Learning to draw: Original art 01
Finally something a little bit more interesting in the learning curve. Creating original art is the only way to know how much you have improved. It’s also the moment you can be happy because you are not copying anyone. Here is a first batch of original illustration I did.
Usually, I keep all my bad drawing for inking… When I ink a sketch, it looks worse than the pencil sketch, so here is one inking. At day 2, I just got the head kinda right.I also tried some chibi drawing, but it’s a failure as well. I’m disappointed in some of these original, but after a few days, there are also some for which I’m satisfied. One thing I started to use to get the ratio right is my left thumb, which acts like a ruler.
The top drawing is really the first one I liked. I decided to try to color it in Photoshop to start. Inking was done using the pen tool, to help me making curve, otherwise there is no line smoothing unlike SAI. I also made some adjustment to some line, like the fingers which are now longer, to make her hand less puffy. I also used the drawing from my hand training to help me.
I didn’t follow any tutorial for most things, I just tried to copy what I saw in other colored artwork. However, there is 2 colorings methods used there for the skin. All the upper part of the body were colored, my own interpretation of shading. Doesn’t look so good contrary to the part below her t-shirt which simply looks more like traditional coloring. The difference is that there is a lot less shading than what I first thought. The arms have a lot of gradient, but the waist only use 2 colors!
The hair, are very hard. I think I will just mix vector in the future to make them.
Also, after time, you realize that there are plenty of defects. For self criticizing, I think it’s important to give ourselves some time, just to put aside all the excitement. And also, the image is cropped, because there are see through skirts and pantsu 
Looks like a good start to me.
For a bit of critique: you should try to place better the eyes and maybe try to work on making the hair look more natural.
I know for these issues. Eyes placement has improved since then… hair, not so much. It’s still the hardest part for me when I colorize.
Also right now I don’t any more time to draw, I’m quite busy with college. But by these articles, I also wants to retrace the experience of someone learning how to draw and I hope it will help other people. I also hope others will also share their opinion and advices ^^
Wow, you are trying really hard! I’m sure you can improve a lot.
I’d say the eyes are the most important part, yes, but there are 2 other tips I can give you:
Watch out for where the arms starts. They are too close to the shoulders (is it shoulders the word?) so you should do them a bit lower.
Also, the chin format is very important. Keep an eye for it!
Other than that, I must say this is quite a nice start. I am cheering for you! I know it’s not nice to hear this kind of critique, but believe me, it’s better than saying “Oh it’s perfect”. Okay? Good luck! Hope that helped.
I don’t mind critique, and in fact I hope to get some so as to improve, but it’s early, since what you see here only reflects my 6th days in my training and not my actual level. I spent around 15th days in training, and didn’t reach the aimed 21. I don’t have enough time right now to continue, but everything is scanned; I just need to prepare each article.