Well, everybody else seems to be doing it! lol, I just wanted to get some tips and criticism because people seem to be good at doing that here.
http://www.deviantart.com/view/12743366
It's not FMA, but... oh well ^__^()
http://www.deviantart.com/view/12742088
http://www.deviantart.com/view/12741486
Anyone else here use Open Canvas or paintshop pro? Everybody seems to use Adobe, so I can't get any help on how to color and such, everything has been self learned so far and none of it is efficient...>__<

I use paint shop pro, though I'm fairly new at it.

Still, got any tips? Anything that has to do with outlining... i can't decide what to do. Using the pen is good, but then it creates annoying white spaces that create so many problems when coloring >__<

Most of the things that need improvement lie in anatomy.^^ Observation! Always good. I know, it sounds like I'm asking you to look at people as you're walking down the hallway. No, that'll just get you stares. You'll just...notice it really. Keep it in your head. And use it when you draw.^^ I can't offer help on profile views since I suck at those, and can't seem to get the connection between the nose and upper lip to ever look right... *sigh*

Thanx for the comment! I'm used to stares anyways XD

i like the naruto one! the cg's pretty good.....i taught myself too XP opencanvas is my favorite for cging and it's really easy to use, but my trial expired it doesn't let me save stuff. i think you can achieve the same effects of a oC cg with photoshop by playing around with flow and opacity, though.

and go ahead and stare at people for reference! i do that all the time in and out of class. like in calc, i'll be staring at someone's head or arm for reference on a margin doodle, and they'll turn around and give me the look. "uhh...why are you staring at me/my leg/etc?" "i'm drawing it. now shut up and don't move." but most people at school know me as "the drawer girl" and they're all used to it by now

Hey, same with me! Sometimes I'll be sketching during lunch or something and I'll tell my friend to stay still so I can get basic shapes down, and of course, just to spite me, they'll move
Yeah, my trial version expired too XD But I've carried over some of the techniques i learned and applied it to paintshop pro, and it's turning out pretty good. But OC has a better line system, and you can draw straight lines right off the bat, whereas in psp the lines are all squiggly and imperfect TT_TT

yeah, my art teacher has us do sketches with her son as a model every now and then.

"ummm..."
"frank, don't move."
"but...."
"don't move."
"i have to sneeze!"
"only if you can do it without moving."

every now and then he falls asleep and off the chair ;;

hmm, i used to use psp but then my friend, the king of pirates [er, pirating] lent me photoshop to install. maybe ask around at school to see if anyone has it? it's the most useful software in the history of ever but if you're not allowed to buy things and therefore not allowed to get a tablet, like me, you'll have to get used to mousing. which in itself isn't bad training, i think.

That's so cute! I wonder if he gets anything in return for doing that... eh, prolly not. I wanna take a serious art class like that... haven't had many chances up to now though. Still, being freshman doesn't exactly ensure you the first of your choices, and I don't think I got any of my art electives...

lol, i need a pirating friend. All my friends see ME as the pirating friend, and all i have is anime Sad, i know. Everybody uses photoshop so there are more resources for it, which is definately what i need. I'm kinda used to mousing, but don't have total control >__< Yeah, it is good practice.

hmm, that's at my private art studio, where i've been going for the past 9+ years. at the art class at school (i needed to fill visual art credits ;; ) we don't really do anything challenging anyhow, cause our tiny art program is crap (it's a relaxing class, though, but even then i don't work on my project and i doodle on scratch paper XD). all we have is art 1-3, ceramics 1 and 2, and 3-D model and design which is basically playing with clay and decorating cardboard pots. the teacher's an awesome guy though

but yeah, if you really like art, i'd suggest finding a class outside of school or a studio; you get a lot more instruction and time with the teacher, you'll make new friends (awww), and you really improve a lot. teachers outside of school can criticize your art as much as it needs, too, and all her years and years and years of criticism have helped me a lot. like if i hadn't joined the studio, i don't think i would have been close to my current level *bows at invisible effigy of teacher*. she's getting a lot more lax, though, the kiddies and middleschoolers were drawing carolers and i saw a lot of anime-style drawings. if i had done anime-styled stuff back then she would have chopped off my head >___<;;; if it's anime stuff you wanna improve on, though, you may wanna check that out with studios you'd consider.

I want to improve all around, expanding in new directions and stuff like that. I'm satisfyed with my anime stuff for now, its the more realistic style that I want to work on. An art class outside of school sounds like a good idea, I'll look into that.

