January 3rd Thursday
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So, here's my rough sketch for my January 3rd Thursday submission I will be working on. It's going to be a night scene. Trying to decide which to proceed with of these two versions. In one, Stanley is running out onto his tree house porch to see the chainsaw-wielding guy moving toward the viewer. In the other, it's meant to depict that chainsaw guy is coming to cut down the tree in which Stanley lives. Should chainsaw guy be facing toward Stanley's tree, or away? Which do you prefer? Any thoughts on adjusting gesture or perspective at this stage would also be much appreciated. Thanks so much!
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@Pixby I prefer the first drawing with the chainsaw wielding fellow facing away from the camera. You still get a strong idea of what is going to happen without him looking at the viewer. My question would be...why is he going to cut down the tree house?
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@Rob-Smith Well, actually the second one was my initial sketch. The idea wasn't that he would be cutting down the tree house, but rather attacking the viewer, and Stanley up in the tree house hears the noise and comes out to discover it. But, then I thought it might be more interesting if the target of the rampage wasn't unknown, but was rather Stanley himself. So, I flipped the chainsaw-wielding dude around to make Stanley the object of his misdeeds instead. As for why this scene is occurring, I have yet to invent a backstory that has lead to this moment in time.
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Hi Pixby,
I love the setting you have chosen for this project. Anytime you get to draw a treehouse you know it's going to be fun. I do agree with Rob that it seems a bit off in terms of the concept. The threat to the guy with the chainsaw just isn't coming across yet. Anytime you see a treehouse and someone holding a chainsaw, it's going to immediately seem like they are threatening to chop it down.
I might suggest using that to your advantage and thinking of a concept that might work with the chainsaw threatening the tree. I just did a very
quick black and white thumbnail and thought it might be fun to have a wolf with a chainsaw threatening a pig (or three pigs) in the treehouse. Kind of a "three little pigs" spin off. Use whatever you want here, but really think about the story. (Who is the villian? Who is in the treehouse?).In terms of composition, yours was very vertically aligned down the center, so I have moved it off of that line a bit. Try to think about moving the viewer around the page while still leading back to your main subject matter.
SVS Faculty Instructor
www.leewhiteillustration.com -
@Lee-White Oh wow, thanks so much for your input. I sincerely appreciate it. I really like your concept, and the perspective you chose for your sketch. I can see how using classic characters, of which almost anyone will have prior understanding, would certainly help immediately sell what's going on in the scene. That is a great suggestion, to be sure. And, you know, when I made my first sketch it did bother me that the tree house and characters were all in the middle of the page, as you note. So, when I changed the chainsaw-wielding character to facing toward the tree house, I tried to move him off that line a little bit. But, I can see how doing so even more would be even better.
Earlier tonight I tried lining and flatting one of my versions:
I may go in another direction now rather than moving forward with adding detail and shading values.
