Portfolio Class- Character Development!

[KyTran]

Jake: thanks, I'll work at it. I agree with Zipel, your colors look much better. I would consider adding some accent colors, maybe a few beads in her hair, some accent colors on her clothing or some excuse to add a little color. Right now the colors look a little plain. Also i'm amusing that she is holding glowing magic sand? right now your character looks just like an accurate depiction of mongol which leaves the viewer seeing the glowing sand as the only "Unique thing" about the character and since there aren't very many associations with glowing sand in the real world i think it may be hard for a viewer to understand the design. Things like Thomas's fan, and Malan's fire have solid real life associations so it clues the viewer in.
Taker everything I said with a grain of salt though because i'm very inexperience at character design, i'm just trying to help.

[JakeB]

Jake: thanks, I'll work at it. I agree with Zipel, your colors look much better. I would consider adding some accent colors, maybe a few beads in her hair, some accent colors on her clothing or some excuse to add a little color. Right now the colors look a little plain. Also i'm amusing that she is holding glowing magic sand? right now your character looks just like an accurate depiction of mongol which leaves the viewer seeing the glowing sand as the only "Unique thing" about the character and since there aren't very many associations with glowing sand in the real world i think it may be hard for a viewer to understand the design. Things like Thomas's fan, and Malan's fire have solid real life associations so it clues the viewer in.
Taker everything I said with a grain of salt though because i'm very inexperience at character design, i'm just trying to help.

Yeah, I've definitely been struggling with that. The idea was that she's just picked up a handful of sand, and like melted it in her hand. Then just wasn't hurt by the heat or anything. But you're right, it does just look like a glowy blob. I'll throw some ideas around for it instead. Maybe a staff or something. She's got a load of little chains and bells hanging off here, as well as pieces of material, so I'm sure I could work them into a staff design as motifs to tie it all together. Cheers for the feedback man :)

[Pixeltuner]

Did a bunch of fixes just now but I might as well start over, will probably be faster >_<

[Tadas]

early sketches:




final sketch:

[Jmob]

Here's my design for the class in it's rough stages... went through A LOT of problem solving for the thing to read as a whole and tell a story accurately. I still have A LOT more and am not afraid to change anything.. I've dissected the crap out of this thing so many times. The horror... Things that still aren't ready to be called done: the raven/bird in the cage needs to be more defined/better designed to read better. A decision needs to be made on whether I want the staff/cage to be one giant candy cane... haha.. I will vary the direction of the stripes on the cage so that it doesn't look so boring and repetitive and looks like a candy cane. Overall things need to be cleaned up and become more crisp where crispness is needed and some edges need to be lost where edges should be lost for the image to read as a whole (and tell the story as best as possible). Will now be looking at refrences to get these things to read better as I haven't for rendering better. I settled on a simplistic design because it seems that when seeing the thing as a whole, it reads better and allows more resting room. Plus I wanted a sort of finish that allowed interesting shapes without overcomplicating the whole. I hope I will achieve this in the near future.
*and if you can't get your eye off the anchored foot, yes, I will be fixing that too.

[Dan Warren]

Hey all- got in late from a family thing. Im just gonna postpone my stream feedback til tomorrow morning, so if you wanna change any last minute stuff before i see it, feel free. <3

[Jmob]

Ready for crits! Looking good everyone...keep up the hard work.

[emooi]

Hey guys,

Nice works in here!

Had a big struggle on the anatomy and the pose.
So i sketched a bunch.



I'm still not happy with mine. I decided to go for the less is more look.
So i sketched basics idea's for her clothes. So when i have a something good i could add some details afterwards. I always build a character up from details so this was a fun way to throw my work process around.

My idea was to make her clothes extends the idea of seducing, a foxy lady!
Thanks Thomas for the tip!, i didn't want to run with your a idea of the snake so i took the fox idea.
Also i wanted to make a front view line drawing so i could put my ideas down easy. Here are my designs/sketches for the clothes.



plus the final line art for now (i'm still trying other things to add on the clothes and find a way to give her the magic touch :) )

[Zipfelzeus]

A day late :( But here is how far I've come:

[JakeB]

Zipfelzeus, nice work man. Looks really regal, I like it :). The big fur shawl thing could maybe be more obviously connected, or higher up maybe. Looks a little awkward where it is. That being said, I'm sure as you flesh it out it'll become clearer.

So, here's where I am with mine. I remembered that in one of the films I watched during my research, there was a bit where all of the mongols hid from a storm, scared of the thunder and lightning. Decided to incorporate that into the design, gonna have her casting a kinda lightning spell with her hand.

Mainly been working on the face today though. Struggling a bit..



EDIT: Higher res here http://blog.ohbullocks.com/image/37124399010

[Zipfelzeus]

@JakeB: I actually look at the sketch again and I agree. I wanted to make her coat look like it glided a bit down but it just looks like she has very short one with her hands sticking through it.
Thanks for pointing that out.

Quick sketched over version:

[ImSkeptical]

Here's mine for this week.




Felt much more comfortable than the Merlin, although i'm thinking about moving some of the design elements around, kinda just put them around without thinking too much, but ill need to sleep on it cause i can't really think of better solutions right now. Everyone else is improving so much, so many good looking designs :D!

[KyTran]

Great sketches everyone.

Emooi: Attractive female figures tend to have more mass in their hips and legs than in their chest. I'm not sure if an attractive female was what you were going for. It's possible to give her big bests without giving her torso too much mass.

Here is where i'm at. I struggled with the anatomy a lot.
Edit: Also trying to figure out more clothing and accessories to give her.

[PTimm]

this seemed to be the image almost everyone I showed liked, so I did a cleaner line drawing of it

[Jmob]

did dan stream today? wasn't home all day, and I'm not seeing any posts. I assume he didn't but if anyone has direct contact with him (via Skype or w/e) and knows, could you let me know (or all of us know). Cheers. :)

[razvanb08]

Good work on the designs guys!
@thomasmahon Hope you don't mind, I did a quick paintover on your Morganes face. Tried to make her cute and not look scared.
Don't know if that's what you're going for but hope it helps.

[Myriam]

but she doesn't look asian anymore! =(

[Dan Warren]

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

here it is for anyone who missed it.

[Zipfelzeus]

Thank you guys again for taking the time and critting mah work <3
I hope this works better. And also NO GREYSCALE this time.

[DavidFisher]

Thomas wow really impressed with yours man awesome step forward, keep it up! so heres my morganne sketch dont want to move on till i feel compfortable with it the lines are horrid but i think it conveys my idea gotta do more linework!