Shady does avatars!

[ShadowFireLance]

Ouch, This may hurt some eyes, but here is my first avatar try.
(This all spawned from me wanting lots of cool avatars, but not having the personalilty to annoy lots of good avatarists)
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg525/ShadowfireLance/Avatertry.png
And I have no clue what went wrong with his left eye.:smallfurious:

My 2nd Avatar Design:
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg525/ShadowfireLance/ChimeraMk1.png

So, Critique on what I did right/wrong
how should I improve?

[Derjuin]

What program did you use to make it? The size makes me think it's a raster program (photoshop) or MSpaint; a program you might be interested in (if you aren't already using it, of course) is Inkscape (http://inkscape.org/). It's a free open source SVG program (similar to Illustrator, the program Rich uses for OotS if I'm not mistaken), and most avatarists on this site use it.

Before critiquing, I'd like to suggest taking a look over Trazoi's guide to making OotS avatars in Inkscape (http://www.trazoi.net/tutorials/inkscape/oots/). It's a very good place to start, and helps you learn Inkscape at the same time! If you're already using Inkscape, it may also point out some functions you haven't used before. Either way, it shows you proportions and a good way to start an avatar.

Critiques:

The line thickness is all over the place; most avatars (and OotS images in general) have a uniform line thickness (in Inkscape, it's 2 pixels). As you mentioned, something's up with his left eye; the sizes are a little off, too. I'm not really sure what's going on with the sword - it looks like there's a copy of it, sitting behind it (same with the armor, actually). Speaking of line thickness, hands/fingers are always the same width as the arms (as are the legs, etc). The head-torso size seems right on, though the arms and legs are a tad short. The sharp angles on the legs look awkward; in OotS, legs are a bit like noodles: they curve even if normal legs don't work that way. The hair's shape makes it look like it was manually painted on, while other parts of the avatar look like they were made from objects.

It's hard to stress the importance of relatively uniform line thickness, though. Uniformity helps the avatar look like it's a character, object or other subject matter instead of a series of shapes that were placed near each other.


The best way to get better is to keep trying, though. Don't let starting out get you down; my avatars were terrible when I first started, now (after much practice and wisdom-seeking) they are much better. When you feel you can create an OotS style avatar regularly, you can try modifying the norm to see what works for you. Again, I would recommend using Inkscape and following Trazoi's guide (or someone else's, if you can find them - I recommend Trazoi because that's the one I used) to get a handle on how to start, then experimenting from there.

[ShadowFireLance]

What program did you use to make it? The size makes me think it's a raster program (photoshop) or MSpaint; a program you might be interested in (if you aren't already using it, of course) is Inkscape (http://inkscape.org/). It's a free open source SVG program (similar to Illustrator, the program Rich uses for OotS if I'm not mistaken), and most avatarists on this site use it.

Before critiquing, I'd like to suggest taking a look over Trazoi's guide to making OotS avatars in Inkscape (http://www.trazoi.net/tutorials/inkscape/oots/). It's a very good place to start, and helps you learn Inkscape at the same time! If you're already using Inkscape, it may also point out some functions you haven't used before. Either way, it shows you proportions and a good way to start an avatar.

Critiques:

The line thickness is all over the place; most avatars (and OotS images in general) have a uniform line thickness (in Inkscape, it's 2 pixels). As you mentioned, something's up with his left eye; the sizes are a little off, too. I'm not really sure what's going on with the sword - it looks like there's a copy of it, sitting behind it (same with the armor, actually). Speaking of line thickness, hands/fingers are always the same width as the arms (as are the legs, etc). The head-torso size seems right on, though the arms and legs are a tad short. The sharp angles on the legs look awkward; in OotS, legs are a bit like noodles: they curve even if normal legs don't work that way. The hair's shape makes it look like it was manually painted on, while other parts of the avatar look like they were made from objects.

It's hard to stress the importance of relatively uniform line thickness, though. Uniformity helps the avatar look like it's a character, object or other subject matter instead of a series of shapes that were placed near each other.


The best way to get better is to keep trying, though. Don't let starting out get you down; my avatars were terrible when I first started, now (after much practice and wisdom-seeking) they are much better. When you feel you can create an OotS style avatar regularly, you can try modifying the norm to see what works for you. Again, I would recommend using Inkscape and following Trazoi's guide (or someone else's, if you can find them - I recommend Trazoi because that's the one I used) to get a handle on how to start, then experimenting from there.

lets start at teh top.

I did use Inkscape, and I followe-esqued Trazoi's guide......

Critiques:

I dunno about line thickness, It looks a bit odd (To me) if all them lines are the same..
Yeah, I messed up on the legs, Like i said, First try.
Sword: I just started adding shapes to make it look like a Sword, What Exactly is off about it?



Thanks for the vote of confidence!
:smallsmile:

[Cealocanth]

I dunno about line thickness, It looks a bit odd (To me) if all them lines are the same..



You're right, at least sort of right. Line thicknesses can vary when it comes to detailing. A pouch, beveling on a sword, or some wavy magic lines can be a thinner thickness to keep attention from being drawn from them, but I can not stress enough the importance of having a single consistent line thickness for at the very least, the basic structure of the figure (meaning body, hair, base clothing, head, arms/legs, and any large items they may be carrying e.g. swords). It's part of achieving the OOTS style of art.

Now if you would like to try to propagate your own style of stick figures with drastically differing line thicknesses, be my guest. That's one of the amazing things about artistic licence. :smalltongue:.

[Komodo]

Hello, ShadowFireLance.

Allow me congratulate you on taking the first step, and to encourage you as you continue to grow and improve. You've got an okay start, and the advice given above is very good and you should use it. If I may, I'll also include some advice of my own...

