yeeaaaaghz, good to ee you up and rollin again
The armor looks great, im digging the thorns
The hand could use some mork though, specially cause its stickig more to the front, towards you so i actually should be bigger.
But i know how hatefull hands are, if i dont need to draw them myself, i rather just NOT draw them XD

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Booya Baby !

Nice idea for an image, with some cool little details.

But you contacted me to give you some advice, so thats what I will do.

Theres an little phrase thats often used in Artist Circles that goes, 'You can't polish a Turd'.
Its a harsh little phrase, but its one to bare in mind, and it means basically that if you dont get the basics right, then no matter what deatils you put in or how hard you work on the image later on, it will still look poor.

What im getting at here is that your Proportion and Anatomy is off.
The right hand is too small, the body is too squashed, and too chunky.
Im not sure how you draw, or how you build up an image, but you need to get your proportion right first, and a lot of artists use stick figures for this.
For example, your groin is half way up your body, most bodys are around 7 or 8 heads high etc etc.
Then, you draw the muscles on top of your stick figure to get them right, this gives your figure mass and alows you to see how the clothes, or in that case, Armour will fit, then you draw on the Armour, rubbing out and redrawing as you go.

You have some good ideas but you really need to work on your basics. I know you told me you have done figure drawing and stuff, but I can see that you really need to study this stuff some more. Get yourself some Anatomy for the Artist books and work from them. Draw from life, dont copy from other artists work, including mine or any other Pro's, as you will make the same mistakes they have, and more of your own. (Yes, I make mistakes, lots of them)

And remember you always have a model to reference, as long as you have a mirror/digital Camera you can use your own body as reference.

Also, if you know your weak in an area, like hands, then concentrate on it, dont ignor it. Draw your own hand over and over in lots of different poses. Learn how to construct it on the page and make your weakness a strength.

Hope you dont think im being nasty, because im not, im just being realistic and to the point.
Hope it helps.
Keep drawing!

Since I spent nearly 20 mins replaying to this before and my internet cut out and didn't post it, I will try to make this a little shorter and to the point.

I don't take anything you say in a bad way, a cratique is what it is and is used to give areas of improvement nothing more nothing less. And your also right, mentioning these things has pointed out to me what I have forgotten when I was in college, the things we use to do. Basically everything you mention I have done from 11th - college but had forgotten to incorperate it here. Since I have not drawn in 2 years I can see I need to brush up alot. I still have all my anatomy books and whatnot, just gotta dig them out. I don''t have my digy cammera anymore, but I forgot about the mirror trick

As for coppying images or using other work for ideas/referances. I figured this would be a good and fast test to mesure where I am and what things I need to work on again. Ever sine i was young, I tought myself how to draw so one bad habbit I have been trying to break myself from is just simply copying other's work. It's how I learned how to draw, I never had formal teaching on it till i was in 12th grade. I'm sure you can imagine the difficulties I have. I have tons of ideas, just hard to get them down. They never seem to come out right unless I use somone else's work for a pose or add my own elements to it. It is something I have been working on and I have been trying to lean myself off it by jus using poses off other images and making entirely new art as you may see in my other work. Which reminds me of something a college teacher told me once:

" Art is art, there are many references and the best are other people's art. A good artist can make his own ideas; a sucessful artist can copy/steel someone else's idea and make it thier own, but better. Most of the art you see today is merly a revised, regurgitated, copy of something somone else already did." I don't live by this but there is some truth behind it.

In any case, thanks for your honesty, I hate more then anything when I don't get full cratiques. If I wanted to be praised for my art I would show it off to people who can't draw and know nothing about the dimensions of it all. so here I look to prosper as much as I can. I do feel a little embarrased that I have forgotten so much in 2 years, but having somone point out just a few thngs has brought back alot to me already.

In conclussion, I am going to study the anatomy and brush up on many things, I'll post some of my scraps so you can see my life drawing is actually very good. Alot better then anything else I do. I love forshortening = ) After I do this for a while I will go back and rework this pic and repost it. Thanks again for everything ANARKYMAN



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I sit here pondering weather my loneliness will ever betray me. My wounds etch deeper into my skin. My sorrowful crystal lake is blood-stained. I look into a mirror showing my past; nothing but razor blades. Another blood drop trickles down into the lake

just as said, your anatomy is the biggest problem, but since it's still in pencil, it can be fixed. I see the leaning you mentioned as a good thing actually, it does add realism to the fact that he's carrying a heavy weapon with one hand.

his right arm however bothers me a bit. the dimensions of it are fine, but his hand needs some work. a really effective method I use for hands is drawing out the individual joints and depending on the intricacy of the pose, drawing out the finger joints as well. one major joint for the wrist, and three joints for all the fingers at the points in which they bend, except for the thumb and pinky since they are small enough to only need two joints of motion even though the pinky has three. once you lay out the positioning of each individual joint of every finger, you can flesh it out for a surprisingly accurate depiction of the hand just as you wanted it.

The feet also need to be rotated slightly. in order to add balance to the pose his left foot needs to be rotated about 15 degrees to his right, our left. and his right foot about 40 degrees to his left, our right. the simple rotation of the foot will complement the angle of his waist, and the angle at which we view him to show he has solid footing while carrying this weapon.

all of the proportions aside you have an awesome concept here bro. the details are very nicely done, particularly on the ax. the helmet is amazing and I really like the concept of having the skull infused with the shoulder pad, that's different. I honestly can't draw armor for the life of me, so I'm impressed. take advantage of the fact that it's still in pencil, fix the anatomy issues and you'll be on your way to a masterpiece in no time.

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In the darkest of times, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength.