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I'm not the best artist myself, but I've been studying art to better my own drawing. I can give you some critique!

1. I think it's a cute picture! I like it. You should consider getting some mangaka pens to enhance your art! Also, it would clean up your art (no feathery edges) and make it easier to color with pencils.
   
   
2. The head and proportions of the face look really good! Great symmetry, great head shape. The ear is a bit high, you should lower it to meet maybe in the middle of her eye.
   
   
3. The eyes are incredible, good job!
   
   
4. The hair looks great! When doing hair, it's essential to imagine from what point the hair is coming from: If the hair is coming from the left side of the head, for example, all the strands must appear to be able to meet that point on the left side of the head. And I see that's what you were attempting to do. It looks great! But I suggest you define the hair a little more, especially the point that it's coming from. (This would make it tons easier to color as well, and I'm horrible at coloring!)
   
   
5. For me, the body looks a little stiff. This is also something I struggle with greatly, but stiffness usually comes from shoulders and arms. I understand her position, with her hands on her hips, but I think her shoulders should be relaxed a bit more. That would ease the stiffness. (Remember, coat hanger shoulders!) Also, loosen up her arms. Though, the arm shape is done very well!
   
   
6. You should make her neck a little bit skinner. Thick necks are for big people (big muscles or fat characters) and she's small, so her neck shouldn't be so thick.
   
   
7. Her hands look incredible! I can't draw hands to save my life haha, great job! They're a great size for her arms and her fingers look well. Great job on the hands.
   
   
8. Her boobs! Breasts don't really show that way in clothing (especially so with anime) I'm going to send you a few links with boobs so you can see them. For the most part, boobs are all about shapes, contours, and shading
   
   Asuna
   
   Mei Rin
   
   Chiho
   
   When looking at their boobs, notice the coloring, the clothes being distorted by their chests, and the shape of the boobs. Boobs are difficult to draw; I draw base boobs by drawing two ovals kinda, but making sure more fat is at the bottom rather than the top. Nipples should sit a little higher to make a "tear drop"-ish shape. Be sure to contour the outfit around her chest to enhance the fact that she has boobs!
   
   
9. It can be hard to make clothes look like clothes! Her outfit looks great! Though, I suggest you add wrinkles, bundles and bunches, stretching, and so on to make her clothes look a bit more real. Be sure to give her wrinkles at her waist, and joints/bends, and her chest. Also, emphasize the pleats in her skirt by shading too!
   
   
   

10. Overall, I think you did a wonderful job! How long have you been drawing? There are only a few minor things you should change but I think it's incredible! Remember: I really suggest you get some mangaka pens! And you should shade a bit more in your picture--shading can be the difference between night and day.
    

    
    

    D
    
    *Edit: The weird formatting and numbers wasn't on purpose...for some reason, adding numbers formats it this way, and the last 1&2 are actually 9&10 but....I don't know why it shows as 1&2. Oh well! You get the point!

>Reference things and add in my own inspiration that leads to understanding the idea?

This right here is exactly what I meant by "reinventing the wheel", right? So a little bit of fun history - during the Renaissance, a nice fellow by the name of Leonardo DaVinci got frustrated with his painting and how they wouldn't "come out the way he liked it". So he started to observe the world and figured out many of the rules that let us depict a three-dimensional world in the two dimensions of a canvas/paper/Photoshop file. Things like perspective didn't have may written rules before then, so he had to come up with those rules. I'm loosely paraphrasing here, but that's the gist of it.

Modern artists such as ourselves don't have to go through the trial-and-error method of the classics, we have much easier ways of doing that:

Dynamic Figure Drawing - I like this book but it's a bit more advanced. He doesn't explain much about what he's doing and how the basics work. Avoid for now.

Figure Drawing - Design and Invention - Good book. Also a bit advanced.

Figure Drawing for All It's Worth - Now this I have a PDF on Dropbox for whenever I need it. You can buy the book on Amazon, but this is the original from the 1930s. The copyright expired on it, so they can be shared.

Fun with a Pencil Same deal. Most of Loomis' books are available for free online. If you want to draw faces, start here. His method is essentially >The< go-to method for correctly doing faces of today.

