One more, if it'll help.

Let's try this again with more recent art.

The older drawings show a case of big head syndrome, but the more recent one is pretty fine proportionwise.

Generally I can say: Dare to draw chins! The TF2 characters got a very strong, clear facial design and the jaws are a big part of that. They don't look proportional to the rest of the face here. Try and draw them bigger and stronger.

That being said, your style is delightful and nice to look at. Draw more!

I tried to get his jaw more accurate with this one, and I used a ref (as I always have), but apparently it's still wrong.

The problem is not the neck, you are making him with small body.

I like to use the source sdk modelview for references.

>>1324

I'm sorry. I honestly don't have a lot of experience with drawing guys, but I'm going to fix it. Thank you. How do I view the Source Viewer?

!

>>1337
Ahh, thanks. Dunno if it's the exact same route on a Mac, but I assume it's close.

Ah, I don't think Source is available for Mac yet. But I do know there's a handy dandy reference thread floating around somewhere in resources, so that might be of some help.

Sage for contributing very little, derp berp.

>>1350
Thanks! I had a bunch of them saved already, but I'll keep checking back just in case.

More practice.

I post here on a regular basis now, and I'm still afraid to namefag, hurr.

>>1393

This made me giggle like an idiot. Critwise, I'd say that his head is a bit too big, and his neck is definitely too long.... Admittedly, the Medic has an enormous, weirdly-shaped head, so it can be very hard to get him looking proportionate.

Another. I actually used a ref for this one. Solly's head isn't quite right yet, I think, but it's getting there.

>>1569
Again, not enough exaggeration in the jawline. Soldier's chin takes up like half of his entire head so you should go ahead and chin him up. You don't have to exagerrate it as heavily as in the game but keep in mind that he's supposed to be a parody of all things manly - Try to incorperate that in his facial structure and body shape. Buff him up!

That being said, you did pretty well on the body hair. More people need to draw nice body hair!

Another. I think I'm better at Engie than Soldier.

I've been getting a lot of shit from people on dA, but I refuse to listen to them because they're neither offering to help me improve or artists themselves, so their opinions are being quietly ignored. At least you guys are helping me, and I thank you for that.

>>1669

Getting better! You're still giving your figures overly large heads and overly long necks- I've become dependent on the UNDO key that a computer allows to let me resize and reproportion figures in my own art, because it really can be a pain to get things like head size on the first pass, especially with the unrealistically-shaped heads that the TF2 characters have; all of them have eyes that are set more than halfway up the face, giving them unusually long chins and unusually small brain cases. It's an intentional stylization, but it really throws me off when I'm trying to size their heads. Keep it up!

That awkward moment when two people tell you entirely different ways to fix the same drawing and you're lost.

I really want to get to the point where I draw likable art that doesn't need fixing.

>>1723
Contradictionary feedback sucks. All you can do about that is ask for clarification, try both ideas or just pick what makes more sense to you.

Also judging by your post, it actually sounds like you don't draw to please yourself, but to please others? That's not the idea! You are not a professional, you are a hobbyist, and the strive for improvement is only healthy as long as you want it yourself. If you just want to improve so more people like your art, you take your work too seriously. It's about the fun, after all!

Just my two cents.

>>1724
But that's the thing. I'm not a hobbyist, I'm in school for art...I want to become a professional cartoonist. And I was raised thinking that unless you impress people, you've failed. Doing personal things is selfish.

I'm really worried if I can't impress people, I won't have a job.

>>1727
Ah, I understand. Well that's also alright - You go to school to learn, remember? If you were already a master you wouldn't go there in the first place. You can't expect everything you make to be impressive, and that's perfectly okay! Practice, learn from others, get good literature on the topic. Don't feel bad if you don't push out a masterpiece everytime you draw. Having such high expectations of yourself only slows down your learning process. Don't paralyze yourself, accept your faults and work on them.

You can do it!

>>1734
I'm just worried that my failings are "everything". I'm not looking for a buttpat, but if the only commentary is "fix this, this is wrong", I worry it's completely wrong, unappealing, etc.

New plan: Just draw things I like and enjoy the process.

>>1744
Result of new plan: the face already looks better. Aaaaaww yeeeaaah

As crit, you really just need to widen his shoulders. His body is too small for his head, you know?

>>1745
Thanks! I swore I did it right based on the ref, but now that I relook at it, it is a little small.

>>1744
That's the right attitude! Aside from the critique already given, I must say it IS better than the previous things you showed. Keep going, you're on the right path.

Can I post het/genderbends here too?

I know it's not the het board, but this is more of a crit board.

>>1829

Yes, genderbends may be posted here as long as your purpose is to receive crit and help. That's what /workshop/ is for!

DICKS EVERYWHERE

And some genderbends for you.

WIP.

Sorry I'm never specific on what I think I need help on. I think I need help figuring out what exactly I'm doing wrong first.

"Meet The Medic" reaction meme reaction thing.

I dedicate this one partially to Yang because of their help and the "Tom of Finland" comment.

>>1918

Gasp! So much manliness.....

>>1919
You mean it?

DICKS EVERYWHERE

>>1958
The perspective is a bit messed up here and there. The objects don't seem to fit quite into the picture. I like the facial expressions, though.

>>1962
How so? I drew them from reference (as always, I don't have any faith in myself to draw from memory, even if I've drawn something 1,000 times before). I don't draw backgrounds much, but I try.

You still draw the heads a tiny bit too big. But your art has improved quite a lot since the first picture.

Something silly that started as a joke, and then I found out another artist had the same idea, so I felt a little less weird about it.

I don't know if the heads are too big or the necks are just shorter, because that's what I was initially told to fix. I'm just so lost at what to do right to become good.

>>1988
Your bodies are an ok size. It's the head that's a bit too big for the body. Just out of curiosity, do you draw the head first and then draw the body to go with it, or do you start out with a rough sketch of the figure (croquis)?

>>1989
I draw the head first, it helps me get a good idea of where the rest of it would be.

What's croquis?

>>1990
Croquis is a rough sketch of a figure/quick drawing.

>>1991
Oh! We never learned that term in class, sorry.

