I found out last minute that I would be sharing a table at the KC comicon so I whipped these up last week. SO they are tech just sketches with only about 5 hours of work into each of them.
I think the Princess Peach one is most successful, just because it's so dang nasty. I think how you portrayed Toad's brains in that one is hilarious too--like that mushroom thing is actually his skull and he really doesn't have skin. :P Also, Peach's hand in that one is gorgeous! Way to go on that. Oh and her face too. So gnarly.
I don't want to crit these too hard since I know you were rushing them, but I do think you brought an interesting problem on yourself, especially in the top two, where you have a certain sort of visual language established with the character, but then in the moments of gore, things turn hyper real and all of a sudden have actual texture, rather than everything being treated the same way. There's a disconnect in the images because of that. The gore doesn't seem to exist with them. Dave Rapoza comes to mind in this situation because he's got a visual approach in which these kinds of characters and the way in which they render are very whole. I'd be curious to see how you approach more "cartoony" gore. I think it's closest with Mario's guts, but it feels disjointed on his shoulder.
Still-- Color in these is a lot of fun, very active and there's plenty to look at, so they work great as prints, I bet. I do think you kind of skimped out on Zelda though, why does she get to stay pretty but not Peach? :P I hope the KC comicon treated you well! I wish I could have gone!
KC Comicon was awesome and from the turn out i will probably be getting a full table next year instead of splitting one like i did this year. Yeah zelda is the weakest as it was the first, I also don't have much experience rendering pretty faces so I didn't know how far I could push it while still keeping feminine qualities. Peach was the last and I was really starting to get into a groove. You are absolutely spot on with the gore not blending, and with the Rapoza ref. I have loved that dudes stuff for awhile now. I think its because I have so few paintings that every piece feels like a completely new problem and I reach for my fav artists and see how they handled similar elements/materials. Good or bad, successful or not thats just what I'm doing. Hopefully the more I paint the less I will pull from these other artists. Also a healthy dose of photo studies and still life paintings every week should help me move away from this. Thx for the crit on these man!
Oh and that peach hand just magically appeared. Some hands i can spend all day repainting and still not be happy with then others like this one just appear as if it was the easiest thing in the world.
I thought what you said about pulling less from other artists was interesting. I don't think it's a bad thing to pull from artists, I hope you don't think I was being critical of that, I think that's the only way we can learn. I just think it's important that we flood ourselves with influences so that we don't get hung up on just one and we become derivative. So by all means, keep doing what you doing!
I get what you were saying and I agree completely. I'm just very aware that my influences currently have a pretty heavy hand in my work. Thanks for the encouragement!
hmmm. these are awesome! im impressed and incredibly excited to have yah on the team!
the only thing I can think of is I want to see more bruising around puncture sites and..... I think thats it :) painting dead skin is so friggin difficult, I tried to tackle it a couple of months ago and FAILED MISERABLY ugh. you did awesome though and I cant wait to see more of your stuff!
I found out last minute that I would be sharing a table at the KC comicon so I whipped these up last week. SO they are tech just sketches with only about 5 hours of work into each of them.
ReplyDeleteI think the Princess Peach one is most successful, just because it's so dang nasty. I think how you portrayed Toad's brains in that one is hilarious too--like that mushroom thing is actually his skull and he really doesn't have skin. :P Also, Peach's hand in that one is gorgeous! Way to go on that. Oh and her face too. So gnarly.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to crit these too hard since I know you were rushing them, but I do think you brought an interesting problem on yourself, especially in the top two, where you have a certain sort of visual language established with the character, but then in the moments of gore, things turn hyper real and all of a sudden have actual texture, rather than everything being treated the same way. There's a disconnect in the images because of that. The gore doesn't seem to exist with them.
Dave Rapoza comes to mind in this situation because he's got a visual approach in which these kinds of characters and the way in which they render are very whole. I'd be curious to see how you approach more "cartoony" gore. I think it's closest with Mario's guts, but it feels disjointed on his shoulder.
Still-- Color in these is a lot of fun, very active and there's plenty to look at, so they work great as prints, I bet. I do think you kind of skimped out on Zelda though, why does she get to stay pretty but not Peach? :P I hope the KC comicon treated you well! I wish I could have gone!
KC Comicon was awesome and from the turn out i will probably be getting a full table next year instead of splitting one like i did this year. Yeah zelda is the weakest as it was the first, I also don't have much experience rendering pretty faces so I didn't know how far I could push it while still keeping feminine qualities. Peach was the last and I was really starting to get into a groove. You are absolutely spot on with the gore not blending, and with the Rapoza ref. I have loved that dudes stuff for awhile now. I think its because I have so few paintings that every piece feels like a completely new problem and I reach for my fav artists and see how they handled similar elements/materials. Good or bad, successful or not thats just what I'm doing. Hopefully the more I paint the less I will pull from these other artists. Also a healthy dose of photo studies and still life paintings every week should help me move away from this. Thx for the crit on these man!
ReplyDeleteOh and that peach hand just magically appeared. Some hands i can spend all day repainting and still not be happy with then others like this one just appear as if it was the easiest thing in the world.
I thought what you said about pulling less from other artists was interesting. I don't think it's a bad thing to pull from artists, I hope you don't think I was being critical of that, I think that's the only way we can learn. I just think it's important that we flood ourselves with influences so that we don't get hung up on just one and we become derivative. So by all means, keep doing what you doing!
DeleteHaha, a visit from the hand fairy.
I get what you were saying and I agree completely. I'm just very aware that my influences currently have a pretty heavy hand in my work. Thanks for the encouragement!
ReplyDeletehmmm. these are awesome! im impressed and incredibly excited to have yah on the team!
ReplyDeletethe only thing I can think of is I want to see more bruising around puncture sites and..... I think thats it :) painting dead skin is so friggin difficult, I tried to tackle it a couple of months ago and FAILED MISERABLY ugh. you did awesome though and I cant wait to see more of your stuff!