The Gang of Five
The Land Before Time => LBT Fanart => Topic started by: Pangaea on August 14, 2010, 06:55:21 AM
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After over a year as a GOF member and reviewing other people’s art, I’ve finally decided to start an art thread of my own.
I’ve been an artist for as long as I can remember. I’ve been drawing all my life, and dinosaurs have long been some of my foremost subjects. My history of making LBT art, however, is barely longer than my tenure as a GOF member (shorter if you consider the moment I signed up to be the beginning of my membership). I’ve done a few pieces, and even posted them on the forum (some of which I may share again here). Most of them I’m reasonably happy with, but as you might expect for such an obsessive nitpicker and perfectionist, I always see room for improvement.
Many people tell me I’m a good artist, but truthfully, I’m not a very confident one. I’m often reluctant to even get started on a piece of artwork, because it’s such a painstaking process for me. I have a shaky hand, so I have trouble drawing lines smoothly; I make a lot of mistakes, so I erase frequently; I have a hard time with proportion and scaling because I’m poor at visualizing my drawings ahead of time; I’ve never learned how to add dimension, shading, and texture to my pictures; and I have a tendency to misjudge the size of my drawings and run out of space on the paper. :bang Someday I hope to buy and learn to use a drawing tablet, so that I can make artwork on the computer, but for now, my drawing tools are limited to paper, pencil, and colored pencil. It’s not completely out of the question that I could make clay models and other three-dimensional forms of artwork that I post photos of, but those will almost certainly be few and far between.
In short, making art is a very time-consuming process for me, and as I can’t seem to find the time to get things done even when I’m not producing artwork on the side, you probably shouldn’t expect this thread to be updated too often. However, if I am convinced that my artwork is being seen and appreciated, it will almost certainly motivate me to make more. I very much hope that people will comment on what I post here and give me feedback, whether compliments or constructive criticism. Tell me what you like and what I’m doing well, and tell me what could use improvementóor better yet, give me suggestions and advice on HOW it can be improved. Feedback is the lifeblood of artists and writers, and it’s especially important to me. Your comments don’t need to be as exhaustive as the reviews I’ve left on other people’s work (though I’d certainly appreciate it if you could elaborate as much as possible ;)); what I most want to know is that my work is being seen, and what people think of it. For me, the best part of finishing a picture, a poem, or a story is showing it to other people, seeing their reactions, and hearing what they think of it. I hope you can do that for me. :)
(http://s556.photobucket.com/albums/ss2/Pangaean/LBT%20Fanart/DSC01749.jpg)
My official artist’s signature, with my favorite pen that I used to write it. :smile
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It seemed logical that the first picture I posted in this thread should be the first piece of LBT-related artwork I completed, and the one most familiar to the GOF: my avatar:
(http://s556.photobucket.com/albums/ss2/Pangaean/LBT%20Fanart/LBTLystrosaurusAvatar.jpg)
The face of Pangaea (not literally :p).
(http://s556.photobucket.com/albums/ss2/Pangaean/LBT%20Fanart/LBTLystrosaurus.jpg)
The full-sized original image.
A number of people have asked me what this creature is (Probably my favorite comment I have yet received on it stated that it “kinda looks like Spike with vampire teeth” :lol). It is actually a Lystrosaurus (pronounced “Liss-troh-sore-us”), a four-legged, pig-sized, plant-eating, digging, possibly amphibious early relative of mammals that was once the most abundant and widespread land vertebrate on Earth. It lived even before the first dinosaurs, in the late Permian and early Triassic, around 250 million years ago. It was one of the few survivors of a mass extinction that wiped out about 70% of life on land, and 90% in the sea, and subsequently, it flourished. Fossils have been found on every continent, and four to six species are known, depending on which taxonomist you ask :p (My avatar is based on Lystrosaurus georgi).
Lystrosaurus is classified as a dicynodont (pronounced “dy-sy-no-dawnt”), belonging to the infraorder Dicynodontia, the order Therapsida, and the class Synapsida; a group commonly referred to as “mammal-like reptiles”. This term is in fact a misnomer, as the synapsids were an entirely separate branch from the true reptiles. It was not a mammal either, though it was related to their ancestors, the cynodonts, and may have even had hair and whiskers. Its tusks, the only teeth it had (hence the name “dicynodont”: “two dog teeth”), may have been used for digging and rooting in the soil for food (its name even means “shovel reptile”), but they also could have been used for fighting. It had a more sprawling posture than a mammal or dinosaur, but less so than a lizard or crocodile.
In Lystrosaurus’s time, the continents were merged together into a single huge landmass known as Pangaea, the source of my GOF screen name. I knew I was going to draw some sort of prehistoric creature for my avatar, and thought it would be appropriate that that creature was the most prominent and ubiquitous inhabitant of the supercontinent for which I was named. Furthermore, I was truthfully a little unhappy with the name “Pangaea”; I thought it would be hard for people to pronounce, difficult for them to spell (I was right :p), and I didn’t really like the sound of it (I chose it in the first place because at the time I wasn’t planning to actually participate in the GOF, and I couldn’t think of anything else). Making an avatar that was meaningful in its association to that name made me like it better. I still might change my avatar sometime in the future, but I’m pretty happy with it as it is.
In making my avatar, I first looked for a restoration of a Lystrosaurus, so that I would have a realistic basis for my LBT-styled creature. This is the picture I used:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0b/Lystr_georg1DB.jpg/800px-Lystr_georg1DB.jpg)
Many people would probably consider the scientifically accurate Lystrosaurus to be a rather ugly creature, so I tried to make the LBT-styled one in my avatar look endearing, while keeping its species recognizable. I also wanted to draw it in such a way that it would look like a Land Before Time character, so I looked at various creatures in the LBT films to get an idea of how to draw its characteristics. Lystrosaurus had large, bulging eyes set high on its head, so I used the frogs in LBT IX as my references there (The frogs also contributed the hump on the top of the snout). I looked at the turtles in the same film as a reference for the beak (That vertical line down the center came from them). Finally, I used Cera’s horn as the basis for the texture of the beak and tusks, and the connection of the tusks to the mouth. The nostrils (well, the one nostril you can see) are based on Cera’s as well. I can’t remember what I used as a reference for the neck wrinkles and the neck’s connection to he head, but it may have been one of the Gang.
For colors, I went with light green and yellow, with a brown beak and darker green under the eyes, because those just felt like the right colors for a LBT-style Lystrosaurus. I imagine that if Lystrosaurus were featured in the series, they would be portrayed as more reptilian than they probably actually were (much like the Dimetrodon in the original LBT was given a snakelike tongue, despite being a synapsid like Lystrosaurus), with scaly green skin and no hair apart from possible eyelashes. The eyes I colored brown because I wasn’t sure what would look good, but my own eyes are brown, and I thought that if this character was going to represent me, then I might as well put a little bit of myself into it. :p
I decided not to give my Lystrosaurus visible ears, because I couldn’t think of a way to draw them without making them look weird. I may redraw this image sometime, however, and when I do, I may try to add ears.
