Visual Design

[Fairy]

Working on it right now I promise

straight reserving this post spot for my frogs dammit i'm not letting myself flake again

FROGS DONE

God I hope these are okay.

 

[Nina]

Working on it right now I promise

straight reserving this post spot for my frogs dammit i'm not letting myself flake again

FROGS DONE
-snip-

God I hope these are okay.

These frogs are....

TOO GOOD!!!

:0 But seriously, spend less time on these. I'm giving you 5 - 10 to do as a newbie assignment, but the goal of this is to replicate a college class, which wants 10 - 30 by the next class (usually 2 days). The goal of THAT class is to be able to ideate these thumbnails + comp sketches etc. to make a full illustration in about a week's time. Not trying to be scary, but believe me when I say these should be scrawlings. These are for YOU to get a quick idea and won't be shown to a client or anything, that's the next comp step.

They're all very nice! These are the ones I would choose to move forward, pick 1 or 2 that you like. Even if it's not the ones I suggested!

That being said, don't worry too much about getting your first comp sketch to be super good or something! I mostly want to see your guy's first try and then work from there on suggestions. So don't try to turn in something "finished" for an assignment, get to a point at where you feel unsure and show me.

 

[Fairy]

You know, I caught myself overworking them too haha. The first two I spent at least a generous 15-20 minutes each, mostly because I was back and forth anatomy checking trying to be accurate -- which is totally not the point lol. I kept having to remind myself to pull it in a little more and be more fluid and still it was a struggle to keep each one under the 15 minute mark. Lesson learned, man. It's harder than it seems when you've trained yourself to work to a certain point.

I think I'm going to pick the first one and the last one. They were the two that varied the most for me, personally.

 

[Nina]

You know, I caught myself overworking them too haha. The first two I spent at least a generous 15-20 minutes each, mostly because I was back and forth anatomy checking trying to be accurate -- which is totally not the point lol. I kept having to remind myself to pull it in a little more and be more fluid and still it was a struggle to keep each one under the 15 minute mark. Lesson learned, man. It's harder than it seems when you've trained yourself to work to a certain point.

I think I'm going to pick the first one and the last one. They were the two that varied the most for me, personally.

It really does take training! In the end end goal you're going to want to shoot for time taken to make a thumbnail in the seconds range, especially if you have reference you're drawing from.
You just gotta draw a lot to get faster, which is why I'm teaching this class! Trying to get everyone to be able to draw more and faster so they don't waste time rendering something that might not be as good as it needs to be.

Your composition sketch should just be a black and white drawing. If you do any values at all, it's not for shading, but making it clearer. So as if you showed it to someone else, they would be clear of what the different elements are.

I really don't know what's going on, but it's just funny to me.

 

[Sweet Dreams]

Hi! This looked really cool so I thought I'd give it a go. I tried to spend a maximum of about 5 minutes on each thumbnail, but I still probably spent a bit too much time on the details lol. (You can really tell which ones I accidentally spent a bit too much time on... ^^') I had a lot of fun with a couple of them, anyway!

When sketching digitally I have a habit of doing it in light blue. I can't even remember why that started, but eh.

 

[Nina]

Hi! This looked really cool so I thought I'd give it a go. I tried to spend a maximum of about 5 minutes on each thumbnail, but I still probably spent a bit too much time on the details lol. (You can really tell which ones I accidentally spent a bit too much time on... ^^') I had a lot of fun with a couple of them, anyway!

When sketching digitally I have a habit of doing it in light blue. I can't even remember why that started, but eh.

-snip-

Welcome friend!

So here we go, these are the ones I like the most! The blue sketch line is fine, I just have to boost it a bit so I can see.

The first one on the top and the bottom ones are ones I like, while not showcasing the frog, leave a lot of breathing room for interesting things to be going on the background or a chance to do some nice water rending. It's really natural looking.
The last one, well, he just looks great and I love it! The dancing frog is ok, but I just like the little guy on the log better. I'd probably position him like in the first thumbnail, leaving some room for a nice background. :) Good job! While you did take a more detailed approach, I see you didn't try to 'finish' the lines or anything like that. It would do good to try for a little quicker, but it's a good start.

