I pm'd Iruka to talk about the character some. She gave me some sound advice and a good reference for a pose. I've started the new version and I need more feedback!
The bending leg is giving me trouble, but overall I think the design seems more like a soldier and is more believable. I want her to have a heavy weapon, but I'm not sure of the weight distribution. Maybe I should lose the bag and move the weapon to the other hand. What do you guys think? Also, are her proportions correct? I've been too focused on the design I think.
This is a way more believable, a huge improvement. Beyond just the costume design (which is way, way better than your previous attempts), but (more importantly as concerns the point in my last post) this is one of the only times I've seen a pose from you that wasn't someone just stiffly mugging for the camera, or in a generic action pose. This actually looks like a human acting like an actual human being! Just because of that alone I'm digging this girl way more, and I hope you continue to push for more of that in your work going forward. Maybe it seems like a super subtle thing, but the fact that I can now buy this character as a character is huge.
It's even a huge leap over your second attempt up there because it's just a lot more humanized- when I saw this line in your last post:
When I started over, I kept thinking of a soldier walking through a battlefield, almost calmly, just attacking. I went with that for the pose, which gave her reason to have guns drawn. She has little regard for her own life, or maybe just too confident.
I was left thinking- 'given a prompt to give her more personality and character, your first instinct is to make her behave like a Terminator robot?'
Now, a Terminator robot can be interesting, but only when contrasted with other people that do not act like Terminator robots, that have real thoughts and feelings. This new version makes me buy that she can have a real, human personality where the previous two didn't.
I buy it, I dig it, keep going.
The bent leg, yeah, is giving you trouble because of some tricky foreshortening, but that's just a technical issue that I'm sure you can work out with some ref and just some time and sweat. But you got the important thing, and you should be feeling really good about that.
One of the most common critiques I received at a workshop, was that it wasn't completely obvious who my characters where. If I can overcome that and show it in my portfolio, I will feel a lot more confident about my art.
Not to mention, it's something you all have repeated multiple times to me. I absolutely mustn't forget how important body language/pose, functional design and character type/build are to the process.
Thank you PA! I'm going to try and spend a couple days on this soldier before I post again.
One of the most common critiques I received at a workshop, was that it wasn't completely obvious who my characters where. If I can overcome that and show it in my portfolio, I will feel a lot more confident about my art.
Not to mention, it's something you all have repeated multiple times to me. I absolutely mustn't forget how important body language/pose, functional design and character type/build are to the process.
Thank you PA! I'm going to try and spend a couple days on this soldier before I post again.
If possible, try to take cues from movies and books on "character types/emotions"... I think it's easy to repeatedly fall into the trap of "I'm going to make this character a badass!" which leads to "this character is indifferent to death" which leads to "apathetic-looking character" which leads to boredom. And it seems you've done that repeatedly. Characters can have confidence without the 1000-mile "indifference" stare. They can have swagger. They can look over-energetic and crazed. They can look smarmy and over-confident (and all of these are things you can and should show in their pose, and facial expression). They might be very brave, but their bravery is shown through their determination to get something done through fear. Again, another opportunity to show a different emotion and body language. Think about what the pose is saying about the character. You should be able to generally tell the personality/emotion through pose alone. If you look up cartoonists' gesture drawings, emotions-through-pose is pretty obvious, typically.
Also, consider making characters with personality faults. Is this character a badass, but also a total jerk? Show that. Is she a badass, but exhausted after a battle? Show that. Is this her first time on the front lines, or has she been here 1,000 times before and knows exactly what she's doing? What would the differences in pose be for those two scenarios? Will one look more cautious/afraid than the other? How will they express that through body language?
I think if you continue to think along these lines, your characters will have much, much more life to them than your previous iterations. Keep it up maaaaaang!
If I might suggest an exercise to help address that problem. I'm sure you've seen these face emotion charts. Why not take it a step further and do it with body language.
I propose this challenge. Do your own table of body language emotion (or even personality archetypes), but do so without facial features, this requires that you communicate the emotion with nothing but the body language.
Just a thought. I have no experience in this area, but I do find it easiest to fix my own problems by tackling them head on (apply directly to the forehead)
@NightDragon - Thank you!! You make some excellent points, I get what you mean about my apathetic-looking characters. I enjoy contrast in general, so the idea of multiple character traits will improve my work and be fun, I'm sure!
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Some gun thumbnails:
...and I've been working on the Soldier concept! I need some feedback before I finish her up. There is quite a bit to clean up still, but I think this character is way cooler than my others.
A couple things I'm concerned about: Are the colors I've chosen working well for her design? Also, is the gun wacked? Did I fix her slightly foreshortened leg?
You're right, I should adjust the proportions some. You know how it is when you stare at something for so long. And thanks!
Edit: Updated the soldier! I worked on the leg proportions some. I still need to clean up the hands, gun, shadow, packs and boots plus add more battle damage.
