Elisa (February 2012)

I don’t seem to spam drawings of her as much as I do with Autumn and DG, so here she is for the first time this year. I’m rather happy with this one actually the only things I continue to cringe over are the hands; I just could not seem to get them quite right. I’m especially disappointed with the thumb on her open hand near the butterfly . Otherwise I think she’s gorgeous.

Very nice drawing ! Yep the hands are a bit "strange" but nice work ; you can improve and you will I'm sure of it !

She looks quite lovely. I like the spring-like look with the white dress and what appears to be a madonna lily in her hair.

If it helps any, I would suggest to use models. Basically find a girl in a similar concept and copy the shape of her hands, such as this stock photo for example.

Thanks for the link, Enigmaopoeia ! Think I'll try to draw based on a model like that (even if I know I'm SO bad at drawing....) lol

Well it's nice to see you're still plugging away at drawing Lucas. However, I must admit to being a tad disappointed that there's almost no distinction between this and something you drew maybe a year ago. Now I don't know if this is because you're not so fussed about drawing as a whole, though the quantity of drawings you've uploaded and the fact you're disappointed with some aspects of this drawing would suggest you are.
So, I say as I flex my fingers and crack my knuckles, I am going to do what nobody has done here for a very long time. I am going to critique someone's work. I'll add some useful links for you at the end that I would recommend anyone take a look at.

One of the first things that springs to mind is the lack of shading. Bar the little bit of black at the bottom of her dress and what I assume is shading on the hair, there's nothing else there but flat colour.
Following on from that are the lines. You're relying far too much on the lines to tell us what's there in the drawing. There're the lines to tell us where her collarbones are, her chest in particular looks a bit flat as a result with all those there and the lines used on her outfit for creases and folds actually make it look like the dress is both tight (see the line down the middle of her stomach) while the other ones are really just there.

Next up is everyone's nightmare: proportions! To start with, typically, people are 8 head heights tall. I say 'typically' because obviously this varies, women generally being a little shorter than men. But this generally comes down to a tiny little fraction of a difference. Here I counted roughly 5 and a bit. So she's a little short yet. Now I shall leave explanation of this side of things to the article I'll link to, otherwise I'm simply repeating myself.
Hands, yes. Those are a pain. I myself used to shy away from them a lot in the past, but with anything in drawing, it's not something that's going to solve itself, you're not going to wake up one day and find yourself suddenly able to draw correctly. You have to tackle the problem yourself. Constant repetition has finally allowed me to get a grasp on the things, but they can still be a nuisance. The first step is to make sure they're drawn proportionately and in an appropriate shape, so no more sausage fingers.
Now do this for me: With your arm against your side, I want you to raise your forearm, palm up, to 90 degrees and then take your free hand and place it on that arm with the butt of your hand against the elbow. Now keep this image in mind the next time you're trying to draw hands out. This is also covered in another article below.

Now for some general advice. If in doubt, use reference pictures for your poses. While a dumping ground for rubbish in general, Deviantart has many users on there who submit images for this very purpose. Go on there, search under 'Stock Images and Resources' for poses such as leaning, sitting, standing, etc. and you'll get tons of results. All you have to do is search through them. (Have fun with that, by the way)
Clothing also follows the same idea, though you'll need to expand your search beyond Deviantart for that, as I've yet to find good clothing references on there. Depending on what you're trying to draw, you'll need to think of where to go. But a good start is to go to online clothing retailers and such. Google is your friend here. Another place is magazines. This applies to poses and clothing. Got any lying around the house? Grab them, look through them, see if anything catches your eye. (Yes, I have read girly magazines and gone poking around the internet for this stuff. But every little helps. You do want to get better at this, don't you?)

Now, on with the article links. These should get you started on tightening up your drawing. You can easily take a few weeks out as I once did, grab a pad and just draw the same thing over and over ad infinitium until you're satisfied you've made some progress.

Drawing the body: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&secti ... dy#/d8xt7u
Drawing hands: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&secti ... s#/d21vq4o
Clothing references (google results page): http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=clothi ... channel=np
I would also recommend you go onto youtube.com and get looking there for how to draw tutorial videos: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... 4.5.1l10l0

Good luck.