Wonder why.

>>1988

I'd been meaning to give you some concrit for a while, and, being Canadian, this picture stuck out for me, so I went with it.

A lot of the 'wrong' things I notice in your pictures involves the use of arbitrary shapes to represent features- you tend to use the same set of shapes for eyes, noses, folds in clothing and feet, and you put very little detail into your characters' hands. As you're obviously looking to improve, I would highly suggest that you get into the habit of just looking at things around you, and trying to consider their underlying structure. Look at your face in the mirror, your hands, the way that the clothing you're wearing folds and hangs depending on how bunched it is. Take out a book on the human body- study the scans from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray%27s_Anatomy on Wikipedeia- or, heck, even just peruse the huge collection of reference and art study guides that people have uploaded here. That you're already trying to use reference is a good start, but never stop looking beneath the skin of what you're drawing and striving to understand why it's shaped the way it is.

It doesn't surprise me that you start by drawing the faces and work outwards from there, as it explains a lot of the trouble you have with proportions. You've mentioned having a tablet, and while I can't help you set it up, I implore you to start playing with it and learning to use it, when possible. Digital art is a godsend; my hands are woefully untrue, and I tend to make a ton of mistakes when sketching, so being able to simply start tracing/sketching over and even resizing hands or heads at the 11th hour of a project without having to worry about eraser marks or the texture of paper or wasting precious markers has been immeasurably helpful for me.

Lastly, and somewhat related to the first part of my concrit, there's the matter of your style. While the TF2 characters are always recognizable in your artwork, they don't strongly resemble official artwork. While it isn't always pleasing to me, that's a personal choice, and as long as you're striving to find inspiration in life when you draw, it doesn't matter nearly as much whether you're purposefully giving your drawings the exagerrated proportions that the characters in-game have.

>>2005
Having taken figure drawing and usually reffing EVERYTHING off my own hands and eyes (or a reference site, when I'm not basing it off official artwork), I feel really defeated by this.

Maybe I should just leave, I clearly do nothing right or eye-pleasing.

I should clarify: I am doing exactly what people have suggested, believe me, and it seems like it's never enough. I feel like people don't think I'm improving at all. I'm not fishing for compliments, but I'd like to know if I'm doing ANYTHING right.

I have a degree in graphic arts. I have zero self esteem beyond this. Art is the only thing I can do with any confidence. I'm ten times worse with tablet. I don't like using it.

>>2012
You are improving. You just can't expect too get change all at once. You say you're doing everything we suggest, but you still seem wary to step out of your artistic comfort zone. You really need to take a chance and do something drastically different, even if it looks like crap the first couple of times. I'd even go as far as suggesting tracing. You know, to adjust your hand to how the lines form. Trace a couple references, then try it free hand, free hand while changing some details to suit your needs. It's not a crime; it's practice.

Don't get discouraged. You really are improving.

Attempt at more realistic stuff. Looked at both skulls and 3-D refs for this one.

I'm sorry I got so downtrodden. I really do appreciate all the help, I base my skill level entirely on what others think of it, instead of the fact that I worked hard and improved since my last drawing and had fun drawing something I love.

>>2015
That Heavy looks great! The only thing that irks me is the mouth. I really wish I could redline, but my mouths looks pretty bad too.

>>2018
Augh, sorry. What exactly is wrong with it?

>>2022
The mouths (on both of them) seem positioned oddly. Too high up, for sure, but also... I'm not sure how to describe it. They seem detached from the face. They don't seem to follow the shape of it, you know?

>>2015
I think I see what Ginger's talking about. I did a little fix, for the alignment-- If you look at medic's nose, you'll notice that there's a curve that follows the forehead etc.; however, the infranasal depression (aka the line between his nose and mouth) and his lips are skewed to our right and are much too close together. Also, Medic's ears are a little too high-- for ear placement, tips at the eye line and bottom at the end of the nose are the best, and for perspective, just draw in curves that follow the structure of the head so they line up. (... And they're a bit too pointy. ears are hard, use reference if you need it.)


With Heavy, you have most of his face down really nice, but his lips are at the wrong angle. If his head were turned more to the right, the lips would look fine; In this case, trim the extra line at the left, because in a 3/4 view the edge of the mouth shouldn't cross over the edge of the visible face space.
You're doing pretty well, though; I looked through the rest of the thread, and there's a lot of improvement.

Thanks for all the help! I'm feeling a lot better about myself. If you have any ideas for things I should draw, poses or ideas for drawings or whatever, so I could get better, lemme know.

DICKS EVERYWHERE

Ignore the right half if you want, because it's not TF2-related.

>>informed on another site to "stop drawing animu shit"
>>aware of artistic shortcomings but not sure if trolling on the animu part

>>2420
If you mean your style, I think it's barely animu at all. So, it's just trolling.

>>2423
Thank you. I mean, like a lot of people, that's where I started drawing seriously, but it hasn't been an influence of mine for years now.

I know there's a couple problems with this one, but I really like the coloring. I'm going to go back and recolor more art for practice.

Coloring is fun!

Hope Sam doesn't count as "furry shit".

More coloring.

>>2917
Before I critique, I do have a question. Do you do any under-drawing or sketching in pencil before you ink? Or do you just go for it? Just curious what your process is for drawing.

Wow. I just came across this thread and would like to say that you have improved a lot.

As for your recent picture, I would have to say Medic's right arm looks a little too thin while his left shoulder looks kind of low. His torso also seems to narrow.

>>2973
I sketch and resketch before I ink anything.

>>3097
Thank you so much- I still need to nail down anatomy just right, could you provide me with any tips on getting him to look more evened out?

>>3156
you need to learn how arms work and look. also ears and noses.

>>3157

Admittedly, it's an older picture (I haven't done anything TF2 in a couple months), but I'll work more on studying arms and how they attach. Could you explain what's wrong with the ears and noses?

>>3160
just study the anatomy of them. proportions, how the attach, what different parts look like etc.

>>3162

I'll look at more refs, then.

Think I'm getting the ears a little better.

