Stardust's LBT Art Nest II: Non-prompt drawings

[StardustSoldier]

Hello everyone. I got my next drawing finished yesterday evening. It's not for the prompt submission, so I decided to create a separate thread for this. Drawings of mine that are for the bimonthly prompts will continue to be shared on the first thread, while any other random LBT pieces I do will go here.

Despite my discouragement over my last drawing, honest critiques are still welcome.

"Broken Wings"

[ImpracticalDino]

My first impression of the sketch you drew here was confusion, followed by realization. I already knew that this picture was inspired from a scene in the first movie, where Littlefoot is lying down depressed due to the recent loss of his mother. Therefore, a flyer hatchling sympathized with him and relinquished his last cherry. What I didn’t expect to see in this drawing though was a pear-like shaped fruit with Littlefoot lying next to a body of water. I’m honestly not sure whether you should’ve stuck with the original script, resulting in a more well constructed and elegant drawing, but I applaud and encourage the effort you had here to deviate from the norm and not rely too much on replicating each line and frame. It never hurts to rely on a reference or basis for help though. The setting change here also fits a little better with Littlefoot’s mood in my opinion, considering that a person may seek a more suitable location to weep their sorrows away. The serene and calming sounds of water near an ocean or river would definitely do the trick. I could also see him using the water as self-reflection, and to ponder the really tough thoughts that he has in his mind at the moment.

There’s nothing much at all done here with the background, which was something I expected from you currently. If you ever plan on diving in this section of art, be prepared for lots of guidance (and criticism) from many established art geeks here on the GOF.

The waves here are very simplistic, and Littlefoot himself could definitely use some improvements and touch ups here and there, but other than that you have a rather satisfactory result of a drawing overall if I do say so myself. Maybe the flyer from the original scene could’ve also been drawn here to occupy a little more space to the picture and add another hint of melancholy to it, but you still captured the intended mood of Littlefoot — his broken-hearted and grieving eyes.

If there’s one thing I’d love to see you do for any future LBT fanworks you create in the future, I’d suggest you add color to it. I believe it can really transform and make a drawing blossom to life. It stands out much more clearly then a dull black or white canvas would ever accomplish. Just make sure to color within the boundaries of the lines and be careful with your color palette of choosing.

It’s pretty awesome to see you make more LBT artwork that doesn’t solely rely on the prompts Stardust. Intrinsically motivated creations of art are definitely better in the long term in my opinion. Keep up the good work!

[StardustSoldier]

@ImpracticalDino: This was sort of a combination of two different scenes from the movie. The scene where the flyer sees a sad Littlefoot and gives him the cherry, and then the part soon after where Littlefoot is lying next to the body of water when Ducky finds him. Even though I am still reliant on reference images in learning how to draw the dinosaurs, as you probably gathered, I didn't want my drawing to be an exact copy. Even with references, I still like to change up certain details.

In particular, the fact that there's a pear-shaped fruit instead of a cherry (and the absence of the flyer):

Spoiler: ShowHide

I wanted to give the drawing a touch of ambiguity. As in, who gave Littlefoot the fruit? Was is the flyer? Or Ducky? Or someone else? Who is it that sees Littlefoot and wishes they could heal his pain?

As for the lack of detail in the background, that was a deliberate decision. As I expressed in my other thread, I was so unhappy with how "Urban Adventuring" turned out that it scared me off the idea of tackling more complex pieces. For now, at least, my drawings are probably going to be a bit more on the simple side as I learn the basics. With this piece, I wanted to do enough to establish that Littlefoot was lying next to a body of water, but that was it. More elaborate drawings/backgrounds is something I'd like to get to eventually, but for now, my priority is more on things like character proportions. Or heck, just learning how to draw the characters at all.


Related to that:

Littlefoot himself could definitely use some improvements and touch ups here and there

In what ways do you feel he could've been drawn better?

As for colorization, that's a good suggestion. But, as with the backgrounds, it's something I'd prefer to tackle slowly.

It’s pretty awesome to see you make more LBT artwork that doesn’t solely rely on the prompts Stardust. Intrinsically motivated creations of art are definitely better in the long term in my opinion. Keep up the good work!

Thank you. There'll be more to come.

[ImpracticalDino]

@StardustSoldier: I really like the idea of ambiguity actually. That was one concept that completely flew over me while making my initial review, and it totally makes sense. Intentionally making the fruit a pear and not including the flyer to give viewers different interpretations and thoughts on who is exactly the character in question that tried to make Littlefoot feel better made things a bit more interesting. It’s not concrete and select, as art really shouldn’t be in my opinion — but more like three dimensional if you get what I’m saying. Bonus points for this Stardust.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Eventually you’ll get to the advanced art works. I know you can do it. Just take it step by step and get as much advice as you possibly can.

In what ways do you feel he could've been drawn better?

Don’t lose faith in humanity for this, but...Littlefoot is too much of a flathead in this drawing in my opinion.
But in all seriousness, more roundness at the top of his head would look better, plus it wouldn’t look like a chunk of his head is missing. Well...even though the original scene shows a flathead like that, it just looks weird in my opinion here. It’s up to you whether to take this criticism or not, because it does closely resemble what the original scene showed. I think that’s probably all I have to say in terms of explaining what I think can be improved, although perhaps my previous ambiguous critique regarding Littlefoot would fill in the holes and gaps.

Sometimes I wish I could explain more, but the thought just gets stuck in my head and I can’t get it out. Maybe there’s something else to be improved on, maybe not. But somehow, some other parts of the drawing may still bother me. You get what I’m saying?

