Critiques Needed! Feel free to be as intense as needed!
1yr
@bensk3e
Currently I am attempting to make my first portfolio for character design concepts. Below is the first design of 'Naked Mole Rat with Pants' as given to me by my Girlfriend. That is all she gave me so I went into it and came out with the below design.
The Blue pencils are the beginning stages of doodling naked mole rats, trying to find an idea. The Red pencils are the next evolution as I tried to find a personality, and the black inks are the 'final' design.
I am self taught and am trying to get myself ready to enter this industry. So please any and all critiques, observations, ANYTHING, fire away. I am here to learn!
Thanks everyone!
Ben
1yr
Hey Ben,
I decided not to talk about your design, but your drawing.
One of the thing character designers all have in common is that they can draw. They have to draw things that look 3 dimensional because someone is going to have to make the character look convincing in 3D space.
So, what I noticed:
The pose is very awkward. The shoulders, arms and hips all tilt the same way.
Because the right hip is up and the left down, the legs would not be the same length.
If your going to do an animal with human anatomy, know how the anatomy works.
Your contour line is very complicated and does not describe the forms.
There are other things we could go over, but I think this will help you zone in on these specific issues for now.
I did a quick sketch to give you an idea of what I am talking about, I hope it helps :)
@bensk3e
1yr
Thank you so much for that breakdown! I truly appreciate it! I have taken a lot of my feedback and reapplied it to the drawing. Even though the "client" (in this case my girlfriend) was satisfied with the original drawing, I did go back to the drawing board and redrew two new concepts. I would certainly appreciate any and all feedback you can provide me!
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1yr
Hello, Ben! Thanks for sharing. These are great drawings and explorations! I had to look up mole rat to refresh my memory. Currently for the final design I would say it is not coming across as a mole rat. The head with tail looks very much like a trex dinosaur. The nose with hat made me think of a moose but once I thought trex I cant stop seeing that. When I look at the naked mole rat I see wrinkles, small eyes, big teeth, not much for a nose, unsteady/uneasy, curious. The version you made seems strong and sure of himself. Great job and I hope this is helpful for you!
1yr
Thank you very much! I also felt that as well so I went back to the drawing board and drew a couple more designs. I would certainly appreciate your feedback on these! Thank you very much for taking the time!
1yr
Hello, Ben! Good job on reworking your design. I find it a bit difficult finding things to improve on without overstepping on your initial layout. On what is provided I would say the tail is a bit too thick and there still could be less significance on the eyes as that is what I see in references. For a more informed feedback it would help me to know more about the character and the intended audience. Because form follows function. I would also try some other variations with different styles to give the client some options. This is a good start for one option and is handled in a realistic manner. I can see the underlying three dimensional forms how it could progress into a 3D animation platform. Once a final design is confirmed we could really get picky and pick out specific areas to get technical about and nit pick over.
Also, maybe don't generalize the audience as just your girlfriend. An audience of one is a bit more fine art and character design is more inline with mass audience and appeal. Use her gender and age to help define the audience.
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