Komodo's sketchbook

[JosephCow]

wow nice drawings, dude! some pretty clean lines!

[Komodo]

@JosephCow thanks man!! spent a fair amount of time cleaning the mess up ahah glad it shows :D

[Komodo]

Update ; I did a final render

Don't hesitate to give feedback to bring this to the next level

[darktiste]

What the material on the neck?It reading like is some kind of leather material but when i check the color test it look as if it could be bandage but the light on the edge toward the light source suggest it a thick material.I think you need more separation in value if there is overlap of material because right now it look like a single piece with some kind of scractch.

A thick material make sense to protect the neck against vampire. I think the surface is just to flat and without texture to read properly as some kind of leather.Leather that as age will loose it shine.Do you want the character to feel like he just got is costume fresh from the shop or do you want to make him look like he been carrying that stuff for age?

There is nothing major to note.I just notice the hand on the left look rather large and hard to read.The value of the finger on the right hand also kinda get lost with the color of the suggested cloth behind it.

Nothing that is major enough not to move to a new project.You can always render the crap out of something but what the purpose that ultimately what dictate when you should stop and move on.

Personally i recommend a bit more color test then 3 variation seem kinda short.Because what funny is you did not even pick any of them.

[Komodo]

@darktiste Thank you for the feedback!
Yeah the neck is supposed to be covered in the same bandage than he has on his hands. I agree that it isn't easy to read. I may try to find more reference to make it look better.

I in fact experimented with different variations of the colors I showed+ 3 more color schemes different from the ones that I posted here, including this one. So, 9 on total. I asked some of my friends and picked one based on their reaction and on my opinion and liking.

I might spend 30 min to an hour more to try to fix some things here and there but I feel like it's done for the most part.

Thanks you again

[Lillen]

Just wanted to say congrats on another successful character design! :) My favorite part is the neck scarf because of the interesting shape and movement leading into the face. Speaking of the face, I like how you've rendered it. The bandage idea is also cool. Would love to see him in some sort of nighttime illustration hunting vampires.

[darktiste]

Would be fun if he was eating a garlic bread just for the comedic kick but it would be hard to translate it so the viewer understand.

But that just give me an idea he could be wearing a garlic necklace around is neck or have some attach like in the picture to some rope.

I just think right now the design is to far from screaming vampire hunter i feel a minimum of stereotypical element to read as a vampire hunter here would help it still a bit to generic personally for me but i am more into stylize work so finding the right line between realism and to stereotypical is not always pull of right away.

My advise would be for the next time you design a character approach it with props in mind.

Don't worry you will learn to take risk but you need to take risk also to learn how to take risk.

[JosephCow]

the garlic necklace would be cool if it were like a string of metal bulbs, so it looks a bit like it but isn't so literal. Buffy the vampire slayer doesn't look like a vampire slayer besides carrying around a bunch of stakes, but she still works as a character.

[Komodo]

@Lillen Kind words! thank you! I plan to integrate the character in a scene or two so stay tuned ;)

@darktiste It is indeed a fun idea! I agree that the design is very close to a lone knight or a mercenary rather than a vampire hunter or even a monster hunter. That is totally deliberate I didn't want him to look very obviously like who he is, maybe that's a mistake but I wanted a very believable/practical and realistic look. I imagine vampires in this world to be monsters/animals rather than zombies or magical creatures. I wanted to hint that he may be a vampire hunter rather than showing it very obviously at first look.

To do so I chose to make him wear the transylvannia crest on his chest belt, all of his weaponry looks like silver-weapons. He's carrying a "miséricorde" dagger which is very similar in looks to a stake, often described as the only weapon able to kill a vampire. His sword scabbard has nail/claw marks, with one of them being a little bit on the upper side ; could be the thumb of an humanoid creature...