DICKS EVERYWHERE

Hey Anon! I see your working hard in here. I have deep criticism for you, but not at 3am. which it is. So I leave you in the capable hands of my R.T. Soldier with this "redline", while I sleep, then I will give you more crit than you could ever want probably.

>>3202

Thanks- I think I was trying to do it like that, but I still don't have it quite figured out yet. I'll definitely go to a coffee shop and observe next time I get the chance.

Only sort of TF2 art.

I'm going to do a storyboard for a potential cartoon project, and the bird's based on Archimedes, so I thought I'd stick Medic in as a cameo.

WIP

I think you missed the point of pinkshotgun's critique anon, I think the problem is that you seemed to just have, well, traced over your own image to try and improve. That really isn't going to help you, especially since you just went over what you already did originally. You should start a new, resketch it while keeping in mind the tips and words of wisdom pink said in her well-given crit.

Hi Anon! I can see that you are sketching underneath, but the shapes you are using are graphic 2D not boxes spheres and pyramids. It really helps to get an idea of the perspective of the body parts if you start from boxes instead of squares.

That being said I have some critique for your overall art style.

You are at the very beginning of artistic skill, which is good, because you will see vast improvement over a relatively short period of time.

What I like about your art is:
-You have attention to detail in cloths and adding props to a scene.
-You are aware of telling a story with your drawings
-You are fearless about taking challenging material
-You place a strong emphasis on body language and facial expression.

However, there are a lot of things undermining your good qualities.
-Anatomy
Heads too large
Overall proportion is inconsistent
Hands lack joints
Necks twist uncomfortably
Face lacks structure/is too 2 dimensional
-Composition of pictures is often confusing
too much going on
parts are unbalanced
-Props though included are drawn poorly
lack perspective
obviously lack reference
-Lack of lighting adds to flatness/ makes the art look incomplete
-The final line art is unvaried, also adding to flatness or over all confusion since most things have the same line weight.

All of the above are things I know you can improve. You have a good work ethic, and you actually ask for help. Try not to look at these things as flaws, but as room to grow. If you can buckle down and draw everyday and get critique from lots of people, your art quality will soar quickly.

Good luck and I am always here if you have any questions to clarify my critique.

>>3272
To be fair, that was the original lineart I'd inked the final pic over. Sorry for not clarifying. I was trying to show the usage of cylinders and ref that I had used- for whatever reason, when I ink it, I sort of flatten it out unintentionally.

I thank pink for their support quite a bit, and I'm sorry I'm struggling a bit with the anatomy. I really need to figure out the general reference of "this is 2x this" and so on.

A couple of doodles I worked on recently- I know the anatomy's off, and I'd like to fix it.

One more.

I hope I haven't scared anybody off...

>>3412 I like this, it may be my favorite of your drawings of Heavy. The perspective in the background detracts slightly, though. For example, the straight-across angle of the roof of the house doesn't look right. Proper perspective often takes a lot of work, but it is worth it.
But back to the always-important subject of anatomy. I recommend this simple exercise: Find a reference picture, any picture, and try to draw it accurately. Then put your finished drawing and the reference right next to each other, carefully look at them side-by-side, and find all the differences. If you can, even try overlaying your drawing on top of the reference. I've done this in the past, and was surprised by all the things I didn't notice in my own drawings. If you find you did something wrong, figure out what it is. Being able to see and accurately reproduce the shapes in something is an important skill.
In the image attached are just more of my thoughts on references.

>>3416
Aah, thank you- all it took is a closer examination of the refs and my art already started looking better.

I hope this one's a little more accurate.

DICKS EVERYWHERE

>>3463

Never forget HatCon '97.

>>3464
NEVER FORGET.

DICKS EVERYWHERE

DICKS EVERYWHERE

OC Mediccest.

Attempt at OC Heavy/Medic porns.

I enjoy pudgy bellies.

DICKS EVERYWHERE

Done for another sites' Secret Santa.

Coloring my Secret Santa drawing.

Been awhile since I did any TF2 art.

Taking critique and/or requests, if anyone's interested.

>>8208
Hi there! I've been lurking in your thread today and you're making great progress! If you're still taking requests I would love to see Medic asleep at his desk with his little doves keeping him company. I'm a sucker for sleepy Medics!
Unfortunately I don't have the time right now to do a redline or a critique, but feel free to hit me up on Sparkledog Central if you ever want some advice. My username there is also Doowhacker. Keep up the good work!

>>8211
hahaha, dat word filter.
and by Sparkledog Central I mean deviant art (ach hopefully that works)

>>8208

Disclaimer: These comments are made using either real human proportions or TF2's art style as a basis. Whatever style you end up with, hopefully it'll still be relevant. I'm also going to explain things you may already know.

General comments -
1. Underdrawing:
When making drafts, you should start with ridiculously detailed sketches that accurately portray the volume of objects that you draw, taking into consideration things like perspective. I'm terrible at perspective in general, so I'm only going to comment on what jumps out at me.

2. Attention to detail:
When drawing from reference, it's important that you take note of things like placement and proportion. If you are going to exaggerate for the sake of caricature, then it's better to exaggerate in the direction that emphasizes contrast.

3. Referencing:
Pictures are nice, but what's even better is for you to get an actual object (or similar enough analogue) to play with so you can get a feel for what it's like. If you can't get someone to model for you, pose yourself against a mirror and take note of how your reflection looks.

Detailed feedback, from top to bottom -
1. The Head
* Exaggerate Medic's nonstandard skull shape, since that's something that makes him distinct.
* His hair curl starts in the middle of his forehead.
* The strap of the Blighted Beak goes behind the head like so: it goes straight back until where the ear meets the head, and then goes down and around. You are free to do whatever else on the details, but the function of the strap should stay as close to original as possible. Wear a headband to help you figure out how to draw it yourself.
* The ear should start at same height as the corner of the eye, rise up around the height of the brow, and then taper off at the height of where the lips meet. As far as how the ears are angled, anything goes.
* I tried this pose in the mirror. Once I turned my head so that the angle of my nose matched what you were suggesting with the angle of the Blighted Beak, I noticed that the front-facing portion of my face was not as wide as your drawing. The eye-holes should be further to the right, spaced closer together, and jutting "out" more. (While your character isn't posed in as extreme an angle as the reference included in this redline, it's still helpful to look out.)
* Exaggerate Medic's Manry Manjaw of Manriness. All classes with visible faces have longer chins and greater under-bites than the average human.

