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Above all things, I'd recommend actually looking at a man (?) lying down and attempt to recreate this image, or at least study what people look like from many different perspectives and in various poses to understand how everything typically locks together.

You were trying something not many new artists try and I can appreciate that, but anatomically, everything about this creature is ever-so-slightly off.

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>>1737
I'm in the process of studying anatomy, and I'm actually getting better, to the point where I drew this without reference and it's only slightly off :D
Is there anything specific I should look out for? like proportions, Joints, etc..?

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I think you might be looking at art with the wrong kind of mindset, my friend

If I were you, I wouldn't look at drawing and art as something that you're ready or not ready for. There's really no point where you're graced with the blessings of the universe to be an artist. It's a mindset, whether or not you're ready.

If by 'going into this field' you mean art and design, then the best time to 'get into it' is right now. Every day will be a learning experience and a stepping stone on an endless path. Personally, I'm about to graduate from a university with a BFA in graphic design. I still don't consider myself ready in several aspects, despite being ahead of the pack in many areas.

Do what you love. If drawing and studying anatomy are your interests, it's safe to consider yourself ready.

Whether or not you're "good" is an entirely different story. You have a lot of room to improve, but everybody does. Even the best out there never stop practicing. Get comfortable receiving critique because it's an artist's best tool. I suggest reading this article here for some insight.
alistapart dot com/article/design-criticism-creative-process

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>>1739
Thank you very much, you've been of great help, I'm on it.

and i am open for critique

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>>1618
Woah, that's an improvement.

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>>1618
The drawn light/shade on the foreground is off from the background, making it out of place. Pay attention to shading, angles, etc. Looks a little awkward.

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continued improvement of the style, here is my latest work. Experimented with a combination of features of man and beast, but not successfully. In the future, try to shift the balance in favor of animal traits.

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Finally solved the problem of technique. So according to my best

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please stop tracing photos and adding muzzles to them

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and the final image
NOT drawn by me but by artist fydbac ( http://www.furaffinity.net/user/fydbac ) but that was colored by me
an image I commissioned from them from one of my characters

its one of the most recent coloring works I have done on images not drawn by me.

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>>1726 why was this deleted?
its an alternate version of the image it was originally under
drawn by me, and I am sure I am not in the dnp list since all my other pictures are still around

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Yus. It iz gud! Very gud :3

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Are you interested in actually becoming a proficient artist, or are you just looking to doodle animal-people that get your rocks off?

If the former, the following are things you do not need to concern yourself with right now:
-The average time it takes to make ANY art
-Programs
-Optimal size of a digital work

I'd like to bring out the programs point a little more.
YOUR TOOLS WILL NEVER MAKE YOU A GOOD ARTIST.
They will never magically make you better, nor more accepted, nor make your work more or less appealing. Tools are tools, all the programs people use are just tools.
There is a good tool to start with though: pencil and paper. You know how to write already, you know how to use that tool to translate what is in your mind efficiently to paper. While some people can pull out amazing pieces with a mouse, it's physically unhealthy to use one. Until you get a tablet, stick with traditional means. Pencil and paper.

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Thanks for the info. I already have a tablet and such which I should of mentioned in my original post. I am using Photoshop for now. It has been doing fine except that I can't really do smooth shading. It always has to be a brush that seems sharp even with hardness at 0. If you know a good program that does just about what I need, please tell me about this. Or if you just know a way to make those smooth shadows in Photoshop, inform me of that instead.

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>>1622
Pic related should help with making smooth shadows. In short, don't use a hard brush. And don't abuse the blend tool (that's a common mistake for beginners). Make your shading as smooth as possible, and then and only then should you use the blend tool.

The way I paint in photoshop most resembles oil painting, since that's my background. Like the first guy said, just learn to sketch traditionally. Your knowledge of anatomy is absolute shit, and before you can shade you need to understand value. Learn the fundamentals first. Read the sticky here, or the one on 4chan's /ic/ board.

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I think you're mostly asking the wrong questions in terms of moving forward with your art. Any answers you get on here may be good things to try out but it's up to you which methods you're most comfortable with. You are in the right place though, this is a good thread to have in general.

