Well after months of trying to incubate an idea for a series of illustrations I still can’t come up with a set of designs for characters.
The series is more like a set of cards. There will be dozens of cards but no character will be drawn twice. So even though I will be drawing a hundred different characters, the overall look will need to be consistent. That’s not a thing I am good at.
I thought about cartoon people, anthropomorphic animals, space aliens, and devil like creatures.
I thought about highly stylized art, traditional Disney-esque and Manga type art. I thought about 100 % organically drawn scenes and computer enhanced illustrations.
I looked at the character designs for Flapjack and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. See, I’m not just watching cartoons, I am doing serious research. I even looked at the character design for a comic I read called The Land of Nod by Jay Stephens.
Now, don’t go calling your lawyers, guys. I an not looking for things to plagiarize, I am just looking for inspiration. I am looking for my own path. I’m just talking about illustrative vs. cartoony vs. bizarre vs. minimal.
I’ll keep working at it. In the meantime I will keep filling up my sketchbooks (I just bought several more), watching cartoons and lurking in other people’s portfolio sites until that proverbial light bulb goes on.
Come out, come out wherever you are
Well after months of trying to incubate an idea for a series of illustrations I still can’t come up with a set of designs for characters.
The series is more like a set of cards. There will be dozens of cards but no character will be drawn twice. So even though I will be drawing a hundred different characters, the overall look will need to be consistent. That’s not a thing I am good at.
I thought about cartoon people, anthropomorphic animals, space aliens, and devil like creatures.
I thought about highly stylized art, traditional Disney-esque and Manga type art. I thought about 100 % organically drawn scenes and computer enhanced illustrations.
I looked at the character designs for Flapjack and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. See, I’m not just watching cartoons, I am doing serious research. I even looked at the character design for a comic I read called The Land of Nod by Jay Stephens.
Now, don’t go calling your lawyers, guys. I an not looking for things to plagiarize, I am just looking for inspiration. I am looking for my own path. I’m just talking about illustrative vs. cartoony vs. bizarre vs. minimal.
I’ll keep working at it. In the meantime I will keep filling up my sketchbooks (I just bought several more), watching cartoons and lurking in other people’s portfolio sites until that proverbial light bulb goes on.