As mentioned before, I’m taking a character design class online from Stephen Silver over at schoolism.com. It’s great curriculum and I’m learning a lot. This week’s lesson was on clean-up and inking.
Our assignment was to choose one design from our “Jeckyll and Hyde” work and ink it up. Inking is not my strong point, especially digital inking on the Cintiq. The Cintiq is superbly fabulous and awesome….except when it comes to inking. I just can’t seem to get the same line quality that I could on paper, which makes my lines look even more mediocre than they normally would be. Maybe I just need to practice it more.
As part of the class, Stephen gives each student one-on-one feedback on their assignments via internet video. Here’s some pointers he’s given me on my assignments, which I tried to incorporate into this final design:
• Watch out for “parallels” (lines and/or shapes in the design that run parallel to each other).
• Push your shapes more. Use more extreme angles, greater size contrasts, broader curves, etc.
• Work on thinking through the understructure of the drawing (especially in your legs and hands). Don’t just use blobby shapes, make sure there is a real skeleton with real muscles underneath.
• Keep your sizes/proportions consistent (i.e. both hands the same size, both arms the same length, etc.)
• Let your design “breathe”. Pull your arms and legs out and away from the body for clearer poses. Spread out your facial features more (I tend to bunch them up a bit).
This advice has been extremely helpful. I think Stephen’s key word for me would be “clarity”. I need to take the time to think through every aspect of the drawing to make sure every part of it is as clear and visually interesting as possible. Great stuff! I would recommend this class to anyone.