You’re having fun making LBT art, right Stardust?

[Mumbling]

I really like this drawing, Ian! The background is plain, but clean. I like that you submerged the ledge Littlefoot is on, that is a nice detail.

Littlefoot himself looks quite good! It feels like you have your own style when it comes to LBT drawings, which I always appreciate (since I am only ever happy if I can "copy" the original look, and am always surprised when others can pull off their own styles). That's at least how it feels to me. His face is very expressive

The only point of feedback I'd have for him is his neck. It looks rather big now, and might've looked better if there was a line indicating the lower bit of his neck near the paws, or if the neck itself would've been lowered a bit. Another small things that can be done to add more like to your drawings, is to indicate the second color that Littlefoot has around his mouth and the bottom side of his neck/belly. While the design of Littlefoot does not add any visible barrier between these colors, it might be good to have for black & white drawings 

[Ducky123]

I think you did a pretty good job with the lineart here. The expression works perfectly although the head looks a little weird. I think Littlefoot has a flathead but you might have made it a little bit too flat?

Regardless, that's a good drawing

[OwlsCantRead]

Unlike some of the others, my first thought was that this is a side-view perspective shot of the scene where Ducky first jumps out of the water (oh wait, it was already said by you), not the flyer cherry scene.

Littlefoot's depressed expression makes this, though. The creases in his neck as he lays down with despondent half-lidded eyes really shows his despair. The wavy lines show the water by the shore as best as lineart can do (normal coloring art would color it blue, but here I knew it was water from that entrancing wavy pattern). Nothing much else to add, really, I quite like this.

[ImpracticalDino]

Unlike some of the others, my first thought was that this is a side-view perspective shot of the scene where Ducky first jumps out of the water (oh wait, it was already said by you), not the flyer cherry scene.

Very astute observation, Owls. I don’t know how one little fruit in the epicenter of the paper was able to completely distract my attention towards it only, but yet it did.

[Flathead770]

Ooh a surprise drawing from you Stardust. Nice!

It looks pretty good! The background is simple, but effective in what you're wanting to show. Littlefoot is well drawn as well. Others have mentioned the flathead aspect (Nothing wrong with that right? ) and I believe it comes from the fact that the round part of Littlefoot's head usually comes out to around his eyes, with the nose bulge part extending out afterwards. The other thing I want to mention is that it looks like the bottom part of Littlefoot's neck doesn't seem to exist. Other then that it looks good! Keep it up! 

[StardustSoldier]

Bit of a belated response here, but thank you everyone for the comments. I'll admit that this piece is more personal to me than my prior ones. I had a lot of exposure to death throughout October and November, including a couple of my own personal losses, and that had quite an impact on me throughout the rest of 2019 and into the new year. This month has been a bit easier for me in that regard, but still, those experiences were the direct inspiration for this melancholy drawing. To an extent, I felt like I could relate to Littlefoot's plight.

In regards to the flathead, in hindsight I'm not really surprised it turned out that way. My brother has mentioned to me in the past that my drawings in general tend to come across rather flat and 2D-ish. Depth perception is something I will keep in mind for the future.

You’re having fun making LBT art, right Stardust?

For the most part, yes. I've actually had an interest in drawing since childhood, but it was a hobby that often got neglected in favour of other things like video games and writing. I'd still draw every now and then, but never regularly. So in that sense, I'm happy I joined a forum that has an active fanart community, as it's been giving me motivation to fufill my 'lost passion' and draw more often.

That said, as I'm still kinda new to this, I have been struggling with my drawings and in getting discouraged when they don't turn out the way I want them to. This one here I think turned out a fair bit better, but I still don't feel that I've reached the point as an artist that I would like to be at. Even though I know that the only way to conquer this is to just keep at it. Indeed, I have experienced many of the same ups and downs with my writing as well over the years.

[Ducky123]

Any drawing will appear flat unless you use some sort of shading to give the drawing some more space (but it's hard and I do not recommend it until you can nail down the lineart)

[StardustSoldier]

Again, apologies for the late response.

But thank you for the insight, Ducky. I don't quite feel ready to tackle shading yet, as I would like to improve upon my lineart skills first, but I will keep that under consideration for future artwork.

[StardustSoldier]

Here's another drawing I did o-o-o-o-over the weekend. ^^

[Flathead770]

Ah very nice Stardust! All of them look good! A minor thing that I spot is that the blue one's lower lip on its left side rises up too early and should be a little more gradual as it goes back to the cheek. But good job with this! 

[Mumbling]

Very nice work, Stardust! Sooooo happy 

[StardustSoldier]

Thanks everyone.

A minor thing that I spot is that the blue one's lower lip on its left side rises up too early and should be a little more gradual as it goes back to the cheek.

Hmm, yeah, I see what you mean. That's something I'll watch for if I do a similar drawing sometime... although now I can't not notice it in this particular drawing and it's bugging me.

Oh well. This is still my personal favourite out of all the drawings I've done so far.

[jassy]

This looks really good, Stardust!! I love the colors 

[Goldenwind]

YAY!! MO AND FAM!  Nice job!

[StardustSoldier]

Thanks guys.

[StardustSoldier]

My new art center is all set up!


My mom helped me clean up and organize my desk. She also got me that mini-cabinet on the left there for me to store my art supplies in. Hopefully I'll have some new drawings to share with you guys in the near future. Stay tuned!