I took those off a post I made last week for someone else, but it's about the same thing. If you view any of the books on anatomy for artists, for example, the authors are very good at building the body in its basic shapes and teaching you how to draw not only based on what you see, but what you know something should look like.

You can always do drawing classes, I think they're a good way to start, but they're not necessary. What you would get out of them is a personal sort of coach that will oversee what you're doing and try to steer you in the right direction and give you pointers on where you need to improve. Obviously, though, most art teachers will teach you realism (which I strongly recommend you start with to strengthen your basics). However, being self-taught myself I can't speak from experience on how much help a class could be.

Mentality wise you need to understand that, in the long run, having strong understanding of the basic rules of drawing, of drawing people especially, will save you much frustration in the future. And like I said before, if you're good at visualizing things and translating them onto paper, it's already a huge part of your work being done for you. This is a bit humorous but I think it's very accurate. If you can avoid steps 1-3, I think you'll be on the right track!

Honestly, finding 'good' ones depends on a few factors. One of which includes what genre you're going for. Shonen or shoujo? (Since I fall under the latter I tend to have a good selection.)

If you really want the best of the best try looking for ones IN Japanese. While Google Translate won't be 100% reliable, there's always the possibility someone online translated it. And if not, hopefully the pictures are VERY step-by-step and helpful. I agree with the other user, Mastering Manga is basically THE best you can get right now.

"The Masters Guide To Drawing Anime" series isn't HORRIBLE, but it could be better. However his art has definitely improved in general over the years this artist has been doing these books. So something is working in his favor too here.

"The Complete Guide to Drawing Manga" is one of my favorites! It has a ship ton of information in general AND different artists! While it focuses a bit more on the actual manga part there is a lot of good information. See if your library has it! That's where I first found it and I ended up buying it~ https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Drawing-Manga-Exclusive/dp/1438002734

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Other than that check comic/graphic novel ones too, just in case. Quite a few have an anime type style to them as of late so maybe there's something there~ After that it just turns into practice practice practice. Good luck!!

It's my pleasure, you obviously have a lot of talent and it's only a small issue! As a side note, I presume you're a college student now so you probably don't have a lot of free money, but if you're gonna invest in any really helpful art books I'd suggest starting with something like Anatomy for the Artist by Sarah Simblet (I know that's the UK link but it gives you a preview that the US Amazon site doesn't). It covers all aspects of both male and female anatomy and it's really high quality, it even gives you transparent overlay pages over photos that show you how muscles lie under the skin. It looks a bit like this. It also gives you examples of famous artworks in contrast to a photo of a real person in that pose, to show you how anatomy can be distorted/transformed in art without it looking 'bad'. Anything like that will give you a brilliant understanding of how the human body is formed and it honestly will reflect in your artwork. Subbing to other artists is also great, it's a cliche but the more you look at other people's work/draw the better you'll get. You obviously have a great foundation already, I really look forward to seeing more of your stuff!

Hi everyone, this is Kelvyn, author of The Many Adventures of Peter and Fi. WOW! Thank you so much for this wonderful piece, I love it! Seeing Fi in your style is so, so awesome and is filling me with inspiration. I especially like the ponytails decision, it looks so cute!

For anyone curious about the series, you can find out more over at r/peterandfi and check out the first book on Amazon

You're welcome. I went and sprung for EX myself. I know it's not required, but I'm reading through Mastering Manga Studio 5 to learn the program's nuances. Cheers and hope you produce artwork you're proud of.

This link is a pretty good run down on tablets, however the Bamboo is now the Intuos and the Intuos series is Intuos Pro.

tl;dr: If you're doing this as a hobby, think of getting a Bamboo/Intuos or if you're willing to splash money an Intuos 4/5/Intuos Pro.

You can get good deals on second-hand/refurbished Wacom tablets on eBay once you have a look around. I personally wouldn't get anything smaller than a Wacom medium-sized tablet simply because you don't have room to do nice, long strokes.

There are other brands such as Genius and Huion if you're looking to save a bit of money.

