Drawings of a little lizard

[BlazingCoral]

All right, here's some pics from my sketchbook... I may upload some of my inked and colored stuff as well, and maybe some of my computer-drawn artwork later. But for now, I'll just upload some sketches.

Like I said in my intro topic, I'm no animator... but I want my pictures to have more motion! It seems like whenever I draw stuff, the character poses are stiff or forced. Constructive criticism regarding that would be great, as would criticism in general about the character designs and anything else you'd like to point out.

Hmmm... four images per post, eh? I was going to post quite a bit more than that, but I guess I'll settle with four for now.

http://fc00.deviantart.com/fs38/i/2008/338/f/8/What__s_that__by_BlazingCoral.png
(I have a larger version of this, but I'm afraid it might be too big for here.) Some bird characters of mine, for a cartoon idea I have regarding a bird sanctuary and some of its residents. Here we have Awzzie the ostrich (who thinks he's a flamingo), Splat the mute platypus (whom I drew without reference, which is why he doesn't look too much like a platypus here), Maggy the yellow-billed magpie, and Twit the ruby-throated humming bird (whom I sketched in there last minute, which is why she doesn't show up so well). I've had the idea bouncing around my head for quite some time, but I don't know what to do with it.

http://fc08.deviantart.com/fs39/i/2008/338/a/3/Awesome_and_Twopoint_by_BlazingCoral.png
(Once again, I have a larger version, but I'm afraid it's too big to post here.) These silly critters are some robot characters of mine. They are sentient, walking mallets, basically, and can retract their legs (and, in the case of the second one, fold up his entire body) to look like a somewhat normal mallet. Their names, Awesome and Awesome 2.0 (also called Twopoint) come from "OSM," which stands for "Overlarge Spiked Mallet." Either spike can open, and one end fires cannonballs while the other shoots out a boxing glove. Heh.

http://img352.imageshack.us/img352/9725/blazessketch.png
This here is Blazes, a dragon character from a book idea I'm working on. Unfortunately, I find his pose here is very boring, as you can tell from my little note, there.

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs42/f/2009/092/1/4/Sklahoo_is_not_amused_by_BlazingCoral.png
Here's one of my original critters. I spent a lot of work on the texture but I'm not sure how well I did. His name is Sklahoo, by the way... fairly weird name, I know. He is from a strange idea I have that will probably take the form of a book. Not sure yet.

Constructive criticism of any sort is highly appreciated, like I said before. I guess I'll post some more artwork later.

[BrioCyrain]

Decent structure in all of them, but they seem to lack any sort of proportion, even animated characters have proportions based on animators design. All the characters can't be on different scales of design...if you get one I mean.

[BlazingCoral]

What do you mean by proportion, exactly? I'm a little confused.

[BrioCyrain]

What do you mean by proportion, exactly? I'm a little confused.

Some of your characters seem funky. Like that last critters legs are like 5x as long as the rest of his body...it just looks wierd.

[BlazingCoral]

Heheh, well, yes, the designs are quite strange. Though that's not even my weirdest stuff... you'd probably croak if you saw some of the pictures that didn't make it into that post. XD;

I don't always like to draw characters with typical designs though... sometimes I like to make things that're rather off-the-wall. What I'm wondering is if the strangeness is a problem, or if there's seriously a problem with the critter's design?

[johncbeggs]

I think their really cool, I like how clean your sketches look and they are not that stiff at all :)

[BrioCyrain]

Heheh, well, yes, the designs are quite strange. Though that's not even my weirdest stuff... you'd probably croak if you saw some of the pictures that didn't make it into that post. XD;

I don't always like to draw characters with typical designs though... sometimes I like to make things that're rather off-the-wall. What I'm wondering is if the strangeness is a problem, or if there's seriously a problem with the critter's design?

I am just saying if you want to be an animator usually animators even give themselves design rules. Yes things can be strange, but is the person who is going to watch that animation gonna like the strangeness? Who are you targeting with that drawing or animation?

[BlazingCoral]

For most of my weirder stuff, my target is hardcore fantasy fans who aren't bothered too much by off-the-wall character designs. Some of my inspiration comes from the Jim Henson movie, The Dark Crystal.

[BlazingCoral]

I think their really cool, I like how clean your sketches look and they are not that stiff at all :)

Glad you think so. XD; I think my poses are a little boring, though, and I'm never really sure what to have my characters doing.

