Plug yourself here (aka post your artworks for us to see and possibly laugh at)

2 new pieces:

Wulfington,

I think you've got strong digital painting skills and use of light sources. Something I noticed in this and an older piece is your character's wrists seem to either be missing bones or be bent, if not to the breaking point, at least to the point where it'd be uncomfortable to hold your wrist that way.

They look alright to me. I see aliasing on the visor though.

Hmm, the wrists should be there, I know I did a stickman structure layer on all 4 pieces where they had wrists. It might just be the gloves/gauntlets, tho admittedly I think I've been forgetting about the wrists after I turn off the structure layer early on. I suppose I should pay more attention to that in the future. I almost forgot the fingernails of the orc.

It's probably because I, admittedly, half-assed the helmet, something I decided to not tolerate in future pieces, tho. Gonna keep trying to do better quality.

Small fascist zombie aheyyy

@Sir Wulfington, are you working on designs for a video game? The stuff you're displaying looks really good, man! I especially like the knight with the red cape.

Thanks. And nah just whatever fantasy ideas I come up with.

Am I an artist yet ?

You'd fit right in with the abstract expressionists.

Hey this thread was good in the first pages.

Finished a new piece:

Her body seems really flat. Only her head and the sword don't seem flat. Her torso seems short compared to her legs. Her feet are very short.
I've noticed that in these character models you've been making, there's little to no neck in any of them. It's just head and then shoulders. And they're very flat shoulders too, with not much slope connecting the neck and shoulder. Now I don't got much of a beef with flat shoulders, the issue here is that there flatness emphasizes how short the necks are.

Hmm, I don't see how she looks flat, in terms of rendering I don't think any one area looks more 3-dimensional. The shoulders don't have very high slopes, but I don't believe they're too flat. I've used multiple refs and I'm confident that I got the neck, torso. feet, etc accurate, or just about at least. It's worth noting that proportions can vary, however there is certainly a point where it goes too far. For example, here's a ref I used with a short neck, and low-sloped shoulders:



Here's one with a long neck:



Here's a woman with long legs to torso ratio:


(even ignoring the high heels she's still quite long-legged)

While you have to know that you can only go so far (short or long) with a body part before it becomes disproportionate, you have to also factor in that not all human beings have the exact same physical proportions. However, I can kinda see what you mean with the feet, I don't think they're too short, tho. But could be longer. Actually, in general, I may have gotten things a little off, but I don't believe it's severe, at least. I think it's only the feet, if anything, that's a off somewhat.

Here, I made you a redline:

Even in the example of a long-legged lady you gave, her thigh was still pretty close to the same length as her torso(thigh up to the hip, torso=crotch to where the neck connects), which is my rule of thumb for leg length. However, the thighs on your lady are way longer than the torso, so she looks a bit like a bird. And then because of how much space the leg and torso take, there's little to no room for the neck. Your example of a short-necked woman didn't have a neck that short(plus she kind of looks like she's looking down anyways, which affects how long the neck appears), and your long-necked woman didn't have a neck so long as it was framed by her hair, making it seem longer than it probably actually was.
In my example, I tried to at least somewhat keep to the original intentions you had in your design, by giving her a shorter torso than I normally would've done, and giving her slightly longer arms than I normally would've done. And even with her proportions adjusted, her thigh still ends up being in the same ballpark of length as her torso, with just enough neck to seem natural. And I lengthened her feet a bit, so that they're still petite, but at least they aren't Song Dynasty small. I also gave her a bit more waist and didn't squish her boobs, and got rid of her kankles.
I recognize and acknowledge the fact that not everybody has the same proportions, and that some people have short(looking) necks naturally. But when you draw all of your characters with short necks, to the point where it looks like that they don't have necks at all and you just merged their head with their shoulders, I would say that's a problem, especially since you seem to be aiming for realism.

As for the general flatness of the picture, the shading on most of her body is all too gradual and light. This is especially evident on her vest, where it looks like a piece of cardboard. Then alongside all these gradients you have these thin little super dark lines. Using darker colors can help. So can visualizing the body as a series of boxes, because with boxes it's very clear where the light hits and where the shadow begins, and that should help you create more defined 3-dimensional shapes when shading.

I understand that you don't see most of the mistakes I pointed out. That's because you drew the picture. It's harder to spot mistakes in your own work, especially if you only made it recently. That's part of why this thread exists. I'm calling it like I see it, and what I see is a mostly flat picture of a lady with kind of fucked up proportions.

This was the cover of my latest comic

A work in progress. It's a car I saw at a car show recently. I'm using loose strokes and trying out some Photoshop brushes. This is my first time painting reflective chrome.
Update: Grille is done, I'll touch it up at the end.


Reference photo:

Tho I will concede that I likely got some of proportions (at least the foot) a bit off, I don't believe it's severe, as it's only slight. Tho while, yes, the woman in the first pic was looking down (which I initially factored in), it shouldn't be making any real difference in the height. Even if the neck is bit shorter than average, it's so extremely slight that I just don't think it's a serious issue.

In terms of the flatness you see, I just can't see it. I'm certain that, even if I'm getting the values a bit off (in certain areas I probably am), I'm positive that, at this point, I can see my art objectively enough to know that something as extreme as flatness would be apparent to me. I trust my eyes at this point, for certain things, at least.

I can see what you mean with the vest (I admittedly half-assed it, kind of), however it looks close enough to cloth to me so I don't really mind.

Anyway, all that being said, I'm going to try and make sure to get the proportions more accurate from now on. I'll keep a closer on the anatomy.

I can't help but feel that it's a little short.

It is. I realized that a little while ago. These things were the size of yachts.