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Arden's Art - Logo work for Soaring Against Time top of page 2
Arden Canelo
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
And the posts get made and there are comments in the thread
And you may tell yourself, this is not my beautiful forum, this is not my beautiful thread
Okay enough of that. I'm here to post my current artwork. I rarely post, most often lurk, but I'm posting these things now. My last thread was the zombie guy walking a zombie dog on page 2 of this very forum. Well, I'm still trying to work on that, and this is more of a general thread for my stuff to fit into.
Here we go, wa-hoo... life studies and from photos (need to do more of these :x )
Minecraft comics what I done - if you don't know about Minecraft then please look it up because its awesome.
Concepts for character for a comic series I want to start called Nocks -
The first one is a Dogorilla, second is a mecha based on a fat girl's body - yes thats supposed to be robot underboob, third you may have seen some of in another thread.
Concept for a short comic idea called Pay Up Right Now -
Short bit about that -
Its about a couple of debt collector’s that roam a world in search of payment in money or items or whatever for the collections agency they work for. One happens to be a 49 foot tall cross between a long neck dinosaur, a mechanical dragon and a couple other things. The other is a crack sniper who shoots from between the tall creatures teeth when those in debt refuse to pay, try to run, what have you. Let’s call the sniper Speck and the tall creature Hedge. Speck lives within Hedge and pays rent on him. Things like that.
I did this pixel thingy and kinda like it -
So yeah, that's about it for this past November and some of October. I want to focus more on life drawing and ref drawings like I should be doing too. Please say whatever you want about my art!
And you may tell yourself, this is not my beautiful forum, this is not my beautiful thread
Okay enough of that. I'm here to post my current artwork. I rarely post, most often lurk, but I'm posting these things now. My last thread was the zombie guy walking a zombie dog on page 2 of this very forum. Well, I'm still trying to work on that, and this is more of a general thread for my stuff to fit into.
Here we go, wa-hoo... life studies and from photos (need to do more of these :x )
Minecraft comics what I done - if you don't know about Minecraft then please look it up because its awesome.
Concepts for character for a comic series I want to start called Nocks -
The first one is a Dogorilla, second is a mecha based on a fat girl's body - yes thats supposed to be robot underboob, third you may have seen some of in another thread.
Concept for a short comic idea called Pay Up Right Now -
Short bit about that -
Its about a couple of debt collector’s that roam a world in search of payment in money or items or whatever for the collections agency they work for. One happens to be a 49 foot tall cross between a long neck dinosaur, a mechanical dragon and a couple other things. The other is a crack sniper who shoots from between the tall creatures teeth when those in debt refuse to pay, try to run, what have you. Let’s call the sniper Speck and the tall creature Hedge. Speck lives within Hedge and pays rent on him. Things like that.
I did this pixel thingy and kinda like it -
So yeah, that's about it for this past November and some of October. I want to focus more on life drawing and ref drawings like I should be doing too. Please say whatever you want about my art!
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That's pretty well much where you're going to find your improvement mojo. To be honest I need to be doing some, I haven't done a study in ages, so so lazy.
Next I mirrored the feathers on the eyebrows, yes I'm horrible. This is a female of a species I'm working on for a story comic whatever called Paharita. It means "little bird". There's no question they need more development, but I like the results so far. The bird's body and wings will further express the face's emotions kinda like a cat's ears or something similar. Also the concept of an "IQ Halo" - not really finished drawing it, but basically the person is so smart and their brain has so much activity/energy it manifests what their thinking in words made of light particles in a circle around their head.
I'll post more after I draw it! Which shouldn't be too long since I have more free time now. And okay I admit I've been a little discouraged about posting more in this thread since I only got one reply. I would love some words.
Post!
I probably miss used prehensile, but maybe I'll make them able to grip things (the wing brows).
Yeah I'll try to do more life drawing. I know :m
Thanks, and yes I'm working on the shape of them. No back wings. Back wings are for chumps. How do they fly? I need to work on that too.
