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Workshop: Vector Critique #12
tuts workshop

Workshop: Vector Critique #12

on Apr 27th 2012 with 10 comments

Vectortuts+ is all about helping people turbo charge their skills, and today we have another special community post that will help our readers take their images to the next level. The best thing is, you can be part of it too! Find out more at the jump.

How to Participate:

  • This workshop contributor has offered a piece of work that they would like help with, please keep this in mind when you share your thoughts. The images are not perfect, but they can be with the right advice and some friendly encouragement. (Vectortuts+ reserves the right to delete any rude comments)
  • If you’re better with pictures (let’s face it, most of us are) feel free to take a screenshot of the image using Little Snapper, Skitch or a similar program and paste a link to the annotated image in the comments section with an explanation of the tweaks.

If you want to take part in the next Vectortuts+ Workshop:

Add your work to our facebook photo gallery or submit it via the Tuts+ Workshop form, with a description about the piece and the help/advice you’re looking for. We will chose one to be published on our site as part of the next Vectortuts+ Workshop, if you’re not chosen straight away – don’t worry – your work will be chosen for a future session.

Image Category: Cartoon Pin-up

Details:

Designer: Blue Factory Illustrations

Details: "Hello! This is my second full body illustration, so I’m looking for any useful advice about body shadows, hair depth and anything you think could help. Thank you!"

Feedback

What are your thoughts on the work above? Critiquing work helps the artist see new possibilities, and it also helps you learn to evaluate art, which will help you take that same analysis and apply it to your own work. Participate in the comments below with your opinions on how to improve the work above.

 
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By

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

Kate McInnes specializes in Communication Design and Digital Illustration. Based in Melbourne Australia, she is the Associate Editor of Vectortuts+ and one half of the creative duo McKelly. Find her on Twitter as @bittenbypixels and Blood Sweat Vector.  

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  • http://www.lock-designs.com Lock

    First off, very good illustration. There’s just a couple things that could use a little tweaking i think. 1) The pole for the stool seems too uneven for all the other clean lines in the illustration, maybe just to a straight line and adjust the width with the variable width tool to make it seem less rigid. 2) If her left hand is on the outside her should go in front of the muffin wrapper not behind. 3) the shadow on the top of her outside leg makes the leg feel disjointed, maybe taper it down before reaching the bathing suit and a little sliver of shadow on the bottom right side of her rump. Also a little shadow on the inside leg to maintain the lighting throughout. Other than those nitpicky things good work.

  • Matt

    “Hello! This is my second full body illustration, so I’m looking for any useful advice about body shadows, hair depth and anything you think could help. Thank you!”

    I love the style, but I understand your concerns with the depth and body shadows. It’s one many artists (myself included) struggle with.

    For this one, I’m a bit confused by your choices on shadow placement. Based on the areas that are darkest, it would seem like the light is coming from her back side and slightly beneath her… which is an unusual position, especially for something as seemingly bright and cheery as this illustration.

    I find it helps to position a dot on my pasteboard, denoting the position of the light. This will help you to keep in mind where shadows should fall on your character’s body.

    If you want the character to feel a bit more properly grounded, I’d recommend moving the light source in front of her and above. It’s more natural looking for the light to come from above, and the shadows being on the underside of her legs, rather than the top, will help give her a better feeling of depth. Moving it in front of her means that her face will be lighted properly, rather than inconsistently with the rest of the shadows. (Right now, her face should be in shadow, based on the direction of light.)

    I hope that helps! I really like where you’re going here, and I hope we’ll get to see an updated version of this in the future!

  • http://www.tweetondesign.com Aaron Tweeton

    Your illustration looks great. If you want my advice, I might put a shadow between her left arm (the one holding the cupcake) and her chest, because it’s a little difficult to distinguish the two. Maybe you should try having the darker skin tone shadowing on the bottom, as opposed to it being on the top of her left leg and arm.

