"Post your Art" Thread

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I've been seriously paranoid about posting my art anywhere, but at this point I'm starved for any kind of helpful feedback and refuse to watch art channels or talk to artists because the former pollutes my recommended with unhelpful tutorials and/or drama (seriously why are so many speedpaint channels also drama channels) and the latter are almost always terminally retarded goons who will spit bile at you for daring to do even the smallest thing that offends them or sex-pest coomers who're insufferable to discuss anything with. Therefore, I come to the kiwis for aid.

What can be done to make my stuff look less like shit? Some recent examples below, just want decent feedback pls. I know I need to work on my backgrounds a lot, as well as painting and studies, though it's hard to get myself to draw them because despite wanting to be better I draw strictly for fun so my brain shuts down whenever I end up drawing something I dislike. (Would also like advice on avoiding that if possible lol.)
Erna.pngsmall_village_concept.pnghisuian_braviary.pnglokix_in_a_bad_pose.pngskeledirge.pngtried to paint.pngeg1.pnglovebunny.png <- this last one was done without any sketching or references, it's just a doodle. Would prefer feedback on everything else; the doodle is just there for variety
 
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Anonitolia said:
I've been seriously paranoid about posting my art anywhere, but at this point I'm starved for any kind of helpful feedback and refuse to watch art channels or talk to artists because the former pollutes my recommended with unhelpful tutorials and/or drama (seriously why are so many speedpaint channels also drama channels) and the latter are almost always terminally retarded goons who will spit bile at you for daring to do even the smallest thing that offends them or sex-pest coomers who're insufferable to discuss anything with. Therefore, I come to the kiwis for aid.

What can be done to make my stuff look less like shit? Some recent examples below, just want decent feedback pls. I know I need to work on my backgrounds a lot, as well as painting and studies, though it's hard to get myself to draw them because despite wanting to be better I draw strictly for fun so my brain shuts down whenever I end up drawing something I dislike. (Would also like advice on avoiding that if possible lol.)
View attachment 4785894View attachment 4785896View attachment 4785902View attachment 4785908View attachment 4786044View attachment 4785924View attachment 4786100View attachment 4785926 <- this last one was done without any sketching or references, it's just a doodle. Would prefer feedback on everything else; the doodle is just there for variety
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Your art is def not bad at all, but if I were to say two points I think you can improve on would be line weight and color choices.
For the line weight I think yours look all a bit samey, you should use thicker lines on the parts that are oposed to the light source, the silhouette line should be thicker and the ones inside the details should be thinner.
For colors I think for your style you should use more pastel colors, less saturated, and maybe try to use other colors instead of pure white even if what you are draeing is white, for hotter drawings maybe maybe tint it a bit of pink and a bit of blue on cooler ones.
 
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Anonitolia said:
I've been seriously paranoid about posting my art anywhere, but at this point I'm starved for any kind of helpful feedback and refuse to watch art channels or talk to artists because the former pollutes my recommended with unhelpful tutorials and/or drama (seriously why are so many speedpaint channels also drama channels) and the latter are almost always terminally retarded goons who will spit bile at you for daring to do even the smallest thing that offends them or sex-pest coomers who're insufferable to discuss anything with. Therefore, I come to the kiwis for aid.

What can be done to make my stuff look less like shit? Some recent examples below, just want decent feedback pls. I know I need to work on my backgrounds a lot, as well as painting and studies, though it's hard to get myself to draw them because despite wanting to be better I draw strictly for fun so my brain shuts down whenever I end up drawing something I dislike. (Would also like advice on avoiding that if possible lol.)
View attachment 4785894View attachment 4785896View attachment 4785902View attachment 4785908View attachment 4786044View attachment 4785924View attachment 4786100View attachment 4785926 <- this last one was done without any sketching or references, it's just a doodle. Would prefer feedback on everything else; the doodle is just there for variety
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I can't help with painting, as I'm strictly black and white in my art, but off the images you posted I'd say you've got a good sense of gesture in the last two (the girl and the rabbit), which makes those both stand out over the other images quite a bit. I'd suggest if you're doing single figures like these, keep gesture forefront in your mind at the beginning. Do some quick and dirty sketches of different poses until you find the one you like most. If you can pull off posture and pose, you'll start to also see more elements emerge, like mood, weight, motion, etc. Hope that helps. It helped me back in the day when I got similar advice.
Edit to add: also, everything @Becomemysoulreaver12 said.
 
