Tips on improving my Dragonball artwork

[AnzuMazaki]

Hi, I have been drawing Dragonball/Z/GT fanart since 2000 and posting them online since 2006 and no matter how hard I try, my anatomy/shading hasn't seemed to go anywhere at all especially since 2010

Dragonball has been my main fandom for fourteen years now and I would really like to have some excellent artists here on Kanzenshuu like Scarz, Malik, or Kental give me some tips on improving my Dragonball artwork and maybe even review my improvement rate so far

Here is a personal timeline from 2006 up until this year.

2006

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2007

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2008

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2009

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2010

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2011

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2012

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2013

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2014

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Can any of you see much improvement in my artwork these past eight years? and I'd like to have some advice on how to further improve my Dragonball artwork like some tips on stylising my DB characters even further and tips on Toriyama's style of anatomy.

Thanks

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

It's obvious that you have been drawing a lot for many years. You will always improve as you continue to draw Dragon Ball characters, which isn't easy given a level of attention in details. A few suggestions, though. You could try to draw some basic anatomy as a base before attempting at adding more details. Or you could continuously trace some pictures to get the feel of Toriyama' style. Practice various facial expressions. When I was a kid, I always look at cover arts for some references when drawing pictures. I took an extra attention at the details, even minor ones as they are very important in bringing characters to life. Here's a picture I drew five years ago.

[/quote]

This is my original villain character creation for my supposedly manga that never was. I see some mistakes in my picture, but it's good to have a motivation to push myself further in improving my drawing skills.

This is my work from last year:

[DarkPrince_92]

I've been drawing since I was 6. I would stay away from tracing, I don't think any major skill develops from that. I'd say just keep drawing from observation. When I was in Kindergarten I had a Charizard Lunchbox, and I tried drawing Charizard over and over... and over. Eventually I was able to draw all the details from memory (he was a simple character to draw). When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, my friends all had some Dragon Ball Z images from god knows what, and I constantly tried to draw them. Different facial expressions, different head angles, body angles. Eventually I was able to draw a DBZ character in any pose I wanted. It wasn't perfect, I was like 10. I'd say my DBZ art was at it's peak when I was about 19. I had a life drawing class under my belt at the time and my anatomy got better.

Long story short... persistence, and drawing from observation makes an artist better. Life drawing classes are definitely a plus.

[Big Momma]

As said above, never, ever, ever, EVER trace. It's fine if you're copying straight from reference, because even that helps you with things like proportion.

Also, this may seem like it's completely unrelated, but practice drawing actual real life people/anatomy. Once you get a better grip on how the actual human body looks/is formed, it'll carry over when you try to do more stylistic things like Dragon Ball. Your timeline definitely shows improvement, but even the latest picture has "basic" mistakes when it comes to anatomy/perspective/proportion.

In fact, now that I say that...those are three of the biggest things that will help you out if you take more time to practice them.

Anatomy - Basically just the human body. What curves are where, where each muscle is located, how certain body parts connect to one another, etc.

Perspective - Drawing things from the correct "Point of View". Drawing things/people in such a way that the viewer gets a believable representation of the subjects height, weight, and depth in relation to the environment.

Proportion - Making sure each part of the drawing is the correct size in relation to the rest of the drawing (For instance, your typical human hand, from the bottom of the palm to the top of the middle finger, is around the same height as your face from chin to hairline).

One thing to help you improve in these areas is to do something called a "gesture drawing". This is basically when you have a model/piece of reference, and you take a short time to draw it. However, you do so by starting off generally (Sketching out the basic pose, lines of action, horizon line, etc) and slowly making your way towards more specific details. I would recommend giving yourself a time limit. Start off with a good amount of time (Maybe 5 minutes) and then slowly work your down to around 30-10 seconds. Your goal isn't to "finish" the drawing, it's just to get as much of the general idea down as possible.

Here's a good site for doing online gesture drawings:

http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice- ... e-drawing/

You can choose what type of models you want, and set how much time you get for each drawing.

Here are some examples:

http://puu.sh/aUAAi/5c71e8d9c8.jpg
http://puu.sh/aUABg/c84e13c982.jpg
http://puu.sh/aUABD/eafa587620.jpg
http://puu.sh/aUACb/4a0ae94733.jpg

I'm guessing these artists' got less than a minute for these sketches, but they didn't try to "finish". They just tried to capture the general idea/posing. Work on your posing/anatomy and you'll see a great improvement in other areas.

