MG's Doodles n' Drawings: Scraggy

Attempting to catch: Scraggy
Difficulty: Medium

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Right, so I drew these using Paint Tool SAI. Shading is not my strong point, and is what I kinda struggled with most drawing these two pieces. So any advice on that would be great.

The first Scraggy didn't really give me any trouble, had fun drawing him. But the second one x_x Blegh, getting the pose and his face right gave me some trouble. I suck at backgrounds, so for that I just drew over like a stock image or w/e they are called. My signature is the Magnesium and the date obviously

 

So your strong points in this are that you have good lines, a great pose, good colors, and the sense that you really worked at this drawing. The lines are smooth and solid and depict Scraggy accurately. The pose is very fluid and 'alive', making it seem like Scraggy is jumping and moving across the page. He looks very full of action and ready for a battle! The colors are also accurate to the Pokemon you chose, and they're very vibrant and alive. It's fun for the eyeballs.

As for your weaker points... Some of your lines are kind of messy and you left a good bit of Scraggy's outlines 'broken' or 'open'. That detracts from the movement and realism a bit. If you weren't going for such a solid black outline, you'd probably get away with a few broken lines here and there; however, since you do have a black outline, you have to be a bit more picky about it. The shading is off--I have no idea where your light source is coming from, since you've shaded all sides of Scraggy in odd places. And the biggest thing... you have no background, which unfortunately knocks a big chunk of the score off of this piece.

Overall, I like how strong the lines are in this, though they're a bit broken and sometimes messy in places. The coloring is fairly good; there's just the matter of the shading being a bit too light or off. I also wish you'd including some kind of background, though I know you mentioned that backgrounds are a challenge for you. Catching Scraggy isn't easy!

All right, so I'm going to put your picture up with some things highlighted for you so you know what I'm talking about. The green lines highlight your lines that I thought were a bit messy while the blue highlights some shading errors. Okay...



We'll go from top to bottom. One of the things I noticed about this is that the lines are a little...off. Keeping the outlines 'closed', so to speak, and fill in the black areas you need to--neatly. I noticed the eye wasn't totally filled in and your lines aren't closed in and some go past where they should. Be sure to use the zoom in the computer program you're using to zoom in and erase the errors and keep it neat Another thing I noticed... your shading is kinda strange. Where is your light coming from? I circled the arm and 'fingers' to show that you've shading every side of them, making it impossible to tell where the heck your light source is. Also, don't be scared to make your shading colors a tad darker and more noticeable than that! The brighter a light, the darker the shadow. The blue doodle lines just point out that the shading should also follow the curve of an object's shape; i.e, the foot is rounded out towards us and therefore should have the OPPOSITE curve of what you shaded.

And, as a side note, you should title your work! It makes it much more fun and gives it a bit more of a backstory.

Score: 40/100. Most of your score came from the cool pose and strong lines/colors, but without a background, you lose some points.

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You did a background on this one! Yay! Also, the pose is again very good and the Pokemon is accurate. You used good colors here and your lines are solid. The 'flow' of Scraggy's movement is pretty darn cool, too--he looks like he's fighting something or perhaps just practicing alone. The face, despite your misgivings, looks pretty good too--Scraggy looks determined or intense. Scraggy's feet look a bit odd--instead of being a couple of solid ovals, as they are supposed to, they look strangely baggy. Some of your lines are, again, not closed off or just sort of messy in general. The background lines are too dark and it's very simplistic. Your clouds and mountains aren't shaded, and neither is the ground. I also can't figure out what those black asterisk thingies are in the background... plants, maybe?

Overall, it's pretty good but could use some work. I can tell that you kept the background simplistic and worked more on Scraggy himself. While Scraggy is solid and looks great, your background art could use some practice. I'm gonna do the same thing again and give you the lowdown through visual representation, which I find to be simplest to explain and understand:



I noticed that some of your lines are a bit messy again, or unclosed. Scraggy's left eyelid, for example, has a line that isn't closed off. Be sure to clean your lines! The shading is also a bit off again... you almost have the shading right in this drawing except for that one little spot on his tail. The light source is, I'm assuming, coming from above... meaning that the dark shading wouldn't be there on top of his tail. It would be underneath as you already have it. The background lines should be thinner than Scraggy's outlines... not the other way around! You have it so the background is more of the center of attention that way instead of Scraggy himself. Also, clouds have a bit of shading, too, as do mountains! Don't neglect those when you've shaded your Pokemon. It makes the Pokemon look oddly out of place in your artwork. One last thing... I think the asterisk is a plant? In that case, make sure to make it with green (or dead brown) lines instead of black.

Score: I give this a 50/100. Your points come from the obvious effort you made, Scraggy's dynamic posing, and the fact that you created a background. I detracted points for the inconsistent shading and super simple background.



This all means that Scraggy has not been caught. Please keep trying, though, I can see a potential great artist in that making if you just practice and put the advice others give you to work!

@Magnesium;