Project WIP

[KelvinBurnett3]

Hello all!

Here is a piece that I'm working on at the moment (pure lineart and another one features a rough sketch layer in which you can kind of see the background sketch). Environmental and perspective art are my weaknesses, and so I'm taking this opportunity to practice during my spare time. In addition, I'm trying out new concepts (tonal "checkerboard" pattern, tones, etc, etc) that I've learned from SVS. But you'll see more of these concepts appear as I get closer to completion of this piece.

So, feel free to be as honest as possible and offer your two cents if you wish.

Thanks!

Kelvin

[Lee White]

Hi Kelvin,

Welcome to SVS and thanks for posting your stuff. Keep 'em coming!

With this piece, there are some pros and some cons happening. Let's start with the pros. Excellent line work and drawing skills. Your draftsmanship looks solid and the characters are expressing attitude and have nice movement and rhythm throughout.

The cons are a little tricky, but I'll throw them out there to see if it sparks something or if others agree or disagree. I get a little confused by a couple of things going on here. The first thing I go to is always concept. It appears these two characters are in some kind of relationship, but it's not clear what we, as viewers, are supposed to get from them. She's looking at him, he's kinda smug. He could maybe be a gangster? pimp? not sure there. You may want to adjust your details to support whatever narrative you are setting up.

On that same note, the animated drawings style (very solid btw) appears to be for kids, but the pose, attitude, and overall character development are overtly sexual and adult (cigarette, girl's figure, "sexy" features on girl). It's confusing on who this piece might actually be for. I get a little bit of "roger rabbit" sensibility here, but I'm just not sure if that's what you are going for.

So, some things to think about. I'd love to hear if others agree or disagree with that stuff. Just a thought and it can open a dialog that can help move the image towards what you are really intending with this piece.

Again, it's nice to have ya here. Please post more stuff as you feel comfortable. : )

Cheers,
Lee

[KelvinBurnett3]

Hi Lee,

Thanks a bunch for the crit, and I'll definitely continue posting my stuff here!

Okay, I think I managed to tweak up this piece a bit per your suggestions (and a bit more like details, corrections, etc). I pondered for a bit that if adjusting the eyes of the smaller character (on the left) would make a noticeable difference to his expressions to clarify the message a bit more. So yeah, this is an illustration of a cat approaching a girl in some dark alley in a city.

In addition, as for the thoughts about the "mature" theme fitting to the "animated" style of this piece, I've often wondered if (or how much) I can get away with as an illustrator or artist, especially being influenced by stuff like Looney Tunes, MGM Cartoons, Spumco, Roger Rabbit, etc. Or would the "mashup" of theme and style would be too confusing if anything? Those are some very good points that you've raised.

At last but not least, I think I'm at the tonal stage but I'm going to add some shadows too.

Cheers,
Kelvin

[Lee White]

Hey Kelvin,

In terms of what you can get away with, it all depends on what you want to do with the work. If it's for you, you can get away with anything you like. Definitely nothing wrong with that. However, if you are gearing up for a job, it can be extremely detrimental to your chances. I go over this in a pretty in depth way in the business class that releases in the next week or so.

Think of it this way, an art director will be looking to fill a position and has a million things going at once. Filling the position that you want is one of those million things. That art director is going to be looking at images from artists VERY QUICKLY. In fact, it may not even be a full second until they either give you the thumbs up or down. They will be looking at hundreds of people for a job and whoever doesn't fit IMMEDIATELY will be tossed aside. They aren't trying to be mean or disrespectful. They just have a job that they are probably already behind on and they can't take the time we would all like them to in reviewing our work.

This is a fundamental student mistake I see over and over (not directing this at you btw, just in general). Students tend to think the art buyer is looking at the work and getting all the little jokes they put in there or thinking about the material in an in depth way. In reality, they are just thumbing through the work at lighting speed going "yep, nope, nope, nope, yep...." in their head as they review artists.

That's a long winded way of saying you should probably nail down your target audience and what you want the piece to accomplish before going too much further. : )

[Kevin Longueil]

@Lee-White @KelvinBurnett3 This reminds me of a story from 20 some years ago... I remember in college the owner of one of my favorite galleries in town paid a surprise visit to our Senior Seminar class - it was Laura Russo and when she walked unannounced into the room it went dead quite - she did not say a word - walked in sat at the desk at the front of the class and placed a stack of large identical looking manila envelopes on her left - she silently opened the lashings of the first envelope ....pulled the sheet of slides half way out of the envelope....held it up to the lights and finally spoke - " if I'm not interested by now, I'm not interested"..... she then let the slides slide back into the envelope - placed the envelope on her right and picked up the next hopeful contestant - a bit theatrical but very informative - It was shocking for all of us - we imagined that folks would pour over your work with great interest given how much we ourselves are investing in it - but the reality was that she received so many submissions from people hoping to get into her gallery that this had become the process - this definitely reinforces the "should read well at postage stamp size" advice - anyways sorry about the tangent.... kind of a fun story though