Thread: Nova's Arts.
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Radium

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Oct 19, 2007, 10:24 AM
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Originally Posted by NovaStar View Post
Okay, first of all, looking at your gallery you have a total of three red wolf characters, all for the same project, two of whom look exactly the same in every way and one of whom looks about the same but with different colored eyes and forelegs. I'm not saying you should make each one a different primary color so people can tell them apart, but considering that they look so similar you need to put extra emphasis on conveying their character through differences in pose and expresion.

For instance, here's two random Balto images I grabbed off Google: (Image 1) (Image 2)
They're both dogs, and - considering it's a sketch - they're both colored the same. The thing that really separates them, though, is the posture - the second character has a very curved, upright neck that's looking down on someone. His ears are slicked back and his tail is curled. The massive collar, disdainful grin, and sharp, straight nose are all secondary to this, yet support the overall image portrayed by his posture. Despite similarities, this visually makes him a completely different character than the first sketch.

Hence, the problem is mainly that you've taken a boring pose. The character you've drawn is just standing there, walking forward slightly. It doesn't really say anything about her, other than confirming that she is not a paraplegic.

Quality-wise, though, the picture turned out quite well. Your lines are looking better and you've got a pretty good grasp on canine anatomy.

Her eyes don't look right, though. First of all, the iris and pupil aren't touching any of the sides of the eye, making the character look surprised. The middlepart of the eye with the pupil and iris is almost always partially obscured by the eyelids, or at least touching one of the sides of the eye. Having them away from the sides makes the character look like they're shocked about something.
Secondly, while the character is facing left, her eye is facing a bit towards the camera, implying she's either looking left slightly while keeping her body very rigid or has a lazy eye. Remember that eyes are these massive sphere-things in your head. When an eye is looking towards the camera, such as here, the pupil and iris will be circular, even if partially obscured. From the side, the pupil and iris go all the way to the side of the eye and are more like a very flat oval. While you started making the eye more elliptical, it's still fairly round and its positioning is too far towards the middle of the eyeball.
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