Illustration work
polycounter lvl 9
Hi everyone!
I've been watching too much Princess Mononoke and for a long while I wanted to create my own character and make a bunch of illustrations that would tell a sort of story and little bit and bobs about the character and the world. This is the first one I'm working on. Aiming for a nicely painted out background and a different style for the character to make it look like a movie screenshot. Getting stuck on it, as I'm not entirely happy with it but whatever I do doesn't seem to be improving it much in my eyes. Any feedback most welcome, tear it apart!
I've been watching too much Princess Mononoke and for a long while I wanted to create my own character and make a bunch of illustrations that would tell a sort of story and little bit and bobs about the character and the world. This is the first one I'm working on. Aiming for a nicely painted out background and a different style for the character to make it look like a movie screenshot. Getting stuck on it, as I'm not entirely happy with it but whatever I do doesn't seem to be improving it much in my eyes. Any feedback most welcome, tear it apart!
Replies
maybe you could change up the colors of the character a bit, or at least play with the contrast or something to make her pop a bit more. she blends into the background a lot compared to the Ghibli style, unless thats intentional.
Zachvance, thanks! Yeah, I'm not sure myself. Whatever I do on it, doesn't seems it's going anywhere further at this point.
Took both of your feedback and made some changes. There you go
You'll see a lot of Mathias Zamecki in the background as I was looking at his studies and how he painted certain elements.
Any feedback and suggestions are most welcome ;]
not digging any of the poses to be honest though, maybe ad some more props and/or characters or something?
maybe have her hide behind the tree and have someone/something looking for her over at the right?
maybe she stole something or is protecting the fox from a predator? just throwing out ideas here, you probably have a better view of what would be fitting.
it would be nice to have a bit more action though, since the last one was pretty calm, it would be a shame telling a similar story again.
I did make new dagger designs, so there's that ;]
Thanks a ton for stopping by again! I appreciate the feedback.
Here's where I'll leave it
since its a work in process piece, my suggestion would be to exaggerate the pose a little bit more, think in term of the line of action and how it would be. Personally i would bend the upper torso down a little bit more, keep one (or both) foot(feet) off the ground to suggest motion
also i think there is a small scaling problem ( compare the size of the character and the trees in the foreground).
Cant wait to see more !
I'll be trying out different things for the character, perhaps some sketchy line art blur effect would work well to show the motion. In the sketch now my idea was that she's behind that little hill, but I see how it would be better to put her in the front and show the feet off the ground.
I'll be going to a forest to shoot a bunch of reference, so that should be fun too!
Update on this piece late next week ;]
my biggest issue is the posing, It feels a bit stiff. I wish it could be a bit more dynamic, and that we didnt have to look at it from so far away and with that side view.
maybe you dont wanna show the character so much from the back as in my shitty paint over, but I really think you can push this further!
why is she running though? maybe she stole some food or money, holding it in her hand/belt or something
So I'm proposing another idea, no more arrows. I want to introduce her companion which I've been designing before her even. I even have it in 3D!
So the story becomes about a simple race/playtime between them two.
Didn't do any work on the characters, but the background is moving forward. Just lots and lots of painting to do now.
I should also post a painting I keep looking at when working on this HERE. This is from the movie "The Secret World Of Arrietty".
I took a little break from painting it, as it's now just adding details. Very time consuming and I couldn't do that nonstop, so I jumped into 3D and made these little guys. Sent them out to be 3D printed too! With that done, I'm back to painting and I'll post an update when it's worthy ;]
Meanwhile, here's some sketches I've done unrelated to this
these are really nice, great gesture and lighting.
In case there's anyone following this thread, I thought I'd let you know that I've joined the Riot contest, so this place will be quiet until I'm done with that. You can find a link in my signature or just click HERE. No worries, there's more forest ladies over there. See you!
Alright, as I'm finally done with the contest, I'll get back to the other stuff. Nothing major for some time, want to do some studies and learns a few things. I was thinking of some quicker illustration work, try and get the story and composition down without spending ages on it.
By the way, here's the final for the contest:
I'm continuing on with the last one. The other one is also in progress, but with real paints, so it'll move slower. I'll show it when/if it gets ready. But here's the spooky forest before I go too crazy into painting.
Any feedback much welcomed!
hi Razz beatiful illustrations you have here, tried to make a little suggestion.
i think on the last one the stones are a bit disconnected from the enviromnent, not sure about the roots but those might help integrate them into the environment a bit more. Guess some more grass in front of them would work too
Still work in progress. I'm thinking of changing what I put in there as a story point, but here's the environment for now.
And I did a little test to animate my first illustration too. Check down below, and then some WIP screenshot HERE.
I'm also working on the other illustration in gouache, but that one is moving along quite slowly. Hope it'll be worth showing at some point.
I think there is some polish you can do on the animated illustration, for example the camera motion is looking a bit robotic, rocking back and forth that way.
I also think you could dial back the motion of the character a little bit, its looking a bit extreme right now.
everything else is looking great
Will be calling this one done.
Wanna move on to making some hand painted plants in 3D. Wondering how helpful would those be for my illustrations. Stay tuned!
I've been working on something else than illustrations, that's why so quiet in here. I'll post where it stands now, but other than that I'll probably just get back with the final version (if it ever gets there), cause it's 3D and unrelated to this topic.
I have been doing some work to improve on the pieces I've been doing here. Some character studies from games and movies I enjoy. I've done these, I'll gather a bit of a reference board and I'll try redesigning my character.
Iotet, aah, you're the one making that Raziel one! It's one of my favorites in the competition! It is for Retrogasm, yes. I'm just running low on time and not sure I'm gonna finish in time, but fun to jump back on 3D again.
Meanwhile, since I'm only doing the 3D character before work/during lunch, started something else at home.