2. Archimedes
* Does not look anything like a dove, not even a cartoon one. Unfortunately, most clip art only feature doves in flight, but I was able to find pictures of 白鴿牌洗衣精 (White Dove Brand Laundry Detergent), whose logo is that of a brooding dove holding a single white feather, and I would suggest you use that as a basis for a more stylized depiction.

3. Shoulders
* Looks a bit too narrow compared to references, even taking perspective into consideration.
* Collar is inaccurate.
* Placing of visible portions of Medigun Backpack is too high. (In the picture on the right, it has the illusion of being higher because both the Medic's head and shoulder are tilted down. The smaller picture to the left is how much of the backpack is visible in front view.)

4. Arms
* The right arm (our left) is too skinny, and the elbow placed a little bit too low.
* Both wrists are too skinny.
* The left forearm (our right) should still be fully visible and the upper arm partially visible with this pose. Foreshortening should take into account Medic's thick rubber gloves, which are wider at the bottom than at the wrist.

5. Hands
* Fingers should be longer and thicker given the Medic's gloves.

6. Torso
* Buttons and straps are inaccurate compared to the original.

7. Rest of the body
* Should have at least been present in drafting stage. The artist is not a camera, and thus is not obligated to draw everything "in frame", but it's better to draw more and then cut away in editing than to leave things out and then have to add things back in later.
* This is more of a personal preference, but I think you should have at least drawn as far as the Medic's entire torso, or re-framed the picture with an even narrower field of view.

Whoops, forgot to include the redline.

>>8225
Thanks so much, I'll try to ref more (or more accurately) more often. Here's my latest WIP. I'll try to do some general anatomical practices more often as well.

>>8228

In approximate order of things I noticed.

1) Faces face (pun intended) in the direction that the head is turned. I didn't do as much redlining on Gray because I wasn't sure which way his head is turned, but the orientation of Olivia's bow suggests a more 3/4's view, so I redlined accordingly. (If she's supposed to be looking more at the camera, then the bow should be further back; regardless, her face should still have a distinctive "front" portion.)
2) Mouths don't stretch that far in "reality". TF2 does exaggerate facial expressions, but for brief moments. Frozen in a picture, their smiles look way too wide. (I probably erred a bit on the smaller side for Olivia so she'd look cuter.)
3) Olivia's proportions look really weird. In the comic, she's about half Gray's height; in this picture, I can't quite tell. Her legs are also oriented very oddly.
4) Gray should really be supporting Olivia's weight with both of his arms, as in the reference pic I found via GIS'ing the phrase "man holding daughter". There's been no indication so far that he's any stronger than the average old man.
4) In the comics, Gray has a very narrow waist; given the proportions you have here, his shoulders should be wider and his arms a little thicker.
5) Robot Heavy and Robot Medic look really inaccurate. I'm not sure if either Source SDK or SFM have robot models for you to reference in depth, but again at least GIS can help. (For starters, the Heavy's arm symbol is not oriented correctly.)

One of these days, I'll remember to attach the redline with my comments.

>>8230
I don't. I have a Mac, so I can't use SDK anything, all the tools (like Source Filmmaker) are locked out to me, as far as I can tell.

I can't seem to re-find the picture I used, but it was of a younger African-American man with his daughter in a frilly formal dress.

Again, I feel like I have to apologize, I feel like I need the most help of anyone on this board, and I'll try harder to make my artwork less awkward or ugly or incorrect.

>>8232
>>8233
Long story short: I wasn't sure how to do something when it came to drawing. So I went to two of my teachers, who had done art professionally in addition to teaching art. Their response was "You'll never get it. It's a waste of time even teaching you." I went to my parents for their take, and they told me "Sweetie, maybe just stop drawing and do something else instead." They were heavily hinting at me to do a more "feminine" career. I always thought art was completely gender-neutral, and it was one of the things that always made me happy when I got anxious or sad, so I was sort of gutted and felt guilty that I had let people down.

>>8237
Sounds like two teachers who aren't able to do their jobs, if they're supposedly professionals and they say that they can't teach you something. As for your family, they're not the ones who are going to have to do whatever you decide to do for a career, so their input on the matter is entirely insignificant compared to how YOU feel about it. As long as you're wanting to do it, try not to let other people stop you.

>>8238
Thank you. I guess I was just so worried about being a disappointment, or letting the people who are above me down, that I didn't consider myself at all. And I need to learn to balance that.

As usual, my comments are using more realistic-ish proportions as a guideline.

1) Sniper could use a higher hairline and manlier manjaw of manriness. The direction of his nose suggests that the front of his face is too wide.
2) Sniper's body looks too small for his head. Eyeballing his original proportions, his shoulders are about twice the width of his face, the seat of his pants should be lower, the torso wider, and the arms thicker. Correspondingly, his armpits and belly button would need to be moved if you went with my suggestion. Again, I wasn't sure which way his torso is supposed to be pointing, so I assumed it was towards our left (his right) and adjusted the placement of the nipples accordingly.
3) I'm not an expert, but the placement of the "mum" tattoo looks kind of odd. Maybe it could be a bit more on the outside of Sniper's arm.
4) The Heavy's skull shape looks odd, perhaps due to Sniper's head obscuring it's true shape. His mouth also looks wide-ish as well.
5) This particular pose is a massive pain in the rear end to draw since so much of Sniper's body will cover Heavy's, and they are pressed so closely together. You also have to factor in the height difference. I did the best I could (changing the Heavy's pose a bit so he's more actively embracing Sniper), but I'm not sure if it's any help.

>>8303
>>8306
I think either he's going to be rubbing Sniper's sides or using one hand to feel up his groin through his pants. I haven't decided yet. I might try out different poses, but having someone's partner come from behind them and wrap their arms around them is sort of a kink of mine. If you can call it that.

I've been using a lot of reference, but unfortunately, a lot of them are just pose references or of guys with underwear model physiques, which isn't really helpful.