In other words I wanted to be subtle, but again, maybe I'm wrong with my approach

@JosephCow I really really like this idea! I might give it a shot when I decide to refine it. For the moment I'm focusing on studies and more relaxed work as I spent litteraly weeks working on this guy.

Thank you for the insightful feedbacks

[darktiste]

You mention silver and stake but the viewer can't see those choose. To you the decision you made they add to making him a vampire hunter but to them i argue that it questionable.

It what called a second reveal it when you hide the function of object for theatrical effect that perfectly fine it a design choose.

If you go for realism i think it good to take reference from historical source and to play into that and add a twist. Also since you never mentioned until now that you see vampire as monster/animal what does that even mean are they giant bat?

Also if it not a magical creature why would silver or a stake be necessary? This start to pose the question as to if you really thought about the design.

Maybe i am going to far.

[Komodo]

That's not what I meant by that. English isn't my native language so maybe that's why I'm struggling making my point, sorry for that :/

I don't really care if the viewer gets in a split-second that he's a vampire hunter. I was earlier explaining some of the elements of his design and why I chose them, if the viewer is understanding why they are here and what their purposes are, that's cool, but if they don't spot them at first glance, I'm okay with it too, and I might even prefer that. My main goal was to make him look human, with a soul and personnality. To me, accessories are... accessory :)

In every character designs, there are a lot of hidden details and small things that your brain is processing even if you're not actively paying attention to them. Even if the dagger is not a "text-book" stake, maybe you would feel different about the character if he was not carrying one. Same thing for the silver (or silver-colored metal) weapons. What if they were gold? What would it say about the character? Maybe he is some kind of lord, does he really fight with those weapons? Same thing apply for everything.

To finish, I would say that I believe that the character essence should not necessarily be entirely summed in one image. It should give good info but this must be completed by personnality, way of moving, script, music, etc.

But don't get me wrong, I am the first one to agree that my character isn't perfect in any way, far from it! I'm trying to find balance and don't want him to look gimmicky, that's all :)

[Komodo]

Value distillation study

The fewer values the better, trying to improve shape design/appeal + decision making. fun exercise :)

[JosephCow]

Nice studies! I also agree on the char design, I prefer allusions to be more subtle. I think you put a lot of thought into the elements you included. Whether he reads strong enough as a vampire hunter would honestly be something to be workshopped with a hypothetical art director, were this a real project with a team of people.



With the value studies, I think the bottom two read well for having strictly two values. The top one is a little more difficult, it has more scattered shapes of middle and dark values that don't really add much to the read. I wonder if this would give you any ideas for the next ones?

If doing a 3 value study, Like in the middle, there's always compromise because there's some things that don't really fit into 3 values. Like the sky is close to the lights, but the light parts stand out from the sky in places, and the goblin's skin is close to the dark value in places when squinting. But you can still  work with just 3 values and break things up mostly by masses. So anywhere there is dark clothes in shadow, I make that all the dark value, and they kind of link together into a bigger shape. All the goblin's skin I want to read as one value without too many changes in it. I don't wanna break things up more where there's dark folds or details like that because it confuses the bigger read, as tempting as it is to try and preserve those details.

On the left, I use one more value so there are two middle values, and this way you get the sky to read more accurately. And this one starts looking more like the painting, less of an abstraction. Just two slightly different ways to approach this one. I think either way they get that strong 'notan' look. Part of that might be just painting a bit more freely as well. Meaning it's not as digital sharp, and I do 'cheat' the values a tiny bit to get things to read a little more. Which for me actually I think improves my value studies because it takes care of the tempatation to make tiny shapes around stuff to get details to read if I'm able to make super subtle lines or gradations within big value masses. That's just my personal approach to it, though, I thought it might help. If not, that's ok too.

[darktiste]

I think it most case the in midvalue act to give the contrast necessary for object to have a readable focal point and when it come to focal point you get highlight . Will the dark frame the movement of the visual flow. That for 3 value study in the day time which i argue is where most painting take place.