If there are only two choices here, I would chose Wacom tablet for its good fame and good quality. But the price is relatively high. There are also many other famous brands like Huion and monoprice. I strongly recommend Huion tablets which are affordable and durable.
http://www.amazon.com/Huion-H610-Graphics-Drawing-Tablet/dp/B00GIGGS6A/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_2?m=A30BRCK3LE6SB5&s=merchant-items&ie=UTF8&qid=1410862891&sr=1-2

Cool, thanks.

I've actually got CSP, but haven't gotten a chance to use it yet. I picked it up while it was on sale for like 75% off. I don't have a tablet yet. I've been scoping the price for the Wacom Intuous Pro (small) and Intuous Pen (small) on amazon for a while now.

I've been thinking that I might as well splurge and get the pro. Your opinion pretty much just solidified that.

It's a four colour ballpoint! Not an "artpen" as such and I mainly use it in school when cleaning up notes, but they're pretty fun to draw with as well! it's a bicpen so it's actually decently cheap.

Also got another in pastel tones :)

Thank you kindly. The only tutorial I can link is this. I worked through this book recently and it's the best lesson in drawing I've had. Even though it deals with realism, once you know how to see (since that's what is taught in the book) drawing anime things should be easy.

Well first of all I think your lines look great already. But you mentioned lack of friction on a touch screen so I'll throw out one tidbit of advice that might help you with that. Get a matte finish screen protector. I have a Surface Pro 2 and here's the screen protector I have. Matte finish protectors provide some friction that will make it feel a little more like normal paper drawing and might make it more a more comfortable experience for you. Seriously though I wish I could draw as well as you. We are all our harshest critics.

I remember this book from high school when I first started. I remember not liking the style that much though. It seems too simple.

I just recently found one that I think is better and covers a variety of styles, anatomy, and different techniques ( digital, hand drawn, paint, ink, etc.) I feel like of all the "How to Draw Manga" books I remember from high school don't compare to what I found in this book after picking it up a couple months ago.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Drawing-Manga-Exclusive/dp/1438002734/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421722654&sr=8-1&keywords=the+complete+guide+to+drawing+manga&pebp=1421722660210&peasin=1438002734

I learned everything from this book:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-Manga-Katy-Coope/dp/0439317452

11/10. Best book. Would recommend to everyone. TOPKEK

What do you think happens when you let an American comic artist do manga? What happens if you give it to a 16 year old girl? You get.... TOPKEK.

I bought an Ugee tablet about a week ago and I absolutely love it. I was worried that the quality wouldn't be as good but I actually find it much nicer than my old Wacom.

Honestly, I've done a lot of research and I firmly believe that the competition isn't "cheap", Wacom just overcharges. Those digitizers are only about $100 and monitors cost about $150... there is no reason a cintiq should cost $800.

It's very rare for there to be vertical folds in the cleavage. They can make it look like there are "boob pockets" in the top. The folds should be horizontal and run between the breasts.

I'm not very good at drawing folds either, but I've found Drawing the Clothed Figure to be helpful.

This one has some great reviews, anyone tried it?

http://www.amazon.com/CARL-Angel-5-Pencil-Sharpener-Blue/dp/B005D7S9FI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1395674764&sr=8-2&keywords=classroom+friendly+pencil+sharpener

[This] (https://www.amazon.com/How-Draw-Manga-Manga-Style-Composition/dp/4766117093) is the best "How to Draw Manga" book I have ever read. It basically shows you how to think about realistic anatomy and then translate it into a more simplified, manga style.

Ugee HK1560, it's worked perfect so far! Though I was so used to drawing on paper that it took a while to adjust to digital.

I'D recommend Mark Crilley.s Mastering Manga Serie it explains everything to character creation , scenery , dialog , background , facial expression.

http://www.amazon.ca/Mastering-Manga-Level-Mark-Crilley/dp/1440328307

and here's a sneek peak of the book by the author:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OJZhvj2kQM

This is the one I have: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rotring-Tikky-1mm-Mechanical-Pencil/dp/B001B2LSB6

It's holder for thin pieces of pencil lead. You push down on the top of the pen and more lead comes out.

Here's a video of some.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xxc-Shel6Ro#t=38

Though, there handy since you don't have to sharpen them, you can't really shade with them because the lead is so thin. If you want one for drawing I'd recommend getting a 0.9mm to 1.0mm one since then the lead won't break as easily.