Character draft

[Ogon]

Hi,


..to start with the important thing right away :-)

I've just drawn this and... well, I'm not really an experienced artist and wanted to ask whether mainly the proportions and the pose for just standing more or less relaxed is ok (not details of the style, drawing/shadowing (the latter is pretty much not there) - it's just a draft for the pose). Since I tend to draw uberlong arms or other ridiculous things without noticing myself (but everyone else does) and want to fix such mistakes before starting to animate it, I'd love to hear some feedback if there's something looking weird regarding that.

Also she is supposed to be around 20 years of age or so, so if she looks like a baby or a stoneage woman, a comment on that might be helpful aswell - I am especially a bit unsure about the face, any ideas on that? is it too tall, nose too large, ...? It looks a bit unusual to me but I'm unable to say why that is so

Ignore the right hand (the one in the front), it needs some cleanup (but I shall worry about that later)

If I'm doing any corrections I'll place newer versions here (given the forum still allows me to edit the post then):

suggestions from anian:


some additional proportional details:


newest:

[Anian]

I won't redraw, cause I'd probably change the style, but
- the silhouette is none existent
- hair is wrongly drawn (use some reference, it'll help) and you shouldn't draw it in strings/lines like that, cause it looks like she's ill. hair should start
about 3/4 up the front of the head, what you drawn kind looks like she has a very high forehead and a flat head top
- sprite is pretty large, the face could use more detail but less of it black lines more in skin tones gradation
- she doesn't look feminine - no pronounced hips, sholders are to strong/masculine, no other curves like thighes, breasts etc. also her chin is a tad bit
too pointy
- feet need more work and be less rounded
- yes, the proportions are a bit off - find something on the net, the easiest way to make it more or less acurate is by using head heights - 1 head height
for the head, 2nd head height to under the breasts line, 3rd head height around the belly bottom etc. but you should really try to find some art book
refference, because this deffers where you look at it - but this is the easiest way to change character style by how much head heights you take. Again, you
should look around the net a bit
- she doesn't look like she's standing relaxed

And now some stupidly explained art theory interpretation  
- humans usually stand by leaning on one leg while the other is a bit bended. Which you kind of
did draw but - the one that is straight should be drawn like it is taking the weight of the body
and balanced - easiest way to do that is by placing the foot vertically under the head in a straight
line. The other leg doesn't have to be directly under the head, but it should be near it or behind
(sometimes, depedning on how you draw it)
- thing is, when one leg is bended and the other straight, hips can't be in the same height - the
one with the bended leg will be lower - but when you do that you must correct the shoulders lines
that connect shoulders and the line that connect the hips should be like this  /  \  (turn this by 90
degrees)  --> what you get then is something called a contrapost (search it on google, look up pics)

[Ogon]

Thanks for your hints, it's very helpful.

I'm trying to make her more feminine and will redo the chin. Also I can hopefully get the forehead more right.

you shouldn't draw it in strings/lines like that

the face could use more detail but less of it black lines more in skin tones gradation

Well as I said, it is just a draft. Mentioning missing shadowing or odd hair drawing style in strings isn't really helpful since I really didn't work on that part yet.

Now about the proprtions: Found a nice graph for it and it seems helpful

That contrapost really is very interesting, thanks for that explanation - I'll try to work it into the picture aswell :-)

---
Ok, added it to the first post. I hope it looks better

Edit: Now when looking at it myself with some distance, I think it does look more convincing but she still doesn't look feminine enough, might still need to improve it regarding that. Or what do you think? (I just wanted her to be rather slim than overly curvy, but I guess that's a bit too much)

Edit: Ok I think her arms were too short (especially the left one) and also the upper body a little bit. I tried to correct that now

Edit: btw, although I believe you simply refer to missing shadows/shading, can you explain "the silhouette is none existent" again?

[Anian]

Edit: btw, although I believe you simply refer to missing shadows/shading, can you explain "the silhouette is none existent" again?

Well in stuff like games it's nice if a a character/sprite has a good silhouette, it makes it look unique an recognizable and also can point out how interesting a character is.

It isn't as needed in adventure games so much (although it's a cool effect) but in stuff like FPS, you have to be able recognize sprites just by their outline, so you can react faster. It's basically and outline or a form/shape it would have if it's a shadow on the wall. For example you'd recognize Guybrush from Monkey island even if he was coulour all in black (just one color) - because you know he's hair style, his clothes, the silly shoes, shape of his head etc. It's nothing essential just kind of a way to judge design.

And again, Google is your friend. 

[Ogon]

Hmm ok. I know what silhouette means, still I simply couldn't imagine how it couldn't be there (since it obviously is if you turn the sprite pitch black), but yea it's not characteristic at all. Then again, I prefer a more realistic style (not in terms of drawing/colouring which is rather sketchy for me) in terms of forms and proportions, so I probably won't do any changes for the silhouette.

Just attempting to draw the front perspective which is quite challenging and then I'll start the walk animations since the sprite now vastly exceeds any character I ever painted in quality - so I guess it's ok to call it a sprite and go ahead now (given nobody finds fundamental weaknesses left).

I'll throw in the raw outlines of the walking frames as soon as I have them I guess they will also need some correction since I am not really good at animating I believe.

Ok, with the help of various persons on IRC (mainly uoou, thanks :-) ) I was able to finally come up with this:


Now I still need a back view and then... *shiver*... I need to animate it. Since I cannot remember to ever have done more than 2-frames walk "animations" (legs both straight, legs separated) that will be quite interesting I guess  

When having all walk animation frames in that black and white style I'll start colouring it and will hopefully end up with a likeable character for my adventure  

Now also with back view and better front view:


Babar has forced it to become awesome (shading and shoe colour (and eventually some details) still missing!):



Edit By ProgZ:  Don't double post unless a significant amount of time has passed since your last post (> week).  A quadruple post in the same day is just ridiculous, so don't do it.