Character Art

[+ EraYachi 180]

When I gotta de-stress, I crack out the ol' tablet and make some concept and/or game art based on my horror-adventure game's two main characters

 

 

Drawing humans in any style isn't my stongest suit, but this's probably the most accurate one of Liam, the teen. Crosshatching is a style I'm just learning, but if ya haven't noticed, the entire style of Inwards is kinda scratchy/crosshatchy (crosshatch being a style of shading using crossed lines, for those who don't yet know). If you wanna know more about the game, check out my signature.

 

Gonna need like 20 more of these for the promo and in-game art, but that's another day, another dollar. TO THE BAR! I mean, to the....yeah, the bar. Let's go.

 

(Pick 'er apart, people,)

[Corpse Wyrm 8]

I love a good horror-adventure! And I very much like the style of art in conjunction with your story. The sketchy inked look of it has a very nitty-gritty, slightly grungy feeling to it. I think it'll mesh well. And the crosshatching in general is just a really good stylistic choice, I think.

 

Really love Vincent here! I enjoy that he's very lop-sided, obviously looks old and worn. And this might be strange, but my favorite part of the image is Liam's foot/pant leg. I feel it really juts out the way it should, and the highlight on the shoe and folds of the cloth are really awesome.

 

Humans aren't my forte either, but I feel you did really well. The only (minor) thing I could suggest is that Liam's right arm where it crosses over his left looks a little thin. I might  put a bit of a bump for the wrist, show his hand is folding under right there. Similarly, the hand you can see looks a little flat. Might focus a little on the shading there, and put more of a "kink" where the joints of his fingers are. But really, those are very minor complaints, and I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been nitpicking to give you a full critique. 

 

Interested to see more!

[+ EraYachi 180]

Thanks, Corpse. Er...Thanks, Wyrm. You know what? I can't call you anything without sounding like an entitled prick. You're now 'Corpy'. Corpy thou dubbed.

 

I could draw Vincent a hundred times (and would, but it would make the game seem a little too focused on him), as I love him, but I need to focus a lot on Liam, as you mentioned. Drawing crossed arms has been a weakness of mine--it's such an unnatural position for arms to be, really. Of course I had to pick a defiant, moody teenager to be the focus of the story.

 

/sigh

[Corpse Wyrm 8]

Haha! Yes, my username is sort of hard to shorten, I've realized. But I've had it across most platforms, so it's what I now use. Most people stick with "Wyrm" (or my friends have oft dubbed me "Wyrmbeastie"), but Corpy is kind of endearing. I definitely don't mind either way. 

 

Crossed arms are hard! Lots of foreshortening, particularly at that angle. Another great defiant, moody go-to pose is hands shoved in pockets, which is a great excuse not to draw hands! (Not that I've done that, no siree.) I'll definitely be interested in seeing more of his broody self.

Edited March 8, 2014 by Corpse Wyrm

[LakiLarian 3]

I love Liam's head in this image. (His hair is reminiscent of L from Death Note, if anyone has seen that.) The stylization is really cool, and I can totally tell what the artistic theme is just from the use of line.

 

The crosshatching works well, especially across Vincent's belly area. Makes that round, fatter part of him stand out perfectly.

 

One thing I notice is Liam's pants, around the waist. If those are jeans, they look like they're rolled inward somehow. Like the zipper/crotch line hits the top of the pants because the inch or so with the button is rolled in on itself.

Clothes are a pain to draw in general, in my experience . I ask others do all the official costume designing for me so I'm forced to recreate more than my quick "but clothes are Work" doodles. On that note, I can appreciate the detail you put into his T-shirt!

[+ EraYachi 180]

Thanks for the critique, guys. :3 As for Liam's head, Laki, I'm toast at drawing anime style hair unless I'm using at least 5 references. I think several different manga characters' hair styles went into that monstrosity.

 

Been practicing digital painting with limited success, so here's an unfinished (probably won't ever have a complete background) coloured version. Haven't gotten around to fixing all of the suggested areas of improvement, but it's a workin progress.

 

 

 

Enough work, and this could be the 'cover' of the game, so-to-speak. Pretty happy with Vincent's progress, Liam's driving me nuts.

 

[Tsarmina 2,612]

I kinda like the minimalist, high-contrast almost vector-style background. It's surprisingly fitting. :3

[When Bugs Roam Ur House 656]

Hmm... if you want honest feedback... (and i think you do?) i will try to give you my honest opinion.

 

... Though i am by no means an "expert" on anatomy or anything. And these are just my own observations/ opinions... i think though that the drawing might look a bit more natural if it looked closer to something like this.

 

I hope you don't mind me drawing over the picture... ("x_x) i did however, put the original beside it so you could see the edits more clearly.

 

 

i think the left shoulder could be perhaps made a bit more pronounced. As for the hands... well, you can see what i thought might look fair. I think the visible hand in particular should have the fingers more hidden, judging by the length of the forearm. (.u.) (Idk if you tried this, but if you draw in the hidden forearm, it will help you judge where the hand might appear.)

 

For the legs, the right leg's foot could be slightly raised on it's ball. This is because anatomically, even though our legs are roughly same length, since one is bent, we are increasing its distance until it touches with the ground. Therefore, to compensate for the extra distance, our foot must stretch out so we are able to touch the ground.

 

Lastly.. this isn't really to talk about anything in particular. : D But i think it might help give your drawing a greater sense of balance if you imagine sets of planes in the human body. Like... how one would draw a building. I think it would take too much space to explain exactly what i mean, but in this case, the shoulders should be in the same angled plane as the plane formed by the elbows. Similarly, the feet should be in the same angled plane as the knees and so on. 

 

 

... I hope i wasn't harsh. ;-; If i was, i didn't mean to! Sorry. (!) But that is my opinion, and other than that, i like the picture. I especially admire the crosshatch shading you did, i think it suits your game well (i saw your game thread) and it's a style that i've always really liked.

[+ Brackev 66]

One nit-picky thing I saw. The corner of the room is sprouting from the center of the bear's head. It is distracting for me. Losing the last row of floor squares should be enough to get the corner to a nicer spot.

[+ EraYachi 180]

 

 

 

... I hope i wasn't harsh. ;-; If i was, i didn't mean to! Sorry. (!) But that is my opinion, and other than that, i like the picture. I especially admire the crosshatch shading you did, i think it suits your game well (i saw your game thread) and it's a style that i've always really liked.

 No, I was really happy to see such extensive feedback. I've taken some pretty hardcore art classes; half my electives in high school were art, and I graduated from College with an Art & Design Foundations certificate. If I haven't learned how to take constructive criticism by now, I'm a failure as an artists.

 

My biggest hangup with this picture is trying to go from realism to anime/manga style. I'm not shabby at drawing the human figure ,but cartoony/anime proportions  and body figure tend to fit a certain standard that I can't replicate; I'm pretty much just gonna give up on it and develop a more Dinsey-esque, western cartoony look since that conforms a little better to the anatomy lessons I've ingested regularly (if you see my avatar, that's something I did as a teenager; its' sentimental to me). I've never been able to really do crossed arms properly, so thanks for all the tips  

 

The real work for the cutscenes is yet to begin....

 

 

One nit-picky thing I saw. The corner of the room is sprouting from the center of the bear's head. It is distracting for me. Losing the last row of floor squares should be enough to get the corner to a nicer spot.

Yeah, that background really isn't meant to be permanent. I wanted black to make their contract 'pop', but a pure black background just made it seem to flat and depthless. The tiles are there to give it scene. If I choose to use the image, it'll get a new BG entirely or just be a promo image/no BG.