Ok iv been here for a while now looking at everyone elses work, and getting jealous..lol..

I done this as a doodle, but im proud of it. I knopw its nothing great but, im a graphic desigh student and im trying to build my skills as an illustrator.

What can i do to make it better?

Very good spider!

I think the best way to improve this would be to pay more attention to the pencil strokes themselves; if they're going to be visible, as they are here, then they need to be more organized -- for example, all going the same way or at right angles. Otherwise, you could build up values more slowly, with layers of pencil, so that the strokes are not visible.

The other thing I would say would be to try to make the blacks really black; the darkest parts of a drawing shouldn't have paper showing through.

Finally, one thing about this spider confuses me: is it hairy, or smooth and shiny? The edges of the body have hair around them, but then the body has that big shiny highlight on it. Maybe this is the "just a doodle" part.

Thanx for the reply. The hair was added last, dont know why i done it. As i said i done a bit every time i went for a smoke, all with the same pencil. And im sorry i dident realise it was so big.

I am more tech, so iv scanned it into photoshop to see what i can do with it.

I agree with Ernest's comments, and you haven't picked an easy subject.

I would just add that unless you want it to look like a dead spider I would try to work out (for future ref) how to make it look like its standing on its legs. If you watch them they stand on the very tips of their little feet - and you almost never see legs curved back like that - the only time I see the back 2 legs pointing back are when they pull silk from their spinaret.

Perhaps a little shadow under it and and a bit of foreshortening on some of the legs to get a better perspective on a standing spider. Or maybe next time you could do one suspended from a thread??

But great job on going from memory ( or did you have a dead spider ? )The rotten things always curl up into unnatural positions and are only 1/4 of the size they were before they were deceased! It makes telling heroic stories very hard doesn't it.

Its from memory, i hate spiders, cant even look at a dead 1..lol

I just started drawing when i went back to college, i have art history as a subject. Iv alot of practice to do to get my standereds up.

Thanx for the comments guys, its been a great help.

I agree with everyone else - and drawing it from memory is really good also! Better than I can do I always need a reference! Good job though, keep up the good work.