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@Anonitolia

@Becomemysoulreaver12 offered bad advice. Do not use thicker lines at parts opposed to the light source. He may have gotten his advice from things like this
1679084701953.png
But restricting lineweight to the tassles of what you THINK you're going to shade not only restricts your future shading schema but also limits lineweight of future images that aren't relying on shading to demonstrate thiccness.

8.jpg2825529-Spider-man-blindbandit92-31615384-1920-1080.jpg Yes, there's black where heavy shading is, but look at those fingers. Lineweight defines squish and curvature more than shadows.

1679085111010.png
tumblr_o6th6aWpOV1qlgroro5_1280.png

There's no one-size-fits-all rule for line weight; it's something you will need to practice by studying other artists' work and copying what you like in their art. The advice I gave for this image will not work for all other images. This is how I would have drawn the lineart, but I'm someone else with different preferences. You need to study lineart from artists whose lineart you really like.
1679082272507.png



Your art would benefit from coloring your lineart OR learning more on shading. Right now, you're suffering from pillowshading. You don't seem to comprehend exactly why shading does what it does. Your shading is fighting against you rather than assisting your art. For example, the rabbit.

1679082446144.png

This can be fixed by learning how shadows work. You can find good youtube videos without tainting your recommends by going incognito to watch them. You're only hurting yourself by being a stubborn bitch and not getting help from reputable sources. Don't watch speeddrawings to get your advice. Look at older people's videos.
1679083415321.png
You need to do research on color theory. Despite PK being a lulcow, her color theory guide was very helpful for new beginners back in the day.

For forcing yourself to practice backgrounds, find images of backgrounds you like, be it from another artist, a photo, etc. Copy it. It won't come out great. Keep copying stuff you like seeing. You will eventually remember these things and it will pile onto your skill. Here's one of PK's bg tutorials.

I critique your doodle because your doodle reveals what skill level you're actually at from rote memorization. My doodles fall in line with my actual skill level to some degree but they don't have errors in shading when it applies. It's something you need to pay attention to.

Old Man Suffers is right. You have a good sense of posing.
 
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(not going to quote everyone here because all of their posts are relatively long but) thank you everyone for the advice! It genuinely helps a lot. For example, in regards to the line shading: I've never even thought about line weight outside of "I like it when they taper off neatly" so even if the lighting-source advice is maybe questionable it still got me to reconsider something very basic for the sake of improvement and I appreciate the post for that alone.

Equal Rights for Androids said:
You don't seem to comprehend exactly why shading does what it does. Your shading is fighting against you rather than assisting your art.
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this is also absolutely correct and it's been something I've struggled against for a while yeah
ironically, I've noticed I try to improve on the shading less because I dread doing it, so at worst I just shit shadows and highlights everywhere so I can get it over with lol

Equal Rights for Androids said:
You can find good youtube videos without tainting your recommends by going incognito to watch them. You're only hurting yourself by being a stubborn bitch and not getting help from reputable sources. Don't watch speeddrawings to get your advice. Look at older people's videos.
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I'm offended but you're also correct here so I can't complain
What do you mean by "older peoples' videos", though, and how exactly would I go searching for something like that?

Equal Rights for Androids said:
Despite PK being a lulcow, her color theory guide was very helpful for new beginners back in the day.
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Oh yeah, I had a friend who made one of these before, but she had a huge problem with dumping her art in buckets of blue and PK has a similar problem with purple/magenta. Is there something these guides leave out that could help avoid that problem/anything in these kinds of guides that'd lead to it?

(also, in regards to the posing, thank you. It's what i've been most concerned with recently, so I've been actively trying to push some improvement in that area and I guess it shows. Not sure I know exactly what gesturing is though; is it literal gesturing or does it have some deeper meaning in regards to body language and flow?)

