Tree house WIP

[Chip Valecek]

My idea was a boy and his dog are on a hike in the woods when the boy see's a sign for Free Candy and it points to a tree house. I started to flesh out the line work on my first sketch but was not happy with the composition of it. Then I came up with the second idea which I liked that you can see some danger, the dog knows it but the boy just wants his candy.

Here is the line work from the second sketch.

And my next step is local color. I usually change my linework to an overlay with 25% opacity. So it may be hard to see the line work.

Any thoughts on it before I start to render?

[MirkaH]

Hi, a fun idea. I would change the dogs mouth a bit up. He looks a bit off on the lower jaw. 

Trying to upload an image to show, not sure if its going to show up...

[Chip Valecek]

@MirkaH Yeah your image didn't upload, but I can see his mouth is off. Its always good to step away and come back to it cause you see things like that. It also helps to get other people noticing or pointing out the same issue. I will look for some reference and fix. I was thinking about having his tongue hanging out as well. I may play with that.

[TessaW]

Hey, cool job so far. I did a paint over. Hope you don't mind. I'm seeing a few tangents that are creating tension. I also tweaked a few things here and there . . . I pushed the perspective on the leash and path a bit, I made the trees overlap in the back to make a bit more depth, and tilted the foreground stump a bit to make things flow a bit more. I also thought changing the acting in the hands of the monster and paws of the dog helps amp up the feeling a bit.

[Chip Valecek]

@TessW Don't mind at all, great suggestions and will put them in. The tongue is exactly what I was thinking about. By moving the hands it give is more creepy feel. Thank You!!

[TessaW]

@Chip-Valecek No problem. I have one more solution, because I was loving that treehouse in your first sketch. . . Here's another possibility:

[Chip Valecek]

@TessW damn you! Now i need to get that in there. I also really liked the house in the first sketch, but I also love the dog being close to the camera... Maybe I can get the best of both worlds on this. I will play with it tonight and see what I can come up with.

[TessaW]

@Chip-Valecek Haha, sorry to possibly give you more work. That treehouse was just too cool.

[tombarrettillo]

If I might be so bold, I took @TessW image a bit further, I moved the house to the right, made the boy oblivious to the situation, added a curve to the path for interest, and put the dog far enough gone that the boy no longer has hold of the leash (and he is close to the camera @Chip-Valecek ). Forgive the crudeness, I had to draw with my mouse as everyone is in bed, and I didn't want to make any noise rummaging around for my drawing tablet.

[Chip Valecek]

Ugg another great suggestion. But since I a limited with time to get this completed by the end of the month I need to move forward with my latest line work. I am about to lay in local color.

[TessaW]

@tombarrettillo Great Idea! It flows really well.

@Chip-Valecek Yeah, sometimes you just got to move on and get the piece done. Can't wait to see it!

[Chip Valecek]

I had my local colors done and was about to start rendering when I saw another treehouse using the same reference that I had used... So my last time changing this up otherwise I will never finish on time. Here is my latest line work.

[aska]

new house is scarier, cool however, i think i prefer old version of the kid. New one confuses me. I mean, his dog just run out and the house is quite scary, so i understand that he is happy to explore, but soooo happy? of course its only my impression

[Chip Valecek]

@aska the boy is happy cause the sign will say Free Candy. All he sees and cares about is the sign yet the dog sees the danger and is running away.

[Chip Valecek]

Found sometime to add most of the local color in. Hopefully I can get that finished tonight so i can start on rendering it. I want to push the creepy of it but also bring in a touch of warmness from the treehouse. Thoughts on color so far?

[Chip Valecek]

Going to put this here and sit on it till later before I submit. Want to see if anything pops out that needs fixing. If you see something please let me know.

[TessaW]

Wow, it's looking really great!

I have two suggestions. First I think it might add something if the light that's coming from the windows had a greenish hue to make it look more sinister rather than friendly.

Second, I think the dog could look more scared if you tweaked his eyebrows/eyes a bit.

[Chip Valecek]

@tessw So you are saying use green instead of the orange/yellow i have in the windows now?

[TessaW]

yeah, maybe something like this:

Just personal preference, as I think it characterizes the monster a bit.

[Chip Valecek]

Here is my final. Thanks for all the advice @TessW and @tombarrettillo for your idea of the leash getting away from the boy.