Alright, I told you I would deliver, so here you go. Get ready for a long one.
It's a decent start. You seem to have a clear idea and the composition definitely isn't terrible. But of course, there are a lot of issues with the picture. I did some illustrations myself, very quick (and admittedly not the best), to give you an example of what I'm talking about.
First of all, the pose of the character is a bit off. While with cartoons you have to have a suspension of disbelief, you always want movement fluid and believable. It is not a completely terrible pose; it's cute but it is not execute accurately. For instance, take a look at these photos:
You have a mixture of the third and last photos and the middle one. While I understand the importance of showing the tail, there is also an importance in making the pose look natural. The character's hips look disjointed from the rest of her body. You can't argue that it works because she has a tail because you are showing the hips from the tapered off waist. That means that waist is severely bent in the middle. I did a redline; one animation and one still:
Now see, I still have the side of her hip showing, but it isn't uncomfortable placed. I also placed the tail upward so that the viewer has a better view of it. This is why guidelines couple with anatomy studies are so important. Even if the art is stylistic knowing how the body works helps the poses not only look natural, but a lot more pleasing to the eye. This is not a case of realism, its a case of fluidity and a comfortable looking picture.
The head is just a little flat and that's not necessarily the fault of guidelines you had set up for yourself, but it is the hairstyle. Sometimes, even if something is practical, it won't always look aesthetically pleasing. Sometimes you have to add a little body in the hair to make it look right even if you necessarily don't have to. Not to mention, more body would work in the underwater scene, considering her hair is floating.
Be careful with mermaid tails. More a tail is better than less of a tail. As a rule of thumb that might help, pretend that her hips and thighs are underneath the fin (and of course, disregard the calves). That way the tail is nice and full and looks just a tiny bit more natural.
Before I get into the background and color, I'm going to address the hair. I see what you were trying to do (I think) with the blue highlights in there hair, but you sort of missed the mark with it. You have to utilize transparency when you use Photoshop/GIMP wisely. You can't just use blue to highlight the hair and give it an underwater appearance. You have to keep in mind the color of the hair as well. Throwing just a red in isn't going to give it the depth it needs.
Utilize the transparency in your program to show that the hair is underwater but don't forget what the color of the hair is. Study how hair looks underwater in photos. The two examples I posted were of just red hair with blue highlights/blue shadows and red hair with blue streaks. And move with your line art. Don't work about strands, working in chunks. When make highlights, make highlights flow with the movement of the hair (vice versa with shadows). When you color hair, you cannot think about individual strands. If you add detail later, that's find. But always work in chunks, shadows, and highlights first before adding detail to show the illusion of individual strands. Remember you want to create an illusion. That doesn't mean you have to show it.
Now, onto more. Your background and the character doesn't fit properly together. This is a shadow and light issue. While in the picture you were moving towards the resolution of making them blend together but along the way you kind of missed it. This isn't something I can necessarily teach you, this is something you have to really study. Creating a background in realism in a little easier than combining a soft cartoon background with a hard lines. It's going to take studying animation, other cartoon illustrations and messing with your style to completely make it work.
When creating a soft cartoon background, there is a lot more to it than making it look soft. It has to look sort of "zany", sort of whimsical. The way animators study how to do this is studying photographic backgrounds and making caricatures of those backgrounds. A jagged rock? Making the jagged rock go all over the place; making it reach high to the sky, make it slant. While you want the character in the foreground, making the background too bland will take away from the character. You don't have to add lines but shapes have to be more intriguing. Now, my example is incredibly bland (took me about 15 minutes). But if I had had the time to truly plan in, I would do thumbnail sketches first and study photographic underwater scenes to see how I can adjust the style to fit. Doing a lot of studies of landscapes, seascape, cityscape scenes that have people/characters interacting help you understand how to use the colors to show some intricate and pleasing to the eye.
Very sloppily adding character (sorry about that), but it's simply to illustrate a point. It takes more than just knowing that the character is underwater. For instance, in your picture, you made the rock she was leaning on was very dark. Instead, you could have made the top of the rock light and then created a cast shadow to show that she isn't floating but actually leaning on the rock. The mountain/volcano in the background should be faded a bit along with the gold that goes into the background (remember, the farther away something is from the primary object, the more faded and bluer it becomes, hence more so underwater). Adding some more colorful coral (not a lot, just a little bit surrounding the character) would have make your image pop so much better. Remember this isn't exact realism; have more fun with the scene. Speaking of realism, however:
Personally, I would have gone with flat shading with this background. The reason why is what was pointed out by another user. The unity between background and character is unbalanced. The soft shading in your character just doesn't seem to blend completely with it. I digress, however, referring to my example. The colors on the upper left hand corner is the pallet for the torso I rendered on the right. Do not limit your color palette (if you're doing soft shading) to just two colors of the same variation. If you are going to have a small color palette, pay attention the color wheel and what colors complement the other. It does a lot to add depth to your character and makes it pop out significantly more.
