Obsessive Scribblers~

[Crazy Linoone]

@Eclipse: AWESOME. Ice's face made me laugh for some reason. He's so serious and :| Love the lines~ They're really clean and nice and stuff, and the colors are good, too. Yup yup. Also, it's good to know that I'm not the only one who doodles Obsessive Scribblers in my spare time...

@Spoon: The storybook sounds fun~ The title can be Obsessive Scribblers in Rainbow Land or something. We must attempt to make it not deteriorate into something lame though.

Drawing in another member's style may be a bit hard though, since most of us hasn't really developed a style yet and I know mine just changed by a bit a while ago.

Also, Linoone is STILL ALIVE yeah.

 

[Frosty~]

Heeey guys.
Aurgh, sorry for being dead for the past few centuries. To make it up, I quickly sketched and colored some of you OS-ers. If you're not here, don't worry. It doesn't mean I don't like you or anything. OTL So rushed... sorry.
I'll try to be more active... I hope.

I think it's awesome, don't worry about it being rushed o3o
Hell, I think it being rushed has given it a really nice stylised effect and I love it :3
You drew Ice's hair really well, considering how difficult it is to draw for the first time; although I'm slightly weirded out by his SRS expression, which is sort of out of character for him, but it's not a problem.
(Green eyes wut. This is all your fault Kai D:)

I'm considering a few ideas to get this place back and running.
-A children's storybook sort of thing. It begins with the first page, another member draws the next one, and so one. It's a bit like the three word story, where the story goes on as whatever the next member draws and narrates.
-Style swap. You try drawing your art in a another member's style. Maybe we could make this as a sort of fun guess sort of thing; where we guess who drew who's style?
-Themed holiday pictures? Despite how generic those are; they're still fun.
-Shameless adversiting banners?
-Drawing with your bad hand.
-Working on a subject that you have difficulty with.
-Close up pictures, and members try guessing what it is.

If you have any other ideas? I'd love to hear them.

Love the idea of a storybook. It'll get so completely and utterly random that it can't possibly go wrong :D
Not so sure I could do a style swap. I know some people are very good at drawing in different styles, but I cannot for the life of me draw in a style bar my own, unless I copy something directly ._.
As for drawing with my left hand...I sorta did that in my Concept Art lessons and I learned that I never want to draw like that again D: (I also never wanted to draw a naked old man again but I still had to, so eh).

Everything else seems fun though~

Uhh, what else could we do...
What about drawing ourselves in other people's outfits? I recall the time we all cosplayed as Danni went over really well.

(By the way I have this picture I drew of Ice fighting a friend's character that I drew a few weeks ago that I wanted a bit of criticism on. Plus it works as a reference to Ice's appearance if needbe)

 

[Kai Lucifer]

Spoon: I really like the style swapping and the childrens story ideas, and it'd also be nice to see some more group pictures going on here. If I'm to practice a subject that I have difficulty on, It'll probably be hands & feet, or backgrounds.

Actually, I've been planning an art contest, where people group up in threes and work on different areas of drawing; Something along the lines of "Lineart, Colour and Background" Any thoughts?

And I'd like to finally get some decent criticism on THIS PIECE that I drew a while ago, if at all possible. I hope that this doesn't start the art dumping off again, but I'd like to know how and to improve on.

EDIT: Ice, that's an epic idea! As you said, It was madness with everybody cosplaying as Danni, and before there was Linoone's pic of everybody dressed as Kratos. I wonder who will be next...

 

[Frosty~]

I hope that this doesn't start the art dumping off again, but I'd like to know how and to improve on.

If you're looking for criticism, it's fine to post art. That's what this club is for. It's just dumping everything and not offering a word of discussion that we need to avoid.

 

[Kinova]

Yea-ahh, I've been exceptionally lazy too.

I like your ideas, Spoon. :D The drawing in somebody else's style thing sounds interesting, and the comic sounds fun. The drawing with your opposite hand thing should be good for a laugh. XD Leftyfail, with me at least.

Can we compile a list of OS member/character references? For group pictures etc. - they may have been posted before but there's 64 pages to look through and half of those people I haven't seen in a while anyway soo.

(I found my half-finished OS Halloween picture from last year the other day. Haha, oh god.)

 

[Kai Lucifer]

Can we compile a list of OS member/character references? For group pictures etc. - they may have been posted before but there's 64 pages to look through and half of those people I haven't seen in a while anyway soo.

