Character Study-Singing Chef John

I have chosen Chef John to be the character that I will do continuity pieces of for my portfolio. And now that I have picked the three images I will focus on completing.(Thanks to everyone for their input!!) I need to make sure that the character is consistent from image to image. This is an exceedingly important aspect of your portfolio presentation. It's hard to follow the story of a character if you can't tell it's them from page to page of your book.

So, I thought I was done with the first image of Chef John and was almost done with the second.(see above) I was in the process of painting John when I decided to see how the characters compared to one another when I put them all in the same file and looked at them side by side. AAAAAAUUGGHHHH!!!!!

Well first of all, thank goodness I did it. But second of all, most of them looked either like completely different kids or older versions of the same kid. Which is not good. The ones that looked the most consistent were the latest sketches I'd done all at or around the same time (the last few images in this post). Problem is they looked very different from my original image(first image in this post). And the second image I was working on looked like the older brother of the character(above).

But this offered me a great opportunity to start figuring out how I would go about keeping my characters consistent. I decided to use Photoshop to my advantage. I used it to create the character sheet you see below. This week, I stopped and figured out the proportions and characteristics of Chef John from front, side, back and 3/4 angles. I used his bald head as a measuring tool for his proportions. And added his clothes and accessories on different layers as I moved forward. I looked up anatomy charts to see which parts should line up with what and used the guides in Photoshop to make sure everything lined up as I rotated him. And also did a number of expression studies to get a better feel for his personality. Some expressions suited him and others didn't feel at home. Which is good to know!

Please click on image above to enlarge.

I can only hope that I did it right! Since this is my first time making one I'm sure it's not 100 percent and I may have a lot more here than I need. Potentially not enough. But at the end of the day, I know what he looks like from a large number of angles and I have a resource as I move forward with completing and revising my previous images and sketches. This also gives me a chance to go back into the earlier images and make some of the suggested changes I got from other artists.

I feel that most of my sketches are on point as far as gesture and stance are concerned with John. I plan on copying the sketches of him into one Photoshop file, redrawing them based on my character sheet and coloring and painting them all at the same time. I think this will maximize the potential consistency of John and make sure that he always looks, feels and acts like himself throughout all the images. When I'm done painting the Johns, I'll copy them back into their original images and recolor or paint them to fit in there environments.

I hope it works!!

And if you folks have any other suggestions that you think may work, please feel free to comment them to me!!

Thanks and have a good weekend!!
-Wilson

Next Sketches

Here is a sketch for the next piece I'm working on.



And here it is with me adding a base of color. I'm thinking that I may do the primary figure to the right and the finish line in full color, while leaving the other racers rendered monochromatic. It would put a great deal of emphasis on the kid to the right and set a very specific tone to the piece. I'm still pondering that though. This is also a double page spread and you can see where the middle is by the vertical line I've drawn in the middle.




In the meanwhile I will be working on making some changes to older pieces of mine. I will probably post those too once I'm done. I don't know about anybody else, but I have the hardest time going back to pieces once I have decided in my head they are complete. The problem is you get some wise person who comes along and points something out in your piece that's wrong, so glaringly wrong that it knocks you on your backside! Those are the changes that I'll be working on next. And some of them are doozies!! If I can I'll post the originals and the draw overs that were done by this wise person or people.

PENGUIN FAMILY ICE SKATING REVISED

I have been taking notes from a new critique group that I have joined. The West Coast Critters Critique Group. It's a critique group of Illustrators interested in breaking in to the Children's Book Publishing arena. We help each other improve our artwork and portfolios. Most of us live on the Western Coast of Florida, and that's where the name comes from.There were a number of suggestions and I used those to revisit my image and make some changes.

1. No longer is the little girl's hat going outside of the border. I extended the left side of the image to make room for her. I also added more definition to her face and pose. She is silently giggling at her brother for having fallen down. A more detailed close up of that is below.

2. The fathers' fins are more upward and not pointing at the children. There was a concern that it looked like he should be holding their fins since his were in such close proximity to theirs. That's not the idea I wanted so I changed the position.

Let me know what you guys think of the changes! I look forward to hearing any input!! :)

sketches

The next piece is what I am starting on next. I intend to take this one kinda step by step through the process of creating it. Uploading images of it as I go. For now the piece is titled, Penguin Family Ice Skating. I know, such an imaginative title. If anyone has other suggestions let me know!

Thanks again!!

4-7 Youth Sport Graphics

Here are a bunch of new images that I have done for a freelance client. They will be used for t-shirts. I've been asked to do two images from various sports aimed at a 4-7 age range. The style is consistant with how I render my children's work, but it is a bit more vibrant and bright. My normal color palette is more sedated. Hopefully I can find a place within my children's book portfolio for some of these. Maybe as spot examples, I'm not sure. But we'll see!!