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Taikosweb — Pearl fishing
Published: 2005-03-18 04:46:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 512; Favourites: 4; Downloads: 72
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Description
This is a pencil lineart for a work in process. This is my first couple! until now all I have is single characters. It took me a fair amount of time to get it the way I wanted it. I had the boy sketch done elsewhere but it was full of anatomical flaws so I re-did it using my anatomy ref book for the sake of practice, so I am pretty sure he is fairly anatomically correct... And all of the sudden, his face looked so sweet and sort of longing.... that I thought of adding the mermaid. That was my undoing, because I could not make her fit in a graceful pose without too much contorsion and leaving a lot of blank space, and what the heck, I have no "mermaid anatomy for the artist" book.Even before I uploaded this, I have already changed the way her torso looks (did away with the hint of breast) and rounded her rump some. I still have big trouble with her right upper arm .
*Edited* I finally changed the fishtail to the straight model
It does look more fishy, overall. And got rid of the manliness of the upper arm and shoulder, added the necklaces (now she looks like wants to do a trade). I am wondering if I should get her side fins wide open... decissions, decissions
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Comments: 14
Very nice work! I really like the expressions on both their faces. I think the tail looks good as it, like it's pushing up through the water to level her body out more. I like the hair, and his shorts look cool.
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Glad you like it! It is a personal favorite of mine... hope to finish it one day
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Gracias! Por una vez saque el libro de anatomia
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Great composition, i love the mermaid's pose 
Can't wait to see it colored
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Did it come too large on your screen? It is fine on mine.. I think the problem is that I loaded it as a high quality copy forgetting that it is only B&W so the file size is high... When I load the colored ones on low qual the colors just don't look so good... sorry 'bout that
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Nah, it's ok. I'm just being picky, and also because my comp been acting up (I think it needs an upgrade). But I could always fix that by changing the resolutions for my screen, don't worry about it, neh?
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I really doubt myself if I should write what I have in my mind about this piece since mermaid is fantasy creature and people say no one can't make a specific rule of how the creature should look like. However, if you ask me, I don't like the mermaid. Like you have stated that you're more comfortable drawing male characters (I'm the same and still having trouble drawing female), your mermaid looks somewhat mixed between masculine buff and masculine skinny. The part where the right upper arm joins with the body, I don't think that part should curve out that much from the rest of the body. The line that you drew to separate the inner side of the top of upper arm from the shoulder/body is distorting how the upper arm and shoulder/body should join. Now it seems like the arm is attached to back instead of the side of the body because in order to lift the arm over the head like that you need to lift the collarbone as well but from the current pose, the collar bones seems missing. Have you noticed that when you lift the arm, the shoulder will come up a little too? The bone that makes that shoulder lift to allow you to lift the arm is the collar bone; you can't lift the arm alone without lifting the collar bone. The buff part is the part where the right upper arm join with the body; it looks like the muscles there are very bulged like a muscular male but the rest of her human torso is too skinny. With the shoulders seem to be very wide and the rest of the torso suddenly reduces the side in angular liked shape with the shoulder blades stand out too much, she unfortunately looks like male. I guess her waist is too narrow that it forces the torso to reduce so much difference of the width and so it seems that she probably doesn't have the ribcage.
Other than those, this is the part that makes me worried about voicing my opinion; the fish tail. Well, it's okay if you disagree because after all I'm not an owner of this piece and I have no right to force you to change it to how I think it could be. The fish tail looks very stiff and too angular that I think it looks more like someone had caught her and broke the bones of her fishtail to prevent her from escape. The way it bends isn't natural; since it's the tail of fish, I use fish bone as reference about how it should be in my opinion. Fish bone is like our spine, it's made up of knuckles on bone lining up together closely. If the space between each joint of the knuckles of bones is far, you'll be able to bend it into angular shape; for example how you can bend the knee backward. However, if the space between each knuckle is very close, considering from the size of the knuckle, then you can't bend it into angular shape or else you'll break it. Have you ever seen anyone bends the back into angular shape? The back alone, not counting the pose that the body bends forward at hips level and make an angular shape with the upper body and lower body; I guess no. Therefore, the fish tail in my opinion should bend into curves, not angular tilts like this and it could look more natural.
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Hey DeZarin, I missed you lately 
I have another version with the tail of the mermaid standing straight and in a different curve, which I may repost, though I don't think I can avoid the sharp curve at the rump and it may have to stay that way.
As for the shoulder and the waist...sheeshhh... you are so right... and I don't see any way around that but to go back to the ref book. And practice more drawing girls. I should have it easy, I am a girl, all I should need is a mirror.
It's a shame that folks like you who give an honest commentary would have to hesitate to voice their opinion though
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I'm not an expert artist not even half decent lol but I don't know she seems a bit 'too' bent over for me anyway but thats just my opinion. other then that this is really well drawn and the expressions on theirfaces are cute. This would lookrealy good with color
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Yes, the anatomy looks good! Of course, I'm no expert either, but it still looks better than my more recent attempts. Gotta love those reference books, eh?
Well, anyway, the musculature on the male looks good, especially in the legs. Men are hard to draw... they have no curves! Though, his upper back and left shoulder blade look a little odd... They don't match up with the way his body is turned. Also, the mermaid's rear end looks a little flat/rubbery.
Hope this helps!
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The mermaid's butt is a goner already, I will post a corrected drawing possibly with an alternate position for the tail as well. As for the upper back of the guy... yes, the shoulderblade may need repositioning, but the musculature is otherwise fairly correct I think - though I will give it another check.
I much prefer drawing guys to girls, all those curves are so tricky! my girls always come out looking mannish because I insist on trying to draw muscles.
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Cool, I can't wait to see this finished ^^ I can't say much about the anatomy, it looks okay to me. The only thing I might say would be to round out the uppermost part of the mermaid's bum, it seems kind of on the flat side.
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