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Two character sketches
Qingu
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Are these at least presentable? How can I improve them? I'm nervous to start coloring the left one because the right one doesn't look quite right yet.
Qingu on
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Right now you have black outlines, flat shading, and digital scratchy painting in the face, skin, and clothes respectively.
You have already posted these characters once before and I know you said you dont have time to perfect your art but I dont think much more time as gone into thinking about how you want them to look. I think for your project you could get away cheaply by looking at other peoples styles and line work and try to attempt a copy of there style.
pay close attention to the nose, the eyes and the mouth and how minimal colours can create such a look.
Do some more line work. Do it on a separate layer and then create a new layer bellow that and try to block in some colour. Dont bother adding shadows until you are confident the line work is where you want it to be
Here's a page from this book:
In cartooning, you want to build up an instantly recognizable look for your character with as few lines as possible. A triangle of shadow representing the nose is not going to do it for you.
Also, I posted this in some other dude's thread, but it's quite applicable here:
Make sure your characters are recognizable by silhouette. Your girl is, and your guy starts to be with those droopy ears, but could be made much more distinct. I'm just repeating Matt Groening here
Drilled, runs off and cry's himself to sleep
I actually like the character designs, as they remind me a bit of Gullah Gullah Island (even though I was too old at the time to be able to admit watching it...ahem). I think if Qing were to bust his ass, he'd be able to put out some good looking stuff
Haha. i used that image as a reference once in one of my posts (me too because its one of the first ones google images brought up). I used it in a post where i compared good anime, to shit anime. Guess which one this represented
Qingu: I think try and make a solid sketch outline in pencil, and then drop it into the computer. You seem to have some understanding of colour pallets, but i think that you rushed into the fun stuff too fast.
yeah that works really well. its easier than sketching in a blue or red pencil.
As I siad Im not a cartoonist... and Im sure people will be like what sh*t towards these drawings but you may use them if you like. I like a couple like the girl in the middle and the boy in the middle at the top. You may use my ideas. They are all yours but I strongly suggest you dont just copy.
Im sure he is or will.. last time he posted something he got fairly drilled to put it lightly so he might take his time
Note: no scanner, so I'm basically stuck with Photoshop. Is forcing myself to do linework on a tablet really that unadvisable? I used to do more sketching with paper and pencil, but I actually think I like sketching on Photoshop better now. But inking or linework or whatever is definitely harder.
Legg, I do appreciate that you took the time to draw those, but it's totally not the style I'd like. If it comes down to it I will rip off Avatar: the Last Airbender even more than I already have. Is your main complaint with Gil's nose being too stark of a line? Because I do like the way noses look in the Prince of Egypt:
Maybe as a suggestion you should go down a new track with your book. A few suggestions would be to maybe get kids (the age your book is targeted at) to draw for you. OR better yet seeing as your book is on the internet and interactive. Why not make it interactive and have dot to dot images or get the reader to actually draw/ create the characters they imagine.
I tried doing thicker, more precise linework on the girl. Still using a tablet:
And here's with a very rough coloring (I know you guys told me to wait but I would like to know what you think of the color choices) (edit: this should be darker and more saturated)
I made the nose a small dot. I shall return to the boy's nose later.
The face has structure, it's three-dimensional. Remember to take into account the cheek bones, the structure of the nose and the structure of the eyes. You don't need to draw all of these, but I think it'll help to draw a 3D object by thinking about it as a 3D object.
I second Zombiemambo's advice.
Also, I don't know how much drawing your doing, but if all you've done is what's posted in this thread then you need to pick up the pace. Carrying a sketchbook and pencil everywhere will give you more opportunity to practice. So yeah, practice practice practice is your path to awesomeness.
First one kind of stolen from a combination of Auron and some random baseball player I found on the internet.
At what point am I allowed to start inking and coloring?
Poj, for the first drawing I posted I was working really small. My problem with larger sizes is that my Photoshop displays odd zoom-in sizes all blocky. Does anyone know what's up with that? I used to work larger, I don't know if my linework looked any better though.
The sketches look good, but everybody's legs are looking kind of short.
on the left is what you're doing. you're trying to build the object you are drawing from the outline only without understanding what's underneath.
On the right,, I started with the vertical axis, drew the circular areas indicating the three cylindrical shape, and then built the outline around that.
Do the stances and proportions all look okay? (Besides the leg issue?) And can you guys perhaps criticize the character designs as well?
LoL we seem to have the absolute opposite opinion on everything Manonvon. It must be because you like Punk music... ahaha jokes. I've seen your cartoon type work and like it so I am not one to disagree with you on your own turf. Tree trunks it is Qingu
Every-time I write your name Qingu it reminds me of that awesome show about that awesome penguin called Pingu. Dammit asif they ever stopped making that show..
(Edit: the first page isn't actually going to say "Welcome!" when I'm through. I haven't decided what I'm doing with it.)