Work in progress, Superman.

[learning]

Yep, just that.

The face is the part needing the most work, not finished...

*slaps self*

This is about... 60% finished?

I need to fix the chin also.

I dunno >_>

http://i433.photobucket.com/albums/qq54/learning_one/sup1.jpg

[Archerion]

What is he doing? I think his muscles are over poofy he kinda looks like hes waring a muscle suit. Maybe his head its his head, its small.

[Bruce Lee]

There is a stiffness and unnaturalness about the pose, learning. The right arm is part of the problem. One of the things that will help you to keep figures from appearing too stiff is to avoid bending arms and legs at a right angles (90 degree angles). Often the L-shape of the 90 degree angle elbow bend (or knee bend) will seem forced, stiff, wooden or mechanical. It's better to bend arms and legs at lesser or greater angles than 90 degrees to achieve a more natural pose. Unless a character is firing a gun or doing some action that would require a right angle arm bend, I recommend avoiding it when you can.

Speaking of stiffness, Superman's right wrist appears to be posed in a way that's too static and robotic. Bend his wrist a little bit and you'll get a little more natural life in the arm pose too.

I'm not sure why you'd need to bend his right leg so much at the knee. Is he climbing stairs or is he marching or something? It seems a little strange that he's lifting his knee so high up. A little bending in the knees goes a long way in a standing pose.

The thigh anatomy could use some work. Find some reference to help your out there.

Don't forget Superman's trademark spit-curl! It's one of his most defining features as a character, so it's important to include it for the sake of character recognition.

Try to give Superman a little more interesting and definite expression. It will help add interest to the drawing.

Hope that helps, learning.

Loston

[JTPencils]

Loston covered a lot of the quirks here... but I'll also add... despite the current trend to make a characters shoulders bigger then the rest of his anatomy (jeesh)... you have to be careful. Right now, his deltoid muscles are enormous (as well as fairly balloon like) in comparison to his pecs, and almost the same size as his upper arm (biceps). Tone that down, as well as resizing the head. It really DOES look like Supes is wearing a muscle suit... and that just won't do!

Keep at it!

[learning]

He is flying :)

lol

I agree about the muscles I think.

I am still trying to get a balance between over-exageration and realism.

And the head, of course :)

Thanks all :)

Oh, also about the arm, I agree.

Bit stiff >_>

Oh, and the expression, I am going to re-work the head.

Well, I will post it when I have made some changes.

Thanks everyone for the input, also, thanks Loston for the in-depth review.

It helps people to learn a lot better than when people don't bother to critique or whatnot.

*gets back to drawing*

[Smitty]

You need to spend more time thinking about who the character is. Superman's strength does not come from his muscles, it comes from the yellow sun. He should appear more fit than the average Joe but, an Olympic level athlete would be a far better model than this.

Remember also, the villain makes the hero. Anyone Superman defeats (except Luthor types) needs to be larger and stronger than Superman or he's simply a big bully beating on the small and weak. If this is Superman, what does your Hulk look like?

[learning]

Very very good points.

Also on the Thor sketch.

My Hulk is... Hulking :S

:lmao:

It's always hard to get this balance or exageration and realism.

I could draw a very real-looking Superman but then also, 90% of people will complain that he doesn't look strong / heroic enough.

Then when you do buff him up, the other 10% will complain that he's too buffed.

lol

I would love there to be a Kryptonian that is full-on trained in martial arts and has spent 20 years just perfecting their powers...

And also working out. (Moving planets I suppose.)

So, if Superman is THAT strong and he just gets an average amount of exercise (Whatever that is for him), imagine a Kryptonian who actually is a power-lifter...:O

[Smitty]

Outside of commissions, I've done only one Superman for professional purposes and that was for Shooter at Marvel. He had all of us do one and there were two rules: It had to be the "quintessential" Superman, both feet on the ground.

Not that it matters but, I won the "contest." Seems Shooter was trying to do an advertisement for a new character (Starbrand in the New Universe maybe?) where the figure would be draped in a cloth and each ad would raise the cloth a bit more until the figure was revealed. No matter how Jim tried to explain the character and his qualities, every drawing, when covered by the cloth became a stupid, ugly lump.

So he stopped explaining and said "Superman." At that point, with but a single word, we all understood. It had nothing to do with muscles or power. It was 110% character, grace, decency and the sense of nobility we wished was inherent to the human animal. It was about Truth, Justice and the American Way in a time before America became the big, stupid, ugly, bully it is now.

A Kryptonian power lifter would look like Peter Parker before the spider bit him. Kryptonian strength isn't in the muscles, it's in the rays of the sun. Superman's physique stems from his parents genes, not his own activity. If you want a model for Superman, you'll be hard pressed to find a better one than Christopher Reeve.