WIP Squashly - October Contest
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Layout and sketch so far for Squashly and Poe Sprout idea. The idea is that he is walking along dropping pumpkin seeds and growing pumpkins Jonny Appleseed style. This full background will be pretty tricky to do in line art I think but I'm going for it. Does the idea come across okay?
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@K-Flagg The idea comes across well! Good work!
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Take my advice with a grain of salt as I'm more new to this than most of y'all.
I think this is fantastic and definitely reads well as far as the scarecrow's emotion and the idea of plant growth. The main thing that stands out as odd to me is the lack of those iconic leaves that you'll see at a pumpkin patch. I think having some more of the actual plant in there along with the fruit will help to convey the idea better as you could have buds and recently pollinated pumpkin flowers beginning to fruit as well. Anyways, maybe you hadn't put them in at this early stage and I'm totally off the mark talking about something you'd already thought of but I wanted to throw that out there too.
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@Tristan-Lapetz Thank you for taking the time to look at it. Yes, you are absolutely right, it does need vines. I had planned on adding some but I will make sure to add enough to really give it that pumpkin patch feel. Hopefully I can still keep it from getting to busy that it doesn't distract from the main character.
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Progress so far on this piece. I'm thinking about making the sky black to add more contrast and keeping the clouds white? What do you guys think? Is there anything that is not working?
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@K-Flagg This is looking pretty cool! The only thing that is not quite working when I look at it is the seeds. They get lost visually next to Squashly's body. Can you make them pop out a little somehow?
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I'm so impressed with the amount of line work in this! I have to admit I had to read your initial description of the story in order to know what was going on. It looks like he's just standing in a pumpkin field rather than walking through it sowing seeds and having pumpkins sprout behind him.
I can think of a couple of solutions.
- Instead of having pumpkins growing all over the field you could have them sprouting just where he's walked
- You could exaggerate the spreading of the seeds β maybe have some thrown and arching through the sky
- It's probably a bit late for this but you could have the pumpkins sprouting in a place they don't usually sprout so it's obvious he's not just standing on a farm but he's the one making the pumpkins grow
I'm sure there are other solutions too that I haven't thought of. Your inking and control of line is really incredible!
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I do think a dark sky would help to contain the scene more as my eye is sort of pushed up and lost off the page when my eye wants a break from the awesome detail in the foreground and on the pumpkin patch. I wonder if emphasizing the flying leaves on a dark background might help to glue the two "halves" of the piece together more too. Sqashly's head ties the background to the foreground well but it is sort of on the dividing line already and I think the main thing that lacks unity is the disconnect I feel between the top and bottom of the piece. This is looking so good though and I just love that mischievous and almost endearing look the Squashly has.
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@Tristan-Lapetz Thank you! I will try it and see how it looks.
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@Katherine Thank you for this response. I will make a version removing some of the pumpkins and see if I can make that work. I was thinking I needed the ones up front to keep the eye moving across the page but maybe it just makes it to distracting.
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Here is the new version with the blacked in sky and I removed a bunch of the pumpkins so it appears more like the pumpkins are only growing where he walked. Does this read better? Also it says we can add a spot of color if we want but I don't know if I should. Thoughts on that? Are you guys adding color to your entries?
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@K-Flagg Yeah this is reading loads better. I am adding a spot of colour to mine. I bought some exciting coloured Liquiyex Acrylic Inks and I canβt wait to play with them
You could add some colour to the seeds to make them pop and reinforce the story.
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@K-Flagg I think this reads much better, it also directs my eye more with the pumpkins acting as a line to and from the character.