I have no subject, and I must draw - Filly draws art requests.

[West Filly]

a pinecone

The fewer questions asked the better

[Mr. Big]

That's absolutely gorgeous

[The Ghost of Ember]

this adequately sates my pinecone fetish

[Madeline]

That’s amazing

[West Filly]

This one got a good reception so I guess it's worth lining and colouring.

[Jill]

the best pinecone

[Jill]

pineconnie

[West Filly]

The next request could take a while. I want to attempt the 90s bishoujo art style but it's a real learning curve.

[West Filly]

Rather than try to explain what's going on I thought I'd show you.

I'm trying to draw stuff that looks like this



But my natural inclination when trying from a cold start is to draw something like...



... yeeeeah.

My method is to just bash out picture after picture with incremental improvements until it starts to look better.



no.



hnnnno.



Oh lord no.



What is this?



Okay this is when something clicked, but the learned viewer will recognise that this character has nothing to do with Sailor Moon.

If you want to be bored with the technical detail of what twigged for me while drawing this pic, look here

I chose to look at a character from a different series to get some variation on the Bishoujo style. After all, if doing the same thing over and over isn't working then sometimes you have to try something new for the sake of trying something new. Observing some GIS results for nanami I noticed how her hairline appears on her head. I realised that I haven't been paying attention to where exactly the hair begins on the head's form. Another thing I began to notice was that this style seems to place the eyes a small amount away from the edges of the face regardless of the angle the face is being viewed from, as though composing the facial features symmetrically in any instance of a character's face is more important in this style than having any true form behind the shape of a character. Similarly the ear seems to migrate to the outermost edge of the face unless viewed from extreme angles, ignoring the fact that an ear would go around with the side of the head if we were staying true to human anatomical form. This style seems to value making everything pretty and symmetrical as a priority, with adherence to form and anatomy being only a set of brakes that you need to apply from time to time to keep the image from flying completely off the rails. Another thing is a note to myself to make the head taller. The faces of these characters dangle from the skull dome as though a jellyfish were holding a masquerade mask in its tentacles. You need the brow of the dome overhanging the eyes.

It's getting there but we're yet to arrive at a place where I'm comfortable to draw Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus interacting together in the same picture. The faces are greatly improved but the body, the clothes and the hair all need at least as much work as the faces got today.

[Madeline]

I apologize. I didn’t mean to set you such a huge technical challenge

[Perrydotto]

I think it's safe to say West Filly wouldn't have kept at it if he didn't enjoy the challenge

[West Filly]

also this kind of style, once I've figured it out, is one of the prettiest art styles out there. I'm using the sailor moon request as an opportunity to take the time to learn something I want to learn. It's something I've admired since some nerds I knew in secondary school explained to me that Japanese comic books are different and that I need to read them the wrong way around.

[Jill]

skater maid

[The Ghost of Ember]

skater maid

She was a maid, she was a belle
Can I make it anymore obvious?
She cleaned with spunk, she did ballet
What more can I say?

She was a skater maid, she said, "See ya later babe"
She wasn't good enough for her
She had a pretty face but her head was up in space
She needed to come back down to earth

Five years from now, she sits at home
Being the lady, she's all alone
She gets on IE, guess who she sees
Skater Maid rocking up PPPP

[ToastGhost]

She was a maid, she was a belle
Can I make it anymore obvious?
She cleaned with spunk, she did ballet
What more can I say?

She was a skater maid, she said, "See ya later babe"
She wasn't good enough for her
She had a pretty face but her head was up in space
She needed to come back down to earth

Five years from now, she sits at home
Being the lady, she's all alone
She gets on IE, guess who she sees
Skater Maid rocking up PPPP

extremely cursed

[West Filly]

good shit

[Madeline]

also this kind of style, once I've figured it out, is one of the prettiest art styles out there. I'm using the sailor moon request as an opportunity to take the time to learn something I want to learn. It's something I've admired since some nerds I knew in secondary school explained to me that Japanese comic books are different and that I need to read them the wrong way around.

That is a super good Pink Diamond. Also I do like bishojo art, guilty as charged



Utena is good stuff

[West Filly]

I love Bishoujo art as well, but my attempts at it seem to default to a more western cartoon style with added pretty eyes.

I hate to be "that weeaboo" but I think it helps to be raised in a culture where you're surrounded by japanese art, and I'm willing to bet that the way Japanese people write has an influence on their penmanship too. I still hold out belief that with enough practice and determination I'll make something close enough to the style to feel contented.



I had to flip the picture the other way because the view was flipped this way when I put the stars in, so it wouldn't be accurate if I left it backwards.

[Mr. Big]

I mean for what it's worth I was raised in Japan and I couldn't draw in that style

Your doing pretty good, I think!

[West Filly]

I had a stab in the dark at this, but I got to the point with this picture where I wasn't drawing it any more and was just fussing about trying to fix its issues. I can't line it properly unless the issues are fixed and I can't fix the issues easily at all. At that point it feels like the picture isn't progressing nor am I learning anything from it, so I have to leave this particular drawing at this and start again.



That was a lot of words. "Overworked" is the word I was looking for. I overworked this one.

[West Filly]

I need to join a life drawing class.

[Madeline]

It’s still about a million times better than anything I can draw

[Vivianinatoga]

A really, really detailed hand.

[West Filly]

A really, really detailed hand.

[West Filly]

Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune being cute

[diribigal]

a math

[West Filly]

Thought I'd black the lines and then roughly colour this in.



After that I thought I'd add some weird shit like you get in those animes

[Madeline]

squee

[West Filly]

Draw an awesome snipe

[ToastGhost]

[Perpetual Motion]

An accurate depiction of my writing technique.

[West Filly]

skater maid

[Jill]

superb

[Perrydotto]

heck to the yes

[Madeline]

If you don’t like her sick ollies, she’s going to pour hot tea on your head

[West Filly]

Thanks everyone

I this thread might slow down for a while because I just want to spend some time practicing some things from an art book I've been reading. I might post some results here.

Once I've got confident in the things the book teaches, I want to study another book on anatomy which should lead nicely to the next request.

Unrelated: a cat I drew this morning

[Jill]

mewtie!

[Mr. Big]

A cute cat girl is always welcomed