Random Sketches

[Natsuke Takeda]

*bows* Hello, I am a lowly aspiring manga artist. I know this place is usually for poetry, but I may wish to show some random sketches of mine. I hope you'll enjoy them, but I also wish for you to be honest. My intent is not to gain praise (well, a little), but to gain some help on some mistakes I may have made before I complete the pictures. I know many places but I wish to start here before I go to a very detailed site of critics who will destroy me.

Thank you!

P.S- Please remember that it's verrrry sketchy, so saying that would not help me a lot.

Here's one I made today:

http://home.comcast.net/~natsuketakeda/5-09-06.jpg

(I tried to draw my best friend on the bottom, but my sketch doesn't make her a beautiful as she really is. I think highly of her and she always like how I try hard to make her look pretty)

_____________

And here's a sketch in which I need advice on. The man's right side of the face is difficult for me to do. I try to always start drawing the left eye because if I drew the right first, duplicating the left mirror image eye is difficult:

http://home.comcast.net/~natsuketakeda/EyeProblems.jpg

That's it for today!

[AqueousMessage]

Glad to see another artist in here. For sketches, they're very good. The anatomy 's very proportionate. All they need is to be finished. Complete the figures, Shade them, add some more detail, and maybe even put some color in.


I know this place is usually for poetry

*cries*

[Arc]

I agree with Aqueous. They are both very good, and I would like to see how they look finished.

Keep up the good drawings. :P

[Neo-Hunter]

I enjoyed these pic very good. Hopefully we can see them in color.

[Natsuke Takeda]

Well, I kind of need some more advice on the latter sketch. I'm having trouble really being able to draw the eye.. That.. that freakin eye! It's like he lost the eye in war.

...Maybe he did.. O.o

[Javer]

First, I would try finishing the right side of his head. (His right, that is.) It looks unfinished where it meets his hair, and it might help you get a better idea of the exact spot to position the troublesome eye.

What problems with it are you having, exactly? It doesn't look like it'd be very hard for you to just mimic the left eye, place it behind the hair a bit.

[Natsuke Takeda]

For some reason, I always have trouble drawing the left eye when it comes to mimicking the right, that's why I always draw left first. It just so happened that I was doodling and I drew the right eye, then everything started to connect.

....Except that damn eye. For some reason, I'm always unable to make a good mirrored eye when it comes to the left one. My sketch hand just doesn't cooperate copying the right to the left, it never does.

[PerfectDeath]

Do you use a skeleton-ish frame to keep the face proportioned? I like this tutorial for designing frames http://www.polykarbon.com/tutorials/index.htm

To comment on your sketches the detail is good and all, though i noticed that you don't finish the top of the heads. It's not really a problem, but it's just incomplete :P

I don't like eyes either :P but i'd suggest putting some shine in the eyes so they look alive. Also i'd like to see how well you do the entire body with and without movement.

Sketches don't tell us much about how well organized your comic will be :P

[Natsuke Takeda]

I like to take it one step at a time. I haven't really had much experience, so I decided to start from the top down. In time I will try, but for now.. stick figures attach to these heads ^^

[PerfectDeath]

well I figure it's best to see what lies ahead :P

I don't have much experience either, but i did my homework on it :D .
The comics that start out with good art either means they have lots of experience drawing, or they got an art degree or sumthin <_< .

I try not to compare myself with the comics who have better technology at hand or art education. :P

For the frames, i don't use the full ones shown in that tutorial, i just use portions of it for faces. I use stick figures too :P

I just need to get better at drawing clothes : /

[Natsuke Takeda]

Well, I AM a graphic arts major. >.>

I'll try to make a sketch, I guess, though I must warn you, I'm not very good.

[Linuts]

The tutorial PerfectDeath provided is a good start.

From the sketches, it seems you jumped right into drawing a face without really understand what a face looks like.

Try to visualize every part of the body/face as individual shapes first. Since you're doing "manga" style, that shouldn't be too hard. Just a lot of circles and ovals ^^. You can also think of it as if you are building a 3D model. Most 3D artists make spheres for the eye balls, then another sphere for the head... Add an oval for the chin, etc. Once you have familiarized yourself with all the shapes that...uuuh... Shape our body, it will be much easier to jump right to drawing a face without these guides.

With that said though, these are good starts. Better than what I could do when I started. Keep it up! ^^

[PerfectDeath]

Well, I AM a graphic arts major. >.>

*GASP*
you hax too O_o!!

