I just wanted to share and this seemed like the best place to do it, the first few sketches done here are all Dwarfs, and all of them are Core classes. I'll do the Basic and alt classes later. And then maybe requests and such, I'm looking for commission work later on and such. Anyways these are just pencil sketches, I don't know if I'll color them.
Barbarian and Bard
Cleric and Druid
Fighter and Monk
Paladin and Ranger
Rouge, Sorcerer, Wizard
Any feedback at all?
I like the stonelord, personally. Its good to see dwarves getting some love! :)
Yeah they are a fun unique challenge. I wanted to go a little bit against the grain with 'traditional' roles, but also keep the proper feel and look of dwarves.
I think I like the paladin and wizard best
Hey Kingman, these are great ideas but I suggest that you brush up on your figure drawing skills, especially if you're looking for art related work. If you need any help or advice on improving let me know! I am a student-illustrator with two years of good learning, and I'd like to see how much more awesome your drawings can become.
Right well the only way to get better is practice. I'm always open to advice and construction criticism (part of the reason I put these sketches up).
I'd love to put stuff into Wayfinder one day.
Great outlook, and great motivation! Here are some things you should study and practice in a specific order. They are all steps of figure drawing: Gesture, Construction, Anatomy, and Tone. Start with the gesture, and once you get the hang of it, add the next thing in line on top of that. Don't know what these are? There are tons of figure drawing tutorials all over the internet. Start by researching Glenn Vilppu. He is one of the modern masters of figure drawing and taught my professor Sheldon Borenstein.
Here is a great starting tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_81488&feature=iv& amp;src_vid=8j39NqwL7s4&v=74HR59yFZ7Y
And here is a great online practice tool if you don't have actual models to practice from: http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/
Good luck with your endeavors! Since there aren't many places on the web to get decent art critiques, if you ever want private feedback just PM me with your drawings asking for a critique and I will gladly give you feedback.
Any feedback at all?
I'm not an artist by any stretch, so I can't really offer constructive feedback, per se. But if it helps at all, I think the paladin is by far the best drawing of the bunch. You would probably be better at drawing (no pun intended) conclusions from that than I would.
Good for you for jumping in to this and putting yourself out there!
Hi Kingman, most of what I'd say has been said by incredilee but I'll add a few things. Please accept this as constructive criticism, I absolutely mean no offence.
1. Subjects - Use a variety of different subjects for models. That is, don't draw only dwarves. I realize you're grouping your portfolio by race, but in order to get better feedback you need to show different types of people. Also, females (even dwarf females) are not males with a big rack. It is difficult to distinguish your male drawings from your female ones.
2. Faces - Not bad, but many of them share the same features with different dressing. The fighter and monk, for instance, look like the same dude with different hair styles. Also, your noses are too long, which makes your mouths and chins too small. A dwarf typically has a big nose, yes, but not a long one. And they usually have a strong, prominent jawline. Your dwarf wizard is by far your best face in terms of proportion, character, and features.
3. Proportions - As incredilee said, practice on your figure drawing. Build from the inside out, starting with the gesture (or scribbly stick man). The gesture is the hardest thing to nail down but once you get it your drawing will look a thousand times better. Construct the rest of the figure using basic shapes, leave the details for last. There are two other resources I highly reccommend: any book written by Andrew Loomis (there are many, but he is one of the best how-to-draw teachers ever) and "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" by Stan Lee and John Buscema. Either of these will take your drawings to the next level. Finally, if your not sure about your proportions, look at your drawing upside down or in a mirror. Easiest way to spot problems.
3. Anatomy - Clearly you like to show muscles which is fine in itself, try not to let it dominate the illustration. Muscles can be just as impressive when suggested underneath clothes, scales, armor or what have you. Also, some of your arms and legs suffer from the "sausage-links" look. Keep in mind which are the bigger muscle groups and which are smaller, and give them a little more balance.
4. Poses - To me, this is your weak area. Your poses are very stiff and lack life. They are cool poses, but need more movement in them. By that, I don't mean they need to be running and jumping around. I mean they need to look like they are living, breathing creatures and not just frozen statues. Your best poses are the stonelord and trophy hunter, very natural and they look like they are doing whatever it is they are supposed to be doing. I hope that makes sense. The best way to achieve this is to REALLY loosen up in the sketching phase. When you are roughing out a drawing, be extremely loose with your pencil and scribble a lot. I can't stress this enough, let your arm and wrist go. You'll find the lines you need and build off them. You can agonize over the fine details later, but be as loose and as messy as you can when nailing that pose. When you've got it, see if you can push the pose even further. A good teacher once told me a strong pose is when the character REALLY looks like he's doing whatever he's doing, whether he's swinging a sword high over his head or just sitting in a chair.
A final word about an advanced topic: foreshortening. Its probably the toughest thing for most artists to learn but necessary. Look closely at your rogue and forgemaster. See how the axe and anvil sort of meld right into the figure? There is nothing to define them as seperate elements that are in front of the subject, thus making the entire drawing appear flat. A slightly better effort was made with the monk's fists thrusting forward, but his fists are lost in his arms and are hard to clearly see.
I hope that helps, you've got some great stuff that can be even greater with a little work. Try not to get too comfortable with one set way. I say this because I did the very same things in my drawings when I was younger and its easy to spot now. There's an old saying for artists: "Your only as good as your worst drawing." So true. Find your weak spots, hunt them down and kill them!
