Those of you who know me know that I'm, like, the world's slowest artist So I thought it'd be nice for me to finally post an image! Woo! (Settle down in the back).

Here's a doodle of a character from a sci-fi roleplaying game (alas one of the shortest games I've ever played in, boo). This was essentially a skin tone practice for me, so there's intentionally little detail elsewhere, nor background. That's my excuse for laziness and I'm sticking to it ;)

 

 

 

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Trudi Topham.

I think the head is well constructed, though the white lines don't feel like they are adding anything to the face. Also, the treatment of shadow and hair feels a little sloppy. The eyelashes' value, though in shadow, is somehow brighter than the ones in the eyebrow, which makes it look strange. Still, the face has a good expression, and the drawing is very solid.

Since you said this is a skin tone exercise, I guess you wouldn't worry too much about the rest of the figure. Still there are a few things that worth pointing out, I think. The folds on his clothes really needs more work. To be honest, I think every folds you have on his jacket are folding the wrong way. The best way to do this is use a reference and see how folds in those area behave. I assume that the shows and the pants and his shirt is all one piece. If it is made out of a big piece of plastic material, then it looks nice, but I would still watch out for those folds on his pants. I'm not sure why they all form these razor sharp edges at these folds.

Hi Yian,

Thanks for the feedback! It's much appreciated

The clothes were indeed intended to be very plasticky, but also, as you say, I was very lazy with them as I was more interested in the skin tone exercise - I'm notoriously poor with skin tones and was making a conscious effort to stop being afraid of colour (I spent twenty formative years drawing with nowt but graphite pencils).

Which lines would you say aren't adding anything? The character's in his mid-forties, so I was attempting to get some wrinkles and less flexible skin in, but evidently didn't manage that too well

Cheers!

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Trudi Topham.

I was indeed walking about the lines within the wrinkles. They probably are meant to be highlights, but right now I think they are too rough and really aren't bringing out the form of the folds of the skin. Even when they are properly aligned, they will make the skin look more like they are cut by stuff rather than wrinkles.

You, sir, are a star! Thank you

I think I shall leave this one on the shelf a few weeks and come back to it with a fresh pair of eyes and your advice in hand. Cheers!

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Trudi Topham.