CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Well im not really an artist im just an amateur lol. And alot of my drawings are drawn by me looking at photos online. And copying what i see on the photo (Dont know if thats cheating or something). But i have a hard time drawing without them for reference. So yea here they are, i dont have alot yet. Hopefully ill get motivated enough to draw more later, and possibly try to create my own drawing.

EDIT: If its alright i thought id upload the photos i drew from, i forgot to do this a while ago. Lol

Rintarou and kurisu From steins gate


Kurisu and mayuri from steins gate


Holo From spice and wolf


chie from person 4



This drawing is the only drawing i like where i didnt really copy the picture i was looking at. I still used a photo to help
Me as a guide



Well thats it for now. I may add more later.

O_O Those are really good I really like the second and fourth one.

Wow, syphon. Those are some pretty impressive doodles. Seriously, for never having taken art classes, and even if you had, these are really good. And don't worry about copying pictures, that's the only way I can draw at all (if that's any consolation). You are way better than I could ever hope to be. Keep up the good work, and keep showing it to us!!

@makachop Thank you so much

@claec wow i dont know what to say but Thank you, other than highschool art classes no i havent.

Copying is a good way of learning in some cases. But nothing can beat just drawing from life (like you started to do on your self portrait). Oddly enough, if you improve your realism drawing skills, you'll find you can create your own manga style pictures very well without copying.
If you are worried about copying being "cheating", it's not cheating as an artist trying to improve (lots of artists copy and trace over pictures to get better at something), but don't pass the work off the copied work as your own and don't make money off your copies. That's when you run into trouble.

Out of all of these, the self portrait is the best (the others look like obvious copies, good copies, though, slightly off from the originals (I've seen all the originals) good line art, but cheap looking value adding that doesn't match with the line work at all).
I'd love to see more stuff that you created on your own from references instead of copying. (note, referencing something is different from copying, because you're not trying to create a duplicate, you are trying to get a pose/perspective/lighting/etc correct from another photo to put into your own creation).
A note on the self portrait, it's great. I can really tell you enjoy drawing eyes more than anything else, because it looks like it was given the most attention. Also, watch the shape of the head before you place hair. Your forehead looks non-existent in there (or rather, you may have not gone far enough with the hair, thus making it look awkward). XD

BUT, please don't let my words discourage you! I'm giving you something that I hope will help you out as an artist because I see you have potential! Best of luck.

These are so awesome O__O i mean wow, they're really good ^.^ I like the fourth the best :3

@goldenspines Thank you, I was hoping for something like your review to tell me what im doing wrong. And yea your right im copying not using photos as reference my mistake. But yea there are alot of mistakes on these that i can see too. When drawing realistic portraits i have a hard time with hair(it always looks stiff to me) and proportions and other things aswell. I havent really been drawing for that long plus i havent been drawing as much as i should if i want to get better. I started drawing around last september i believe it was. So i dont really have much more drawings to show yet. So i guess i should keep trying again (i lost motivation this past month and havent drew much). So thanks

@panda thank you means alot

Chie eh? That's who you picked to draw?

.......

Second place on my list on that game. >>

Good stuff.

@jingo jaden cool lol. And thank you

About the hair -
From what it looks like, you seem to be doing the same thing I did when I first started drawing. That is, just draw it in without really blocking it out first. As a suggestion, try very lightly outlining your hair, to plan where it will go. That helped make all the difference for me.

@ante bellum. Yea you got it right. Thats what ive always done(maybe thats why it looks stiff sometimes). Thanks for the sugeestion though, ill keep that in mine whenever i draw next time.

Whoa, Sy-kun! Your drawings are incredible! Even if the drawings are copied, I'm blown away. Exquisite job, Syphon.

Thank you koneko-chan! I appreciate it.

Here some more i drew by copying from photos
Fuu from samurai champloo


Mugen from samurai champloo


Medusa from soul eater
This one didnt turn out how i wanted it to but i thought id post it anyway. (Her body looks off and it looks sloppy lol).