So after that, I'm going to add a couple of more tidbits:
1. Realistic anatomy studies are your friend. Cartoons are inspired by the twisted imagination applied to real life. Study anatomy and then figure out how you can improve your style by what you've learned.
2. Draw from life and keep a life drawing sketchbook. Go to a park, to the mall, or even join a figure drawing class. Practice drawing some still life. While you're sketching you can get loads of ideas for future illustrations. So not only will you have a better understand of how to see properly when you draw, your imagination does improve knowing how things work better.
3. Study more artists. Study the artists that you like or artists that do things you admire. Artists get inspired by other artists. No one is telling you to steal ideas, but looking at other techniques can give you ideas on how to improve your technique.
Yeah, I don't know what Kiwi's problem is (I think he confused the word asspats for critique to be honest); I would have adored a critique like this. I learned a lot just reading this and it wasn't even for me
This was the most beneficial critique of all time, fuck this guy for being so goddamn dismissive. A decent reply would be at least acknowledging the weaknesses he has as an artist, and he should fucking beg for forgiveness like the lowly filth he is.
*Kiwi-Punch does have a hard time taking critique, but maybe one day it'll sink in. But as I told him, if it didn't benefit him, it will benefit others.
I know I'm replying to a very old comment, but I was wondering if you still critique pieces? Because if so, I have some pieces in my gallery that look "okay", but not formidable and I can't really seem to pinpoint what's making them "meh" instead of good.
Okay. Note me in a couple of days and I'll take a look at it. I can't really give you a proper one now because of finals and all, but I'll be done in three days.
Reading this critique was extremely helpful. O.O So much wonderful advice. I love well formed critiques like this. This is general, good advice, too, even though it was directed at one artist/piece of work, it's really handy for anyone who takes the time to read it and look at your examples!~
Good Lord...While I do appreciate the thought you put into this, this took forever to read. Anyways, I appreciate your feedback, as you took a lot of time end effort putting this together, which is always appreciated.
I get what you're saying, and if I ever re-visit this piece, I will try and correct these small mistakes. Thank you for your time.
Oh right, I forgot how much you dislike to read. And of course, I regret even taking the time to make this.
This critique doesn't just apply to your picture, it applies to your artwork in general. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you would be dismissive of anything I had to tell you.
Again good luck, I don't expect you apply anything.
But I didn't and I told you I was appreciative of the time and effort you put into your critique. If you think I'm being ungrateful when I EXPLICITLY thanked you and agreed with you, and I DID read it by the way, then you're just being a bitch.
I took the time to paint things out to illustrate for you to get that applies to not only the image but all your artwork, went into detail about why you have to fix it and such.
But no, I'm a bitch because I find your response dismissive.
I get it, but your response came off as ungrateful that I even took your critique at all. You should be happy I even did THAT. I could have just ignored you and not acknowledged you at all.
You were the one who told me to go ahead and give you the critique. I was genuinely trying to help you.
I didn't give you this critique for recognition or because I wanted you to give me compliments as a result of it. I did it because I really do want you to improve. And now you're telling me I should be happy that you even acknowledged me? What the fuck?
All I'm saying is I don't know why you're getting on my case when I thanked you for your feedback in the first place. That's where this whole argument started. I know you're trying to help, but dammit, you're response did not even seem remotely positive to the FACT that I took the time and read your critique in the first place, and THEN thanked for what seemed like pain-staking effort on your behalf. You should be happy for that. For fuck's sake I THANKED you for your feedback, and besides, you know as well as I do, improvement does not happen overnight.
I am upset over your reaction to my initial response when I was grateful for your feedback. I dunno what you're pissed about.
"While I do appreciate the thought you put into this, this took forever to read"
You don't find that rude..at all...when someone wrote you a critique? Dude, you should be happy I even took the time to look at this, look at your other artwork, and give you tips on how to improve on your artwork not the other fucking way around. You reading or even accepting my critique is not going to benefit me at all, its supposed to benefit you. So don't act like you're doing me a favor. It's up to you if you want to take my advice or not. And you're right, it doesn't take overnight to improve. It also doesn't take a couple of seconds to tell you what you need to fix.
