March contest WIP - My first contest entry

[Morten Christiansen]

I've been here for a couple of months, so its time to participate in the first contest. As someone who is learning to draw in my free time, I haven't had to properly design a character before. I've mostly avoided anything to do with drawing people - there are just so many challenges to tackle all at once!

I think a contest like this is just what I need to get out of my comfort zone and get my hands dirty. Most of my available time this month just went on getting experience drawing poses and figures, but I've actually had a lot of fun the last few drawing nights, seeing the character "coming to life".

I've arrived at a character design and concept that I'll be moving forward with, where a boy sets out to hire some heroes only to find that no one will help. Undeterred, he resolves to take matters into his own hands. You can see the general idea for each pose below, in chronological order. What do you think, how well does the narrative read?

[Niels]

I think the last three read very well narrative-wise. The first two work a bit less sequantially in my opinion. Maybe an extra pose would help? Regarding the second pose; the character is a boy. So it might be interesting exploring him looking up, signalling that he is trying to pay someone bigger/older than him.

[Morten Christiansen]

@Niels Good point about him looking up in picture 2. An extra pose would go beyond the parameters of the competition, so I guess that is out of the question. I'm not sure how rigid the interpretation of the prompt is, though. I do agree that you probably need to see the last 3 images before you really understand the first two. I can't think of any way to communicate more clearly what he is doing. I could add a couple of arrows sticking out of his backpack, but I like that idea that he starts out excited about his task, not running for his life.

[Niels]

@Morten-Christiansen Would it be fair to add a small background in the running pose? Than you could have him running to the adventurers guild/town/tavern. It would add a little more context.

[Morten Christiansen]

@Niels Do you think this helps to sell the narrative from the first image? Dark clouds gather over his town, with a menacing grasping hand. I hope it conveys that his home is under threat and he is racing out to do something about it. I could also slap a "Reward" label on the money bag to clarify its purpose.

[Niels]

@Morten-Christiansen I think it could work, though I think the character needs a bit more wide-eyed-exitement look on his face to make it clear he isn’t fearfully running away.

And I think it’s better to stay away from small text on items, since they might not scale good enough. But I’m on unsteady ground there.

[Morten Christiansen]

Exploring colors and rendering style. Oh boy was it hard to capture the expression of the original sketch. I couldn't really escape a slightly creepy expression. Maybe I should try for line art instead.

[Morten Christiansen]

And here is the line art. Not sure what to go with yet