I made one of those earlier this year, I believe, although it's outdated now. I think that It'd be a good idea too.

(I found my half-finished OS Halloween picture from last year the other day. Haha, oh god.)

Do show us. :D

 

[Zora of Termina]

Everyone should dress as me this time! I'm interesting enough! ^^
*runs off to draw a reference*

 

[Kai Lucifer]

Haha, oh damn!
This WILL be fun.

 

[Arylett Charnoa]

@Ice: The anatomy's a bit funny on the picture. Ice's head and torso are kinda unproportional to his legs, which look smaller. Also, his left shoulder really bothers me for some reason, it looks a bit dislocated. As well, his head's a bit too much to the side in comparison to his body, there's an issue with perspective too. A bit flatish looking. As for Kini, you did a good job there~ Just the shoulders are too big and man-like. And the neck is a bit too thick. It makes her anatomy look a bit mannish. And her tail doesn't seem to fit her body, either. It seems a bit too... big for it. I really like your style of colouring though, it's so clean looking, and the outlines are crisp~

...I am a Criticism Machine.

@Kai: Already told you what I think on that. =P

@Suggestions: I like that reference one~ I've been meaning to attempt to make a clear reference for myself, but I always change my mind and change outfits and all that jazz. I already have a sort-of me reference. But it's crappily down on Paint, so I'll just redraw it by hand.

I said I was going to do one aaages ago, a group picture. And I will~

With the close-up pictures, nobody would probably guess what I draw. XD It's so hard to tell in the first place what the things (;;Cough;;Creations;;Cough;;) I draw ARE. But I like the rest of them, yes. They'd be really interesting~

 

[Thanks for All the Fish]

*timidly raises hand* Um, I've been wanting to join for a while, so...? :D

I second (third? fourth?) the storybook idea, and I'd try the bad!hand thing even though both my hands shake the same amount there so there wouldn't be much difference

Reference? NOW I HAVE SOMETHING TO DO THIS AFTERNOON*shot*

 

[Spoon]

Afsdfjkidssfgh ;~; <3

I can't believe how much OS has come back in one night/day (depending where you live.)

We should have preventive measures from making this place an art dump, not that showing some of your art is a bad thing, but it shouldn't be the sole purpose of the group/club/whatever else fits here. How about as a general rule you can post five (I'm not quite sure if there should be a certain number or not) pictures per post and it's highly encouraged that you give constrictive criticism. It wouldn't be a rule per say, because you might have a theme with multiple pictures, or a more than few pictures that you've had trouble with drawing and need some help on. I'd really like to get some input on this idea, since restricting pictures seems unfair, but making this an art dump isn't all that great either. However we really do need to work on giving constructive criticism, myself included. You awesome people who have been really deserve some credit, and you know who you are.

Also I've seen a lack of Works in Progess (or WIPs if you prefer), which is probably the best time to recieve criticism, since it's the easiest to fix. So don't be afraid from posting something beforehand. We should really help with all aspects of drawing/painting/whatnot so ideas, help with backgrounds would be great, too. Not everywhere is a grassy field or blank white space >:D

As for members, for you guys who are still interested in being members, just keep mention that you're still wanting be a member. You could possibly provide a refence for whatever you use to represent yourself in drawing, too. I'm going to try to compile a list of the current members, and check with the inactive ones if they're still interested. As for now the memberlist will be as it is, until that list is complete. The only reason I'm going to keep the memberlist will be for group pictures, and shameless plugging deviantart. As for you guys still waiting to join, you're already accepted (despite not being on the memberlist) and can participate in group activities, and give your input.

Kai, an art contest would be great. I think it should be monthly, since a time restraint can rush art, plus it seems that school's getting a lot of peoples time, too. I think some realism would be nice to see, too. Could the entries be in pencil or another colorless picture, too?

I have two new ideas for some theme stuff; (non-erasable) pen drawings, and Poké-atanomy (uhh, pretty much skeletons of Pokémon.)