If I were to draw this character again, one detail I would want to do differently is the connection of the head to the neck. I feel like the wrinkles on the back of the neck should align more with the line of the lower jaw, to indicate a skull shape that looks more realistic.
One feature of my Lystrosaurus that I’m actually very happy with the expression, because to me it comes off as very ambiguous. Sometimes I look at the avatar and think it looks happy (the corner of the mouth forming a slight smirk); other times shy, nervous, curious, or uncertain. Maybe it depends on what mood I’m in. :P: In any case, I hope that if and when I make a new Lystrosaurus avatar, I can make the expression as good as this one's. :yes
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Well, it's about time :p
I certainly look forward to commenting on your artwork, and hope that I can stay focused long enough to give you helpful feedback :lol
Many people tell me I’m a good artist, but truthfully, I’m not a very confident one. I’m often reluctant to even get started on a piece of artwork, because it’s such a painstaking process for me. I have a shaky hand, so I have trouble drawing lines smoothly; I make a lot of mistakes, so I erase frequently; I have a hard time with proportion and scaling because I’m poor at visualizing my drawings ahead of time; I’ve never learned how to add dimension, shading, and texture to my pictures; and I have a tendency to misjudge the size of my drawings and run out of space on the paper. :bang
My advice to you is this:
When practicing, draw quickly and often with no thought about the final product. Draw from reference, from life, and from your imagination. Focus on shapes and masses instead of outlines. Use pen so that you aren't tempted to erase :smile (Not necessary, but it works for me!) Most importantly, have fun! Your brain functions more effectively when it isn't all stressed out.
When working on a piece that you intend to finish, if you don't like the initial sketch, instead of trying to fix it, decide what you don't like about it then leave it and start a new one.
Keep in mind that these aren't surefire methods, just things that have helped me a lot. In the end everyone functions differently, and so everyone's going to have their own unique ideal. Always try new things :yes
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Dude! I love your art. your way better then I am. Lystrosaurus looks great.
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I saw this in your pb account. ^^ All of it.
This is way too awesome. Your attention of detail when it comes to dinosaurs really shows. :yes
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Thank you very much for the advice, DarkWolf. :) I'll have to learn to draw shapes and masses before I can work on focusing on them, though. :oops I do use references A LOT when I'm drawing (often multiple ones for any single picture). I haven't done a lot of life drawings, though, precisely because I don't know how to draw shapes that look three-dimensional. Also, an unfortunate thing about me is that I tend to see almost everything I do as a task; something I need to do and want to do well. :rolleyes I guess I'll have to learn to overcome my perfectionist instincts. It's exactly like I said about not being a very confident artist; for all of the compliments I get, my methods have many flaws, and my own skills and talents are actually very limited.
Dude! I love your art. your way better then I am. Lystrosaurus looks great.
Better than you? Oh please! :rolleyes: Even your ALIEN drawings from three years ago were more detailed than my pictures! You're WAY ahead of me in the shading and texture departments. (You're great at making SPORE critters, too. :yes)
Nevertheless, I'm flattered. Thank you. :)
I saw this in your pb account. ^^ All of it.
This is way too awesome. Your attention of detail when it comes to dinosaurs really shows. :yes
Aw, you've already seen all of the artwork I've uploaded? Couldn't wait, eh? :p I hope you'll still comment and mention specific things you like, dislike, etc. about my drawings when I post them here. ;)
Anyway, thank you very much for the comment. :)
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Thank you very much for the advice, DarkWolf. :) I'll have to learn to draw shapes and masses before I can work on focusing on them, though. :oops I do use references A LOT when I'm drawing (often multiple ones for any single picture). I haven't done a lot of life drawings, though, precisely because I don't know how to draw shapes that look three-dimensional. Also, an unfortunate thing about me is that I tend to see almost everything I do as a task; something I need to do and want to do well. :rolleyes I guess I'll have to learn to overcome my perfectionist instincts. It's exactly like I said about not being a very confident artist; for all of the compliments I get, my methods have many flaws, and my own skills and talents are actually very limited.
Dude! I love your art. your way better then I am. Lystrosaurus looks great.
Better than you? Oh please! :rolleyes: Even your ALIEN drawings from three years ago were more detailed than my pictures! You're WAY ahead of me in the shading and texture departments. (You're great at making SPORE critters, too. :yes)
Nevertheless, I'm flattered. Thank you. :)
I saw this in your pb account. ^^ All of it.
This is way too awesome. Your attention of detail when it comes to dinosaurs really shows. :yes
Aw, you've already seen all of the artwork I've uploaded? Couldn't wait, eh? :p I hope you'll still comment and mention specific things you like, dislike, etc. about my drawings when I post them here. ;)
Anyway, thank you very much for the comment. :)
yeah, but I could never reproduce the style of the LBT movies without going extreme with Details (scales and Spikes etc).
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Yay, it was about time! :lol:
First of all: THAT is one awesome pen! :o :smile
As for advice, you could try tracing some pictures first to have a 'feeling' how certain parts are drawn. I used to trace a character first, then as reference and then completely without and it worked (for me at least :p). You could also draw these help circles to help you determine the body shape and then start working on the details. :)
I used to draw a little box on the top left corner with an extremely rough sketch with circles and lines inside. It helped me show how the picture should look like in the end and I knew through the box how large I had to draw. :^.^:
And like DarkWolf said, having fun is still the best method! :D
I hope these methods can help you at least a little. I'm looking forward to see your next works. :)
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Also, an unfortunate thing about me is that I tend to see almost everything I do as a task; something I need to do and want to do well. I guess I'll have to learn to overcome my perfectionist instincts.
Ah, I know what you mean. I used to feel the same way, so when I first started life drawing, I was extremely self-conscious about it. I used to hide my work from people because, inevitably, when a person accustomed to slow precision drawing first takes up the approach, the result is atrocious :p
But I kept at it, and kept at it, and I believe after a rough-and-tumble year of no-gos I finally started to get the hang of the thing.
But then I'm the kind of person who will beat my head against a rock until it breaks if said rock shows any sign of weakness :lol It isn't for everybody. If you feel like you can't have fun with it, don't do it.
It's exactly like I said about not being a very confident artist; for all of the compliments I get, my methods have many flaws, and my own skills and talents are actually very limited.
No such thing as a flawed method :smile
It's all just a means to an end, and the end you want to reach will determine the means you use.
I don't find your skills and talents limited at all! It seems to me that you've got ample determination, patience, a good eye and extensive research backing you up! I always love seeing your work and reading the intricate explanations that accompany it :yes The compliments are well deserved, and I certainly mean that.
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I can't really give any good drawing advice since it isn't my area of expertise, though I like the 'Pangaea' logo you used for your signature at the top. Why don't you post the pictures of Siak and the art you made for me for my birthday as well?
Caustizer.
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I feel so honored to have two of the greatest artists on the GOF commenting in my art thread and giving me advice on doing artwork. :o :DD
Thanks, both of you. :) I’ll try to keep your methods in mind, and if I forget (as I often do :rolleyes), I’ll refer back to your posts when I’m doing artwork in the future. :yes
DarkWolf and Sky, do either of you have any thoughts on my avatar you'd like to share? What do you think of the expression, the design, etc.?
