Awesome @David Schneider! I think the "cold" could be emphasized a little more by adding icicles or fur textures on some of the fabrics- but those are smaller details. I'm glad you focused on overall design. I did a design-over where I kitbashed your existing drawings. I really just wanted to exaggerate silhouette since your structures look functional enough to me. There's a great opportunity to play around with negative shapes with how the buildings integrate into the bone as well. Really fun stuff here. Also explore different scales! It could be as simple as making the scale-guy smaller, but juxtaposing big shapes with smaller details can easily transform a personal hut into something more like a megastructure! Rest of the notes are attached below! Again, awesome work and thanks for sharing!

Hey @Mariana Santos! Great questions! To me, shape and silhouette are at the core of visual design so I think you're on the right track :) But to your questions: 1. You don't necessarily use geometric shapes to draw a realistic character- but any design can be simplified into individual shapes whether realistic or stylized. So though you are not using literal shapes as in animated design, you can still be mindful of the shapes of your silhouette to judge whether it is clear and visually appealing-regardless of style. 2. Your silhouettes don't have to be clear from the start; just as you wouldn't expect a drawing to be perfect on the first try. The purpose of practicing silhouettes is to focus on the clarity of read you mentioned. As to how to compose your silhouettes- there are so many different ways! You can always draw your characters how you naturally do and then fill them in afterward to check the silhouette. The way I practice, is to draw small thumbnails so that I can see the whole design early on- I don't even fill them in because the scale is so small it's easy to judge the silhouette. Just remember as you explore your own process the point is to recognize readability and judge visual interest in a design! 3. For illustration and character design continue to draw a lot. And again, you're on the right path focusing on shapes and silhouettes. Illustration requires a well trained eye to compose a full image with clarity- which coincides with shape design in a silhouette. At this point, I feel you just have to keep going! I look forward to your next post! I also added some general feedback on ways to improve a silhouette below! Thanks for sharing! Keep going!

Nice job Josh!

Hey @taz! I like the line up here. If you can develop the notes you have into the visuals- your group of hunters will look awesome! I have some feedback on the image below going over general tips to improve character designs. The most important thing for me is exaggerating the character identity through the silhouette (you can always tone it down later). You want to be able to tell that your "dog/human hybrid hunter" is exactly that even just by looking at the silhouette. It can be as simple as adding dog ears or a tail with a hunting rifle. There's always different visual solutions to get your point across. As you develop a character's identity visually you can start to contrast one against another in the line up and it will help guide the design process as you move forward. The rest of the notes are all in the image! Good work- hope to see more of your comic!

Hey @Jule Hollstein! Great work! It's nice to see your whole process. I really like the mechanical legs on the first one in the third image. I do think the design you picked could exaggerate the "captain" aspect. That said, I did a paintover focused on value structure for the last piece. I like the hollow design of the prosthetics and the scrappy feel the character has but I altered parts of it for the sake of clarity and movement throughout the costuming. But reworking the value structure is what really helps an image have a strong first read. Thinking about where to bring in more contrast or where to tone it down based on what you want the viewer to notice the most. I like the intense mood of your piece, but the dark shadow to the right makes the metal leg attract too much attention. I lessened the contrast there (knowing the cool design will bring itself attention anyway) and increased it near the head area- darkening the background and adding a stronger highlight to the helmet. I also toned down the highlight on the shoulder but increased the saturation of the skin tone so that it still pops. Also making the feet feel more grounded on the floor and keeping the legs consistent with the direction of the hips helps her feel more stable and also more confident by widening her stance. Hope the notes help! And again, great work!

Hello, my name is Can. I'm a self-taught illustrator, at least I try to be. I am currently working as a freelancer, but I want to be a concept artist in the gaming industry. I love creating new characters, weapon designs, environments etc. I've never gotten any professional feedback, just watched videos, read guides, this can really help me. Thank you.

Oi! I‘m Fabrizio and my goal is to become a comicbook/webcomic artist. Ideally, I would create my own stories, characters and worlds. Right now, I‘m trying to push my skill to a point where I have a reasonable control over what I draw so as to be able to produce decent quality panels and pages in a reasonable time frame. This includes, of course, studies of anatomy and the Proko skull, exempliflied by the last two pictures. Thx for taking the time to do these reviews!

