Laine Says: hello ! don't worry , i draw with my plain ol' mechnical pencils too and they work fine :D if u want something more...complex than that , my best advice would be to try all of them out ! markers , gouache , acrylics , watercolors , all of em ! as for noses...a mix between anime and realism would be Takehiko noses ( he did Slamdunnk and Musashi ) and Kunihiko noses ( Key the Metal Idol and Xenogears ) , they look real , but not too anime-ish in the sense they have holes and not just a black trinagle ^^x . okay , back to picture ! very nice moood in the picture , u really made it look like she's at peace ^^ what i would recommend would be to make the shades darker in some shadows already darkened to add more defination to the picture :D for a more realistic nose , perhaps some shading to show the bridge of her nose ? also , her hair needs to have more..variety in it :D variety is the spice of art , have some hair going here , some there , some curling over some more hair at the bottom , like theres lots of layers of hair ! lastly , her clothes..hm....only thing i can say about this is to look at more clothing and practice drwaing ...looking at reference pics helps a lot too ^^gambare !

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Nicole Eng Says: Over all, I feel you really do have a lot of talent and a good sense of style. The drawing is quite nice already; the image is pleasant and the figure has an interesting expression. Keep drawing! You've alot of time to perfect your style. ^_^ about tech details: On first inspection, one aspect pops out - the lines are too light and there isn't enough contrast in the image, probably because of a faulty scan. You can correct this in any photo editing program (Microsoft Photo Editor works well) by adjusting the Brightness/Contrast. about pose/proportions: I really like the choice of angle - I don't really see an upside down image too often. On a whole, things look okay - things are all in the right location. The arms and torso are the right size and placement, but the head looks a bit big for the rest of the parts. However, the facial structures are lined up in the right locations, good job! And about detail: While you have alot of detail in the clothing and body, you seem to have skimped on the details in the face. Whether or not this is intended, I do recommend that you attempt to define the facial structures more strongly to balance it with the rest of the image. Some directional shading would help immensely. On the hair - I like how you've decided to fan the hair out into the background. The radial lines draw the eye to the center where the face is - a very nice touch. However, as it is, the lines are a bit too straight and the shape of the head is lost. When they fan out, the strands of hair should curve around the contour of the head before going into the straight lines. Make sure to have the hair that lies on top of the head curve down; where the head ends and the hair attaches, you can continue the straighter lines.

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Keiiii Says: You know, regular pencils (not mechanical) are actually very good mediums. They can be used skillfully to create some really cool stuff ^o^ I think you could've made the shadings darker in some parts to make the picture stand out. That's one thing that I always keep in mind when shading with pencil: be bold! ^-^ Now, the face. She has this beautiful, not-too-innocent-yet-not-so-sinister look. Good job on that! Although it seems that long eyes are your style, you might want to try giving a little more space between the eyes. In reality, there is enough space for another eye between two eyes. About the nose, you really have to define what you call "too anime" with it. There are some styles where all you find about the nose is a little... inkling about it (Dragon Ball Z, for example), which I consider too anime (note: too anime does NOT mean bad). Try imitating some styles that aren't strictly anime, such as Romancing SaGa/SaGa Frontier artworks and Soukaigi artworks, perhaps? And while you did do her hair really nice, longer lines rather than choppy short lines plus stronger shading would be nice IMO. ^_^