I don’t really know how this works..my image appears a little fuzzy after resizing, sorry about that! It’s my first time posting an image on the forum..and it’s my first digital artwork. I learned a lot in the process (and am so aware of how much I need to learn)!

I’m loving seeing everyone’s artwork! This is the first of my Inktober pieces that feels finished enough to share, the only one done in ink so far. I’m having fun with my cat theme and using the prompts to explore different digital styles

Day 5: Blade

Hi guys! Those of you who use Procreate might be interested... I just stumbled across designcuts.com for the first time following links for some recommended digital brushes from an old Youtube video and they happen to be running a Procreate Event at the moment (until Sunday 30th August) with free live tutorials and deals on brush packs.

Personally, I have been resisting purchasing brushes because they can be damn expensive and I know I’ll eventually become more proficient at developing my own but I have been on the lookout for some realistic looking watercolour brushes and was thrilled to score a set of 68 for US$5 (at 75% off because I bought a few different sets at once but no regrets, I’m using Procreate more already!)

The Live Tutorial videos look fairly interesting (lots on Lettering if that’s your thing..) and can also be viewed in retrospect in the ‘Learn’ section of the website.

@hakepe I think to demonstrate this particular story you need to push the man back more like this:

This shows that he has fallen behind and also suits the direction he is walking, following the curve of the path while the woman and dog are moving in the straight direction. When they are too close it looks like she is rudely cutting across a stranger. His gaze will need to be adjusted to look at them running ahead so that we know that he is connected to them.

@Art-Dud said in 3 Areas of Feedback Request:

I would love feedback on three areas:

1. How do the compositions read?
2. How do my character silhouettes read?
3. Does the image make you contemplate a “back-story” or “front story”: What is motivating the character‘s action? (A past and/or future anticipated experience)

1 & 2) I really like your style and the character is in a great variety of dynamic poses that read well for each scene. I love the secondary focal points like the hip hop teddy winking and the apple juice I.V. haha

First up for feedback: the perspective is a bit wonky in all of the images, sometimes it kind of works (to push the backgrounds into more obscurity) so I’m not sure if it was intentional but it stands out as a bit visually jarring in other areas (especially the shelves because they look unstable).

Front cover: Would a brighter colour shirt work better? That yellow blends in a bit to the background. I feel like a red shirt would showcase his energy and enthusiasm for so many different occupations. This is the image to really represent your character’s personality considering he is ‘in costume’ for the rest of the scenes.

The ‘office’ scene: doesn’t really give a specific career angle, I have no idea what he is working on so it doesn’t invite me in like the others. It’s also a very all beige, tight space - I really want to remove or push back the books behind his head and see some more intriguing objects.

The haircut scene: is my favourite storytelling. I love how earnest he is in his work and teddy’s expression looking up at his new do The problem here is that the boy looks like he is standing too far back to be that close to and high above the teddy (especially if he’s seated in a chair)

In the dancing scene: the back leg could do with being resized down a bit and shaded to push it back, I keep getting confused about which leg is closest to the viewer I wonder if he is singing or whistling or just pouting in concentration. Also a lot of attention is being drawn to the water bottle in the foreground, perhaps fade it or move the purple tone to the boom box or hoodie instead? There are a lot of warm colours dominating in that scene.

The surgeon scene: is my favourite! It has a really satisfying harmonious colour palette (good balance between cooler and warmer tones that helps us see the character more clearly) I also instantly recognise the game and appreciate the humour (I’d be interested to know if it could cause any copyright issues with Hasbro in publication though?)

3)As for back-story/front-story, it’s tricky because you’re communicating his aspirations more than his reality. I read that the character has a lot of varied interests is energetic and imaginative. I want him to win in life and stay curious to learn more and find what makes him happy. I think you could show a bit more personality in his surroundings to help the audience get to know him and get more involved making estimations about which career we think fits him best because of the hints we saw. But that could be difficult too because most of your images are at a tighter crop - perhaps have some different camera angles...also what if he was outside in at least one of the scenes?

Sorry, that was looooong, but there were a lot of images to get through I’m nit-picking a bit but I really like your work and think you’re nearly there with it! Hopefully something I said helps you even just a little

@Griffin @TessaW Oh! I now know why My ‘Sort by’ button has been set to show most popular first. I don’t even know how but that’s another problem solved. This is a very useful thread indeed!

@Jules said in HELP! (Please ):

My project is... an “Art of...” book based off my own short film.
My short film in one sentence: Man has fallen out of love with his art until it (his art) reminds him who he is and the progress he’s made.