Yay, it was about time! :lol:
First of all: THAT is one awesome pen! :o :smile
Thanks. :smile I can't even remember where I got it, but it's been my favorite pen to use to sign things (mainly cards and pictures for friends and family members) for years now, even before I got back into LBT. I have a BIG collection of pensósome shaped like fish; others lizards, lobster claws, a cactus, even a bendy one that looks like an earthworm (though the ink's long dried up)óbut I find that I particularly like this one.
I can't really give any good drawing advice since it isn't my area of expertise, though I like the 'Pangaea' logo you used for your signature at the top. Why don't you post the pictures of Siak and the art you made for me for my birthday as well?
Thanks for the comment about the signature! :DD And the Siak picture was going to be the third piece I posted (I'm planning to post artwork I've already done in chronological order; first my avatar, then my dinosona, then Siak, and so on). And I was going to ask you about whether it was okay to post your star day card in this thread. Guess that answers my question. :smile
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hey Pangaea, if your looking to give your drawings a more darker look, and to help give them size, you can add shadows to them like I do. or atleast, thats what I do to try to give my drawings scale (don't always work unfortunantly) but it could work for ya. just throwing in some ideas.
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Thanks. :)
Yeah, I wish I knew how to do realistic shadows and shading. :rolleyes I find it difficult, especially since my present medium is paper and colored pencil. I like the coloring on my drawings to look solid, not full of the little texturey spaces you get when you color lightly with a pencil, so I generally press down as hard as I can without breaking the pencil tip, so that the color is laid down densely. Unfortunately, that also means the shade of the color is very uniform, and it's hard to make the coloring darker in places where there should be shading. Plus, I'm often too afraid of ruining the drawing to try shading. :rolleyes Maybe I should learn by printing out copies of colored drawings and practicing shading on them.
By the way, the fact that you know how to shade your drawings is one reason why your comment that you thought I was a better artist than you surprised me. :p
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some people think I'm modest about my work. but your stuff is still quite good.
Actualy, I always find it best to add the shadows with pencil and color it later (though I usualy never color my stuff. too hard for me to get the color I am looking for) though, I usualy add completely black shadows not light shaded shadows as most people do. mainly so I can give the pic a dark tone.
I can also recomend to do exactly as you stated. to sketch the pic. scane it. then print a copy for coloring. this is a verry good idea. it'll also come in handy incase you wish to make diffrent animals of the same design but with diffrent colors.
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Well, it’s taken me for-freaking-ever, but I’ve finally gotten around to updating this thread.
(http://s556.photobucket.com/albums/ss2/Pangaean/LBT%20Fanart/LBTDinosona.jpg)
This picture, the second piece of LBT-based artwork I completed, is my LBT dinosona: myself as a LBT dinosaur. I made it shorly after I first joined the “In The Land Before Time” RP, in which GOF members visit the LBT world, with the option of having dinosaur forms. I chose Microraptor (the same species as Guido), because I wanted a kind of dinosaur that no one else had taken as a dinosona, and one that I thought represented me well. I share numerous traits with Guido, and have long imagined that it could be interesting if he met another of his own species, so he seemed like a natural choice. At the time, Guido was also one of the few characters whom no one was playing in the RP at the time, and since I needed a character for my dinosona to regularly interact with, felt like I could portray him believably, and thought that having me meet him could make for some fun situations, I requested to play him. I wanted my fellow RPers to have an idea of what I looked like, and decided what better way to provide them with such an image than an illustration? I originally posted this image in the “Dinosonas” thread. You can view the post (which also includes a personality profile) here (http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=6112&view=findpost&p=9141505). (This version of the picture has been cleaned up on Photoshop.)
Unsurprisingly, Guido was my primary reference for this picture. I looked at several screenshots from LBT XII while drawing it. However, although I like Guido’s character, I’m honestly not that fond of his design, because I thought that he didn’t look enough like a Microraptor. I reasoned that, since he wasn’t quite fully grown (I see him as a young teenager personally), he would look a little different as an adult. Since Microraptor is a member of the raptor family, I gave my dinosona a longer snout, thicker tail, and more horizontal posture, similar to a fast biter (though I don’t think I actually looked at fast biters for reference). He still doesn’t look much like a real Microraptor, but it’s about the best that I can reasonably do. :p
The hands are proportionately smaller than Guido’s, because Guido’s hands seem to follow the cartoon bird tradition of converting his wing feathers into fingers whenever he requires the use of hands. Microraptor, however, had actual hands, and thus this would not be necessary (I’m not a big fan of “feather-fingers”, anyway). I considered putting claws on his fingers (and his toes as well), but since Guido doesn’t have visible nails on any of his digits, I decided it would look too odd. I only drew one visible hand, because hands are a pain to draw, :p and I figured that the left one would simply be hidden behind the wing feathers. Now that I look at it, though, it looks a little strange (Next time I draw him, I’ll probably draw both hands visible).
I don’t have much experience in drawing expressions, but I tried to make my dinosona look shy, friendly, and a little nervous, in keeping with my own personality. I depicted him in this picture as tentatively stepping forward to greet someone, his right arm and hand outstretched in a timid wave (I usually hold my hand low when I wave to someone I don’t know well).
From the beginning, I had a vision of how I wanted my LBT Microraptor self be colored. Originally I envisioned him as having darker colors: a maroon body with a tawny yellow underside and golden head and tail plumes. However, when I was coloring the picture, I couldn’t find a shade of colored pencil that fit my original vision, so I just went with the darkest red I could find (Next time I’ll try to find an even darker one). I chose red because it’s a color I like, not many LBT dinosaurs are that color, and it’s a color that tends to be associated with me. My hair has a slight reddish tinge to it, and I often wear red or maroon shirts. I also had a down comforter (I still have it, but have replaced it due to its age) that was red on one side and light beige on the other (similar to my dinosona’s colors). Whenever I wrapped myself in it and held the sides out, I’d look a little like this character. :p
Adult Microraptor were about three feet long, and I imagined my dinosona as not being much bigger than that; one-and-a-half to two feet tall at most. Of course, since we don’t know the exact sizes of the LBT characters, it’s been hard for me to determine how large that would make him in comparison. I’ve described him in the RP as being half again as large as Guido, and tall enough to look Cera in the eye. I have yet to check how large he would actually look in comparison, however, and whether those two standards of measurement are even mutually compatible. :unsure:
DarkWolf gave me some much-appreciated feedback on this picture when I first posted it. Her main point of constructive criticism related to the posture of the spine, which she thought looked hunched (probably due to the overly sharp indentation where the back meets the shoulders) and too horizontal given the design of the legs and feet, which are more or less the same as Guido’s (who stands much more upright).
The next time I draw my dinosona, I’ll probably have him standing on his toes, which hopefully will allow me to keep the foot design but still make his feet look like they are supporting him believably. My logic is that adult two legged dinosaurs in LBT usually stand on their toes, even if their young walk flat-footed (Chomper and Ducky are examples of this). I also may make his spine slightly more diagonal, since in this picture he is taking a step forward, and many bipedal LBT dinosaurs adopt a horizontal stance when they are walking, with a more upright posture when they are standing in place.
