Oaken's Thread

Oaken

Hey guys, I finally decided to make a thread to share my work and get critiques.
I am a young(18 next month) artist and I hope to one day be a character artist.

I just finished this Captain Miss Fortune Fan art from League of Legends.
Concept art by Paul Kwon.
In game model by Cody Bunt.
And amazing Splash art by Jason Chan.



I learned SO MUCH by doing this piece, the next one will be 200% better

Kebab

Practicing is good. You are certainly better than I was at 18. :thumbup:

Here's my critiques:

Design:
I'll assume you didn't have orthographic concept when you started out your model?
Always do at least a sketch to follow with when you are modelling characters. Essentially look at the concepts you have and then go to Photoshop (or whatever you use) and draw outlines of the character in a T pose or what ever pose you are going to model. This is also bit of an study so that you are intimately familiar with what you are making, and especially - to get the proportions correct!

While the concept has too small of an head your character has too big of an head. I know it's a bit of a bore but character artists must be familiar with anatomy. Learn to get the human porportions correct.

Here's one good guide to follow through by Andrew Loomis:




Notice the head unit lengths. It isn't rule written in stone, but excellent guide.
Human eye is very keen to notice if the porportions are wrong. Here's how this character compares:
(I'm terribly sorry of the abomination I photoshopped.)




I think you see what I mean. Try to dedicate some time for anatomy - you won't regret it. :thumbup:

Try to include all the snazzy little decorations the characters have. They break up symmetry and make the character look better.
Design for the clothes is quite symmetric. The fabric in the concept as well as the long hair would've done the job. Maybe something for the other arm.

Textures:
I like the texture work. The look she has on her face kind of looks dead eyed though. Give the character a face that tells about its personality. Give it character!
Might also need some fancier details but you might not be going for that kind of look. I'll pass on this.

Modeling:
As it is, it wouldn't be optimized for rigging and game use. To improve your modelling I suggest you try to make few low poly characters and learn to give them a basic skeleton. Character artist need to make animation and engine friendly models. Looking at that hair with my animator goggles I would've liked if you had kept it as a ponytail. It's good idea to learn bit of animation basics - I think. They are artists too and they love to have stuff like pony tails to animate rather than worrying how they stop the hair from clipping everywhere.
Animators are in the line after you to get to play with the characters you will be making - they love you if you make them something that they can play with to help it come alive.

If it has too many polygons in small details - bake that into a normal map. That belt is a good example, as well as where the clothes meet her breasts. Good rule of thumb - if isn't contributing to the silhouette - try to get rid of it.

Phew, there's some pointers. Hopefully it'll help you and others will come to contribute. Practice, practice and practice. Good luck. :thumbup:

Oaken

Thank you for taking the time to write all this Kebab.I will make sure to apply and keep all of this in mind for my next character.:)