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Draw This Again- Feel the Wrath

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Here is the before and after of this picture. I wanted to redraw it for fun to see how I would approach the concept now. It was a cool exercise so i am glad I did it.

The only thing better in the original, in my opinion, is Edward's urgency. In the new one he looks too much like he is posing. When I was redrawing this, his stance was very hard to draw, actually. Because the composition of the first drawing didn't work, it didn't work when I redrew it. Especially his silhouette. There was even a time when I was going to redraw what he was doing completely, but felt that it wouldn't serve the purpose of the "before and after meme". it would be a different picture entirely.
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Peccantis's avatar
Hmm. Interesting case. The original composition is cramped, but you might have overcompensated because the new version feels sparse to the point of disconnected.

Lust's face shows best improvement, Ed's has been refined as well. Gluttony's, well, I prefer the older one, because it retains the almost inhuman style of his head. Also the visible bits of gums and the emptiness of his maw behind those teeth are an important touch for him, it gives his grin an animal-like look. Also the old Gluttony's pose is an ominous low-angle view and the grin is creepily directed at the viewer (or below the viewer's eyeline, matching Lust). Very Gluttony. Whereas in the new version, I'm afraid, this has been lost and his aimless stare looks more happy than about-to-bite-your-head-off. Well. Lust's gaze has been lifted off of Ed towards the viewer, this works. Her expression is very in-character and gives the right kind of chills.

As for the composition, I would take the new Lust as-is, put a slightly shrinked old Gluttony to the upper right corner, and modify the new Ed into a pose similar to the old one (provided you want that urgency you mentioned). Gluttony I have discussed, Ed's case is more complicated because his mood has been completely changed: the old pic is "wounded Ed faces Lust and Gluttony" while the new one is "Ed and Lust have joined forces and Gluttony hangs about". What remains is the basics of Ed's defending pose.

The new pic is anatomically superior but also less visually interesting and less emotionally dynamic. If you want to get that air of fear and backed-to-a-corner back, I'll give some suggestions.

First, the body, the heart of all communication. I like the position of the blade hand in the old one: raised, it looks prepared for fight in an instinctive, untrained, uncontrolled way. We know Ed is trained and controlled so this reads as strong fear, coming from him. The other hand disappears somewhere, but the new pose for it is alright. We could take things to the extreme and make this hand show fear as well, but then Ed would look like a frightened girl (I'll spare you my rant on how demeaning it is that even trained female fighters are drawn in instinctive-fear poses). The raised shoulders in the old one are really powerful in conveying how bad it is for Ed. The old version shoulders pretty much reads "I know I'm going to die right now", the new ones "I'm calm and I expect to kick your asses easily". Depending on how strong you want the effect to be, raise one or both of the shoulders. I would probably go slightly raised with the "calm" hand's shoulder, somewhat higher with the "fearful" one to keep Ed just on the edge of being concerned and being afraid for his life. There's also the torsion of his torso: old Ed is defensively cowering almost completely side-first, new Ed sports pretty much the ideal angle of preparedness. Give the angle a thought as well.

The flare of old Ed's jacket is a bit too much, whereas I find the new Ed's jacket too starched and unmoving for a pose where his hair is flying. A bit of flare will add dynamic.

I like what you're going for with the shading, however it could use more work. New version does look WIP-ish: Ed's jacket and the clothing of the Homunculi are all black pretty unshiny cloth, but you've given Ed's clothes a strong and weirdly pale blue tint. Now this can be understandable and okay if the lighting of the scene is like that, but in that case his face and hair should follow.

Random thoughts:
* watch out for nose shading -- with the minimal style it's easy for too close shading to make them look like thin cardboard triangles sticking out of a flat face
* you seem to have tendency to draw the ear a bit too high
* be careful with how close-fitting and shiny you make Ed's trousers -- new Ed seems to be wearing spandex leggings currently ;3
* Lust's ribcage could be more shallow, current new one seems rather masculine in its girth -- in this angle and with her build her collarbones should also be visible
* studying shoulder anatomy should do you good
* this is an official request to go look at some boobs. New Lust's boobs have a good location (rare! People usually draw them way too high up) but the near one and especially the far one look flat and, truth to be said, small for her character. Drawing passable cleavage from a direct front angle is deceivingly easy, but it'll help to remember that that angle is the only occasion when one should draw that infamous "cleavage v" (and even then only when push-up bra or similarly effective stays are in use).

Keep working! Remember to study anatomy from life/undoctored photos. And drop me a note someday so I can see your future growth :3