I just borrowed a couple of Calvin And Hobbes books from my friend and I wanted to try the same style, cause I really love it. It's really amazing how great an artist Bill Watterson is.
Just thought I'd share the result with ya'll. I think I'll draw some more of these. The style rocks so much.
(http://pelu.jns.fi/~teropa/Misc/CalvinAndHobbes01.jpg)
really great!!!
I didn't know about him at all!!
Gorgeous Pessi! You really got Watterson's stille down! :)
Danny- you never read any of those beautiful Calvin&Hobbes comics??!! Run to the nearest comic book store and buy it NOW! ;D It's a classic and certainly my favorite comic. I mean, this should be obligatory read in school... Pure genius i tell you.
i will!!!!! ::)
i agree with igor, the style is very recognisable ! i like the use of variable thickness for the lines
I like the style, however I dont think of Watterson when I see it. If you intended to copy (not just be inspired) his style here re some things that comes to my mind:
(i) Using a real brush n indian ink does make a hugh difference in my experience. I take it your pic was done using a tablet and perhaps the effect can be simulated with painter but I m not sure.
One thing that is significative for Watterson imo is the seemingly sloppy brushstyle with thick dynamic strokes. The lines in your pic has the varying thickness but they look too stylized n vectorized imo.
(ii) The trees have a cartoony look to them that I dont see in Watterson's work.
(iii) The trees have too small black areas imo. Watterson's trees are usually halfblack and if they re in the background they re usually black silouettes.
(iv) Another significative thing that I miss in the pic is the vegetation at the foot of the trees. Watterson has a special way of doing it that you might wanna have a look at.
(v) The tree outlines are too thin imo. Atleast one side (the shadowy) should be very thick if not both.
The outlines are too even n unorganic as well (~what I ment by vectorized).
That s about it I think. Being a hugh admirerer of Watterson myself I felt the need to comment it since the comments so far has suggested that it looks spot on. So I hope you don t take my criticism the wrong way.
Thanks a lot for the criticism, guys! Especially, Loominous - fantastic input!!!
I agree with all your points. Actually, right after 'finishing' the image, I noticed it was too empty and clean, so to say. As you pointed out, the lines are too thought-out and not spontaneous as Watterson's.
The other thing that I really want to get right are the values. Watterson gets the values right in unequalled fashion with only black and white. I suppose it's because of the skill of leaving things undrawn. As in, leaving the area white.
Anyway, thanks for the input, I'll try to fix those issues on my next image!
Nice job Pessi, its certainly Calviny!
To actually see how Watterson turned into such a great artist you could follow his Calvin and Hobbes from the 1st strip, and you will see how years of drawing can improve someone!
http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/first_ch.gif
Danny -
http://www.ucomics.com/calvinandhobbes/
damn i'm subscribed to Garfield ( which is with Alf one of my favourite sarcastic-characters.. :)).
Anyway, i'll subscribe to garfield somwhere else, and then i'll choose C&H (not that i never heard of them :))
Anyway, i'll just give you feedback and say: Nice one Pessi, really nice style.
yeah, anyway ;)
Quote from: Igor on Fri 25/07/2003 13:51:35
It's a classic and certainly my favorite comic. I mean, this should be obligatory read in school... Pure genius i tell you.
In a class I took in college we studied Calvin Ball. My prof. thought it was a perfect example of rules working within a system (like Euclid and his postulates).
::)Sorry you had to read this post...I've been awake for a long time!
Looking really good, Tero!
Ah, the memories...
Variable line thickness rules! It's one of my favorite styles.
Good job Pessi!
I thought it looked a little empty but, as you were just experimenting, this is a great start! If this is your first ... it'll only get better!!
Post some more when/if you can!
dm
wow! it looks so kool! u forced me to try it!
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Bill_Watterson_Style_Sketch.jpg)
i love this style, Bill rocks!
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Great drawing both Pessi and Slamgrinder! I really love this style!
Oh so now I know what Calvinball is ::). Anyway I'm gonna read them when I get the chance :).
Looks great, Pessi. It does look a bit too cartoony, though. Usually when Watterson uses distorted shapes like that it's on the planet surfaces in those Spaceman Spiff daydreams.. Also, I think your lines are much too clean. Calvin & Hobbes always had a sloppy, sketchy look that I really loved. I remember reading an interview a while ago where Bill Watterson described the technique he used.. Maybe you could check that out, if I can find it..
Slamgrinder: Um.. How exactly is that Calvin & Hobbes style? It doesn't look remotely like anything Watterson would draw. I'm not trying to discourage you or anything, it's just that.. Maybe you should study the comics a bit more. I'm pretty sure Calvin is not a white rapper :P
its not calvin... anyway, its not completeley that style, it's just kinda got bits of the style in.