What Luz said in number 4 is the most important of the bunch. Details are like the icing on the cake. No matter how much icing you put on, if the foundations of your cake are made of cardboard then the cake will still not taste good. So, if you practice a lot of gesture drawing and "pushing the pose", one of the main foundation skills in illustration, then your drawings will become THAT much better, even if you aren't doing any fancy coloring or rendering.
Here is a great starting tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_81488&feature=iv& amp;src_vid=8j39NqwL7s4&v=74HR59yFZ7Y
And here is a great online practice tool if you don't have actual models to practice from: http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/
Good luck with your endeavors! Since there aren't many places on the web to get decent art critiques, if you ever want private feedback just PM me with your drawings asking for a critique and I will gladly give you feedback.
Ohhhh thanks a bunch.
Any feedback at all?I'm not an artist by any stretch, so I can't really offer constructive feedback, per se. But if it helps at all, I think the paladin is by far the best drawing of the bunch. You would probably be better at drawing (no pun intended) conclusions from that than I would.
Good for you for jumping in to this and putting yourself out there!
Hey I appreciate complements too, and thank you.
Hi Kingman, most of what I'd say has been said by incredilee but I'll add a few things. Please accept this as constructive criticism, I absolutely mean no offence.
1. Subjects - Use a variety of different subjects for models. That is, don't draw only dwarves. I realize you're grouping your portfolio by race, but in order to get better feedback you need to show different types of people. Also, females (even dwarf females) are not males with a big rack. It is difficult to distinguish your male drawings from your female ones.
2. Faces - Not bad, but many of them share the same features with different dressing. The fighter and monk, for instance, look like the same dude with different hair styles. Also, your noses are too long, which makes your mouths and chins too small. A dwarf typically has a big nose, yes, but not a long one. And they usually have a strong, prominent jawline. Your dwarf wizard is by far your best face in terms of proportion, character, and features.
3. Proportions - As incredilee said, practice on your figure drawing. Build from the inside out, starting with the gesture (or scribbly stick man). The gesture is the hardest thing to nail down but once you get it your drawing will look a thousand times better. Construct the rest of the figure using basic shapes, leave the details for last. There are two other resources I highly reccommend: any book written by Andrew Loomis (there are many, but he is one of the best how-to-draw teachers ever) and "How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way" by Stan Lee and John Buscema. Either of these will take your drawings to the next level. Finally, if your not sure about your proportions, look at your drawing upside down or in a mirror. Easiest way to spot problems.
3. Anatomy - Clearly you like to show muscles which is fine in itself, try not to let it dominate the illustration. Muscles can be just as impressive when suggested underneath clothes, scales, armor or what have you. Also, some of your arms and legs suffer from the "sausage-links" look. Keep...
1. Oh I do, I picked dwarves for both study and challenge. As I've done a lot of figure drawing from the 'normal' human proportions. I started in artwork as an anthro artist, and wanted a break from human or human like figures. As well as broaden what I can bring to the table so to speak. I did try to find some references on female dwarf anatomy (which didn't exactly turn out the examples I was looking for.) so I had to wing it. Some of them because of outfit, I had to use other means then breasts to distinguish them (the paladin and rogue respectively.) The ranger and druid were the only ones with large breasts. (Even then not that large compared to other fantasy artwork examples) When I was thinking about it, I figured they'd have the same short and stocky (i.e. broad shoulders and hips, short thighs and forearms) that males had. The major distinctions I tried to make were face construction, and neck line. Hair style and eyes as well.
2. Hmmm well that's something to work on then. And thanks.
3. I actually do sketch from inside out like that. That's true I like muscles, and dwarves even female ones have always struck me as having big bulky (but not cut) muscle groups. I actually have a few guides that show muscles with the skin 'peeled back' to see how they all fit together. The 'sausage links' thing is a very fair statement. Trying to make those 'pivot points' in the arms and legs 'work' drives me batty, even worse then fingers and hands.
4.Yeah your not the first person that ever told me that. Me and 'loose' have a hard time getting along even my 'stick' and 'general shape' stages are draw often with my fingers locked on the pencil, with a locked wrist. And unless reminded I generally draw like that all the time. And yeah foreshortening and the 3 quarters turn on a figure kill me, I can do front, back, side, but the in-betweens I struggle with. But your right, the forgemaster is by far and above the one I'm personally the least happy with. And the rogue is supposed to be resting her chin on the handle with blade in front of her feet, I was hoping to create the 'depth' with her arms and hand placement.
And yeah I do go straight for the icing and fret over it a lot.
This is some of my other non-dwarf work:
Gnoll Gunslinger
Kobold Ninja
My personal OC
For the DMS out there
More of my OC
Old but D&D related -This one I know has mistakes
@Kingman: I really like the gnoll gunslinger and definitely like the gnoll in the "Old but Dand D related" picture - he could be a great iconic style picture just by himself without the background (and the little koboldy/dragonkin critter in front removed).
If I have any advice for you it is to pencil sketch action poses a million times a day. Stick figures or slightly more developed - the thing is capturing the pose and attitude. Most of my "thumbnail sketches" stay just that, but they are all cobbles on the road to a more accomplished place.
Big ups to you for taking the time to post these. Keep sketching and improving. I expect to see more of these in future.
Thank you, it's a shame that Kingmaker campaign got cancelled I really wanted to see how Daz would shake out.
I fully plan to finish out the back 8 classes for the Dwarves. I might do this for other classes as well that get stereotyped into a handful of roles.