My First Cartoony Profile Picture

Hey Devs! I have been practicing how to make digital art for around 2 weeks now.

This is currently my first cartoony profile picture that I made.

I hope you like my work, Leave an feedback if you have any suggestion!

7 Likes

creepy stare tho. the shine isnt really shining, and the image qualities do not match and there are also lots of tiny imperfections

Thank you for your feedback, I will keep improving!

Hey! It’s very brave of you to post your art online, and braver to ask for feedback.

Bear with me, this post might be a little long.

Critique:

Linework is off. I can tell where you used the digital tools for straight lines, and that you can’t draw straight lines with your arm.

Shadows: Shadows don’t fall like that. But the problem with wrong shadowing is the lack of understanding of form. Items you draw are not flat. You’re using colors (shades) to “mimic” reality. To grasp this concept, you really need to understand 3d space on paper.

Advice:

2D art is not like blender/modelling. You have to draw … every. single. thing. (Texture, shadows, form, EVERYTHING.) Whereas digital software for modelling does it for you. As someone who’s starting out in digital art, it can be really overwhelming with all the cool options of background, effects, shiny stuff, colors, etc.

The advice I give to beginner artists is this: screw all those, and go straight into fundamentals. For art, these are: composition, color, composition, value, form, linework, perspective.

You’re going to be drawing lines. On paper. You’re going to be drawing 500 boxes. Everyday. You’re going to be staring at an image of a leaf - and trying to recreate every detail with a black felt pen. But that’s art. That’s the fundamentals. Without those, you cannot create good drawings.

I suggest “DrawABox” (not sponsored) for beginners. Completely free, great community. I personally enjoy Sycra’s method to learning how to draw, but he doesn’t cover the fundamentals. And please keep going.

1 Like

Yeah I did hear people recommending drawabox, but I’ve never tried it, is it actually worth the time for a beginner to go through and learn? Also, it is completely free or is it one of those “free but you gotta subscribe to get rid of ads, or free but only for a limited amount of time a day” kind of things. Anyhow that was some great advice you gave them, I’m sure that’s what the original poster wanted.

It’s completely free.

Of course, there is a patreon option, where they “mark” your work as you go along each chapter. However, there’s really no need for that - there are redditors and members on the discord channel who give you more than enough feedback (i’d say, even more constant, engaging feedback) than the official markers.

I’m currently going through it, and am on “textures”. It’s been 4 months + since my journey, and I daresay it’s helped me a lot. Of course, it’s not a miracle course. It’s more for independent learners who want a organised, fixed way to learn. Something like a 2-way textbook, rather than a school.

I find myself learning from multiple sources along the way, and am currently subsidising my learning with Andrew Loomis’s books.