so I thought I should make an art thread here since I don't get much feedback on DA anymore.

here are some of my recent pieces I particularly like.

Fanart for Zoulart

http://lily-marie.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2z3vrj
(I'll get to fixing the spots of sloppy coloring eventually >>)

me and CogitoIJ as a butterfly

http://lily-marie.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2zh1zu

and the cover for an RP between me and a friend

http://lily-marie.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d30mw9a

that last one I used poses I found on the internet, but I can't find them anymore. (that piece was originally done a few years ago)

I'd like some comments on how to improve please =D

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I'm still the Queen of Dicks

Awww that one with you and Cogito is FREAKIN ADORABLE.

The advice I'd give is really just to work on your shading technique - have a go trying to put more detail into the shading, it will help flesh out your drawings more and prevent them from looking too flat. Have a look at where shadows fall naturally on a person, (i.e. under the chin, around the nose and eyes, beneath the bust, just below the hair line and in the folds of clothes). Have a go at experimenting with shading and colouring, in never hurts to try :)

Also, the girl with the orange hair on the left, her eye looks a bit odd with the way it's sticking out of her hair like that. Colouring over the eye and adjusting the opacity level for the hair covering the eye should do the trick (similar to what you did with the fairy wings - just play around with the transparency until it looks right) - otherwise, just colour the hair over it and leave the eye covered from view.

What program do you use, by the way?

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Hiryu: Doc's bag is a portal. She's actually from another dimension and when she jumped into it, she ended up at a desk with a browser open on this site. That's how she found it.
We have a Doctor Who thread now. Doctor Who threads are cool.

I am terrible at shading but I'm trying to get better. yeah, Coos pointed that out too about the eye. I'll try what you suggested next and see how that turns out.

I use PaintTool SAI for all my arty goodness now.

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I'm still the Queen of Dicks

angel peanuts!

and to jump on the shading wagon as well, have you ever considered hard shading? or whatever it's called... the shading I use.

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I think it's called cell shading. and I don't think it'd work with my stuff.

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I'm still the Queen of Dicks

Awesome! You are a very talented person.Are you an artist or using a pavement paint as your material?

stop-painting.com? bot?

but to get back on this "cell shading", I think it would fit your style pretty well... seeing as it has a pretty dominant anime style to it, and cell shading works for anime
but you wont know for sure until you've tried :3

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Cell shading would definately improve the intensity of the image.
Otherwise the single colours make it look flat.
Nice stuff though.

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kaaaaay I'll try it on a simple image or something to see how it feels.

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I'm still the Queen of Dicks

http://lily-marie.deviantart.com/#/d316jsm

I drew Stuff and tried to do a more realistic style. thoughts?

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I'm still the Queen of Dicks

That's one sexy drawing.

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Tuor: Stuff is our resident, hot mess, alcoholic.
Senel: Stuff is the patron saint of getting shitfaced. You replaced your organs with an engine that runs solely on alcohol.
RIP Lucky. I love you so much.

Huh, I wasn't aware that you actually really drew stuff, and not just trolled around pchat every so often. By golly!

The realistic style is nice. I'd suggest you try and continue work in the direction in that image, rather than the anime-ish stuff. God's know we have enough of it, and it also seems more... I dunno, forced, somehow.

As for the cellshading thing, don't be pressured into it. Keep in mind that the reason anime companies use it isn't because it looks good, but because it looks reasonably good compared to the time it takes. If they could afford to shade every frame like this they probably would, and I'll personally slap anyone who thinks this is shaded better than this. That's not to say it can't give an awesome effect (I think it's pops even more on non-anime art), and most notably, it's also easier to make it to look good than soft shading. I just think it's a shame when good artists limit themselves to it, "because that's what they do in anime".

What I think you need, regardless of which kinda shading you go for, is more contrast (lulz, I tell this to everybody, am I simply the minority?) and more detail in the shading. Use different intensities of shadow and be sure that everywhere there should be any kind of shadow, it has some shadow, not just the major, big round areas. The eyes are set into the skull, shadow. The nose always has a highlight somewhere and cast upon the face shadow elsewhere, unless the light is directly from the front. Hands have shadow, like, everywhere, including in the creases, and if the fingers are bended, it will often vary from joint to joint. Major tots of hair will cast shadow on the underlying and so forth and etc.

Also, in the Delin... Delineate Delegate picture, with the mentioned guy with hair over his eye... The standard convention is to still draw the eyes, but cover it fully with the hair color, no opacity or anything. The green in his eye kinda makes it look like the eye is in front of the hair. Personally, I just don't draw the eye, if something overlaps it, the end.

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Not bad for an attempt. Keeping at a realistic style can even improve on an anime style.

I agree with Veg on the shading.

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You agree on Veg? Veg hasnt even said anything...

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Yeah, just double posting.

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Hahah Asmodai is silly

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oh wait, now I see it.... aaaargh you bastards xD

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http://lily-marie.deviantart.com/art/ta ... -184714459

tattoo designs for me and Ian, potentially. DO YOU UNDESTAND TEH SYMBOLZ?

any suggestions on how to maybe make them better? really having problems with the cogs. I'm using paint tool SAI and I can't make circles with it as far as I know :x

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I'm still the Queen of Dicks

so I've fixed the lines, even though the pic here doesn't seem to have updated. just go here again http://lily-marie.deviantart.com/art/ta ... -184714459

does anyone know a good, free image editing program that I can use to get transparent backgrounds? (besides GImp, Gimp is a bitch to me and likes to crash)

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I'm still the Queen of Dicks

Paint.net?

The Gimp has been called the best free photo editor program, so I dont think you can top that

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You'd taatoo it? Permanently or with genna?

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Patt-Ytto Productions | Dickwaffles

permanently, why?

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I'm still the Queen of Dicks

http://hotfile.com/dl/41877432/75434d7/Portable_Adobe_Fireworks_CS5_Final_v11.0.0.484.rar.htmlNothing in particular, just plain curiosity.

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Patt-Ytto Productions | Dickwaffles

got the background to be transparent~

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I'm still the Queen of Dicks

I always have trouble with that. stupid transparent backgrounds. >.>

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Check Out My Art

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Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen.
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