Albert Bear
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I submitted my character design Albert Bear to Critique Arena (eek!). I am pleased with him and I know it shows the best I can do right now.
But I want to improve so I have been practicing. This is my new version of Albert
I wanted to soften him up and add some more energy and personality. Have I managed it?
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Yes, he's definitely more energetic...his soft fur is lovely!
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@geekinm yes, you definitely have added more personality and energy to the walking pose. Nice job on the fur!
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Thanks. At first I was just pleased to have drawn my first character and coloured it in! Now I can see that he looks a bit stiff and I need to bring him to life. I'm chuffed to bits now he has some character / personality!
Does anyone know what to do with an animals paws when they are holding something? Would you add a thumb to make it a bit easier? I thought about how he would hold the lolly without a thumb for far too long and just bent his paw round in the end.
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@geekinm keep on practicing!
️ Most of the time, it's not until I've drawn a character 20-30 times that I really feel comfortable drawing them and feel that they're "brought to life".To answer your question about rendering animal paws: look at reference photos and videos. Each animal's paws are slightly different, depending on the bone structure of that species. Bears, dogs, raccoons, lions ... they all have paws but all use them differently, depending on their structure. Bears, in particular, use their claws with amazing dexterity and delicacy ... and power! It's amazing what we can find on the internet nowadays.
You might want to try googling "bear using its paws" to get some good reference pics. Also check out these YouTube videos (found in a less than 5 minute search): Bear Claws - Facts & Fiction (contains potentially disturbing images of bears eating fish and wounds caused by bear claws) and WILD ALASKA LIVE - Bear Claws. Both show bears putting their paws to work.
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I did look at references to check whether they had thumbs but I must admit that I avoided any real life / nature doc type videos in case there was bloodshed! I just wondered whether anyone else would stick a thumb on to make it easier to show the character doing things.
I don't know why I didn't google famous bears - didn't even occur to me! Baloo doesn't seem to have a thumb. It looks like Winnie has a little thumb tucked away when for he needs it. Rupert Bear has actual hands. Paddington Bear had thumbs on his paws in the 1980s.
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He's looking so cuddly and soft! I can already see him as a toy.
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Great job on the character design I would just recommend lightening up the area around his eyes as it could make him look quite menacing especially in the wrong light setting
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Cute but tough that's Albert. You don't want to try taking that lolly from him! I take your point perhaps a lighter brown would be better around the eyes. I think I was going for a panda look combined with some spectacular eye lashes but maybe less is more in this case.
