Hello! My DA I didn't know where to go to ask for some advice and critiquing. I really want to improve my art. My main issues are: -I feel like a lot of my digital stuff comes out really messy and sketchy and I don't know how to fix that -I feel like I don't exactly have a consistent style -Still pretty bad at cats, and inconsistent with humans

I'd love to hear any thing else you notice specifically and any advice or advice on the above issues. I use FireAlpaca

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1. Try drawing longer, uniform strokes when making the lineart. "Hairy lines" are part of the reason your drawings may look a little messy. Moving your hand a little faster will also prevent shaky lines. You can also try blending the shadows a little more with the base color.

An example I found on the Internet

3. As for drawing humans and cats, I recommend you to look for tutorials on Youtube and to look at references. Knowing anatomy is key, and it also helps you to know what rules you need to break in order to achieve a personal style.

Finally: practicing is essential, but learning to observe is equally important. You need to look carefully and understand the logic behind the forms. For example, a human eye won't look the same if you look at it from different perspectives, the same happens with everything else.

You have a lovely style, I really like your use of colors. I think you have a lot of pontential! Just keep drawing.

Good luck! :)

I know this is super late, but thank you(both of you; tho it appears they have deleted their account)

Not sure if you're still looking for advice, but if you are...

Try not to sweat it too much over style! I know that's easier said than done, but if you focus on honing technique (observational drawings, practicing outside of your comfort zone, using references, etc) and consuming art you like (books, music, animation, games, etc), style will follow with time.

I once fretted a lot over style too, but when I shifted my focus toward general improvement, in time my style did develop. But it's still changing, and always will be. And that's ok! It's also fine to have multiple styles. I know of an illustrator who even uses 2 professional names--one for his adult portfolio, and one for his kid-friendly portfolio.

Ravel and Paris had great tips, and to add my own:

Something that helped me immensely with "line confidence" was I would give myself certain challenges. I kept a paper sketchbook, and forced myself to draw only with pen for a year. By the end of that year, my linework was smoother, bolder, and more accurate, but more importantly, I felt comfortable diving in to starting a piece (starting is often the hardest part!).

Another challenge I took was I would try to draw things using the least number of lines possible. When you limit the number of times your pen touches the paper (or screen), you end up thinking harder about those lines: is this one really necessary? Is this one serving to communicate my idea? Is this detail important to include? Is it even there at all?

Anyway, your art looks really nice (and I do see your own style in them)! You're using colors in a really interesting, hyper-saturated, but not distracting way. A quick peek through your gallery also tells me that you're improving pretty steadily as well. Good luck!

If you're still looking for feedback, I'd like to offer some thoughts:

1. I absolutely agree with everyone who's saying to not worry about style. That's something that comes naturally, as you draw and draw and keep drawing. I know it can be frustrating if you compare yourself to artists with set/recognizable styles, but you will get there. And style changes over time; it evolves as you learn more about the world, about drawing, about what you're drawing, and about what you enjoy about drawing.

I will also say about style: While you shouldn't worry about it, I've found it helpful in the past to gather artworks that I find inspiring – Pinterest is a great place to do this, using whatever search terms I'm interested in ("illustration" is a good catch-all) – specifically for the purpose of dissecting why I like them. Is it the lines? Why? What qualities of the linework are appealing to me? Is it the colors? What do they evoke? Do these pieces have striking compositions, or interesting faces, or a lot of movement? Is the ornamentation/detailing speaking to me? Doing this can help you identify directions that you might want to take your own art. Don't copy those artists, though; instead, learn from what you like about their work & why, and see how you can achieve something similar in your own work, by your own hand.

2. If you struggle with drawing a particular thing (cats, humans, buildings, etc): reference, reference, reference. In order to "break the rules," you need to know the rules. said something similar! Draw from life, too, if you can. Get a cheap sketchbook and just draw things from observation – draw yourself in the mirror, (sneakily) draw people sitting in a cafe, draw trees and clothes and fruits and anything. These might not be the things you ultimately want to draw for fun, but it's practice, and it'll help you get there. Drawing a banana from three different angles may not be exciting, but it'll help you understand things you need to know when drawing more complex figures/objects.

Looking at your deviantArt, I can see that you've been using a lot of reference lately! This is great, and the progress you're making is absolutely visible and tangible.

3. I agree with Ravel on the point of messiness. If that's the way you naturally need/want to draw, don't fight it; you can always refine your process in the future if you feel the need to. Right now you're at a point of learning and experimentation, so lean into that and have fun. Don't feel pressured to draw with a specific kind of cleanliness/line quality, either! I know a lot of the time on the internet, you'll see cel shading, smooth lineart, etc. If you don't want to do that, don't do that. You need to follow your own artistic instincts, not anyone else's.

