A background I'm working on + Book Cover Design (new)

[Paper Carnival]

Hey everyone

I'm currently working to get some art finished for my portfolio, they'll ask for one since I'm going to study Graphic Design. I still have two years thanks to the army but I guess the more I practise the better I get.

Here's one I'm working on:



Colouring is still in progress, but here's what I have so far:


A larger version of the background is here, it would screw the forums up so I give you the link instead: http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/scan_.JPG

So what would you change? What bothers me is the perspective, it looks like someone bent the image. Too late to fix that I guess, unless I have to redo the whole thing. Another thing that bothers me is the legs (of the character and the creature on the left) and the lower right corner that seems empty. I'll appreciate any help

[Nikolas]

Okay!

I find it ultra impressive! For some reason I wouldn't expect something that clean from you

Anyways I'm surely not the man to give any advice...

But one thing I noticed is that the man looks a little big comparing to the whole back wall. He doesn't seem like he could fit through the door.

But great job. I like it very very much!

[DonB]

That colored style.. wow.. what an amazing atmosphere..

I am not sure about the pose of the character nailing the bug with his sword tho.

But whatever you do.. keep that colored painting style.. it got much potential.

[ildu]

If you're compiling a portfolio, I would advise more technical drawing and less of cartoony drawing. You should show off you're skill at perspective drawing, depth and composition. This doesn't really show any of them. On the other hand, it's a great idea to include cartoony drawing as well. But in that case, make the cartoony images emphasize a certain aspect with the rest of the image being less important.

So basically when you're drawing for example a realistic landscape, you can put in an equal amount of detail to all areas of the image, because it's, well, realistic. However, when doing cartoony stuff, the objective is usually to show a specific character or situation and emphasize it, hence not concentrating on the background as much. Just think about children's book illustrations. Usually there's the characters very well drawn and sharp, and the background is less noticeable.

And I'm not talking about detail as how much you can fit into a specific part of the image, but rather about how certain elements are emphasized in the image, through linework, composition and style. If I was trying to show of perspective, composition and depth in your image, I'd lower the camera to show further to the horizon and I'd distance elements in the image further from each other, like perhaps the dude closer the camera, etc. If I was trying to show cartoon skills, I'd make the character stand out from the background, by perhaps using a different drawing style on it or make him occupy a larger part of the image.

Check out these images found on google:

lanscapes:
http://www.artbyforster.com/art-class/graphics/classpics/hi-res-grid-xmas03.jpg
http://download.sketchup.com/graphics/markets/5landscape_image_1LG.jpg

children's book illustrations:
http://pages.zoom.co.uk/nick.towers/pictures/garden_of_ghosts.jpg
http://www.jungleboffin.com/images/artoriginals/characters/11.jpg

[Paper Carnival]

Thanks everyone for your comments

Nik, I can draw even cleaner stuff, it's just that at the moment I drew my other stuff I was, well, depressed, and hence the freakiness in those. Though I'm still excited on the angels and demons theme, I draw other stuff too now (but still some freaky stuff).

DonB, he's not piercing the insect at that moment, right now he's just examining it. That's why he's bending backwards, because he finds the insect disgusting. I thought the pose was good...

Ildu, as you might be able to see, I didn't start this with a vision in my head. I first drew the head, then the stone behind him, then the building on the left. The spikey things on the right were the last thing I did. But as I said, I didn't have anything specific in my head from the beginning so that's why it has unbalanced details. I want to focus on the character and on the things on the right... Thanks for your advice, I'll draw more specific things from now on.

What do you mean by composition, exactly?

I'll post updates of the colouring when I have something new, by the way

[big brother]

Life drawing should get you on the right track.

Adopting a cartoon style is essentially breaking the rules of realistically recording your perceptions. While not a bad thing of itself, it is painfully obvious if you draw cartoons before you've learned to draw from real life.

Whoever reviews your portfolio will be looking for technical skills and as well as demonstrations of your understanding of basic concepts like linear tangents, rhythm, and overall compostion. Creativity in subject matter takes a lower priority.

[ildu]

What do you mean by composition, exactly?

Composition is just how the elements in your image are layed out to best show what you want to show. Most of all you should try and keep the image balanced, meaning don't give a lot of detail to, say, the left side of the image and leave the right side blank. You also have to emphasize the most important areas of the image with composition. It all boils down to symmetry and balance in the image. And it's hard to explain.

