Character Sketch
Lynn the artist is from China Mieville's work. I've had something like this picture in my head since she was described. Done with watercolor on vellum bristol board. The full piece is square,but making watercolor scans match up in Photoshop is Fail.
Since the two organizers of this here art party know full well I can draw off a written description, I decided I would risk completely screwing up and play with color, too.
Anyone who's pursued an art for long at all finds there's parts they're good at. I'm comfortable with body language and expressions, and pretty much at ease with basic storyboarding. Basic cartooning stuff. It's useful and flexible and kept me in solid with my art school.
But oh how I suck at light and color. I can't get worse without going to technical drafting.
So that's obviously what I need to work on. That I chose to work on it with transparent watercolors and surreal hues is clear proof of mental illness.
Still, I'm pretty happy with it. Especially happy that I was able to scrub-erase and repaint a couple of problem areas; that's a new technique for me. I also like the way color directs the focus of the piece around her hands, even with that big ol' beetle head. I usually rely on linework for my focus, and I'm trying to get away from that.
If I did it again, I'd probably stylize the body more; I've lengthened and thinned it out a little, but a bit more twisting might have made it more dynamic. Still not quite happy with the big beetle head itself. Aside from the lack of internet/reference failure I had when drafting the thing, the segments just aren't delineated well enough. Oddly, that looks better in the scan.
Shown with stages so commenters can point out exactly where I went wrong. Rip into it!
Since the two organizers of this here art party know full well I can draw off a written description, I decided I would risk completely screwing up and play with color, too.
Anyone who's pursued an art for long at all finds there's parts they're good at. I'm comfortable with body language and expressions, and pretty much at ease with basic storyboarding. Basic cartooning stuff. It's useful and flexible and kept me in solid with my art school.
But oh how I suck at light and color. I can't get worse without going to technical drafting.
So that's obviously what I need to work on. That I chose to work on it with transparent watercolors and surreal hues is clear proof of mental illness.
Still, I'm pretty happy with it. Especially happy that I was able to scrub-erase and repaint a couple of problem areas; that's a new technique for me. I also like the way color directs the focus of the piece around her hands, even with that big ol' beetle head. I usually rely on linework for my focus, and I'm trying to get away from that.
If I did it again, I'd probably stylize the body more; I've lengthened and thinned it out a little, but a bit more twisting might have made it more dynamic. Still not quite happy with the big beetle head itself. Aside from the lack of internet/reference failure I had when drafting the thing, the segments just aren't delineated well enough. Oddly, that looks better in the scan.
Shown with stages so commenters can point out exactly where I went wrong. Rip into it!