January snow wip. Feedback
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@peteolczyk for the most recent image you posted, I love the overall atmosphere and everything about how you've tackled the trees. I agree with some other comments that the footprints seem a little small and far away from the characters that are looking at them. Also from us. I wonder if they could curve around closer to the characters and then come towards the viewer so we have some bigger ones in the space at the bottom of the image. I also think you could maybe make the bear darker - just now you have a white snowman body on top of a white bear on top of a pale background. I think adding the creator of the footprints more prominently in this version was a good move because from the first sketch I thought maybe the things growing were acorns planted by the squirrels in the front right tree.
More generally, I love your drawing style and really like the initial sketch where there is a lot going on. When looking at the contest entries I tend to think of them as a spread part-way through a picture book so I'm not expecting to have complete information about who all the characters are and their backstory, etc. As long as the central message of the prompt clearly comes across and the other stuff is more of a second read then I think the extra bits make the image more engaging and memorable. Like the super cute little penguins messing about with the snow. I didn't notice them at first because they didn't detract from the main focus but then I saw them and it kept me looking at the image longer, wondering about the relationship between all the characters and what they were doing before they spotted these footprints.
Nicola Schofield
Twitter: twitter.com/NSchofieldArt
Instagram: instagram.com/NicolaSchofieldArt/ -
@peteolczyk I really hope you do finish this piece for the contest. Would love to see this entry. But I totally understand if time is an issue. Looking forward to see this piece moving forward
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@peteolczyk I adore the render on this and its a massive improvement to the one before. Everything from the textures to the expressions and the bright lines is awesome. Good luck with this one!
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@neschof ooo thank you Nicola you’ve made some really good points there. Thank you so much for your help and point of view.
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@Rachel-Horne thank you Rachel for your help. I agree about the distance with the flowers too, I can see it now you’ve pointed it out. Also I can see your point about the intimacy of the scene on the first one. I regret not spending a lot more time on alternative sketches now. Thanks again
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@xin-li thank you for the encouragement I’ll try my best
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@Nathalie-Kranich thank you, it’s a bit of an experiment with textures and line so I’m not sure if it’s all tying in. I might be trying to do too much at once.
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@peteolczyk Well I don't know about you but sometimes when you've really gotten into a piece I find it hard to go back and start from scratch...that's something I struggle with a lot. It's a lovely image.
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@Rachel-Horne yes I know what you mean. Thank you for the encouragement Rachel, I really appreciate it
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@peteolczyk yes, I think it all comes out of the writing! All my drawings begin with words. For the January contest drawing I put a concept and characters around the text of the prompt and as I was working on thumbnails for it, I thought of another image I would like to do. At that point I had to go back and rewrite the characters, because a series of images has a way of putting a check on the development of characters. So I was thinking about your process and how messy mine gets, and I think each step is meant to be a check so going back and redoing stuff is the main point!
So basically thinking through it helped me see that that's why it leads to a sixth step final painting that's stress-free. It's because i've struggled through all the problems along the way, and now I'm thinking that I won't get better at it and that's ok. I think as I use this process, I will be better at knowing what to give up when I go back to a previous step.
Anyway, thank you for posting more about your process. No matter how well I know it isn't true, I always imagine that illustrators I admire can do everything easily the first time.
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@carolinedrawing thank you for sharing your process too Caroline. It seems like I might be the only one who isn’t starting off with a good written process. I sometimes involve the odd word but it’s more ideas generation than keywords, concepts and story. I think writing as a regular thing might be helpful for me too, it’s something I’ve always been weak at.
I’m thinking that the written element explored early on would give the rest of the process a more solid base.
