Assignment 5.1 Proportion Critique Correct One

Okay for some reason I thought that I was suppose to pick images that ARE NOT apart of my portfolio. Why I thought that, I'm not sure. But here's the actual critique. Apologies.

Piece 1 - "Lucebelle"


I like the style and rendering of Lucebelle and rather proud of the coloring itself.
I don't feel that the body proportions are too off, particularly for the style that this piece follows (the art from Disney's Pixie Hollow series), however there are a few errors I think worth noting.
1) Her legs appear a bit too long. Although the longer legs denote a wispier character (like a fairy), the legs seem slightly off in length compared to the rest of her (torso and head especially). Her arms could be a bit longer to match the longer legs as well.
2) Her hands are entirely too small. I'll be honest, I sort of fuddled the hands in this. Because of that the hands appear much too small for the size of her face (which will be discussed in a minute). They should actually be larger enough to cover most of her facial features if she covered her face with hand, and they seem to be 2x too small for that.
3) Her head (although matching with the style) is a bit too large, particularly for wide her shoulders are, even if they are slight.

Piece 2 - "Judith"

Judith is one of my achievements, I think, for expressing emotion. I found it rather hard to make her look like she "snapped" but I think I was able to put that off pretty well.

As with most of my female characters, her head seems a bit on the larger side, but honestly not by too much. I wish I made her a little bit more thicker though, since she looks really wispy (although the actress that played her in the first movie was relatively thin). For limb proportion, I think it matches rather well, especially if I thicken her out a bit, although I made her torso a bit longer than it should be. Her feet a bit larger than they should've been as well, but I think her hand proportion fits her face. Just a bit thicker (to make her seem a bit realistic) I think would've helped a lot with this piece.

Piece 3 - "Mary"

As the same with Judith, I think that Mary should've been made a tad thicker (even though this actress was even thinner than the one that played Judith). She also has EXTREMELY long legs which, now looking back, look really off. I suppose I was trying to compensate since the actress was relatively short. Even though her head is a bit on the larger side, I feel like it actually fits, since the actress was short. I think if I just made the legs a bit shorter (as well as shorten her torso a bit), it would've turned out a bit more proportionally sound.

Piece 4 - "Portrait Adult Female"


This is a bit different than the other critiques, since this is just of the face, which will help me focus on my issues with facial proportions.

I'm really proud of this particular piece, since it was one of the best portraits I've done, but I still think it might need a bit of work. I think the most major elements that I need to address are the eyes and the nose. I always tend to make these a tad too large. I think that her eyes should also be just a little bit closer together. The model's face was actually really small, and she had a small head with large hair, so I feel that it fits the model. However, for proportional sake, her hair would be out as far and I think I'd make her jaw a bit broader.

Piece 5 - "Old Man Head 4-Up"


This is definitely a bit different than the others, since this is just a face as well as being 3D.

From the frontal view (view 2) it looks as if the model is relatively proportionate to how a face should be, except for the slightly wider mouth. From the side views (view 1 and 3), the face itself seems rather flat making the model more 2D than 3D. There should be more definition in the cheek bones and a more prominent brow. Even though the jowls/cheeks are out a bit far, I don't think that it is entirely disproportionate since the character is supposed to be an older character.

Assignment 5.1 Proportion Critique

Piece 1 - "Bottled Self"



This piece was actually a self portrait I did during my digital arts class.
The concept I felt was strong, in that it conveys how people tend to categorize and separate different parts of themselves that make them up as a whole person. And even though the rendering of flesh is good in most places like the feet and hands, it's extremely disproportionate. The head seems a bit too large and the body (arms and torso) significantly too small. The legs that are detached, although relatively realistic in rendering as well as an intriguing part of the piece, is also a bit too large for the body.

The character in the space, although we can tell that the character is in some forgotten and grungy location, doesn't seem to fit the space in size and color. The background and foreground don't match in color temperature and lighting making the foreground pop out much more than it should.
I personally am not a fan of mixing photography and drawing so that also seems very off to me even though this is obviously a surreal image. I think the images of the artist in the bottles are intriguing, but the photo realistic bottles don't match the scene and tend to pull more attention than they should. Also the storage of bottles in the background should be a bit smaller considering the distance.

Back to the figure, now that I look at the face, the self portrait isn't very visible, mostly because I made the mouth and chin a bit too small (or the nose too big...what can I say, I love drawing noses!).

All in all, great concept (that's why I love this piece so much), but when I redo it, I think I'll execute a bit differently.

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Piece 2 - "Snow Adventurer"




This is also one of my favorite images. I think it's because I normally don't add too many accessories with my character drawings and this one is just filled with accessories! I personally like the slight disproportion of the back pack (which seems a bit larger than it should be) but it's a good exaggeration on how much things an adventurer needs on an adventure.

The body itself is decent except for a few proportion issues. 1) The figure's head is a bit large. I more prone to drawing larger heads (AKA shorter people, AKA younger proportions than full adult). 2) The legs aren't proportionate to how they should be if they were foreshortened. Same for the arms as well but it isn't as obvious as it is in the legs. 3) I would probably also make her hips a bit wider, however not all women have the hourglass shape so that just might be a personal preference for this particular character.

I think my largest gripe is about the legs. The leg on the left seems less like it's forward in space and more like it's scrunched up. The other leg isn't really much better with the very short thigh and much longer calf.

