Otters Deserve Jetpacks (Shirt Design) Close to Done pg2

Demi Gourd · April 2008

The look I'm going for is cute, but maybe I should make it more badass for the fellas?
I like him so far, I just think I need to tighten up some lines. What about you guys?

I appriciate the comments and suggestions so far. New drawings will be added to the OP as they need to be. I also really haven't made many threads in this forum so, mabye it will evolve into a dump thread.

Druhim · April 2008

ahaha I love it

redfield85 · April 2008

I love it. Really a great job.

P.S. I sent you a PM.

Demi Gourd · April 2008

Thanks you two. I was thinking of either giving him little goggles or maybe making the jey pack more high tech looking. Also, I was going to submit this to threadless once it gets tuned up more. I suppose I could do a few different color variations for various types of otter.

redfield85 · April 2008

I would love to see what this looks like with goggles on the otter. I would also maybe fix up the color of the flames coming out of the jet pack. Maybe just add a little orange/yellow/red to the part where it is coming out of the jet pack and keep most of the white.

Druhim · April 2008

I like the shirt design, but would never buy anything from Threadless.

Belruel · April 2008

i love the idea, but i would suggest tightening up the lineart and coloring, unless you are specifically going for the scribble look.

also there isn't any coloring on the jetpack or jetpack straps, and i would suggest giving the flames some orange and reds, it would really contrast nicely with the blue of the shirt.

redfield85 · April 2008

Druhim wrote: »

I like the shirt design, but would never buy anything from Threadless.

Cafepress better?

srsizzy · April 2008

The lines are messy, the colors are messy, the fire is white, and the layout is boring. I've provided some examples of preliminary ideas of what seems more exciting to me.

Anyways, you need to just draw and practice more before thinking of selling shirts. This design would not get very far on threadless. Sorry if this sounds "mean", but I'm kind of tired of worrying about sounding mean on these forums. You need to learn more, draw more, etc.

Shiboe · April 2008

Exactly my thoughts, srsizzy. I think the idea is a sellable one, but I think the art on this at best a rough draft. It really doesn't make it as the "cutsey crude drawing" either, as it lacks both the stylized quickness and crisp cuteness other images have gotten away with by being similarly simplistic.

All of srsizzy's examples are more interesting and the last one gives a good feeling of that simple cuteness. There's not much too it, but there is a definite flow and crispness that sells it.

Demi Gourd · April 2008

Thanks for the input forum people. Since I'm trying to keep under 8 colors in regards to the Threadless rules, I couldn't think of another way to do the goggles right away. I'm also not sure why it looks so saturated right now, its probably because I switched it to CMYK color.

I personally think the goggles up the cute factor, but they seem to clutter up the face with detail.

EDIT: srsizzy, good input. I came up with other compositions for this already, and they do look similar to yours in some ways. And you're not mean, in my opinion. I like to hear crticism in a direct and honest way.

Updating OP.

redfield85 · April 2008

Use circular goggles and let us see his eyes through them. That is what I would want.

Demi Gourd · April 2008

redfield85 wrote: »

Use circular goggles and let us see his eyes through them. That is what I would want.

One rough sketch and some quick colors later.

redfield85 · April 2008

Haha. I love the circle goggles. They definitely work better than the square goggles.

srsizzy · April 2008

You know, I'd actually prefer that sketchier version on a shirt over the "more finished" version. If you cleaned it up just a it more, but left the pencil lines, it's far more endearing.

MegaMan001 · April 2008

My only issue with the 'circle goggle' composition is that I can't really tell that's suppose to be an otter. Don't get me wrong, the idea of any kind of woodland creature with a jetpack is a pretty cool idea by itself. However, it doesn't have the iconic look of an otter as the first one does (laying on its back, I mean).

