The facial structure of the Great Goblin is making more sense to me the further I go into the design. I'm pretty confident that I've hit on something I can live with, but there's a certain joy to drawing further once you've happy with a design. You never know what you're going to stumble upon, and even if it leads nowhere, well, you can always backtrack.I didn't draw any caps or helms on these guys because I want to focus more on their physical shapes. Those things will be added in later in the design process.
I suppose I'll be heading into silhouettes and armament for this guy soon, if not right away. I'm beginning to think a little further down the line to the next design I have to tackle, and that can be a little dangerous. I don't want to get complacent or over eager to move on without giving this guy the attention he deserves.
I've been reading a lot of the articles over on Temple of the Seven Golden Camels, which has been helping me keep my mind in order while I draw. Now that I'm on my own and no longer in school, there's no one to really kick me if my drawings start to get flat or if I start to get lazy in one way or another. The series of posts called "A Kick in the Head" (beginning with this one) has been especially useful. I forgot to draw the little arrows letting you know the order in which I drew those Goblins (top left, middle left, bottom left, top right, etc.), but I think you can tell that I started thinking a little bit more from the third drawing on. When the drawing is sound the design is easier to come by.
Also I am reading Making Comics by Scott McCloud. Take from that what you will.
Interesting articles, though I'm not so sure about that whole 'appeal' business. It seems to me too much of an attempt at codifying a set of personal preferences. Appeal is a very subjective concept and stating as he does that it's achieved by doing 'this' or 'that' seems slightly snobbish and very limiting.
ReplyDeleteI wonder though, were you taught things like that in school? Is there such strict attention paid to form?
It's fascinating to me as I was never really taught like that.
These are some great Great Goblins by the way, I love those bat-like noses. There was one in the other post that came very close to how I always pictures him.
Yes, the Appeal article is...controversial. I don't agree with the specifics, but I agree with the heart of it- that there is some inherent flow of "appeal" that some drawings tap into and some don't. I don't think it has anything to do with noses or with eyes that are close to mouths, but I think it's an interesting subject.
ReplyDeleteNo, I wasn't taught specifics like that in school, but I do love reading about it. It's a type of thinking common to animation and storyboarding, but there are nuggets of information in that there are universal.
Still, I feel terms used like that come from at least a cultural subjectivity that assumes that everyone reacts to a piece the same way. And I think he's confusing appeal with expressiveness, as that seems a major part of what he finds appealing.
ReplyDeleteNot that he doesn't have a point though, I just don't think you can pinpoint it that easily.
I like reading things like that too, as they sometimes offer some insight into making images that I would maybe not have come up with myself or force me to be more critical of what I do. And that's mainly because they're more focused on the technical sides of creating illustrations/drawings than anything I was taught. And it's something I see a lot of American illustrators are quite good at.
Where I went to artschool the focus was very much on individuality and figuring out what you wanted, not so much on the actual craft of making pictures.
Beautiful buggers! And I love McCloud. Useful info in there.
ReplyDeleteso fascinating, i love how much care you're putting into these designs, its fascinating to watch it happen.
ReplyDelete