It depends on what that person's intentional style is and what is error. A lot of the work in this thread isn't abstract and therefore the errors are more visible, even when stylized. Everything is based off of reality and style is just playing with that.

I think most of the artist's progress should come from their own practice, but as long as it's taken neutrally, I don't think criticism should hinder them.

Picasso was able to draw very realistically, on a sidenote, but you probably know a lot more about art history and such than I do, so excuse me if I sound condescending XD

Yeah, most of the time you'll hear that perspective is everything, but the interesting thing about that is that no one will percieve what's created the same way the artist will, so perspective almost becomes irrelivant... that's why we have terms like style... I personally think style is much more important than making something aesthetically correct becuase i see things as they are all the time in reality, if i'm lookin at art id rather be drawn into what the artist sees... When I make art, I strive to re-create a vision, something I want to see, rather than something I do see..

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a48...kersPistol.jpg
Rough concept pistol doodle for a character I've been working on for a while.

Its a multi-use heavily reinforced 'pistol'. Technically its a modified rifle loosely inspired by Fallout 2's rifle/pistol..thingy. Anywho, as you can see the mock handgrip flips up and is on a telescoping track. The recoil from this pistol is so strong that it requires Booker J. Worrel, the owner, to wear a pair of impact reduction gauntlets and skid boots so his hands won't be rendered broken as well as fly off his feet. Basically the 'pistol' is designed to be just as lethal without ammo as it is with ammo.

Oh and the barrel alone is as long as an average man's forearm and hand. Pretty heavy but considering Booker is pretty strong from carrying it around as well as his other gear. So he hefts it like a good ol' sixshooter.

Yuh, Booker is shaping up to be quite an interesting character.

http://mafia-muffin.deviantart.com/latest I'm lazy, so link. Please read the comment/description on the DA page before mentioning that the boots are messed up or the lines shaky or whatever ^^;

That's pretty neat... The only thing I can see is that the handle is a little bit short, but that's probably perspective and not actually drawing issues.

Anyway, I was watching a flash animation and got the urge to draw Bowser. And then I did this. I think it's Bowser, in my twisted Yaoi-loving mind. *shrug*

http://img414.imageshack.us/img414/3782/koopa28ls.png

Skweeb- Love the gun. For some reason I really like the coloring on it. Great job.

Skit- very nicely done. I love the muscular arms (they're always something I try and work on in my drawings, but you've got it down it seems) the only thing the bugs me about the drawing is that he looks so masculine and such until you get to the hips. I think they may possibly need to be a bit wider. Anyway. Great job.


here's a picture I've been working on. I've been trying to color it but I haven't been having much luck lately.

http://img490.imageshack.us/img490/8...eth00019uu.jpg

It is Aribeth de Tildemore (sp?) from Neverwinter Nights, thinking about her lost lover Fenthic. I know I have some stuff to fix on it, hopefully by the time I get it colored I'll have the minor problems fixed.

I agree, the character you made looks very strong and imposing, until you come to the waist area.
The "he" turns into a "she".

I have been taught by my teacher that if you wish to make a cartoon figure, or anything character that is not anatomically correct, look very strong and imposing, you should make the hips about as wide as the shoulders. (Unless you have somebody as Venom from the Spiderman cartoon. That'd just be freaky.)
I myself deviated from that by going slightly between the shoulders, but still fairly wide. If you wish a female, or like you have drawn, a slender male, draw them as you have.

Naturally, this was just a trick I learned from him, and you will probably hear a lot of different stuff from other persons and/or teachers, but it works for me.

Ofcourse, in manga nearly anything goes, and you seem to have drawn in a manga-ish style, so it's your decision. Sort of.

My main problem is that I'm so used to drawing bishonen and pretty boys. Men that actually look like, y'know, men are a bit of a challenge to me. Plus, I have a weird mix of comic-book super-hero art instruction mixed with a lot of manga/anime instruction. That also screws me up... In any event, I'm going to redraw a version of that for colouring.

Stuck with a set style, eh Skit?

You could always do what I did: Take Yoda's words and implement them "Unlearn what you have learned."

I went almost an entire year without any real drawing. It stripped me of all the crap that I've picked up over the years. It was a strange process to tell the truth. I'd resist the urge to draw by replacing it with something like photomanipulations or something else. When I picked up the pencil again I had no set style, no preconceived notions of how things are/were done, the list went on. I had the pencil, the paper, and my ideas. They just flew onto the paper. It was like a personal renaissance or somethin'.

So yeah, my advice to you is to wean yourself from the set styles. Maybe not to the extremes I went through though...I dropped a nuclear warhead on myself and now I'm a glowing artistic mutant!

"Unlearn what you have learned", is sound advice! And no where better
applied than by an artist. It is a true fad killer and opens the mind to
a host of possibilities.
Also I hear what you're saying madhatter and what is art to some is
garbage to others. But if you enjoy just the simplicity of looking at art,
and not dissecting it, you get so much more out of it.