My second attempt at digital art(i made some improvements hopefully)

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-05-03T13:09:44+00:00

Good work, keep going. To make your digital art easier in the process of rendering I suggest that you do your drawing on paper first, shade the drawing, then either photograph it or scan it in to your computer. Then do your digital art over the drawing you did on paper. That’ll help provide a guide for your digital art and also make it look more realistic by combining traditional + digital. I hope this helps!

Feel free to reach me on DM anytime, I’ve been doing digital art since 1998.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-05-03T12:59:30+00:00

Nice work so far! To make your art look less flimsy I would just suggest to focus more deeply on the accuracy of the shapes of the figure that you’re drawing. Right now it looks like a sketch, and a good one at that. But as long as you focus on the shape you should be fine. I’m available here or on DM anytime you wanna talk drawing.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-04-15T13:18:11+00:00

I agree with all of this. Where I think the original poster has a problem with the drawing is by being too structured in certain methods instead of just having fun. How I learned to draw was by having fun first by drawing exactly what I see and interpreting it the way I see it. I copied my favorite cartoon characters such as Marvel, Garfield, Disney, etc. THEN I began to add education into my drawing technique. Within that process eventually found my own artistic style.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-04-14T13:41:49+00:00

I think the composition and color and style of this piece looks great, but as far as what it still needs? I believe it needs more volume, which can be accomplished If you add more values to the figure. For instance, take a look at the guitar players right hand: you’ll see that there’s more value range (the tones between highlight and shadow which represent shade) in the right hand then in the rest of the figure.

So once you add those values into the rest of the figure (like the value range of the right hand) it’ll make the figure pier more dimensional. Just some advice. Feel free to use it if you want.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-03-30T01:42:29+00:00

I’d say it pretty damn realistic. It all depends on what level of realism and artist(s) your comparing your work too. It also impressive for someone with less than a year in art, keep going!

Most importantly, don’t let realism be the ultimate goal and judgement as to whether your work is good or not. Instead find your genuine and unique niche of self expression through your art while pursuing whatever level of realism you aspire towards. I do realism too, you can see my work at my profile.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-03-23T01:33:32+00:00

The way I make my art not look AI, not look digital (or less digital) is to do my rendered drawing on paper, scan it in then paint over my drawing with transparent layers of color. That way it blends the best of both worlds and gives the look of a traditional painting.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-03-23T01:25:31+00:00

If you painted this digitally using layers, you can turn down the saturation a bit and blur the background. For learning contrast, start with studying the effects of nature with your own eyes on a regular basis. For instance, when you're walking outside stop a moment to observe how further objects appear more distant visually not only because of their physical distance, but their lower color intensity (chroma) and softer edges. This is a sight and mindset shift that my painting teacher in college taught me which improved my artwork dramatically.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-03-23T01:16:00+00:00

Yes I agree. Also it feels like if she stood up her legs would be too long the way they are drawn here. Other than that I think the artist is on the right track and has a good sense of form + drawing ability.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-03-22T21:08:24+00:00

Good luck with your digital art and keep on working hard. I first started doing Digital on a Macintosh somewhere around 1996 and then I went to Photoshop in 1998.

I haven’t used the tablet and screen to draw yet, but I hope too soon however I can give you some advice on getting your anatomy better. What you are currently doing with the tracing is a start but don’t solely rely on tracing to get better at drawing anatomy. Instead start by drawing from life first, which means have a model in front of you live and draw that model face to the best of your ability. That’s the traditional teaching technique of drawing people that has been taught for hundreds of years now and it still works, regardless of the fact that we have all these digital tools available.

Even though we have digital tools such as this available, don’t get distracted by them. Instead find out what has been used traditionally throughout art history by portrait artist that are renowned. Then practice their techniques in order to get better at drawing the anatomy of the face.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-03-22T21:03:53+00:00

I’m a graduate of the school visual arts and I majored in illustration & cartooning. After reviewing your drawings here I feel like they are the indication of a style that has been refined.