 

[Vladimir Putin's LJ]

Hello.
I think that all the ideas to get the club back on track are very good (with a special place for the book one because I love collaborative comics and books intensely), and I'll make an effort to show up more if no one is against it :v

Just gonna crit those things Kai and Ice posted:
Kai: I quite like this because of the vivacity of the colours, the dynamic poses and all the different pokémon (especially since, as you guys know, I'm awful at drawing pokémon) and I think that overall it's a very cool picture! I only have a few qualms with this: adding some highlights elsewhere than on your hair would be quite nice, not necessarily on the furry pokémon (though you can put some little bits of highlighting there) but Nidoking has quite an armour-like, shiny body, doesn't he? And I imagine Magmar is made of, er, magma, so I'd try to make the shading on him more fluid. Speaking of which, Some areas I think should be shaded, like the folds of your coat and your under(?)shirt, otherwise it makes them pop out a bit and look weird. The trousers don't need to be quite as creasy either, they're usually only folded at the back of the knee (slightly inwards, and only if they're fitted to do this) and at the bottom where they fall on the shoes (and around the crotch area, of course). I'm usually not a big fan of block shading but that's just because I've only used it about twice or something myself in big pictures and it works well here.
Overall, good job.

Ice: Again, nice choice of colours and concept idea. I don't have too many problems with this one either, but I'll just go over them anyway. The poses, while intended in a good way, are kind of... stiff. I don't know how to explain it better, but they just kind of do. The proportions in general are okay but Ice's left shoulder looks awkward and his head's pretty big (you should fit around five to six heads in one body unless you're drawing a baby, a child or someone with hydrocephaly or something, and I can fit Ice's head only about four times). Kini's head's alright but as someone else mentioned her proportions are a bit drag-queen-ish. Don't make women's shoulder wider than their hips or you'll end up with a quarterback with boobs. I do this all the damn time :c (but half of those are intentional since I nearly never draw women, haha :v dear my men in tights).
The overall shading looks okay but I didn't know Ice's tail was made up of segments? If it isn't, then this shading makes it look that way, and if it is, then ignore this.
What are the ice and fire made of? Because I think half the stiffness in the picture comes from the fact that the effects look out of place with the characters. Just drawing it might have been a better idea (for now it looks like some sort of photoshop filtre + smudge which doesn't really work out well in the long run unless you're some sort of art god). Still, I like the colour, idea and composition!

And er I guess I can post my latest finished thing http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs50/f/2009/312/4/e/Swimmer__s_Chant_by_StrangeWeirdo.jpg
My main qualms with it are the shitty proportions on the girl's body and the horrible underwater effect. Apart from that I'm pretty proud because those fucking suction cups killed me dead.

 

[Kai Lucifer]

We should have preventive measures from making this place an art dump, not that showing some of your art is a bad thing, but it shouldn't be the sole purpose of the group/club/whatever else fits here. How about as a general rule you can post five (I'm not quite sure if there should be a certain number or not) pictures per post and it's highly encouraged that you give constrictive criticism. It wouldn't be a rule per say, because you might have a theme with multiple pictures, or a more than few pictures that you've had trouble with drawing and need some help on. I'd really like to get some input on this idea, since restricting pictures seems unfair, but making this an art dump isn't all that great either. However we really do need to work on giving constructive criticism, myself included. You awesome people who have been really deserve some credit, and you know who you are.

Hrmm, I agree that we should have some preventative measure, but What can we do if people decide not to follow this? It seems awfully rude to kick somebody out of the OS for anything.
And I know that I myself need to work on criticism, the main thing I struggle with is knowing what to criticise. I imagine the anatomy, colour, shading and background are things to look at, but am I right? If so, I may be able to give criticism much more than I do.

Also I've seen a lack of Works in Progess (or WIPs if you prefer), which is probably the best time to recieve criticism, since it's the easiest to fix. So don't be afraid from posting something beforehand.

I'm actually working on a scroll (in a sense) of all of the members who have posted here since the epic day-old revival. I'll upload it here once I can use a scanner/camera, just in case I've made any mistakes.

Kai, an art contest would be great. I think it should be monthly, since a time restraint can rush art, plus it seems that school's getting a lot of peoples time, too. I think some realism would be nice to see, too. Could the entries be in pencil or another colorless picture, too?

I imagine that they could be, but as it's based around collaberation, the lineart would have to be printed off from the photo/scan in order for the next person to do the colouring and shading.

@Vlad: I thank you for your immense criticism, as it's the first I've actually recieved since I posted it (to my knowledge). Next time I do a piece like that, I'll upload it here as lineart first to make sure that it is right.

Urk, criticism. I don't see why you see that the underwater effect is horrible; I quite like it. I don't see anything wrong with the anatomy or shading, except for the woman's nose. It looks really big is all.

and oh god the suction cups how long did that take you?