Good to hear from you Xander, I’ve read over what you’ve written about three times now, first of all thanks for showing an interest that’s always appreciated. Secondly I’ve never been one for shading (no real reason I’ve just never really bothered), but I could always start, the more I think about it, the more effective this drawing would look if she had proper body shading rather than relying on creases in clothing etc... So I will bluntly agree with you in that I do reply heavily on lines but I’m willing to experiment with shading over that instead.

As for eight heads tall I’ll keep that one in mind, I’ve always been rather happy about my heights and proportions though but that’s just me. Also what I really appreciate here is the link to the hands you provided, I’ve always had difficulty drawing them especially when it comes to female characters, larger fingers or even claws I can get with ease, even so I’m grateful you provided that link with the fingers and hands.

As for posing references, I don’t do that all too often but I may start a little more as it would no doubt help overall with the final product looking better, usually I try draw what’s in my mind rather than basing it of something but this could be a very effective change.

Also I think I’ve come a fair way in a year, go dig through some of the drawings I uploaded around January last year, your eyes will hurt looking at them . Another note: I currently have no interest in going digital with my drawings, that’s just me, I love my pencils and paper, I still believe I will be able to churn out art that can look effective with all this advice you presented me with and stick to my basic media. Now the most important thing when it comes to drawing even though I’m obviously not at your level, make sure you’re having fun while you’re doing it, otherwise what’s the point?

Anyway I’ve got a fair bit to think about. I’ll be researching a bit too especially with that hand guide, that’s already gotten me rather hyped. So thanks.

Now you can do something for me, don’t make us wait so long for your next piece of art work. I’m looking forward to seeing more of your stuff back in these galleries.

Cheers mate.

I agree with Xander (even if I don't know about an half of his rules !)

One thing i like, the flower... Girls should wear flowers in her hair i think ! By the way, who is Elisa ?

There are no rules when it comes to drawing a picture, remember that . I’m happy with my style but plan to try a few of the things Xander mentioned out for some future drawings, just to see what happens with the final product.

Also thank you, I’m glad you like Elisa I did design her to have a whole mother-nature theme, hence her flower. She’s a main character I created for a Phantasy Star related fan-fiction of mine Accepting Fate.

You can vist her character profile here too: Elisa’s Profile.

Also thank you to Myau and enigmaopoeia for your previous comments I appreciate them.

The "there are no rules" just made me twitch there. I have no idea why I jump in uninvited, but here it is nonetheless.

Everything Xander said in his initial post: I happily endorse. Whether you draw Autumn, Elisa or what have you, you always draw more or less the same thing, with a different name. Does that mean you have no talent? Heck no. In their current form, your drawings are worlds better than what I could personally draw. Just check Xander's early stuff, it is on par with what you can draw now.

Now check his current projects. Not so much anymore. About a year ago, a friend of mine on the EOTA board did for Xander exactly what he is doing for you now.

I don't believe Xander offered you rules. I believe he offered you tools and guidelines. They are used to evolve further. See the remixes I posted here? Great stuff right? You don't want to hear my first musical tryouts from 1998. Trust me. You don't.

When my musician friend approached me and said "try this instead", I could have said "but there are no rules to music". I could have mashed the keys and call it a song.

There are rules for drawing. There are rules for writing. There are rules for making music. Don't ask me the rules for drawing, I couldn't help you there, but they exist, it's a craft, it is structured like any other crafts. Practice any of the crafts I just mentioned with complete disregard for rules and you will get, what we happily call in french ''n'importe quoi", which roughly translates to "whatever"

Your attitude is progressive, you already said it yourself, you want to try some of the stuff he suggested. Do so and we'll all be asking for more of your drawings in less than a year.

I just want to chime in and say that I like the drawing, and I like Lucas's style, and I always have. I think there's something to be said for unadulterated line work and simple colors, and these elements make his works almost always among my favorites posted on this board.

Style isn't something that can be taught, and tastes differ. I think it's cool that he's happy with his style, and I agree with him on that point. If people want to draw for their own enjoyment, and have fun doing it, I think it's awesome. We all have different ideas about our work and where we're going with it.

And while it's definitely true that there are standards in art, there aren't universal standards. The same is true in language. I don't take a prescriptivist view of language, and I look at art in the same way. If it communicates something, then it communicates something. Of course there are standards and procedures in art, as in language, but we often ignore them, for our own reasons. We're also often not even conscious of them. Some of the greatest musicians of all time had absolutely no formal understanding of music theory.

And I, personally, am always asking for more art from Lucas, because I really like his work.