I guess I drew these a week or so ago, while warming up for a recent freelance job. That job did some good things for my brain, and these two pages are about the last gasp for this Gollum design. Well, not really the design, but these mark the end of some of the shapes I was using and the way I was thinking about them. This always happens. These drawings and this design and these shapes are all fine (some of them are even good), but they are charmless. I don't want to know anything else about this character because it has no personality. It's not necessarily character design but closer object design. I may as well be drawing a series of lamps.
That's not to say what I'm doing here is much different --it's not. I think my head is closer to being in the right place, though, and the drawings are coming along easier now. I'm thumbnailing the final piece for this guy (40 thumbnails in and still searching), so whatever the final design for Gollum is is what it is. I'll know for certain that it's the final design once I hit Publish Post next Wednesday.There should be some production work for another project showing up on here before too long, so that will be something different to look at.
I read awhile back that John Lasseter of Pixar liked to say that Pixar's films didn't get finished, they just got released. Da Vinci said just about the same thing about art in general. I sympathize.
I'm sure the only reason they feel charmless to you is because you've been agonising over them for so long and there not in context yet. Anyone who works as hard as you on the design phase is sure to come out with a fantastic final piece as we've seen! I cant wait to see this guy fully coloured and in his environment.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you need to breathe life in your designs by making your gollum (or gollum faces) act a little bit on the page to see who he actually is.
ReplyDelete(for what it's worth, I kind of like the face on the top left of the second page - seems quite alive to me)