New guy needs some feedback

[Pavelly]

Sup guys, i'm kind of new here and wanted to say hello as well as get some feedback on my work.
Going into university in a few months to study '3D Game art'.

Saw some of the work from my future fellow students a few weeks ago and looking at their work i realized i may be falling behind. So now i'm thinking i should post my work online somewhere in order to learn from people's feedback; i thought i'd start with Newgrounds, because its an awesome website.

This 1's a quick-ish concept i drew from a silhouette. I was planning on drawing 6 quick silhouette's to create 6 different characters (making them as different from each other as possible), then pick out a few that people liked most and develop them further into full characters.

However i got carried away and ended up making this silhouette quite detailed and so forgot about the other 5 silhouettes completely :| I know it's quite messy and perhaps unfinished but i won't be improving this guy anymore (or at least not anytime soon).

I will appreciate any feedback/tips/advice anyone could give, perhaps ways in which i could have made this guy better? or point out any mistakes that can be seen as i don't seem to notice any myself however i frequently miss these things.

Just looking for ways to improve.
Cheers guys!

Feel free to view him in high res on my profile.
High Res

[Spac3case916]

looks like you got the talent.

you just need to practice more.

[Re2deemer]

Well, feel free to post the other 5 silhouettes too.

As for this one, it could really use some definition. You have made extensive usage of small and/or blurry brushes and you have crafted the image out of details. However, you should be looking into blocking in the form before detailing since currently the result fells quite muddy (not helped by your choice of colour scheme.
What is especially bugging me is that his head seems to blend into his right wing and shoulder area. This is the area where you should really have been playing with values.

On a side note, while silhouettes are important to character differentiation, you should try and vary up the design within the bounds of the silhouette too. Gausswerks has an interesting article about designing characters. Notice that while he relies on the silhouette to distinguish them, he also uses value (Delgado and Church) to make them distinct.
If you have Team Fortress 2, boot up the developer commentary (the one on the Well map) since I recall that having much interesting info about how they designed their characters.

[TurkeyOnAStick]

Firstly, I think this image is too dark and the features are difficult to make out. I've had a play around with the Curves to improve the balance between the dark and lighter areas, which does your pic some justice.

The silhouette is really cool, and would lay down the foundations for an incredible character.
Conceptwise, it doesn't say "Ape Mech" to me, I thought it was a robot with swamp grass growing over it, with an Alien head. I think I'd make the connection a bit easier if it had an apelike pose, maybe a monkey face. I think the hair wouldn't be so long and limp on a monkey.

Also for brush strokes (particularly) it helps if you start working from shaded areas, then defining the lit areas with brighter colours. It also pays to clean up your pic, maybe to give more definition to focal points (like the face), render some hairs more, and erase the mucky bits around the wings.

In general, I think it's best if you move on, and have a go with another silhouette. Aim to make your concepts understandable to an ignorant audience, and you don't need to take a lot of time on a pic to make a brilliant concept sketch.

Magazines like ImagineFX are pretty good for giving you general techniques on creating concepts, too.

[Pavelly]

At 6/15/11 05:55 AM, Spac3case916 wrote: looks like you got the talent.

you just need to practice more.

hehe cheers

At 6/15/11 06:25 AM, Re2deemer wrote: Well, feel free to post the other 5 silhouettes too.

Will do. I also see exactly what you mean by the head blending in, i played around with the curves like 'Turkey' did, seems to have stopped the head from blending in to the wing/shoulder as much.
About the article you linked me to, i happen to love Jericho ;o I'l have a read through it in a mo.

And blocking in the form is exactly what i did at first, but then ended up adding more and more detail until i had gotten the result your seeing.

At 6/15/11 09:12 AM, TurkeyOnAStick wrote: The silhouette is really cool, and would lay down the foundations for an incredible character.
Conceptwise, it doesn't say "Ape Mech" to me, I thought it was a robot with swamp grass growing over it, with an Alien head. I think I'd make the connection a bit easier if it had an apelike pose, maybe a monkey face. I think the hair wouldn't be so long and limp on a monkey.

I see what you mean, it's just to me the head looked like a baboon's head hehe. But other then that, your right it has no other resemblances. However if i was to further develop the concept i may change him into more of an ape type thing, maybe.

Also for brush strokes (particularly) it helps if you start working from shaded areas, then defining the lit areas with brighter colours. It also pays to clean up your pic, maybe to give more definition to focal points (like the face), render some hairs more, and erase the mucky bits around the wings.

I see what you mean, i'l try and do that on my next concept. However when it comes to coloring, i tend to draw my image in shades of grey only, using black and white to pick out the lightest/darkest parts. I then add a colour layer and colouring becomes easy since the values are all already defined, this also allows me to easily change the colour scheme of the character.

Magazines like ImagineFX are pretty good for giving you general techniques on creating concepts, too.

Thanks for the link, i'l definitely have a look at that in a mo.