kari's mystery lineart challenge!! (prize for winning)

[Chocofreak13]

so the other day i thought to myself, "i should hold a contest! and why not with the cover for the comic? =D"
so i will include a lineart pic. your job is to color manami, ryuu and shou! (please read rules, or else you fail worse tham me. :3 and i'd have put this in earlier, but this place likes to eat my text, so manami's the girl, ryuu's the one on the right with the fancy patterened hat, and shou's the one with the nothingness stare.)

you can enter in 1 or both catagories! (sorry if i spelling fail.)

~creativity contest~
*the point of this one is to get as weird with the coloring as possible!
*you aren't allowed to edit the lineart, sorry. it's a tad confusing, but this means no mustaches/beards/wings/tails/4th arms/ect. you can, however, put in birthmarks/spots/leopard print/ect.
*as this is about creativity, don't copy others!! don't take someone's, edit the colors, and claim you did it. and go ahead and make the shadows blue and the background black! i don't care! wow me! put em' in space!
*as this is once again about creativity, you need not pay attention to the hints that go with the actuality contest.

~actuality contest~
*the object of this contest is to get it as close to the original coloring without going over. (sorry, price is right joke there ^_^;)
*i will provide hints, and you take those hints and try to color the pic like i was going to anyway!
*if your pic has shadow and shine, good for you, but if someone gets it closer with just flat colors, i will favor them.


THERE ARE FABULOUS PRIZES FOR WINNING! INCLUDING A SPECIAL SECRET PRIZE I WILL NEED TO MAIL TO YOU IF YOU WIN! SO COME PLAY! IT'S A FREE EXCUSE TO COLOR LIKE A LITTLE KID!

SPEAKING OF WHICH i use colored pencils for most of my art, but you can use any medium you'd like. it will not affect judging in any way.

HINTS ARE NEXT, HERE'S THE LINEART!
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i98/Chocofreak13/cover1.jpg

THIS ART IS COPYRIGHT OF KARI. IF I FIND OUT YOU TOOK IT I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN ANIMAL STYLE AND HAVE SOME FUN. HAVE FUN WITH THIS PLEASE.

Added after 3 minutes:

~~hints~~
-do you like candy? i do! runts are nice once in awhile, and the strawberry ones are my favorite. in fact, they're pretty much the same color as manami's hair....

-speaking of hair, shou's is a nice color. very common. also the same color as one of the 3 base flavors of ice cream. (i'll give you a hint: vanilla, strawberry, and....). Ryuu's hair is the darkest, and you can't really get darker than his hair color! xD

-shou's outfit is reminecient of the punk era of the 80's. a lovely time, i think. punks just LOVE ryuu's hair color for clothing, as well as jean vests....

-hmm, normally i go for a cool color sceme, but it seems i did just the opposite for manami. a lovely saffron color, her kimono is. and the top underneath is a classic chinese dragon color, like fire and cherries. the obi is also like cherries, but like the blossom, not the fruit. the details of her kimono and shirt....the piping on the shirt is a classic combo with red silk, a precious metal that i hate to wear, that the aztecs prized, that they sing about on the 5th step of "the 12 days of christmas". the sleeve detail contrasts weirdly, they are the same color as a rainy gloomy day. (i love that weather! oh btw, the kimono piping matches the green on ryuu's hat.)

-Ryuu's outfit is a bit plain compared to the others, i think. (of course, no one can upstage manami right now. xD) mind you his hat is pretty flamboyant. i guess that's where all the fancy went! paris hilton loves extra extra small blue jeans. take those and wash them a whole bunch (NOT with cheer or woolite though), and you get the color of ryuu's shirt. his pants? eh, i don't care. make em' the same color as manami's, maybe a bit lighter.

-ryuu's hat is so complex it needs it's own tab! it's like a fruit salad! we have a pinapple base, with a circle on top the same color as the skin of a ripe mango. in that circle is another circle the same color as, once again, his shirt. (man, this boy loves to match, doesn't he? he's not as fruity as his hat, though, judging from that massive blush over manami.) it also has bars of limepeel on there (tasty). the little pearls near the bottom are the color of the inside of a guava, while the bar just below those (the bottom rim of the hat) are like the mango again. yummy! (wish i could eat guava, but not after that guava nectar incident.....xP )

-speaking of hats, i will never join the military. but i love their fashon sense. shou's hat is pretty much the color of army fatgues, and his pants....same color.