I like to think that my dinosona represents me quite well. He’s a small and virtually harmless dinosaur (a real Microraptor could give you an unpleasant bite and some painful scratches, but would probably be no more dangerous to a human than a hawk or falcon), much as I am introverted and non-confrontational, but at the same time, he is hard to miss due to his bright colors and bizarre appearance, reflecting my desire to be noticed and recognized. One detail I might add to him the next time I draw him is some short, bushy feathers on the sides of his face, mirroring my prominent facial hair. :p
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but I tried to make my dinosona look shy, friendly, and a little nervous
You did not tried... You succeed !
Only 2 thing i notice: The right elbow seem too sharp. And the color of the feet. I dont know what color the raptor ou microraptor was but the bird have yellow feet or something like that, but they are not the same color than the feathers. After writing this, i looked screenshots of Guido and he have the feet at the same color than his feathers, so forget that.
Oh, can you give me a description of the word "Dinosona" ? Google don't want translate it... :confused
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Oh, shoot! I thought I'd already responded to this! Sorry for the delay! :oops
Guido has rather pointed elbows, but I agree that I probably made it a little too sharp.
“Dinosona” is a term coined by Rat_lady7. It just means a dinosaur persona; a dinosaur character based on yourself. Her thread for dinosonas can be seen here (http://www.gangoffive.net/index.php?topic=6112).
Thank you very much for your comment and critique. :) I'm glad you think I succeeded in making the character express the emotions I wanted. :smile
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Phew, i tought it was a dumb question...
Thanks for the explanation, so that's the exact word i was looking for my character, instead of fan-character.
Now i can go sleep while feeling more inteligent :smile
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Hmm... I think you did well with his expression. :^.^:
His elbow though, as Vek already mentioned, does look too sharp. His leg at the back also looks shorter than the other leg and his wings are probably a little too small.
That's all I have noticed. :)
Well, I have seen that picture before, but I like this much cleaner version much better. :^.^: I also like the little marking on his neck rather than a straight line from head to shoulder. ;)
Hehe... now all you need to do is to shade this little masterpiece of yours. :lol
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Thanks for commenting, Sky :) (and sorry for taking so long to address your comment :oops).
I’m glad you think the expression looks good. Looking at it, I’m rather happy with how it turned out myself. Expressions are something I have an extremely hard time with; I’m so lousy at drawing eyebrows. :rolleyes
You’re right, now that you mention it…the wings don’t look large enough. Part of the reason they’re this size is that I didn’t have any more room on the paper (and if I get larger paper I can’t scan the picture :bang). Also, I was afraid that if I made his arms much longer, they’d look disproportionate themselves. I could probably make the feathered part of the wing larger, though I’d have to worry about it being so large that the feathers drag on the ground.
I don’t see a problem with the leg lengths myself, though. :confused They are in slightly different positions; maybe that has something to do with it. Looking at the arms, however, it occurs to me that the left one looks shorter than the right one. :slap
The little zigzag on his neck is just based on what Guido has; I believe it’s meant to indicate a feather on his neck that doesn’t quite line up with the others.
Ah, yes. Shading. That’s yet another area of drawing that I’m completely clueless on. :rolleyes :oops
I think the next picture I draw of my dinosona will be a profile view, in which I’ll try to get his proportions just right and get a perfect idea of the character’s anatomy. I’d really like to get a picture of him in flight, too, though the image I have in mind is one that I’d expect to be an extremely difficult drawing endeavor by my standards.
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(http://s556.photobucket.com/albums/ss2/Pangaean/LBT%20Fanart/CaustizerStarDayCard-1.jpg)
You shouldn't forget to add this to your artwork thread! It's one of your best works.
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I'm glad you think so. :D Don't worry. I'll get to it eventually. :yes
I apologize that I've been so inactive in my own art thread. The truth is, I've been feeling rather worn out in regards to posting these past few months. It's like my head and heart just aren't in it. :neutral It's been a strain for me to post in threads like this one, in which a single post requires a lot of time, thought, and commitment to write. My priorities have been other people's fanart and fanfiction threads, and the “In The Land Before Time” RP, and I've been slacking even on those. And then there's all the things going on in real life that I need to concern myself with. I could say that I promise to post again in here soon, but I have noticed that nearly every time I promise anything these days, I spectacularly fail to deliver by a predicted deadline. I feel bad about this, and really wish I had the psychological oomph to work on these things, but sadly I can't give any guarantees on when I can post again. :(
I can assure you, though, that I have all of my LBT artwork (including star day cards) saved on my computer. It's just a matter of committing myself to writing descriptions for them, and, for some of the older ones, cleaning them up a bit on Photoshop before uploading them. As I think I may have said before, my plan has been to post my art pieces in the order in which I made them. Your star day card is #5 on the list. ;)
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Perhaps if you find yourself overwhelmed then it's time to downscale the extent of your activities. One of the main reasons some of my Future Wars stuff has gone uncompleted as well as having not started Ruby in the Jungle is because it's simply too much to do everything at once. :angel
Caustizer
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First, I would like to say this........
I WANT YOUR PEN!!! It's looks soooo awesome!! And the doodle you made with it is cute, I like how you did the "a"! Your 'fancy' handwriting's certainly a lot better than my chicken-scratch.
If you still have the dreaded shaky-hand-syndrome, try leaning a lot closer to the drawing your making! It helps a lot with me!! :^.^:
Oooooo, a larger image of you avatar!! I'm not sure if it's intentional or not, but the light-and-dark patchiness of the coloring really makes it all the more realistic to me! :D Like a form of shading, prehaps, or scaliness. I can't really describe it clearly, but I hope you understand. And he definitely looks like an LBT character from the movi. Who knows, maybe he can be accepted in the Iguanadon herd (when I glanced at your avatar for the very first time, I thought 'Iguanodon with tusks' before I thought it was a placerias :smile )!
Many people would probably consider the scientifically accurate Lystrosaurus to be a rather ugly creature
Whacha talkin' bout? It's cuuuuuuutttttteeee.....in its own little way! :lol:
I'm still loving your dinosona!! The pose, the color, the tail!!! The tail is awesome!!! :lol: When you do draw a new pic of your dinosona, tell me so I can swarm all over it!! :smile
Finally: That starday card is sooooooooooooo adorable!!! When I saw it, I went "Awwwwwww!!!", then I squee'd at the cuteness! I loooooove the text, the coloring morphing from yellow to red perfectly! And the birthday hats are sooo cute; I love everyone's expressions!! :lol , the sharptooth's eyes are entirely covered by the hat, that's so sweet!!
*catches my breath from spazzing over the cuteness* I love all your drawings; they're very good and I'll definitely be waiting eagerly for more!!
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Thank you so, so, SO much for the review! :DD
I WANT YOUR PEN!!! It's looks soooo awesome!!