This range of interaction can shift according to the importance of light source the intensity and the number of light source.Think night scene, moody weather, interior scene vs exterior. Those scenario affect the range of value.

When it come the question of what value you should be merging together that a complex subject matter

Because merging value change the visual hierarchy also the new shape can create unintentional contrast that can attract the eye where it not necessarily wanted and those shape can create flow if triangle appear within that shape it about guiding the eye with decision. You must look at the fundamental art of composition because value and composition work together.

It not just a question of squinting and picking what merge together.

[Komodo]

@JosephCow thank you, precious feedback as always! :) I agree: the first image was a difficult one to work with for this kind of exercise. Now that I see your value distillations mine feels so off lmao. But that's a good thing. Maybe from time to time it's indeed interesting to use a wide range of values. At first I really wanted to use 2 or 3 values max but in some cases, with complex and subtle value shifts like this one, it doesn't really work. I like the idea of focusing less on solid sharp-edges shapes and painting more losely. It worked really well on your thumbnails. Thank you for the time you spent giving me feedback

@darktiste Yes, of course, composition and value are more than often related. I always try to keep this in mind and this exercise is in fact -to me at least- a way to improve in understanding composition choices, and the relationship between value balance, contrast, and what makes a working composition. As always, thanks for the feedback :) !

[Komodo]

I did a second batch of value study, based on landscapes this time, by Eytan Zana

I struggled a bit on the last one

I decided this time to get a little loser on my painting and to work with more values (4)

[Komodo]

this  lighter grey shape shouldn't be here I think that's a mistake because of a mask or lasso error in photoshop or something my bad

[JosephCow]

Nice! I think in especially on the 1st and 3rd one, you can afford to have a little more simple shapes, still. Don't be afraid to lose some information or details in favor of the bigger read!

[Noone]

Greetings

My take on the one on the right. Just wanted to see what I would do with a 10 min go at it. I feel you can't get an accurate read with these without focusing on the accurate placement of the shapes you are making. Simplifying is good, but less useful if they aren't accurate imo. The more accurate your simple shapes , the more you will understand how far the simple value read cab go in making the image read. Simple, shouldn't mean sloppy. I feel also using smaller shapes or textures can help when the scene dictates, like in this one, and probably helps you understand more about what approximate value family things belong in. I also like using a 1 or 2 value for the darkest and an 8 or 9 for the brightest. In fact you should probably match the value key in which the image is painted rather then picking arbitrary value buckets. Most images aren't as high contrast across the image, but this one was. You can also identify key hard and soft edges and put them in as well, not everything needs to be so hard edged and graphic imo.
This is basically only a 3 value study

[darktiste]

I think there also something to say about using horizontal and vertical stroke specially when you use a texture brush to do those.But what i want to say is your drawing are way smaller about maybe 7-8 smaller then is critic/comment so don't take the comment on accuracy with a grain of salt you did a pretty nice job at capturing accuracy obvious my advise if you want addition accuracy is to try to zooming and and zoom out to keep thing fairly accurate personally it the larger stroke that count but obviously knowing where the focus point is also tell us where to be accurate some focus point can be easly to capture if large in scale and some smaller. So being able to recognize and prioritize what matter is also a skill.

As far as time limit i am not aware if you had any so trying to compare someone who work with urgency and someone who is analyzing is a bit unfair also accuracy vary with experience.

You said you were more focus on value so it surely not and excuse to be sloppy but you know why certain thing fall off more so as long as you don't have to much tunnel vision and keep thing fairly balance don't worry to much. Some people focus more on certain thing some people are more loose and some are more to the letter. But what matter is being aware of what your going for either loose or to the letter. But that more when it come to personal style in personal piece i would say it more advised i would say to be to the letter to avoid such comment when doing such study where accuracy of all fundamental is key since it emulating the quality we are going after. So it really ultimately boil down to the style of the artist you are ''copying'' ''studying''