Doowhacker, I apologize for how long it's been, but I'd still really like to do that Medic drawing for you, if you want.

My TF2 Secret Santa for another site.

Been trying to work on anatomy and composition even more as of late.

>>8410
I love the feel of this picture! Makes me want to play in the snow (if we had any...). The fence and the snow Medic and Heavy feel a bit flat to me, though.

You have improved SO MUCH since you first started posting here, I applaud you for your efforts!

>>8412
Aah, thank you! I've been looking through my art and usually see only how much I need to improve, but I'm glad there's some progress.

This was my first time actually ever drawing snow. I could use some tips with it, to be honest.

Quick sketch. I did a couple more pieces recently, but they were too big to upload here.

hello I am back with things

I'm still working on a mountain of super nitpicky teal deer and some redlines, but first let me give you props for the excellent composition in this picture. Everybody is interacting with everyone else in meaningful ways, and their positioning and poses really help me focus my gaze from person to person.

1. Everyone (animals included) has slightly oversized heads; I would suggest making said heads smaller or the shoulders wider. Lieutenant Bites (the raccoon) should be bigger.
2. Your Medic and Heavy are greatly improved compared to your previous pictures. The blue-lines are just there as a take-it-or-leave it suggestion because I can be really nitpicky when it comes to drawing the TF2 classes on-model. (I didn't check anyone else's proportions.)
3. It's hard for me to parse exactly which way your characters are facing because their nose lines suggest a very squished 3/4ths view (in which case the face should more closely resemble the 5-second photomanipulation I did in), but the rest of the face suggest the pose I did for my webcam. As I mentioned before, I find it helpful to think of the head as a more of a rectangular box, with the front pointed in the direction you want.
4. The blue/redlines I did for the hands are very tentative suggestions based on what I think the fingers should be doing if I were the one posing the characters. Also, though the TF2 style gives all of the characters (except Spy) huge blocky hands, said hands still narrow as they reach the wrists.
5. Finally, I suggest more volume in the shading, using multiple tones (your choice of whether to do a more cartoony "cel-shaded" style or a painted look). In the lower left I quickly did a proof of concept for Soldier, who especially needed more contrast to help him stand out next to Zhanna, who is wearing the same outfit as him.

>>8459
>>8460
Sorry for not commenting back sooner, I keep getting DNS errors whenever I try to visit TF2chan. Seems to be okay at the moment.

Composition: Thanks! I got a redline from Protowilson once re: composition, and I've been trying to show that even more. I also remembered Valve's "show, don't tell" policy.

Animals: Note to self: Do not just reference the models, look for real animal references next time.

Anatomy: Damn you, anime training. I still need to unlearn the big head, big eyes, not-sure-where-to-place-the-nose thing.
* It's kind of hard when some of the characters have official models, and the others don't. I ref both the model and a real anatomical ref. Sometimes I unfortunately ref one more than the other.

* Coloring: Next time, Zhanna will contrast more. I just didn't know what to put her in, and lingerie in a family photo didn't seem to fit.

* Shading: I think cel shading is what I'm going for, yeah. I think I'm just afraid that it's all the wrong direction, and I want the basic shading down before I do complicated stuff. Do you have any tips on blending the colors when I do?

Thank you for the advice, as always. I'll keep it to heart.

a lot of us went through the anime-to-western transition including me (i should show you the horrible early stuff i drew when i first decided to start showing my love for tf2... bishounens everywhere)
i just wantedto drop some encouragements man, keep it up

> Do you have any tips on blending the colors when I do?

Study the volume of objects and then experiment with your blending method such that your strokes suggest the actual shape of the object. (The same advice goes for cel-shaded, just using blocks of color rather than blending.)

>>8483
It's also a mechanical thing I'm struggling with, I wasn't sure how to use blend modes...although I had a 'duh' moment and realized that I could just use the same overlay techniques I already use for shading. I use Photoshop, in case anyone's curious. I might try FireAlpaca, but stuff like SAI is out of the question unless I can figure out how to rejigger it for Macs.

I tried the facial plane box, by the way. It works so much better than what I was doing without it. I still have problems when I try to draw animals, but I think it's because I'm so used to drawing humans.

>>8477
Thanks, artbro. I appreciate it. Keep doing awesome stuff yourself.

Limited-palette TF2 requests.

First up: Spy.

Limited-palette TF2 requests, part 2: Scout loadout.

I've always thought dweeby, buck-toothed Scout was the cutest.

Limited-palette TF2 requests, part 3: Scout. Person requesting didn't ask for anything specific, so I went with a Winged AU idea two of my friends have been working on.

>>8505
And here's the file I meant to include.

Another WIP.

Trying to focus on classes I don't draw as much.

It's good you're doing New things. My advice right now would be to zoom out and try drawing full body things. The sooner you start doing that the sooner you will get use to it. You seem to be too used to doing bustsand avoiding anything below the waist.

>>8516
Thanks, bud. I noticed that, too. I think either I was subconsciously trying to perfect torsos first, or I was worrying too much about fumblr's stupid file size limit. The final pic will have their legs in it.

First of all, kudos on the massive improvement I see in this picture compared to the last one.

Just a couple of minor nitpicks this time:
* The Heavy's left shoulder (our right) is too low considering that he's embracing the Medic (and the way the Medic's leaning, it's more natural-looking to have the Heavy's shoulder be higher)
* His thumb looks like it's a tad too low on his hand (but that may be because I'm too used to seeing said hand done in TF2's style, which makes it huge huge compared to realistic hands). Trying his pose myself, I find that the joint sticks out a bit more.
* Medic's jawline looks weird - on an actual human face, hairline to brow, nose, and then bottom of nose to mouth is approximately 1/3 each (and then TF2 tacks an extra bit on the jaw to make them extra Manry)
* The redline on his mouth is more of an opinion thing, as I find exaggerated grins to fall too much into the Uncanny Valley - at a full smile, the edges of the mouth line up with the pupils while looking forward.
* Either Spy's eyes seem too close together, or his nose too wide (or both); the 3/4ths turn of his face is affecting the usual proportions, but I'm still kind of expecting the eyes to be about one eye-length apart (taking into consideration that the bridge of his nose will block some of the eye on our left/his right) and the widest part of the nose to not exceed the inside corner of the eyes.
* He's definitely holding the cigarette too close to the bottom of his hand. Generally, a lit cigarette is held between the first and second knuckles of the index and middle fingers with the lit end as far away as possible to minimize the risk of burning (and he would've knocked some of that ash off so it wouldn't drop on the back of his hand).

