Road race critique please
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Hi everyone, I finished early this month and already submitted my piece…so NOW I’m asking for a crit…I know I did it backwards. Don’t pull any punches…thanks!
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Alright I’m gonna put my critique arena hat on and try and approach this like the Jake, Will, and Lee do.
Concept is always the key to a great illustration. Doesn’t matter if you’re a master at rendering and design if the concept doesn’t hold up. Your concept is essentially exactly what the prompt was, a "rabbit road race". I think you could dig a lot deeper for a more compelling concept. The first thing we all probably thought of when we saw this prompt was "animal characters racing on a road". It’s easy to go with our first few ideas but that’s not where we’ll find the gold. Ask yourself lots of questions in the concept phase: why are they racing, what challenges do they face, what secondary story could there be, what makes this race unusual, what angles could I show this from, and most importantly how am I going to make the viewers care?
In short, dig deep for ideas. Brainstorm until it hurts to come up with more and then take a break for a day and come up with some more!
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I agree with Griffin. One more thought, though—You created a very whimsical finish with the ink brush feel and color, but I don’t think all of your foundational drawing is there yet. Mainly I’m looking at the anatomy of the bulldog, some of the rabbit and your city in the background. You don’t necessarily need perfect anatomy for very gestural characters, but you do need to know how the shapes work in space, and I think the bulldog might need a draw-over (I’ll acknowledge that’s a tricky angle, though). Also, I think the city could be a little more varied and interesting. On the left, you have three buildings pretty evenly overlapping each other; That could probably be mixed up a little more. What if you really took the time to fill up the space with interesting architectural details? Also, I realize you want to add interesting, watercolor-like texture, but you could probably take your time with it a little more—maybe really being thoughtful with the cobblestone texture.
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@Griffin Thank you for the critique! Sorry it took awhile to reply. I agree, concept can be an important part of a successful illustration. I'm wondering if there is a place in the world for an illustration that conveys the narrative of a story in a unique and stylish way, without literally modifying the story. I have seen many illustrations that affected me and didn't have a high concept or an unexpected twist. I guess what I'm asking, "Is our definition of 'concept' too narrow?" Could innovation in composition, color, drawing, texture, scale, etc. also be seen as a concept in a more abstract way? I'm not saying my piece necessarily achieved any of this but, does it always have to be so literal? Thank you again for taking the time to comment.
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@Sarah-VanDam Thank you for your comments! Yes, I agree, this piece could have benefitted from some preliminary sketches to work out the anatomy and structures. I always wrestle with the balance of the loose strokes and the tight drawing. I think sometimes when I start from a details place it just gets stiff looking. I did some home work on the bikes and they seem to hold up a little better. I was thinking the contrast of the mechanical bike with the organic animals would work. I was also trying to be conscious of the hierarchy of legibility and importance of the elements. I agree, it would have been fun to add a bunch of structures, I just thought it might distract from the main focus. Thank you again, I'll work on that anatomy.
