VickGaza - Help me learn 2D char. design

[vickgaza]

I think you'll need to know how to render to some extent to do character design. Line and the other non-rendering fundamentals are definitely the most important, but you'll need the ability to depict materials and lighting information on at least a rudimentary level, or at least have a good enough understanding of it to able to photobash it, as reference for whoever uses the sheet (even if its just the art director). But youve also said this is just for your own purposes, to design your own characters, so maybe that's not needed :)

That said, I've seen production-oriented design sheets that are only line art with flat colours, and the materials are depicted on the side with photographs. I don't often hear this method talked about on the things i've seen/read on the web, though, so maybe I'd guess its a less commonly used practice.

As for your art, thats a ton of drawing! On top of quick studies like these, complement them with longer studies where you really zone in and focus on getting things accurately. Even these quick ones look pretty good, so using them as a basis for longer drawings should be an easy transition.

Do you have any examples of the kind of drawings you're shooting for? That might give a better idea of what kind of feedback you'll get, especially since this skill will be for your own purposes mostly rather than as a career :)

Cheers
PS, do you have a link to your 3d work? i'd love to see some of it

Hey Patrick, thank you so much for the reply ! Honestly man I appreciate you taking the time.

For me , as far as 2D goes, materiality is not a priority as I can resolve that at 3D level but I agree that it would be useful to at least suggest that a belt buckle/sword is metallic as opposed to a dielectric flat gray. 
The flat colors and photo references to materials is my preffered way when dealing with other concept artists concepts tbh, I`d much rather the concept artist spends his time making tight lines, good design, back views or fixes design continuity issues as opposed to render materials, as I already have a library of materials that I can use later in the process. 
Btw you can find my personal and professional 3D work here https://www.artstation.com/artwork/zWvQd (ArtStation profile)


Below you will find pretty much my target of quality that I would ever need really.   
The ability to design organic creatures and people with nice garments/armors for me would be the priority, but I think you are absolutely right, I need to learn to at least show volume and surface turning , especially for organic stuff. And some  2 tone render in order to show a cast shadow would also be beneficial. 

Anyway thank you again so much for the feedback and I will be posting my current studies soon too, need to upload them!

Kind regards,
Vick.  






And as far as creature design goes, simple line like this is more than adequate, as I am predominantly a sculptor, so I can tackle details/rendering easily in Zbrush later ok. But gesture, proportions, anatomy and iteration I still think is much much faster to do in 2D and also allows me to explore a different medium