BV's Humble Corner (DUMP p10)

[ClockHand]

Design discussion for comic characters (animerubeld and rubisko).

Both are good actually. As you know it all depends on your art direction, if you are going to use strong shades, you can go with detailed work, or at the contraries, with no detail at all. I feel this just depend on how are you going to solve it as a problem, you can pick doing easy designs, or you could use shades to simplify your work, or a lot of far and close up views, so you never have to fill all the design constantly (actually this is interesting to discuss in some moment, because we could say you only need 1 moment to show the character in his full cloth and design, as one time he/she is being shown is enough to create a on the readers mind a construct about how he looks, and after that you can basically hide the character the whole story, or reveal fragments of his look through the story creating the construct of the character flowing with the narrative).

For the battle thing. GOD DAMN ANATOMY, for reazle. I don't think I could cover everything but lets do this 2 exercises, first relate the length proportion of the furthest leg with the furthest arm (further from the viewer, us), second look where his neck is connected, you are going to see that his neck is a little further from where it should be. There are more problems, like the size of the front foot, the proportion of the further leg with the body, the grab of the fly-killer-thing (I have no idea of its name on English), the position of the foot and the pant drop. I guess I might have covered almost everything, but ya, take care of anatomy, I understand its a dynamic pose, but over literacy doesn't mean you have to destroy anatomy in this way (and even in normal comic book literacy its highly criticized).

And following with dynamic poses, the latest picture you uploaded, the further leg is too long, and I can see the perspective lines, which you followed right, but you forgot that further things look smaller, which mean the leg should be getting smaller as it goes further. Also 2 final things on this latest image, his eyes are looking at 2 different places (cover one eye and look where its looking, cover the other and do the same) and the grab of the "clock" (I guess is my or something, who knows?... well if it is cock hand).

Well, cloth design is pretty good, its obvious that you are going for this high fantasy with some japanese aesthetic of it, but it looks nice and its obvious that you are making theses conscious decisions (like the constant tall neck on all the jackets).

[BunnyVoid]

For the battle thing. GOD DAMN ANATOMY, for reazle.

haha... Thanks clock. Your comments are always convincing and detailed. I really appreciate it. I admit that I have completely abandoned anatomy recently. I haven't even finished the book (by Burne Hogarth) Rubisko recommended me. hehe... must be my short attention span. I will get back to studying it soon, hopefully in detail and in the correct manner. The comment you made regarding foreshortening is also very helpful. I'll try incorporate the principles you mentioned in my future posts. Thanks again.


In my previous post, I have asked for your help, comments, and suggestions regarding clothing design. I'm grateful for all the comments that I have received especially since I'm learning a lot in a short amount of time just by reading them. Its also quite a challenge to be honest. Its really nice to have someone look over what I do. Since you guys can see my work in a more objective manner, therefore can observe it and decipher what's wrong and right about it. Thanks for that.

Like what many suggested. I bought a handy sharpie pen to draw the designs. At first it was really confusing since I usually love filling things up with details. The thickness of the marker forced me to work out the basic shapes and forms, exactly like how Rubisko suggested. I'm quite happy it worked. Also I tried to simplify the amount of details to gain focus and add practicality to the design. The pen worked wonderfully in terms of allowing me to clearly distinguish negative from positive spaces. Now things look more balanced. I also think this technique will allow me to draw my characters with greater speed, precision, and distinction.

Here is one of the many doodle pages I have done. I opt not to post the other ones since it would be quite repetitive.



Here is the semi-final silhouettes of Qayin and Havel's inner and outer attire. I also added their weapons for fun.

I will work out the details later. The more important thing is that I am able to achieve balance, distinction, and focus in their designs. Each draw was sketched around 15 to 30 seconds each. These are just thumbnail drawings btw.


Now moving to another topic.
Many of you have noticed that I always struggle when it comes to lighting, coloring, and shading. Clock suggested that I try to paint portrait without lines.

Here is my very poor first attempt at lineless coloring. haha... it looks ridiculous i know. haha. I can only laugh at it. I was quite lazy when I did this but nonetheless had fun trying. Like usual, I didn't have the patience and stopped at the 45 minute mark. But since I'm shameless I will still post it for your criticism. You can be as harsh as you can be since I'm completely to be blamed lol.


Huang Zi Tao, a Chinese boyband member. (my future husband, lol)
REFERENCE:

SPOILER! :

Besides from that, I have some works like usual. I realize that I'm beginning to slow down in terms of sketching.

Qayin and Cain (Grimcody.deviantart.com) in the forest. I drew it when this awesome friend made an awesome video with maple story graphics. Here's the snapshot.