Sounds like a fun project Are you also making the animated short or is the entire focus creating art for the Art of book of the ‘would be’ film?

they don’t have the feeling I want so I am just looking for any tips: anything you like, hate, hate, love, what you want to see, what could be improved, etc. I have a list of the character traits for each “version” of my character.

Well my question is - what feeling do you want? You’ve created a character, now you have to fill him up with all the feelings so we can ‘read’ them in his features, expressions, gait, posture, costume. You might need to experiment with pushing and pulling of his features to create some very different versions so that you can form your idea of how you want him to appear because every design decision you make is going to lead us to think a certain way about him.

When I look at your character he reminds me of a cross between Roger from 101 Dalmations and Alfredo Linguini from Ratatouille (it’s the slim face and larger nose combo), which is a fitting association because they are both creative types. He seems sensitive, introverted, a thinker, hard-working/studious type.

Your expressions are reading well, keep going with them to add more variety (show the really extreme versions of the emotions you’re depicting). I would do some tracing of male character expression sheets (Pinterest) and then warp them to fit my own character’s features. Perhaps also make a 3D model (I like using plastacine over aluminium foil) to give you a better perspective of his head from all angles in space. Draw turnarounds.

My suggestion is to really flesh out the character as if he were a person who actually lived. Give him a backstory that goes deeper and wider than the single story you’re thinking of for your short because it will inform so much about why he had his creative meltdown and help the audience connect and care about him.
What is his personality type?
What are his relationships like?
What does he do to socialise (he looks like a wine connoisseur to me, like he would host small dinner parties and impress his friends with the skill of perfectly pairing wines to fine food to treat them )
What is his favourite.. [fill in the blank].
What clothes does he wear, why does he gravitate towards that style?
What are his pet peeves?
What is he absent-minded about?
How does he walk/move? I haven’t seen his body type yet but he seems like he would be tall and lanky with big hands and feet and a loping walk..but maybe I’m wrong. On that point, I don’t think the child version really looks like him, he needs a more oval face - can still have chubby cheeks and longer/skinnier legs (although this is all based on my assumption of his body type).

I recommend the Introduction to Gesture SVS classes as a springboard to practise showing emotion and expression and probably the Character Design one too (which I haven’t done yet but I presume it would help a lot!) And obviously, look at the character design in the Art of books.

I think you’ve made a really strong start and I can see you have a lot of potential! Keep drawing and looking at character design inspiration everywhere. Personally, I also have a lot of work to do on my own character design skills so my advise comes from what I have found useful in my own study.. and from my experience in character building for theatre Hopefully some of it helps you too!

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@Gary-Wilkinson Very cute! I definitely prefer the contrast of the subject on the green background. The tone of the yellow background is too close to the peachy skin tones making the eyes and hair stand out inordinately.

@Mary-Toth

I like your inking and line work style but your instincts are probably right, the story is a bit cryptic. I only read the sparkle as fairy magic and I’m unsure, is this a photo of the fairy?

I’m struggling with this prompt too on a couple of fronts (B&W format, original idea, composition being the main struggles!) so I’m still working thumbnails of my ideas.

@Lee-White And this is precisely how I would illustrate the Tools of the Trade portion of an ink drawing book as well!

I hadn’t previously heard of Alphonso Dunn so I am not familiar with his book but when I watched his video I didn’t see anything that I haven’t already seen displayed in so many other instructional art books, magazines and textbooks in my 20+ years of education and interest.
The fundamental sections tend to be very similar between publications and are obviously included as an entry-level introduction to the novice. I usually skip over them at first because the real selling point of these books comes from the unique artistic spin and focus the individual authors bring. Alphonso’s book looks like a good and very comprehensive manual on ink drawing and I sympathise with his offence in assuming that his work has been ripped-off but I disapprove of his defamatory response, particularly when he hasn’t yet viewed Jake’s book as a whole. It’s unfair controversy. From what I can see their books have very different objectives and Jake’s book stands alone, and handsomely at that, in the arena of instructional, growth motivating art books.
I refuse to believe that Jake is anything but a man of integrity and I’m sure his publishers had done their homework in ensuring no copyrights were violated. Hopefully the truth comes to light and good can come out of this horrible situation

@Toony-Days If you feel your character designs are a bit ordinary for your liking I suggest picking your favourite design so far and pushing and pulling the current features to create variations. Stretch, squash, widen, reduce, reshape, exaggerate! You can do this in redraws or.. I like to start myself off by using the liquify tool to pinch and push to shape new designs like sculpting in clay to help quickly see what best suits the character’s personality.

