The Moment Before WIP

Chip Valecek

Here is the last sketch before I ink it. Anything that needs changing?

braden H

Those poor, poor mice... Nice work so far!

Since the piece is already mostly symmetrical, I kinda wanna see the grass in the lower left repeated in the lower right. Seems unbalanced to me for some reason

Coreyartus

Oh, Chip--this has got just the right balance of humor and terror! Depending on where you focus, it is both lighthearted and very scary! In my opinion, the snake is just scary enough without being too scary--which is a hard balance. Well done! This image can go so many directions depending on what you do with the color palette and the values... Wow--it could be innocent or really dark humor. Can't wait to see what you choose!

burvantill

Those mice are done for

Haha this made me chuckle, love those teeth on the mice! Apart from what others have said, the only other thing that sticks out for me is on the left of the snake, is it long grass? and then behind that, is it a bush? The line seems to join the pattern on the snake, so maybe that's something to look at
Cool stuff!!

Johanna Kim

@Chip-Valecek Looking good, Chip! That snake is looking pretty frightening (poor mice!). I wonder if you might increase the suspense and tension by perhaps having the snake concealed a bit by the foliage and shadows, maybe repeating the pattern of its scales in the foliage in the form of dappled light. This way, it's lurking just beyond the light of the clearing where the mice are. And what if you added eyelids to the snake, so that we only see the smallest slits of its eyes gazing hungrily down at the mice. Lastly, you might lift the snake's head up so that it's partially cropped by the top edge, and also towering higher and larger above the mice in comparison.

Chip Valecek

Here is the updated version. I changed the one mouse to notice the snake. I wanted to keep the diamond in the snakes head visible because its part of the story. You see the two mice are on the search for The Lost Diamond of Snake Isle. Little did they know it was part of the king snakes head.

Moving to ink now.

Chip Valecek

Here are my next two steps. Line work and base values. I am thinking about adding a couple leaves at the top in the foreground to frame it in a little, what do you guys think?

Chip Valecek

Here is the next pass with some values to get the forms developed. Next will be to slap some color on top and play around with it. Question is should I do more cartoony colors or stick with the normal colors of the mice and snake?

For some reason I'm picturing the snake to be purple with gold eyes, so maybe try the cartoony colours for the characters but keep the background quite realistic? Looking cool though the mouse's face is fab!

Chip Valecek

Here are my colors slapped over the values using overlay and multiple. I will start to clean up and push the shadows and highlights more as we;; as add some more lighting.

Add the white ink lines to pop my characters.

Chip Valecek

Here is the final, I will sit on it for the rest of the week. Any tweaks?

braden H

@Chip-Valecek I always find sitting on it for a week to be a good idea

I'm really likin' the texture that you're working into your work. It suits it.

I'll try and think of any tweaks n such.

Those poor mice...