-ryuu's shoes (the only one's you can see) are the same color as shou's hair.

-i should bring up the eyes. Ryuu's are pretty much the same color as his shirt. shou's eyes don't really have a color, color them if you wish, though that will detract from accuracy. manami's eyes are the opposite of her hair (and if you're dense, lazy, or just don't know about complimentary colors, EMERALD)

[CaptBrenden]

I cant read that, its machine code!

Not to complain much or anything.. but that line art would be rather difficult to color as is. I would saggest producing an inked touched up version.

Also, doesnt it seem a bit weird to have word bubbles on a cover?

Least its not as bad as kotaros request/contest http://ostan-collections.net/topic-839.html

[Chocofreak13]

i knew i was gonna be told to shut up.

it's my cover, if i wanna put bubbles on it i will! xP besides, i felt like putting that somewhere.

ik it's cluttered! just go with it! and btw, THAT IS F-ING INKED! I BOUGHT A SHARPIE LAST NIGHT JUST SO I COULD PROPERLY INK IT! sorry for yelling. haven't been have good times lately. nothing's good enough for anyone.

oh, and, if you're gonna complain, just don't do it. if you don't want the fabulous custom mystery prize, well then....

Added after 52 seconds:

oh, kotaro's challenge? i'm taking that, i just have to wait till my friend contracts me to paint the walls.

Added after 8 minutes:

how touched up do you want it?? i printed it and it came out fine.

[Aurora Borealis]

This looks like a really interesting and properly set-up challenge! Okay, I will participate!

[CaptBrenden]

"i knew i was gonna be told to shut up.

it's my cover, if i wanna put bubbles on it i will! xP besides, i felt like putting that somewhere.

ik it's cluttered! just go with it! and btw, THAT IS F-ING INKED! I BOUGHT A SHARPIE LAST NIGHT JUST SO I COULD PROPERLY INK IT! sorry for yelling. haven't been have good times lately. nothing's good enough for anyone.

oh, and, if you're gonna complain, just don't do it. if you don't want the fabulous custom mystery prize, well then....  

I dont recalling telling you to shut up or any such thing. I was making valid points I felt needed to be addressed for your contest.  As an aspiring artist let me give you a word of advice... critique, like it or not, is your best tool for improvement. Dont get overly sensitive to what people say about it, learn from it.  Even if the person is a jerk about how they said it (and i really dont feel like I was) you still might be able to learn something.

Now, back to the contest. When I said inked, I should have specified more along the lines of digitaly inked. The crisper the better. Also, for most artists, larger file sizes are required. an example:
http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/1428/miauqy5.png
I provided this to a friend and a fellow forum member Toki so that she could color it. There is nothing but white and black on it, No grey, no binding shadow from where you scanned your sketch book, etc.  Crisp and clear and in high resolution.

oh, and I would saggest you take a closer look at what Kotaro is wanting.. he wants giantess pictures, its sort of a fetish of sorts.  Giant girls, like godzilla big, usually potrayed in ecchi ways.  He is asking pictures of giant OS tans in cities for his own personal interest..

for example: http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q226/OtakuMask/Giantess/RozenGTS.jpg

Its not just a fan art contest, its playing to a persons personal preferences and interests.

[Chocofreak13]

aurora: thank you! i guarantee you'll like the prize.

capt. : i used to respect you.
as for critics, ik, and i'm not being sensitive, i've just been having craptastic times lately, and as for inking, some of us don't have the time or luxuries to digitally color. as for file size, this was meant to be PRINTED AND COLORED, so file size doesn't seem to matter much, and i don't have a clue what you meant by that anyway. i didn't really give much consideration to cleaning it up, because 1. it was 11 at night, so there wasn't much time, and 2. i figure one could color over it.

so like i said, DO IT IF YOU WANT. otherwise, i can't help you. also, if you wanna continue this debate, pm.

Added after 56 seconds:

oh and i didn't know about kotaro's ecchi theme. i just wanted to do big os tans. i'm still gonna post it.

