markers - characters

[O_Apep]

Hi, I am new here.
Using markers, and this direction is new to me.
Anyway, I'm really impressed by a lot of the artists on here and I'm curious about any thoughts on my work any of you might have. Thanks for looking.

http://www.strangepuppets.com/gallery/marker/woman2.jpg

http://www.strangepuppets.com/gallery/marker/guy2.jpg

http://www.strangepuppets.com/gallery/marker/woman1.jpg

http://www.strangepuppets.com/gallery/marker/guy3.jpg

http://www.strangepuppets.com/gallery/marker/guy1.jpg

[Yaseck]

These are very nice. I like them. But I have sense that they are all from the stone. Like the sculptures. Maybe try to break their stiff appearance.

[taff]

Good work, did you try adding small highlights with a pencil or brush yet? It might help to add detail or lighten up specific parts (since markes isn't erasable).

[O_Apep]

Thanks for the comments

Yes they do have a feeling of stone and statue.
I think I could work on pushing facial expression.

Nope I haven't tried going back in over top with anything. To start off with I just wanted to rely on the marker I guess to make things more difficult for myself. As part of the change in how I work, I wanted to use extremely simple tool and see how far I could go handle it alone.
I do intend to use more tools though.. perhaps in the next batch. Still want to keep with grey for now though I think.

Any more feedback would be greatly appreciated

[O_Apep]

ok well... no other responses. So, I am going to have to go ahead and assume here that these drawings are very uninteresting. So my question now is, what is uninteresting about them?

The technique I used for the markers (I did intentionally avoid using black/attempted something I guess more blocky or painterly as opposed to line heavy)? I wanted to avoid use of outline. Do you think this technique doesn't work well/ or is it ok and just needs some improvement - perhaps as was suggested by going in back over top with pencil or paint?

The subject matter? Are the characters not interesting? Do they lack "character"? I do think for the most part they lack strong personality... though I did try and make them each have their own sort of "style", not to go through all but say the first woman - she is meant to be sort of sniperish in appearance in terms of her clothing and crouchy/catlike posture. And the first guy - he is meant to look somewhat injured. Large and intimidating but also a sense of harmlessness about him... butterfly on his finger.

The poses or composition? For the most part they are fairly static characters - probably also lending to the statue feel. Should I push for more "action" poses, or is that not so important? Perhaps not necessarily "action" - but more "gesture"?

Or is it all of the above?

I would really like some more comments on these. I will be going away for a week on a vacation, but when I get back I planned to really push working with these markers much much farther along. These were really a pratice/familiarity exercise and an attempt to formulate a technique with them. Some feedback to think about before I start the next round would really be helpful. What I plan to do with these once I nail down a good technique really won't be anything like these characters content wise - but still crits on everything is important.

Ok sorry for the long post, I just thought maybe it would help encourage some of you to reply :)

[Clodhopper]

hehe, i guess sometimes you have to beat comments out of people. but you gotta wait more than a day if you want good crits.
Hey, i think the metal needs to be more reflective...more contrast would help it alot. I agree with Taff that you should hit the highlights with white pencil. I really like the big guy, great charector design. but his wrist blade seems really flat, it should have a highlight on the blade. the hands need work too, seems like they lack detail-compared to the rest of the drawing.

[O_Apep]

ah! I think I was more wondering about the view to replies ratio rather than the time. Though there is a lot of posting on here and seems like stuff gets bumped away quickly

thanks for the crit, that is really an excellent point, and seems like it should have almost been obvious to me, but honestly I didn't think of that. Making surfaces like the metal reflect light distinctly different would have made the overall characters appear less stone-like

[I.was.ink]

its unfortunate that stuff does get bumped out of existence after a while. but that's how it usually is. Just keep posting and don't worry. :)

I really like your style because at first you can't tell that they are markers, they looked like painted pieces. The creatures are very nice and in cool concepts. I love the subtly in them. Like someone above mentioned, about the white highlights. That would be a really nice touch. It would add more contrast and depth to the guys!:D

Keep on posting!