Help with art

[Final_zero]

Hi all.

(Sorry if this is in the wrong place just let me know)

I wanted to give my battlers unique battlers. (As in not the default mv style).
So I sat down with pencil/ paper/ art software open and good music on, (Well good music to me, It was the shadow hearts 3 soundtrack), however I found that I didn't know where to begin any tips would be helpful in this regard.
I spent a good 15 mins just staring into space at the screen then another 15 mins trying to pixel it out on the software. I even tried drawing it but my art isn't the best.
Any help people have would be appreciated. I'm not looking for people to do it for me. I'm just looking for, I guess you could say, tips and tricks and where to begin. Do I start with the head or the feet or the chest or what? I'm so confused.
All in all I have 7 of these to do. 5 player characters and 2 bad guys.

Thank's for your help.

 

[AdamSakuru]

Is this pixel art you're trying to do?

If so, let me know. I'll send you a ZIP with some fantastic tutorials that are even animated as GIFS.

 

[Final_zero]

Hey yhea pixel or otherwise just needed some starting points. thanks.

 

[hiddenone]

I've moved this thread to Resource Support. Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.

I find starting with basic shapes works best for me. Instead of trying to make the head or feet, I create a fullbody rough of it (or even a stick figure if I want it fast) so that I can see how it all will work together. Cleaning it up and adding details can come later.

 

[AdamSakuru]

[move]Resource Support[/move]
I find starting with basic shapes works best for me. Instead of trying to make the head or feet, I create a fullbody rough of it (or even a stick figure if I want it fast) so that I can see how it all will work together. Cleaning it up and adding details can come later.

Oh and try to think of their silhouette. Make their poses readable if it was just a black shadow.

 

[Final_zero]

Well I have my characters already drawn out (Face set wise so I'm not designing them)

 

[Sharm]

It sounds like you need to be introduced to the concept of iteration. You don't have to start out by making the perfect concept for your battler, you just have to do something, get any sketch on paper, or even better, do a lot of sketches, and then you take what you like best and you try again with what you learned. You get feedback and you try again. Perfection is a destination, not a starting point. Don't worry about how to start, just start any way you please, whichever method gets you drawing fast. If it's a bunch of circles and squares, then that's great! If it's a bunch of scribbles that eventually form a shape, then that's great too. If you make it by mostly erasing, then that's what works. It really doesn't matter at all, the point is to start and learn what will work best for you and your game by doing.

 

[Final_zero]

Thats the thing I'm haveing struggles with the basics. I even tried a stick man and it went horrible.

 

[hiddenone]

If you're having trouble with the basics, then maybe trying to start from scratch isn't the way to go. If you don't want to use the defaults, then look for some of the templates that are floating around the resource section and try editing them to make your characters. You can pick up hints from how other people make them while you edit which could help you try making your own in the future.

Otherwise, it really comes down to practice. If your first stick man failed, then make more until you start feeling good about them. I used to have a folder full of failed attempts, but you learn from each attempt so all you can do is put pencil to paper (or mouse to screen) and try.

 

[Final_zero]

Thanks guys. Nothing like a good bit of help to get me inspired. I did take a look but couldnt find it. I'll look again for templates. thanks

 

[Sharm]

If you want to workshop even something as basic as stick figures, you can. This may not be the best forum for feedback, you might do better with one dedicated to artwork, but we'll do what we can. If we can't help you figure out what's wrong with the stick figures, maybe we can help point you in the direction of the right tutorial if we could see these supposedly terrible stick figures.

Gotta be honest with you though, most of the time when people say something like "I fail at drawing stick figures" what they're really doing is attempting to find a way to stop trying guilt free. This goal you've set for yourself is hard and your brain is lazy, it's going to try and find ways to get you out of that work. Accept it, and confront the real problem. Maybe the problem is that it's a huge amount of work and you can't wrap your head around it. You'll need to either break it down into actionable goals that you can succeed at quickly or change your end goal to be more manageable. Changing your goal from "let's do this from scratch" to "make these by editing other artwork" is one way to do that. Maybe the problem is that you just don't know anything about art, so you don't have the tools you need to get there. So start by learning art. Get books from the library, watch tutorials, take a class, look up proportion guides, copy and trace pros, study it like you would anything. Art is a skill, not a mystical force. It can be acquired. It's a hard and not fast thing to learn, don't try to fool yourself into thinking otherwise, but it's doable. It's highly unlikely that the problem is that you're bad at this (and even if it is, that's not a big hurdle), it's more likely that you know deep down that this is going to be a long and hard process. It helps to be very clear and truthful with yourself about what you want to accomplish, why, and what you're willing to do to get there. Once you know that, you can decide what path you want to take. We're willing to help, but you knowing exactly what you want is going to get you there way faster than any advice we can give.

BTW, I found a really interesting stick figure tutorial. Not sure if it'll be helpful to your problem specifically, but I found it surprisingly informative. https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-draw-a-stick-figure-a-complex-guide--cms-23620

 

[Final_zero]

Hey so What I Did was I took ff record keeper and Took the characters that looked like mine and recreated them with edits in gimp.

 

[Sharm]

Ah. Um. So that's a really great way to learn, but editing artwork that you haven't been given permission to use means that you can't use it no matter how much you edit it. So for a game that you want to distribute, that will not work. There is lots of artwork out there that you can use, here or places like Open Game Art. Make sure you read and follow the terms of service.

 

[Final_zero]

Hi, It was just to get me started this game is only going to my friends who wont distribute it