[Tsubashi]

Woah, woah. Choco-san, please. I am sorry you feel defensively about this, but I know Captain-sama is a good person and is only trying to help. She is an amazing artist and was merely querying as to more familiar methods. Nothing to yell about. Please calm down. ^.^'

[NejinOniwa]

Drinks all around, on me!


Wait. Wrong thread. Sorry.


Seriously though, calm down, dude. Just because someone criticizes your work doesn't mean they hate you. Like Linus Torvalds, for example. When he says something is bad in the linux code, people LISTEN. Even if it sounds rude, they know it's important deep down.
And so should you. Captain's a more experienced artist than you are, so you should take some advice when it's available. It doesn't often come freely, you know, and advice isn't available by torrents!


And the fact that my QWERTY is more lost when I've been on vacation than when I'm drunk as an ass is either reassuring or confusing...decide for me, I barely know left from right as it is now. >_>  @_@

[Chocofreak13]

i know!! jeez.....
i don't have the time to digitally color! and i saw it, printed it, and it's not that bad. you can color over it >_>;

i'm sorry i got upset. i just suck as an artist. i should just give it up.

well, since aurora-domo's the only one participating, i guess aurora-domo wins. :3 (sorry for not using pronouns, i don't really know anyone. hell, capitan-san uses brendan as part of her name, so i thought she was male. ._.)

i suck, and don't belong here. bye.

Added after 2 minutes:

oh almost forgot, aurora-domo, email me an address sou i can give you teh prize. :3

babydoll5939@yahoo.com

mail me here!

[Alex S]

At least you can draw full people, I can't even get to that.  I know how frustrating it can be to want to draw something, but unable to do it properly by yourself, and unable to explain it to someone who could.

And, it's bad for your self esteem to say that you suck.  You may be new here, as am I, but you will probably become a productive member of this community.

[Aurora Borealis]

It's sad that I won by default though. I was really hoping for lots of participation

[CaptBrenden]

Gah, you totally missed the point of the "learn from critique" speal. It doesnt matter who says what or how. Listen to what they say, pick out the good throw out the bad and LEARN. It doenst matter what anyone thinks about your drawing as long as you enjoy doing it. Ever one of our exeptional experienced artist here were once in your shoes. I still have drawings saved I could post to prove it.  The most important thing is never giving up.

BTW, Brenden is a family name. Its scottish. In military people are normaly called by their rank and last name..

[VonDaab]

i should just give it up.

No. Just, no.
That would be the stupidiest thing to do.
Keep on drawing, but please, dont make a such a fuss of a stickfigure youve drawn.

I'm pretty sure everyone here has been very bad at drawing in the beginning. But these people are open minded who listen to others opinions, are able to analyze the problems and make conclusions of how to improve.
Art is a long journey, with no shortcuts. You can do it alone, but a couple of helping hands is always good. Of course, to first find these people that are willing to help might be very troublesome, and might be that some people are more or less willing to help and share their opinions.
It's just a part of the humanity thought, you cannot escape that.

Main point with this is. Listen. Analyze. Draw. Analyze it again.
Be self critiq to some amount. When you draw, take a break sometimes and look at what you've done and ask yourself: "is this good?" "how can I do it better?". Changes dont happen instantly, but if you take note of the problems and slowly work on them. At some point you will notice that you did a certain thing correctly, which is good as you can then move on to the next problem.

There are people who's been drawing for several years, and still are unhappy with their result. This doesnt mean that they would stop incase of sudden "bad words" by people, no.
No, they keep on drawing because they know how to analyze peoples opinions and pick out of it the useful information and apply to their artwork.
Ignorance is one way to survive a volley of critique, but that means that there is no analysing, therefore the artists doesnt get any real feedback and doesnt know how to improve. Sadly, there are some prime examples of such kind of people. (not on this forum though)


Still.... Listen to what people have to say, and analyze it before launching an anger counterattack. These people only want to help budding artists, it's a rare phenomenom on the internet nowadays, so do respect it.

