Doodle Diaries: I don't know what is wrong with my drawings plz help (feat. tiny reaction pics)

It's been almost two years since I tried my hand at digital drawing, but I still wasn't satisfied with how they came out.

I looked at how other people lined and colored and I replicated that in my own drawings, but it did not come out the way I wanted it to. At times it looked worse than my simple pencil doodles. I could not figure out why.

Robert kept telling me that my end results kept on looking flat, despite my coloring and shading.

"I dunno, it just needs more... dimension?" Robert said.

Dimension? How?

I drew a bunch of test pictures and pestered asked Robert for critique.

"Color scheme okay. I think it fits as decent. But the colors and so need to be worked on. What are you aiming for?" Robert asked.

"Just looking like not done by a n00b on deviantart. Like if you look at the picture you'd assume I downloaded it from a tumblr site of a semi-known online artist."

"What would a semi known artist be?"

"Good enough to make cheap prints and sell at a con,"

"Ah, not quite yet," Robert said, providing honest feedback.

(Yeah, I know.)

If my pictures apparently lack dimension, maybe I should try adding a buttload of textures on hair and stuff. I always did neglect coloring on hair.

"I haven't seen you use more than two colors for hair," Robert had told me before.

But despite putting in a lot of effort, I didn't really like how Test 2 came out.

Y: Still looks kinda flat, even though that hair took fucking forever. So much for texture. There is something else going on and idk what.

R: It does look better.

Y: Something about face is odd.

R: The face looks kind of not attached to the head? But I think the other parts are better.

Y: I see.

R: I don't think it looks flat so much as the face looks blank. Idk why but that shows up more in your colored pictures.

ARGH.

A few days later, I drew two more test pictures and sent them to Robert.

They both looked amateurish to me still, but I felt like I was getting closer to the look I am aiming for.

Y: So how is test 3 and 4?

R: They are good, but as you said something to improve on. Posture in 3 is fine but I think the shadows on chin make it look like she has a goatee, and makes it seem too much. I think where you placed the neck in 4 seems a bit off.

Y: Do they look like they have dimension?

R: 4 a bit, 3 not quite.

Y: What about coloring and shading?

R: I think the shading relates to dimension

Y: ...I don't get what you're saying

R: In terms of do things feel like they have dimension

Y: Do I just suck at shading????

R: I wouldn't say that

Y: HOW DO I NEED TO MAKE THINGS LOOK LIKE IT HAS DIMENSION

R: Ask the internet?

Y: orz

R: I think you have less issues in black and white.

Y: Why do i have problems when I color then?! What is wrong with me?!

R: Nothing is wrong with you, maybe it's how you color?

Y: But what do I need to do tho?

R: Idk, figure out color shading

(To be continued in Part 2)

Doodle Diaries: More drawing with tablets

(Part 1 here)

Still drawing with a tablet, still wondering what I need to do to achieve the look I am going for in my digital drawings.

Once more, here are hours of work and comments on drawings that no one asked for!

2017.07.24 

I wanted to work on shading, I'm not sure if I got it right. Still kind of don't like how the lines and colors came out.

2017.08.06

The rare one where I do kind of like how the colors came out. It was fun playing around with lighting on this one. I don't think school dances are usually this flashy.

*

During the summer, my go-to drawing program Medibang became buggy. I uninstalled and reinstalled the program about 3-4 times and also sent a number of help requests to the people there, but there was no response and the program remained fundamentally buggy.

It got to the point that I decided to jump ship to another drawing program.

I heard that all the cool kids use Clip Studio Paint, and although it was not free, it cost $25 when it was on sale, which is affordable. All drawings from here on out have been drawn using Clip Studio Paint.

2017/09/10

This was more of a test drawing to check out how CSP worked more than being a carefully thought-out drawing. But even with the crude lining and coloring, the end result looked... okay? The coloring/lining mystery continues.

2017/11/05

I wanted to try out some stuff I saw on YouTube art tutorials. I like the colors at least.

2017/12/10

Still trying. There isn't anything super wrong with the picture, but it doesn't look particularly fantastic either. I am starting to lose my patience.

The blueberry cheesecake is the only part of the drawing that came out like I intended. I just wanted to show it off because it's too small in the original drawing. Everything else in this drawing looks amateurish except for the blueberry cheesecake. WHAT IS GOING ON.

2017/12/17

Cute macaron print background! The lines and colors are better-looking than the cheesecake drawing, but something still seems off. The drawing still looks flat despite the shading and whatnot. 

There is something I am clearly missing in my lining/coloring technique and I would like to know what it is.