Hey man. Thanks again for the comments.... Was flipping through your gallery just now. Figured I'd drop my two cents on the description...

I used to be just like that - wanting to do realistic works, getting lucky only twice with something that jumped out at you and you went "OKAY, THAT'S SOMETHING THAT EXISTS.".... (i.e. Nanora and Shriles)

After about two whopping years (Go figure... not the greatest two artistic years of my life, I'll admit, though.) of sticking with that, I finally just decided, "Fuggit, I'mma actually try this." So I did... and it was horrible... but hey, it was my kinda horrible. (My kinda horrible? Okay, okay, Funky, I hear the people with white coats... night night..)

I save a version about every 8 minutes or so - I really don't keep track, but that sounds about right -and it took me, including the versions that were scrapped (about 42), 436 versions to come up with [link] (Okay, so I couldn't find the last 46 or so versions that had the color corrections, some smoothing, and a much less fugly face, but that's pretty close anyway)

Kinda sad. Then I took a drawing class... started learning to reference just by looking at something... took the same concept, applied a picture into the background, or to the left of something I was working on in a different layer, and I would get anatomy down that way, and it would slowly get better. I think it has, anyway, given how much BETTER and CLEANER Kate looks.

Maybe you should start slow with it, reference your own arms, legs, etc, since they'll go into any pose you want them to... or if you have a webcam, snap a shot of what you need, and reference it that way (which is much easier and less cramping, lol.)

-----God... this is practically a critique. I've wondered if people are allowed to full-on critique in comments - let's just jump in and make ourselves a social experiment why don't we?------

But back to what I was saying... another thing you'll be tempted to do is rush it and go entirely off your gesture (or if you don't know what that is, it's where you start off a drawing by "gesturing" out where you think everything will be, proportionally, without caring to detail or shape everything just right - i.e. rough sketching.) if you're using some live paper, that would mean use a soft lead that could erase but not too dark either, so that when you had the gesture down, getting the final product down would be easier and less messy... if you're working digitally, gesturing is alot easier, but the final product is usually harder. - BUT POINT IS, DONT RUSH IT.... the gesture, sure, it can be fairly quick and easy, but the final product? Make it with effin love and EFFIN care.

My style is a little comic-book-ish, so this might not ALL be relevant, but I hope it helps regardless. You've got a great grasp on value already, so try and work from that if all else fails.

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Check out my stuff. For serious. My visual art:
[link]
My music, as Artificial Wonders:
[link]

Very helpful indeed ^^ I'm now very glad I commented on your stuff.

Off to work now, and then, when I return, the epicness shall commence.