Traveling Animals WIP
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Hey everyone, this is an illustration I’m working on. I would really appreciate any and all feedback. Thanks a ton!
-mikecanas.com
-Instagram: @mikecanasart -
@mikecañas I like the overall characters but I'm not sure if the idea of travelling is clear I think this is in part because they fill the entire picture but don't really seem to be going any place. maybe if they were on a road or path. The squirrel seems sad and I would make his tail smaller or more brushy and less thick. The dodo looks cross eyed (I assume that is purposeful as he is dumb?)But it makes me want to look that direction when I look at him. Possibly reverse the image so the characters are facing to the right.
Cheers
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@rcartwright
Wow, great suggestions! I’ll definitely apply what you said and see how it turns out. I struggled with the squirrel quite a bit. I wanted him to look more worried but I agree, he looks said. Thanks for the advice! -
Ha, this is cute! One thing I notice right off the bat is that the dodo's feet are super-saturated and draw my attention right away.
Another thing is, I would make the hedgehog's nose a little more pointy and turned up, because he reads sort of like an Ewok at the moment. I love his grumpy/determined expression, though...hedgehogs are all about grump.
http://twiggyt.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/twiggyt_art/
Twitter: @twiggyt_art -
@twiggyt
Lol, he does look like an Ewok! Ok, I’ll make those changes, thanks! -
Nice work so far @MikeCañas ! What are you planning on doing with the foreground?
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@art-of-b
Thanks! I’m not too sure yet. Maybe just have a bush or something....I’ll probably try out a few ideas -
This is really good! You have great rendering happening and I like your use of varying line weights throughout this piece. I really love your dodo character, he really makes me smile. I think where you could improve would be the composition. This image is very top heavy. I think if you were to put it in grayscale and minimize it to only a couple of inches tall you would see that everything is up in the top half of the image and the bottom is left blank. If you can rearrange your characters to overlap, it would give a better sense of movement and flow. Also, the rock is such an isolating element, it feels really heavy to me balance wise. Try adding some new rocks spread here and there and that could give it variety. I always try to start my drawings by drawing a thumbnail that is less than an inch big. Then I try to group everything I do to three simple values, white, black and midgrey. From there I draw everything as an abstract shape rather than as the actual figures. That way I could see how they react together and how the eye moves around the image. If you squint (or I take off my glasses because I am VERY near/far sighted) you can tell how all of the values in this piece are very similiar. The squirrel gets lost in the cloud behind him. Try darkening the cloud to see if that makes the figures pop forward.
I think this is a very good image, really. I think just focusing less on the rendering and more on the composition (which includes the value pattern) would give it the punch you are looking for!
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@rcartwright my suggestion would be that the squirrel is looking the least stylised compared to the others, so he may not be in the same world as such. But looking nice with colours and shading etc.
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@daviesdesignated not sure I understand why your comment is directed at me?
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@jeanebean
Thank you so much for liking my work! I totally agree with you, my composition needs work. I have added a couple of rocks into the painting, just tough figuring out where to best place them. I definitely need to do more thumbnails before I start. I think I’m really selling myself short there and your comment has made me realize that. Again, thanks a ton for the advice!
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@rcartwright I just hit the reply button, it must have been the wrong one sorry.