Thanks. :smile I wish I could remember where I got it, not only so I could tell other people where they can get one, but because I've had it for years now and I'm afraid it'll run out of ink soon. :unsure:
And the doodle you made with it is cute, I like how you did the "a"! Your 'fancy' handwriting's certainly a lot better than my chicken-scratch.
Oh, please don't say that. :o It's unfair to yourself, and plus it makes me feel guilty. :oops
If you still have the dreaded shaky-hand-syndrome, try leaning a lot closer to the drawing your making! It helps a lot with me!! :^.^:
I usually steady my hand by resting it on the paper as I draw, but it creates new problems such as smudged drawings, difficulty in drawing long, smooth lines, and aches in my hand. :bang
Oooooo, a larger image of you avatar!! I'm not sure if it's intentional or not, but the light-and-dark patchiness of the coloring really makes it all the more realistic to me! :D Like a form of shading, prehaps, or scaliness. I can't really describe it clearly, but I hope you understand.
And he definitely looks like an LBT character from the movi. Who knows, maybe he can be accepted in the Iguanadon herd (when I glanced at your avatar for the very first time, I thought 'Iguanodon with tusks' before I thought it was a placerias :smile )!
One idea I had for a fanfiction in which the Lystrosaurus could potentially appear as a character was a sort of LBT take on The Lost World, where the gang discovers an isolated location where creatures from before the age of dinosaurs still survive (critters like Dimetrodon, cynodonts, dicynodonts, pareiasaurs, gorgonopsids, dinocephalians, giant amphibians and bugs, and so on.) I had another, even stranger idea, about what species the gang would be if The Land Before Time were set in the Permian. I thought maybe an Estemmenosuchus for Cera, a Eudibamus or some kind of amphibian for Ducky, a Coelurosauravus for Petrie, a Lystrosaurus or Scutosaurus for Spike, a gorgonopsid for Sharptooth, and an Edaphosaurus for Littlefoot (alternatively, he could be the Lystrosaurus). :p
Many people would probably consider the scientifically accurate Lystrosaurus to be a rather ugly creature
Whacha talkin' bout? It's cuuuuuuutttttteeee.....in its own little way! :lol:
I agree, and wouldn't be surprised if a number of people considered it “ugly cute”, but my guess is that the average person wouldn't find the real creature particularly appealing.
I'm still loving your dinosona!! The pose, the color, the tail!!! The tail is awesome!!! :lol: When you do draw a new pic of your dinosona, tell me so I can swarm all over it!! :smile
You'll be the first to know, although it may be quite a while. In the meantime, though, you can check out DarkWolf91's art thread (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=5095) for a picture she drew of my dinosona (I'm surprised by my dinosona's popularity; I didn't even ask her to draw it :wow). At the moment, it's her most recent picture, but her artwork is so good that I highly recommend you look at the entire thread. :yes
Finally: That starday card is sooooooooooooo adorable!!! When I saw it, I went "Awwwwwww!!!", then I squee'd at the cuteness! I loooooove the text, the coloring morphing from yellow to red perfectly! And the birthday hats are sooo cute; I love everyone's expressions!! :lol , the sharptooth's eyes are entirely covered by the hat, that's so sweet!!
You could say that it's an unofficial addition to the thread at this point, since my plan was to post my drawings in chronological order, and there were two other pictures I drew between my dinosona and the star day card, but I'm glad you like it! :smile
I love all your drawings; they're very good and I'll definitely be waiting eagerly for more!!
Thank you again. You've just given me a lot more motivation to post more of my pictures. :D Hopefully that'll be soon, but I can't make any promises, I'm afraid. :unsure:
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AT LAST! After nearly two years of procrastinating, my LBT art thread finally has its third picture. :wow Mind you, it’s not a new picture (it’s actually even older than the thread itself; the time it took for me to post it was due to me being too lazy to finish writing the description/explanation that goes with it :rolleyes), though I *have* cleaned it up a bit from the original scan.
(http://i556.photobucket.com/albums/ss2/Pangaean/LBT%20Fanart/LBTMasiakasaurusCharacter.jpg)
This is Siak (pronounced “SEE-ack”), an OC of mine who appears in Caustizer’s LBT fanfiction Far Away Home (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=6478). She was created in December 2009, after Caustizer contacted me with the generous offer to create an OC for use in his story. Given my fondness for strange and obscure prehistoric animals, it should come as no surprise that I picked a species that had never appeared in LBT.
Siak is a Masiakasaurus knopfleri (one of the most confusing-to-pronounce dinosaur names out there; I usually go with “mah-SHEE-ah-kah-SORE-us NOP-flur-eye”), a small theropod dinosaur from the late Cretaceous of Madagascar, most notable for its unusual teeth. Some fish-eating pterosaurs, such as Rhamphorhynchus, had similar forward-pointing teeth, but Masiakasaurus was the first dinosaur discovered with this feature. It is widely speculated to have eaten fish, and other small, wriggly creatures. It was an abelisauroid, a member of the same group as Carnotaurus, though it is estimated to have been only about six or seven feet long.
I’m not very creative with designing original characters in the LBT style, so when drawing Siak, I looked mainly at fast biters for reference. (Obviously the teeth are different, as are the hands and feet; Masiakasaurus had no sickle claw, and many of its relatives had four fingers.) Otherwise she is mainly based on a clipart of Masiakasaurus (http://i556.photobucket.com/albums/ss2/Pangaean/Artwork/Masiakasaurus.gif) I made years ago (probably in 2003) when I first became interested in the dinosaur, a design which was itself inspired by my favorite ever picture of Masiakasaurus (http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ORGtK6ZqYPk/0.jpg), done by a paleoartist named Luis V. Rey. The spines and the bronzey green coloration came directly from that painting (I added red stripes because I like a little extra color on my dinosaurs :p), as did the protofeathery “vest”, which I removed in the LBT version. For one reason or another, I ended up restricting Siak’s spines to the nape of her neck. I also made them longer and colored them dark red to complement her stripes. I tested out several mixes of bronze and olive green hues before I finally settled on her body color (which, after I scanned it, ended up looking browner than I would have liked). Her pose and expression in the picture are meant to imply nervousness and uncertainty (see her bio below), but unfortunately my level of talent in drawing anything beyond the simplest of expressions and the most static of poses is completely lacking, so I can’t say that I’m completely satisfied how she turned out. :neutral
Character-wise, I originally envisioned Siak an outcast among both leafeaters and sharpteeth: the former because of her fierce appearance and the latter because they deemed her weak for only using her extraordinary jaws on fish, refusing to hunt other dinosaurs. I thought of her as being friendly, but timid to the point of cowardliness, preferring to run from threats rather than confronting them, and only using her teeth and claws as an absolute last resort. I imagined she would be easily surprised: whenever she heard a sound behind her while standing by the riverbank, her immediate reaction would be to yelp in fright and dive into the water. :lol
In Far Away Home, Caustizer wrote Siak as a completely different character: quirky and extroverted, seemingly scatterbrained at times (something of a Cloudcuckoolander), but also extremely maternal and vehemently protective of children. One trait that remained consistent with my original concept of the character was that she couldn’t bear to kill anything bigger or more sentient than a fish. I personally found Caustizer’s portrayal of Siak to be much more interesting and entertaining than the personality I came up with. (Thank you again, Caustizer, if you’re reading this. :))
At the time I made this picture, only a relative few fossil fragments of Masiakasaurus were known: parts of the lower and upper jaws, some arm and hip bones, several vertebrae, and most of the hind legs. In early 2011, however, new information (http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/dinosaur/2011/02/masiakasaurus-gets-a-few-touch-ups/) on the species was published, including a near-complete reconstruction of the skeleton based on new fossil material. While this is great news for paleontology, it also means that many Masiakasaurus pictures, including this one, can be considered fairly inaccurate. Siak’s head is too large; her neck too short; her arms too long; her snout should be slightly shorter, deeper, and blunter; and her teeth should be smaller, shorter, more curved, and project less far forward. Truthfully, I knew that the shape of her skull and teeth were less than accurate even at the time I drew them; :oops I knowingly made the teeth bigger than they should have been becauseólet’s face itóthis was a caricatured cartoon version of the real Masiakasaurus, and I wanted to emphasize the species’ most distinctive characteristic. The snout just sort of ended up narrower than I would have liked, and I was reluctant to try to change it because it already looked reasonably good and I doubted that I could make it more realistically proportioned without messing up the rest of the head.
