Doing it the hard way 2
 

k I finished another 1 of my drawings this morning and it turned out better than I had expected, I tried something different ;)

this is the original

This time I took the advice from chruser from my last post with the devil and tried something completely different with coloring.

Looks better, but I still see some anatomical problems at a first glance.

The deltoid muscle seems too flat, and doesn't extend down far enough. It should extend down just about to the same level as the bottom of the chest (Pectoralis Major). It looks more like you put the elbow level there, although a little below it. The elbow level needs to go down further.

Remember the good 8-head thumb rule for proportions for the male, from top to bottom, measured in head units:

1: Head
2: Bottom of chest
3: Navel, elbow level.
4: Middle of pelvis.
6: Bottom of knees
8: Bottom of feet

Furthermore, the nipple positioning is off, both three-dimensionally and anatomically. For such a protruding chest, they look off. The nose has been thrown a bit off in the coloured version as well, as it looks more like a frontal view than a side view. The shaft of the sword got a bit malshaped as well, as you added significant volume to the top of its blade parrying hand defense thing, whatever it's called, without moving the shaft significantly. It kind of looks like the sword shaft has been placed to the side of the actual sword, not in the center as the lineart shows.

Keep practicing, you're improving greatly!

Extending on Chruser's anatomical advices, it's always good to have references. I myself have bought 2 books so far just on human anatomy. Also a good idea to draw in shapes, draw the entire character in sketch first and then detail bit by bit. Alot of beginners draw in details, (usually eyes first) and end up with a very dis-porportioned character.

I have read some books about anatomy too. The reason for both of the drawings (the one in the other thread) and my next piece as well I think (cant really remember it :S) to be not anatomically correct is because I had no intention to do so.

80% of the time when I'm drawing I start to draw a weird shape or form and see how I can go from there. I dont use any reference other than what's in my head. With the demon I started on what later became a wing and with this fella I started with the belts around his chest.

I decided that I would just focus on coloring, since this is fairly new to me. I didnt think coloring could be this much fun tough :D. I'll definatly colour other drawings I may have in the future.

I still have 1 drawing which I had photographed, after I'm finished with that 1 (tomorrow or the day after) I'll start to draw some anatomically correct people ;)

A word of advice about colouring, it's really about understanding values. If you have good values in your image (values are what you see when you look at grayscaled images), then it almost doesn't matter what colours you use. Just blooping on colour does teach you things and might be a good approach, but eventually, you will notice that good images are usually separated into 4-5 "main" values.

As for anatomy, be sure to practice understanding and especially proportion rather than copying images to "think" you've gotten it right. Chances are you haven't, and even so, you may forget it soon.

You can always get some of the free Loomis books. The figure drawing one is great:

http://www.saveloomis.org

Yeah I know what you mean, altough I dont draw anatomically correct figures alot, I still draw them sometimes because I know I will forget if I dont (happened before :p).

I've read those loomis books before but it was a while back and altough I already have this book about anatomy by Christopher Hart (just really basic stuff in there) I think I'm just going to read those loomis things again sometime soon cause there's alot of usefull stuff in there.

As weird as it may sound, that barbarian is the first piece I've fully coloured in all the time I've been drawing (other than crayon, pencils and stuff when I was a kid),also the devil doesnt count since that's just using a filter and 3 different colours :p For some reason I just hated colouring :s, untill now :D

The reason I tried colouring like that is because of this http://www.3dluvr.com/content/article/49
I read that about a month ago and decided I really want to be able to do that too. I know I can, I just need some practice ;)