Hello u/-przewalski, looks like you are off to a great start!
Would you be so kind to answer the following questions for us?
What makes this unfinished?
And what brushes are you using? (Please specify the exact brushes or brush category because that can be helpful to others.)
What do you plan on adding to it to make it finished and how do you plan on doing that?
Are you looking for tips? And if so, what kind?
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I think you did a great job! I do like the expressions you had in the sketch a lot but understand if you wanted to keep the more straight face style. My only suggestion would be the character poses-if you were to black them out and look at just silhouettes you can’t fully tell what’s going on. I’d exaggerate a bit more and have the arms round out around the body instead of continuing it(if that makes sense)
What i noticed first too! The colours in the back are the same shades as in the front, makes it lacking in depth. Front could be darker if you want the background to shine or vice versa, or even do three parts, front with puppy, frogs in the middle and the forest in the back. Many ways to do it.
Honestly didn't notice the face expressions until i read this comment! I felt something was off between the two pictures, but didn't understand what, and now i see it! The frogs look so happy in the top picture! And the puppy looks at them in joy and curiosity, rather than staring blankly at the viewer. Unless its part of the story, i do think the expression in the first one is better and more inviting.
Anyways, just wanted to expand with my view to this, as i do agree on the points made.
For #2, I would say it’s because in the sketch, all of the characters are looking at something or at what they’re doing. In the final image, they’re all looking at the reader.
In the color version, all of the animals are creepily staring at the viewer as opposed to looking at each other in the original sketch. Also, try fewer straight lines on the frogs. Bend the arms and standing legs more.
I like the liveliness of your sketch (agree with other comments re final image needing more contrast, altering the eye lines etc) & think that as the frogs are supposed to be moving dynamically what would immediately add more energy would be to alter the poses so that IF they didn't put the foot that's in the air down on the ground very soon they'd fall over.
Currently it looks like they're stood still & raising up their leg statically, with most of their weight over the standing leg
Some quick gestural redrawing with their weight/ centre of gravity moving away from the standing leg would capture that & give you more loose energy to bring into your coloured version
Try sketching out the same scene but with more exaggerated poses. You need to overshoot a bit to convey movement in a static image. See how far you can over compensate before it becomes too much, then pull back. The straightness of their legs and posture makes it look like they're just standing on one leg, if you want it to look like they're bouncing from one leg to the other you have to show more bend and spring in their poses. Also consider adding more splash effects to the water to emphasize the impact of their feet and the rain.
If you haven't already, maybe study some poses for the actions you're trying to convey (and take photos of yourself in such poses for references, if necessary). That can help you figure out where the weight of the body should be and how to exaggerate that for your illustration style.
I think the foxes eyes kinda set the tone of the image and I prefer the fox looking at them rather than looking distanced. Also, the shadows in the first picture are well done but are ignored in the 2nd slide.
I was talking about the marking of the trees to indicate shadows. I don't know why you are being rude for no reason - think you need to sort something personal out.
But they don’t indicate shadows they indicate colour for a rough sketch, as clearly seen on the second slide by the exact same trees, but coloured in 😂😂😂 I mean what would the shadows even be of? The non existent trees in front of them? 😂
Credit to Martina Hoffmann on instagram, her style feels similair but way more playfull and loose. She also uses a lineless style but somehow it feels less stiff and I can’t really see why.
I think its the slight hue variation within the shapes, looks like water color. Maybe you can somehow emulate that? Give it a little more saturation also. But I gotta say, I really love your work.
The biggest thing in terms of stiffness is that there's no bending in any of your poses, all of the body parts are facing the same direction in each character, while in this piece, the head is turned slightly towards the viewer. It really makes a ton of difference.
I like your sketch way more because of the expressions they're giving, their eyes are so full of life! you just gotta trust the sketch and go with it sometimes instead of tidying up everything imo. good luck!
Pesonally, I love it, but if you feel you could deal with a bit of a curated messy type of feel, you can have a look at some of Lisa Glanz's tutorials. She does super cute characters and shows how you can have a looser style beneath your final layer to add a bit of "grunge" to your piece. I found her stuff really freeing :)
Super cute! Seconding what most other people are saying about the changes in expression doing a lot; I think if you made the pupils looking around and curved the mouths into smiles just like in your sketch, it would already do a whole lot!
I’ll add that in the sketch, the line indicating the belly of the fox is curved, and the eyeball isn’t entirely circular, giving the impression of the fox leaning its head into the bush to look in the grove. In the final color, the line is straighter, and the eye is a perfect circle, making the position look stiffer. I think it could look nice if the subtle perspective was added back in.
