Draw 25 Things WIP - Tinkersmith

carriecopadraws

@aaron-pierce You're right about balance! Maybe what's bugging me about the right side isn't the quantity of objects, but that they all seem about the same size (barrel, anvil, whetstone, giant helmet). I'm going to scribble some other layout ideas to see if there's a better solution. Will Terry's voice is telling me, "small, medium, huge!"

Aaron Pierce

@carriecopa LOL! There ya go! Listen to Master Yoda -- I mean, Will!

carriecopadraws

Here's a revised sketch and values. Adding the hallway on the left gives the image much more depth, thanks @heather-boyd! Then I rearranged some things on the right and feel it's more balanced now. The anvil was in the bottom-center and now it points in from the bottom-right. Leaving the floor open along the bottom helps guide the eye around I think.

carriecopadraws

Here's a comparison of the value studies without lines. The revised one also reads a lot better I think. Though I'm not sure if I should have a lantern hanging on the left - I don't want another light source to compete with the forge.

This looks brilliant, i'm so looking forward to seeing it finished! The composition, characters and lighting it beautiful - maybe you're right about the lantern, a second light source might be too distracting?
Your giant wolf character is just wonderful, I'd love to see more pieces of these two characters together

Nyrryl Cadiz

I love it! Just a suggestion, perhaps you can add a candle by your character’s side to illuminate his/her face. Your piece is lookinh great!

carriecopadraws

@nyrrylcadiz Yes, a candle might work better, thank you! That would be more subtle. The wolf can breathe fire (she keeps the forge hot) and I can just picture her comically trying to light a small thing like a candle.

@hannahmccaffery My personal project is to make a graphic novel with these two characters! I've been writing tons of world-building and story ideas on notecards for the last year. This project is a sort of style/proof of concept for the idea. The story outline/script is next!

burvantill

I really like this image. The only thing that’s tweaking my OCD is the idea that if this was a spread for a book then the awesome wolf would be right in the gutter. Just something to keep in mind in the future.

carriecopadraws

@burvantill Yes, I am aware of that. If I was designing for a book I would have tried another layout. This is going to be a social media banner though.

chrisaakins

The helmet is creating a tangent with the furnace and it makes that side a little confusing. At first, I thought the wolf's body was wrapped around the furnace. I was a little disappointed when I saw that it was not. You might consider that if you want to make the wolf's scale even larger. I love the drawing though. And the eyes make this a wonderfully interesting piece.

burvantill

@carriecopa wonderful

Annemieke

@carriecopa I really love this image. As for the second lightsource. Your character is working on somthing on the table in front of here. Logically she would need some light to see what she's doing since her work will get no light from the furnace. A candle in front of her would do the trick of lighting her work, and will cast a nice glow on her face.
Good luck, I'm looking forward to seeing your finished piece.

Randy Smith

@carriecopa
I remember several months ago Lee White critiqued one of my illustrations that contained two light sources. I don't remember all the reasons he gave to avoid it, but I do remember he suggested I not do that in the future because it does create issues that can weaken the illustration. I do like where you are going with this and, pardon me for reworking your layout, but what if you turned the tinkerer toward the wolf and used the fire as the only light source and let the left side become a lost edge into the darkness of the room?

carriecopadraws

@randy-smith this is brilliant! Having the tinkerer face into the illustration helps the eye flows around the image better too. And that gives me a little more table in the foreground to add more objects as well. I appreciate you taking time to show your idea visually, it helps a lot!

@carriecopa @Randy-Smith that works SO well with the tinkerer turned around, it's balanced the illustration out beautifully! Can't wait to see this in colour with that amazing wolf and lighting!

carriecopadraws

UPDATE: I have been struggling with this piece for months, never quite happy with the composition or what to do with the background. I recently finished the live class "Building Backgrounds" and decided to scrap the old drawing and redo it as a new composition. It might end up not having 25 things anymore, but I think that was the reason I had trouble - trying to cram in more unique stuff at the expense of the drawing. But I still learned a lot about adding more details/props into a drawing!

Here's the last rendering of the old design, and the current sketch of the new composition. Does the new one work better?

Nyrryl Cadiz

@carriecopadraws your new piece looks amazing. Great composition, very pro looking. And I think you have more stuff in the new one too. Great job!

Nyrryl Cadiz

@carriecopadraws if you still want to reach your 50 things qouta, perhaps you can expand you canvas to the left or to the right and draw in more objects. It would be cool to see what you’d add on. More weapons perhaps? A lazy assistant? Just a thought tho. I love your piece.

carriecopadraws

@nyrrylcadiz I recall Will Terry's rules for the challenge was the objects had to be unique, so it might have more things but there are several swords, shields, etc, so I don't know if they'd count. But that's okay, meeting the challenge isn't as important to me anymore for this piece. But I'm glad I tried it!

Nyrryl Cadiz

@carriecopadraws that’s really great to hear