I wasn't actually looking for either. But if you want to give a critique, I'm open to advice. I've only been drawing for like 6 months so I know I have a long way to go.
alrighty.. first give yourself a pat on the back and a well done! came with a gesture sketch that went into details on a galaxy. really good indeed! First I have to ask, how much time did you spend on this? when I hear gesture I usally think in the seconds, but I'm curious to know just how much time you put into this.
anywho.. because this was done on a galaxy not sure if it's a phone or tablet i'm not sure how accurate a critique I can give but here we go. Going back into SCAD mode... alright!
1) I like the confidence in your lines, but I feel you paid more attention to the details of your daughter rather than looking at your daughter. Make sense? Looking at the image, it is all out of proportion, but with strong contour lines. this is probably because you were on a tablet but there seems to be no thought into the construction at all. no real care for the negative space around your daughter except for the right elbow, and rather than try to focus on your daughter, you focused on what your daughter was wearing, her hair style, her expression etc.
2) the point of a gesture sketch is to capture a pose in an instant. hence, gesture. from 5 seconds to a minute, just how fast can you capture her? Again, instead of focusing on her lines, silhouette etc, you focused on what made up your daughter. Again, make sense? you have strong lines, but again the proportions are all out of wack. Not only this, but because the line weight is so strong in certain places, it all creates an optical illusion. example:
her right arm and her body looks like she's 3/4 back turned. The same goes for Left Arm. Because of the way the elbow bends and the crease and how it all flows into her wrist and hand it looks like I'm looking at her left arm from the back, because it looks broken when viewed straight on. Make sense? A similar issue occurs around her legs, her pelvis and hip are 3/4 but her right foot is slightly more 3/4 than her hip which makes her look like she's walking with a limp. her left foot is in complete side profile and because of that disconnect between her foot and hip, it looks broken. Also, you want to pay attention to perspective. the angle in which something is turned and what's supposed to be forward in space and backward in space and the amount of degrees it's turned in that space.
3) again when you look at the hands, it looks like you paid more attention to the detail than the shape. You paid close attention to the hand to make sure the proportion was right because of foreshortening, it made the hand slightly distorted. a nice little trick that some sequential artists use to get around this is to actually merge fingers together. some artists, merge the right and middle finger together and the rendering (shading, lighting, toning) separates them. that way they can focus on the shape of the hand rather than each finger. Because you separated each finger, you made the work harder for yourself because you focused on each finger rather than the shape of the hand.
4) I felt you neglected the lines that made up your daughter in this gesture. A good help is to actually look at the lines that you don't see but rather imagine. Huh? What? Kinda seems out there doesn't it? well, if you're going to draw, you should train your eyes to see lines. Not just the lines that make up a silhouette, but the lines that create the box around your focus. when you see those lines, it helps you box in your pose and focus on the negative space around your object. The next part will be the construction of the pose within that box. A very rough image that could be more lines and circles to help define the pose. details should be focused on last. Work out the shape first. to get your proportions right, and on point, then work out the details through rendering.
5) Pay attention to your lines. Not just how you draw on the paper/pad/what have you, sketchy, contour etc but the weight (thickness) of it all. when you have thick bold lines, your eyes tend to go there first. and it tends to follow those lines. Thing is, this can create a sort of priority for what you want to appear more in the front vs what's behind.
6) the bubbles are a fun distraction to the gesture and gives it a fun energy, but it doesn't really do much other than that. Take advantage of using these distractions to add a sense of depth and give it a stronger composition. The bubbles tend to be all the same size, but if you made some bigger ones that overlap or giant ones that even take up real space, it adds a fun dimension for you to play with. Since this was done digitally, I would recommend starting it out on a separate layer or even tracing paper if you're doing it by hand. That way you won't ruin the original image if you fuck up and won't have to do heavy erasing. + it adds a sense of animation when you start flipping through the layers of tracing paper. (^ ^)V
7)main point: try to focus on the shape/form/silhouette of your focus before working on the details. this will help your drawings immensely.
8) Other than that, don't feel bad about your ability and say shit like "I know this is bad" etc. Other people will judge your work, you don't need to. Just focus on your ability and improve. And from a professional stand point, I've seen worse drawings than this and they weren't a gesture, yet these artists were/are in the industry making money and even animated into shows. Even though I feel their work is horrible and shouldn't even be seen on a professional level, there they go making money. So, don't view your work in a negative light, like Dory said..
"just keep swimming.."
I hope this was helpful. Cause I had fun.
Cheers!
