Finishing Drills for a Chronic Dabbler.

animatosoor

My progress so far on Toy Demon. If anyone sees this and has any words of advice on rendering issues, I would really appreciate it!

Darian

@animatosoor looking good! is the focus on the red toy or the green creature? I'd say right now, both are getting equal importance (atleast for me ) I think you will have to reduce the saturation of either the toy or the green creature.

animatosoor

Thanks for your input, @Darian! I would want the focus to be on the green creature, with the toy being a close second. I'm going to go work on the saturation.

Darian

@animatosoor I would say you are close! I'd suggest de-saturating the red a little.. like in the previous image with the blue background, but to a lesser extent

animatosoor

Thanks, @Darian! I've made changes to the red on the toy, keeping the highest saturation on the creature.

I also made other changes to the illustration overall, since I wasn't happy with a lot of it at its base - the toy's legs bothered me, the creature bothered me... lots of things bothered me. XD.

Here's an update!:

Darian

@animatosoor yes! so much better with regards to the saturation! I like the subtle variations on the toy

animatosoor

It's Monday (where I am, anyway), and I'm about to call this done. I'd love to receive feedback on this! I've been staring at it for days, and wonder what I'm missing at this stage.

karolifo

@animatosoor Looks good! The only things I can think of is to refine the shape of the shadow, and consider moving the small toy on the left a little. I feel like it is a bit uncomfortable next to the big dark toy blocks now - it could for example either be partly behind the blocks, or need more space. Or you could add a few more toys

animatosoor

@karolifo Thank you! I ended up removing the little rattle toy completely, since it didn't sit right at all, no matter where I positioned it. It didn't work in my linework, and so it didn't work in colour either. XD I also went in and refined the shadow shape and did some other subtle fine-tuning. Thank you for helping me along.

Final:

animatosoor

Week 2!

I had these little Sandman Baby drawings sitting in my sketchbook, and it's time to bring them to a finish by hook or by crook.

marine

@animatosoor love seeing your process!!
Is there a finished story with the toy demon? Would be such a cool one!

animatosoor

@marine Aw, thank you! There isn't a story for that one right now. My mindset when I created those doodles in the past was to simply put some "standalone" idea down in my sketchbook, with no outcome in mind. These days, after discovering SVS, my mindset has shifted quite a bit.

MichaelaH

@animatosoor Ha ha this si fun, like the 3th picture with the eyes and tha sand...

marine

@animatosoor your illustrations have definitely potential for good stories! I believe you'll build a good portfolio out of them

Susan Marks

@ShannonBiondi Great reminder from that podcast: produce more than I consume. While in the learning stage (that's where I definitely am)-I'm so tempted to go grab another tutorial. Like you, I make my time-put-in-goals. And I gather up my "best 3" each month-They're usually finished (to my standards)--occasionally I slip in a comic panel which are so hard for me, and they are not ever yet "done" to my standards.

@animatosoor --this is a great thread and I support the accountability.

animatosoor

@MichaelaH Thank you! I realise it is said that the sandman sweetly sprinkles magic dust over the top of people's eyelids, but I had to have this one pull the man's skin taut to pour the dust in. Haha, we make our own fun, I guess. XD

animatosoor

@marine Such a supportive thing to say. Thank you.

animatosoor

@Susan-Marks Rounding up your best 3 pieces of work every month sounds like a great thing to do. All the best with your comics. I'm not sure if you have been posting those, but if you do, I'm sure the forum folks would be more than happy to help you along!

Thank you; I feel largely driven, with a few days (like today) where nothing seems to be moving forward. I just keep telling myself these "down moments" are part and parcel of my attempting to improve.

animatosoor

Picking up after feeling a bit down yesterday, with progress on my Sandman illustrated poem page.

I have not made such a page before, but have always wanted to. I'm wondering if anything looks problematic on this layout?

animatosoor

Progress shot. The footprints on the right side of the picture felt lazy to me, so I've removed them. I still worry that the page might be too crowded, hehe.