Jake's Art-4-Cash

I'm kicking off my art with what is hopefully the first of many pencil drawings. I was going to submit this guy for a capture, but if I manage to land a medium wage, I'll be able to buy it with cash to spare. It's just a shame that so early in my career I produced my magnet opus.

 

If I may... It looks like you've run into the problem with shadows hitting your picture (specifically shadows of you with your camera of choice.) That's not uncommon, it can be difficult to avoid!
I thought I'd pop in and suggest that you try to take the photo with the light source between you and your piece. Even if it's a ceiling light, it skills help to eliminate shadow. Usually I find I have to take a the picture from father away then I first anticipate, so it helps to zoom and crop to the page afterward, too.
Just suggestions. Presentation is part of the artwork.

 

Hey dude it's still a pretty good proof of ownership!
You get a chance to take another photo?

 

Aaaand fixed, and ready for grading! Thanks for the reminder, I actually took the updated photo a while back but forgot to update this thread!

 

I have come to bring you in view of the light in the darkness. Not out yet, but closer. :eyes: Claim!

 

Hi, Jake! Thanks so much for your patience. Magnemite is low-key one of my favorites in the games--Emerald run-throughs usually see me wrecking face with a Magnezone. And an Aggron. And a Skarmory. And-- you know, I'm seeing a trend...

First of all, thanks a bunch for taking a better picture and resubmitting. I remember what your first image looked like, and this one is so much nicer to look at, and shows your drawing so much better! It's really hard getting a good picture without a scanner. Not casting a shadow on it is a pain. It really helps that you did this, and that was appreciated!

Moving on, let's start with anatomy! Magnemite is fairly simple in its shapes, but it can still be a little tricky. I think you've done really well with the basics of this one. All of the parts are there, and they're the right shape, so that's great. I know that free-handing perfect circles is the worst, but with some blood, sweat, and tears, you can get pretty close. Here, you've done a pretty good job on the body sphere. I'd recommend pulling that bottom edge up just a bit more--in official art, we see that his screws are just a little bit below his magnet line, and not too far from his eyes, so they'd be pulled up more. Additionally, I think a little more of a curve on the screw facing us to get it a little bit closer to circular would be nice. The far one is really great, though--I love how you've made it so that it sticks out and we see the back edge of it. This really helps cement the way this sphere is a 3D object.

One small thing I notice is the top screw. I love how you've detailed it. Zooming in, the shading inside of its threads and the way the top holes are actually carved out of its profile are really nice details that I appreciate. The one thing I'd suggest is tilting it a little more vertical, however. In references, we see that that screw is essentially the marker of the Magnemite's "axis," so the imaginary line going down that that screw creates is the center of his circular body. I've drawn a visual example here. Forgive the messiness, at the airport and having to use Paint. So the red line is where your Magnemite's axis would be, while the black is where you'd probably want it closer to instead (though with that line shifted a little to the left). The other black lines are the approximate way his center lines would be in space if his axis is what our right magnet suggests it is.

That example also shows that the far magnet, the one that's shooting lightning, is also really high up. I'd suggest placing that lower next time, about at the same height as the other one, if not a tad bit up since it's further back. The one closest to us could also be a little larger--the one further away from us looks larger than the one closer, so their sizes should be reversed. Otherwise, I love these magnets; you've used a bit of a second edge to show that they're boxy, not flat. The only small critique I'd make is to watch the top left edges on the back magnet. For us to see the top of that, he'd have to be tilting that magnet pretty far toward us. That side is already facing sharply away from us, so he'd have to pull that magnet pretty far toward us for us to see that edge.

One thing I want to mention is your lightning. Lightning is a notoriously difficult obstacle to overcome using pencil. Something that's so light, thin, and abstract is difficult, but your stylistic approach here is actually really nice! I don't see lightning treated this way often, but it works wonderfully, and that gradation you have in the fills of the bolts helps make it very dynamic. I love the shapes you used here. They're a good contrast to the geometry of the Magnemite, really setting them apart in a nice way. Good job on that.

Let's talk about sading. I love the attention to detail you've applied to the shading. On the right magnet, we see that the slanting edges that are facing away from our leftward light source are darker, and the same goes for the lower visible edges on the back magnet. The back of the far bottom screw is also dark, and the closer screw casts a nice, sharp shadow due to how close it is to what it's casting on and how sharp the shape is. These are really great details. The shading on the sphere helps us see that he's a form in space and not just a circle. It's shaded like a matte object (instead of a shiny one), though, and that's the thing I'd love to see you work on.

Metal comes in all kinds of different textures and qualities. Here is a useful reference on what these different types look like, and how they reflect light. It'd be totally up to you on what kind of metal you'd like to see, but I think playing around with these might be a good experiment for you! Metal shading is a bit advanced, but it's fun to try to experiment with it. I'd encourage you to start by kind of squinting at them, so you can't see the details very well. Look at right about where things are dark and where things are light, and go from there. Also, consider trying to make everything a dark gray shade, and then erasing out the light--it helps it feel more natural. Also think about how something as bright as lightning would reflect off of a metal body!

I see with your shading that you also shaded the floor a little bit to keep it from being a plain white--this texture, while subtle, is a very nice touch. I also like your attempt to cast a shadow in the background. The way you've distorted it shows an understanding of how light and how it casts shadows warps it. That's awesome. I think, however, that it would have tilted more sharply to our left (to be somewhat paralell with the wall in the background), but it's a great detail.

One thing to remember when shading things is how dark you make it. When you squint at this page, what color do you see? You see a very light gray--and then a dark spot where the top of his far magnet is. It's darker than the other dark point on the other one, but it's also darker than even the shading on the back of the Magnemite, and even darker than the shadow on the floor. Be careful about where you choose to apply the darkest shading. It's good to start by looking at where you think the darkest shadow will be, and then bringing everything else in a gradient up from there. The darkest parts of this one would likely be the back of the top screw's grooves, the back of the bottom left screw, the shadow of the bottom right screw (like you already have it--great job!), the inner back part of the far magnet (which you also did!), and the dark parts of the back of his sphere shading.

Your background is nice in its simplicity. The detail on the floor makes me think it's concrete, since there aren't tiles. The panels in the background make me think metal or some similar material. I'd also experiment with textures on the wall to tell us what material it is a little better. I like the divisions in it, however, as it helps give us a better sense of the space we're in.

Composition-wise, I love how you've shown our subject up close. The only thing I'd suggest to think about is how we look at it! Art not only uses lines on the paper to direct the eye, but also imaginary lines. The physical lines draw us to the big bulk of his body since it takes up so much space, and from there, we look up to his lifted magnet and up to the electricity. The imaginary line you use in this is called "psychic line," which is the line created by where we see someone looking. Both the lines of his magnet and the line created by where he's looking makes us look straight off the page, to the top left. Is this an effect you want? Just try to think about it. Doing this is good if you want us to not have an idea of what he's looking it. It's good for shrouding it in mystery. But sometimes, it can be a little anticlimactic, or leave a viewer feeling a bit uncomfortable by how it affects the balance of the page. Here, it's not any one particular feeling, but I would definitely consider it for your future works!

Hope I didn't throw too much at you. Let me know if you need me to explain anything. This is a solid attempt. I'll award it at Simple, 5k. If you were to sit down and give that metallic shading a try, and to also darken up your existing shading, this would easily hit a medium. Metal is difficult, and a solid attempt at that would give you a nice bump to your points. I know it's been a while, though, so if you've lost track of the drawing by now, it's A-OK! This is a precious piece, thanks so much, Jake!​