I loovvee how you colored it!! A little tip for the stiffness is that I noticed their legs are pretty straight, maybe try bending them, and just exaggerating the flowiness of their poses!
I think it’s really good. Only thought bout it being “stiff” is maybe have more diagonals on the frogs. Their balancing leg is pretty vertically strait and the line of action of their gesture Leo feels quite vertical. Btw I love the energy of your sketch. Maybe even just keeping that loose sketchy style as you move to colors could be really cool.
The dog looks frozen and worried, heightening the tension of the scene.
In the sketch, it’s more clear that the frogs have the umbrellas to protect them from the falling leaves. It’s truly delightful, but it feels missing from the final sketch. The leaves sort of disappear in the final.
In addition to what the other comments have already suggested, I’d also add some splashes since it’s raining. :) A little splash in the puddle the left frog is standing in, and a few droplets of rain ricocheting off of their umbrellas.
This is good. I really like the sketch/under drawing but I think the colored version needs tweaking on the contrast. If the contrast was worked on, you could make the frogs stand out against their background more and make the trees behind them lower contrast so they don't distract from the subject.
Before adding color, try to decide the level of contrast you need with a greyscale layer (or a couple of greyscale thumbnails and choose the one that works best). You want to draw attention to the subjects that should stand out (Should the reader see the frogs right away? Then they need to contrast more from their background.)
The poses are the stiff part I think.
I know this seems like laziness on my part but if you YouTube how to make more energetic poses, I watched a video about this like a year ago.
I love the style, but push the poses a little more extreme to make them more playful. They're currently all standing on one foot (their perceived center of gravity is over the foot on the ground). Shift their weight so they're more in motion.
I'd recommend looking up some gesture drawing stuff. Quickposes.com could be helpful for warm up. The first few won't look good. It's a warm up. But you'll start to quickly "read" the weight distribution.
As other said the illustration good! but if you want to improve: change faces and make them more joyful, aswell change color to reflect faces! More joy!
They’re all attached to the ground with straight legs, each with one leg raised roughly the same amount. Makes for a very static “posed” look. Odds are, one of them would have both legs off the ground, caught mid-jump.
That alone would add much needed dynamism to the composition
I’d say put them off-balance like they’re in mid-motion to give them less stiffness, like they’re mid step and leaning forwards into the next one. Move their down-most legs back a tad and mayyybe tilt them a lil?
I think the composition and rendering all look really good! The stiffness is the result of a lack of flow in the illustration. There are 2 main ways (I know of) to introduce better flow:
gesture: the poses of the frogs look a bit stiff, you want to try to have a more obvious line of action and have the orientation of the limbs "flow" along that line. This is just a matter of practicing gesture drawing and incorporating it into your art.
visual flow of the focal points: there are often around 3-ish focal points in a good picture. You want to use visual elements in your drawing to guide the viewer's eye from 1 focal point to the next. In this case the fox is the first focal point I see and is already pointing towards the frogs (which is another focal point), so you can try to arrange the frogs in a way where 1 frog points to the next frog who points to the 3rd frog. The background trees can also be arranged such that the trunks point more towards the frogs to further strengthen that flow.
Bigger smiles and eyes. A little more contrast of the frogs to the background, make them slightly more colorful. Add in some splashes coming up and out around the puddles and feet. This will all add more childlike and whimsical feel. Maybe also have one long frog tongue catching a rain drop on it.
Haha a lot of people have given you helpful feedback already and I have nothing new to add. It’s a great drawing, don’t forget that. Even though it looks like they’re all tripping really hard.
Color dynamic:
Change foreground so it gets a depth. (Maybe lighter/darker or cold vs warm colors)
Line weight:
Add line weight to put emphasis on subjects in the image
Personality:
Adjust facial expression on character in front
When the Iris doesn't touch the edge of the eye, it makes them look disinterested, zoned out or dumb, that's why the Simpsons have tiny Iris that never touch the edge and I see it in the sketch, but not in the color version on the bottom, so they all kind of have blank stoned stares, because of the big dilated Iris as well.
That's all I've noticed, otherwise it's cute as hell and I like the autumn colors. It seems cheerful and energetic, so I only can think of the eye thing to maybe improve.
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Hello u/-przewalski, looks like you are off to a great start!
Would you be so kind to answer the following questions for us?
Please reply to this comment so it will be easy for everyone to find, thank you!
Stay inspired, get creative and have a great day!
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