Art First CG (Miia)

The main "problem" you have is the outline her face. It's quite shaky-looking, and could use a good amount of retouching. (if you're good with the mouse you can do it direct) The rest of the body has a few places of slightly awkward proportion. Her eyes are too wedge-shaped for the angle of her head; also, eye reflections are rarely on the side of the iris the way you have them (that would mean that the light source is on the side rather from above). The thighs are a lil too thick, plus when we mentally follow the outline of her left thigh up her skirt, we imagine that her butt doesn't shape out well enough to connect to her waist.

As for the polygonal lasso, make sure you turn on Anti-aliasing so it won't look so edgy. Also, try making lots of clicks that are close together, to make the selected areas more accurate.

 

the pic is nice but is a rip off, ok? thats all i wanted to say.
wheter it should stay at the contest its not my bussines, so do what you want.

 

Uh-oh! That's actually considered plagiarizing, especially in the case of using it for a contest. If you were just doing it for fun, then it would've been okay.

 

Oh wow.. That's a lot of details.. I envy your sense of description. If you're to say you don't like his drawing you could at LEAST say why. And if your intelectual capacibilities don't allow you to do that, just don't post. I'm saying this in probably the name of everyone who read your stupid, pathetic post. Because of you all User18 removed his drawing from the contest and I don't find that really fair, or nice as a matter of fact. I'm pissed off at all of you and you really don't want that. I'm expecting apologies towards User18 or something could happen to you. And for your information I do mean EVERY word in this post.

 

Well, I’ve seen this piece before, but I feel something needs to be said. User18 obviously put a lot of work into it, having made it for the art contest. User18, you’ve already had my C&C, but I think you should put this back into the contest.
The theme of the contest is to draw Miia as another character for a cosplay event. Since this is a common pose for this Sailor Scout, it’s obviously a good representation. This is definitely not plagiarism.
I think that certain comments in this thread weren’t fair at all.

 

uh oh, sorry Seraphim, last time(i didnt considered it was wrong since i attached a picture)

......ahhh ok, im gonna reply to your message.....

first, i think i made my point clear while posting the original picture, second, i never said i didnt like user18's work.

and if your intelectual CAPABILITIES where as good as you think they are, i wouldnt have to explain to you as before. my stupid post? i believe almost everyone think as i do, even user18 who took the pic out of the contest.

User18: sorry, it just that you cant use reference pictures for a contest, its ok if its only for fun or to practice. anyways, work on another pic and good luck with the contest.

 

i believe it's common sence a copied picture cannot enter a contest, then again, i not sure on how things work in here.
sorry for the big misunderstanding, im editing my post ok?
byes

 

A "Roll eyes" smiley, along with a "thumbs down" is considered spam, smart guy. And anyone who looks at the thumbs down automatically assumes you don't like his work. And no, not everybody thinks as you do. Seraphim doesn't, I don't, Meaikoh doesn't. Maybe Seraphinx and you do think that way but I believe it's 3 vs 2.

 

Actually, some people have to have a guide to look off of.. few people I know of can actually draw beautiful artwork from the top of their heads. Now if User18 traced that picture then it would be copying. There are differences, the only real similarity is the pose, it's a totally different character too.

I think the picture is actually pretty good, it looks like you do the same thing that I do with the line tool in PhotoShop.. it's kind of hard to get it to look really smooth >_< but when I try drawing with the paintbrush tool my hands are too shaky.

 

Let me squash this already: I also meant everything I said in both of my posts (I have no regrets for saying what I myself thought was right). First of all, you can see that in my first post I treated User18's pic respectfully as I do with other people's art when I critique. Secondly, my next post was simply a natural reaction--a bit of surprise, and for someone who knows little about Sailor Neptune, common sense tells me that it does look like plagiarism. Thirdly, I pointed that out, not to scare or to insult, but to give a warning of how people would react in the future (especially during contest judging), and also to spell out what Chejo's point was (since he wasn't clear at first).

Now that it's been stated that her pose is a common stance for Sailor Neptune, NOW people won't say that it's a direct rip-off. Nowhere do I insult others, but I do give constructive warnings. I'm sorry if I seemed to be on Chejo's side--I'm on no one's side.

 

Well, speaking mostly as an artist here, the work isn't quite plagiarism. True, User18 didn't state that he got the pose from somewhere, but it is a first CG, and it is a Sailor Moon picture of sorts. It's hard to find original poses for Sailor Moon fanart, I've noticed. Well, original at least for someone's first CG. So I at least assumed the pose wasn't original.

Looking at the two pictures, both original and Miia, I can tell User18's picture isn't traced (even if he hadn't already pointed that out). The face and hair are Miia's, not Neptune's. It certainly seems to me that User18 merely used that picture of Neptune as a reference picture. There's nothing wrong with using references, even for a contest. References help get poses and colors right. I use them all the time. I see nothing wrong with User18 using a reference picture for a contest entry. Also, since it's Miia cosplaying, and cosplayers often copy their character's trademark poses, it makes sense for Miia to pose like that.

Anyway, that's my piece on it.

C&C:
I like the picture, User18. Not bad for a first CG. The facial structure could use some work, but you'll get better at that with practice. Also, as you yourself have already mentioned, the coloring is a bit off, right around the lineart. Mostly it's a matter of smoothness. If you're using the lasso tool, turn on antialias, as has been suggested, to get more smoothness in the lines. I'd also recommend using a soften or smudge tool to smooth out lines after coloring.

You could also check out the CG tutorial at www.polykarbon.com or Julie Dillon's tutorial at www.howtodrawmanga.com for more tips and ideas. ^_^ Keep practicing!

 

I use PaintShop Pro 7 and an optical mouse. Some day I'll have enough money to get myself a nice tablet and a copy of Photoshop, maybe Painter or Open Canvas too. Until then.... ::shrug and grumble::

^_^ Glad the tutorials helped. I look forward to seeing your next CG.