Hehe, I agree with DBA about the conccept. I think it's creative :). I especially like that lil puddle of water that the guy is standing in though. You really captured that 'wet' look there and I love looking at it. The butterflies are wishing they were as cool as him ;).

Thanks Deino :)

I love her eye! Great drawing.

Thanks Roytje :)

Put me in the fan column, too Deino. The first impression was of one of those grotesque deep-see dwellers. Really really good.

Fantastic fish/face. Nice description, too.

That's awesome. I would love to be able to create creatures like this.

I love this he is so cute!!!

Can you draw him to life and put him in my bedroom?

It's beautifully done for sure...but he's not very attractive.

Modifying angles, lighting, or the original 3D form of the reference is the kind of stuff I'd like to ultimately do when using references. Just anything that demands the 3D form is understood so that it could be used to produce other 3D forms is what would benefit me most. I tend to be more 2D-oriented when copying photos regardless of whether I'm using measuring devices or just freehanding, and that's useful for copying 2D images, but not for inventing 3D ones. I tend to ask questions like, "what's the 2D shape of this highlight? How does it relate vertically and horizontally to this other mark?" Rather than, "what's the 3D form of this figure"? If I understood the 3D form, then I could invent my own highlights without using the precise shapes in the photograph.

I pretty much knew this picture wasn't what I should have been doing when I started on it based on my goals, regardless of the grid (though the grid made it that much worse). I set out only to draw the reference as accurately as possible and nothing more. In that sense, it's one of my biggest failures since that's the last thing I want to be doing in the future as I progress. I didn't even try to experiment with painterly techniques - I was trying to be as unpainterly as possible in this one so that it would look just like a photo. Generally I get the most comments about the painterly aspects of my works when working from photos, but this time I really wanted to try not being painterly (I tend to be painterly for economical purposes, not intentionally). I didn't even really achieve the photorealism I intended to achieve despite the use of the grid for the line drawing, so I didn't even succeed in that respect. While it's completely against my personal goals, I still admire the artists on here who can make their paintings look just like a photograph. I was hoping to achieve it here, but I think I deviated too much in the shading and still relied too much on lines which gave that sort of cartoony effect in places.

omg biggest posts ever. great pic and i've been a victim of the grid in the past. when the masters of the past were working on frescoes - they couldn't draw straight from life, so they did their preliminary drawing and they would grid that whole wall up before doing some of the greatest paintings ever made, theres no shame :):)

Mmm... (damn you essay writters.)

I thought this was a fan. What DBA said Miss D. I knew it when I saw your stuff on youdraw and it goes here. Oh, gushy gushy. XD

I like your freeform tiger on there Donna. Fun colors and stuff.

thank you Sweetcell and poppa. Free is fun!

Oh very good. I thought it was his too. That is a fine compliment to him. Maybe he told a bawdy joke to a nun.... my bad haha

just got the urge to try one for myself, haha, but it's not nearly as well developed or good as any of his.

lololol, Cindy He's kinda cute

very beautiful axil, i preferd it at the point with the eye, nice animation to watch

It stopped a quater through, but it was spectacular nonetheless.

I love this...animation very cool.

vibrant, beautiful little painting. i've always thought the three colors of bell peppers sitting together were so pleasing, lots of times i cook with all three because it makes the food pretty

yummmmy! wonderfully real!

Thank you for your comments