I do feel I'm getting better, and I'm glad others feel the same. It's appreciated. I don't like the way I draw mouths, either. I feel like the "lip thing" is too Seth McFarlane, even though I've never intentionally drawn like him. I can't stand his work.

I forgot about the tiny hands post, or I only remembered TF2 has huge hands. I'll fix it next time.

Smoking is a thing I don't have much info on. I don't smoke, and it's not a thing they teach you in art classes, so I'll keep it in mind for next time. Thank you for all the help, dot.

I am still hard on myself, because I worry I'll never get more than one commission. I worry this is because my art doesn't really fit illustration, comics, or anything like that, that trying to be my own person and doing my own style that doesn't look like I'm aping anyone else has ended up hurting me instead of helping me.

Brief conga time sketch.

Someone made a fumblr post entitled 'Texans on fumblr: I dun spilt mah whiskey on mah Wacom tablet,' and I knew I had to draw a thing.

A thing dedicated to two dear friends.

I peed on it.

Got a request for some Magic Missiles.

I really like the new Pocket Heavy item. For obvious reasons.

Solly meets Rocket Raccoon.

Drawing practice.

Good to see your updates and heavy improvement, and that you are 'zooming out' a lot more now. keep it up!

>>8582
Thank you! I appreciate it. I think I focused on the close-up shots mostly because I was paranoid about the anatomy, and I wanted to focus more on getting one area right at a time. But I think I can afford to loosen up a bit now.

>>8581
Colored version!

>>8579
Finished version of this one. I wasn't initially sold on the yellow background, but it's growing on me.

Rough sketchy sketch of a TF2/Ghostbusters crossover.

Workin' on yet another thing.

Secret Santa drawing 2014.

Another color palette drawing.

Not art, per se, but working on a list of influences, to show where I'm coming from.

>>8007 I want you to stretch this exercise a little bit further and tell us not just who inspires you, but what it is about each of them that gives you inspiration. It's helpful to us critics because the more we understand what you're trying to take from these artists, the better we can help you figure out how to take it. It's helpful to you because being able to analyse what's successful about another artist's work is the first step to figuring out how to make your own work successful.

Lurker here has never commented on your work before (unless I did and forgot that I did) but I've been lurking and methinks there is improvement. Just wanted to mention that in case I die before my next comment.

>>8652
I'm sorry it's taken me this long to get to shading. My teachers were not very good at explaining how to do it, and I'm not sure how to blend the colors digitally (or in general), so I've avoided it for the most part.

>>8663
Thank you, Lurker. I'm still trying to figure it out. I grew up in an age where people were trying to all draw uniquely, and emulating anyone too closely was compared to plagiarism and being an untalented hack. But I'm starting to think a little more critically about it.

>>Venture Bros.
>>Moby Franke
I like Venture Bros., TF2, and Metalocalypse, because they're both relatively realistic in terms of proportions, even if they're exaggerated a bit. The characters feel like you could meet them on the street. They're relatable, they're not alienatingly gorgeous-looking. I feel like if everyone looks like a supermodel, it feels less and less like the world I live in.

>>Jamie Hewlett
Ditto. I think his art is sort of...beautiful in its ugliness, if it makes sense. Again, nobody looks like a supermodel.

>>Makani
I think her and Kate Beaton do hilarious facial expressions, and Makani's ladies come from all walks of life, and have different ages and body types.

>>Bruce Timm
>>Genndy Tartakovsky
I'm trying to get the thick line thing because I want to look like a comic book or cartoon.

>>Jhonen Vasquez
I like his cross-hatching in his comics, and the neon color scheme in Invader Zim. Also why I love the color palette in Psychonauts.

>>Disney
Fluid, good expressions that convey a lot, even if you remove the dialogue

>>8667
Shading's one of those art bitches that seem really simple and theory but are a pain in the ass to pull off in real life. Basically, you've got a light source, and if that light source hits anything it's going to light that thing up. That's like, all you need to know. There's some other shit involving surface properties and secondary light sources and atmospheric sorcery that will become relevant if you ever want your shading to be ultra realistic, but they're not really essential for most purposes, especially if you're a beginner.
Probably the best way to learn how shading works is just to look at stuff and try to figure out why the highlights and shadows look the way they look, then reproduce them. In art classes they usually make you start with some boring-ass simple shapes because a) they're simple and b) more complex shapes are basically just a bunch of simple shapes stuck together.

Observation is also key, imo, when it comes to achieving the sort of quasi-thematic realism that Metalocaplypse and TF2 are sporting. One of the shitty things about trying to learn art is that everybody's trying to teach you how to draw these idealised figures where there's basically one shape for men and two shape for women (big tits and little tits) and they're all hot. That's a pretty decent starting place if you're just trying to learn basic anatomy (ie; how long should a forearm be) but when you get to the point where you want your characters to not look like they came out of a cookie-cutter, you pretty much only have the choice of teaching yourself.
Right now you're still at the part where you should probably still be focusing mainly on getting your heads the right size for your body before you start complicating things with differently-shaped bodies. But that doesn't mean you can't be making observations and building up a collection of reference images for fatasses and skinnyasses and oldasses and prepubescentasses and asses with both legs blown off and asses on steroids, looking at them, saving them, drawing them. Once you have a good foundation in generic human anatomy you can start learning to make comparisons between the 'ideal' body and bodies that people actually fucking have. We're all basically the same shape underneath, so once you've got the basics down, learning how to draw all the millions of other human figures is really just a matter of switching around some fat and skin.

