Gah, ♥♥♥♥ hell one minute.

EDIT: should be fixed.

Miggles, if you were trying to give any genuine advice, it was nigh undetectable under the layers of snark and sarcasm. There's a fine line between giving criticism and being pointlessly rude.
I don't want to see any more posts like that in this thread. Criticism is fine, but don't be a wad about it.

Bombzero, that's a huge step in the right direction, let me tell you that much. Nice job! c:
I actually think it looks really nice with that "completely" hard brush, but please do experiment, because there isn't one single right way of doing art. I eventually came to my cartoony style after a lot of experimenting (and several whacks from the Lizardmallet telling me to get consistent), and likewise am i sure that you'll eventually find a style that both looks and feels right.

Now, a few things i'd like to address with the revamped image, just to keep things from getting TOO sweet (hee hee):
- Contrast. Takes a bit of getting used to (i of all people oughta know that), but increasing the contrast between the shades of a color improves the depth of the image. Be careful not to make it too harsh a contrast, but once again using the example of your hand near a lamp, notice how much darker the shadow actually is, especially if the lamp is the only light source. Also, you see the shadow that objects cast upon one another? It's the same shadow darkening the object itself, so it should be around as dark as the shadow it casts. Relatively speaking, of course, since a shadow appears darker when it falls on a darker object, and vice versa. EXAMPLE SPOILER:


- Light source direction. As chao mentioned, the light in the image is a bit jumbled. It's not actually clear where it's coming from (perhaps you could... ENLIGHTEN me on that?), and generally, you want it to be obvious. Consistent shading adds a whole lot of depth to the image, and apart from that... Well, it just looks right. ANOTHER EXAMPLE SPOILER:


So yeah, i hope it helps!

Disclaimer: I am a horrible full-scale artist so you should probably be cross-referencing with others.

Secondary disclaimer: Yes those examples are made in Paint. It is a good thing for doodling things.

And subsequently does comrade Shook discover that he likes doodling with a large brush size in Paint when it doesn't involve stickmen.

boy, i sure do wish i could even draw a straight line

Metal Chao is my hero, Shook is my idol.
That is all I have to say on this matter.

Straight lines are for people who actually bother to press the shift key.


And thanks Shook, that's some good advice, I understand alot about shading overall concept-wise I just need practice with implementation.

I picked up this shading tutorial from DeviantArt, it might be jumping the gun, but every resource helps.

On that note, shading is my bane.

Neat, though I have on thing to say.
read through it, liked the advice, reread it, still liked the advice, started to reread it again, noticed something.
"Cell shading"
...
damnit all, I hate noticing mistakes like that.
(for the uninformed, the correct term would be CEL shading, origination from the celluloid paper used in traditional 2D animation.)

On top of what Shook said, you're not really being particularly adventurous with your shading. Move away from those outlines a little!
What it takes some people a while to get used to is that shading exists to convey what shape your object is, not simply to give it depth. Shading around the edges is a start but it is merely the beginning of your wonderful relationship with shadows.
Shook demonstrated what I am about to explain on his own doodle... but then went back to what I'd sort of call doing it "wrong" (in a way) on his one that was meant to look like yours! Grr.

Let's take that pointy tail as an example.


There's a rough approximation of how it's shaded right now. Let's not repeat ourselves about light direction and colour choice, but I think you can shade this a lot better.
Usually if your light and shadow are sticking exclusively to something's edges you are doing something wrong. One of the two should move out to "meet" the other, in a sort of smaller version of the original object. This is sort of hard to explain with words so fortunately I don't have to.


In a redrawn version (keeping the slightly confused light sources because that frankly makes it a little easier for me to draw and I don't want to spend too much time on this )
The ultimate goal of shading (and a good thing to keep in mind while doing it) is to make sure that every part of the picture is clearly visible and defined... even with the outlines removed. It's pretty easy to fall back on outlines as doing bits of the shading work for you which doesn't usually end up being a good idea when you are trying to learn shading, frankly it's not really a good idea on anything that's meant to be shaded!
See how the highlights are more like shapes located within larger shapes rather than lines clustered around the edges of the shape? That's really what you should be aiming for.

I feel like I've done a pretty poor job of putting this into words so hopefully the pictures speak for themselves. As Shook said, just holding objects near a lamp will also help you with this. You'll very quickly notice that the light fills a much greater portion than what you're currently working with!

Interesting advice Metal Chao, and yes the pictures help a lot there.

I'll have to put some of this to work next time I come up with something to draw.

Whoopsie, i knew it was a good idea to put that disclaimer into the post. :U
It was a quick and lazy doodle though, mostly to demonstrate coherence of light. I shaded it like a continuous cylinder, which I GUESS isn't entirely correct for a segmented worm. Good thing you're around to correct me then!

Edit: now look at what you made me do chao


LOOK

Under the great (and unbeknownst to him) tutelage of Comrade Shook.
also working on trying to be funny...

Hmm, the mouth is a bit disproportionate to the eyes, and you may want to work on head form a bit, maybe look at some reference images of the stickman skull. [/♥♥♥♥]

Terrible stick anatomy, get back to studying.

I didn't even know tutelage was a word. :U

also unrelated doodle because empty space


i neb moar practice