February contest WIP

[ArtofAleksey]

Some preliminary rough sketches. I wanted to do an old owl but lots of owls so i did a crow

[ArtofAleksey]

I wanna give them a beard of bird feathers

[NicolaSchofield]

@Aleksey said in February contest WIP:

beard of bird feathers

Genius idea, this is gonna look great!

[ArtofAleksey]

@neschof haha thanks

Here are some other variations i did while on the bus i like the square shaped beak it looks old but confident

[ArtofAleksey]

Ya know, sketching on paper makes it much easier for me to play with ideas

[chrisaakins]

@Aleksey I was right the first time. Riddell was the illustrator. I should trust myself.

[ArtofAleksey]

Ok i think i figured it out after several attempts

[ArtofAleksey]

Making progress. Kinda turned out to just look like a bird wizard. You know im ok with this. Any feedback so far?

[demotlj]

@Aleksey Love seeing your process. It’s turning out great.

[ArtofAleksey]

@demotlj thanks! Any feedback? I think im gonna try and simplify it more.

[smceccarelli]

Cool prop design and it‘s great to see all the thought that went into this illustration! One thing you may want to change here is separating the lantern more from the character - like you have in your original thumbnails. It‘s generally stronger to have the silhouette read clearly and the overlap between the arm and the lantern would „hide“ all the shape design you made for this prop.
I would also check the perspective of the lantern - from this angle you would see it from a lower viewpoint. At the moment it‘s seen from above (we can see the top ellipse), which makes it look like it‘s angling in a strange way.
Your character is slightly out-of-balance (falling backwards), but that‘s an easy thing to fix.

[ArtofAleksey]

@smceccarelli cool thanks! That’s very helpful i was thinking about the silhouette too. I think i need to reposition the arm to make it work better. Im gonna try to change the perspective entirely too i didnt do the smart thing and make a perspective grid before i started the sketch

[burvantill]

@Aleksey I love the character. I think you should give him a bigger dynamic pose. He seems a formidable character but looks a bit stiff. Maybe widen his stance, try a gesture sketch to see what works.

[KaraDaniel]

Very cool! He does look a little off balance like he may fall backwards. But other than that looks great so far

[ArtofAleksey]

Ok cool thanks everyone!

[Laurasketches]

I hate it when I arrive so late to the party....I also want a more dynamic pose and a story surrounding this character.....

[ArtofAleksey]

@Laurasketches haha yes i have a story for this character but a dynamic pose must come first!

[ArtofAleksey]

Ok i think this is a bit more open. So im gonna tighten it up and fix the pose a bit more but i think the center of gravity and the silhouette id much better

[ArtofAleksey]

Ok I finally done with the sketch whew. Now im gonna work on the composition of the whole image

[ArtofAleksey]

Im now seeing a few problems im gonna go back and fix those up before i get into the composition