Monday, March 16, 2009

Lion and Baboon


Another quick animal illustration. I'm trying to get faster at creating illustrations and not work on little areas for too long. Also trying to keep the final illustration as dynamic as the original pencil rough. Getting the feedback from this site helps me to improve as I move on to the next illustration. Thanks.

6 comments:

pete said...

Not to be too nosy, but why the interest in being fast? I think your previous style is awesome. Do you feel like you're overworking things? Just wondering.

I like the composition in this one. You've captured a great mixture of expression in the lion...like he's listening grudgingly or putting up with whatever that primate's gotta say. I like it!

One thing that strikes me is that it feels like line animation...meaning that something about the rendering of background and characters is throwing me. When I look at animated movies, cartoons, etc., I always notice the painted backgrounds and the difference between them and the characters that are animated on top of it...indicating which things are animated and which are not. I like the loose style of the work in the background but I lose something in the transition between that and the characters. Does that make any sense?

That being said, I like that look...I think it works and helps to define the characters. I'm curious to see what the others think. Your work is all awesome...and very stylized.

By the way, how much time did this one take?

pete said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Carmen Medlin said...

I like this little conversation, Steve -- like Pete I think the expression on the lion's face speaks volumes about what he might be thinking. The muted colors flow together nicely.
The one thing that jumped out at me was that some areas seem really soft and other areas have that strong line. Like what Pete said about the background vs. characters, maybe the two could be blended together a bit more by either adding more of the heavier line to the soft areas, or softening up some of the heavily lined areas -- just to make it all blend together more.
Your style is great though, and I can understand the need to get things out more quickly since that would definitely be a plus for deadlines and the like.

Christy/Tiddly Inks Digitals said...

Hi Steve,
I have to agree with the comments above--the positive and the negative. I like the expressions and the details on the animals, but the line work on the log versus the grass in front of it is contrasting.
The shadows on the animals are nice and I like the line work.
Also my hubby just walked in and said, "Wow, that is impressive," so I think that overall the work is great. LOL

Unknown said...

Thanks for the comments. I'm trying to get faster, because I just noodle too much on details that most people may not notice and I'm trying to get a good first read and fun characters in a quick but satisfying way. Having said that, I plunked around with this illustration for a while...Note to self when you have more than one character it's going to take more time. I think I spent three mornings in a row on this so about 9 hours...not exactly quick. I'll keep working at it though.

pete said...

Good Golly! I'd give my left arm to get something done in that amount of time! :) Your quality definitely does NOT suffer from increasing your speed! Can't wait to see the next one.