SPOILER! :

I lost my favorite pencil before doing this. The pencil i was using was kind of too light so i had to do a lot of strokes. Please don't mind the hands lol. I got lazy drawing them hehehe... Anyway draw took something like 30 to 40 min.

EDIT: additional piece

an additional for Qayin with his slightly revised attire. Took 20 minutes. He's really easy to draw compared to the others. I'm still looking for my favorite pencil. I used a stupid mongol pencil which refuses to put marks on paper sometimes. Its a pain. It was scratching my pad. mehh... >.>


that's all for now.

[Demonfyre]

3rd drawing with a wolf/dog in it; The clothing designs are great and the poses look great, however Qayin's hand that is giving us the thumbs up looks a bit akward, probably because of the angle the arm is on.

4th drawing/last one; I think the pose from head to legs flows pretty well, but the arms seem to be a bit stiff I think, particularly with the hand and the way that sword is being held straight on at us. Sorry that I can't be of more help, that is just what I think is the case

[Rubisko]

I think you've done a great job, you're probably going to loosen up more and more using that pen, and the drawing you did from reference looks good as well =) Interesting that you chose to use a hard edge brush there. I think the reference is bad. the shot is lighted to reduce shadows and smooth out the features of his face which flatten the image and reduce it to something that's almost just a 2D graphic. Even though that effect are quite cool, you want to use a reference where the form of the subject is more apparent, Something that's lighted with one direct source and has some reflected light onto the shadow are the one's that's most easy to learn from to start with, at least it was so for me.

[BunnyVoid]

@demonfyre: thanks! the clothing designs are finally wrapping up. thanks to all your encouraging words :3 i really owe you guys for it. And yeah, that thumbs up is ridiculous. I'll try to practice draw some more hands and feet soon :3 hehe for now, nothing really. And I agree that the pose below is really stiff hehe... I was actually basing it on myself standing with a ruler on my hand. I can't think of a more creative yet simple pose recently hehe... I'll try to do better next time. I really owe you a lot :3 thanks for all the encouraging words. You're big help, don't worry :3 Hope to see more of you arts soon :3

@rubisko: Yes i think i'll loosen up some more. This will probably take some time before i finally fully understand this technique. And on the painting. Yes I did use a hard edge brush. hehehe I admit i was too lazy. I didn't look for other brush. Im also most comfortable with this kind of brush. hehe... I will look for better reference in the future. thanks for the suggestions :3

okay thanks rubisko, demonfyre!

can't update yet regarding pose, anatomy, colors, and shading, sorry
I have only practiced inks today.. meehh.. its a busy weekend i guess...

I bought pens! I enjoy using it now.

SPOILER! :

This afternoon, I'm practicing with sharpie markers. I just bought them a while ago. Pretty nifty if you ask me.

• Black Ultra Fine point marker
• Black Fine Point marker (retractable)
• Grey Fine Point marker

here are some quick draws... Using sharpies now. No pencils. Its good for practice. Also helps visualize negative and positive space in design.





in some pages you can see how i mess up and just leave things and then move on to another... hehehe. that's the good thing about inks. it lets you mess up and forces you to move on. lol.

EDIT:

Also just wanted to add... I want to thank Dante13 for inspiring me to do Havel's outer armor. He drew something for me in da which helped me sort out some character details for Havel.

Havel is my story's main protagonist and at a major point in the story, he is exiled to Sheol. If you wanna know what Sheol is like CLICK HERE. Its supposed to be like Hades. Its not hell. Its like a dimension where souls are still alive but not in a physical realm. Inhabitants there cannot escape (with the exception of Seth Alsius since he has inter-dimensional powers) and undergo decay. Most of the souls become undead overtime (they grow beyond their physical bodies's ages but do not die) except for souls which are powerful enough to resist decaying atmosphere of Sheol.

Havel meets Scorpio (his zodiac) during his stay here. Scorpio happens to be the Grimreaper. In his stay he learns more about his "soul sucking" / "spirit absorption" / "soul seeking" abilities during his stay. At this point, he gains recognition as the "Harvester of Souls" due to these capabilities. For these reasons I gave him the scythe as a weapon. But I altered it a bit because I still think guns fit him the best.

Since he assumes part of the Grimreaper's persona, I've been itching to put some of Architect Calatrava's influence into my work. Architect Calatrava is known for incorporating Anatomical/ Bone structures in building design. He is also well verse with sculpture.

