Hey everybody I am need of some character design opinion or critique on this character.
This is a character for a comic book idea I've been working on. The main premise of the character is that the mask is the source of his powers, or at least the ooze that came from it, that's why is skin is black (or at least some type of swampy aqua color, a more biological color I guess). The thing with the mask is that it also, near as we can tell, is permanently bonded to the main characters face, meaning he no longer has a mouth, , eyes, or eyebrows to express his emotions with. The solution to that to was the sockets which could be interpreted in one of two ways: A) Have his eyes be visible through the sockets in his mask, but that would sort of create some sense of a tragic hero, not my idea for him; or
have the sockets function on a cartoon level of expression. I chose
because A would make the character come off as serious.
Okay main point, I'm having trouble deciding on how his eye "sockets" should look , I know the definite shape and how it functions but not what goes in it. I've narrowed it down to three options: A) Have the sockets empty and just be pure black
have the sockets jut out like bug eyes and be colored a sort of opal color; or C) Have black sockets that go in but opal irises, ( I like this one but the only issue I have is the size and shape of the iris in context to the negative space of the eye, or basically the white area of a human eye).
So any comments or suggestions?
Posts
You got some work ahead of you. Get to drawing and post them up here.
Blog on how life drawing gets applied to cartoons:
http://stulivingston.blogspot.com/2012/10/life-drawing-for-animation-demoz.html
Super important to consider the structure of your characters and start understanding things in 3d space. No matter how cartoony, your characters need an under-structure.
like so.
Keep simpler characters in line with cylanders, spheres, cones, and cubes
It sounds dumb, but drawing a bunch of spheres, cubes and cylinders will help you. Get a bunch of simple objects and light them and try your hardest to get them accurately.
I'm a lot better than this, trust me. That sketch took me like 3 minutes, I wanted to get the question out and not really worry about the picture.
As for costume, no. At most its a white beater and a pair of basketball shorts. Ever since he started fighting bad guys most of the majority of his wardrobe had scorch marks, bullet holes, tears, cuts, blood stains, dirt stains all running up a lot of money. The main idea is that this is a REAL person with super power, someone who is just as likely to help someone in need as they are to chuck semis half way across a football field because he can. Anyway, the character actually got a deal from a local distributor, they wear their brand he gets a literal crate of clothes (namely basket ball shorts and white-beaters). All he has in terms of a logo is an almost super-deformed version of his mask which he uses as a sticker tag on his bad guys (knock 'em all out, places a sticker on their head). Also another key point, just he is now no longer able to be human, he never stopped living his public life. He got talked to his grandpa about this, who was in the Civil Rights movement (family is black, he's adopted). Anything else, and do NOT question my art on something that is clearly a rush job. It offends me.
If you don't want crits based on extremely loose sketches, dont post them, or post them along side of better sketches. I have a sense that these rough sketches are still an indicator of where you are at. Telling someone too get to the basics is not an insult, Its advice that everyone will get at multiple stages of their careers.
The design itself is too generic to call it a design, and to be honest the roughness of it is absorbing all the attention.
I asume that if you are designing a character you probably have more sketches than this laying around, post them, we need context.
This character seems like Hancock with a sponsor. Regardless of whether it was a rush job or not, why wouldn't you want feedback on how to help you get better?
I looked a lot at the Uktrman for this mask
Don't worry though man, everybody has been at your level. Just remember, this is a place for getting feedback and help not for seeing who can piss the furthest.
Sorry I really should not have snapped like that. I was in a bad place that day but that shouldn't be an excuse, I posted this and I should be open to criticism and opinion, and with that being told I need improvement. But please believe me when I say I can do better, the entire sketch took a minute maybe less, if given an entire half hour I could do better I just wanted to get an opinion quick and I didn't want to spend a horse load of hours on one picture, get it perfect, than add too many brush strokes and ruin it. I would love feedback I just acted like a total anus and I am sorry.
I would love your feedback and any opinions you may have on the mask and if you have any questions about the character please ask me.
Again I am sorry.
Listen, I owe you an apology for how poorly I reacted to this comment. There is not a thing I can say that justifies what I said, I asked for an opinion--for feedback-- and I handled it very poorly. It's not from a "I am Da Vinci incarnate and may art is flawless" mentality, but a " I was a lot worse and I don't want to feel like I'm going back to the level I was at". Being told I had a long way to go makes me feel like the progress I made was barely even foot note, but I need to see it as not that. I'm sorry for how poorly I reacted, I'm sorry for snapping at you, and I'm sorry that I cannot truly justify my actions or how truly sorry I am.
Please, if you have any critique for me, please give it to me and I will not react to it like a flaming jerk wagon.
I've got one full body sketch in pencil, but this was a really alpha build of the character, I'll need to scan it though But if you want to see it I'll scan it and put it on here later today.
Judging from the profile view, you have some understanding of human anatomy, at least in terms of the silhouette of the back of someone's head. That's good. However, the front of a head is a much more complex thing. The simple mask obscures all of his features--which makes sense for a superhero--but could easily be a crutch for a lack of anatomical understanding. And that's why I think it would help to post some of your old work. Not so we can tear it apart, but so we have a better understanding of what you need to work on.
LOVE IT.
May i see more art please? If you're confident to tell me "not to worry about my art" and we're in an art forum, i'm interested to see. And if you're only posting quick sketches, why did you start a whole new thread. We actually have a dread for doodles.
People here will give you honest and knowledgeable feedback for free which is a rare thing, and it is the most valuable resource on earth for an artist. We all know that posting for the first time here can be nerve racking, and hearing feedback is not always a confidence boost, but the people who participate in a meaningful fashion around here improve. Period.
Hope you post again. I'll give whatever advice I can.
I still would like to see more stuff. Its virtually impossible for us to give you feedback on what you have, If you want more feed back on the story, you might want to take that to the writers thread.
Im curious as to what the black area around the mask will look like. Is it flat, like spiderman? Inky/organic like venom? fleshy organic like muscle? and how far does it does it extend? i'm left with the impression that it stops around the collar bone?
We do want to see more stuff, or we wouldn't ask!