New work(update *2/24/04*)

[daHIPPIE]

Well, this is my attempt at changing my style. Not that I want to change from doing realistic illustration forever, but I think I have the possibility to make some decent freelance doing spot and cartoon illustration for publications.

My questions and what I would like some crits and comments are:

1. Does this style work or not? Problems with the color, line quality? Any comments about the art itself what could be better or what you think looks good.

2. If you were an art director and had need of spot or cartoon illustration would this style of illustration be something you could be interested in? (If any art directors or other commercial illustrators have suggestions or crits I would appreciate any help.)

Of course if you have something else entirely to comment on I'm all ears....er well not really I have a head and nose....uhm well you understand.

Sketches, inks and color:

http://www.mikemeredith.com/forums/forum_granny.jpg

http://www.mikemeredith.com/forums/forum_kidrocker.jpg

thanks in advance.:beer:

[Banimator]

Im only a 2nd grade animation student so bare with me.
Some more interaction or story would definatly improve the appeal of the image. A cartoon is read over and over again by people not because they like the way its drawn so much, but because they like the story being told..

[daHIPPIE]

hey Banimator, thanks for the reply, you are correct about story. I have just been working on the technique for now to make sure I would be able to quickly produce.

I have some story ideas I'm wanting to get started on and will post them hopefully within the next week.

But, does the quality of the artwork look good? the line quality or the painting?

thanks again

[nikia]

It looks real good daHippie, I don't know much about cartoons, so can't help you a lot on this one. But I've seen this type of cartooning before and it looks pretty professional to me. You would have to be able to draw the same one in several slightly different movements, so you might want to work on that. A whole series of the same cartoon in different poses that is. Good luck with it.

[daHIPPIE]

Hey nikia,

thanks for the comment.

I think I may not have explained very well what I am trying to do. These will not be cartoon strips, or characters for an ongoing cartoon.
I'm just working on my style for one shot cartoon/spot illustration.

To get an idea of what I'm wanting to do check out

www.theispot.com view the gallery and search for spot illustrations or cartoons.

thanks again nikia and ban, anyone else have comments?:D

[daHIPPIE]

Ok, so I have been playing a bit too much Jedi Academy.

Tried to put a lil more story into this one.

I need to work on background environments.

whatcha think?

http://www.mikemeredith.com/forums/forum_jedi.jpg

[Jack Frost]

you do a nice job with hands and faces and your color is pretty good...the one thing that I notice right away in all your drawings that dosen't seem right ...is that all of your characters eyes are closed or not detailed....I know the kid his hair is blocking...but the other two...especial the granny who should be staring right at us ....

as for being spot illustrations I think they would work fine....however....the thing that I would recomend..is improving the color contrast from light to dark....and make your image(character) stand out more from your back ground...as the example of the punk kid...since spots are usally small and group next to several articles you want your image to jump off the page and illuminate the story....

get some articles from some source and practice spots on them...even if they already had some....but it is better to do one that dosen't have a spot to begin with....and post it with a brief description of what the main idea of the article was or even a secition so we can tell how well you translate the idea to image..

hope that helps

[daHIPPIE]

ahh, thanks for the comments Jack,

the eyes are a style choice, kind of a throw back to some old comics I have seen.

Now that you said that though they do all look like their eyes are closed. (sigh)

Ok, will continue working on the style, good idea about getting some articles I will try that.

edit:: did this to try and make a difference, does it help?

I want to try and keep the line work somewhat simple, but if it hurts the look then I will find another way.

anywho here is the edit

http://www.mikemeredith.com/forums/jedi_coloreyes.jpg

[Jack Frost]

I think the eyes help your piece more then hinder it....I would also use darker shawdows in the people to pull them out...just my suggestion...

[daHIPPIE]

thanks Jack, I am trying to keep everything in mind.

found a couple of articles gonna try to work up something from them.

This was an activity on another forum

I tried to pay attention to the lines and the color a lil more.

Nothing really dynamic about the pose or the background though.

http://www.mikemeredith.com/forums/eatpoo_weekly50.jpg

any better? getting close? notice anything new I'm messing up?

CnC welcome as always

[daHIPPIE]

been working alot on the line work and colors

here is the new stuff

http://www.mikemeredith.com/forums/turt_harerace.jpg

http://www.mikemeredith.com/forums/nerdgirl.jpg

http://www.mikemeredith.com/forums/granny.jpg

http://www.mikemeredith.com/forums/cupid.jpg

I think these are greatly improved from the earlier ones.

Any crits or comments are appreciated.

[SeraphSword]

I like the style, kinda cartoony. My question is, with the skirt girl: is there supposed to be a bright light emanating from under her skirt?:googley:

[daHIPPIE]

hey Seraph,

that pic was done for another forum, kind of like the DSG here.

the ref pic had a spotlight of sorts on her and I was concentrating more on the figure than the background.

now that you said that though it does look like the light is coming from her skirt:emb: