, particularly the attention you give to lighting and shadows.

I particularly like the piece of the girl with the wild blonde hair in the white nighty - lovely rendering of the hair and the forms. Just be careful with your proportions - her lower half looks to be a lot bigger that her top half?

Also I think your design work is wonderful in this last piece - the dress is marvelous!

Looking forward to more!

[Rotohail]

Holy molly! Well you have to my eyes pretty good form definition! This last faces look prettier also compared to the early posted ones so good job! But appeal is sort of personal too, you can draw a face you find pretty and some others won't so don't go crazy down that rabbit hole, it's dark in here... lol.

Improve, improve. Hair maybe? Some materials reflectivity/reflections, the backgrounds (although you can go 3D if you don't want to get your hands in the mud with backgrounds nowadays ha ha) and my personal favorite one that keeps me awake at night, facial expressions? The smile one was good attempt but it turned out a bit on the creepy side, you can get a lot of appeal if you manage to strike good expressions.

Overall, you are doing awesome! Design wise the last one, hmm, the feathers could be more fluffier, fuller? I really like your lines tho, you get some nice changes in flow and variety.

[Pubic Enemy]

Thanks to both of you for the kind words.

Artloader: You're right about the proportions. I often mess them up if I don't watch them like a hawk... I'm still working on it... heh heh

Rotohail: I have neglected things like hair and different materials. I'm trying to work on them more... slowly.

Here's an almost finished (abandoned) painting. I know there are issues (such as odd walking posture -- I noticed it too late for a fix to be practical), but feel free to point them out anyway, in case I missed some. Also, I promise this is the last time I re-use this composition for the foreseeable future.

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[darktiste]

I feel like the composition is to left heavy i think you could crop a bite the right side of the frame and you wouldn't lost that much information you can still capture one side of the door and that be enough information to indicate a possible double door.

One other thing is how the floor and the wall are equally lite for an artist view point this could be a red flag of lighting inconsistency or it it intentional but i always like to bring something like this to the attention of the artist so they can be aware of it if they miss it themselve.

There seem to be a recurring scene involving hallway going on in what you shown so far.There way to control were the eye go you don't have to limit yourself to almost empty background but sometime less is more.

[JosephCow]

I actually think there's a lot of good happening in the last composition. It is a little awkward, yes. But I like the way the hallway is painted, and her dress is also painted really nicely. I think if she were reaching for a door handle, that would add a lot more interest to the piece. What's behind those doors? She's going to find out! But oh, no she got caught, which is why she is looking toward the camera.

Of course you're not going to change it now, but maybe if you go back to it some day. Also, since the moonlight is hitting both the wall and floor more or less equally, I would think they would be the same value? (in response to darktiste)

[darktiste]

I actually think there's a lot of good happening in the last composition. It is a little awkward, yes. But I like the way the hallway is painted, and her dress is also painted really nicely. I think if she were reaching for a door handle, that would add a lot more interest to the piece. What's behind those doors? She's going to find out! But oh, no she got caught, which is why she is looking toward the camera.

Of course you're not going to change it now, but maybe if you go back to it some day. Also, since the moonlight is hitting both the wall and floor more or less equally, I would think they would be the same value? (in response to darktiste)

Apparently my vision betrayed me they have actually have different value.It more believable if it moonlight because it already bounce light will sunlight would reflect a bit more on the lower part of the wall vertical wall.

[JosephCow]

Apparently my vision betrayed me they have actually have different value.It more believable if it moonlight because it already bounce light will sunlight would reflect a bit more on the lower part of the wall vertical wall.

No, you were right, they are the same value. For all intents and purposes, anyway. I was just saying, I feel like it looks correct.

[Osmium]

I am seeking feedback from fellow human beings. I have been posting art on social media sites for 4 years but usually get no responses from other people, which makes me think I have a serious deficiency in one or more areas. I already have suspicions of what they are, but I would like to hear it from other people, since I currently have no idea of how strangers react to my images. It's great that at least one old-school art forum is still reasonably active.

Perhaps you find the faces hideous, or the rendering to be nauseating, or you notice other serious issues. I want to know your first impression flat-out. These are in order from newest to oldest, so the top 3 images are the most representative of my current skill level.

Hey. Great rendering work overall. Your characters are solid and your technique is consistent over all of them. Perhaps the next natural step is to work on composition and backgrounds so you can give your characters some more context on every piece (I also need to work on this).

[Rotohail]

The form reads very well on your last one, face is more appealing overall (I think you wanted to improve on this?) and it all reads quite well. I would point out that there's a mismatch between the hallway and the character legs perspective/angle of view (somewhat), you could hide it by just changing the slope of the ground (lowering the horizon, stretching the walls and doors to fit, maybe? It would be a fake/untrue perspective but I roll with those lately ha ha).
What are your goals with the paintings you are doing? What do you want to tell the viewer or make them see? Sorry if it feels out of the blue but I was wondering since some have quite intensity (like danger) in them but they have also mixed in some mundane tropes? Like this last one has a vamp feel to her, monster hands and piercing eyes, but she's just walking somewhere, like taking a stroll. I almost would expect to see you drawing some Frankenstein monster type seeping tea or coffee from a mug. Ha! That would be rad, I want to try that now.

[Pubic Enemy]

Thanks to you all for the replies.

darktiste: You're probably right about the composition. I've definitely over-used hallways for backgrounds so far; I will enforce a strict "no-vanishing-point-on-canvas" policy for a while. The floor and side-wall are indeed practically the same value, but since I had the moonlight hitting them at similar angles, I didn't try to force a value difference.

JosephCow: Man, I think you have a better imagination than I do. Can I borrow your brain for a minute?

Osmium: Composition and backgrounds are definitely weak points of mine. For now, I'm just shooting for marginal improvement with every piece. Composition seems to be a real "learn by doing" sort of thing.

Rotohail: Good point about the perspective of the legs; they were bothering me a little. Sometimes an untrue perspective is best for the purpose of the picture. I don't have specific ambitions with art at the moment; I just enjoy doing it and try to make pictures that look cool to my juvenile mind. My imagination is really quite dull though, which is probably why you've noticed a combination of horror tropes with strangely placid scenarios.

Sketch for the purpose of practicing short hair. Based on a photo from a fashion magazine.

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I temporarily became bored of drawing humans, so I mostly reverted to drawing silly dragon pictures with excessive spiky fins.

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This would likely benefit from more polishing, but I don't feel like I can improve it much more. I either reached the limits of my attention span or of my painting abilites (now that's a startling thought). Any and all comments are welcome. Also, I still haven't figured out how a dragon could have front legs AND wings, but the Rule of Cool prevails.

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[Zorrentos]

Your last painting of the dragon looks quite nice, but its WAY to heavy on the left when speaking of the composition. There is very little or no interest on the right side.

I made here a quick overpaint, and notice how it immediatly feels more balanced with just adding a rough structure and some forest on the right side:




Nice design on the dragon btw! Keep posting!