First post-- character designs

[Reilly]

Hey guys,
I've looked at this board admiring you guys' work for a while now, but I've only recently signed up and decided to put my own head on the cutting block.
These are some ink drawings I've done of some characters. The first three are my own interpretations of the 8-bit characters from Final Fantasy 1, the fourth one is a three-headed dog, and the last one is my own comic book character, Orath, the Intergalactic Caveman. I plan on coloring most of these eventually.
Let me know what you think.

http://www.oddgodpress.com/reillybrown/junk/blackmagebw.gif
Black Mage.

http://www.oddgodpress.com/reillybrown/junk/whitemagebw.gif
White Mage.

http://www.oddgodpress.com/reillybrown/junk/thief.jpg
Thief. This one's in pencil, not ink.

http://www.oddgodpress.com/reillybrown/junk/cerebusbw.gif
Cerebus.

http://www.oddgodpress.com/reillybrown/junk/orathandhammono.gif
Orath, the Intergalactic Caveman and Ham, his chimpanzee sidekick. Ham likes rock and roll.

Well, I think that's enough pictures for one post. Any questions, comments or critisisms are welcome.

--Reilly

[Chaser226]

They're great! Excellent job with the inking, although there were some parts i saw your hand shook. :D

[JProvost]

Pretty cool, got a lot of character in them.

Two things that would help a lot. First, varying the character's pose a little bit more would make for more interesting concept drawings. Consider what the character is doing, what they would be looking at, thinking about... not just their design.

Secondly, something that would help your inkings a lot would be thinking about your hatching a little more. Straight, parallel lines tend to flatten the picture plane. Look at studies by Michelangelo and notice how he uses overlapping curved contour lines to describe forms while shading and stressing anatomy, mood, pose, etc. You'll find using lines like these will help your characters 'pop'.

Keep it up!

[Reilly]

Yeah, I always have a hard time coming up with a cool pose. I don't know why, it just feels awkward drawing the characters doing something if there's no story behind it.

Thanks for the advise about hatching. I usually like to do shading in a way that helps to define textue (kind of like I did with the wizard's gloves) but I'm always at a loss of what to do for midtones when the texture's smooth. I'll figure it out eventually I supose.

--Reilly

[Johannes]

They look, very lively and original. They seem to be made with a sparkle in the eye. :D
Only tip I can give U is to not draw belts as straight lines. Usuallu U never see a guy in waist height, and almost never do a guy actually have an entirely flat stomach (example - wrestler stomachs... ;) ). Hence the belts shold be a slight "U" shape, only slight, and that also helps give the characters depth.
(Damn, that was my one good tip! It has taken me at least 6 years to develop it, and now its out there for everyone to use! - nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!) ;)

[Reilly]

damn belts. . .