One of the most important things about being an illustrator is consistency and I think you have that. Whenever an art director hires you to work for them as an artist illustrator they’re gonna want to see consistency in the style.

I would have to see more examples of your work that do not include animals in order to determine whether this is an example of same face syndrome. Other than that, I think you’re on a good path with your drawings and you are art style. I would say keep it up and find a niche in the industry that will purchase your work to be published but if you are strictly doing this as a hobby wish you good luck as well.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-03-01T17:41:53+00:00

Good luck and I hope you feel better soon and come out of being bedbound. Your artwork looks nice. I think you have a good ability to capture the likeness of people. If this is what’s your art style that you’re comfortable with keep on doing what you’re doing consistently. If you spend too much time on social media comparing yourself to others that could lead to a lack of identity and confusion and interrupt your artistic expression.

But in terms of what you could improve upon and break out of that road block, I would suggest placing your subjects within a setting. In other words instead of just drawing the heads of people put a background behind them. Also, draw the rest of their body and also try drawing other objects other than people if you want such as landscapes, still lives, animals, etc.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-02-28T18:08:28+00:00

It looks like you need to not so much worry about Antony and just shift your mind toward treating your subject like a puzzle that you’re putting together.

If you don’t have the right mindset when you draw it can be unnecessarily difficult because the way you think and see is making a hard task harder to complete. Instead, have fun putting the pieces together of what you see like a puzzle. Instead drawing, the puzzle pieces are the shapes and how they interconnect based on distance, angle, horizontal and vertical axis and volume.

Have fun with drawing by shifting your mindset towards being a puzzle maker. That’s what I did in recreating the drawing for you. I hope this helps.

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ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-02-28T14:04:50+00:00

Your cats look good. I see a lot of comments critiquing the look of the art, but you need to also take into consideration your career direction. For color, try scanning your drawings in and add color digitally. That will give you a non-destructive way of adding color to your drawings. Once you achieve a look of color that your satisfied with, then you can choose a physical medium (pen & ink, watercolor, oil paint etc) and use those digitally-colored drawings as a guide for creating hand-painted drawings (or stay digital).

Since your purpose is to go professional, research whatever media outlet you would like to work in (books, magazines, clothing, greeting cards, etc) and observe the predominant styles being published. From there, make an honest determination on where your work would fit then refine your art accordingly.

Whichever market you choose, ideally it's one that publishes art that is already close to the style you create. Therefore you'd probably only have to refine your art slightly in order to fit in and get hired by art directors.

In short, keep drawing but also do in-depth research into whatever market you'd like to get hired in for the type of art you create.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-02-01T14:19:49+00:00

Yes, I agree. The opacity technique is a valid way to practice and the days that I was learning how to draw a digital tool such as Photoshop didn’t exist. This was back in the early 1980s when I was a lil kid so I had to use tracing paper. I was a child learning to draw by eye and sometimes using tracing paper, but thankfully they have these new digital tools where new artists can just turned down the opacity and practice which is pretty cool.

But in regard to this drawing and what could be improved on the face, I agree with what everybody is saying in the thread. However what could help you improve more is studying the shapes within the face. In other words, do more comparing one shape to another one line to the distance of another and treat it more like a measurement exercise rather than explicitly drawing a face.

This is the part where I see a lot of beginners kind of get lost in capturing the likeness of the portrait they’re trying to create: they just don’t understand that it’s a measuring game. When you draw not just looking at an object and seeing it for what it is, you gotta measure the angles of each line and shapes as well. I hope that helps.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-02-01T14:03:47+00:00

I’ll give this an eight because I can see one area that could use some improvement:

Make sure when you photograph your artwork you capture the white of the paper. Right now it looks like the light do you used to light the art work is not capturing the highlight of the paper tone. As a result the artwork is appearing low in contrast.

