Reply To: Finished my first Character, critique needed

[silentheart00]

I have some things to note, as well:

• I agree with the facial feature critiques.  They look a bit generic, a bit glossed over.  Maybe a study of different facial features would help to develop your understanding and give her more personality.  In the image of her head being tilted, it looks like there’s a ridge of her nose going up into her forehead.  Might want to review some anatomy to help fix that in the future.
• I think the eyes are a little bit far apart, maybe a touch small, as well.  My rule of thumb is to divide the face into 5 equal sections along the eye line so then the proportions work out more realistically.  Typically, I shoot for one eye length between the eyes and one eye length from the eye to the edge of the face.  Hope that makes sense.
• I think her eyebrows are too high.  She kind of looks perpetually surprised.  Or maybe that’s how you rigged them.
• The lips look narrow in a width sense.  The corners of the mouth typically fall in line directly under the pupils.
• Can’t tell if it’s the perspective, but her elbows look too high, which is pulling the arms up and making them look short.  The wrist falls around the crotch level, then the hand extends from there.  Then split the arm length roughly in half and that’s where the elbow falls.  If the character is young, she’ll have perky breasts, which sit higher than her elbows.
• I think the lower half of the legs are a bit short.  Legs are roughly twice as long as the torso, and then the foot extends out.
• The palm section of the hand looks a little too “boxy” or “straight,” if that makes sense.  It looks like you used a box and then added fingers.  Try curving that out.  Look at your own hand in a relaxed position.  It curves when relaxed, right?  You are your own best reference.  Use yourself!
• Hard to critique the fingers, but I suspect similar proportion issues.  That’s okay.  Double check your proportions all the time.
• I like the materials and textures used in the clothing.  Brings a sense of realism.  However, it’s hard to tell what those textures are unless zoomed in.  If you want to fix that, go for it.
• The clothing is a bit simplistic in the detail.  Maybe add a decal on the black shirt that subtly shows the character’s personality.  Do the headphones have to be black or could you add some details there?  Do the stockings have to be a solid color?  Maybe you could add a snazzy stripe?  What can you tell us about her personality in her choice of clothing?  I know you said you were kind of going for a comic book style, so maybe adding details like that would help tell us about her personality without adding things like seeing the thread pattern.

Some resources to pick up if you wish:

• Figure Drawing for All It’s Worth by Andrew Loomis – An excellent resource for anyone looking to improve their character portraits and proportions.  The art style is older, but the art instruction is sill relevant.
• Anatomy for the Artists by Sarah Simblet – Breaks down each part of the body from bones to the cardiovascular system to muscles and how each part of the body relates to each other.
• Character Design Quarterly – Talks about stylized characters, but has good tips for when you want to design a new character that isn’t stylized.

If there are any others, feel free to add!