You need to work on a lot. That is why it was so long. You need to work a lot on your backgrounds, on your anatomy, and your colors, which is why I went into detail. Unfortunately, that isn't going to take just a fucking quick paragraph. And I gave you a link to another critique I gave to someone, so you knew exactly what you were getting into when you said to "go ahead".
And I wasn't even pissed until you implied I was being a bitch and then told me I should be happy that you acknowledged me.
You know what? I'm not even going to be mean to you, because it's not even worth. You don't seem to get that I wasn't looking for more, that I just found your comment dismissive and said so.
I hope you really do improve and I hope that you keep in mind what I told. There's a lot of information in my critique that could be helpful. And if you were to ask me for a critique, I wouldn't mind. If it doesn't help you, someone will come across it and it will help them.
I will definitely keep in mind what you told me. For now though, I think it best if we stopped talking to each other for a little while...If you know what I mean.
Sta.sh
It's a decent start. You seem to have a clear idea and the composition definitely isn't terrible. But of course, there are a lot of issues with the picture. I did some illustrations myself, very quick (and admittedly not the best), to give you an example of what I'm talking about.
First of all, the pose of the character is a bit off. While with cartoons you have to have a suspension of disbelief, you always want movement fluid and believable. It is not a completely terrible pose; it's cute but it is not execute accurately. For instance, take a look at these photos:
[link]
[link]
You have a mixture of the third and last photos and the middle one. While I understand the importance of showing the tail, there is also an importance in making the pose look natural. The character's hips look disjointed from the rest of her body. You can't argue that it works because she has a tail because you are showing the hips from the tapered off waist. That means that waist is severely bent in the middle. I did a redline; one animation and one still:
[link]
[link]
Now see, I still have the side of her hip showing, but it isn't uncomfortable placed. I also placed the tail upward so that the viewer has a better view of it. This is why guidelines couple with anatomy studies are so important. Even if the art is stylistic knowing how the body works helps the poses not only look natural, but a lot more pleasing to the eye. This is not a case of realism, its a case of fluidity and a comfortable looking picture.
The head is just a little flat and that's not necessarily the fault of guidelines you had set up for yourself, but it is the hairstyle. Sometimes, even if something is practical, it won't always look aesthetically pleasing. Sometimes you have to add a little body in the hair to make it look right even if you necessarily don't have to. Not to mention, more body would work in the underwater scene, considering her hair is floating.
Be careful with mermaid tails. More a tail is better than less of a tail. As a rule of thumb that might help, pretend that her hips and thighs are underneath the fin (and of course, disregard the calves). That way the tail is nice and full and looks just a tiny bit more natural.
Before I get into the background and color, I'm going to address the hair. I see what you were trying to do (I think) with the blue highlights in there hair, but you sort of missed the mark with it. You have to utilize transparency when you use Photoshop/GIMP wisely. You can't just use blue to highlight the hair and give it an underwater appearance. You have to keep in mind the color of the hair as well. Throwing just a red in isn't going to give it the depth it needs.
[link]
[link]
Utilize the transparency in your program to show that the hair is underwater but don't forget what the color of the hair is. Study how hair looks underwater in photos. The two examples I posted were of just red hair with blue highlights/blue shadows and red hair with blue streaks. And move with your line art. Don't work about strands, working in chunks. When make highlights, make highlights flow with the movement of the hair (vice versa with shadows). When you color hair, you cannot think about individual strands. If you add detail later, that's find. But always work in chunks, shadows, and highlights first before adding detail to show the illusion of individual strands. Remember you want to create an illusion. That doesn't mean you have to show it.
Now, onto more. Your background and the character doesn't fit properly together. This is a shadow and light issue. While in the picture you were moving towards the resolution of making them blend together but along the way you kind of missed it. This isn't something I can necessarily teach you, this is something you have to really study. Creating a background in realism in a little easier than combining a soft cartoon background with a hard lines. It's going to take studying animation, other cartoon illustrations and messing with your style to completely make it work.
[link]
When creating a soft cartoon background, there is a lot more to it than making it look soft. It has to look sort of "zany", sort of whimsical. The way animators study how to do this is studying photographic backgrounds and making caricatures of those backgrounds. A jagged rock? Making the jagged rock go all over the place; making it reach high to the sky, make it slant. While you want the character in the foreground, making the background too bland will take away from the character. You don't have to add lines but shapes have to be more intriguing. Now, my example is incredibly bland (took me about 15 minutes). But if I had had the time to truly plan in, I would do thumbnail sketches first and study photographic underwater scenes to see how I can adjust the style to fit. Doing a lot of studies of landscapes, seascape, cityscape scenes that have people/characters interacting help you understand how to use the colors to show some intricate and pleasing to the eye.