Some of the process I would use for designing a character/race like this (warning, novice advice, take with a grain of salt):
First, gather a bunch of reference images of different flying/gliding animals and do some sketches. Try to find some resources that explain some of the basic mechanics for how they fly, too (there's a big difference between how birds fly versus, say, gliding snakes). Just like when studying human anatomy, having these references will give your designs an air of believability, while also providing a jumping point for really experimenting with different ideas.
After you've got some references, start sketching out different concepts. Go as crazy as you can. Maybe instead of two wings, they use a bunch of tiny wings. Maybe they glide instead of fly, using air currents to take them from place to place. And since you're doing an entire race, be sure to also experiment with the various body-types, genders, and ages. Are they all elegant and angelic? Are any of them overweight? Do they go through a particularly awkward puberty stage? Whatever the case, even if you find a design you like, design a few more. More likely than not, the design you settle on will be an amalgam of elements taken from a handful of concept sketches.
Start out with small thumbnails. In addition to letting you put down more ideas more quickly, it will also force you to think about the bigger picture of the character's silhouette. There are two temptations you want to avoid: obsessing over minute details, and favoring one design really early in the process. As you progress, you will gradually refine the specifics of your design, but at this early stage, those details will only make you more reluctant to let go of a concept that just isn't working.
Now you've got a page or two of thumbnails (minimum), choose 3 or 4 that you really like, and start refining them. Fill some pages with larger drawings. Try to envision them in as many situations as possible. How do they look when they fight, fly, sit down at a table, walk, when they're arguing with others, when they're recoiling in fear. This will let you see the character in each of them, and help you tweak the designs to make each of these actions more effective.
I think your basic problem right now, from what I've seen, is that you're really reluctant to let go of an idea. It's okay to have one unifying design element, like the wing-eyebrows, but you're going to need to learn how to put things on the chopping block. It seems tough, especially since this universe is kind of your baby, but that's exactly why you need to really think these things through, and not be afraid to trash an idea and go back to the drawing board if it means you'll have a shot at a better design choice.
Sorry if this post is rambling. I'm a little groggy.
Traveling within a planet made of networks of giant trees and roots, a young alien bird girl tightly clutches her father’s imprisoned Soul Seed. Her name is Zip de Tulip and she is a Paharita. Zip doesn’t know it yet, but her journey to save her father will take her all over the wonderful wooden world called Grindateyo. Some dangerous times await little Zip, but she doesn’t think it’s so bad since she has Everlasting Flight.
Yes, well, working more on the Paharita as a functional species here.
They rarely touch the ground in their every day lives, mostly only to sleep. I call it Everlasting Flight because its just something they're born with. The concept I'm working on for it is that their bodies send a signal to the gravity core of the planet and the core lets them manipulate gravity freely? Maybe I should research logical theory, I don't want to explain everything away with magic, that's silly.
Also, your pitch idea sounds interesting, but it's not really a story or anything. It needs to be basic and simple. Like... "a group of bird-like humanoids defend their home from an evil prince." Or whatever. Even stories with complicated story lines and technical mumbo jumbo need a basic relatable storyline. Star Wars is basically... "a young boy leaves his home to face his destiny." And Alien is "a fearsome creature attacks a group of space workers" or simply "Jaws in Space". Or Avatar: "a man must choose between defending natives and staying loyal to his own species." There's tons of technical stuff in those movies, but it really doesn't matter. The story is good and that's what people are looking for. The Force, hyperdrive, lightsabers, wookiees, xenomorphs, avatars... it's all interesting but people unfamiliar with it aren't going to be drawn into a new story if they can't grasp what it's about easily.
A little girl from a species of alien birds sets out on a journey to find the key to her father's imprisoned life force and return it to him before its too late.
To complex? I did a lot of digital sketches but erased most of what I had...which was a bad idea given what good concepting is about. :x ooooops
Don't erase stuff! Great ideas can come out of crappy ones. Just remember: brainstorming is not deciding whether something is good or not. That's voting.
