Concept Art - Anatomy?

[Scavenger]

I'm currently doing some concept art for my game, and I want to paint it, but I'm not sure whether the anatomy/composition is as good as it could be before I commit to painting it. I've been at this sketch for a few hours, and I just can't see if I'm slipped up anywhere.



Any advice?

[Andail]

It needs more work!

The girl's legs are much too short - right now her leg/torso ratio is dwarf like. Her lower left arm is tiny, barely longer than the palm of her hand.

The sword-dude is mostly fine anatomically speaking - except for a distinct lack of flesh around his thigh/buttock, but there are some other minor issues with him. I don't find his pose very natural, at least not if he's supposed to be resting. See if you can find some better balance here. Also, since his shirt seems rather loose - looking at the sleeves - his bosom has been rendered a bit too voluminous, almost female. I would also give him a more interesting facial expression while at it. Far too often I see character faces in concept art (and in plenty of box art, no names) looking utterly bored, which takes away dynamics and tension from the picture.

Composition wise, I would make sure the foreground edge overlaps the female figure a bit. It's not a good idea to have objects and shapes just touch like that - either give plenty of room in between or let them overlap.

The squirrel guy looks pretty perfect! Good anatomy, good expression, good pose.

[Ghost]

The sword-dude is mostly fine anatomically speaking

Looking at the chest, I would've guessed that's a sword-lady. No offense!

[Scavenger]

Great, I tried to incorporate the suggested changes into the sketch.



- Moved the lady, lengthened her arms and legs.
- Tried to get across "leaning on his right leg" across better, minor fixes. He's supposed to be extremely thin, so I didn't add too much flesh.
- Tried to add a smirk to the dude's face. I am abysmal at facial expressions. It may be a little too malevolent for what I'm going for.

[NickyNyce]

Don't forget about the sword guys right hand. I can't make heads or tails which way that hand is facing. It appears that he doesn't have a thumb.

[Scavenger]

Alright, I'm going to fix the dude some more later, but in the meantime, I started painting the other two figures.



It's far from finished, I can change parts of the painting pretty easily. What do y'all think?

[Eric]

I don't find his pose very natural, at least not if he's supposed to be resting. See if you can find some better balance here.

I think Andail's note is most apt. The issue I see here is that the characters aren't balanced. If they were real, they'd be struggling to hold their balance in the positions you have them in. Think about where the weight is being placed for your two foreground characters: for the sword guy, it's all on that front foot. On the book lady, it's on her extended back hand.

I did this quick draw-over (with a mouse, unfortunately, as my tablet is at work) to show what I mean. I took him off his tip toe, and slid the foot back to put more weight on it (I think I've turned his ankle a little too much, though). I angled the arm so that his forearm is bracing the weight of his torso. I pushed her hips forward, and rotated her back arm so that the hand is facing backward. I lengthened her legs, and moved her other arm out away from her body.

I am also not the world's greatest artist, nor anatomist, so others should feel free to correct me! Your rendering is good, once you get these quirks of anatomy down. The guy in the back, as noted by others, is great. I like seeing a version of him in a different style than I'm used to seeing him in!



(EDITED: To fix a couple of things.)

[Scavenger]

How's this?

[Creamy]

I'm OK with the rabbit, but the lady is not in a comfortable position. Try to sit like that and you'll see her leg is too bent. She reminds me of this guy

[Scavenger]

Alright, I'll see what I can do with her legs so she's not posing like a contortionist.

And the guy at the back, he's a raccoon. He's just simplified so I can animate him easier.

[Creamy]

I was talking about the rabbit in the foreground, but the raccoon is cool too.

[Scavenger]

Tried to fix her legs. I got down in the position she was in and tried to match it comfortably. Not going to repaint it until the positioning is correct. It's actually kind of frustrating to not be able to do it right, I've been trying to fix it all day :\ I could just cut my losses and have one of her legs overlap the other one, but I really want this pose to come out right.

[Creamy]

After various tries on my floor, it appears to me that the most comfortable position is still the good old sitting

[imgzoom]http://creamy.unblog.fr/files/2014/04/blacksunpainting_painting_8.png[/imgzoom]

[Kasander]

[img]

Tried to fix her legs. I got down in the position she was in and tried to match it comfortably. Not going to repaint it until the positioning is correct. It's actually kind of frustrating to not be able to do it right, I've been trying to fix it all day :\ I could just cut my losses and have one of her legs overlap the other one, but I really want this pose to come out right.

Hey Scavenger,

IMO the warrior and the tech-guy are looking good now (samurai looks much better than before and the 'beaver type' (or whatever type of animal he is) didn't need any special treatment in the first place.