[Chocofreak13]

~^_^~

the only reason i got upset (and still feel embarrassed/ashamed/sad/alone/isolated/ect.) is because i didn't (and still don't) understand what exactly it is i need to do. ok, so maybe i should have ripped it out of the sketchbook (i just hate doing that!) and maybe i should have gone over it with the sharpie better. but i can't do digital coloring! it's not time-efficient! and i have no idea what file size has to do with anything!

i'm defensive because (well, actually, i suck at explaining things. i usually use songs to help out.) well, "Me against the world" by Simple Plan sums it up pretty well. i've wanted to be an artist ever since i could remember. been drawing longer. first anime at 5, tried to imitate that style till i got my first "how to draw manga" book in 5th grade (10 or 11 by that time).
i've been doing anime style for about 5-6 years now. i've improved since the beginning, definitely, but i'm never good enough. i lack a self esteem, so by my standard, everything i do sucks. i've never had the money to get anything expensive or fancy, no copics, no programs, no tablets. i have gimp but i don't use it well, since i never got much photoshop experience. (i was in a class that basically revolved around it, but there was a computer shortage and since i had no friends i just sat in the corner the entire time i was there.)

alex-san: i know that frusteration! i hate it! xD i thought up many a drawing or music video but i can't share my vision with others ;_;
but in terms of self esteem, i don't have one! mine died years ago! xD so when i say i suck, it's because my warped programming says everything i do sucks. :3

aurora-dono: well......no one else is participating.... =P

vondabb-san: i've never taken criticism well, because, well, i guess it's a combination of factors....my early years, all the flak i get from everyone now, friends are foes and such where i come from. loyalty doesn't really exist anymore. i don't have the friends i used to.
tank-you. :3

oh, and capt.-san, sorry for yelling. but i still don't understand what it is i did wrong besides draw badly.



it's really too bad! this topic seems to have failed. :[

[CaptBrenden]

Well your in luck, its Ney Years.

Nows the time to make a resolution to change yourself. Time to stop caring what people say about your work and just enjoy doing it.  Realize what other people think doesnt matter as much as what you think.  Realize your only human and you can never be perfect, and then learn to be happy with who your are. Once you do that you and worry about improving your art.  

Now, back to to the topic.  I never once said anything at all along the lines of you having drawn badly. No even a hint of it.  

My isses:  [if your not taking the advice about no getting defensive/upset, you should probobly stop reading now]

Your on a website with digital artists.  To say "i use colored pencils for most of my art, but you can use any medium you'd like. it will not affect judging in any way." would imply that someone could "color" it any way they like. For most digital artists that would be the medium that we use normaly.  For me, doing it in tone, for Von Daab ms paint or photoshop, for Aruora or C-Chan is he was still around, Vector.  Really, no where was it mentioned that the intention was for people to print and use physical medium.  

My requests for a hi-rez Digitaly Inked version was to aid us digital artist incase we wanted to participate.  When you decide to start dabbling in the digital medium youll relize that its far easier to work with filles of much larger dimentions.  I for one work at 1200 dpi, Im guess ing you scanned that at about 150 dpi.

OH, while talking about the scanning. Right now one of the issues is that there is "binder shadow" which is relitivly hard to deal with. The best tip, which wont help you this time, is to do drawings you want to scan on seperate peices of paper. Sketch books are good, but they are really ment for sketching, not for finished or important artworks. If you look in my sketch books where are a couple of completed pictures where I got carried away, but most are just rough sketches. Its where you "doodle." But for now, i would saggest you try scanning it again, upping the DPI and pushing down on the drawing while it scans, this will help flatten the binding and remove most of the shadow. It may not work completely because you drew pretty close to the binding, but like I said, that cant be helped now.

The next issue I have is still the word bubbles.  Again, ignore me if you like em, its your perogitive.  As a hopeful comic artist I have studied  into the subject somewhat.  There are guidelines how things are done. Break them at your choosing, but most are there for a reason.  Covers, like the one you present to us for color, dont typicly have word bubbles. The cover is where do usually put the most effort into producing eye catching artwork that makes the person want to read the comic. Word bubbles are used to help move the story along with dialoge durring the actual comic, but on the cover there isnt any story to move along.

[end critique stuffs]

Now, if your actually interested in improving yourself, you have a few artists on this website that are more then willing to help you along and point you in the right direction.  You need but ask.