4. This isn't one of the questions you had, but it's a tip I want to share: play with brushes! Right now, a lot of your art (particularly the shading) has an "airbrushed" look to it, which means that the brushes are soft and lack texture. This can lead to surfaces of things (skin, fur, cloth, hair) looking very similar in material/texture, and it can make it hard to define forms.

I don't know what capabilities FireAlpaca has in terms of brushes, but I'd recommend trying to find "natural media" brushes of some kind – acrylic paint, oil paint, oil pastels, charcoal, etc. None of these are magic tools that will instantly give you what you want from your art, but they may lead you down interesting paths. I use a lot of natural media digital brushes in my own art, and I really love the painterly effects I can achieve with them. Brushes are worth experimenting with!

Finally, keep at it and don't give up. This is all a process and an individual journey. You have a nice, vibrant sense of color, and you're making a lot of progress with your recent drawings in general too. You're doing great. :)

I am overwhelmed by the support from both of you. Thank you so much for all of your pointers. I am going to try working on some challenges and getting the rules down better. I'm so glad that you guys can see a style, as I don't feel super consistent at all. Aside from colors. Lately, with commissions especially, I have been using real life references, but I feel super guilty because in my human and some pet pieces, I've been creating my lineart from tracing. I feel like its a horrible cop-out and discredits my ability as an artist? I've had a fellow art friend tell me tracing isn't like that though.. What do you two think?

SPOILER (click to toggle)

You're very welcome, I'm happy that the pointers were helpful!

Regarding tracing references, my personal opinion has a couple parts to it:

1. I think tracing is totally fine as a learning tool. This generally means studies, whether they're studies just for the sake of understanding something better, or studies in the context of a commission. So, if you're doing a preliminary drawing for a commission, it'd be fine to trace a reference so you can understand the pose/anatomy/clothing/etc better. Sometimes if I'm drawing and I'm having a hard time understanding how to draw, for example, the pattern of lace on a dress I'm referencing, I might do a quick traced drawing over the reference photo to figure out the structure and shapes of the lace/dress. Then I'll delete/hide the traced drawing layer and continue with my freehand drawing, now with the understanding that the traced drawing has given me.

2. Continuing from that, I wouldn't recommend using traced work in the final product of a commission or a piece you're posting publicly online. Depending on what you're tracing, you could get into hot water if you post traced work online – that happens more frequently with tracing other artists' work and less frequently with photos, but the point still stands. If you're posting traced versions of other people's work (whether they're drawings or photos), that work is copyrighted, so that could potentially be a problem if you post a lot of traced work. Not trying to scare you, you'll be okay, it's just one of the reasons that I don't recommend using tracing in a final drawing.

3. Keep in mind, also, that directly tracing photos has effects on the art itself! It can make things stiff or give the drawing a "traced look," and it removes your "hand" from the equation. The way that a photo looks might be different than the way you interpret that photo – from reference, not tracing (at least not in the final drawing). And going back to the topic of style, that's exactly what style is: the way you, as an individual artist, interpret reality in your drawings.

So, I'd say that you shouldn't feel bad at all about tracing photo reference, especially when you're learning. It can be a fantastic tool to help you understand so many things, which is super valuable! And using that tool doesn't discredit you as an artist. (Like I said, sometimes I trace to understand things better, and I've been working as a professional artist for several years. It's perfectly fine to do that!) But I'd also say that using reference without tracing is important as well, and I'd absolutely recommend going that route for the final art for commissions, samples, and any publicly posted drawings that aren't just studies for yourself.

Tracing can be a fantastic first step, but the next step is trying to draw those things by your own hand and mind, and learning how the forms themselves work. That doesn't mean "don't use reference," though, like I mentioned. Do use reference, it's great! Your own interpretation of the reference(s) will be more useful to your artistic development in the long run, it'll help you develop your style over time, and it'll be more fun to look at (even if there are mistakes).

TL;DR: While I think you should avoid traced work in final art, it's totally okay to use tracing as a learning tool, for studies, and/or to help you understand forms that you're trying to reference but are having a hard time with.

Let me know if you have questions or if you want me to clarify any of that. Don't beat yourself up for those recent commissions, by the way! I'm glad you asked about this, and I hope this response is helpful to you moving forward. :)

A good piece of advice - Use references starting out as practice! It not only will help you improve your form, but if you play around with other people's styles you can start to form your own!

PS - Your work is awesome! Keep it up!