 

[Circuit]

Just posting to say that when I am not ill, I'll get on these composition sketches. Hopefully that will be soon, because I wanna get on this. Might do a skype call over the weekend where I stream myself drawing to motivate myself XD

 

[Fairy]

Seconding the above! I've got some heavy stuff on my plate right now but I have an alarm set that goes off everyday to remind me hahaha.

 

[Nina]

Ding Ding Ding

Calling everyone back to class after the holidays!

 

[Nina]

How about a good ol' double post because I think I messed up the quote post!

Happy new year!!

<3

<3

<3

 

[Fairy]

Present!

 

[Sweet Dreams]

Yup, here! I'm just finding myself still surprisingly busy but things should calm down for me pretty soon~

 

[Circuit]

Mhm... I'm here o/

Yes... Homework. I'll do that, asap. Oh how I wish life would be simple! XD

 

[Sweet Dreams]

I've never done a composition sketch before, so I'm not sure if I did it right. But hey, that's why I'm here, right? xD

 

[Nina]

I've never done a composition sketch before, so I'm not sure if I did it right. But hey, that's why I'm here, right? xD

It's a good sketch and a good start!

The first two things I want to talk about is flow and the rule of thirds.
The flow of your image is how your eye moves around the image. You want everyone to flow in an intentional direction, but it doesn't mean that ever single object must end up pointing towards the subject. It's more of you don't notice it if it's done right, but you DO notice it if it's in the way.

The shubbery is mostly pointing away from the frog, which can be ok at time to frame him, but right now, it's just pushing your eye to the left and into a dead space.

The second thing is the rule of thirds. I'm sure there's some fancy math behind it, but in general if you divide your image up into 3rd sections, the 4 points where they meet are visual "high" points. It's just pleasing to see them in that spot, pulls them into focus more, and just helps organize your image. Not all images have to follow this, but it can help!

There are two different options I can note here. The frog doesn't have to be so on the rule of thirds, if he is infact, reclining back and observing the world. Which is fine, you just need a few more things going on in the background! However, the image can also be interpreted as this is the frog, and this is HIS swamp. In this case, he needs to be a little more upfront and important.

In both of them, I moved elements around to either let them be more focused, or pushed more into the background. I also lightened the base color of the frog to make him show up a little more. This may be done by knowing that he'll be more patterned than the rest, but for now I want it to show clearly.

These are just quick, sketchy thoughts on your composition! Any changes you want to do are all up to you, but I'm trying to give you visual examples of what I want you to take into consideration with a composition. Just try to separate the elements and play around with their positions! It's hard to teach that part without first having something to start on with as a base, so that's why I've asked everyone to just draw something first before we go into it.

While we're waiting on everyone else, I'd like to see a refined composition sketch, but it's not going to be required. We're not going to be going for a final image for this class, as that takes time and it's less me teaching you, but just doing something. It's hard to have critique when you're already done with it!
But either the version you have now, or if you choose to revise it, I encourage you to finish it if you like it. : )

 

[Nina]

:2:

:2:

Come on kids, let's finish this project up and decide if it's worth it to do another round of this.

 

[Desert Stream~]

Is it too late to join :p most threads here are dead, so I saw that this was recent.

 

[Nina]

Is it too late to join :p most threads here are dead, so I saw that this was recent.

I'm willing if you're willing! I'm pretty much accepting anyone on a rolling basis, so if you can just follow from here and give me some thumbnails you're in!

 

[Desert Stream~]

Awesome! I'll make a few.

I think the third one is the best

 

[Nina]

Awesome! I'll make a few.

I think the third one is the best

Good start! Try reading the prompt I posted a little more closely. I need 5 - 10 of them related to a frog theme.

☆ Pick a type of frog.
☆ Draw 5 - 10 thumbnails with the frog in different ways.
With plants or in different views, what ever you think will look good! Just look at references from google and don't worry about it.
The reason we're doing a frog is because I doubt anyone is a FrogDrawerMasterPro, so no pressure! Everyone is gonna have some quick frogs!​

☆ Post them here!
Any program is fine, just post a .jpg or .png in this thread. No deadline like before, but I'd really like to have them in a week or two.​