I wonder if you don't expect too much from the lady? She has to:
1) convincingly hold the diskette (as if some important data were written on it)
2) at the same time reaching for her gun (I'm not exactly sure what makes her reach for a gun here but I understand she's supposed to look alert or/and dangerous)
3) while sitting in the extremely uncomfortable position (as Creamy pointed above).

I *think* I know what effect you want to achieve but I'm not quite sure if it's possible. You've said you had tried the pose yourself, but I think you should go a step further and actually take a reference photo of yourself or preferably a relative/friend whom you could direct in the hacker-girl's role. That way you could see if 1) 2) and 3) are possible all together, and how convincing is the RL pose versus the one you had imagined.

Considering the right hand, I think Eric made a good point with his paint-over. Supporting the body weight like that is both natural and comfortable.

Alternatively, you could think about making her sit cross-legged. That's the most comfortable sitting position I can think of and she could rock the cyberspace all day while being in it. If sat cross-legged, she could have her arm let loose along the side, with forearm resting on thigh and hand between legs, with palms on a gun, which would be resting somewhere there (or maybe put between her legs? Gulp! ) Obviously that would probably require redrawing/bending forward her upper body a bit and it would make her 'coolly (or is it carefully?) reaching for a gun' pose rather impossible. I suppose she would seem less dangerous and more casual then.

If you can't find people for modelling, try searching google images with phrases like 'woman sitting/kneeling (crosslegged)', that could help a bit. 

Unfortunately I can't do a paint-overs since I don;t have access to any painting tools on this computer.

-----

On a side note, as a fan of your games (having played DWEF and Heatwave) I have to say I adore your furry kind of cyberpunk.
I find your characters (especially the chubby protagonist) very charming and original. It's a welcomed break from typical, deadly boring protagonists of most mainstream games (I'm looking at you, George Stobbart and Kate Walker!). I also admire your color decisions (even the most risky ones like using that killer pink in Heatwave).

I look forward to playing full version of DWEF (BTW, this is a Dick'ian / dickish great title, but I guess you already knew that)!   

[Scavenger]

Okay! I think I've almost got it. She was doing too much with her hands, so I just moved her gun somewhere else. If her legs have become too short again, I'll lengthen them, but otherwise I don't really wanna revise her again. x3 And then, I'll start painting the thin dude.

[Chicky]

Lovely picture Scavenger, I think the new legs look great if a little short as you've mentioned. Maybe you could move her to the left a little, might help with the composition whilst keeping her feet in frame.

[Andail]

Okay, going to be a bit picky here, so it all depends on how much you're willing to change.

There are still some issues here, especially in terms of anatomy, but also when it comes to postures and composition.

Her legs are still far too short for a non-midget human, but if you're not willing to give her a properly sized lower body I'll assume it's a part of the style (it's common for cartoon characters to have shorter legs, for instance).

Her pose also… poses… problems. I don't know what she's meant to express, but when I first saw the picture in its entirety, I sensed a degree of urgency - maybe they've broken into an office somewhere and are about the hack their hardware? Why else would she have a gun close at hand like that, and why else would the sword dude have that weapons-ready watching-out pose? That makes her current position a bit too leisurely. She's basically sitting like a child, completely off guard. And if this is just their own office, safe within their head quarters, why not give the poor girl a proper chair?

Thus, my suggestion is to make her squat instead, and look more focused. So instead of appearing like a child surrounded by toys that fail to interest her, she would look professional and on her toes, ready for action.

And again, the sword dude still isn't balanced I think it would help tons if his sword arm would also rest on his knee, or if it was at least hanging more directly in front of him.

[Scavenger]

I changed the dude's pose a little, and tried to make his sword bring the eye back up to him from the girl. Changing his sword arm also makes his sword a little clearer. Also lengthened the girl's legs a bit. Not sure if I did it right. Something still looks wrong. It's kind of frustrating, I want to move on and do other things with this picture that aren't redrawing the girl's legs. x3

[Eric]

It's because she needs a bit more hip before her legs start. Note in my draw-over how far down I moved her butt in relation to her torso.   

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

The best advice I can offer is never move on to the shading phase until you're happy with the linework and have the forms down.  You've done some nice shading here that has to be destroyed and redone every time you make anything more than a modest edit.  Can you go back to the linework version you posted or are you committed at this point?

In the future it might help if you draw complicated parts of a whole on separate layers (like the computers, the raccoon, the girl, and the guy).  It makes it easier for you to flip between them for adjustments.  Maybe that's what you've done but I can't be sure so I'm just throwing that out there.

I've jumped the gun before and paid for it with a lot of needless redesign so I can sympathise.