Hey there :smile:
Here is something I am currently working on, I am trying to make this manga style, kind of minimalistic and simplified, and would appreciate any tips on anatomy etc - i am really struggling with the lower part for example .. Any constructive critique will be most welcome :smile:

Hi @Watercolour I can work on that for you if you give me a bit. I'll help with the anatomy no problem, but can you in the meantime add some character backstory to help with the design of the lower garments?

Hey @brohawx thanks very much, that would be awesome :smile:
Unfortunately I did not come up with this character, just making a fanart of it, but fortunately that means I can provide refs :smile: I am struggling to make the belt things look ok in this pose, here is my latest efforts + refs, if you spot anything else that you think can be improved itโ€™s fair game as well, thanks again for your help!

@Watercolour Okay cool, that helps a lot I had to do a quick re draw of the critique.

You have a very slim figure here doing a very subtle and therefore very difficult twist. Let me post a draw over with notes here regarding the anatomy rhythm abstractions you can use in your figures for simple anime styles perhaps.
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Now the more advanced part is having drapery contours wrinkle and fold around the figure. You seem to have a decent enough knowledge of landmarks of bones and muscles to perhaps pull this off. You have to imagine or add to the abstraction the contours that are going to represent the landmarks of human anatomy that we recognize. Here's an example.
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Trying to get better at my handwriting in these.

Now as an American I am contractually obligated to eat stupid amounts of turkey today. Good luck and keep posting. We can keep the critique rolling if you have more questions or run into trouble. Check out some of my critiques in other posts, they may have other tips for your journey.

Thanks so much man! This is really detailed, i could not hope for more ๐Ÿ˜Š
Your handwriting looks good to me, you are doing better than i did in architecture school ๐Ÿ˜…
Happy thanksgiving (you sure get a big thanks from me)!

Ok, so I was able to work on it some more, and tried to put brohawxโ€™ good advice to use, mixing it a bit with the other approach Iโ€™m using in filling in a silhouette and trying to sculpt it. The rhythm lines (sorry if thatโ€™s not what they are called) I think helped a lot with understanding the torso rotation
Iโ€™m pretty happy with how itโ€™s turning out, there is still a lot of cleanup to do, but it is getting much closer to what i wanted ๐Ÿ˜Š

So I tried coloring, i obviously still have a lot of cleanup to do, finish the hair, background etc., but itโ€™s around 90% there Iโ€™d say, I would like to keep the style simplistic/cartoony
Any suggestions on how to improve are welcome ๐Ÿ˜Š
P.s., Cool gals donโ€™t look at explosions, directed by Michael Bay

1 month later

Here is the final image, may go back sometime and do the version with the explosion background though