EDIT: ok i studyed the comica bit more, and found the pic i toulk reference from was an exeption from the C&H style, heres my new character, i call him Johny...
(http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/Johny.jpg)
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Ok own up , who let Pessi back in the forums with his superior art work, You KNOW he always puts everyone else to shame!!!
/me starts crying
ok is that an isult to evryone or a compliment to pessi...? :P
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i made a little strip in this style incase anyones interested http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=7604
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http://www.arkworld.com/ascii/other/calvhob.htm
bloody hell! how long did that take?
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Yeah, I bet it was a program that made it.
yeh, probably.
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I would like to know what program it is them :P....It help to quint... looks more like a picutre..less like text
Thanks for the comments, everyone!
Here's a new one. I tried to achieve more credible style with custom brushes and looser strokes. The previous one was made using a regular 1-pixel (pressure sensitive opacity) brush and it shows. :)
Tell me what you think!
Earlwood: Check Google's directory (http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Visual_Arts/ASCII_Art/Software/?il=1) for Ascii to image conversion programs.
(http://pelu.jns.fi/~teropa/Misc/Watterson02.gif)
A colored version (quite a long shot, but hey! :)):
(http://pelu.jns.fi/~teropa/Misc/Watterson02_Colored.jpg)
Hmm... That tree on the right. Probably should've left it out. :-\
:o Ooh, very nice! Personally I liked the clean and stylish lines more than these thick and "messy" ones, but that's not Bill's style as I understood.
The colouring is great, I really like the snow! :)
Certainly getting there, looking really good imo.
Some things:
(i) although his strokes are loose the trees are still realistic in their form, just loosely rendered. The middle tree n the right one in particular looks distorted in their shapes in their upper parts.
(ii) the ground beneath the middle tree looks a bit dirty imo. I m not sure what you wanted those lines to resemble but at the moment they just look like small lines filling up space to me. In snowy pics he usually have small trees looking up through the snow. Those could fill up some space
(iii) the black shapes on the left foregroundtree looks too blurry or messy imo.
(iv) the illustrator feeling is still there in some parts imo. I understand that it isnt easy to get rid of, just wanted to tell.
(v) the outlines as mentioned earlier looks much better but some has a blurry character, as if they were done with charcoal. Bill uses ink for his outlines so blurriness is pretty impossible.
(vi) the sledtrails looks a bit too messy imo. I think they could be improved much if u just spent more time on them.
(vii) the snowcolor is too blue imo. He usually uses white or very lightblue for snow with lightblue for shading, that s what i recall anyway.
All I can think of at the moment. I really like the improvements from the last n would love to see this sort of graphics in a game.
i guess my question is, are you going for a direct Bill Watterson or, judging by the title of the thread just being inspired by him?
cause if it's direct then yea, use all the tools bill used, but if it's just inspiration then i think you're doing fine, the colours look nice and remind me of sunday morning comics [like calvin and hobbes and foxtrot, which always reminded me of eachother colour wise] and the trees are reminiscent of the way bill draws them
Thanks again for the comments!
Loominous: You really know what you're talking about - thanks!
And when it comes to cartoons, Mr Eric Colossal can not be wrong either!
Eric, I was actually going as close as Bill's style as possible, so I guess you could say I wasn't just inspired. Anyway, I think I'll leave the style experimentations here. I've got one more great custom brush to use and I've learned a lot. I just used it for sketching yesterday, and it did awesome job on my creativity. It somehow nails the shapes down so well.
Till next time!
Say, these custom brushes you ve created, would you mind sharing them or explaining how you went about?
Sure!
Here's the package of brushes I always use: http://pelu.jns.fi/~teropa/Misc/PessiCustomBrushes.abr (http://pelu.jns.fi/~teropa/Misc/PessiCustomBrushes.abr). It only works with Photoshop 7, I hope you have it. After importing the brush set, you should see the Watterson brush as the last one in the catalog.
I'm keeping it brief for now as it could be you don't have PS 7, or that you want to know exactly how the brush was made etc. I would only answer questions that don't need answering. :)
Thanks :)
I ve played around with it a bit and found these alterations interesting (you ve most likely encountered them but anyway):
(i) To get rid of the gradient effect I disabled "Other dynamic" (not familiar with the english name for that feature) which s below "colordynamics". It can also be done within the "other dynamics" tab.
(ii) I found enableling "formdynamics" to be an improvement.
This is a cell drawing I did when I was in 8th or 9th grade. I just got back from DisneyWorld and fell in love with doing cell animation...forgive the credeness of the background, I was young and I went with a perspective that worked... although I think it works just fine.
(http://invis.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.freewebs.com/agstrial/mycell2.JPG)
The "Calvin and Hobbes" logo and Calvin are on the same transparency, and then there's just the background.