Those are all the exact same body type. How are you expecting to get any sort of interesting variety in your concepts if all you're doing is pasting shit onto the same figure?
Here, this is by no means a comprehensive guide, but have a look at this. Notice how each iteration is different, in terms of stature, proportions, and personality. And behind each of those images, I guarantee there are pages and pages of loose sketches, thumbnails, and studies of bomb-squad gear and flak jackets.
But I think your greatest problem, and probably the one that is going to be hardest for you to shake, is that it's clear you still very much regard every drawing as precious. Probably because you don't have enough experience with the human form, and so you don't have confidence that you'll be able to draw the same figure twice, so you decide to put your all into one drawing and then ctrl-v 20 times. You're going to need to get over that.
The only way you'll be able to break yourself of that habit is by hunkering down and doing a lot of serious work. Do more anatomy studies, do more gesture drawings, do more long-form figure drawings, post them here. And I don't mean "do some gesture studies tomorrow, and then call it quits". This is going to be a grueling and ongoing process, every week, for years and years. Those artists in the blog post up above? I will bet you any amount of money that they have boxes full of sketchbooks they've filled up just this year with random ideas, drawings, and assholes on the subway. And they can spit out drawings within minutes that would take you or I half an hour to do. Because they know all kinds of shit. They have years of experience just sitting down and drawing people, and costumes, and machines, and body armor, and birds and zoo animals, and museum exhibits. If you start doing that, then you won't feel the constant urge to copy and paste a girl whose hips are on backwards, but whom you aren't convinced you could draw any better if you took another shot at it.
I know you're not trying to get a job as a concept artist, but you are trying to create an entirely new world. You need to know how this one works.
You're absolutely right. Thanks. I always think I'm ahead of it when I come here to post then I realize with advice how much better I could be doing. I want to work towards that. Paying attention to advice I mean.
Soaring Against Time
Three young teens, from a race of alien bird people, have one month to free the life force of their town’s mayor from a shape shifting cage before its too late.
Eh? eh? good? bad? Okay I'll go draw some more so my thread isn't just me posting words.
Eh, I'd say go for it. Someone might be able to give you pointers on how to improve your technique, and even if they don't, I often find that just submitting my stuff for public scrutiny forces me to take a closer look at it myself.
If you don't want to clutter your thread, you could post them in the doodle thread.
Also: Nice pages so far! The way you evolved the beak-nose is pretty novel.
Thank you for not using a dumb font, and for giving your text some breathing room. On that note, though, is there a reason the balloons in 1 & 5 are so jaggly and the rest so smooth?
@NibCrom - The wood grain is something I want to keep, but I can definitely tune it down some. Now that I look at it with fresh eyes it really is kinda overpowering.
@squidbunny - I hand drew balloons 1 and 5 which is pretty much an error on my part. I like the font too! I will alter the wood grain for page 2.
I shall take such a comment into consideration next time I'm doing a page with word bubbles, md.
For now here's a page of logos I've been working with. The biggest one is the one I like the most.
It needs to show time some how, a gear-seed (something key to the series also below the A in against), and I think I like gears too much as objects at this point to not make it a gear like logo :oops:
I'm pretty sold on the logo as it is, disregarding the lack of correct detail it needs right now. What do you guys think of it?
Take a look at other comic logos, it needs to be something more exciting. Also, there's not much brainstorming here. You pretty much just said, "I like gears, I'm using a gear" when that didn't serve the logo well. Think of other things the logo could use, like wings or a sundial. Play with the type some more. I would suggest getting all of your ideas down on paper before working digitally. Rendering it on the computer should be your last step, after you've come up with the concept.
If you look at other logo's with leangthy titles, you find they focus more on framing the words than throwing little dohicky's in with the words. The letters are cumbersome enough as they are. Instead focus on the lettering and framing.
If you want to throw in dohicky's, think about an abbreviated title (SAT) like these
Lots of logo's are not directly associated with the title, you could do something without the name (grandfather clock sillhouette, alarm clock, watch face, or maybe gears/cogs !!! just without the title)