Portfolio Class- Character Development!

[ImSkeptical]

Here is my color rough. Hopefully it's still at a place where i can make drastic changes, but you can see where i can take it and thus you guys can make good crits! :D



I feel like i really need to push it more though to match your guys designs. Gotta start thinking about good ideas for the smaller details. Gonna have to look through my Inca book again xD.

[malan]

@PTimm Hey it's looking good! I just want to point out some things I see. I think this new costume hides a lot of the body shapes, and maybe she doesn't look very feminine... something that you had on the previous one (and I think I liked that one a bit more) I think it's because of that tiger coat being too bluky :P Also, I think her staff should be in the front, not in the back, it's a bit confusing and doesn`t look like a very natural pose :)

@Thomas lol at the account haha, hope you get your password back :P and hey, those cool lights look great! I like that idea! Keep it up dude, good luck with those freelance works :)

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@ImSkeptical take a look at her hat, it doesn't look very correct :P it looks like it's facing to the front, while the body has a 3/4 view. Take a look at a peanut or a bean and see how it looks from a side, 3/4 point of view. Also, as you said, take another look at inca stuff, maybe you need to push the cultural idea a bit more, there's a lot of room for textures, details and a lot of things :P also, the snake on her skirt makes me think about egyptians and less on incas (or maybe its just me haha :P ) hope it helps! Keep it up dude :)

[Zipfelzeus]

Sorry I can't comment on everyone individually but I do see some good improvement in all of these. Great stuff everyone.

Struggling with colours and other stuff :(
Quick Update: very small stuff I noticed she had no boobs XD

[emooi]

Update,
Hey guys,

i see a lot of cool stuf going on in here!
After the crits from last week i spend more time on drawing poses and anatomy.
Is it just me or is finding a good pose for your character damn hard :)

Anyways here's my new line drawing.
old vs new



** i used ref for the face from a miss Japan contender in 2009.
Paint it several times and it still doesn't look Asian. I think it will come once the color kicks in.
Also for the foot, i tried some ancient flip flops but it looks silly because the slipper lays flat on the ground.

Things to do: Make some patterns for her coat, and try some different hair cuts.
Find the good color balance for her clothes and add some magic smoke/light to the hand.

Thanks,

[SmokyMope]

Hey everybody!
I know I'm late, but I found this amazing site just today and I smelled a perfect opportunity to learn very much and hopefully give something back.
So I would really appreciate this course to give me a ride ;).
Keep it up!

[malan]

Some weeks ago, Dan told me that the best would be to re do my Arthur's colors. They were very dead and grey, so I had to go back to the lineart to improve it. So, for now, Im working on that, but I wanted to fix his face, I totally did not like it the last time, it was very tiny, boring and uninteresting, so, here is a new one, this time looking to the front. I hope it looks more interesting now :)
Also fixed the cape a bit.

[malan]

And now, to keep the same process as the other ones, here are some color ideas for the new Arthur. I liked the first two, with the white/cream cape. I think they have a more arabian sultan-like idea.
Any thoughts?

Please, watch it here -> http://bit.ly/W4Z2iL

[SmokyMope]

@malan: Looks great! The new face gives a good impact looking much stronger.
As for the colours i would suggest the second one; the light cape creates a high contrast and frames the charakter making him pop, while the rest of the costume is not too saturated.

[JakeB]

Looking good malan, yeah, really like the white capes over the others. The reds in the 3rd variation look sweet too.

So, after battling with my Morgan for a while, I just got sick of it. I redrew the face a couple of times, but the pose wasn't really working for me, and it was all a bit still and dull.

Redrew it, gonna have her still casting that electric style spell, but now with her clothes and hair moving around a bit, should be more convincing. Definitely happier with this one :)

[Jmob]

@malan, I like that face! except for the part that he looks somewhat menacing. not sure if that's what you should settle for. maybe make his face look more enlightened and not with as many wrinkles. It ages him quite a lot. Despite the face not exactly looking like an arthurian ideal, it really is interesting to look at. Keep it up. If Morgane's son wasn't suppose to be younger than Arthur than i'd say just use this head as Morgane's son (I forget his name). gogogogo, you got this. :)

@JakeB, You've got to change the face and the hands. I like the idea you have going with the hands though it looks like she is holding some invisible object which looks awkward. The face needs to be more feminine though.

I can't really say much about the dress attire since I have really no knowledge of these cultures or of how design works with clothing. Keep up the hard work.