So that’s Artwork #3 for this thread. I still have roughly eighteen to twenty other pictures to share before I’m fully caught up, most of them star day cards I’ve made for various members. Not all of those are strictly LBT-related, so I’ve been debating with myself on whether to start a separate thread for all my star day cards. :unsure:
Well then, assuming there are members out there who find some semblance of visual appeal in my colored pencil cave paintings, :p and haven't been put off or bored to sleep by my yammering, :P: I'd love to hear your comments. :D
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It’s good to see another picture from you!
Siak’s colors remind me of a muscadine grape, uh, sans the red stripes. :^.^: I rather like the surprised expression on her face and the flow of her tail, but her legs seem a little off. Is she supposed to be lifting her left leg slightly? Or is she standing on both legs evenly? Because if she's supposed to be balancing on one leg then her right leg should be under her body more, so she won't fall over backwards. ;)
And your so-called yammering isn't boring; I wish I could write as much as you can :p
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Thanks very much for your comments, FreckledOne. :) (Wow, I never expected to hear Siak compared to a muscadine grape. :lol)
I rather like the surprised expression on her face and the flow of her tail, but her legs seem a little off. Is she supposed to be lifting her left leg slightly? Or is she standing on both legs evenly?
She's standing on both feet, but her left leg is in a slightly different position, as if she's taken a tentative step forward with her right foot and her left foot is trailing behind slightly, with the toes spread farther apart. I am usually best at drawing dinosaurs in profile view, but in the case of this picture (as well as the other two I have posted so far in this thread, oddly enough), I wanted a view of the inside of her mouth (specifically her lower jaw) to showcase her distinctive dentition, and felt that that could best be done with the "camera" angled at her slightly from the front and slightly from above. As a result, her right leg appears to be higher up and farther forward than her left. Now that you mention it, though, it does look a little strange. :oops
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Whooooo!! A third picture!!! I would've gotten this review done sooner, but I was trying hard to make it as well-thought out as your reviews towards my work. Unfortunately, I'm not good with words when it comes to reviewing (probably why I don't give it out too often) and it was difficult trying to make this review as neat as yours. I don't think I've succeeded on this final draft, but it does portray my thoughts the best out of all the other drafts! :D
All I can say is: this pic looks GREAT, especially for an older drawing!! One thing I'd like to say that I LOOOOOVE, and this is a subtle thing, but it makes the picture for me, is the fact that there's no lines separating the patterns on her main body; the colors of her underside and the red stripes really blend well with the main color. I always wanted to make patterns like that, but I find myself always needing some type of line to color within. The mouth is also incredibly well executed, especially how the lower jutting teeth seem so dimensional in their placement. I'm also incredibly fond of the spikes along the back of her head; you've done an excellent job joining them to the skin and having that slight 'overlapping' look between the first and second one. The steady decrease in size as the spikes go down her neck is so smooth and flowing, without one accidently being a bit too long and ruining that flow. And remembering how you always say you have a hard time with hands and feet, I think you did wonderfully here!! The right foot could use some work (perhaps make it meet the ground a bit less sharply), but the other foot and the hands are great!!
Dang it, with everything you pointed out in your description, you're not leaving me enough room to practice constructive criticism (something I admit, I'm not too good at giving) :lol: . As you said, the teeth do seem a bit too large, but I personally like it (though I do wonder if she's capable of closing her mouth! :DD ). I think to help with the expression, if the brows lower a bit on the back part of the eye (like one would see in a sad expression), it can help convey the 'nervous/uncertain' look. Another thing I personally do when drawing a nervous character is have the character smile a bit, so the look of the eyes are not confused with sadness, and it can also have the added benefit of showing a nice and kind personality.
*looks at the paragraphs above* Heh, look at me, pretending that I know what I'm talking about! :rolleyes: :lol
And she's in Caustizer's fanfic? I think I've read that story a looooong while back, and I don't think I recall her. I think I should reread it, just to find her! Yes, she might have a different personality than you originally conceived, but she's still your character!
I still have roughly eighteen to twenty other pictures to share before I’m fully caught up, most of them star day cards I’ve made for various members.
Oooooo! You have a LOT more pictures! When you're ready to submit them here, I'd love to see them. Seeing some older drawings from you, I'm pretty interested on how much progress and improvement you've possibly made with your current works! :)
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Whooooo!! A third picture!!! I would've gotten this review done sooner, but I was trying hard to make it as well-thought out as your reviews towards my work. Unfortunately, I'm not good with words when it comes to reviewing (probably why I don't give it out too often) and it was difficult trying to make this review as neat as yours. I don't think I've succeeded on this final draft, but it does portray my thoughts the best out of all the other drafts! :D
First off, thank you so, so much for this review. :D I can’t express how touched I am that you worked as hard as you did to write the kind of review you thought I deserved. You really didn’t need to go to all that trouble; I don’t expect anyone to emulate my overly wordy and detail-laden reviewing style when giving feedback on my work. The reason my reviews are so lengthy is because that’s how they always end up when I write them. I just comment on what I see, what details I notice. And I tend to notice a lot of details. In other words, long, detailed reviews are my personal style, and if that’s not your style, then you shouldn’t have to try to match it. I’m just happy to hear your response. Trust me, if your reactions to the photos and drawings I’ve sent you by PM and e-mail represent your “natural” reviewing style, then I’ll enjoy and appreciate your reviews just as much. :)
Having said all that, I am amazed by this review. Honestly, it looks almost exactly like one of mine, just a bit more enthusiastic (and that, in my opinion, is a good thing :smile). It doesn’t change what I said before, though: if it’s easier for you to just “spazz out”
All I can say is: this pic looks GREAT, especially for an older drawing!! One thing I'd like to say that I LOOOOOVE, and this is a subtle thing, but it makes the picture for me, is the fact that there's no lines separating the patterns on her main body; the colors of her underside and the red stripes really blend well with the main color. I always wanted to make patterns like that, but I find myself always needing some type of line to color within.