EDIT: I almost forgot to mention I've actually been experimenting with colored linework for a while now, I'm an idiot lol. I think this (below) is the first drawing I made where I colored it wholesale, but i've been experimenting with coloring small bits for ages now. I made it in like an hour so it kind of came out like shit but it's relevant to the conversation so I'm posting regardless

floragato.png
 
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@Anonitolia
By older people's videos, I mean looking at thumbnails, and if you see a young person (<40 years old), might be better to just skip their video. The old people will generally have traditional color theory mastered as well as shading, whereas younger artists are more likely to leech off of other artists rather than practicing from still life and real life (not that this is a bad thing—but most people aren't good doing this alone). This leads to recycling of mistakes in their art that people don't catch (like how the furry fandom has pisspoor anatomy due to people copying the anatomy/style of popufags).

There's nothing in PK's guide that would lead you towards using purple more than other colors. That guide was made when PK supposedly hated purple (2010?). Her magenta phase occurred years later (2015).
 
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Anonitolia said:
(also, in regards to the posing, thank you. It's what i've been most concerned with recently, so I've been actively trying to push some improvement in that area and I guess it shows. Not sure I know exactly what gesturing is though; is it literal gesturing or does it have some deeper meaning in regards to body language and flow?)
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Its just another term for drawing living things in poses or positions that aren't static and straight-on.
 
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Anonitolia said:
ironically, I've noticed I try to improve on the shading less because I dread doing it, so at worst I just shit shadows and highlights everywhere so I can get it over with lol
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I am in the same boat, flats are usually okay for me, but anything for shading just makes me sick with anxiety. I had a method but since there's been no serious drawing for nearly a year (long story) I lost that method and need to redevelop without the time to really tinker around.
 
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Not sure why I cant reply to some of the posts, but ,I fail to see how my advice was bad, I mentioned the simples method to do some lineweight so that they could start practicing it, it also wasnt even the only reason i said for why you would like to change the weight, sure I didnt mention occlusion shadows and other reasons why you may want to change it, but it seemed reasonable to me
 
BubbleButt said:
I am in the same boat, flats are usually okay for me, but anything for shading just makes me sick with anxiety. I had a method but since there's been no serious drawing for nearly a year (long story) I lost that method and need to redevelop without the time to really tinker around.
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god, yeah, that sucks
I wish I could let myself do flats at all without guilt though, I keep insisting that a drawing isn't "complete" until it has shading and it drives me nuts
hopefully you rediscover that method and/or develop a better one soon
 
Becomemysoulreaver12 said:
Not sure why I cant reply to some of the posts, but ,I fail to see how my advice was bad, I mentioned the simples method to do some lineweight so that they could start practicing it, it also wasnt even the only reason i said for why you would like to change the weight, sure I didnt mention occlusion shadows and other reasons why you may want to change it, but it seemed reasonable to me
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It's bad advice for his art style. Your advice works for more realistic, typically human, figures/styles. The user does not seem to be pushing for realistic styletypes, ergo it's bad advice and fails to take into consideration the many art styles of lineart that does not follow your suggested trend.

@Anonitolia The colored lineart turned out great! It makes your art pop way more than black. I would love to see you push it one step further by being more bold as to color your lineart lighter based on the colors around it! rough doodle of what I mean (though not all lines are colored lighter as they ought)
1679090028806.png
It accentuates the figure shapes further and gives you a little brain exercise when considering where to put the colors (=

Images can work without shading, beat that mindset out your head!tumblr_ms3bp2titB1svj9cuo1_640.jpg1679091258330.png
 
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Equal Rights for Androids said:
@Anonitolia The colored lineart turned out great! It makes your art pop way more than black. I would love to see you push it one step further by being more bold as to color your lineart lighter based on the colors around it! rough doodle of what I mean (though not all lines are colored lighter as they ought)
View attachment 4805160
It accentuates the figure shapes further and gives you a little brain exercise when considering where to put the colors (=

Images can work without shading, beat that mindset out your head!View attachment 4805188
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I've really got to get it out of my head, yeah. Have been trying to force myself as of late, even if I've kind of failed lmao. Just gotta keep pushing.

And yeah, I've seen that thing where you use lighter outlines for lighter colors before! I considered doing it at one point, but I also remembered seeing somewhere that keeping an object's outline one unified color would help "unify the image in the viewer's mind" or something along those lines, so I strayed away from it and just tried to go for something that complemented as many of the colors on the piece as possible. I'll try giving both approaches a go in the future if nothing else. (Thank you again for the advice!)
 
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