Developing Great Visual Stories: My Assignments

[TessaW]

I'm working through the Developing Great Visual Stories class, and am posting my work here for motivation. It's been fun seeing what other people have been doing!

Here's my assignment 1: A Dog Hides

Can you tell what's going on? Does it feel engaging on any level, or is it boring/predictable? (You can be very honest).

[KatrinaF]

I didn't notice the dog on top until I really searched for what was going on. You have great eye flow with the landscape and road curving but the dog on top got lost. Perhaps it will change with color but you might consider framing the dog and/or punching the contrast in that section. My eye went immediately into the carriage not on top.

Great drawing btw. Horses are so hard to draw. I hope I am NEVER asked to draw them. LOL

[Kim Rosenlof]

@TessaW It looks like there a wealthy woman with her dogs going on a picnic, but there is a mutt that is coming along has taken a sausage for the ride. I haven't taken the class yet, so I am not sure of what you are supposed to have happen. I did notice the dog on top, but maybe if you want it to be the first read, then make it darker. Very nice illustration! I really like it.

[ArtistErin]

I too agree the rendering and flow looks good and easy to read right away. I did have to study the carriage more and noticed the dog on top to try and make sense of what was going on, maybe emphasize with darker value or have the dog raised up higher on hind legs so he's more pronounced? Great job BTW!

[TessaW]

@KatrinaF Keeping the dog as a main focal point was a concern so thanks for your thoughts! Also, the horses at that angle were a real headache and it took me so long to get them to a satisfactory level. All the angles of the limbs and figuring their poses in perspective . . yikes! I'm glad you think they look ok.

@Kim-Rosenlof That was the story I was going for, so I'm glad you got it. I was concerned about the readability of the dog having raided the picnic basket. Thanks for your suggestion!

We were supposed to interpret the prompt "A Dog Hides" and get it to at least a rough sketch. The goal was to have an interesting story that evokes some sort of emotion, have it be clear and not confusing, have it be well drawn/designed, and have a secondary story within it. I think the first assignment serves as a base to help measure what we learn later on. Based on your guy's feedback, it looks like I still need to work on the design part at least, so the the focal point stands out.

[TessaW]

@ArtistErin Thank you so much! Changing the dog's pose is a really good idea to try.

[TessaW]

I worked a little more on assignment 1. trying to get the focal point to read better. I'll probably work on it more later, but now I'm going to move on to assignment 2!

[TessaW]

Here's my first drawing of assignment #2. We were given a list of prompts and I chose "He grew and grew and kept growing".

[phoenix yip]

@TessaW The story is pretty clear, and i like the concept. I think it feels a little empty on the left side. Maybe if you put more emphasis on the trail the cart is leaving behind it would fill in that space. I don't know what else to say. I love how the hills push your eye into the carriage. Your flow is good.

[LauraA]

@TessaW I like the contrast between the rangy mutt and the Rococo carriage. Plus, the carriage is just plain fun to look at. I guess my only question is, is the carriage so fun to look at that it upstages the dog? At any rate, I want to know more of this story. Looks like it might be about a dog Cinderella!

[LauraA]

@TessaW Haha, it took me a minute to see the cookie jar, but I like the joke! I love the connection between him growing and always being hungry. Plus, I like that little brother gets one too. And that you see his head next to the ceiling. I might like the forced perspective in the first sketch even more, because it exaggerates the height. But it does look like your final must have been based on that sketch.

[LauraA]

@TessaW Oh, and as with the gesture class, I am listening to this class at the same time as you, and am very tempted to jump in! At any rate, this is very nice work!