Katawa Shoujo Forums

Inspired by this comic, mentioned in this thread, I felt compelled to create a response tonight.

Awww, I love this so much! Nicely done and thank you!

The quality is top notch and I'm sure a lot of us really enjoyed this. It's pretty cool seeing a relative big-shot mingling here and making stuff.

crinklywrap wrote:The quality is top notch and I'm sure a lot of us really enjoyed this. It's pretty cool seeing a relative big-shot mingling here and making stuff.

I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've ever been called that. But thank you very much!

Now we just need a fic to go with it.

mysterycycle wrote:
I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've ever been called that. But thank you very much!

Hopefully it won't be the last.

Outside the view of the camera, Hisao is talking to Misha.

"Do you think she knows what she's getting into?"
"Hic-chan! You're implying that joining the Student Council is a bad thing?"
"I wouldn't know..."

!!!

I demand more! This is great. The colors are very pleasant to look at, and I love the way you draw hands. The inking is also delightful. The only issue I have is with some of the proportions, but it's nothing that really detracts from the image.

I like the fact that you crossed this manga and Shizune, I'm always so amazed at how people can connect two other "worlds" together.
I think muliebrity said it all, the proportions are a bit off but the expressions are so very expressive (mind you, some people can make them really dull!) and the hands, man, the hands, they're so hard yet you drew them so nicely!
I demand more.

Thanks! The proportions were definitely something I was struggling with, and have been ever since I started drawing the KS girls. I'm still trying to get a feel for the appropriate head-to-body ratio that will convey the correct age as well as having a shoujo look, as well as a couple of other issues.

If you don't mind, there are key problem areas that stick out to me. Shizune's torso is thick in places it shouldn't be, body types irrelevant. I would recommend looking at some pictures of ladies in beach wear or underwear or nothing and paying very close attention to the size and shape of the ribcage such as it can be seen above the skin. Try to get it from as many angles as possible. What you'll notice is that female torsos are very distinct from male torsos, primarily due to the fact that in women (and children), the ribcage is very ovoid, maintaining a fairly consistent girth from top to bottom. Contrast this with the average adult male torso, and you'll find that the ribcage has a wider base, tapering towards the top. This is largely responsible for the "barrel" shape of even an out-of-shape man. In women, I think you'll be surprised how narrow their torsos look from many angles.

The arm lengths need to be more in line with the rest of the body. If you stand up straight with your arms at your sides, try noticing where your elbows are relative to the bottom of your ribcage, your hips and your waist. Try to feel out the relative height of your wrists and crotch, then your fingertips and crotch. WHat you should notice is that your elbows extend just past your ribcage, and are approximately in line with what most would call a "waist", and the tips of your fingers extend just past your crotch, with your wrists slightly above. These are pretty consistent across ethnicities, so even though the Japanese tend to have longer torsos relative to their legs and northern Europeans tend to have longer legs relative to their torsos, the relative positions of the joints will remain pretty much the same. Here, Shizune's arms, the one extending in particular, are noticeably short. I would be unsurprised if this happened more because you were trying to fit two bodies together than a lack of understanding of this, as that's always hard for me.

The faces are obviously deliberately stylized, so I can't comment. I love love LOVE the way you draw hands, though. Mine alwas look like technical drawings, yours look much more animated, more alive. I will try to incorporate some of that into my own work.

That's a lot of good information, there - thanks! I'll have to mull that over and see if I can't apply that in my next drawing.

I demand more

Oi.

Good sentiments, poor execution.

Hrm... in that case, I'll instead hope I'll one day master my GF's pentablet and there shall be more \o/