In school we only have two general art classes, three ceramics classes and lots of other classes that I have yet to learn of Hey, I'm new to the highschool scene ^__^()

Freshman? Get 'em!! Seriously though, that's such a dumb tradition.

My art program sucks too. It's always music and art that gets handed what's left...wtf? Without music and art, life would be boring as hell. What you watch on TV is a form of art...

My art program consists of:

Art 1

Art 2 (Which I have yet to take because my school can't schedule, so I couldn't take it last year, and I can't take it this year because I have to fill in credits for a prerequisite to CAD. I'm a junior if you couldn't tell.^^)

Ceramics

Sculpture

Indepent Art (Supposedly, it's a mostly independant thing. You pick a project, and you work on it the entire year with a little help from the teacher now and then.)

I'm looking into taking courses at the county college.^^ I suggest you do that. You'd do better there then with the crappy art programs our schools provide...

*ears perk up, sniffs the air* ....UPPERCLASSMEN! RUUUUN!! lol, I haven't really experienced much of this. Only the occasional, "Stupid Freshman" when people are bumping into each other in the hall. We're so packed it's kinda hard not to though...
Yeah, I have art 1 this trimester, and when the teacher was introducing the class she even talked about budget cuts, saying this was one of the classes likely to get cut if it came to that. Isn't that sad? There's just something wrong with that...

Naruto fanart on the FMA forum? What are you thinking! HERECY! =D

Anyway, I suppose I'd want to see a colored FMA fanart from you before I give any comments... the sketches weren't very obvious.

I use OC mostly but I can switch to Photoshop 7 or Painter 6 just as easily. I'm just more used to OC.

I wish I had time to do more than one CG at a time >__< right now I'm working on a Naruto christmas one... but this pic is next!

And I wanted to try drawing Ed's automail for the first time, so I drew this...

But it's not that good... I need more practice, I never was good at drawing mechs and stuff.
I need a non-trial OC... I just can't do a full CG in one sitting, a good one takes me 6 hours at the minimum >__<

i really like that top one, with the four images behind ed, the pose you drew ed in is really nice, there's a lot of good movement in the image. something...doesn't look quite right on roy and riza, but not no much you can't tell who they are. also, al's mouth isn't quite right either, the little...munchy jaw thing comes down further, but overall it's a nice piece. again, i really like ed's pose. you're planning to color them, right? please show us when they are finished, they both look like good stuff in the works. XD

ooh, i love roy's smirky expression in the first one XD al's eyes are a little huge though. and i suck at drawing mechs too, but i think ed's automail is pretty fun to draw =3 good luck with the oC trial.....i've been experimenting in photoshop, trying to get the same effects, but i haven't got it right yet. i don't like doing things in one sitting either, because i had to do that for both this picture (2:45) and this picture (1:00) and it's a pain, because i never got to add the shadows to either. i tried uninstalling it and redLing the trial, but no cigar. portalgraphics, they're tricky ones.

oh yeah, for the ed picture, his hair shows a lot of movement but there isnt' really any in the clothes. based on how the wind's blowing, you'd probably want to make the jacket more fwappy in that direction (<--excellent artists terminology. fwappy. obviously i suck at describing things XD) and i think his whole pigtail should be shown blowing around, because just the end of it doesn't make as much sense.

Thanx for the comments, guys! I'm new to drawing Roy and Riza ^__^ that's the 3rd Roy I've drawn and the 1st Riza... and I wanted her to be seen in a unique position, but it just doesn't capture her personality ^__^() I'll try to work on that.
I originally had his cloak billowing out, but... it ended up covering Riza's face >__< I sorta left it out then... but I'll work something out! The criticism really helps.
I was bored during science... but something good came of that:
My science teacher is uptight about doodles so I had to do it in my assignment book, sorry about the lines. She's crazy, my science teacher... I haven't met a single science teacher that wasn't.

I only just realized that ninja was talking about the other one -__-()
Oh well. Here's the colored version of the Ed-gumi:


I finally has time to color this. My savior comes in the form of Open Canvas 1.1, which has no trial version so I can use it as long as I like! w00t!! It's a bit harder to use than the newer ones, seeing as you can't undo past 3 or so steps and for some reason you can't combine anything other than multiply layers (?) but the same basics are there. I luv you, 1.1!