If I were you, I would read a bit of some story book and choose a scene to portray. I would draw and color that scene by copying another story book illustrator's style. I would sketch 4-5 thumbnail sketches of it to get the composition and perspective issues somewhat sorted. Then I would draw the image on a larger scale detailing the most important element first (characters, things important to the story, etc.).

Just take these Winnie the Pooh illustrations for example:



In both images, the characters are heavily emphasized through composition and a different (cleaner and simpler) drawing style. Notice also, that important parts of the image, other than characters are drawn in the same way (honey pot, balloon). The compositions are very very simple, and that's how you want it for children's illustrations (unless you're going for some weirder style). There are basically no overlapping elements in either image and the backgrounds pretty much look quite plain. Also, not a lot of detail is shown in the background. Nevertheless, the images work incredibly well.

Winnie the Pooh would be an ideal way to start. Just make a few really quick sketches of a scene, then draw your character with a clean and precise style. After that, fill in the background with a sketchy style. When you have the image pretty much ready, you may optionally ink it, and finally color it. Use flat colors on the characters and water colors on the background. And you can pretty much do all of it on your computer (flat colors are hard to achieve when physically painting). Just remember to keep the image simple. And always have a reason to draw something. When you get the basics done, you can start to mix up styles and image elements, and to break rules.

Hamlet, another example of something you could try:
http://www.jwspangle.com/child_illust/hamlet.jpg

Others:
http://www.howellgolson.com/children/homepic.jpg
http://www.freelanceartistsnetwork.com/artists/paulabird/images/400/matruschka.jpg
http://members.aol.com/slamut/Images/H.jpg

You might wanna ask why I'm targeting mainly children's book illustrations. The reason for this is that the design industry is relatively restricted when it comes to a cartoony drawing style. The only areas where it's used is children's illustrations and varying ad work. However, the advertisement industry emphasizes on character design rather than full on scenes. And character design is something so hugely different that it deserves a couple of threads for itself. I won't go into landscape drawing because that's another totally different thing with totally different rules. Still, you should try to show variety when compiling a portfolio.

[ildu]

I did a relatively quick paint-over (it's a large image):

http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/1943/paintoverspider5ke.jpg

I used Illustrator to redo the character and exported it into photoshop, where I painted the background. The first part of the image has a crappily shaded character without outlines. The background in it is painted flat color without the pencil linework. The second part of the image has a flat-color character with outlines. The background has the pencil linework. The third part of the image has a flat-color character without outlines. The background is the same as the first. If I was creating a storybook, I'd probably go with the first but with better shading and the background toned down a bit.

I don't really know why I started doing this, but I hope it kinda helps . I guess I'm trying to show how you can make the character different and stand out from the background in different ways. I hope I'm not intruding too much .

[Bartimaeus]

Ildu thats possibly the most helpful reply I have ever seen.
...
Unlike this, which is pretty useless.

[ildu]

Thanks . I just wish people would return to these threads. It always seems that when I make the effort, the threadstarters disappear .

[Krysis]

Thanks . I just wish people would return to these threads. It always seems that when I make the effort, the threadstarters disappear .

ildu, this effords are of great help to some of us. Reading your post helped me alot... I had almost forgoten how important colours and composition are. Thanks for reminding me (and others I'm sure) that in such detailed way. This will improve my backgrounds.

[Paper Carnival]

Hey ildu, thanks for your help!

I haven't disappeared, I just don't have enough time available. I can work on my stuff either at the weekends, or during school (and it's kinda hard to carry my computer to school). Every time I post something here I might not feel like changing that work a lot, but I do take the advice seriously for my next projects.

I started working on a book cover design (in my graphic design class) and I used the composition advice and put some perspective too.

So when I have more free time at home (which will hopefully be this weekend if I don't go somewhere) I'll try applying some of your colouring advice on this one. I also thought of printing some copies of this and colour it by hand.

Anyway, thanks for your advice again, I hope I'll have something new soon

[Paper Carnival]

Small update:



It's going really slowly, thanks to my lack of time. I think parts of it are good by themselves, but the whole thing lacks unity. It's an issue I always face when I colour...

[Paper Carnival]

I didn't do anything more in this background, but here's something I did in school:



I tried an approach to good composition. It's a semi-children book cover design, the colours are ugly (because not only I used coloured pencils that I'm not used to but because it was scanned), I might vectorise it later. I know the guy on the right looks stupid, but I can't really delete him now. It's just a design after all.

Anyway, this is just so I know that I got the right idea of what composition is.

[Tomb Raider]

Is this for a school project?

[Paper Carnival]

Not the first, but the second yeah.

[nihilyst]

I quite like the coloring style.