Critique Corner

Critique Corner Session Three - Computer Graphics and Noses

It's gonna be kind of a strange Critique Corner today. Questions were asked this week, but not much fanart came with the questions. Hrm, maybe I should put together a kind of "Ask Lorelai" thing too...Oh, some of you have been asking for private critiques...I'll try the best I can, but I can't guarantee a critique for everyone in the future (so far, though, I've done every single one). Anyway, today's two main questions were about noses and computer graphics. As usual, I will back up my words with some of my own artwork. For computer graphics, I pulled out two portraits of Yuffie and Agrias; each was done in a different program. And guess what? They have different noses! ^_^ Yup, Lorelai has stacks and stacks of art up her sleeves to demonstrate with...and if I get a request I can't find an example for, I'll DRAW it right then and there!!! Before you start, you must have a good idea about the shadows and texture of the subject's hair, reflections in eyes, etc. or else your graphically enhanced fanart will be a flop. (Maybe do a few sketches first?) Once you have a strong hold on your coloring, THEN try the next step: Anything from Paintbrush to photoshop will do, as long as you have the artistic experience. I don't draw the sketch right on the computer; I would recommend you have access to a scanner to scan your pencil art in, unless you're very good at mouse drawing or you have those computer pen thingies. Yuffie was colored with Paint Shop Pro. My technique with her was to draw very thick black lines so that I could use the FILL command to color her in generally; then I used a color replacer tool to replace parts of these fills with darker shades (for shadows). Finally, a smudge/smear tool was used to smooth things out and gave Yuffie a less angular look (though sometimes angular is good...try it sometime). If you click Yuffie's thumbnail, you'll see the the finished product: I cut and pasted her onto a magazine background, then layered a translucent red on the whole picture for the sunset aura. For Agrias, I used the layering tool in Photoshop. (Never mind the fact that Agrias would never be caught DEAD in this kind of pose...) This neato concept called LAYERS allows me to forget drawing in thick black lines, because I don't use the fill tool at all. I just airbrush (always using less-than-100% opacity for every layer) and make new layers to my heart's content. It's like coloring on different sheets of thin tissue paper, and then putting it all together to make one colored drawing. It's not very hard at all, once you're familiar with Photoshop...which is probably the most intimidating part about using the famous Adobe product. About noses: You'd think that anime artists are afraid of noses, given that they draw only outlines of them, and sometimes no nose at all! (ahem...TACTICS) Well, that may be why some of us anime drawers have nosephobia...Let me try to help. First of all, notice that Yuffie has a typical anime nose, and Agrias sports a human-like-but-Lorelai-is-too-lazy-to-draw-more-realistically nose. Since what we're doing is fanart, I've been very sparse with lines defining the nose. And there's no reason you can't do that either! If you want more life-like noses, I'd consult an art book, or a human model. I have never seen an anime piece with lifelike noses. In fact, I haven't seen anime pieces with lifelike anythings! Good Luck, and feel free to contact me with any questions and comments.

Thanks to Princess Artemis for e-mailing this handy-dandy guide of human proportions! (mind you, these are HUMAN proportions, not anime proportions...but they are awfully similar).

Feet are as long, heel to toe, as the forearm elbow to wrist. Forearms are as long fingertips to elbow at the lower leg is from heel to just below the knee. From the hip joint to the bottom of the knee, the upper leg is as long as the forearm, elbow to fingertips. The hand is two-thirds as long as the forearm, inside of elbow to wrist, and about half as long as the upper arm, shoulder to elbow. Feet, on the top side, from heel to the base of the toes, are as long as the hand. The bottom of feet are slightly longer before the toes begin. Hands are as long as the face, chin to hairline. Hands are one half the width of the face, cheek to cheek. Hands are one half the length of the front of the upper leg, pelvic bone to above the knee. The palm of the hand is as long at its longest point as the middle finger and is one finger wider than all four fingers. The upper arm, shoulder to elbow, ends about where the last rib ends on the side of the torso. One other proportion that helps me keep the eyes the right size in relation to the nose is that the outside corner of the eyes and the tip of the nose form a right triangle almost every time, with the 90 degree angle at the tip of the nose. Check these against yourself; they are right for me and many other people, but you should always see for yourself. Keep in mind especially the hand proportions; it will help you draw hands the right size in the future. -- Princess Artemis

Lorelai's Final Comments

My gawrsh! ONE piece of Xenogears fanart? What's the world coming to? Heh...Just kidding. Gee, I better start turning out Xenogears fanart of my own. Haven't done any fanart in such a long time cuz of this busy RPGamer schedule. And it's nice to see a fresh, quality-filled flow of FF7 fanart; Thanks for making my job so fun people! ALL RIGHT! I finished my update and it's still January 1st! Thank goodness I live on the west coast! Yahoo! So I'm not that late with my update after all! ^_^ Ah yes...many of you requested I string all my Critique Corners up into a downloadable drawing handbook. I like the idea, and I'm currently working on that. Thanks for the feedback, everyone! It will be available soon. Happy to be serving the RPG community! Lorelai