 

[ultraviolet]

ahahahahehe... -looks in meekly-

I haven't been the most active of members, but I think some kind of competition would be a cool idea, like someone could decide a phrase or keyword and then people could submit their interpretation of it as an artwork, and we could hold a vote. It'd be cool to do it regularly (monthly is a good idea), because it'd challenge people to draw something with thought behind it, instead of drawing the same things again and again which I know I do.
There's also nothing like competition to keep people interested! I mean I can't think of anything that would be worth having as a prize or something (a badge for our sigs would do, haha) but the point wouldn't be to win, it'd be that we'd be competing and putting a lot of effort into our art so we would win. Does that make sense?
Collabs can be fun but in practice they're often hard to utilize just because of the time constraints people can have, and it can be really hard to do collabs digitally. If it were something like someone does lineart, passes it to someone else, who colours and then someone who does a background - they're not always that challenging. It can also be intimidating when say, the previous person does wicked cool lineart and you really suck at colouring or backgrounds. You don't want to wreck someone else's picture, do you? xD
Also, not everyone here is that great with digital media.


If we were going to hold a contest, what with artmo and whatnot it'd probably be better to do it somewhere in january (and a fresh start for OS, too).

but What can we do if people decide not to follow this?

Call them out on it; I don't think there are many people in OS that are just going to not care about the groundrules, are there? I mean the lack of criticism was out of laziness, not because people didn't care about the rules.
If it actually became a problem we could ask a mod to make a few people threadmin or something?


Also I'll probably post some kind of art and ref once I scan something :U


EDIT: another cool thing that I thought of that I used to do with some friends years ago is that you have like an 'art trade month' and you get randomly paired with someone and you have to draw them/their characters by the end of the month.

 

[Kai Lucifer]

Collabs can be fun but in practice they're often hard to utilize just because of the time constraints people can have, and it can be really hard to do collabs digitally. If it were something like someone does lineart, passes it to someone else, who colours and then someone who does a background - they're not always that challenging. It can also be intimidating when say, the previous person does wicked cool lineart and you really suck at colouring or backgrounds. You don't want to wreck someone else's picture, do you? xD
Also, not everyone here is that great with digital media.

Well, participants would decide on their teams before they start doing anything, so if one person is weak in one thing, they can work on another instead. It's meant to be as much a "team effort" thing as it is art.
Also, not all of it has to be in digital, as I said before in response to Spoon, If somebody prints the lineart off then they can colour traditionally.

Call them out on it; I don't think there are many people in OS that are just going to not care about the groundrules, are there? I mean the lack of criticism was out of laziness, not because people didn't care about the rules.
If it actually became a problem we could ask a mod to make a few people threadmin or something?

Good point.

another cool thing that I thought of that I used to do with some friends years ago is that you have like an 'art trade month' and you get randomly paired with someone and you have to draw them/their characters by the end of the month.

I like this idea. A lot.

I'm actually working on a scroll (in a sense) of all of the members who have posted here since the epic day-old revival. I'll upload it here once I can use a scanner/camera, just in case I've made any mistakes.

Here it is. These are just sketches for it, the actuall thing will be thinner (A 1 member line). It's very light because a) I'm using my Grandfather's scanner and b) I drew it in 6H. The kanji beside each member reads: Zora, Crazy, Kai, Ice, Eclipse, Queen and Nova. There aren't any beside Vlad's or Typh's because I haven't decided on what they should be or found what they are yet.

And you aren't there UV because I don't have a ref of you. You will be, though.

 

[Frosty~]

@Vlad; Thanks; I did sort of draw it quickly on impulse, so I didn't put as much effort into it as I usually do. I did try drawing the fire/ice out myself, but I couldn't get it to look right :<
As for your picture, there isn't much I can say, because it's far better than anythign I could do, but uh, I think the guy's chin is a bit too pronounced?

@Kai; it might help if you posted the link. Luckily, I'm here to help
It's somewhat hard to make it out, but it's looking good so far.
A little note, Ice's hair doesn't protrude from the back. I don't expect anyone to get it right though as it even took me a while to get the hang of drawing it =P

 

[Kai Lucifer]

@Kai; it might help if you posted the link. Luckily, I'm here to help

Urk, eheh, I was sure that I added the link in my post. Ah well.
It's somewhat hard to make it out, but it's looking good so far.
A little note, Ice's hair doesn't protrude from the back. I don't expect anyone to get it right though as it even took me a while to get the hang of drawing it =P[/QUOTE]
Okay then, I've now corrected it.

