Thanqol Learns To Draw!

[Thanqol]

Oh wow! That's pretty awesome! I wasn't actually looking for an avatar, just a random pic, and this one's pretty cool. Might try and fail to color it at some point if that's okay.

Still, I am going to keep the request for Thanqol, because I'm evil it's always good to work on your weaknesses.

Can't escape it that easy, I guess. I'll start Dragon Month on February and hope I get it done before then.

The shipper in me can only see this ending in angry makeouts...

*flees*

Everything ends in makeouts one way or another. :3

Could not stop thinking that.

It would seem that you are using dodge/burn to model. This is not optimal - it is far better to choose shadow colours manually, since that will actually resemble what shadows look like in the real world, even if you get it wrong.

I actually used the Shading layer for this one as an experiment; you're right it didn't work out, I should shelve that method.

Colours are good but the perspective and composition is way off, sorry. Either the Gryphon needs to lose the left butt cheek (and where is his left leg?) so he's sitting at a side on perspective or the Pony is bending like a banana.

Either way the Pony's feet are not right. If the Gryphon is side on then the Pony's right leg needs to move up and away from the viewer some more, and if the perspective on the Gryphon's ass is correct, then the Pony would honestly need to be almost entirely redrawn.

Use Saeyan's excercise and try to recreate the pair as geometric shapes, it is a bit of a puzzle unfortunately.

I know I keep hassling you about realism and the basics and might seem overly critical at times, but to make a somewhat trite point Picasso had to learn how to draw like Davinci before he could paint like a two year old.

Yes, you're entirely right. I keep learning Things and then not applying them. I wanted to revise that piece but just didn't have the time. I'll do better to keep my lessons in mind as I work.

As a side tangent, as a future thing to do at some point or even try now:
You're doing minimalism in the sense of design at the moment - cartoons and the like - but how about minimalism in construction.
By that I mean drawings like your own landscape of seven (I think) lines.

is a face, but is only four lines. If you're going to draw dragons try drawing some with as few lines as possible - also a good opportunity to practice the line weight exercise.

It's something that could be insightful into composition and design which you yourself noted in your picture of the fox - it didn't look like a fox because it looked too much like a cat, right?
I'm talking about breaking things down to as few 'pieces' as you can but still keep it recognisable. Look up Sumi-e art for more of what I mean:

Oh, I was thinking of something like this a few weeks ago when I was looking at Zen calligraphy. I'll schedule a few days for this kind of style, for sure!