Kids, pirates, and big fish with teeth

[kina]

So almost a year ago I was asked by a friend of a friend to illustrate a book he had already published, called Stanley Brambles and the Pirate's Treasure. ( http://www.flipkart.com/stanley-brambles-pirate-treasure-owen/0595437923-h1w3fq7tid ) I read the book and really enjoyed it and was very excited to do the drawings.

So far what I've been doing is for every chapter, I do character sketches for the people who come along, and draw 3 sketches per chapter of different scenes/events that occur in that chapter.

As of today I am on Chapter 6. I normally am heavily into anime and anthro stuff, so I knew this was going to be a big challenge for me and force me to learn to sketch every day, as well as to sketch consistent characters and keep on track with one project for more than a week.

I would really appreciate the help with anything, really. Characters, anatomy, perspective.. the works.

25 chapters, 75 sketches. Eventually will choose 25 of those to ink, and the best of those to paint.

Thanks for taking a look < 3

[kina]

Chapter One

[kina]

Chapter Two

[kina]

Chapter Three

[kina]

Chapter Four

[extremeillustrator]

really very good sketches. i like and way the characters are related to background and to each other. u have a good knowledge of relationships between different objects. keep it up

MY SKETCHBOOK
http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=171543

[kina]

Thanks very much, extreme!

On with Chapter Five:

[kina]

Chapter Six

That's all i have for now.. This one took me all day on and off yesterday, I don't know why. maybe just the angles of the faces and getting them to consistently look like the characters. The characters from left to right are Stanley, Nell, Alabaster and Uncle Jack, the suspected pirate.

Any ideas for getting characters to keep looking consistent? I find that's the hardest thing of all! I heard of some people making clay models of them but I don't know if I have the skills for something like that. maybe just images at every angle of the face of each character?

Thanks for the input!

[kina]

Yay for yesterday's work! Chapter 6 still.

[kina]

The last of chapter six. Working on roughs for seven at the moment!

[kina]

Wow I haven't uploaded anything in.. way too long.

But anyway. Started doing one sketch a day, and slowly improving I think! Up to Chapter 10 here, I will post more as I go!

[kina]

Chapter 11 :D I'm happiest with the character sketches, but not so happy with the last one. I swear i need to model these guys in Maya and then just pose them in there and draw from there. I am having the hardest time posing these characters convincingly. I usually take about 2-3 hours on a sketch like this from start to finish (a long time, I know... but I'm still learning. I'm used to drawing furries for heaven's sake!) and normally that includes thinking up an idea, reading and re-reading the chapter, and then finally trying to think of an angle to approach the image at, and finally trying to make the image look somewhat convincing.

The hardest thing for me is still keeping the characters looking consistent. I always was convinced that the only way you could be trained to do this was if you went to school for animation. But the more sketches I do, the more I realize.. they would just get me to do exactly what i've been doing. Draw him again! and again! and again! and like this! and like that! DO IT AGAIN!

[kina]

Chapter 12. And it continues..

[kina]

Chapter 13!

[kina]

Chapters 14-16 that I did over the weekend :)

[Longxiang]

*sigh* we cartoonists always get ignored :( As if painting was harder than making a crisp readable black&white.

These are all awesome. If I have one criticism it is that a lot of your poses are awfully static. Also perhaps you might enjoy experimenting with different stroke widths. I think your figures would pop a lot better if they had stronger outlines.

[kina]

WOO A REPLY! haha awesome <3 And yeah I totally see what you mean about the static poses.. I have a lot of trouble with poses.. I feel like i need a live model to be inspired. And totally will try varying line widths for sure. Thanks for the love!

[kina]

Chapter 17...

[kina]

Chapter 18. yay creatures!

[kina]

Chapter 19 YAY almost done the sketch stage.. (there are 25 chapters total)

[kina]

Chapter 20.. only 5 more to go!

[kina]

Chapter 21

[kina]

Chapter 22

[kina]

Chapter 23