Basic Fantasy RPG Forums

Let me know your thoughts, if this is the right style, or even good enough quality wise.

You won't hurt my feelings if it's not satisfactory.




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I am not one to pass judgement on whether this is up to snuff or not. I am simply a guy who draws for a living (so much so that I might actually have to file taxes as an Artist this year, go me~).

Overall, I like what you are going for, it has a very nice retro vibe. That being said, I have a few things I'd like to point out.

MSPaint .jpg format is the devil. All those extra pixels added are called Dithering and ruin everything they touch.

Draw larger. I do not know the size of pen/brush/whatever you used to draw it, nor do I know the size of paper/canvas/digital canvas you worked on. Go Larger. Most of my art is done on A4 scaled pages before cropping at 256 dpi (about 3000 x 2000 pixels), I know some artists with stronger hardware to go even larger.

For this specific piece, thinner lines on the body and thicker lines on the wings. When you change line weight there should be obvious reasons, as it stands it looks like someone glues dragonfly wings on an elf.

I would also recommend redrawing this one with a slight angle to the wings and/or more wings. Just 2 on gossamer like that doesn't scream Pixie to me.

I'll agree with Steveman's assessment. It's good stuff, though... I want to see more of your work.

Format-wise, I need 300dpi images. 100% quality JPG is okay, PNG is better. When you scan, please, do NOT use "black and white," use "grayscale" instead. Heck, scan in color, that's better than black and white. 300dpi will make images too large to post here, but exactly what I need for printing; you can post a resized image, but when you send it to me, I need the big one.

I agree with the others, that the scanning and line weights is the issue more so than the artistry otherwise.

Now, in the manner of opinion (which everyone has one, like other things)...
Perhaps it is just a fluke that you drew this one image facing the reader as it is, but generally it is better to have the subject doing something or otherwise standing in a way that is not a camera-pose. One pic is fine, but if all your drawings are in the same perspective it would look silly quickly. They could be doing just about anything other than 'standing for a portrait to be drawn'.

the image is a scaled down one for forum posting, and the original is not jpg format, so no worries there.

the line thickness variance is intentional, as I didn't know how else to make the wings seem slight and see through in a two color image, any suggestions regarding that would be appreciated.

that being said the image being two color was intentional as well, as I thought that was the oldschool way, but that may be too old school.

lastly him facing the reader head on and posing as if to say ''this is what I look like big guy'' and breaking the fourth wall was intentionally comedic, but it just come across as unintentionally bad.

thanks for all the help.

When you draw a picture with pen or pencil on paper, it isn't black and white, not in the same sense as computer images. Scanning such a drawing in black and white means that, for every dot that is scanned, the possible colors are BLACK or WHITE. This leads to the edges of the lines looking harsh and jagged.

Always use grayscale to scan pen or pencil drawings. It will look so much better that way.

I understand the line thickness bit, though, and I'm cool with it. It's a good piece. Had you submitted it directly to me, I'd have converted to grays, done a very fine blur on it to soften the rough line edges, and used it that way without commenting. It's plenty good enough.

I've discovered over the years that, the longer I work with an artist, the better his work gets. Artists are their own toughest critics, most of the time. I've found that if I praise the good stuff, and say nothing about the bad, that works pretty well and doesn't ruffle the artist's feathers.

Solomoriah wrote:When you draw a picture with pen or pencil on paper, it isn't black and white, not in the same sense as computer images. Scanning such a drawing in black and white means that, for every dot that is scanned, the possible colors are BLACK or WHITE. This leads to the edges of the lines looking harsh and jagged.

Yup, I know, I scanned it in greyscale and intentionally lowered it to two colors to mimic white box DND art style, which is too old school to fit in with the other art in the pdf, I should of known that, having looked at the other art in the pdf.

I'll do some tweaks and repost.

Comments, tips, concerns welcome.



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Y'know, I like the first one better. The wings on the later one just don't work as well for me. The body lines do look better, less harsh than the first one.

How about this version? I just cleaned up the gray pixels left behind by the JPEG conversion. Turns out your original is actually in grayscale, so it didn't need much help. Or at least, your web upload is grayscale.

I think the wings need a soft shading just to indicate that they are translucent, not just clear.