[Dan Warren]

hello all. I realize ive been late with my morgane crit stream/ Ill do my best to get that to you sometime today. as for what to do in the meantime, Im encouraged by malans effort to up the first piece to the standard of the second and third. IF youve got nothing else to do (im sure most of you do tho), thats a great idea. heres how the rest of the class is going to work. In order-

Ill do a morgane crit stream and you can then push to final
1 week after my crit the morganes are due and mordred will be introduced.
you will have 1 week to supply lines and/or colors for mordred.
you will have a second week to establish his look and hammer it down toward final.
at this point, it will be around xmas time. In the spirit of this (most of us are busy), I will delay the finals for mordred until sometime in the first week of january (TBA). this is a long deadline, and Id really like those of you who intended to go back and fix the previous characters to do that. regardless, the mordreds will be due in early january, and we will have a final stream to wrap up this class.

Were in the home stretch!

<3

[PTimm]

goin back to the basics till i get this one right, felt like quitting but ill never give up. which one is most successful?

[Dan Warren]

my votes go to A, D, F, and G

[emooi]

i made some color tests, what do you guys think.
The color that i think fits best is number 1, 5 or 9.
all the Other colors don't give me the real sense of evil....


As for the pose, still not loving it. any tips?
i know there a probably one million ways to show a character in 3/4 front view but i cant find the right way to show her seductive and evil side at the same time.

[Jmob]

Emooi, for the pose you want something that tells a story and is somewhat dynamic but not too dynamic since you are just giving a concept for the modeler to model. I think what you have is something you shouldn't settle for. i don't understand what she is doing with either of her hands. I get that you want her to look sexy but the pose doesn't match the hand gesture. you really have to push the pose so you get some extreme angles. So, 1. the gesture is weak. if the gesture is weak then the whole thing will look really stiff. Life drawing instructors for quick sketch always say "push the pose" or "exaggerate 10 percent" when drawing the model. So, my critique would be to push the pose otherwise the result will be a very stiff, and vertical figure. 2.The proportions are off. Her hands look too small and the portion of her leg above the knee cap is perhaps too long..making everything below look too small--even when the foot seems about right in proportion.

I hope this helps you produce something you can say you like. Cheers to getting better for the both of us.

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oh for the kind of pose you want you could seriously just watch a disney movie which has an evil character and then you'd have a pretty good idea of how to go about it. Just think about gesture and what implies evil-ness. Usually you have to break up categories for evil for what makes this evil person. Like, they could be powerful and evil and therefore you have another element to play with. Some philosophers say that evil is the depravation of good and good is substance. In thinking in those terms then you'd have to add positive traits, and not just evil otherwise you'd come up with really nothing (since all the good things in evil are what make it interesting and provide structure.) So, since you want her to be seductive and evil, you need to think what makes a person sexy. it usually isn't just "they are sexy" and that's that, but there are reasons, or certain characteristics (broad hips, curvy, loose clothing in certain areas and really tight clothing in others to show form) for why they are sexy and evil. what I think it boils down to when capturing a convincing pose that tells the story is that you have to see the thing as a whole instead of pieces. And that's where good drawing skills come in. As Bridgeman would say, you need the right amount of curves and the right amount of straights to accurately tell the story. So, perhaps in telling the story it would be good to think about as many characteristics as possible so that you have more of an idea of how to tell the story to add perspective. Play around with the head position. maybe add a tilt, just make sure it tells a story. :)

[Nimao]

my finished Morgain concept sketch! am i allowed to render now?
because dan already critted the sketches?

i chose a mix out of my sketches.. and defined it more

the snake should late be a spell or something like that

[PTimm]

thanks for the votes dan! so i took a bit more time to sift thru a few of those poses, and another one that got some votes on FB and messed with em some more, its kind of embarrassing to say, but I've actually never worked with silhouettes before



more towards the goal?

[emooi]

@Jmob Thanks for the feedback :) really appreciate it! As for the pose. I wanted to show off her leg and to put a finger on her lip to look sexy as the other hand would push/hold some kind of magic cloud. But you're right! I need to loosen up the pose way more. I'll hop back to my sketchbook and sketch another bunch of poses. And he, it's not bad at all to watch a Disney movie for idea's and inspiration :D Cheers

[PTimm]

fleshin out the sketchies

[JakeB]

PTimm - Looking good man. Couple of things. The first one, the torso looks a little far forward, and on the third, the staff's kinda running into the trim of her cloak. I like them all though, the middle one's probably my favourite, she looks pretty stern and powerful (maybe coz the silhouette's kinda triangular, I dno), but the motion in the 3rd ones cool. Keep it coming :)

Rough colours and lighting for mine..