(Sorry for the double-post, by the way; I'll try to avoid that in the future.)

[Regan]

Very creative, imaginative stuff! And I love their names.

[johncbeggs]

I also want to Welcome you to the site :D, Im getting some major practice Im sure you will be able to aswell :)

[BlazingCoral]

Thanks, guys. ^^;

Here's a few more sketches. I might put up some finished stuff later.

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/928/bcandmako.png
The first one's BlazingCoral (the character I get my username from) and the bottom one's Mako. The notes point out a few inaccuracies... They're characters from a comic idea I have. Hmm, not really sure whether or not to draw BlazingCoral's eyes overlapping her bandanna like that. I usually drew the bandanna partially covering her eyes. What do you guys think?

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/5245/thorntalonstanding.png
This big guy here is Thorntalon, a big, fat, dimwitted mountain dragon from the same project Blazes is from. His design might change a bit, though, particularly his feet... I wanted to give him feet that would enable him to climb mountains with ease, but I'm not sure if those would be the best feet for the job. I based them off of a woodpecker's feet.

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/4701/strangeguy.png
THIS, my friends, is what happens when I let my imagination completely loose: I come up with downright bizarre character designs like this! This guy is from the same project Sklahoo is from, and... I'm not quite sure what his deal is. He's got two sets of ribcages, two sets of arms, frills, rabbit ears, and a number of other oddities. It's a bit harder to see due to his pose, which is a little awkward...

http://fc04.deviantart.com/fs42/f/2009/124/3/7/Tower_of_Mallet_Bots_by_BlazingCoral.jpg
My apologies for the hugeness of this last one. It's not done in traditional pencil and paper, though--it's drawn on the computer with a graphics tablet and a program called Painter Classic, used to emulate various media. You can see Twopoint and Awesome there (although Awesome has wings and glowing eyes in this picture, since, in a roleplay I was using him in, he "died"), as well as two fancharacters based off my original designs for the robots. These fancharacter designs were done to fit the universe of the movie WALL-E. The one on the bottom spits out lasers rather than cannonballs, and the one on the top spits out ice cream. :D

[johncbeggs]

Awesome sketches, check out the troll I drew while searching this site :)

[BrioCyrain]

I am a little confused on which direction is which.

[BlazingCoral]

Awesome sketches, check out the troll I drew while searching this site :)

Thanks! And sure, I'll take a look.


I am a little confused on which direction is which.

For which picture?

[BrioCyrain]

Thanks! And sure, I'll take a look.



For which picture?

The last one...it seems the characters is walking up the screen.

[johncbeggs]

I am a little confused on which direction is which.

thats the best part of looking at the sketch :D

[BrioCyrain]

thats the best part of looking at the sketch :D

More like the disorienting part of the sketch

[BlazingCoral]

They're stacked on top of each other. The title of the picture is "Tower of Mallet-Bots." XD

[johncbeggs]

They're stacked on top of each other. The title of the picture is "Tower of Mallet-Bots." XD

I thinks its great, I sat their for a min just figuring it out :)

[BlazingCoral]

It's probably the fact that I failed to mention that the mallet-bots on the very top and very bottom both hover. Whoops. >>;

[BlazingCoral]

Double-post, sorry. ^^;

Here's some more of my stranger character designs. They're all from the project that BlazingCoral and Mako are from... The comic's going to have heavy religious themes, but since discussion about religious things and the like is not allowed here, I won't go into too much detail. These are some of the villains, though, each of them being demons that embody some sort of sin or negative emotion.

http://fc02.deviantart.com/fs27/f/2008/038/6/0/ALitD_Demon_Concepts_1_by_BlazingCoral.jpg
This is my first page of concept sketches. I'd drawn that "depression" demon quite a few times before, but his design was somewhat different.

