Sonic is Unimpressed Evolution

This is not a bad piece of work... but I have to admite, I can't figure out how it took you 7 hours to draw as you say.

The rendition of Sonic is very well done and true to the original character design; it may be a matter of personal preference, but while you have done a fantastic immitation of official Sonic the Hedgehog style, I personally would prefer to see an artist put their own unique spin on the character. However having said that, not everyone may agree with me there, so that's a point that you can take or leave as you see fit. <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Smile)"/>

The pose is also very good and looks very solid, the anatomy is accurate and fitting with the style of the character.

Where this artwork really begins to fall down is in the line art. The outlines look very roughly drawn and lack definition, style and detail. Some of the lines are also a little shaky (this is particularly noticable in his nearest arm and in his lower left/far leg.) Perhaps it is that you have trouble with a shaky hand - I have this problem and have found ways around it; one method of dealing with the problem is to draw a line in very lightly, but draw the SAME light line in over again until it becomes bold. Another method is to press extra hard. If you have problems holding a pen steady as I do, you may want to try some of these methods to combat the problem in future. By the way, this isn't a derogaratry comment on you as a person; some artists just have this problem.

Now, after dealing with the issues of shaky lines, I want to talk about line weight. You can add a lot more personality and depth to a picture by making certain lines stronger and thicker, and other lines softer and thinner. Take a look at this image: [link] see how the variation in the thickness and strength of the line art adds to the depth of the drawing. It really makes the character stand out! As well as accenting certain areas and even hinting at texture here and there.

Now, as for colouring, I am impressed with how smoothly you can colour in traditional media. The colours are very bright and bold, and really help make this piece eye-catching! However, I think that the placement of certain areas of colour could be altered to give the picture more depth. I notice the highlights on the top of his quills and on the edges of the legs and shoes. In reality, highlights usually only appear close to the 'edge' of an object as we view it, when we are looking at a flat object (or when the light source is intense on one side). On curved objects, such as his cylindical legs and curve-topped shoes, we should expect to see the highlight a little closer to the centre of the drawn shape. Examine some objects either in real life or in photographs, and in professional artwork, and you will soon notice how the placement of lighting in this way can make a distinction between a flat or a curved object! Incidentally, I also notice that you neglected to add any shading at all to the white areas (unless your scanner maybe didn't pick it up). White areas have shadows too, don't forget! <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Smile)"/>

Now, one last criticism, is the quality of the image. I don't mean the drawing itself, but the file and the scan. The whole image appears to be a little darker and greyish than it should be, and the colours in some places look slightly pixellated. You can easily fix up the pixellation by saving the image at a higher quality setting in whatever scanner program you are using (I would also recommend saving as a .png file instead of .jpg, as .png is lossless and therefore doesn't suffer from a degredation of quality). As for the problem of the greyness, this isn't so easily fixed, but there are ways to brighten up an image even when a scanner fails to pick up all the colours. If you're interested, i made a little tutorial about this here: [link]

To round this off, the picture is looking just great, and you've done a good job of rendering Sonic. With a few improvements, your artwork will continue to get better and better! I hope you find this critique helpful and continue to do more great artwork. <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/s/s…" width="15" height="15" alt="" title=" (Smile)"/>