Nice one.

thank you. :)

Woot! You got it just right, She's a pretty plane Jane looks wise. You captured the combative nature though. I love it! Thank you.

I have been juggling between life's affairs and trying to get some art done. I'll post your drawing with my next batch... hopefully soon.

Plain Jane**
Also, great title.

hehe, I'm glad you approve. ^^

a curvy tigress can't be that plain, really.

also, I'm trying to nail down the best method to create the look of soft, smooth leather which shines from wearing anf caring, rather than from chemicals. I think with the next one (for ChasingRabbits) I've come closer. :)

One of the hardest things to do with pencils is replicate the texture of things. What I have done in the past was to color everything the color I wanted (get an all over wash of the medium shade), then go over and darken the shadows with more pencil, grab an eraser and lightly run it over the places where I wanted shine. It would give a shiny look but still keep a slight tint of the material.

I do something similar. first, a layer of black pencil, erasing the highlights, adding dark sepia and workign out the highlights some more, and putting a dark reddish brown over them. but I think here it looks too much like "worn" than a real highlight. ^^

I hope you don't mind. :)

I don't mind at all. I enjoy discussing such things and seeing the progress. Keep it up!

I will, as long as there are ideas. :)

Whoa, damn cool!

yeah, if only real action series would sport actresses like these. :)

That would rock, indeed.

hmm sie schaut wirklich böse. Diese nette Dame wollte ich jetzt nicht umbedingt verärgern *auf die Zähne und die Waffe schiel*
Asonsten ist der Charakter wie immer fast perfekt. Solche kleinen Details wie die Karte im Hut sind einfach was schönes :3
Mach weiter so :3

hehe, danke. :)

mach ich doch glatt! das nächste ist schon in planung. ^^

Ach und ich sage "fast" perfekt weil ich finde das es keine perfekten Bilder gibt. :P Wäre ja langweilig ein "perfektes" Bild :3

perfektion wäre auch leblos. abgesehen davon würde ich das wahrscheinlich auch nie hinkriegen... ^^

thanks for your previous comments on my work. i am hoping i can return the favour. your art is very nice. i'm surprised no reference has been used. the anatomy looks pretty good. but there are a couple of parts i could give my opinion of. i do wonder if her left leg looks a bit awkward, i only say that because the markings and shape, suggest it might be the inner thigh that is visible, when if the knee is facing forward and the toe to the ground, it should probably be the top of the thigh. it is hard to be certain though, and that might be what you've done. the little finger does look a bit thick, i wonder if an extra line could be included to separate the lower part of the finger from the hand. otherwise the hands look good, a tricky area for many artists. her markings seem very nicely done are blended nicely with the rest of the fur. snarling seems like a tough expression to pull off, i think you did pretty well, although the teeth seem somewhat sparse. i like the life and expression her visible eye has. the shine and creases etc on the clothing look very nice, perhaps more of a pvc look than leather, but it still has a realistic look, and that is a common material for such an outfit. i also rather like the simple geometric background. i assume they are just plain, minimalistic or unfinished buildings, but i think they add interest without drawing things away from the character. what are the red marks on the ground? is it dust from her movement or rocks - i only ask because the big one looks cloud-like? i'm sure the good/dynamic pose goes without saying. nice work. it catches attention.

thank you for your lengthy input! ^^ I appreciate all your thoughts!

now, let's see... you might be right about the tighs. thing is Ykoriana has no colour reference for her tigress yet (or a full-view one at that), so I had to make-do. but somethign about the shape doesn't fit, that's right. I am not used to this kind of poses, alas.

and yes, hands are tricky. took me long enough to work up the guts to make them a size that's more like the real thing. you know the saying that the hand should be able to cover the face? with animal faces I rather say, the cranium. still, I tend to filigreed hands. sometimes with thick fingers. ^^'

the markings are dark-sepia pencil on the ground orange of the fur, then I added some shadings. this blends in the pencil pigments somewhat. with experimenting one can find curious things. :)

I'm not really satisfied with the looks of the leather, mostly because of the reddish highlights. it makes it look too worn. but this is also a case of experimenting, which is what I do here. :)

I used my plastic figure of Djaruul Maras for the snarl, a 30cm bugger of an anthro tiger courtesy of Everquest Mk1. he does have not a lot of teeth; I'll look up a skeleton reference next time.

I kept the BG simple because adding all the little windows and crevices takes too much time, even if it was a comissioned work; I simply don't have the patience. ^^' unless of course, if it was intricate lacing on some piece of lingerie... then I can spend endless hours on getting the right look. XD

the red marks are supposed to represent blood, actually. someone is fleeing from her, it seems, and she was pretty close already. but not close enough...

well you jumped in with a tough pose. i think you did well. it can be hard to work these things out. and it seems the more you think about these things, the harder it is to work it out correctly in your mind. i get the impression from other artists that a fresh eye, meaning someone else looking at it who hasn't been involved with the whole process, can be better at picking out such things.

well i don't think the fingers actually look stubby exactly. just the small one could be further defined to reduce the appearance of thickness.

i don't mind the reddish lighting, it just picks up on the tones of the character. i suppose blues would be the standard shades to use. but i don't think what you have chosen makes it look worn.

oh i see, i would not have guessed blood. that might simply be because it is paler and doesn't show much reflection of light etc. but i see it now that you mention it - it's a nice touch.

a second or thitrd pair of eyes is always good, if the artist accept critics of any sort. I have met those who don't. granted, it hurts to be citicised, but such things must be swallowed down. :)


I was aiming for the faint highlights on soft leather: fuzzy outlines because of the smooth, but uneven surface. here, the roughness of paper actually helps. modern comic colourists tend to use hard highlights on anything, making a pair of jeans look as though it was shiny rubber. (not that I mind rubber, as you might have seen, but there it doesn't fit)

clogging blood becomes a dark brown. until then the surface reflects like water. I guess it's tough to make it look right on a stone surface... ^^ maybe next time. :)

just in case you wonder, I have given up on correcting, unless a customer wants it to, because usually nobody cares. but I will remember all tips and critics for next time. ^^

yes it's not worth correcting things over and over. it's almost impossible to get things perfect. being too much of a perfectionist just leads to excess stress it seems. personally i think you have the right attitude, just keep the input in mind for next time.

(my blood comment may have read backwards, which is my own fault. i mean to say the blood here is paler etc than i would have expected. just wanted to clarify).

I have found out, however, that most scanners and colour copiers have trouble with hues of red. I think someone once told me that this is due to some kind of pigmentation in money bills to prevent easy faksimiling. this means, sometimes a red, orange, or yellow can't be scanned to accomodate the original hue, especially with coloured pencils. the original red here does look a bit darker. I guess it's a compromise I can't avoid. :)
otherwise I'm happy with my scanner, it works really well for the price. I do dislike the actualized version of the printer/scanner driver, though, because HP managed to make using it a tedious task. :P

yes i've often noticed that scanners seem to struggle with reds - or even more so with bold shades of orange. i didn't know the reason behind it though.