I got a complaint that the depression demon's pose was boring, so one day during one of my classes I sketched him from a different position, seen here (http://blazingcoral.deviantart.com/art/Math-Notes-Make-Depression-Sad-77276859). I messed up on his arm joints a bit, though.

http://fc06.deviantart.com/fs30/f/2008/127/9/6/Anger_by_BlazingCoral.png
Here's the anger demon again. I took the sketch and drew over it with Photoshop. I also flipped the picture so I could spot some errors and fixed those, as well as a few others. Aside from the shading on the shell-like segments along his back, I'm actually still quite proud of how this turned out, even though I drew it about a year ago.

http://fc06.deviantart.com/fs30/f/2008/051/8/5/ALitD_Demon_Concepts_2_by_BlazingCoral.jpg
Here's my second batch of demon designs, this time with cursing and gluttony. (I know it says "greed" on the paper, but I think "gluttony" is more appropriate for the design.) I'm very proud of how front legs on the first one came out, although I'm not sure if I should change the structure of his back legs. As for the gluttony demon, I don't draw fat creatures too often, so I'm not sure on how well I did with that one.

http://fc07.deviantart.com/fs26/f/2008/114/6/0/ALitD_Demon_Concepts_3_by_BlazingCoral.jpg
Here's my third batch, with drunkenness and pride. There is a reason for drunkenness's strange design, but I don't feel like explaining it at the moment... Pride's design was loosely based off of a deer, and I guess you could say he's a bit like a pufferfish, too. His body's not really big like that... he puffs himself up to look bigger. He's actually quite skinny.

My latest page of designs can be found here (http://blazingcoral.deviantart.com/art/ALitD-Demon-Concepts-4-98900599). Here we have laziness, cowardice, and... I know it says "murder" on there, but I'm thinking that one might actually be "bloodlust." I think I might change his design a bit... I'm not liking it too much.

That's it for now.

...By the way, though, what's all this stuff I'm seeing with pygmy owls?

[IzzyS]

...By the way, though, what's all this stuff I'm seeing with pygmy owls?

http://www.donbluthanimation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=166

[BlazingCoral]

Oh! That's pretty spiffy. I love drawing birds so I'll have to give that a shot sometime. Thanks for the link! :D

[feliceworkshop]

I love drawing birds so I'll have to give that a shot sometime.

....only few days 'til the end of the competition! mind you that the deadline is the 15th of May!
BTW I really like those crazy ass long fingers in the Drunkednoss Demon (did I spell that right?) ....very cool.

[lavallelee]

i really like the way you draw the eyes of your characters

any chance you plan on animating them?

[BrioCyrain]

Love the emotion pic and the one below it, not sure of the last one...lol

[BlazingCoral]

i really like the way you draw the eyes of your characters

any chance you plan on animating them?

I'd like to at least try at some point. I recently got an animation program called Pencil but I'm still trying to figure it out at the moment.

[BrioCyrain]

I'd like to at least try at some point. I recently got an animation program called Pencil but I'm still trying to figure it out at the moment.

Cool, I am guessing it's a handdrawn animation program? Keep up the drawings, some of them are really great!

[BlazingCoral]

It's this program here: http://www.pencil-animation.org/

I'm not really sure what to try for my first animation... I was thinking I might have a character of mine walking around, but it's proving to be kindof hard. I think my first animation might wind up being one of my characters blinking or something. >>; Gotta start somewhere, I guess.

[Snapai]

It's this program here: http://www.pencil-animation.org/

I'm not really sure what to try for my first animation... I was thinking I might have a character of mine walking around, but it's proving to be kindof hard. I think my first animation might wind up being one of my characters blinking or something. >>; Gotta start somewhere, I guess.

If you get anything that looks good on Pencil, please post it! It's awesome that it's free, but I could never get into using it- and several folks have told me it's kinda crashy. :(

[BrioCyrain]

I suggest for your first animation just doing something facial(as in doing a face animation). Maybe expirement with lip-sync or emotions.

[BlazingCoral]

Yup, I'll probably try an idle pose or lip sync or something for my first animation.

For now though, here's something I drew today:

http://fc08.deviantart.com/fs44/f/2009/130/6/d/Happy_Mother__s_Day_by_BlazingCoral.png
Mother's Day present for my mom. :D I'm happy with it, but tips are still appreciated.

http://fc05.deviantart.com/fs44/f/2009/129/3/c/Sneak_Peak_WIP_by_BlazingCoral.png
A WIP that I sketched up last night. I'm aware of some errors and I'm fixing them on the Photoshop file, but if there's any you'd like to point out, go ahead. It's fanart of some characters from my file of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 2: Explorers of Time. I'll be working on this pic from time-to-time over the next week or so; if I'm going to put a lot of effort into a pic, I don't want to do it all at once or I just get tired and put less effort into it as I go along.

[BrioCyrain]

Wow, those birds look really good!

[Mithmeoi]

That mother's day picture is very cute. Nice idea!