Danger Dog

[Yodaah]

Hi folks,

here's a character design I intend to do for a game company. My problem is that the Danger Dog as you see it in the pencil sketch, doesn't look as dangerous in the colored version below. Don't no why this is. Maybe you could grant me some comments on how you see the situation.
Thanks!

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b261/Yodaah/DD-New-150-res.jpg


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b261/Yodaah/DD-New-150-gelb-und-blau.jpg

[poise]

hey Yoda,

I think overall it's working. There are only a few things I see; the whole muzzle area mainly the lower jaw is getting lost by his arm. Maybe you can lighten up the back arm a bit and darkin up the head, maybe add thick dark lines in the neck and head.
One last thing , the colors and highlights all seem to be at the same saturation and lightness, if you tone down the areas that you don't want to be the main focal point that would help, because my eyes are jumping all over the place.

I hope that helped, other then that the dog is looking pretty damn dangerous :)

[madster]

It's a combination of your color palette and your highlighting.
The drawing, uncolored, allows the eye to roam all over the edgy cartoon, unimpeded. Once you color it, the eye keeps slamming into little visuals that impede the visual flow.

The yellow shorts blend with the browns of the dog, but the white stripes on the edges make the eye stop, causing a loss of momentum. Ditto for the Nail Salon blue claws and the goofy whiteish tattoo. The red of the mouth is too bright, and the red eye is ineffective. A yellow tone with a dark lens, outlined in a darker red, with a very pale outer glow might be more dynamic.

The values of your highlights make him look plastic, not real and scary. This is worst along the snout, but that is good, because it points out how overly lumpy the snout looks. It's not snarling, it's deformed by keloid scars...

His codpiece is a little "bulgy" as well, as if he has a packaged Big Mac waiting for his lunch break.

It's a decent drawing, so this is good practice for you color-wise. You might consider putting it up in the New Media Coloring Book thread (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=17968) to see how others might color it differently...

~M

[Elwell]

My problem is that the Danger Dog as you see it in the pencil sketch, doesn't look as dangerous in the colored version below. Don't no why this is.
One thing is that in the pencil version his eyes are completely blank, which reads as glowing. In the colored one you've added detail (although it's hard to tell exactly what at this resolution) which is killing that effect.

[DSillustration]

One thing is that in the pencil version his eyes are completely blank, which reads as glowing.
Exactly what i was gonna say!

alas, the ORIGINAL danger dog...
now talk about dangerous!
http://www.homerize.com/pictures/DangerDogGP1.gif

[Yodaah]

Thanks for the replies.
Didn't know there already was a Danger Dog (I'm from Germany man,) but doesn't matter, that's anyhow just a working title. Concerning the eyes, that's not all there is, because when coloring I tried both versions, with blank eyes and with real rendered eyes which I considered as the better version, but maybe this doesn't show at this res. But it seems to be primarily a problem with the face. Both, poise and madster seem to agree about saturation an d highlights. I think I'll redo the whole creature in a more painterly style and also try to fix the face problem. Only thing I don't agree are the claws and the tattoo as mentioned by madster. With the tattoo I tried some different colours and found this slightly flashy colour not to bad. It's just the normal "Poison"-sign as can be found on chemical bottles. Besides I don't really think that changing the tattoo will make him more dangerous. I used some flashy colours as for the claws because it's supposed to be a video game character and I wanted at least some flashy details as in animation or cartoons and not the usual overall ralistic look. Maybe this was a fault, but I don't know... I know I've asked for it, but the claws/tattoo-thing isn't quite convincing for me anyhow.

I'll do a new colored version and see what I get.

Thank you all!