Feedback Welcomed - Sequential Work for my Website!

[Michael Angelo Go]

Hello, I got rid of all my character design sheets on my website and other pieces that I think are not strong enough to appeal to an agency that I might either scrap or revise later along the way. Down below are the pieces I feel like I am going to work on or revise for my portfolio. A lot of you have been really helpful in my art journey, so your feedback is always welcomed. Right now I only have 11 pieces in my portfolio now and 4 them also need to be revised.

[Michael Angelo Go]

This piece is called "The Monkey and the Tortoise". I drew this piece when I was still in high school, probably around 2013. As you can see I wasn't really the master of color theory that I am today. I was also afraid of doing artwork without lineart back then with my characters. I did several sequential pieces for these, but I only fully colored three, because that's probably all I need from this story to add to my portfolio.

[Michael Angelo Go]

I am not planning on coloring all of these but I think it's worth sharing.

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@Michael-Angelo-Go hi! Ah!!! You beat me to it!!! i was also planning to illustrate the Monkey and the Tortoise

[Michael Angelo Go]

Maybe you can do the messed up version where the turtle gets revenge at the monkey by impaling them with thorns and feeding the pieces to his monkey clan

Btw how's my composition/storytelling skills?

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@Michael-Angelo-Go i think the composition is great! your characters are adorable and I love your colors. My one minor suggestion would be to change the color of the sky. it's currebtly greenish and it kinda gives off an eerie atmosphere. maybe a soft blue would look great. But then a again this is just a minor nit pick. i think you've done an amazing job here. Very professional looking work!

[Michael Angelo Go]

Okay I've been neglecting this thread for almost a month now. I'm working on "I am Maganda".

I'm going to work on 3 scenes I think might appear in the final (dummy) book.

1. Maganda and her mother hugging next to the only photograph of her father.
2. Maganda crying in class as everyone is calling her ugly.
3. Maganda winning the beauty pageant as the other contestants are jealously shocked.

Here is the sketch of the first drawing for composition.

For this story I want to experiment with shapes, anatomy and perspective. I've always been inspired by Pixar but I've never integrated elements that we associate with their movies (fluid and exaggerated anatomy, cinematic views, etc.)

Maganda's dad looks sorta realistic because he's kind of a caricature. His body and her mom's body are really exaggerated. For her mom, I wanted her to look like the typically lower class Pinay mother who works very hard, gets very little sleep but still has enough energy to love her only daughter. I hope it doesn't look too grotesque though.

I changed Maganda's hair (again) because I felt like the afro just wasn't working for her design.

[Michael Angelo Go]

Okay after some outside feedback, I updated the piece to give the hollow room some more character.

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@Michael-Angelo-Go hi. My one suggestion is that maybe the mom is bending over, hugging the girl.

[Michael Angelo Go]

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Okay here's an update. I've been slowing down these days. I need to listen to that burnout podcast.

I'm trying a new technique where I draw everything in grayscale then add in color later. I think this composition will be very strong if there is a clear figure-ground (black part and white part).

I started working on the dad. I think the values are okay at the moment. I'm sort of guessing the lighting of this scene already. Oh and I already changed the pose for Maganda and her nanay. I think they look closer than ever.

[Michael Angelo Go]

Ooh ooh @NessIllustration look at this!

[Michael Angelo Go]

[Michael Angelo Go]

[NessIllustration]

@Michael-Angelo-Go How pretty! This is a step above your other work, Michael! Try to add a bit more contrast to improve readability! For instance,the little girl's hair darker to distinguish it more from her hair. You could also move around the foliage in the window a little bit so the mom's head clearly pops out against the sky

[Michael Angelo Go]

@NessIllustration Oh I forgot to mention I'm not done. I'll add an update later today! I didn't add the fan as you can see.

[Michael Angelo Go]

@Nyrryl-Cadiz @NessIllustration

I just finished rendering the scene. I added some motion blur, but I'm worried it might be overkill. Should I add some blur, no blur, or only a little bit of in-between? Let me know what you all think!

[NessIllustration]

@Michael-Angelo-Go I prefer without, it just looks nice and crisp This is probably my favorite piece of yours ever! I love the limited color palette and the emotions. I do think you could push your blacks a bit more black to make the contrast sharper though!

[NessIllustration]

@Michael-Angelo-Go Like so?

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@NessIllustration no blur and perhaps increase the value contrast.

[Michael Angelo Go]

My next drawing.