    Do you mind me asking, how long did it take you to illustrate her from sketch to finish? I love illustrating but it takes me a long time.

    Thanks for posting your work!

  • Keith Brussmqn

    I so thoroughly enjoy this site. Creatively stimulating.

  • Keith Brussman

    I so enjoy the knowledge and stimulating creativeness here on this website. Fun to explore with no limitations.

  • Efraín

    I`m with “Lock” concerning the flower. The way it’s drawn brakes the cohesion of the illustration with those uneven lines. The lack of cohesion leads to a fell of unprofesionality.

    I also fell that she is about to fall. I like that she leans a little but this time she is almost falling and that can generates a sence of desequilibrium. I’d either rotate a little the whole drawing or make the outer leg less flexioned so it stops her from falling.

    Beutifull illustration.

  • http://null gabrielle

    this is a very good start to illustrating full body characters. I can’t say much is wrong with it, although I would move her back a little to the right, so it ephasizes the curve of her back, instead of making her butt kinda look like shes got saddle bags. Thats the only thing i would change though.

  • http://www.lazerduckie.com Duckie

    For adding hair depth I would grab a fashion magazine and look at real hair as a reference. Basic techniques for creating depth will work really well. Adding depth to anything requires a breakdown of the form into 4 basic areas: light, shadow, core shadow, and reflected light.

    When I draw hair I like to lay down a base color that serves as shape of the form then add a darker color where the shadows would be. You can think of hair as a concept of a wave. The hair will have different areas of dark going to light and then to dark and then light again kind of like how a wave would be. Then a highlight can be added (typically near the top of the head). The core shadow will be situated inside the shadowed areas after the boundary of where the light area meets the shadow area but before the reflected light areas. There are more advanced techniques for adding depth to hair but I don’t want to ramble on too long here.

    I really like the style of this illustration and something I think would really improve it is to add a cast shadow to it. Even a simple ellipse set to a slightly darker color than the background and placed at the bottom of the stool would really help to ground her.

  • Nichole

    Nicely done. I love pin up work of all kinds.

    I’m really only reiterating what has been said, with a few additions.

    Yes, the left leg looks disjointed, I agree with Lock that tapering that shadow would help with that, towards her bathing suit.

    The thumb on the hand holding the cupcake should be in front of the wrapper.

    Maybe move the heel of the right foot away from the pole of the chair a little, they blend together.

    Also, a little shading on the underside of the back of her left arm would help distinguish it from her back, and some shading on the underside of her right arm would also help.

    I like the colors, but I might go with something different, I’m not sure what though, for the background. It blends too much with her skin for my liking. I’d want her, in all her glory, to stand out, for the background to highlight her.

    Maybe try adding a little shadow to her face, just a smidge darker than her skin color (you don’t want her to look like she has facial hair) under her bangs and along her jawline, just to give it a little depth.

    I’m not an expert on hair, but I like the shape you made. It could use some more shadows, but personally I like the look overall and I like the highlighting you’ve done.

    And lastly, that left leg is really getting to me. I think someone else mentioned saddlebags. I know the look you’re going for (hippy and voluptuous… good choice) but that leg doesn’t quite match up with her back right to my eye. Maybe nudge it forward a bit so it doesn’t stick out as much beyond her backbone?

    Nice work, I really like it. I’d be interested in seeing a whole collection of these!

  • jimi

    I think the way her arms are drawn is a bit distracting. The rest of the figure is robust and simply rendered. The arms get into more realistic proportion and gesture. The forearm tapers, the elbow is angular etc. I think it would be stronger if the arms/ hands were simpler forms like the legs. Ms. cupcake shouldn’t have any straight lines describing her form.

    Also, the patterns for the fishnets and top are a little too busy for the scale they are used at, and because they don’t follow her shape, it flattens her out a bit. The pink backgrounds makes her a little flatter as well. More contrast w/ the skin tone will make her fly off the page.

    Maybe some floral ink around her arm or ankle?

    It’s looking really sweet. Keep it going!