Today, I began designing characters for a picture book. My thought process was that rounder and softer shapes would be more suitable for a picture book. I would greatly appreciate any advice about the character design, or how to make characters seem like they come from the same universe (which is quite specific indeed...). I hope that your days are as enjoyable as when you are drawing!20201013_225723.jpg

Wow I think this will look so good painted in that way, I can see it already! Have fun!

@miranda-hoover Thank you for the feedback!
I showed the drawing to a few family members and, from a distance, they couldn't make out where his arm was either; I think I need to put more effort into making sure the design remains visible/readable throughout the image, as all the small details of his arm really make it congested in certain areas, I think.

Thanks again!

@story-paint This is really cute! It sounds like this story will be a good one 🙂 I like the simplicity and cute factor of these designs. I think they will work really nicely for a comic 😃

Our towns Tardis. We do actually have one. The made up element in this picture is the girl on the bike.
I Decided to move my plein air painting challenge back here so I don’t take over the September studio feed. Here’s number 3. The purpose of these is 1. To challenge myself to grow In some basic observational art skills. Most of the time I draw from reference. And, sometimes I spend so much time on reference that I don’t get to the drawing. I’m practicing setting aside a Small chunk of time (30 to 40 minutes) to draw what is in front of me, and then I let myself fix it up a bit later. 2. I want to work on composition and lighting. 3. I decided to try an add some bit of storytelling or a character to these so that they aren’t just illustrated landscapes. I will probably have to make up most of these elements which is good for me. 4. Practice putting images out into the world that are “finished not perfect.” It’s not easy!
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I like your ink fairy design in # 4. It’s so cute being a bug-like creature and I like the white eye lashes The layout for #2 seems clearest but the silhouette for #1 is appealing too. I’d love to see the #4 fairy in whatever you end up with.

@chrisaakins 🙏😅

I finished it up...
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Hello Georgios! These characters are so cool~! It looks like they'd have a ton of fun adventure. The one thing that stood out to me was the character on the far left. His head is significantly larger than everyone else's, and though I get that he's a big character, I think if you made the head size a little smaller, he would fit a little more with the rest of the group. Right now it looks like if he was scaled down, he would have the same proportions as the character to the right of him. If you made the head smaller, it would make the rest of his body look bigger in proportion, similar to what you did with the character on the far right. Just my two cents! Thanks for sharing this fun cast of characters with us!

@kylebeaudette, I like your dragonfly fella. He looks kinda like a nice dad dragonfly. I can appreciate that. 🙂

As for the separate logins, yes, i have two logins as well. I think the idea is that the forum and classes are two separate sites. You don't necessarily have to be a member of the classes to join the forum and talk about things. At least that's the way I understand it.

@Jonathon-B-Baker-0 let me know if you find a good one.

@Eric-Droke I see what you mean~ in my mind I was placing them randomly, but now I see that I did not push it nearly far enough, haha. Thank you for the feedback! I’ll see if I can group them in a more interesting way.

@idid I was actually thinking about whether I should differentiate them a bit more. I wanted them to be simple and took inspiration from the below image, but maybe the simplicity and sameness only works in Princess Mononoke because there are other varied characters within the movie. I wasn’t sure how to keep the simplicity of my ghosts without making them look too similar/boring. This is something I’ll have to spend more time thinking/exploring. Thanks so much for the feedback! It pushes me to be a better artist, which I really appreciate!

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@ruth Yes! Its definately one of those! I do agree with the comments about the tail, it is sort of what makes a dragon fly look unique, but ill take a bit of artistic license with it. Just got to try and paint it well now, i think its gonna take a while.

Movement looks good, and the tiger's face reads much better now. 🙂 If you want to break up the white space on the bottom half of the image, I'd suggest doing the shading like you have in the second image, but in the lower right corner instead of right under the explosion, to do more for the light. Maybe even a little shading on the interior of the characters to increase the illusion of rim lighting. Something like this maybe:
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I'm still in the middle of the class but I'm having a lot of fun with it ! I chose Death as my character for the high form/ high function exercise and the sketches were terrible but hilarious. here's my boat combo sketch - a combo of a Junk and a Longboat. I know that perspective is way off and I would have made it longer but the constraints of physical media are what they are. (I'm without photoshop while I wait for a new computer to come to me via fedex so It's pen and paper for the forseeable future) Also - ignore that redwine stain at the bottom of the page 😉 !IMG_7951.JPG

Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions.

I've already taken the picture into procreate and started playing around a bit. I'll post the updates here for anyone who might interested.

Here are some recent sketches to kick this thread off. 🙂
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@Judy-Elizabeth-Wilson your use of color is just lovely and your unicorns are so cute!

@StudioHannah @dickdavid thank you. Procreate has some really nice brushes that come with natural looking texture.

@TessaW Awesome! Thank-you for that 2 cents. I will value it greatly. I was going for a more symbolic approach and was considering background images.

Your comment is a great reminder for me to do more planning. I actually progressed and made thumb nails this time. One of the tornado and Dorthy and the other of the witch overlooking oz. SN: I still have so much to learn. You are spot on about the arms. As the artist is just didn’t see it which is why i love hearing the feedback. When i look at it I’m drawn to an area but cannot pinpoint what it is exactly that i do not like. Hearing it from others helps me see it better.

As for thumb nails I’ll check but I think i deleted them to give me more layer space.

Thanks again for your honesty and insight. Much love and respect!