[Natsuke Takeda]

I don't hax!

Anyways, I was inspired by reading a Naruto manga today, and since my friend heads a very goof Naruto-game site (www.theninja-rpg.com), I decided to make a manga for him.

http://home.comcast.net/~natsuketakeda/Cover.jpg

Iono... I think my problem is that I lack concentration on one thing. I start doing someone and suddenly something else sparks up in my brain, and I start doing too many things at once.

Tell me what you think! Oh, I also used that tutorial link you guys gave me for the body in that piccy!

[aoi_n_asul]

your sketches are very good, but i'd like to see the details come out more. shading will give more depth to your figures. use shadows to make your drawings more real. regarding the eye, i think your character looks good without it. i remember seeing that kind of style in animes where only one eye gets drawn when the character is in deep thought or is planning something nasty. you could place shadows under the hair, as if the dreaded eye is covered. if not, lines will help you, more or less, balance it with the other eye. which part do you draw first?? sketching the face first can help you in balancing the features. :hyper:

[Tori]

i think that your drawings are ausome i'm also tring to be a manga artest. But so far i've only managed to win afew awards. actualy 2 of my friends & i made a little comic book it was realy funny.

PEACE OUT

[jaejae]

awesome, eagerly awaiting more!

[PerfectDeath]

I don't hax!
you hax don't lie :D
Though you gain points for not using a PC tab, referance to Linuts. =P

But aoi_n_asul took the detail recomendations out from my mouth... well not exactly, but he did a good job at suggesting for you to try shadows.

But If your planing on making manga then you gotta argue both sides of the coin, cell shaded? or blended?<--- my own word for it

Since it's manga, cell shaded would be the recomended, but don't let that kill your creativity.

[Natsuke Takeda]

Okay, I'm back with a few more unfinished sketches for you to look at. This time I've kinda expanded my sketches to the body it not at least the upper body. I've also practiced hands and I do have a sketch to show it.

Anyways, here we go ^^

Note: You will notice a recurring person in almost each sketch but one or two of them. He's my "muse" as I always draw him first. Why? You will also notice a distict change in my style of sketching. I believe that the more styles you try to create and/or imitate, the more you'll develop a style all on your own. My "muse" is always there because I feel comfortable using him for each style since he reflects me and I'd probably know when I've finally created a personal style if I look at him and be like "That's it!" I've also toned down the eyes to look more like the manga style as opposed to the attempt of making real eyes that I did before. I've been trying many things and this is just a tip of the sketches that I haven't finished.

Also, I used the "Levels" on Photoshop because the sketches were too light and I had to darken it. Fortunately, nothing seems to have been distorted from the light/dark manipulation.

http://home.comcast.net/~natsuketakeda/Angles.jpg
(In this sketch, I tried to do the entire body at an angle. Save the hands, the body doesn't look as good as I thought it would be. It's probably the lack of any folds and shading. Notice the Naruto-inspired theme, you'll see it in most of these sketches.)

http://home.comcast.net/~natsuketakeda/Fancy.jpg
(This time I went for a more old-fashioned theme. Sadly, the top was whited-out because I WAS drawing it, then after my boss was done giving me instructions on what to do to fix the next car, I drew again, then messed up, then noticed I can't erase because it was in PEN. ARGH!!!!)

http://home.comcast.net/~natsuketakeda/HandPractice.jpg
(Just as it says.. It's practice on the hands.. I REALLY need some comments on these)

http://home.comcast.net/~natsuketakeda/RandomPeople.jpg
(Top Left: Just watched beyblade for the 3rd time. Bottom Right: The "Muse" in action. I call him Renato, lol. I EVEN ATTEMPTED SHADING!!! OMGS! Bottom left: Another naruto-inspired pic. But I didn't like this one considering I wanted to make him look rugged. Now that I've seen it here, I should have defined his chin instead of going for the rugged bishie look.)

http://home.comcast.net/~natsuketakeda/NicePiccy.jpg
(One of my favorite sketches, mostly because I finally drew the hair for a woman right.. at least in my opinion. I was listening to the first Track of the FFVIII Piano collection and talking to a gal-friend while sketching this, and I reallly liked how it turned out. Renato seems to look better every sketch, lol)

That's it for now. Comments are more welcome than compliments since I'm trying to better myself. Thanks in advance. And thanks for the support!!!