More art, yayyyyyyy~! :3 *seriously gets excited about people posting art like this*
Awe, i like the first one's hair ^u^ buuuut, her shoulders look...weird. I can't explain it. They just do ^^;;
The second one looks awesome
I like the shading and expression for Medusa, but i'll have to agree with you about the body >.<;; her hair looks good to ^^

Have to agree with Panda on the first one. I think it's just her shoulders are too broad in proportion to the thinness of her neck. And they don't seem like they should be so upturned. I dunno, though. *shrug*
lol, have to agree with you and Panda on Medusa (though I gasped when I saw it was someone I recognized :lol). I must say, though, you captured her expression perfectly. I love it!
Keep it up! Can't wait to see more.

@panda thank you panda! ^^ and yea your right the shoulders do look funny, well i would have to say drawing the body is one of my weaknesses >.<. Infact i tried to draw a body for the second drawing but couldnt figure out how. XD

@claec thank you claec! yea i see what you mean ill have to be careful when i draw shoulders next time lol. And yea i figured id try drawing someone from soul eater after watching it. Lol

Tsubaki from soul eater (yea the eyes are off and they look short lol). And there are a few other mistakes probably. (I never seem to notice what im doing wrong until after im finished drawing it >.<)

More art yay ^.^ Oh i really like it ^^ good job :3 I really can't see anything wrong besides those eyes lol XD;;
other than that, it's awesome ^u^

If you are not "tracing" these pictures, then all I can say is you have talent. I can't even look at a picture and successfully draw it. Your pictures are really good. ^.^

Your drawings are amazing! All I can do is draw stick figures and trace I really look forward to seeing more of them!

You're doing OK, but here's what's missing, and why some of the proportions seem off. Pretty much from what I can tell you're drawing the outline of the picture and trying to get that shape as exact as possible instead of using fundamental structures and proportions to learn why the characters eyes are where they are and whatnot, essentially drawing to the style, the fluffy outer layer of a drawing, rather than drawing to the solid core mechanics of constructing an image that then has a specific style.

Edit: So I did a drawing to show an example. It's not a copy, just a quick digital sketch of an OC.

First a rough sketch, or a gesture to get the general space I'm using and overall pose in mind. You'll notice a line down the face, thats a a structure line, keeps things centered and acts as a reference for placing everything like eyes and nose. If you're drawing with a pencil you can draw this really lightly and loosely using almost no pressure, just so you have a general idea of where everything is and how it's going to fit on the page.



Next I run over it figuring out the centerline of the body and reiterating the one on the face, also establishing where the eyes are so I place the glasses right and working out the shirt, and more importantly the body under the shirt. Everything is drawn off of simple 3d shapes, mostly a whole bunch of cylinders. Again this would be drawn lightly off the computer, just so you've got the basic shapes worked out.



Next I draw the actual picture in detail. With a pencil this is where we start drawing a little darker, working on detail -etc. Now I've got folds and have pulled up references for the Ray-Ban's and Stopwatch to look at. I'm working out hair, eyes and the actual expression here. I'm still reiterating some of my structure lines here and adding a few more, like the ball of the nose.



Last step... Inking. This is where we choose the final lines to keep. Sometimes this is done with just pencil lines, picking the favorite lines and darkening them up, sometimes we're actually pulling out a new tool, like an ink pen to finalize the image. Either way this step is pretty much picking what the viewer will actually see.



Final step. Cleanup. Depending on style and tools this could mean a light erasing, just to hide structure lines, all the way down to.. well what I did since I had the luxury of a digital drawing, totally removing the under-structure and leaving the ink to stand alone.



Those are basically the steps most artists go through on a drawing, though some will combine the second and third step particularly when they have the grasp of the forms they're working with really well set in their heads. When you copy a picture I'd suggest going through the same steps, try to capture the gesture of the drawing, then generate the structure to match, including lines to ensure everything lines up, followed by details, and finalizing the drawing.

@panda well its a minor mistake lol but thank you!

@cc4fuzzyhuggles nope im not tracing. i never really thought of it as talent thanks >.<

@candle7 Thank you! i havent drew anything recently but when i do ill post it.

@mech Yea that sound like what i do when i copy from the pictures. I dont really know how to draw without looking at a photo of what i want to draw. Thank you for step by step tutorial and advice though. When i want to draw something agian ill have to try and follow along with it.