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Description
I might as well post it unfinished, flat colours, wobbly outlines and still looking like some DA 12-year-old wannabe manga artist (ironically I was trying to make it not look anime). It took me three days to get this far and I'm sick of it, because it had all sorts of problems when I started, which were all due to this being a result of The Experiment - to see if I could translate a sketch from the scanner to Flash. I'd say the result is half-way successful if I could just keep to translating a drawing that's all on one page, and not multiple elements here and there and then spliced together to accentuate inconsistent proportions.

These characters, by the way, are all part of a story I'm currently brewing. The girl on the right came from a boredom-sketch I did on a post-it-note, just trying to flesh out a design of what she might look like. The girl in the centre came from a sketch I actually put effort into on an A4 sheet of blank paper. The boy on the right was done completely in Flash. As before I mentioned "half-way successful", the other half of the unsuccess comes from the fact that I can manage to sketch an illustration in Flash. It feels different than the ease of a pencil on real paper but it comes efficient if I need to figure out the design and movement in an animation.

All these separate elements came together not very well and the resulting line-art ended up in overly complex poses (which is not a good thing - a good illustrator is one who can simplify), which racked my brain when it came to the colouring stage since I had to figure out the best way to make the poses clearly readable to the eye; which, I think, I've managed only just barely.

I often feel an internal conflict that when I draw I must adhere to the "rules" of good illustration, which tends to take the life out of the fun of drawing, like the good old days when you didn't know about any "rules" and you just drew pictures and felt rewarded if you think you managed to fluke something to look right. At the same time when you practice the "rules", the reward comes from seeing your own progress and perhaps that is the driving motivation. But you are never quenched when your drawings aren't anywhere near the level you want them to be, ever. There must be a combination of both, drawing for the fun and drawing for the progress, somewhere waiting to be discovered. Where can I find it?

Now I should step off this little soap box and get back to this thing I'm working on.

Description
I might as well post it unfinished, flat colours, wobbly outlines and still looking like some DA 12-year-old wannabe manga artist (ironically I was trying to make it not look anime). It took me three days to get this far and I'm sick of it, because it had all sorts of problems when I started, which were all due to this being a result of The Experiment - to see if I could translate a sketch from the scanner to Flash. I'd say the result is half-way successful if I could just keep to translating a drawing that's all on one page, and not multiple elements here and there and then spliced together to accentuate inconsistent proportions.

These characters, by the way, are all part of a story I'm currently brewing. The girl on the right came from a boredom-sketch I did on a post-it-note, just trying to flesh out a design of what she might look like. The girl in the centre came from a sketch I actually put effort into on an A4 sheet of blank paper. The boy on the right was done completely in Flash. As before I mentioned "half-way successful", the other half of the unsuccess comes from the fact that I can manage to sketch an illustration in Flash. It feels different than the ease of a pencil on real paper but it comes efficient if I need to figure out the design and movement in an animation.

All these separate elements came together not very well and the resulting line-art ended up in overly complex poses (which is not a good thing - a good illustrator is one who can simplify), which racked my brain when it came to the colouring stage since I had to figure out the best way to make the poses clearly readable to the eye; which, I think, I've managed only just barely.

I often feel an internal conflict that when I draw I must adhere to the "rules" of good illustration, which tends to take the life out of the fun of drawing, like the good old days when you didn't know about any "rules" and you just drew pictures and felt rewarded if you think you managed to fluke something to look right. At the same time when you practice the "rules", the reward comes from seeing your own progress and perhaps that is the driving motivation. But you are never quenched when your drawings aren't anywhere near the level you want them to be, ever. There must be a combination of both, drawing for the fun and drawing for the progress, somewhere waiting to be discovered. Where can I find it?

Now I should step off this little soap box and get back to this thing I'm working on.