Astrid - from sketch to final piece

[Jiří Kůs]

Hi!
I decided I will put my sketches and progress in this thread and hopefully get some feedback On previous thursdays I always had 2 nights or so to do the whole thing, so I hoped I can set more relaxed pace this time and discuss it with others.

I do not have much yet, I did few thumbnails with ideas and then thumbnail with perspective/value study. Now I will try to design the fish-ship, catmonster and Astrid. Yes, it is actually giant cat-ball over her head. I had few more ideas...but in the end I realized I just have to draw flying six legged cat..thing..

Since I was watching perspective courses lately I wanted to do something with it. Thats why the creature is above, so I can play with 3point perspective a bit.

update: I did some designs, but man I have no Idea how to draw my sixlegged cat from bottom. I guess I made its face too flat...

[Steve Young]

I love your work in process, and the sketches you have done. Thats a great work method, wish i did that more often. The thumbnails do help you to work out your composition. when you have finished with your sketch I would you your thumbnail for your color comp.I like your idea of the cat dropping in. the only thing i would suggest is make the cat creature a bit more odd, not necessarily alien, also make your drawing a little wider, so you have more room to play with.. The expected surprise would be greater, if your creature was more shocking or different. Good work so far keep it up.

[Maile McCarthy]

@Jiří-Kůs I really like the worm's eye view sketch. It make me giggle to see that huge cat hovering above her.

I think you're right that your cat's face reads as a bit flat. Something that has helped me tremendously when trying to draw something like this from below is to make a little model of it and actually hold it above me to study it. It can be something super simple, just a big and small lump of clay or anything somewhat cat-face-shaped. Studying some profile views of cats (much easier to find reference) can help give you an idea of how much the muzzle sticks out.

Oh, also, I really like your ship. It looks fish-shaped to me, is that right? I love the idea of the alien cat being curious about the fish-ship.

[Jiří Kůs]

@Stebe-Young
I thought you were right about adding some more alien features I tried it, but its really walking on a thin line. I do not want it to become too monstrous.

@Maile-McCarthy
Yeah it is fish shaped, but it was a bit accidental, something like: "Hmm, it looks more like a fish than a ship.... hell yea, she will be ridin a fish-ship" Using a model is great idea, but I did not have my plastic eraser on me... so I used some reference from the net.

...and yes thats a study of planet express ship from futurama

.

[Naroth Kean]

I love this idea haha, you got a fish, a cat and a human. I could imagine the cat does something to the fish craft without her noticing it or something. Good stuff.

[Maile McCarthy]

@Jiří-Kůs I love where you're taking this! From the new sketches: the cat where you were trying out different legs-- I love the face on that. Much more depth, and I'm digging the maniacal eyes. Astrid's expression is so subtle but communicates so much. Very cool.

I know others have suggested you make the cat more alien, but my personal preference is to keep the legs cat-like. Just thought I'd throw my opinion out there.

[Jiří Kůs]

Finaly pushed it a bit further. What do you think? I think it kind of works. Kind of. I am not sure about value of the blank spaces, like sky, ground and the big shadow. Kind of hope it will become clear later in the progress

[Christina Brown]

@Jiří-Kůs Loving that spaceship! So great!

[Thrace]

Nice! It has a great feeling about it!

[Leontine]

whahaha LOL! its great!

[Rob Smith]

Very clever!

[Spencer Hale]

I like seeing the whole process. looks awesome!

[Steve Young]

Very very well done, they only thing I would do it put the cat above her. Other wise great job so far keep it up.

[Rowan Ferguson]

This will be cool!!! The cat seems perhaps a little symmetrical in terms of it's position in the overall composition. I'm wondering if you could create more of a focal triangle by pushing the craft to left and the cat more over Astrid. Pushing the craft left would help balance the piece and offer some visual white space between the open door and Astrid.

[Jiří Kůs]

@Rowan-Ferguson: Well, composition is still black magic to me I was really just focused to get a focal point on Astrid. But! I have seen some video on balancing the composition so maybe next time.

Concerning my progress... I made like a milion color studies...even with my colored pencils...and end up with this. I just cant get it right, but I am sticking to this one as I am not able to do it better. I just hope I will save it when I get into details and paint over it.

Whats worse... it almost looks better without shadow

[Rich Green]

@Jiří-Kůs First of all I love this concept - the fish ship is so clever and my favorite part of your design here. My thought on the shadow is that the cat is above her but still somewhat behind where she is standing. So I am not sure the shadow would be cast over part of her. Maybe it is only on the ground sneaking up to her back foot but leaving her in the light in the foreground?

[Lynn Larson]

The characters are just amazing in this!! And yes, your craft is a character! The shadow is throwing me off, It seems like it should be on Astrid or the ship, but over both makes the hovercat too close to Astrid or the ship too small.. The shadow is shortening the distance between Astrid and her ship in my mind.

[Jiří Kůs]

Thanks both, I guess i will have to do something about that shadow

[Jiří Kůs]

Well, I think I am done, I will have one more look at it tomorrow...

[Lynn Larson]

Ooooh...that did the trick! Now it looks like there is distance and the cat is sneaking up on her. The colors are magnificent!