Character Sketches/ Designs of 2009

[Cris_1207]

Hi all, I'm sort of excited to be back in CA at the same time extremely nervous about posting my works here, lol. It's been such a long time. I don't know how much I've improved through these years, but I've been working really hard to get better, and I still am trying. I'm still craving to learn from everyone here - your knowledge is a gift that I'll be forever grateful to receive. So please share anything you can think of, I'll appreciate it greatly.

-Cris



First I'd like to start off with some older sketches I did a couple of months ago. I've been working on character designs for a comic book idea that my buddy and I are doing.

[BranFlakes]

Welcome back
Well, I'm certainly not one of the better artists CA has to offer, but from what I can see everything's looking great! Of things to work on, probably faces and portraiture. The most obvious example would be the first character. Other than that, everything's looking good! I'm sure people would love to see your other sketches showing your journey for improvement (I'm sure it could help others as well). Keep up the good work!

[Cris_1207]

Here's another group of character designs... evil characters (dark mages/ dark warrior types).

[Cris_1207]

BranFlakes: Thanks so much for the kind critique buddy. Yes definitely faces are one of my million weaknesses, haha... I still got a long way to go.

[Cris_1207]

here's another character designs I did - a mage, vampire, and an elf.


:)

[Ian Barker]

The detail is looking great, however it doesn't cover up anatomy mistakes. The mistakes in the faces are most apparently in need of work, but I suspect that if the costumes were taken away the rest of the anatomical mistakes would become more obvious... I suggest working on anatomy without the costumes... if you improve your foundation, the details of the costumes will look twice as good. :)

[Cris_1207]

Liffey - Thank you sir! Im like one of those self-taught artist that skipped the foundation and skipped right to drawing super heroes and anime/manga characters, lol. I just ordered a few anatomy books for christmas that im gonna look over when it arrive. Also im taking figure drawing classes with a buddy of mine. it's a slow and frustrating learning process, but i hope to get better and fix my mistakes.

:)

[dwiggs]

Hey Cris-
Remember what we spoke about the other morning. Check out the masters. Surround yourself with reference. Start files on faces, hands, feet, clothing, weapons, etc... Have a good Christmas with your family. See you Monday. - Mike

[teapo]

yo cris, these are great concepts, and might i add very sexy too hehe.. but yes i agree with Liffey on establishing your base anatomy skills. though it looks like you already know most of the basics. keep it up, i'll be watching your sketchbook!

[jordyskateboardy]

Awesome characters! Really neat lines and rendering as well as some cool designs. The gauntlet of that elf girl is realy outstanding. Awesome detail man.
Only tip I can really think of is have your line describe texture a bit more. You can draw everything the same. meaning that cloth looks pretty flat. Add some more folds and bumps in your lines and be sure to render metal differently than flash for example.
But you cool stuff keep em coming!

[Cris_1207]

Dwiggs-- mike Hersh?? Lol what's up? I ordered those books you showed me. I have a few reference for these sketches but mostly poses and clothing designs. Everything else is by imagination.

Teapo - hey bud thanks for the critique. Yup will try to keep working on the anatomy for sure :)

jordyskateboardy - hey bud thanks for the kind words and yah haha will definitely be practicing on my anatomy :)

[PaintMyBrain]

wow you are my new source of inspiration, really beautiful work!

[Cris_1207]

Paintmybrain - oh no don't say that bud haha. I'm just another guy still in the middle of learning my craft. I make many mistakes and usually unaware that I did lol. But I thank you for the kind words. Words like that make me wanna work alot harder haha :D

[Cris_1207]

Here's another group of character sketches - knights. :)
http://conceptart.org/forums/newattachment.php?do=manageattach&p=#

[mariasun]

Woah nice work, the detail you put in the characters is very impressive-can tell you enjoy it=) Some anatomical issues that some ppl mentioned, but other than that It's looking pretty damn good...

[Cris_1207]

mariasun - thank you. im definitely working on fixing it, i can't say it's easy on spotting the mistakes, but i just gotta keep drawing, keep practicing, keep posting it here, and grow as an artist. :)

[Cris_1207]

Firstly, I wanna greet everyone in CA a very happy christmas!! I hope you're having a great time with your family, friends and loved ones! :D

Anyway, here is another group... assassin/ fighters/ mercenaries character sketches. Old stuff i did a couple of months ago. :)

[Cris_1207]

More character designs -- here is another group of baddies!

[engelhardt]

Hey Cris_1207: The characters are very impressive - you handle this epic/heroic comic style (especially in #14)! I never manage to put that much detail in my characters. In the second work from #17 (robots?) I miss a focal-point. It all looks very chaotic (but maybe this was intended). I would so much like to see some characters in color!!

