Spots illustrations that focus on characters for my portfolio - critique please

[smceccarelli]

Excellent tips by @lenwen and @chrisaakins on how to infuse more personality in the designs! If I may add one more point, what strikes me in your „old work“ examples is that the style of the final rendering is completely different from one spot to the other. Even though the characters look very similar (which is probably where the „generic“ comment is coming from), it does not look like the three images could, for example, sit in the same book. The first and third are „almost quite“ there, though the third has a more prominent presence of linework than the first, while the second is a different space in terms of color and rendering. That gives the feeling that there‘s no intention in the work and may have caused the critique of being generic.
One possible way to go about that is to design portfolio work in sets of threes (or more). Design one character and put her in three different scenes, paying attention to keep the character and rendering consistent. If you change „story“ for a new set, also change the character very clearly to a different one: different personality, gender, ethnicity and design.

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@xin-li i must say, I’m also guilty of going auto-pilot on my characters.

[xin li]

@carlianne really good examples of character design. It is funny that I do think of these things when I am painting a full scene. But when I come to character design only, then I threw everything outside of the window. I wonder maybe it is a matter of taking the time, slowing down, and thinking through carefully.

@smceccarelli thank you so much for the advice. I will try to do a set of 3 instead. It just makes so much more sense. My style is all over the place - I think it is because I have not done enough illustrations, and also because I have a personality of wanting to try everything. But I think I need to try to keep a consistent style for a set. If I have an urge to trying a different style, then I will do a new set.

@Nyrryl-Cadiz I am glad I am not alone here :-). I think maybe when I am done enough characters, things will become more of second-nature. But now, I really need to think hard, and make a list of things that I need to consider to avoid go auto-piloting

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@xin-li i think I need to join a character design class to enhance my skills. I’m really meh at it

[nadyart]

I often "draw" a lot of inspiration from my own kid, and kids in his class even. It is great to immerse yourself into their world and form a great image in your head about what their quirks and personalities are.

A short sentence like this also can help me get started: Character X is very [enter characteristic like "shy, quirky, curious, adventurous"], loves [enter interesting noun/activity i.e. "biology, taming dinosaurs, thunder storms] and detests [enter noun/activity i.e. "broccoli, doing the dishes, gymnastics"].
The outer appearance is something to look at secondly I think. It builds from these characteristics.
I think @smceccarelli gives a great tip about putting her/him in three different scenes. I often find it difficult to maintain character consistency. Three different poses would be a great practice for this as well.

[braden H]

@xin-li said in Spots illustrations that focus on characters for my portfolio - critique please:

I should definitely try to push the expression, and shapes more. I think @Braden-Hallett is really good at doing that.

Lol, thanks

Lot's of quick shapes hanging off of one kinda anchor line and pretending things are made of some weird posable syrup (as well as inadvertently making the expression I'm trying to draw while sitting in a coffee shop and getting really weird looks)

[xin li]

@nadyart that is a great approach. I started thinking of based my little gardener's personality on a friend. I try to think about what she was like when she was a kid.

@Braden-Hallett wow. I did not know you do life drawings from a coffee shop. I remember I saw a youtube video of how Stephen Silver does life drawings. I think I tried it once in a cafe and came back with a blank sheet of paper - I was too nervous to draw in public. But weird syrup visualization is something I could give a try

[idid]

@xin-li , the first two are much more dynamic and thus has more life than the other three. However, from my perspective, they are still a bit generic. (I have same issue in my illustrations too). All five illustrations are girl, similar hair length (the upper two has their hair tied up, but still around shoulder length), similar proportion (head, vs body vs arms/legs, etc.) similar head shapes. You probably want different gender, race, age, and body/face shapes in your portfolio. I am working on this problem myself too. It is hard, but suggestions in this thread seems pretty helpful.

[xin li]

@idid thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. I see what you mean. It is funny why I am falling into this pattern. There is no one around me that actually looks like this. I am wondering if this is an influence from looking too much at Pinterest and Instagram.

[xin li]

I made a bit of progress with my little nerdy gardener character. I gave her a more prominent glasses, and change her outfit, hope this helps to add some more personality. Still working on putting her to other scenes. I am struggle of drawing her in 3/4 view .
Personality: quiet, nerdy.
Emotion: amused - (in her happy place).
shapes: I try to use the mostly round shape for her.

The character is based on a friend, who loves language, table-top role-playing games, and gardening. I try to imagine what she was like when she was a 6 years old kid.

[xin li]

Practicing drawing this little character in different pose and angle. I have never done character turn around before. I know that I need to get all the details matching. But do you think the overall portion works?

Looks like I am focusing on working with character design this month.

[A Former User]

@xin-li I love the new energy you've brought to the updated version. There's more of a sense of storytelling happening, compared to the old work. Keep up the pace!!

[jdubz]

Yeah I think the new image has way more life.

One thing I noticed about myself is that I tend to need some kind of project in order to effectively go outside the lines so to speak. It was pointed out to me that a lot of my work has the exact same perspective on almost every image I was showcasing. When I was doing a project, I automatically built images with numerous perspectives because that became really obvious when I had a string of images on the same subject. But when I was doing one single piece at a time, I kept defaulting the comfortable perspective and ended up looking really monotonous.

I'm guilty of the same thing for characters. One thing that jumped out at me in the creating backgrounds class in SVS is the guest Will had on had such a huge dynamic range of characters he came up with on the fly and it really illustrated to me that I do NOT have a vast array of characters in my head to draw from and that's something I'm really trying to work on now.

[xin li]

@Tom-Shannon thank you so much for the encouragement. I always thought that I am only work in children's book, not animation, I can avoid doing character turn around by faking it. But now I see how valuable it is.

[TessaW]

So cute! I love this character. She's looking really good to me. I'm thinking her center of gravity is not quite right in the stance where she's leaning toward the bug, almost like she wouldn't be able to balance quite like that. It's not very noticeable though, and I wouldn't want you to lose the dynamic quality it has, but it's just a thought.

Since her description notes that she loves picking berries, it might be nice to include some berries into the vignette of her eating at the table. (maybe that is already what you had in mind?)

Now that you have this character, it will be a good basis to be able to contrast against when you're desgining your other characters. Can't wait to see who's next.

[xin li]

I met a girl with this outfit at the bus stop today. It is so Oslo in early spring. I do not know the story for this character yet, just want to capture the outfit, for now, also a good practice for turn around.

[lmrush]

Such fun and whimsical sketch lines!!!

[xin li]

@TessaW thank you so much for the critique. I think you are spot on with her being unstable. I will try to re-draw that pose :-).

[xin li]

Finally finished my little gardener painting. Any final comments on this piece?

[xin li]

working on the next piece: 3 spot images with the same character.