Now, which one of these infected bugs should I go with? It's an older concept for a creature used as biological warfare. They are released on a planet and start a ZDay like epidemic.
As far as composition I prefer the earlier versions in the gif. The super high contrast draws my eye to the water and off the image. The version prior in the gif might have been better compositionally if it needed the water at all imo
OK! It does feel easier on the eyes without that bright water!
What do you think, guys? I plan on working on the ships, tweaking the scale and giving the fortress a bit more detail, but other than that, I think it's finished! I really put a lot of hours into this and I think I would like to loosen up and make the next one more dynamic.
I've been working up a resume lately and launching my new and improved website.
After watching so much strip search, I had to try my hand at a comic! I'm thinking of doing a little series of some incredibly inept space "pilot" who weasels his way into the army to see the stars. But being funny is tough, so who knows.
And a random illustration I've started that has to do with my sci-fi project. I did a few thumbs before, but they weren't much to look at and this is still really early.
Edit: Forgot to mention a concern with the leg being cut off the page. Let me know what you guys think. I really want to loosen up and I plan on using this piece to make progress towards that.
Hey! It looks pretty dynamic, a really nice shift from the norm for you! I'm no good at extreme foreshortening, so I cant really help you with it. But yay! Its awesome to see you pushing yourself to try new things!
Alright, let's see... I've been having a lot of fun painting this, but now I'm working on the figure and I'm super frustrated with the legs / perspective. Now I know I have a lot of work to do on the background perspective and that giant stargate still feels off. I really want to make this work so tomorrow I'm just going to slowly go over it all and try to fix the "wonkiness".
Guys, holy shit. I'm just at a loss on what to do with the giant "stargate". It seems so out of perspective, or maybe the perspective in general is just whacked. I really want to fix this up but I don't know how to approach it. Any way to avoid starting over?
At the moment, it looks like it's leaning a little counter clockwise, and there's some off tangents on the bottom right of it that don't really match up. Note on the grid you set up, vertical line 3, the big panel at the bottom of the gate that sits on that line has two different perspectives acting on the left and right of it.
Also, while dutching adds a lot of energy to a composition, I think this is too much and would be keen to twist it back counter clockwise; because it starts to interfere with legibility a bit.
Thanks, but I'm having a hard time understand your feedback. I get that I have different perspectives, but what do you mean about leaning counter clockwise? And what does dutching mean?
Edit: I'm probably in need of fresh eyes to fix the perspective. Hopefully after this weekend I can figure it out.
Trying to work faster, this took about 3 hours:
Edit: Spent another 20 mins trying to tighten it up. Proportions might need some tweaking still...
Ah, that's good to know! I guess that means if this is too angled I would have to start over. I have been trying to redo the stargate into matching perspective of the city.
I don't understand monitor calibration. I tried messing with the buttons on my monitor, but each "mode" is pretty different. Does my work look really dark?
I like the glove-thing you've got going on in C-E, with those elbow elements. F has a cool mask but it's probably not as soldier'ish as it looks more like a rogue thing. A-C's helmets are also badass, if these are concepts for guys you're meant to empathize with however I would probably go with E's helmet, as it looks more human'ish.
While B has totally sweet legs I think separating them from B would be a pity because B is such a whole package, with all those smooth design elements.
B would be a totally badass bad guy imho.
Haven't had much time to work on that concept, but I did start the sketch.
And some thumbnails for a commission I'm starting:
I joined Noah's art camp! So far I've done a lot of comp/color studies and a full blown master study that was really difficult.
Comp/Color Studies:
Master Study:
I'm hoping I can be more conscious about the relationship between color temperatures, not to mention shapes and proportions. This art camp should be really helpful, I'm excited!
Posts
This is a way more believable, a huge improvement. Beyond just the costume design (which is way, way better than your previous attempts), but (more importantly as concerns the point in my last post) this is one of the only times I've seen a pose from you that wasn't someone just stiffly mugging for the camera, or in a generic action pose. This actually looks like a human acting like an actual human being! Just because of that alone I'm digging this girl way more, and I hope you continue to push for more of that in your work going forward. Maybe it seems like a super subtle thing, but the fact that I can now buy this character as a character is huge.
It's even a huge leap over your second attempt up there because it's just a lot more humanized- when I saw this line in your last post: I was left thinking- 'given a prompt to give her more personality and character, your first instinct is to make her behave like a Terminator robot?'
Now, a Terminator robot can be interesting, but only when contrasted with other people that do not act like Terminator robots, that have real thoughts and feelings. This new version makes me buy that she can have a real, human personality where the previous two didn't.
I buy it, I dig it, keep going.
The bent leg, yeah, is giving you trouble because of some tricky foreshortening, but that's just a technical issue that I'm sure you can work out with some ref and just some time and sweat. But you got the important thing, and you should be feeling really good about that.