 

[Crazy Linoone]

Ack! I've been away for a few hours and look at how much this place have grown!

Firstly, RandomTyphoon, welcome and well come! Hope you enjoy your stay here at OSland, and have a rainbow scarf.

Anyway, I'm currently supporting the story book thing completely, but, as uv (UV? Uv?) said, it might be hard due to time restraints, and someone might snag a page before another person is done drawing, so that might be a problem... If we can solve that, then we're pretty much set to go.

IDEA: We can have a collab-grouppic of sorts: one member starts out with a background and his/her/its character on it, and passes it on to another member, who adds things and him/her/itself onto the picture and passes that on to the next member, and the process repeats. We can figure out who the next artist will be by throwing the member list into a randomizer and pass the art down the list. If a member does not respond (as in, does not post) for a certain length of time or he/she/it decides that he/she/it wants to pass, he/she/it can hand the unchanged the picture to the next person in line and he/she/it can drop out or go to the end of the line if he/she/it wants. And the process repeats until we have a huge epic grouppic of awesomeness. People who draw with traditional media can draw and scan the image on, then cut and paste the image onto the epic grouppic or print out the epic grouppic and draw directly on it or whatever they feel like. Or something.

Am I making any sense at all, or is my inability to explain things properly acting up again?

Art trade month sounds pretty cool, too. And it's actually not that complicated to do, compared to all the other ideas we've had so far. We'd still need a member list though...

Now, time for crits!

@Ice: Since most of the problems have been pointed out already, I'll just attempt to point out something else I noticed: the fire looks a bit weird. I think it's because it gets darker and even turns black on the edges, which makes it seem... not very glowey. I would suggest adding a glow to the middle of the fire and making it seem brighter so it has more of a glowey, fire effect. As in, make it seem as if there's light coming from the fire and shade accordingly as well as making the fire brighter and lighter in color. I really like the background though; the blue-red contrast-thing looks pretty cool and has a nice effect.

@Kai: Love the bright colors on this piece. I think it has been pointed out already, but the cell shading is a bit awkward at some places. The Fearow's beak and wings, for example, should be shaded a bit; shade the bottom of the beak and the part of the wing right under the bones that support the wing, as in the bendy part that is on the opposite of the feathers. The part of the wing that is close to the body should be shaded a bit, too, mainly because it's on the bottom and therefore should have shade over it. Also, I think one thing you're neglecting is that things other than the pokemon itself leaves shadows, too. For example, the part of the Hypno behind the Magmar should have a bit of shading that resembles the Magmar because the light source is (as far as I can tell) is coming from the front-left, which means that the Magmar will cast a shadow on the Hypno, which is standing behind it. I really like the Nidoking though; the shading is nice, the colors are pretty and bright, and its expression is cute. The anatomy is also quite nice, too, so bonus points.

And pfff Vlad looks so adorable in the scroll-thing. His expression is <3

@Vlad: The underwater effect is awesome what are you talking about :| This picture is awesome. I love the lighting, and the tentacles look like a pain to draw. They turned out rather well, too. The only problem I see is that it's not flowy enough; since they're underwater, their hair should be more spread out and flowy, if you know what I mean.

@Kinova: Halloween grouppic MUST SEE! And it's not even too far past Halloween so you can get away with it.

Current project: Everyone, go draw a reference picture of yourself, because it might come in handy later, like when we decide to do epic group pics of doom. Go go go~

 

[ultraviolet]

...but, as uv (UV? Uv?) said...

uv is prefferable. c:

I think an important thing about handing around a group picture is that we should have some sort of standard for saving ~ because if digital images are saved again and again in different formats or filesizes they tend to degrade in quality.

 

[Crazy Linoone]

uv is prefferable. c:

I think an important thing about handing around a group picture is that we should have some sort of standard for saving ~ because if digital images are saved again and again in different formats or filesizes they tend to degrade in quality.

But but but what if it's at the beginning of the sentence? Like:

uv is eating cod.
Uv is eating cod.

Which one should I use?

About file formats: I usually save in PNG because it keeps all the pixels in place and doesn't lower the quality, and whenever I save as JPEG, the art looks horrible. PNG also doesn't take up a lot of space (I think it takes up less space than JPEG), and also supports transparency. I'm not sure about other file types though, but JPEG is a no-no. I think BMP is bigger than PNG, but since nobody saves as BMP anyway, I don't think it matters. Correct me if I'm wrong; I'm not exactly an expert in file types.