October WIP Brian and Penny piece

[Aaron_T]

Okay, so I might be getting into semantics on this one but the way I read the October contest prompt "The experiment worked! Penny was so relieved to have her dog back from the dead." it's Penny that is super excited...Brian (the dog) is presumably less so.

Of course I want to draw a head in a jar, but am a little leery of ruining any progress so far by overdoing the fluid in the jar. Any suggestions on how to make it look like the jar is full of semi-opaque liquid without obscuring Brian too much? Kind of spoiled by the undo feature in digital...

[TessaW]

Oh, interesting take on the prompt! Poor pooch. Some ideas I can think of to make it more liquid-in-a-jar-feeling-

1. Get rid of the sharp highlight on the nose. Highlights are soften quite a bit in liquid. If you look up boiled eggs in a jar of liquid vs out of the liquid, you can see the difference.

2. Lower the liquid line just a bit, and any part of the dog that is underwater even the outer line work- hatch with thin lines of white, following the perspective of the glass. This will show a value difference between what's under the liquid vs what's above.

3. Add more bubbles, making sure some of them overlap some of the outer linework of the dog's head.

4. Maybe add splash marks from where the liquid is sloshing around at the waterline.

Don't know if those ideas will work, but it's what I could think of off the top of my head.

[Aaron_T]

Ah, good ideas. Thanks!

[theprairiefox]

@Aaron_T I love your Inspector Gadget reference... you did a good job with the likenesses as well.

[chrisaakins]

@theprairiefox Oh wow! I can't believe I missed that reference. Things just got real...

[Aaron_T]

Decided to try to salvage this version of the ink before starting over to get some of the other edits incorporated. Softened the highlight on the nose and added more bubbles and lines in the water to delineate the liquid, but can only do so much to the surface of the water as far as sloshing goes without a total redraw.

Might do it again anyway because it's fun and it weirds people out when I explain whats going on.

[Aaron_T]

Okay...going to scrap this one and start over. Going back through some of my thumbnails this version will be more dynamic and I can work in Gadget. Let’s see if I can do this with ink when there’s no undo arrow!

[Aaron_T]

I tried to do this in traditional ink...really. My problem is that my inking ability just didn't match up with my imagination and schedule this month! Tried to keep the tones to a solid ink and two levels of wash, and I'm pretty happy with the way it came out.

Feel a bit badly posting this on the day my own dog is in for leg surgery, but it is what it is.

[TessaW]

Great job! I love the addition of Inspector Gadget. I just noticed that the dog collar is around the lid. Nice touch. I don't know if you still want critique, but there's a bit of a tangent happening with her head and the jar bottom. Should be and easy fix?

Hope your dog does well in surgery! Again, great job. I love it and you really did well conveying the liquid in the jar.

[theprairiefox]

@Aaron_T I wasn't sure, but I had to look it up. Penny's dog's name is 'Brain' not 'Brian' in the show. Just if you care...

[Aaron_T]

@theprairiefox D'oh! I can fix the digital version, but I can't fix my uncoolness at not realizing that

And thanks @TessaW, her big old head kept getting caught up in the jar...at this point it may end up being more work than it's worth with all the layers in there! I can try though if I need to fix the dog tag...;)

Thanks both of you!

[Aaron_T]

Turned out to not be too bad of an edit in Photoshop...here's to naming your layers!