[link]
Very sloppily adding character (sorry about that), but it's simply to illustrate a point. It takes more than just knowing that the character is underwater. For instance, in your picture, you made the rock she was leaning on was very dark. Instead, you could have made the top of the rock light and then created a cast shadow to show that she isn't floating but actually leaning on the rock. The mountain/volcano in the background should be faded a bit along with the gold that goes into the background (remember, the farther away something is from the primary object, the more faded and bluer it becomes, hence more so underwater). Adding some more colorful coral (not a lot, just a little bit surrounding the character) would have make your image pop so much better. Remember this isn't exact realism; have more fun with the scene. Speaking of realism, however:
[link]
Personally, I would have gone with flat shading with this background. The reason why is what was pointed out by another user. The unity between background and character is unbalanced. The soft shading in your character just doesn't seem to blend completely with it. I digress, however, referring to my example. The colors on the upper left hand corner is the pallet for the torso I rendered on the right. Do not limit your color palette (if you're doing soft shading) to just two colors of the same variation. If you are going to have a small color palette, pay attention the color wheel and what colors complement the other. It does a lot to add depth to your character and makes it pop out significantly more.
So after that, I'm going to add a couple of more tidbits:
1. Realistic anatomy studies are your friend. Cartoons are inspired by the twisted imagination applied to real life. Study anatomy and then figure out how you can improve your style by what you've learned.
2. Draw from life and keep a life drawing sketchbook. Go to a park, to the mall, or even join a figure drawing class. Practice drawing some still life. While you're sketching you can get loads of ideas for future illustrations. So not only will you have a better understand of how to see properly when you draw, your imagination does improve knowing how things work better.
3. Study more artists. Study the artists that you like or artists that do things you admire. Artists get inspired by other artists. No one is telling you to steal ideas, but looking at other techniques can give you ideas on how to improve your technique.
Good luck
Devious Comments
Because if so, I have some pieces in my gallery that look "okay", but not formidable and I can't really seem to pinpoint what's making them "meh" instead of good.
Okay. Note me in a couple of days and I'll take a look at it. I can't really give you a proper one now because of finals and all, but I'll be done in three days.
Good luck with your finals!
How about my most recent?
I'll give your work a look eventually when I do have the time
I get what you're saying, and if I ever re-visit this piece, I will try and correct these small mistakes. Thank you for your time.
This critique doesn't just apply to your picture, it applies to your artwork in general. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you would be dismissive of anything I had to tell you.
Again good luck, I don't expect you apply anything.
I took the time to paint things out to illustrate for you to get that applies to not only the image but all your artwork, went into detail about why you have to fix it and such.
But no, I'm a bitch because I find your response dismissive.
You were the one who told me to go ahead and give you the critique. I was genuinely trying to help you.
I didn't give you this critique for recognition or because I wanted you to give me compliments as a result of it. I did it because I really do want you to improve. And now you're telling me I should be happy that you even acknowledged me? What the fuck?
I am upset over your reaction to my initial response when I was grateful for your feedback. I dunno what you're pissed about.
You don't find that rude..at all...when someone wrote you a critique? Dude, you should be happy I even took the time to look at this, look at your other artwork, and give you tips on how to improve on your artwork not the other fucking way around. You reading or even accepting my critique is not going to benefit me at all, its supposed to benefit you. So don't act like you're doing me a favor. It's up to you if you want to take my advice or not. And you're right, it doesn't take overnight to improve. It also doesn't take a couple of seconds to tell you what you need to fix.
You need to work on a lot. That is why it was so long. You need to work a lot on your backgrounds, on your anatomy, and your colors, which is why I went into detail. Unfortunately, that isn't going to take just a fucking quick paragraph. And I gave you a link to another critique I gave to someone, so you knew exactly what you were getting into when you said to "go ahead".
And I wasn't even pissed until you implied I was being a bitch and then told me I should be happy that you acknowledged me.
I hope you really do improve and I hope that you keep in mind what I told. There's a lot of information in my critique that could be helpful. And if you were to ask me for a critique, I wouldn't mind. If it doesn't help you, someone will come across it and it will help them.