I did this to one of your designs in a quick draw over as an example of the smaller alterations that I’m referring to:

Also when I am approaching animal character I look to what other illustrators/cartoonists are doing to depict the same animal and focus on identifying which characteristics are essential to making it read as that animal. For a squirrel I’d say it’s a short snout and its tail. It’s all experimental and it can be lots of fun!

@kimmypie It’s a sweet concept I do find the newspaper lady too prominent for someone unnecessary to the story and I wish the mum was sharing a moment with her daughter rather than focusing on her manicure. Their lack of eye contact separates them, reduces emotion and doesn’t make their relationship clear.

Piacere di conoscerti @Giuliana-Pappalardo Welcome to the forum! Your story is very interesting - I’m glad you discovered SVS Learn for the courses and some community support to help you grow in your illustration/animation dreams

Hi @dafoota Congrats on the opportunity to display your art, that’s pretty exciting! This is a nice artwork, I really like the warm tones, your character design and your choice to give a watercolour effect with the paper texture However, I’m not sure if the image clearly depicts ‘Cups of Joy’. She looks like she is floating in a moment of bliss but that sentiment is a bit detached from the cup behind her. I also find the smudges distracting - is it the aroma of coffee? Perhaps give it a source with a cup beneath/beside her and make the edges more defined so it looks more intentional - at first I thought they were coffee ring stain effects. Anatomically her right thigh looks too short as is her left lower leg. It’s a tricky pose - I would take a couple of reference photos of someone modelling the pose mid-air while jumping on a trampoline for this one

@mamadraw Nice work, I’ve been wondering how you’ve been going with this and it’s looking great! Loving the greater impact of the bigger monster. I prefer the darker background but I also like the contrasting warmth of the pink so I can’t choose between them

@Gary-Wilkinson Very cute! I definitely prefer the contrast of the subject on the green background. The tone of the yellow background is too close to the peachy skin tones making the eyes and hair stand out inordinately.

@carriecopadraws Congratulations! What an amazing milestone in your art journey - well done for putting in all the effort and commitment to reach this stage!

@lpetiti Hi! Such an interesting theme and the era is definitely apparent in this image - she has a perfect 1920’s appearance
I like your colour palette and your treatment of the smoke. I do find myself wishing the shapes of the arms/hands were a bit more refined with simple indications of fingers as her hands are focal points given that she is holding a microphone and gesturing with her other hand. Also, it is a bit unclear about what she is sitting on as it doesn’t look 3-dimensional, possibly because edges are being lost in the smoke.

I’m glad to hear your arm injury is improving enough for you to draw again!

Hi @mamadraw, I hope you’re feeling a lot better by now.. and I’m glad you were able to make the best out of your illness and get in some drawing time! This is a nice looking piece and a really cool idea for the prompt. I especially like your character designs and the value study you did has a very effective spooky glow that suits the story so well!

As feedback, I do see a few small composition changes that I hope could help, but take them or leave them

You alluded to it yourself, the crop feels too tight and it is especially affecting the wizard boy and his positioning In the picture (he feels too close to the threat, he is too heavily overlapped by the other child, there is a tangent with book and table). Also, to answer your present query: the current colouring of his costume competes with the monster/focal point as the tones are too similar, I would go with deeper tones for the boy to push him into shadow if you plan to add the same emanating glow from your value study.

The main focal point is the Kraken but the table is also a prominent feature and it’s not that interesting to look at (all I can focus on are the objects on it defying gravity). You could make the Kraken bigger, tentacles obscuring the table more and have more tentacles reaching out towards us/the foreground characters or you could amplify the story with added risk if it had a hold of chair with a person on it instead... or, more simply, obliterating a cake/pumpkin on the table with one squeeze of a tentacle.

The hole in the floor didn’t read to me immediately, I thought it was coming out of a caldron or an apple dunking barrel because of the angle of the floorboards and the neat rounded opening.

This is an action scene but your characters all seem quite still, especially the woman in the foreground - if she was exiting on a diagonal line more like the child beside her or had a curved line of action in her posture it would enhance motion.
It would also be good to see shadows of people running the other way in the haze behind the action to give depth and the illusion of a bigger gathering being interrupted., at the moment the smoke wall looks a lot like an actual wall.

@chrisaakins Really? I think it’s lovely & a perfect interpretation of the prompt for your theme! So fancy