The rest of it, I guess, is just identifying what you want (you just did that!) and then not being a pussy about it. You like neon colours? Next dude you draw better have some lime green skin. If you're feeling really cocky, go ahead and open up a Jhonen Vasquez illustration and steal the shit out of his colours. Like don't even 'emulate' them, just go in with a colour picker and annex that exact shade of hot pink for your kingdom. Some goes for bold lines, and if you like cross-hatching then I don't want to see another smooth-shaded drawing for at least a month. The cool thing about drawings is that you'll probably make another one tomorrow anyway, so if it ends up being off or too much and looking weird, you can make adjustments for the next piece. You make faster progress when you go big and then scale back, rather than going small and only progressing an inch at a time, you can't improve shit that you never drew in the first place.

>>8668
I thought the heads were already the perfect size. Three heads for the shoulders, 2 heads from top of head to bottom of the chest. And I've already done a lot of different body shapes...

Practice sketch of different fictional doctors.

Color palette request.

It's good to see that you have a thread here!

>>8228
Ah, this is cute. It's rare that we see Gray Mann acting the part of the devoted father.

>>8502
I like the pattern you used in the background here.

>>8504
The Scout's head in this picture looks three dimensional; the shape of his wig really suggests a sense of depth. It's excellent!

>>8506
The twist of the Scout's neck here seems slightly unnatural - it might be more comfortable to have the head following the curve of the body, or vice versa. The picture explains it better. However, the use of colour is very aesthetically pleasing!

>>8515
Now that you mention it, there sure are a lot of smokers in the TF2 cast! It might just be the way I'm perceiving it, but Heavy seems to have three segments in his arm (see the picture). However, the round contours of his arm demonstrates his musculature very well.

>>8529
Hey! Who says you have to have a particular style to do illustration, comics or anything like that? It's true that using a completely inappropriate style is a bad move, like how CGI Smurfs fall right into the Uncanny Valley, or stories about horrible heart-rending life-ruining events drawn in chibis. But if you're more or less in the right ballpark, why not draw the way you'd like to draw? If you create something beautiful, funny, meaningful or useful, then you win regardless of the exact style you use to do it.

>>8579
>>8591
I chuckled. Who knew the Pocket Heavy and Pocket Medic's clothes were removable? Some nitpicks: there's nothing drawn incorrectly, but the overall layout could be spaced out a little. In this way, the speech bubbles would be better highlighted, we would be able to see the Heavy's full face, and also give him more room to make a full-body exaggerated gesture. I also like the way Medic is drawn here; his face is stylized, yet it's still recognizably him. Nice work!

>>8624
Adorable. I wonder how Pyro convinced Heavy and Medic to let them stay? Small detail: The height of the TV table's legs isn't uniform; at the height depicted, Heavy's head would be too far to the right side of the picture to see the screen. Very clean, precise colouring!

>>8644
Interesting, I can see you have a lot of cartoons as your influences.

>>8696
I'm glad to see this again. I didn't know Princess Bubblegum was a scientist, actually.

>>8710
Ah, lovely colours! I find that the Sniper's face here is quite similar to how you drew the Medic's earlier. I completely get it; Sniper is a right pain to draw. I hope the picture helps. I also like how you drew the Unusual hat; I recognized it straight away. Beautiful palette, very pastelly!

I don't think I ever uploaded this one.

>>8724
>>8722
>>8725
Thank you. I'm going to work on all of this. I can't take credit for the color scheme on the Scout pic, it was a color palette challenge (although I decided not to go with a color palette meme, I picked palettes from a website called ColourLovers).

I'll work on the backgrounds more, too. I know some artists don't do backgrounds at all, so I want to make up for that, I guess.

Kid Medic and his sister, from the "Kid Fortress" fan-comic on Tumblr. I really dig the designs, so I decided to draw fanart.

Another WIP. Engie singing to the team's birds.

>>8768
Fleshing this out a little more.

I'm eventually going to finish this with a background and full coloring and stuff.

There's a couple color tests for this over on my art blog (medaart @ tumblr), lemme know what you think!

>>8777
Background WIP.

>>8769
Hehe, I like how kid Medic is an implied bird. But I like birds in general so maybe I'm biased! What's the song?

>>8777
Checked out the colors, and I'm always partial to purple Pauling, but the BLU(e?) one looks nice too.

>>8760
Okay, I laughed.

>>8768
>>8769
It's intriguing see the different stages of the artwork here. The shape of Engie's jaw and nose could possibly be adjusted, as in the picture. In the background, the variation between the birds makes a great silhouette in the window. Engie's pose and expression are both just right, too; they fit the relaxed mood of the song. Finally, something subtle that you've done very well is the use of focus. There is a single focus to the picture (Engie and his guitar), and the background doesn't overpower that. Nice work!

>>8777
>>8779
I like the perspective on the furniture in this picture! It ain't original, but it's true: I like Miss Pauling being on Team PRPL. That said, all of the colour tests are in good taste. Also, the waistcoat and tie combo suits her surprisingly well.

>>8780
I'm confused by what you mean here. He's not implied to be a bird.

The song is "Blackbird" by The Beatles. It's off their self-titled album (sometimes referred to as "The White Album").

>>8783
I'd probably be a better TF2 artist if SFM worked on my computer. I've really got to rig up a way to get Windows to work on my computer. I do have some basic facial and body refs, but they're a bit small and low-res. I've been working from pictures off the TF2 wiki.

I'm glad you like the background and perspective, I've been trying to do that more. Some artists decide they don't want to learn, so I've made it a goal to do so.

>>8780
>>8798
I think it might be that Kid Medic appears at the bottom of the Blackbird picture.

>>8798
Hey, no pressure. Even on Windows, SFM is a big lug of a program. I usually prefer TFMV (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=158547475) since it avoids the trouble of loading SFM. There are also some great multi-angle facial refs here, including a goggleless Engie (http://imgur.com/a/qvZtR).

I like the colours! The reused colours help unify the picture, like how the lamp reflects the carpet. The piano pattern on the leftmost cupboard is also rather neat. There's a bit of an optical illusion with the carpet; I'm trying to imagine how the stripes would look from above, and how that would translate to seeing them on the floor in perspective.

