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I try to avoid DA only because I like to show my website development skills in photo shop. I think I'll need to for the type of future I want with my talents. It may be a hobby but it can pay out some day. Always remember that and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

mr_cyberpunk wrote:I try to avoid DA only because I like to show my website development skills in photo shop. I think I'll need to for the type of future I want with my talents. It may be a hobby but it can pay out some day. Always remember that and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Yeah DA is kinda a two-sided coin or whatever. On the one side its good since its got a large well-established community for getting feedback/comments/etc. from but on the other side, that community is so large you can get pretty much buried (unless you do some 'networking' which I haven't really bothered much to do). I also didn't think much of DAs layout when I first saw it... it confused me, I wasn't sure which was their art or other people's art for awhile. Not as bad as Myspace though!
Having your own website is definitely a good idea, even if someone is on DA I reccomend to get a website of your own too if they would like to make their art into a career of any kind. Wouldn't be much good (in my opinion) to link an employer to DA, better to have your own presence removed from a community website. I mostly use DA just for personal or in-development stuff too.

Thanks so much for the positive comment too, I really appreciate the encouragement. One day I might make some money off illustrating... I kinda kept away from studying Illustration since I didn't feel I was professional enough or had a particular style and so on, so I felt it best to keep it to a hobby and use it in support of other stuff. Plus I wasn't too sure if I'd enjoy it as much if I had to do it as a constant job, might become quite a chore. But I've seen some illustration work recently and heard of the money those pieces made and felt 'hmm maybe I could...'. Although its easier said than done to find comissions of course, but at some point I might throw my work out there and see if any interest comes back and then perhaps look into doing freelance illustration odd-jobs on the side whilst doing a multimedia design job. But its still just an idea, since I'm graduating soon (hopefully) I'm at that stage of having to think of my options.


What kind of work do you do or plan to do cyberpunk?

Me.. At the present I'm in a bad way. I'm actually thinking about the Military (just went for my test yesterday.. I made it in as a soldier) so I think that may be the only option for me at the moment. I'm also thinking about Self publishing my own graphic novels over the internet for profit.

If I can make a career out of video games that'd be great but I doubt it as Australia has a crap video games industry here (actually every industry sucks here due to outsourcing to the US and China).

I'd like to open my own video game development firm if I can but I think I'll start out solo for a bit. Use my Mods and Remakes to get my name out there.

Besides I'd rather be my own boss for a change

Sorry to hear that. In the UK theres a bit of an industry but very small so not as much opportunities like America etc. both for video games and animation.

Setting up a company I imagine would be a challenge but all you need is the enthusiasm and drive to do it and I've no doubt you could. Starting out with freelancing is a good idea to get some contacts and expand your portfolio for publicity. Freelancing also allows you to develop all those other skills involved with running a business like finance management, project organisation etc. Best of luck.

Yeah Thanks man I'm looking forward to a possible military career as well as managing my own business. That'd be awesome

Good luck with your career Sai

Well Sai,

I took your advice somewhat, and bought myself some usefull reference books on drawing. I bought a guide to Manga drawing.

Very comprehensive and helpfull... I also downloaded a few tutorials focusing on anatomy (oh man you were not wrong when you said it was a complex thing to get your head around...especially the female).

Anyway, after looking things up and fiddling around I drew Nanako:





I cannot take all the credit, I referenced her pose, etc. from another image, becuase let's face it, I am still learning, but I really got the hang of it once I grasped her general figure to the point where I was able to feel comfortable with her.

I have gotten the hand of shading, hair, and clothing (folds, etc.)... but I definitely need to practise a lot more on figure and pose. Things like hands, and foreshortening.

Having lots of fun though!

-Cub. =o)

looking good cub.

Fantastic work. You're really coming along in leaps and bounds. This second work is impressive for only a second attempt and theres boatloads of improvement from your first (both are good in their own ways of course). Don't worry about using a photo reference, alot of people do, or they use mannequins or posing software etc. Another method for figuring out a pose is to just sketch out quick 'advanced' stick people with circles and lines for the spine, legs and arms and so on to figure out the curves and angles.
http://www.portrait-artist.org/misc/ges ... wings.html
http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.3/3.3page ... awing.html

But great artwork, very cute and nice job on the clothes. Hands and foreshortening/perspective are some of the toughest things to get to grips with when drawing. For hands, best to just look at your own hand in a mirror or something with the desired pose or use lines/circles (like a skeleton, with the circles being the joints and the lines being the bones). Overall though I don't think you did too bad. The hand on the left looks slightly small however and the right arm a little too thin. But these are just nitpicks.

As an aside this site might be useful too:
http://www.mangatutorials.com/

Thanks guys...

You're not wrong about foreshortening... I tried one last night and struggled badly!

I agree about sketching out poses yourself... the Manga book I bought explains the best way to do that, so I might try it for my next one.

Also, it's a great idea about having a mirror for hands and stuff. I am on my way out to buy one! (or steal one, whichever comes first).

-Cub. =o)

Here is my second attempt at foreshortening... I did that structuring first as you said, so this one I did without referencing any images at all, just going off the top of my head... although I did reference my own hand, but the arm and the pose were made up...




It still needs work and more practise, and I did not bother perfecting the lower part of the figure. Is it on thr right track... I think the hand may be a bit tooooo big.

-Cub. =o)

Perspective etc. is always an ongoing battle. Nice that you're getting stuck in with the challenge though. I need to practice more myself in doing difficult poses with weird perspectives.

I think the hand looks fine actually, if I were to nitpick, maybe the two extended fingers could be made a smidgeon shorter but I think it looks great. Nice job!
For me I think the arm may need to be shorter. When somethings angles towards or away from the viewer you usually see less of the arm. Kind like if you think about a car thats facing to the side/straight horizontally you're able to see the entrie strecth of the car, whereas if its angled towards you, the side of the car appears skewed/shorter, because the front is obstructing the view aswell as the angle coming into play. With a hand arm I guess if its towards the viewer (if that was your intention?) the hand would obstruct some and there'd be less of a length to the arm, as if squashed But I can't make many suggestions, I have trouble with it too Forehsortening is tricky because its like drawing an eye illusion and subconciously I bet our minds want to 'fix' things.
Googled this, looks helpful:
http://community.livejournal.com/glockart/25477.html