Thanks @tapeslinger! I really want to do some more Mad Madam Mims. She is such a great character and really amazingly designed.
I think that is what I am getting the most out of the studies is how much forethought went into the construction of each part of each character. I really dig it, you don't really get a good feel for them until you draw them a few times.
I will have to try more physical coloring, I have done ink washes and acrylic painting but most of the time my pallet is so limited that it forces me to concentrate on coloring so much that it sort of does the color theory for me, does that make any sense? I think my digital problems arise when I go to color and instead of thinking about limiting myself or thinking about it too much I get all "I HAVE THE RAINBOW AT MY DISPOSAL!!!" and go fucking overboard. So I will definitively try that next time, thanks!
Feedback and crits are always welcome and wanted. I think I am going to have to do more old Disney studies and more drawing from life cause I feel myself slipping towards too cartoony.
yeah, limited palettes and monochrome are an easy way to rein in that impulse. Your Louis Armstrong comic is a pretty good example of making limited palettes work for you, though!
its a cute comic! Watch yourself on your characters, though, you want to keep them on model and consistent. Do you have a rounded nose or a hard edge nose? Is the face long or is it rounded? Maybe do some character turn arounds on some graph paper to help you figure out the standards for each character, then try and hold yourself to them.
You are totally right @Iruka, I need to keep a closer eye on my consistency. I have some old char turns somewhere (on paper no less) but I could stand to update them.
Well, here is some new stuff below. I have not been making comics as often since I have had a ton of freelance/commissions coming in. Champagne problem, I know, but I have found a lot more joy in doing one off pieces of art rather than sitting down and cranking out a time intensive comic. Honestly, I am mainly making them for people in my home town, keeping them in the loop with what is happening in our life now that we moved away. I don't see a future for me in the comic industry, web or otherwise. I will probably still do a comic or two but have no interest in even faking some sort of update schedule.
I think I want to focus on digital freelancing while making my own ink wash with brush art as my side projects. Why am I even writing this? I guess so if you are leaving feedback you have an idea where my mind is. If I post a comic I still want feedback, as it is a skill I still need help with and it is a great practice for story-boarding, but you will probably be seeing a lot less comics from me in the future.
Any who:
Today is Lucy's third birthday
A fireplug:
Icons of the Tom Waits album trilogy, in order: Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Frank's Wild Years
gif of the illustration above, from sketch to ink. Gonna work on a background next:
Looking for crits obviously, but more specifically thinking about this concept as a series. Kids at night with lots of gear avoiding and engaging monsters. What do you think?
Thanks @SpaceMoose and @Siegfried! I detailed up the hatching on the hand, and I kind of agree about the five fingered thing, but to defend myself I think the four fingers gives it a kind of monstery-mitt look. Still thinking about some sort of background here, city at night kind of a vibe...
I actually drew a bunch of tattoos (anchors, ace of spades, spiderwebs, booze bottle, axe and a steak) but it stopped looking like Ness with all the arm ink so I deleted them. I know most of my stuff tends to have a bit of the McBess influence anyway and I usually I try to not straight up copy the style, but this was hella fun!
I am trying out a few new things and have a hard time seeing if anything is good when I make them anymore. I think I am too close to some of the stuff to tell if anything is even ascetically pleasing anymore. I am sure I am not the only one with this problem, but I will work on a project for a day and think "Yea, this is cool, I am happy with this." and then open it up the next day and look at it and wonder what the hell I was so happy about. I am using the pen tool a lot more in Illustrator and sometimes I think it comes off looking antiseptic.
An inkwell, done digitally in Illustrator. This is one I think is still good after a few days, let me know what you think:
Jeff's head his smaller inside of his glasses due to the distortion from the frames, right? Also, you totally captured Jeff's bowlcut haha.
These look really cool, man.
Love the lineweight too, only one of them gives me a bad vibe, and that's the jawline. From far away it looks like a chinstrap beard, especially on Ness and Poo.
While I must admit I kind of like the younger version of him better for nostalgic reasons, I'm enjoying the further exploration of this character.
I also like that he's ever so slightly androgynous, and I could totally see a video game with him as a silent protagonist.
You could have gone without the half-tones on the swing of the club though, I think actions should maybe stand out on their own a little more. If this was a full comic panel with background and everything it might get lost with the rest of the shading.
