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anjyil [2019-03-12 03:38:23 +0000 UTC]

Hello from I am here from Tagline Number 504 and my tag-word was Yellow

So I took a moment to peruse your gallery before settling on this particular piece of your Sunstone.  I felt that this image was your most recent work that fit the key-word primarily because Honey Quartz seemed like it used an older version from 2018 as a base.  I like to comment on the most recent work because I think it better reflects a person's current abilities.

Now, I want to be upfront--I am not a fan of many American style animations (Steven Universe, the new Turtles and such) mainly because I am not fond of the drawing style. However, I took the time to look at some of the source material to get a feel for what you were aiming for and I think I had an epiphany that might help you.

But first--I want to comment on the character design and work itself.  As a pose to just show off the color and outfit, this works really well.  You can see the details of the outfit, and get a feel of how this would look front to back.  It's simplicity allows the viewer to really feel the whole character.  The colors are vibrant and really work well together, fitting with the namesake of the character: Sunstone.

The character herself seems very friendly and approachable, but I don't see any hint of her confidence nor her instability with her emotions.  Both would be difficult to present, but settling on one or the other would probably give us a better feel of the character.  In this particular pose, she comes across more as the gentle and "innocent" character than the confident character.  She may have a bit of that, too.  A good way to establish the confidence and keep the elegance you seem to want is to use an action line where her legs are more back and her chest more forward (think of a ballerina pose).  Chest forward poses are often associated with confidence and power.  Moving the legs a little back will give the impact of her walking forward with grace and confidence.  I think the only way you could highlight her unstable emotions is composing an actual fight scene and that would take away from the presentation of the character as she normally is. 

So let me take you into my epiphany.  I have noticed that a lot of people love to draw this style, but they often struggle with it--and I think I figured out why.  Despite the fact that SU is extremely stylized and exaggerated, it still follows the basic landmarks of anatomy.  If you take the character of Steven himself, you will notice that the elbows almost always line up with the bellybutton, and the wrists hit the pelvis area.  They are broken down into extremely simple shapes, but still follow the basic rules.  Most of the characters utilize ovals for the arms and legs, connecting together at the joints to give fluid movement and to maintain these points.  Whether I like the style or not, the style does well in maintaining that realism because otherwise it wouldn't look "right".  Since the original creators are well educated in their art, they can simplify even more to the point of just using basic lines and only one or two shapes. Not very fair for beginners who need a little more structure and guidance.  So that brings me to your piece.

What I can see is that you use an outline form for the body rather than shapes.  The elbows and knees are the greatest evidence of this as they don't connect normally.  The front arm seems like the elbow has been dislocated--and this comes from drawing the outline rather than the forms.  The wrists shoot way past her pelvis area and look unnaturally long and her bent leg has become longer than the straight one.  These are typical difficulties for people just starting out in art and are nothing to be ashamed off (you should see my earlier pieces!)  And it doesn't detract from the fact that you did the face and the torso really well.  Steven Universe faces also follow the well known proportions of faces, but they are also easier to see and copy.  The face is well-balanced and expressive, and the torso supports the head well from neck to pelvis.

In order to bring balance to the whole piece, it will be necessary to actually study the human form and how it is put together.  It will help you see what SU did to the characters to make them look good without sacrificing the unique look of the characters.  The play in shapes and putting them together, how they are balanced, and the important landmarks they all follow on the body.  since your torso is well setup, you have won half the body.  Learning to use this important landmark to create the limbs will really improve the image overall and make it easier for you to replicate the style you love.

As a closing, I would like to let you know that my favorite part of this piece is the hair.  I love how you integrated the colors to look like fire.  It really makes the character stand out, even out of the original characters as there doesn't seem to be much in gradation for hair and other color designs (which makes sense as this is harder to manage when the character is moving heh)

I hope that this helps you in finding a good direction for your art.  Keep up the great work!  If you have any questions, please let me know.

And now, for the final tag-- please have a look at scarlette13 gallery and hunt down "winter".  It seems like scarlette13 has a lot of great photos to look through and choose from

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Camramonkey [2019-02-03 02:46:52 +0000 UTC]

   they like her 

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SkyHigh29 [2019-02-03 00:55:23 +0000 UTC]

I think she looks very nice!~

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