Doesn't matter how long it takes. Take as long as you need to make something you're comfortable with calling finished. Could be 10 minutes, could be days, whatever.

Doesn't matter what program you use either. Anything that lets you draw in any way is fine. I even cut my teeth in Flash to begin with even though it's far from you'd consider an illustrating program. Try out as many programs as you want, it's all free to pirate.

Now, it can kind of matter what size it is though. The best advice I've ever received is to make a gigantic canvas (larger than 2000x2000) and sketch wth it fit to your screen. That way when you ink you can zoom all the way in till the one single line you want to draw next covers your whole screen. Do it in one long sweeping motion, undo, repeat, undo, repeat, etc. until you end up with one individual line that fits that part of your sketch. Zoom out periodically to see how it looks but you'll find you don't really need to very often.

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>>1703
The design is decent. It's simplistic. The blue could be broken up a tad with something as simple as a couple lines, but the belt works fine in that regard. Now, of all you went on a tangent about you neglected to mention how the belt was hanging far too loosely from the hips to actually sustain it's current location. Your opinion is indeed negative, but you failed to show you knew how to do anything besides say it was bad.
Considering this is a fighter, the outfit is viable. The belt and pouch seems to be an extremely reasonable way to carry things. The only thing is, for realism, it could be a tad tighter around the waist. The colors are a tad jarring, a good idea is to mute them a tad.

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>>1705

It's not like I have to hold their hand through every step of the design process. Someone says the belt is hanging too low. First thought to come to mind? Make it tighter so that it's reasonably supported. If someone can't figure that out on their own, then maybe they shouldn't be drawing.

Art isn't always about handholding. :p

And my critique was mostly negative because, in my opinion, it's a bad character design, and that's reflected in how I write. They also didn't mention whether or not this character was an important character or not, so how are we to determine whether or not the design is simplistic enough to the character's relevance in the story? If they were important, maybe then would the ear hair actually make some viable sense, as it adds to the clarity of the silhouette of a character. However, if they aren't going to have much of a role in the story, then it would be distracting to have those on there, as it would make them more distinguishable and more of a focus than anything else.

Major characters vs Minor characters 101, the major characters usually have more recognizable features than minor characters, and the ear tuffs are going to be distracting.

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>>1707
Sorry, it looks like you don't know what you're talking about. Sorry for bothering you.

OP, please ignore this guy's posts

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>>1709

Really? How can you go about discrediting my opinion? I accepted your critique with gusto. I believed that it was better than mine in that it offered more positive criticism, and ways to improve it, whereas mine simply pointed out the flaws. I can't change what I've already posted. However, it does not mean that what I have said is WRONG, or that I don't know what I'm talking about. Because I do. That's why I graduated with an art major. I guess I just never learned the skills to be a good judge. :p

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Guys, calm down.

In first time, if I request critiques, all people are free of say everything that he/she have in the mind.
Ones can be bad others good, but all the points of view I must read. You can do disscuss about the critiques but always with the respect to the opinion/critiques of others persons.

And now the more important: Litzy.
>>1703:
I test differents colors in the design, the red its impossible of change because I see like the ideal color of the character and for the name. And later dark blue its for give her a form of view that she no is very female. Anyway, Ill test more colors.
And the bag its only an accessory of travel, in the nexts pics (you can see the Clean section of Fchan) you can see that she dont have the bag.
And the tails, you dont believe it, it can be give her more agility like the ailerons of a F1.

>>1705
Thank you so much for the fanart. This is great!! =)

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Just because.

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Ah, are what are you trying to do with that chair?
>>1685
And you stop, that's hardly any better

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I like the style,I think Twilight though should show just a little bit of tooth. It may look less cute,but would seem like she is actually gripping the sword.

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Your hair is amazing. How'd you make that?

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i like it so far, the tooth, idk, maybe a bit of it, as for the rest... mmh, i'll like to see the bg to see how it goes!

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>>1655

holy crap, this is still here. Um okay I'll see if i can draw up a small step by step tut on how I did the hair

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This is amazing! the eyes are gorgeous. I see no issue with the twilight sparkle.