[Gimbal8]

I rarely ever finish anything, and clean crisp line art and character design wasn't something I had much experience in. So when someone asked me if I could draw a bunch of different characters somewhat in the style of that Feng Zhu draws in a short amount of time I of course replied..."Sure".

Don't ask me why I said that. I guess I knew I had it in me somewhere.

Anyway, it was eye-opening to see what I could do under a deadline. Had this been a personal project I'd probably still be nit-picking the first character I made. Perhaps if I handled my personal artwork like I was under contract to finish it I'd have more personal art done by now.

Of course all this stuff is under NDA so I can't post anything but the artwork, which they gave me permission to do. I shrunk them down and put them all in one pic.



Although I won't have time to change anything, I'd be interested in hearing what everyone thinks. Especially any pointers to improve my technique in line art. All these were done in mechanical pencil mostly. Need more practice inking with pens.

[Fate]

EXCELLENT!
But it would be nice to see bigger version of the pic, cause it's hard to make out some of the details
My favorite character would be the girl with torn-out bunny doll, I like her gun alot.

[Mr. T]

you should add some line variety and post a bit larger pics

nice stuff

[Mr Crowley]

very well done

[saladbowl]

Cool man...looks good!
Just missing some more freaky characters.
I bet you could do them just as well...

[pixelsoldier]

I agree with Mr. T in that you should try and vary your line weights somewhat, or at least add indication of light/shadown with pencil.

Great work though, I'm quite impressed.

I checked out your webpage as well, and those photos are stunning! Those owls look evil! I'm scared of owls now. They look like they're read to peck out my eyeballs and feed them to their young. :P

[kana]

i really like the girl with the shredded teddybear. she's got character.

[ValarianROOT]

Hey hey hey... long time no see. Nice solid figures. Keep it up! If your looking to improve your line variance like people are suggesting get yourself a Windsor Newton 0 or 00 brush and go over a copy of character. Its a lot easier to get the variance with a brush and ink than with a pen. Only draw back to it is you have to have a REALLY steady hand for strait lines.

JN

Definitely can't wait to see more!

[Gimbal8]

Fate: Thanks. I'll post larger versions sometime soon.

Mr. T: Your right about the line variety of course. I was a bit worried that I would screw something up and it wouldn't look right so I figured if I at least get the lines done I can always go back later if there is more time and fix things. It definitely makes line art look better and as soon as I finish the rest of the stuff I have to do I'm going to give it a try.

Mr. Crowley: Thanks man.

saladbowl: I have a hard time balancing realism vs caricature in order to give them more character. My natural tendency tends to slide towards mundane realistic proportions that make it difficult to exude character. So I'm forced to rely upon pose, body types, and facial features that people can relate to in order to make them look like they have the personality I'm trying to give them. Like the big guy with the hat has laugh lines or crows feet (whatever you want to call them) on the outside corners of his eyes and the outer part of his eyebrows are made more prominent and slant upwards to give subtle clues to a jovial personality (Well, maybe when I post a higher res version that would be more apparent). Crap I'm rambling again. Anyway, more freaky characters would be fun to do.

pixelsoldier: Thanks for the compliments. That stuff on the webpage is really old when I first got my camera. I really ought to do something with my webpage. I forget people might actually look there. If you check some of the Sijun Geographic threads in the Random Musing section you'll find newer pics.

kana: Yeah, she's my favorite too.

ValarianROOT: I haven't been around much I know. My regular job has been totally kicking my ass and then trying to get this artwork done on top of it all has kept me very busy. I swear I'm going to finish that Sister of Battle by the end of the year though. lol. I have some small brushes (including 00) that I use to paint miniatures with. I'll have to try that technique, thanks. For straight lines I wonder if I can make a brush-friendly ruler. Like a ruler that has 1/2" blocks on either end to raise it high enough over the paper and use it to guide the brush along straighter? I dunno. I may have better luck investing in Illustrator or something.

Here is one higher res pic:


And the first rough sketches I did of her: She didn't change much at all in the final drafts.


The only other pic I have to show at a higher res is a coloring test I did for this one:

My color picking needs some work I suppose.

I'll post more soon.

[Gimbal8]

I have a condition known as bad luck. No matter how faulty I find such superstitious mumbo-jumbo, I can't seem to shake the feeling that Murphy's Laws seem to apply a little more to me the most of the people I know. I was looking forward to this 3-day weekend hoping to get some drawing done and maybe even relax for a while...but instead some big ordeal had to happen and I got stuck working all weekend. So much for getting anything done.

I did get these done before this weekend though:



The last one I had a little help on smoothing things out and there are still things I'd like to change, but at least these didn't take as long as I originally thought.

Crits and comments always welcome.

[ May 27, 2002: Message edited by: Gimbal8 ]

[Kamal]

It's true that adding line weight can make line art look much better, but I find it even more challenging to create a line drawing with no line weight at all and still make it look good.

Nice work,

Kamal

[Gimbal8]

Thanks Kamal.

*phew* I'm so glad last week is over with now. I have this to add:


I need to fix her tummy, something to show the form of the rib cage and stomach area properly and a few other odds and ends. Even then I wouldn't call it finished but if I don't stop there I fear I never will. That's not to say I wouldn't welcome any pointers on what could be changed.

Hopefully what I've learned on this one will make me faster at doing the others.

[somkeat]

I like your style. They are really interesting. You are already professional!!