Some of his works below NOT MINE just wanted to share:

SPOILER! :

He's so cool. Now unto design. What do you think of putting bones on outer armor? I was thinking of putting these on his shoulder armor (PICTURE NOT MINE):


I wanted to make buckles, support, spikes, armor and etc with bones. Does this sound more like an aesthetic choice? Do you think this addition can be functional as well? I mean like how Calatrava uses anatomy as a tool for structure? (I may still take inspiration from his works in designing Sheol)

I'm going to develop Havel's clothing details some more.
Even simple comments and recommendations are nice. Thanks everyone. you've helped me a lot. I've only been here a month and I'm learning so much already.

thats all sorry. nothing much.

[BunnyVoid]

BUMP :3 just because...

don't critique the previous anymore...

i think i have a problem with inks...



Many have noticed that whenever i do my inks, it drains all my "artistic" energy with it, as if to sterilize it.
I still think it does...

which looks better on a manga page? inks or sketch?

[indescribable]

This thread is rejecting crits. Why? D:

- - - Updated - - -

Alright, here we go.

[ClockHand]

Okay, lets see if I made it on parts works.

So part 1.

I want you to put your finger or hand over the hair of your characters and tell if do they look alike, because I have been this entire time believing that all these OC designs where the same character done in different cloth.

This is important because you don't want readers to get lost, and if your characters are to similar they might, specially in close ups or other type of views where the amount of attributes that make the character get diminished.


Also the rapier design might look pretty but it has a heavy lack on functionality, and weapons always response to functionality before aesthetes.




The loop, side ring, front quillon and rear arm are meant to catch the opponents blade, the trick was to stand your blade on an advantage position to your opponent and ones you feel you have control over it you could catch his point with yours rear arm and do the strike.

Also you might want to research fencing guards so you don't fell in mistakes about sword fighting.

Third guard, from Capo Ferros book (and basically his guard and his fighting style).


Verdadera Destreza from Navarrez.

The guard is basically to stand still and point at your opponent. Many spanish fencer are proud of this because its for them a french fencer killer (which they also have a signature grip).

And well, french fencing is basically what you see on sport fencing, with the slight difference that it was not a sport back then so it has other attacks and defenses.

Also I would recommend to give a glove to the one who use a sword, every sword fighter use gloves for protection as most of the time you are going to get plenty of hits in the hand (right now I have my right hand thumb swollen because I stupidly use a German grip on italian swords).

- - - Updated - - -

Part 2

Now on anatomy: on Qayin and Cain, Cain head has what I call the Thumb-Head problem, this mean that the connection between the neck and the head its not bonded on the skull, but on the face making it look like a thumb, also his arm, the one with he is touching the rat, its to short and it look like he is squishing the rat. And on Qayin, his head has no connection with his body, the neck is to thin for his body and its weirded positioned, making it look like you cut and pasted his head from another place and put it in a generic body.

Then on Qayin alone picture, the legs don't look like are in a organic connection with the body, as the body is highly distorted by the perspective, while the legs (if you put your hand over his body and skirt and only see his legs) look like they could have any other perspective but not the one of the body. Also there is a hand size problem a grip problem and a sword perspective problem (you might have problems in here, as in sword fighting the stances are made to hide the length of the sword, so when you see a front stance from frontal view you might not be able to tell the length of the blade... if the fencer is good of course).

[indescribable]

Part three:

On design, the final design that use the hand bones to be incorporated in the armor look like a contra-position of what you have done before, it does keep the cloak but the shoulder pads look annoying and for my, it break the continuity of the cloak. Also I have always find the literacy of things in-necessary, you need to be able to abstract the elements more to be able to keep the organic feels on the cloth.

This is an idea on how (I, personally) would keep the concept of the bone hand but on cloth.

Basically using cloth stripes that come from the back in this bone kind of thing, to recreate the wrapping feeling from the hands fingers.
Maintaining some bone elements but only on a accessory level (back thing, front cloak separation and probably some bones on the cloth stripes to make this shamanic savage feeling. And this is be keeping the "bone thing", which you could abstract more to just make it on cloth.

And finally on ink, I believe the problem might be on the tools you use, if you use a staedtler or any pen to do lines, you might want to have a softer surface under your paper, because the point of those is really hard but easy to break, so you might want to do the less damage to the paper and your pen as possible. Also another problem is that you are using different wides on the lines for the sketch, as you can see you don't necessarily do the contour of the chick, but rather you fill the line to recreate the contour, so when you ink without following the correct line or not feeling the spaces you are just making clean lines over lines that weren't clean on the first place and depended on that differentiation on the wide.

Don't know if those solve the inking problems, but you can see if it works or not.

[ClockHand]

uff we made it. Something weird is going on with mt.