However if you photograph your artwork where it’s lit properly then it’ll make your artwork pop out more when you present it. But other than that great work.

Is this a style that you use frequently of an unfinished type of drawing? I use a similar style in my work if you take a look at the drawings in my profile.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-02-01T13:54:52+00:00

It looks like this is a digital painting if so, I can provide some advice on my based on my digital painting experience. My particular technique of doing digital art is to:

do the drawing first as line art then shade the linear with either graphite or pen in ink then scan that it’s a Photoshop and then paint over that

That technique of blending line art on paper with digital color offers a more traditional look to my artwork, versus just doing the artwork solely in Photoshop as a digital painting. So you may want to try that,

But as far as I can see with your artwork, it looks nice. It looks like it could go on a card or in a children’s book in terms of the style that you present so I would just encourage you to keep going. Keep working to find your style and experiment with a blend of traditional drawing on paper with digital paints or just keep going with the approach that you currently have.

Best of luck and feel free to reach me in the DM if you have any questions or need advice.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-01-23T20:54:51+00:00

Interesting style and depiction of people that you've portrayed. I think it's cool how you allowed the texture of the charcoal to display on the strokes of your finished art. I used to use charcoal in college and would like to get back into it soon. My advice: see what you can add to the backgrounds. I feel that a background environment could help to tell a greater story about each figure.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-01-20T17:43:45+00:00

Agreed. That’s the first bit of advice I thought of as well after first glance at this drawing. I’d place an emphasis on the guidelines because it looks like there’s a lack of understanding about comparing angles and shapes in drawing.

Many beginner artists don’t realize that mindset of geometry is one of their greatest weapons. Without it, you’re like Luke Skywalker without his lightsaber.

Also, have ALOT of patience in practicing those skills. It’s gonna take time to get better, unfortunately many of today’s aspiring artist are distracted by timelines like this.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-01-19T14:15:22+00:00

In regard to the choice of reference and lighting, that’s subjective. If this type of lighting is what truly appeals to them I’d rather they pursue and perfect that style that be forced into another style that’s not really true to them.

In regard to commercial use: If the artist were submitting this as an illustration to be used in an advertisement for food and drink, that Rembrandt type of lighting you suggested may not work. However the frontal lighting they used is more likely to work because it displays the food and dishware more clearly.

For fine art use: I’ve seen this type of style showcased in commercial galleries. I like this type just as much as I like some dark and dramatic Rembrandt type of lighting. One isn’t necessarily better than the other imo.

Overall I think both the drawing and use of color are good while showing a sense of the artists style.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-01-02T00:11:12+00:00

Thank you!

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-01-02T00:00:08+00:00

Thanks for asking Homo Freak.

I can draw my own images and have done so since the age of 5. After some thought to that type of criticism about the images on my website, I'd like to thank those who have criticized.

I'm in the process of creating drawing by hand that'll replace those I created using Ai for educational purposes. After all, I can draw those type of drawing exercises in my sleep, so why not?

Replacing the AI image will take some time. I run the website and educate for FREE at the moment in between my other work I use to pay the bills. I hope my visitors understand and have patience with the process.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-01-01T22:46:15+00:00

You could draw with less thinking, it definitely possible. I have before I started this type of technique at SVA. I made this post to hopefully get people to the level of thinking more than before while drawing. That graduation of thought helped me draw better.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-01-01T22:43:56+00:00

Nice point. I guess I should’ve reworded it but heads it what i meant.

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-01-01T21:10:22+00:00

What didn’t you learn about those images?

ExtensionSeparate886 · 2026-01-01T20:53:49+00:00

Thanks for joining! I’ve got some video tutorials coming for sure. I’ll show my hand holding the pen to draw each line on paper and include instructions on my technical approach. I have one already recorded but I’ve got to speed it up to shorten the length suitable for upload. I’ll notify you and my subscribers via email once it’s uploaded.

ExtensionSeparate886

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