Thanks @Siegfried! I am not sure why I have gravitated towards this character so much but I am really enjoying drawing him/her. I think you are right about the halftone in the swing, takes away from it.
Also you hit the nail on the head about the androgynous thing, it was something I wasn't sure if anyone but me would pick up on. It is something I try to do with some of my simple characters, to me the more ambiguous a cartoon is the more a person can relate to them. I was trying to make this an overly accessorized person (backpack, fingered gloved, flashlight, goggles, golf club or other "found" weaponry) but leave the face more simple.
It really makes me want to try a crack at a story driven strip with him/her, but I really want to just do about 10 vignettes of scenes in big, wordless, page-sized panels to try to tell a story that way.
I realized somthing kind of funny after I read your post, this is not the first time I have had a androgynous character in a hooded sweatshirt before. The strip I did for the Indiana University newspaper, one of the main characters was a girl that everyone thought was a guy.
WARNING BAD ART/WRITING AHEAD
She was called "Lee" until it was revealed she was a she, from then on she was "Liegh." Here is an earlier one:
I really like it! I think maybe just have a look at the light source and where shadows would be. If the torch is all there is, your character's face should be a lot darker - think of someone holding a torch under their face telling a ghost story. Maybe a bit of shadow going back along the ground away from his legs too? And, depending on whether there are street lights, the faces of the buildings should be darker I think.
Hope I haven't given you tonnes of work! It's good already, just some things to think about.
Thanks @sampangolin ! I most def need to mess with the shading! I am having a hard time trying to wrap my brain around how shadows will fall from the flashlight, specifically the shadow that will fall. I am gonna work on that some more and hopefully drop on some rim lighting from the moonlight. Any thoughts?
Forgive my messy abuse of your drawing. Hopefully it gets across what I think the shadow needs to do. When it's that close a light source and it's a small point I think the shadow needs to be a lot bigger. The rough diagram on the right might explain it better. Let me know what you think.
Hey everyone. I need some help. I am back on the job market and need to get my portfolio site looking better and am in dire need of feedback. As it is, its admittedly not very good. I am using wordpress if that helps at all:
Right now I have it all split up into design/illustration/video with little descriptions under each entry.
The gallery has larger images of the pictures that open when clicking the original image
The video page is mainly to show some of the videos I created assets for.
Any and all feedback is welcome.
Some things I was thinking: ditching sections and intermingling all of the design and illustration stuff, ditching the descriptions.
It seems like keeping the sections would be a good idea, because certain folks would probably be more focused on certain sections, and it keeps the work more concisely organized. The stylized nudes in the illustration section don't really seem to blend in with the rest.
Find a way to get that stuff on the side into your about me page. I have always thought wordpress was a bloated tool for something simple like an art portfolio, A lot of the templates are really geared for someone with a lot of content. You want a site that will brilliantly showcase a handful of content. Behance and squarespace both have good options, but they cost money (10 a month for square space, 11 for behance) Then again, I'm using square pace and paying for a domain (which is like dollars for a few years), but since its hosted washed out my old web hosting cost.
Strip it way down and let your art speak for itself where ever it can. You are losing a ton of real estate to a generic top banner and large nave buttons.
Thank you @Iruka and @lyrium!!! I am planning on making edits soon and agree with both of you. I am going to strip the text from the image pages and work on some layout issues (bland header, page layout) I think there might be better wordpress layouts for image based pages and I just have to go through some trial and error. Thanks you two!
Posts
I think that is what I am getting the most out of the studies is how much forethought went into the construction of each part of each character. I really dig it, you don't really get a good feel for them until you draw them a few times.
I will have to try more physical coloring, I have done ink washes and acrylic painting but most of the time my pallet is so limited that it forces me to concentrate on coloring so much that it sort of does the color theory for me, does that make any sense? I think my digital problems arise when I go to color and instead of thinking about limiting myself or thinking about it too much I get all "I HAVE THE RAINBOW AT MY DISPOSAL!!!" and go fucking overboard. So I will definitively try that next time, thanks!
EDIT: Hooray Page six!
Uncanny Magazine!
The Mad Writers Union
Well, here is some new stuff below. I have not been making comics as often since I have had a ton of freelance/commissions coming in. Champagne problem, I know, but I have found a lot more joy in doing one off pieces of art rather than sitting down and cranking out a time intensive comic. Honestly, I am mainly making them for people in my home town, keeping them in the loop with what is happening in our life now that we moved away. I don't see a future for me in the comic industry, web or otherwise. I will probably still do a comic or two but have no interest in even faking some sort of update schedule.