Twitter
Not to mention, it's something you all have repeated multiple times to me. I absolutely mustn't forget how important body language/pose, functional design and character type/build are to the process.
Thank you PA! I'm going to try and spend a couple days on this soldier before I post again.
If possible, try to take cues from movies and books on "character types/emotions"... I think it's easy to repeatedly fall into the trap of "I'm going to make this character a badass!" which leads to "this character is indifferent to death" which leads to "apathetic-looking character" which leads to boredom. And it seems you've done that repeatedly. Characters can have confidence without the 1000-mile "indifference" stare. They can have swagger. They can look over-energetic and crazed. They can look smarmy and over-confident (and all of these are things you can and should show in their pose, and facial expression). They might be very brave, but their bravery is shown through their determination to get something done through fear. Again, another opportunity to show a different emotion and body language. Think about what the pose is saying about the character. You should be able to generally tell the personality/emotion through pose alone. If you look up cartoonists' gesture drawings, emotions-through-pose is pretty obvious, typically.
Also, consider making characters with personality faults. Is this character a badass, but also a total jerk? Show that. Is she a badass, but exhausted after a battle? Show that. Is this her first time on the front lines, or has she been here 1,000 times before and knows exactly what she's doing? What would the differences in pose be for those two scenarios? Will one look more cautious/afraid than the other? How will they express that through body language?
I think if you continue to think along these lines, your characters will have much, much more life to them than your previous iterations. Keep it up maaaaaang!
I propose this challenge. Do your own table of body language emotion (or even personality archetypes), but do so without facial features, this requires that you communicate the emotion with nothing but the body language.
Just a thought. I have no experience in this area, but I do find it easiest to fix my own problems by tackling them head on (apply directly to the forehead)
@NightDragon - Thank you!! You make some excellent points, I get what you mean about my apathetic-looking characters. I enjoy contrast in general, so the idea of multiple character traits will improve my work and be fun, I'm sure!
---
Some gun thumbnails:
...and I've been working on the Soldier concept! I need some feedback before I finish her up. There is quite a bit to clean up still, but I think this character is way cooler than my others.
A couple things I'm concerned about: Are the colors I've chosen working well for her design? Also, is the gun wacked? Did I fix her slightly foreshortened leg?
Thanks for all the help guys!
edit: + you're getting pretty great at this.
Edit: Updated the soldier! I worked on the leg proportions some. I still need to clean up the hands, gun, shadow, packs and boots plus add more battle damage.
---
Which environment thumbnail is best?
The theme is a solar power city, in a vast desert. Which one should I do guys?
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
Now, which one of these infected bugs should I go with? It's an older concept for a creature used as biological warfare. They are released on a planet and start a ZDay like epidemic.
with many a reported post
But my spirit lives on in ev'ry DIGIMON
like a wandering, tormented ghost
Which forumer am I?
Edit: New update below.
the water is nothing but a distraction
What do you think, guys? I plan on working on the ships, tweaking the scale and giving the fortress a bit more detail, but other than that, I think it's finished! I really put a lot of hours into this and I think I would like to loosen up and make the next one more dynamic.
After watching so much strip search, I had to try my hand at a comic! I'm thinking of doing a little series of some incredibly inept space "pilot" who weasels his way into the army to see the stars. But being funny is tough, so who knows.
And a random illustration I've started that has to do with my sci-fi project. I did a few thumbs before, but they weren't much to look at and this is still really early.
Edit: Forgot to mention a concern with the leg being cut off the page. Let me know what you guys think. I really want to loosen up and I plan on using this piece to make progress towards that.
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
Edit: Updated the picture above some.
The grid I set up:
I guess the stargate is throwing it all off?
Also, while dutching adds a lot of energy to a composition, I think this is too much and would be keen to twist it back counter clockwise; because it starts to interfere with legibility a bit.
Edit: I'm probably in need of fresh eyes to fix the perspective. Hopefully after this weekend I can figure it out.
Trying to work faster, this took about 3 hours:
I don't understand monitor calibration. I tried messing with the buttons on my monitor, but each "mode" is pretty different. Does my work look really dark?
Here are the initial thumbnails:
And the main thumbnails:
Which one should I go with? I'm thinking E, but I may switch the legs with B.
While B has totally sweet legs I think separating them from B would be a pity because B is such a whole package, with all those smooth design elements.
B would be a totally badass bad guy imho.
Haven't had much time to work on that concept, but I did start the sketch.
And some thumbnails for a commission I'm starting:
I joined Noah's art camp! So far I've done a lot of comp/color studies and a full blown master study that was really difficult.
Comp/Color Studies:
Master Study:
I'm hoping I can be more conscious about the relationship between color temperatures, not to mention shapes and proportions. This art camp should be really helpful, I'm excited!