One trick I sometimes use with the coloring is to draw very thin, faint pencil lines to denote the patterns (or drawing them in and then erasing), so that when you color in the picture, the lines are nearly invisible. Alternatively, if you use a computer program to do the coloring, you can effectively erase the pencil lines by just coloring over them.
The mouth is also incredibly well executed, especially how the lower jutting teeth seem so dimensional in their placement. I'm also incredibly fond of the spikes along the back of her head; you've done an excellent job joining them to the skin and having that slight 'overlapping' look between the first and second one. The steady decrease in size as the spikes go down her neck is so smooth and flowing, without one accidently being a bit too long and ruining that flow.
Thanks. :) That is what I was going for, on all those accounts. I can’t tell you how hard it was to draw the teeth.
And remembering how you always say you have a hard time with hands and feet, I think you did wonderfully here!! The right foot could use some work (perhaps make it meet the ground a bit less sharply), but the other foot and the hands are great!!
It’s funny how you don’t notice things about your own work until someone else points them out. You’re right; that right foot does look awfully weird compared to the left (We’re talking about the same foot, right? The one with the toes close together?). Now that I look at it, I think the back of the foot looks too sharp, while the back of the ankle joint doesn’t stick out enough. See, I’m still having trouble with feet! :p
Dang it, with everything you pointed out in your description, you're not leaving me enough room to practice constructive criticism (something I admit, I'm not too good at giving) :lol: .
Sorry about that. :lol I’m so critical of my own work that I tend to point out all the faults I see in it. Actually I kinda do it on purpose; :oops I kinda think of it as a service to reviewers, so they don’t waste their time pointing out flaws I’ve already noticed.
As you said, the teeth do seem a bit too large, but I personally like it (though I do wonder if she's capable of closing her mouth! :DD ).
I tried to put little spaces between her upper teeth to suggest that that’s where her lower teeth would fit, but I think you’re right; she should be physically incapable of shutting her mouth. :lol
I think to help with the expression, if the brows lower a bit on the back part of the eye (like one would see in a sad expression), it can help convey the 'nervous/uncertain' look. Another thing I personally do when drawing a nervous character is have the character smile a bit, so the look of the eyes are not confused with sadness, and it can also have the added benefit of showing a nice and kind personality.
It occurs to me that I did both of those things when drawing the facial expression on my dinosona. I think there are a number of reasons I didn’t do the same here. First, I tend to think of the “smiling with back-slanted brows” expression as implying a shy, awkward kind of nervous (which is what I was aiming for with my dinosona). In Siak’s case, I looking for a scared, jumpy kind of nervous, like a frightened animal. So it wouldn’t have made much sense to me to have her smiling. You still make a good point with the brows, and I think one reason why I didn’t slant them was precisely the problem you described: I wanted to avoid accidentally making her look sad instead of scared. Another reason might have been because I wasn’t sure how I could make that expression work with the eyelashes. Did I mention the trouble I had with the eyelashes? Man, I had new respect for the artists who draw the LBT characters with eyelashes after that. Those things were a flurpin’ nightmare. :wacko
*looks at the paragraphs above* Heh, look at me, pretending that I know what I'm talking about! :rolleyes: :lol
Judging by how well you draw expressions on your characters, I’d say you know what you’re talking about! ;) Thanks a lot for those pointers! :smile
And she's in Caustizer's fanfic? I think I've read that story a looooong while back, and I don't think I recall her. I think I should reread it, just to find her!
She shows up in Act IV, first referenced by another character in Part IV (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=6478&view=findpost&p=9192616), and makes her appearance in Part VI (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=6478&view=findpost&p=9197993). It's not a bad idea to read Far Away Home from the beginning, though; it's a great story, and Siak is far from the best thing about it. :p
Oooooo! You have a LOT more pictures! When you're ready to submit them here, I'd love to see them. Seeing some older drawings from you, I'm pretty interested on how much progress and improvement you've possibly made with your current works! :)
It’ll be slow, but I’m hoping to get them all up here eventually. I’ve already started writing the description for the next picture (though that’s almost meaningless as far as indicating how soon I’ll finish it <_<).
Again, Sparky, thank you so much for putting all that work into writing a review for me. *bearhugs ya*
And a message to other members (especially those who have previously posted reviews in this thread): just because I was gushing over FlipperBoidSkua’s review doesn’t mean that I’m any less grateful for your reviews. I appreciate anyone who takes the time and effort to post feedback on my drawings. If you happen to like my artwork, I’d love to hear your comments, no matter how long or short they are. ;)
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As always, I am thrilled and impressed by the depth of research that goes into all of your drawings :)
Her pose and expression are anything but static! They're wonderfully subtle. She definitely looks off-put by something, in an alert and unsettled kind of way. You really used her design to influence that expression effectively, too. The sharp shapes of the spines and the irregular lower teeth accent it quite well, and, in my opinion, add a touch of comedy to it :p
There's a natural flow to the way she's standing that makes her look prepared for motion. Again, it suits her expression nicely- subtle, but not static!
As for criticism, I don't have much!
Her balance does look like it might be a tad off, as I believe others have mentioned. This happens a lot in mid-motion, but if it was not intentional, I would suggest the placement of her left foot be a bit farther back.
A good way to figure out standing balance is to draw a line from the subject's center of gravity to the ground, and angle the supporting limbs around that. That's one way to go about it, anyways!
Also, the positioning of the arms strikes me as a bit uninvolved for a nervous pose. Perhaps something with a little more tension, or a bit of action, would have suited it better?
Love seeing new work from you- it brightened my day :smile
Hope my suggestions were somewhat helpful!
Oh, and I love her colors, by the way. Those stripes are gorgeous!
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First off, thanks so much for your review, DarkWolf, and I'm really sorry for taking so long to respond. :oops I've had a lot of stuff to do this month.
As always, I am thrilled and impressed by the depth of research that goes into all of your drawings :)
Her pose and expression are anything but static! They're wonderfully subtle. She definitely looks off-put by something, in an alert and unsettled kind of way. You really used her design to influence that expression effectively, too. The sharp shapes of the spines and the irregular lower teeth accent it quite well, and, in my opinion, add a touch of comedy to it :p
There's a natural flow to the way she's standing that makes her look prepared for motion. Again, it suits her expression nicely- subtle, but not static!
I'm very grateful for your compliments and reassurances. :) And yes, one reason I like Masiakasaurus is that it's a rather comedic-looking dinosaur. :lol
Her balance does look like it might be a tad off, as I believe others have mentioned. This happens a lot in mid-motion, but if it was not intentional, I would suggest the placement of her left foot be a bit farther back.
Strangely, though I keep looking at the picture, I can't find what makes it look unbalanced. :confused :oops As I mentioned in another response, I agree that her feet should be on a more even level, and I didn't get the shape and position of her legs quite right. The angle of the picture may be part of the problem: we are meant to be viewing Siak as if a camera was set up facing her from the side, then rotated slightly to the left (towards the viewer) and upward. The trouble is, I'm hopeless at drawing dinosaurs from any angle except profile, so I don't think I managed to portray that perspective recognizably. :rolleyes
A good way to figure out standing balance is to draw a line from the subject's center of gravity to the ground, and angle the supporting limbs around that. That's one way to go about it, anyways!