I think I want to focus on digital freelancing while making my own ink wash with brush art as my side projects. Why am I even writing this? I guess so if you are leaving feedback you have an idea where my mind is. If I post a comic I still want feedback, as it is a skill I still need help with and it is a great practice for story-boarding, but you will probably be seeing a lot less comics from me in the future.
Any who:
Today is Lucy's third birthday
A fireplug:
Icons of the Tom Waits album trilogy, in order: Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Frank's Wild Years
drawing on post-it notes:
a silly brush and ink wash:
Looking for crits obviously, but more specifically thinking about this concept as a series. Kids at night with lots of gear avoiding and engaging monsters. What do you think?
The hand reminds me of those bastards in Legend of Zelda that grab you and throw you out of the dungeon, good shit
That being said, I'd love to see a Ness drawing with sleeves of tattoos.
I actually drew a bunch of tattoos (anchors, ace of spades, spiderwebs, booze bottle, axe and a steak) but it stopped looking like Ness with all the arm ink so I deleted them. I know most of my stuff tends to have a bit of the McBess influence anyway and I usually I try to not straight up copy the style, but this was hella fun!
An inkwell, done digitally in Illustrator. This is one I think is still good after a few days, let me know what you think:
These look really cool, man.
Love the lineweight too, only one of them gives me a bad vibe, and that's the jawline. From far away it looks like a chinstrap beard, especially on Ness and Poo.
EDIT: wanted to try out halftone shading:
Time lapse of the drawing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktzxVcbDEU8&feature=youtu.be
I cranked out a new one real quick and did a timelapse video as well. I really dig this halftone shading stuff!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38vvwSRxNRU
I also like that he's ever so slightly androgynous, and I could totally see a video game with him as a silent protagonist.
You could have gone without the half-tones on the swing of the club though, I think actions should maybe stand out on their own a little more. If this was a full comic panel with background and everything it might get lost with the rest of the shading.
Also you hit the nail on the head about the androgynous thing, it was something I wasn't sure if anyone but me would pick up on. It is something I try to do with some of my simple characters, to me the more ambiguous a cartoon is the more a person can relate to them. I was trying to make this an overly accessorized person (backpack, fingered gloved, flashlight, goggles, golf club or other "found" weaponry) but leave the face more simple.
It really makes me want to try a crack at a story driven strip with him/her, but I really want to just do about 10 vignettes of scenes in big, wordless, page-sized panels to try to tell a story that way.
I realized somthing kind of funny after I read your post, this is not the first time I have had a androgynous character in a hooded sweatshirt before. The strip I did for the Indiana University newspaper, one of the main characters was a girl that everyone thought was a guy.
WARNING BAD ART/WRITING AHEAD
She was called "Lee" until it was revealed she was a she, from then on she was "Liegh." Here is an earlier one:
Hope I haven't given you tonnes of work! It's good already, just some things to think about.
Thank you!
A quick and fun brush and ink thing. I am not really happy with the monster on the side but it was fun.
That Ganon, still not wild about the legs:
A thing for the day I heard Elmore Leonard passed:
Thinking about doing a series of 30's cartoon styled video games characters:
photo touch up:
original-
Colorized-
Right now I have it all split up into design/illustration/video with little descriptions under each entry.
The gallery has larger images of the pictures that open when clicking the original image
The video page is mainly to show some of the videos I created assets for.
Any and all feedback is welcome.
Some things I was thinking: ditching sections and intermingling all of the design and illustration stuff, ditching the descriptions.
Here is the link: http://nickfolz.com/
facebook.com/LauraCatherwoodArt
Find a way to get that stuff on the side into your about me page. I have always thought wordpress was a bloated tool for something simple like an art portfolio, A lot of the templates are really geared for someone with a lot of content. You want a site that will brilliantly showcase a handful of content. Behance and squarespace both have good options, but they cost money (10 a month for square space, 11 for behance) Then again, I'm using square pace and paying for a domain (which is like dollars for a few years), but since its hosted washed out my old web hosting cost.
Strip it way down and let your art speak for itself where ever it can. You are losing a ton of real estate to a generic top banner and large nave buttons.