Like you, I spent the entirety of my middle/high-school career pretty much only drawing DB fanart and practicing based on that. I made improvement over that time for sure, but once I got into college and started taking classes on this stuff, my improvement skyrocketed! That's about all I have to say right now, hahaha. Sorry if you've heard any of this before, and if any of it seems confusing just ask and I'll try to clarify.

[Scarz]

I'll also repeat what others here have already said here just to drive the point home. DO NOT TRACE! It's always better to try to copy the style and art of the artist you admire instead tracing over the image. You'll won't learn from tracing but you will by observing and doing it yourself.

Here are also some advice I give to everyone if they want to improve in their art:

1. Life Drawing: Draw nude models and not just from photographs. Study them and learn everything you can about anatomy. Don’t just do this once! Do as often as you can.

2. Challenge Yourself: If there’s something you suck at drawing, then learn how to draw it. Perspective a bitch? Then get all the “How to Learn Perspective” books you can get a hold of. Drawing hands and feet are super hard? Then draw your own or get a whole bunch of references and draw them until your hands fall off. You catch my drift.

3. DRAW EVERYDAY! Yup! Every, single, day! Not everything you sketch has to be be a masterpiece. It could be a super quick five minute doodle in a sketch book or on a napkin. As long as you keep the habit you’ll improve greatly.

I've seen the work you posted here and how it developed over the years but it lacks the basic understanding of human anatomy and perceptive. I understand you're asking for advice and tips to improve drawing on Dragon Ball artwork specifically but I highly suggest studying these tips as well.

Hope I didn't sound too harsh. I used to teach in comic book workshops and viewed many portfolios. I learned it's always best to be straight forward.

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

I can see why it's better not to trace, but it worked for me. I always trace some Disney stuff when I was six years old and eventually developed my sense of attention on details. By time I hit sixth grade, I dropped tracing and used some DB references to draw pictures. I kept on drawing as I age. By time I graduated I got grasp on Toriyama' style. I took art class as well and drew some self portraits which helped a lot.

In short, like everyone else said, practice everyday. If not, practice as often as you can.

[ErikB]

Well, I posted a little bit on this matter for you over here: http://www.kanzenshuu.com/forum/viewtop ... 60#p815146

I'll try to expand a bit.
First thing, if you want to draw well, ditch the mentality of "how do I draw these characters/these things/this style?". The question you want to be asking is, "How do I draw?"; get that knowledge, and apply it to the content you want to draw. Fundamentals of drawing characters; posing, proportions, volume, etc.; are universal.
Drawing every day is great, but it's only going to take you so far if you don't know what to do to make your drawings look good. You'll just keep repeating the same errors. You need to learn as you practice. The best way to learn, as has already been said by a lot of us, is to take a Life Drawing class (in fact, that's mandatory in any formal education to do with visual arts).

On the note of tracing I'm going to come down a bit softer because you can use tracing to practice certain things; for instance, as you learn muscle anatomy through life drawing, try to demonstrate what you've learned drawing the anatomy over top of a character in a comic book. But that only works if what you're tracing is actually good. There are plenty of not-so-good 'professional' artists out there, and I don't think it'd be too egregious to say that Toriyama himself isn't exactly perfect. And of course, don't trace work and then claim it's your own.

In the end, drawing is a skill that takes learning. At its core, it's putting lines on paper (or screen or what have you); just about everybody can do that. The difference that makes a good artist is knowing the how what and why of making those lines work to create something that looks good.

[Neshawn]

Since someone has already touched on making a basic character frame I won't add any to that. My one extra suggestion is, if you want your art to look like DBZ look at other fan art good and bad. See what they did right and what they did wrong, focus on how you can improve on what they potentially didn't do right. Akira Toriyama has a pretty unique style so it isn't easy, by any means, to recreate he characters we all know and love. When you are looking at the fan art make sure you are referencing it to toriyama's manga. Find simple pictures he drew of characters standing straight up, once you can perfectly draw the most basic pose (standing) then work on posing the characters differently. Remember, a good artist copies, a great artist steals... Wish you the best in you artistic endeavors.