Thanks for the tip! Though if I can't see the imbalance in this picture, then it may be that I'm just no good at recognizing where my characters' center of gravity is. :unsure:
Also, the positioning of the arms strikes me as a bit uninvolved for a nervous pose. Perhaps something with a little more tension, or a bit of action, would have suited it better?
Arms, hands, legs, feet, fingers, and toes are always a real challenge for me, especially when drawing dinosaurs. I did a ton of erasing and redrawing of the hands, especially the right one. The palm on that hand was originally going to be facing sideways, as if she were gesturing in some way. But no matter how many timed I redrew it, the hand continued to look like it was upside-down, so eventually I gave up and drew it with the palm facing downwards. I suppose I could have drawn her with her fingers interlaced, twiddling her thumbs or something, but I doubt I could have managed to make it look good.
Oh, and I love her colors, by the way. Those stripes are gorgeous!
Thanks. :smile Drawing those stripes was tricky, but I'm glad I included them. They're my favorite part of her color scheme. As for her main body color, I did a lot of experimenting with different colored pencils to get the shade I wanted. She still didn't end up looking quite right, though, because the scanner changed the appearance of the colors. <_< I guess I've gotten used to them since then, however, because I think I now prefer them over the colors I originally wanted to give her.
Love seeing new work from you- it brightened my day :smile
Hope my suggestions were somewhat helpful!
Your comments brightened my day! :DD Thank you so much; I really appreciate your review and your advice! :D
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I thought I had already posted a comment in this thread, and I found out I hadn't (curse my absentmindedness!! If that were an Olympic sport, I'd win.... not something I'm proud of :p)
I love your artwork, especially the coloring! It's so smooth and 3-Dimensional, it's really eyecatching. And you nailed Ruby up there in that card^^
I liked your Microraptor on the previous page. The expression was perfect and I couldn't help smiling when I looked at him. It looked to me like he was giving a hesitant wave of the hand^^
Siak looks very impressive, and I remember reading about that dinosaur in the Nat Geo. My reaction went as so: gawking, then smiling, and then I thought, "this is a totally sick dinosaur!" I believe the Stygimoloch was in the same issue ;)
Your characters show up amazingly-anatomy-wise, and detail-wise. I find it really cool how you're able to bring in that much detail and bg to your characters^^
Really great artwork and I looked forward to seeing more!
(P.S. I found that Lystrosaurus to be incredibly cute^^ but then again, I think Vampire bats are cute, crocs and gators are cute, aye-ayes are cute... I have a rather interesting definition of cute^^)
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Thank you so much for your comment, StrutEggStealer! :D I'm sorry I didn't respond to this sooner; somehow I didn't even notice at first that there was a new post in this thread. :oops
I thought I had already posted a comment in this thread, and I found out I hadn't (curse my absentmindedness!! If that were an Olympic sport, I'd win.... not something I'm proud of :p)
Trust me, I'd probably at least tie with you in the absentmindedness Olympics. :p I'm pleased just that you've noticed my work and taken the time to review it at all! :smile
I love your artwork, especially the coloring! It's so smooth and 3-Dimensional, it's really eyecatching. And you nailed Ruby up there in that card^^
Wow, that's the first time I've ever heard someone say that my art looked three-dimensional. :wow That's one comment I never thought I'd get, because depth is one aspect of drawing that I have real trouble with.
And thanks. :DD Yeah, I'm really happy with how Ruby turned out in that picture. I have yet to write a proper post dedicated for that image (Poor Caustizer, I hope he can forgive me for taking so long to showcase his card :unsure). I've decided now that I'm going to start a separate thread for cards and card-related artwork, and that one will be first in line.
I liked your Microraptor on the previous page. The expression was perfect and I couldn't help smiling when I looked at him. It looked to me like he was giving a hesitant wave of the hand^^
I really appreciate hearing that. That's exactly the impression/reaction I was hoping to evoke with that picture. :smile
Your characters show up amazingly-anatomy-wise, and detail-wise. I find it really cool how you're able to bring in that much detail and bg to your characters^^
Again, thank you very much. :^.^:
(P.S. I found that Lystrosaurus to be incredibly cute^^ but then again, I think Vampire bats are cute, crocs and gators are cute, aye-ayes are cute... I have a rather interesting definition of cute^^)
Do you mean the one I drew, or the Wiki image of a realistic Lystrosaurus I used as reference? Or both? In any case, I actually agree with you about all of those animals you mentioned (and many other, even weirder ones) being cute, so rest assured that rest assured that your definition of "cute" doesn't seem strange to me. :p
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Do you mean the one I drew, or the Wiki image of a realistic Lystrosaurus I used as reference? Or both? In any case, I actually agree with you about all of those animals you mentioned (and many other, even weirder ones) being cute, so rest assured that your definition of "cute" doesn't seem strange to me. :p
I think I meant both^^
And no problem regarding the feedback. I'm glad I'm able to give well-thought-out feedback instead of squeeing and going all "OMG THERE ARE PICTURES OF FLIPPING DINOSAURS ON HERE!! HJSDHCVCV!!" You get the idea...
*facepalm*
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And no problem regarding the feedback. I'm glad I'm able to give well-thought-out feedback instead of squeeing and going all "OMG THERE ARE PICTURES OF FLIPPING DINOSAURS ON HERE!! HJSDHCVCV!!" You get the idea...
*facepalm*
Hey, I love hearing ecstatic responses. :lol (Why do you think I'm such good friends with FlipperBoidSkua? :p) It really pleases me to get detailed comments on my work, but there's also something about exuberant emotional reactions that I find immensely satisfying (like when I give someone a card in real life and they crack up at a funny character I drew on it). So don't be afraid to spazz out in your reviews of my artwork if that's your natural reaction. ;)
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Sorry, no artwork in this post, but I do have some fairly big news: I have started a new thread in the Visual Art section where I will be posting members' star day cards and occasional artwork of the non-LBT characters I have created for the cards I make outside the GOF. The introductory post contains a specially made piece of "cover art". Head on over (http://gangoffive.net/index.php?showtopic=11860) and check it out! :smile
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^ Excellent idea! :smile Always loved your work myself. :DD
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Aw, thanks! :^.^: I'd love to hear your comments, if you ever have the opportunity to post them. :)
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Well unfortunately I'm not right brained at all, so I'm sure my artistic criticism and praise isn't going to come out all that right, BUT, one thing that does stick out at me is how your drawings seem to capture the essence of those "coffee table books" from my childhood we'd have about dinosaurs and paleontology, but still have that animated/Don Bluth essence of being from the LBTverse. It's almost like this cool combination of the two, and I've really liked that about your work. It flashes me back to my childhood with both the illustrated, scientific dino books I'd look at all the time AND the Land Before Time films I'd constantly watch. :yes :DD