Edgar and Nate

Lee White

Looking good! Shoot for more concept if you can. Maybe the letters in his name can reference something from a story? The skull and books seem a little generic. Try to be specific to a story. Look for specific props that are totally "Poe" and no one else.

nice looking ink work and character!

Jonathon B

Crazy awesome! Love it.

mattramsey

great line work--this is really cool. I'm interested to see where you take this!

Naters.Art

i decided to illustrate some of Poe's well known literary victims looming over him as he stares at the blank page...

Ace Connell

Gorgeous! I know nothing of Poe, other than that's what the crow's called on that Canadian animated show Ruby Gloom; but this is looking real nice and I feel the Inktober influence works well for the dark stories (I'm assuming) Poe wrote haha.

Ace

Rob Smith

I really like the second image. Very strong work!!

Leontine

@Naters-Calderone Really awesome work you've got here!

Jana

Who says you are not good in use bold dark areas with control?
This is amazing. The first one is my favorite, but I also like the creepy faces of the second one.
Great, Nate!

AWall

I liked your first drawing but I really dig your second. It might be taken farther if you can do something to distinguish Poe from the other characters. You might try a variation in size to isolate him since they are so tightly packed. Just an idea but play around with it a bit more, I think it can get even better.

mattramsey

@AWall said:

I liked your first drawing but I really dig your second. It might be taken farther if you can do something to distinguish Poe from the other characters. You might try a variation in size to isolate him since they are so tightly packed. Just an idea but play around with it a bit more, I think it can get even better.

I'll second that. You will either want to change the value of those characters (probably go lighter) or go with a different color for them.

The other main thing: you will want to really work at getting their organization just right. As it is, it more resembles a cut-n-paste/randomly placed crowd milling behind him. You want their placement to be very deliberate and designed. Don't be afraid to use different angles (you have most of the figures vertically aligned) and the figures can (should?) bleed into each other.
Related to that: you might want to vary their shapes/sizes more.

This is a really great image--one of the stronger ones I've seen so far for this contest. Really excited about it. I think you nailed the Poe figure and I like the composition of him and the text.