When I began drawing OOTS style, the first thing I did was go through the Giant's comic, find something resembling what I wanted to draw, and paste it into my canvas (ie: for my avatar, I took a half-dragon being killed by Familicide, and a book Durkon was studying from on page 739). I then lowered the opacity and traced over it on a different layer. This helped me find the shapes and line width I wanted. (I might be using some terms that are exclusive to photoshop, which is what I use. Hopefully you can translate my advice into Inkscape terms)

One more tip to keep in mind is to keep it dynamic. Make it so that people can tell things about a character. Your first pic is just a guy facing forward and smiling, which isn't a bad idea for your first attempt, but the avatars I like have the character doing something that reflects a bit of their personality. In this regard, your second picture is better, because even though I wouldn't know if it's referencing something, I can still tell immediately that its an aggressive warrior alien bent on destroying/conquering something.

A few more minor tips...
- If you want to color the eyes, keep an outline around them anyway. Yellow eyes on grey alien skin is kind of hard to make out.
- When making eyes, aim for ellipses, not circles.
- On armor, the shoulder pads (there's a better word somewhere) are normally a separate shape from the rest of the body.
- The hair on the knight? Love it.

Hope this was helpful. Love to see what you produce next!

[ShadowFireLance]

Hello, ShadowFireLance.

Allow me congratulate you on taking the first step, and to encourage you as you continue to grow and improve. You've got an okay start, and the advice given above is very good and you should use it. If I may, I'll also include some advice of my own...

When I began drawing OOTS style, the first thing I did was go through the Giant's comic, find something resembling what I wanted to draw, and paste it into my canvas (ie: for my avatar, I took a half-dragon being killed by Familicide, and a book Durkon was studying from on page 739). I then lowered the opacity and traced over it on a different layer. This helped me find the shapes and line width I wanted. (I might be using some terms that are exclusive to photoshop, which is what I use. Hopefully you can translate my advice into Inkscape terms)

One more tip to keep in mind is to keep it dynamic. Make it so that people can tell things about a character. Your first pic is just a guy facing forward and smiling, which isn't a bad idea for your first attempt, but the avatars I like have the character doing something that reflects a bit of their personality. In this regard, your second picture is better, because even though I wouldn't know if it's referencing something, I can still tell immediately that its an aggressive warrior alien bent on destroying/conquering something.

A few more minor tips...
- If you want to color the eyes, keep an outline around them anyway. Yellow eyes on grey alien skin is kind of hard to make out.
- When making eyes, aim for ellipses, not circles.
- On armor, the shoulder pads (there's a better word somewhere) are normally a separate shape from the rest of the body.
- The hair on the knight? Love it.

Hope this was helpful. Love to see what you produce next!

Wow, Thanks Komodo, That was some of the nicest things ever said to me.:smallsmile:

Minor tips:
The Alien I based it off of has yellow eyes, but I think I did the new-est one better, which I shall post below.
Got it.
Pauldrens, Is the correct name, Got it.
Thanks!
And here is the updated Alien Warlord:

Naghul strangling a poor solider.
http://i1242.photobucket.com/albums/gg525/ShadowfireLance/ChimeraMk2.png

[Gnomish Wanderer]

Good start so far. It's always nice to see people getting commited into the avatar-crating business, it's both a fun and rewarding endeavor. Some hopefully helpful Inkscape-based critiques of my own below:
-Try using the following chain of File-->Export Bitmap-->Drawing to get your images out. It'll lead to the images being smaller sized and easily resizable, as well as being ping images so the white background will come out as clear and work for any webpage you show it off on.
-Consistent outward borders really is important for the feel of OotS-style avatars. In fact I'd heavily advise for consistent thickness overall until you get down some of the basics and then adding in more complex things like dynamic line weight.
-Try using more curves instead of corners. What helps is try using the pencil tool to draw your basic shape for arms and legs and then hinting CTRL-L to simplify and make the pencil art 'neater'
-Don't downplay the importance of basic shapes and simple styles. Those are the building blocks of avatars and can come together quite well.
Overall, good luck and I'm excited to see how you progress!

@v Yes, Cuthalion, when it comes to shapes that are usually more advanced, I use the pencil tool. It allows me to freeform draw the basic shape of something with excessive curves without using the pen tool to create a blocky version that I then have to bend and clean up. Also for single straight lines, I use the pencil tool so I don't have to click multiple times to create a line, which I then will often bend using just the mouse or the nodes for a more curve bend. For most shapes and objects, though, I'll use the pen tool, but the pencil tool advice was to help people transfer real world drawing skills into Inkscape effectively for first-time users of Inkscape, not general avataring advice based on what I do.

[Cuthalion]

Good start so far. It's always nice to see people getting commited into the avatar-crating business, it's both a fun and rewarding endeavor. Some hopefully helpful Inkscape-based critiques of my own below:
-Try using the following chain of File-->Export Bitmap-->Drawing to get your images out. It'll lead to the images being smaller sized and easily resizable, as well as being ping images so the white background will come out as clear and work for any webpage you show it off on.
-Consistent outward borders really is important for the feel of OotS-style avatars. In fact I'd heavily advise for consistent thickness overall until you get down some of the basics and then adding in more complex things like dynamic line weight.
-Try using more curves instead of corners. What helps is try using the pencil tool to draw your basic shape for arms and legs and then hinting CNTL-L to simplify and make the pencil art 'neater'
-Don't downplay the importance of basic shapes and simple styles. Those are the building blocks of avatars and can come together quite well.
Overall, good luck and I'm excited to see how you progress!

You use the pencil tool, Gnomish? I pretty much always use the line drawer and then bend it.