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Piece 3 - "Wendy Michaels AKA



Ahhh Wendy. This is a fanart of one of my characters from a role playing game. She was actually a super hero in the Marvel Universe, although she's older in this image than the original story. Well, enough reminiscing...on to the critique!

I love the rendering for this image. The color is nicely done with very crisp and obvious shading and highlights. It is one of my better marker colored pieces. And even though the proportions of the face are not to standard, her face is my particular cartoon/comic style, where there are slightly larger facial features (lips, eyes, and mouth). Her hair actually seems to fit on her scalp pretty well and doesn't appear too larger for her head, which can sometimes happen in a comic/manga style art. If I were to change any proportion on the face, I would probably make the head a bit smaller to accommodate the smaller neck (or make the neck a bit thicker).

Her body proportions however, are quite off. I think really the most distracting are her hands. They're definitely a bit too large (or rather her fingers are) than they need to be. I also feel that her chest seems a bit off, and should be a bit smaller/shorter where her torso should be longer (Asian proportion are generally shorter legs with a longer torso) and her hips should be a more gradual slope.
Her arms aren't too bad, considering that she's suppose to be the super strength mutant to where I think there should be a bit more muscle definition.

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Piece 4 - "Insert_Witty_Username Fanart"



This wasn't necessarily fanart. I join a few avatar sites and enjoy drawing peoples' avatars for in-game cash. It's a fun hobby to practice and I enjoy the unique outfits that people create. =)

I particularly like this one, since, I believe this was the first time I used SketchBook Pro (awesome program for digital sketching btw) to do a full body illustration. I also like the coloring I did for the skin (I like the look of blushes on the joints).

As for proportions, I didn't base this off of a figure (most of my art isn't) to sketch from, so I tend to always make the head larger than it should be. However for the nature of this style of art manga/comic, it's a very common feature. I think it looks a bit unsettling though, compared to other pieces (like Wendy Michaels and Snow Adventurer), since the figure is VERY long-limbed. It almost looks ridiculous on how small the hands and size of the arms are as well. Also the REALLY long legs makes the character look really tall when the head size says otherwise. I think I would also make the waist a bit thicker, it looks a bit too uncanny for such a lean looking figure to have very wide hips that suggest hour-glass figure.

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Piece 5 - "Voltaire Bust II"



During my undergrad, a lot of still-life/figure drawing was had on the busts in the art department. And none so popular than Voltaire. (I loved that Voltaire bust to death! He was so much fun to draw!)

This piece critique will be a bit different since the image is only of the head (it's actually a section close up of a larger image); it's also in medium I'm not very comfortable with...charcoal. Anyway, let's get straight to it then!

So I have this fascination I find with noses. I always tend to draw them a bit larger than they need to be, even though Voltaire's nose was pretty big. I think the rendering of the charcoal was relatively decent and you get a good idea of the volume and the depth of places like the eyes and cheek bone. However, he looks a bit cartoonified. I think it actually has to do with the proportions. All of the facial features are slightly too large for the face. The jaw line is one of the few things too small and is actually a bit more narrow than it should be. The forehead is a bit large and makes the head seem huge with a very narrow chin (like Mandark from Dexter's Laboratory).

Review of CGHub.com

So I'm going to review CGHub.com. It's a lot like other forum places such as CGSociety.org but I personally like it because it acts like a one stop shop. The design is easy to get, for one, and they have challenges, job postings, forums, classes, and even tools (this is my favorite, since I love collecting brushes).
I think for someone like myself (AKA a student torn between 2D and 3D art), I think that this site really gives you a good chunk of both worlds with forums and challenges dedicated to both 2D and 3D digital art.
I also like that they have a place to search for jobs and that it's quite easy since you can upload a portfolio to the site and just click "submit portfolio" for a job.
The forum space provides industry news, education information (such as colleges and different classes you can take), jobs among other things.
However, the most appealing thing about this site is the challenges. I often find myself horribly uninspired just because I don't have a direction to draw towards..a goal, if you will. With the plethora of challenges available (and, for myself, a 2D Drawing Jam that is held roughly bi-weekly) there's always something that can be done or to do. If you don't want to draw, you can participate in the 3D jams or even something for environmental designers called "New Worlds." I think because of this, this provides ANY digital artist the foot-in to this awesome community. =)

Other sites to check out.
Characterdesign.blogspot.com - A blog that has tons of interviews from different character designers, illustrators, story artists, etc. in the industry ranging from movies to games. If you'd like to know how artists from places like Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks so their thing, and learn more about them...this site rocks! It also links to tons of professional galleries which helps provide a good model for students.

CharacterDesigns.Com - Although not the best site, I really like that it's a nice reference location available if you're feeling stumped for character creation. They have a selection of artists that you can browse through, plus (I'm a sucker for extras if you haven't noticed...) they have tutorials, textures and photo sets you can peruse to help you light up your fancy.

Imagine FX Magazines - I'll tell you right now...I'm an addict to this magazine. They're a bit pricey (especially state-side) but they are TOTALLY worth it. They give you updates on new and upcoming artists, as well as featured high-profile artists which is awesome! They have tutorials on a plethora of things (that isn't ALL digital, because we all need to start traditionally...at least that's what I think) and they have a great Q&A that covers things that you might find yourself asking on different projects (ex. "How do I make zombie skin look dead?" or "How do I place my character in background properly?") And of course, I LOVE...LOVE extras (and free stuff) so the fact that every magazine comes with a content disc that has all the tutorials and files, but also has either free stock images, textures, brushes, patterns, fonts, or video tutorials. Fun stuff.