Hey @ITAI WEINBERG! Nice work! Love the variation and playfulness of the characters- there's also a retro feel I get from your drawing style. Also sorry- I just assume every post here is for feedback! I did a paintover focused on proportions. I already like the designs so I think adjusting for correctness and also exaggerating the character is a natural next step. But all the notes are in the image attached! Thanks for sharing these guys!

Looking great as always, you took the design that extra mile.

Hey @Smithies! Nice work! I did a paintover focusing on value structure. Your design has a strong silhouette but I think by adding more value contrasts within the costume we can let the eye move around a little more. A lot of times I like to build a gradient from light to dark/top to bottom. Other than the notes on the image attached I painted up the face a little and adjusted some shapes. Thanks for sharing!

So cool, Josh! I really like how you synthesize the visual patterns of the reference into your designs!

Hey @stinkbean! I love the specs on this vehicle. Great concept- and I'm glad to see you're going at it traditionally. I basically did a lighting pass to organize the values as you mentioned. Obviously much easier to do digitally but I hope it helps!

Hey @Atharva Lotake! It's great to see you exploring more! Seriously, really happy you're sharing how you went through this whole process. I added more feedback focused (again) on the earlier steps and more exploration. Though you have lots of iterations- the design itself never veered too far from an equilateral triangle silhouette. By offsetting my shapes and focusing on distinct variations- there is actually more exploration with just five designs. Even if you stick to the original design- it's always nice to have a sheet of explorations to inform your decision! I think #2 in the color exploration was great so I focused more on trying to integrate your story context into the visuals. Having a cool visual design merged with the purposes of story are the strongest and most interesting! Again, thanks for sharing all your work! I know you asked for color help but I just have to get into shape design first! If you do try your hand at painting this though- I'll gladly delve more into color!

Hello everyone, I did a redesign of the castle as I wasn't happy with the original. These are some of the design explorations I did for the redesign. Please let me know which one is your favorite. Thanks for your valuable time.

Hello everyone, I just completed an Environment Concept Art piece. This is a half destroyed Evil Palace and the owners have grown to be really poor and so they are not bale to repair the damages. What do you guys think about the final design of the Palace and where do you think I need to work more. Thank you so much to anyone who takes the time to help me out! Have a wonderful day ahead.

Hey @Conan Connaughton! Forgive the late feedback- I'm sure the challenge is long over but I just saw this and had to do iterations just for fun. I think grounding the design to make it feel more stationary would help with the function issue. Other than that I wouldn't mess with the design all that much- I think the simple shapes are great. Since you were going to do more detailed presentations that would be the perfect opportunity to establish the human preservation function with details and maybe some vague environmental context. Anyway, I know this post is old now- but great work! I'd love to see the result!

Hey @Mariana Santos! Nice work- and happy to see you want to move forward with concept art :) Developing your own technique is a lot of exploring what look you want and how to go about it. That's a lot of personal application so I focused more on practical things you can improve in your given designs. (As you continue to hone your craft your own style will develop anyway as long as you produce art that you enjoy making). I did a paintover with some notes. For character artists I believe the most important skill to hone is silhouette and shape design (but then again I feel that for any concept artist). And of course, relating all this to a story! *I notice your work uses more linework whereas my style is closer to painterly- but the feedback is applicable either way. I definitely recommend looking into Overwatch or League concept art for a nice mix of 2D graphic style and 3D render!

Hey @Steve Reaume! Cool concept! I did a paintover to go over the aforementioned perspective issue. Lowering the horizon line and adjusting the foot to make it feel flat on the ground was the easiest solution. Of course, you can pick all sorts of camera angles but you just have to make everything consistent once you choose. I also lightened the background a little just to silhouette the figure while still trying to keep the dark mood. One note I forgot to write in the paintover was about harmonizing the colors. I added more red to the fur and also the crystals. You might notice the green gets a little warmer and yellowish. I feel like it adds a nice contrast as well to the setting. Anyway, nice work and thanks for sharing!

Hey @Atharva Lotake! Great work- it's nice to see someone tackle an environment now and then :) I think an easy way to improve the piece would be to enlarge the wall of statues- it would really make those huts feel tiny and make the image feel even more vast than it already is. I also think the value of the hills in the mid ground get too dark and distract from the center statue I did a paintover to explore a different camera angle that would make the statue feel more like a commanding figure along with some other notes. Hope it helps! Thanks for sharing!