>>8798

Ooh meda about that! I've never heard of the program that Nominel brought up, might give it a shot, but I'll tell you what I told Hosscatt a bit back: If you run TF2 and go to the Mann Co store, when you preview cosmetics there's a fullscreen option, and the model they give you there is fully rotatable and larger than the ones on the wiki (when fullscreened). Just something else to try (Nominel's thing sounds more robust though). Thanks for the song title.


>>8800

>Kid medic seen there
Kek, Nominel that's it. Sorry if I was vague.

Hey nominel, I've been working with your redlines/refs a bunch. How's this look?

I also drew this thing. Based on a real story of an OB-GYN who got in trouble for sexting as one of his patients was giving birth.

>>8880
Well I'm no Nominel but the Sniper with the owl on the shoulder is super charming! Did you draw these in order from left to right?

>>8881
Thirteen keks! Is that Scout's mom?

Small comment on the background anatomy images, I totes get that they're the background so I shouldn't focus on them as much, but as far as skulls go, don't be afraid to just rip the jawbone right off of the skull! (I am assuming that's a skull and not a people) It's not attached bone to bone like you might think.

>>8880
I'm very impressed, it looks great! I can see stacks of changes, like the nose angle and width, chin shape, cheekbone height, and eyebrow shape. The overall effect is that Sniper is instantly recognizable. His expressions are also on key - they look right at home on his face. Seriously good work!

I also like how the details of his clothes vary in thickness. For example, you can see that his gloves are skin-tight because they don't affect the silhouette of his hands, whereas the stitches on the side of his shirt appear more textured because they stand off from the main part of the fabric.

Finally, the different angles (front-on and orthogonal) map strongly to eachother; it looks like the same person at different angles, rather than multiple different people. Excellent consistency!

>>8881
Hahaha. I like the backgrounds here, they set the scene effectively! Something that especially stands out is how Heavy and Medic are outlined with a thicker marker, which creates a nice sense of depth relative to the narrower lines of the background. There's a small mismatch with the line of sight to the phone (picture). I also like Heavy's natural leaning pose.

>>8882
I did! And thank you, I love Sir Hootsalot!

I remembered about the jawbone being a separate piece, but when I was referencing x-rays for the background, the separation wasn't as visible.

>>8886
Thanks! I didn't want the background taking away from the foreground. I'm glad I'm getting better at faces, too.

I did notice the line-of-sight thing. Something I'm trying to fix in this next drawing a bit.

>>8902
Said drawing didn't upload, whoops. Here it is!

Annnd here's the fully-colored version of >>8881!

>>8903

Just a quick first impression--the instruments don't look to be the right size relative to the people, and Sniper and Engineer look like they're clipping into each other (which unless that's the joke, this should be fixed).

Detailed redlines to come later maybe, when it's not past midnight and I should be in bed.

(The red/blue lines are extremely rough; they're just there to illustrate my feedback.)

First, the good:
* The thick outline around the characters.
* The background poster really helps me focus my gaze on Sniper and Engineer.
* Proportions are solid and they have weight.

Now, the not so good:
* The smiles are still a little bit too wide for my taste.
* It might help the composition of the picture even better if Sniper and Engineer are also looking at each other. (I parse the instruments as pointing towards the edges of the picture rather than at the center--the cropping doesn't help the issue, either.)
* The one side of Sniper's glasses are obviously bigger than the other, even taking account of foreshortening. I also added some suggestions to help clarify the orientation of his head, as you've got his glasses going one way but the rest of his face going another and I find that more confusing than anything else.
* I moved them further apart so it doesn't look like they're banging their instruments together. I may have erred on the side of more space, so you might be able to move them a little closer (in that case, you may also want to turn the sides that are close to the other towards the "camera" more), but overall I don't recommend that the instruments overlap at all.
* Speaking of instruments, I highly suggest you search the internet for references. They're the wrong side relative to both of the characters, and they're also being held/played incorrectly.

>>8908
Ahh. Okay. I was actually using references when I drew this-- multiple ones for the characters, and one each for the guitar/banjo. I suspect I might just be really bad at using references, since I never draw without them.

I lined the nostrils up with the mouth. I assumed that was correct?

>>8903
I'm hella digging Sniper's middle three strumming fingers, they're super curly and aesthetically pleasing. Not to mention the stitching on Engineer's overalls, nice ATD! Attached is a (hopefully) helpful overall strap reference; which part is teh small metal piece on the left? aka RMD is dumb and trying to figure out buckles as much as the next guy

Also just a suggestion for when/if (might not be in the style but it's your style heck if I know) you ever draw the instrument strings is use a transparent ruler so you can see where to stop.

Based on this: http://a-bloody-fruit-shop-owner.tumblr.com/post/130671392706/ngl-that-post-with-heavy-and-medic-reminded-me-of

>>8910
I'm gonna do strings, I just wanted to get the instruments themselves down first. And I'm really proud of those hands, so thank you!

Buckles are hard, man.

>>8944
And this, for all the people who commented "omg Rick" on my last drawing.

That poor principal oh my gosh this

That was brilliant oh my gosh, they were touching butts and like, that was a beautiful form of protest. Or something was that even protest

Yes
Too close being in the same room is too close, that's the moral I'm getting.

That was adorable
Live commentary as watching folks

Also those pockets

>>8948
The wooshiest of Rick hair right here, let me tell you what.

Also dat outfit coordination, I want that tie.
It would save me a lot of TIEm b d d d d dum dum bum tssssssssssss

WIP of a spectral Miss Pauling.

>>8989
And the final.

>>8990

That comic was amazing holy crap, mercs playing DnD is basically a dream come true. Nice job with the colored lineart, too! Looks nice.

>>8991
Thank you! And yeah, it was something I always figured would never happen, but always wanted to see.

Bump.

>>9135

Dude so many baseball bats! I'm assuming this is an OC named Nate? (extrapolating from the filename lol)

>>9139
Yep! N00dl3gal on Tumblr requested I draw their OC, a Scout named Nate. I had a very detailed description of his clothing, but not of his weapon loadout-- and I rarely see Scouts that don't love BEISBAW baseball, so I just gave him ALL THE BATS.