Demi Gourd · April 2008

Yet more sketches.

to srsizzy - Yeah, I can see what you're saying. Does it play up the cuteness of it to be more of a sketch-look?

to MegaMan001 - I agree that it clearly needs to be an otter. I like the on the back pose the most and the holding face in surprise should stay a part of the composition too.

srsizzy · April 2008

Yes, but only because the original wasn't very clean its execution and the otter was lacking the cartoon-proportions to achieve that form of "cuteness" and just seemed like it was trying to be realistic but not really succeeding.

Scalfin · April 2008

Try making the face a little more realistic. The otter is one of those rare creatures that look cute w/ small eyes and long faces.

KalTorak · April 2008

I agree that the eyes are cuter smaller, i.e. without the goggles. Why don't you try it with the goggles, but not over his eyes, but sort of up on his forehead. That makes me think that maybe he was getting all his equipment ready for a wonderful jetpack adventure but the jetpack ignited before he got a chance to move his goggles down.

Silly otter!

Scalfin · April 2008

Or put him in these:
42-17778750.jpg?size=572&uid=%7B958971F7-6AED-4955-9CBD-CD64F6573901%7D

Demi Gourd · May 2008

Thanks for all the crits, duders. With two more weeks of school left, its hard to find time to draw. I should have time to post something more finalish on Friday.

Demi Gourd · May 2008

redfield85 wrote: »

Druhim wrote: »

I like the shirt design, but would never buy anything from Threadless.

Cafepress better?

I forgot to respond to this before. Yeah, I've tried Cafepress with some other designs and the printing quality on the shirts is pretty bad. Like, it looks very cheap and faded. You guys know of any other web place to print out some quality shirts?

Also

Prospicience · May 2008

what program are you painting these in demi? You're getting a white line around the outline of your painting. I'm guessing it's because you did a paintbucket around it? If you did it in PS keep the otter/everything else on a separate layer and just solid color the background so you don't get the white outline.

Demi Gourd · May 2008

Prospicience wrote: »

what program are you painting these in demi? You're getting a white line around the outline of your painting. I'm guessing it's because you did a paintbucket around it? If you did it in PS keep the otter/everything else on a separate layer and just solid color the background so you don't get the white outline.

Photoshop, yes. Even though it was paintbucket'd It looks fine to me on screen in the program, but now that I look at it again I see what you mean. Commencing to edit.

MagicToaster · May 2008

Every time I see this I think "The physics are off". I don't think the otter's body would move that way under that kind of stress. That last design looks like he's falling rather than being thrusted upwards.

Demi Gourd · May 2008

MagicToaster wrote: »

Every time I see this I think "The physics are off". I don't think the otter's body would move that way under that kind of stress. That last design looks like he's falling rather than being thrusted upwards.

You are correct, sir! However I did notice this problem and tend to fix it post haste!

So, I rotated him a bit. The reason I don't have his back flush to the jet pack is that it seems it would burn his fur or something? I don't know, that's the only reason I've got for drawing it that way, which now seems silly.

redfield85 · May 2008

Demi Gourd wrote: »

MagicToaster wrote: »

Every time I see this I think "The physics are off". I don't think the otter's body would move that way under that kind of stress. That last design looks like he's falling rather than being thrusted upwards.

You are correct, sir! However I did notice this problem and tend to fix it post haste!

So, I rotated him a bit. The reason I don't have his back flush to the jet pack is that it seems it would burn his fur or something? I don't know, that's the only reason I've got for drawing it that way, which now seems silly.

On the jetpack's straps....the one on our left (his right) isn't outlined in black like the other one. Is that a mistake that I found or is that how it is supposed to be?

Demi Gourd · May 2008

On the jetpack's straps....the one on our left (his right) isn't outlined in black like the other one. Is that a mistake that I found or is that how it is supposed to be?

After looking at it closely, I'm not sure what you mean. Both jetpack straps look to be outlined in black to me. Do you mean the shadow that is on the (his left) one?

redfield85 · May 2008

Nevermind. When I look at it now, I see that that white part isn't the same color as his light fur. My bad.

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Otters Deserve Jetpacks (Shirt Design) Close to Done pg2

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