[Cris_1207]

engelhardt - hey bud, thanks for the critique. yah, you're right, it is pretty chaotic partly because i didnt know what to draw at that point, and i had constantly changed my mind and made many, many, many erasures to a point that it got muddy with pencil marks. and this one is actually a cleaned up version. and nah, they're not robots - they're humans with cybernetic limbs, and they're wearing an armor here (you can view their char-designs on my very first post: #3 and #4). ill try to post some colored peices - im not very good at it, just to warn you, haha.... i got LOOOOOONNNGGG way to go with my coloring technique.

:)

[Cris_1207]

these are the two main characters of my comic book. also ive added their colored versions next to them. coloring is not really my strongest quality, but im still learning to perfect my technique and understand its theories better. the colored pieces here are left loose and unfinished. i want to give myself room to tweak later.

my inspiration for my coloring style came from the likes that you see in japanese anime/manga - and my biggest inspiration would be Hyung Tae Kim (korean artist). I just love his digital painting technique. It's very clean, beautiful, and they look like oil-paintings, lol.

[Kungfoowiz]

Hiya!

Beautifully detailed and coloured work! When your anatomy books arrive, perhaps try some more dynamic poses, as this may inspire you to study the anatomy a bit further.

Hope that helps.
Edward

[DiR3Kt]

Hey,

Nice stuffs here, the last pic on post 17 is rockin :)

Looking forward picture of your characters in action.

[Cris_1207]

Kungfoowiz- hey bud. Yah definitely can't wait for those books to arrive. I'm gonna start exploring dynamic poses soon. And I have to anyway since these designs are meant for the comic book that my buddy and I are doing. :)

dir3kt- thank you sir! :) there really is nothing special about that piece or any of my other sketches haha. I always thought that needed tons of work. Lol

[Cris_1207]

Here is a sketch of a mecha - very japanese-anime inspired. i figured this is a good example to show of where i come from. i grew up watching anime, playing video games, reading manga... :)

and the other is a colored piece of my elf chick. you can see the line-art if you scroll up a little bit. my coloring technique is not good, and definitely one of those things that i have to perfect. that and my anatomy, haha.

[Shad0w666]

Nice, id really like to see that mecha colored, i thing it would be awesome, dark metallic colors, it thing it would turn out great. Great pictures, keep it up =)

[Shad0w666]

Really nice! how long have u been drawing? Keep up the good work, and id like to see that mecha colored with nice dark metallic colors =)

ttp://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2570895#post2570895

[Cris_1207]

Shad0w666 - thanks man, ive been drawing since i was little. but i was self-taught and never had proper training. so a lot of the basics were skipped and went straight to doing super heroes/villains and anime/manga figures, lol. i wish had classical training though. my day job is a graphic designer at polo ralph lauren, where i create apparel graphics, etc. :)

[FightingSeraph]

It's never too late to learn the basics, and excellent stuff if I do say so myself.

[kitfox]

Hello!

Love what you're doing with the character designing stuff. That's what I really wanna do also but I'm not confident enough in my foundations and don't want to skip over it.

You've got a nice amount of details in your designs. Paying attention to the overall values of the sketches and trying to make them read well even in small size (or watched from afar) would make your illustrations even better.

Studying anatomy will always be benefictial. Remember to give your characters proper feet sometimes. ~_^

-Kit

[Cris_1207]

FightingSeraph - i ordered anatomy books few days ago. im gonna start studying those. :)

kitfox - yup, i ordered burne hogarth's books few days ago, im real excited to see it, lol. and yah, the values i guess is something i just have to practice more and more, and i think part of it is i dnt put enough effort on getting it right. VERY bad habit... and as for the feet, HAHA, you cracked me up! i have the tendency to draw my characters big, lol and they don't fit the page. laaammmee! :D

[Cris_1207]

here are recent ones that i did...

the ugly one with 4 arms was done on christmas night, and the dragon dude was done yesterday. they're unfinished because i get bored easily, lol. also please dont mind the low-res snap shot i took from my iphone - my scanner is down at the moment. :)

[Cris_1207]

when my scanner is fixed i will scan the above two drawings and will post a better resolution. and by then i would have had the chance to work on those some more and fix what need to be fix. :)

anyway, here are colored pieces. again - im horrible at this, and im still learning. :)

[teapo]

good start with the color bud. those are pretty sick sketches u took with ur iphone :P keep it coming!

[Cris_1207]

Teapo - hey what's up buddy? Thanks for the kind words. I'm gonna work on those two some more maybe not too much but I'll add a few details here and there and work on the shadowing some more. As for the coloring I feel like I made a huge improvement lol. Everytime I see my old colored works it makes me wanna throw up! Haha. It still needs work but I'm slowly getting there :)