I will be selling several prints at APEX 2010 in August, all of which will be specifically-made for the tournament! I'm also notoriously lazy, so I'm just now getting started on them...
So I figured I'd make a thread to document my process (for those who care) and for taking some suggestions and getting feedback. I've never sold my art at a table before, so any advice in that area would be superrr appreciatedddd as well.
I won't be doing special orders or commissions, as I just don't have enough time, so I'm aiming to do a set number of illustrations and selling 8x10 prints of those. As of now I have ideas for five drawings, but depending on the time I may do a few more. Here's what I have in mind:
☆ Top Tier ☆
Marth, Fox, Sheik and Falco (Melee's top tier) standing together looking really hardcore
Girls of Super Smash Bros.
A nice little drawing of Peach, Samus and Zelda hanging out
APEX 2010
A big drawing that includes every Smash Bros. character (SSB64, SSBM & SSBB) outlining the word "APEX"; will sell as a 13x19 poster as well
☼ Wombo Combo! ☼
It's going to be amazing
♔ Smash Royalty ♔
The Kings, Princesses and Princes of the Smash Bros. universe--Marth, Zelda, Peach, Dedede, Jigglypuff (with a crown of course); sort of tentative about this one
Looking at the list, it's obvious that some characters are getting more exposure than others. If you have any suggestions for the concepts (or ideas for new ones) speak now! In the meantime, I'm going to begin working on the ones that I am 100% behind. Starting with...
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
Girls of Super Smash Bros.
a.k.a. "Zero Suit Samus and Zelda looking pretty lesbian...oh, and Peach"
* FINISHED
Concept
This idea has basically been done to death—and done well (like this and this)—so I felt like I really needed to take a different approach to it in order to stand out. Initially, I wanted to give it a more pin-up look, but I decided that was just done way too much. So instead I went with a more casual "girls' night out" feeling, as though they are all together posing for a photograph. This way, they can still look like their usual attractive selves while also showing a bit of personality, which I think would appeal to more people. I basically tried to walk a fine line between sexiness (which is downplayed but still there, in another way) and tastefulness.
Process
07.17 : Here
So here is the initial sketch. First, I started out really rough, just trying to get the correct proportions and shapes down. I don't use references in this stage—just quick, loose lines to keep the flow going, so that my figures don't look too stiff. I do a lot of cropping and moving lines around, lots of experimenting with how the overall composition can look best. Then, after things are generally how I'd like them (albeit looking very messy), I make a new layer and start drawing over it. Now I start to get into the faces, working out the exact angles of their heads, how the eyes look, and also going more in depth with the clothing. This is where I try to work out any smaller compositional problems—what is visible, are there any awkward shapes, where are the focal points? Again, I move stuff around a lot. I also zoom out, and flip the canvas horizontally, to make sure that everything looks absolutely fine (your eyes can sometimes trick you into thinking that everything's correct, even when it's not). References for the characters and for any problem areas anatomy-wise come into play. I try to get everything right. Then I make another layer. This is where I start zooming in and working the faces in detail, trying to get their expressions exactly how I'd like them. In the back of my mind, I'm considering the values of the illustration—highlights, what's going to be in shadow, what's going to bring out the focal points? This is the final stage before I start adding color.
In terms of what's going on in the picture, I tried to give some variation on their expressions and the angles of their faces. The most important thing to me was making sure there was some interaction between the girls, as I didn't want them to just be standing and posing. I wanted Samus to be doing something, so I just raised her arm up there and started drawing Zelda—eventually coming up with the idea that Samus could be playing with Zelda's ear. So I just worked from there. There are some issues I still need to work out, like how wonky Zelda's hand looks and where exactly Samus' boobs are going be
but otherwise I'm almost ready to color.
07.21 : Here
I've worked out the sketch enough to where I'm confident that there won't be any major changes. The linework isn't done yet, nor is it very clean, but I wanted to move on ahead and add some value to the picture. I put down flat colors for all three girls, the colors themselves not that important—I just picked them up from their Brawl renders, to get a general feel for their various color schemes. Eventually, I'm going to change the hues to better match what I'm aiming for the illustration. But for now, I want to determine the light source and work out all of the values and shadows. This is the most important part of the entire process, as value will absolutely make or break a picture. And since Samus' line art is the closest to finished, I've started adding values to her first.
The other two girls still aren't exactly how I want them to be. Zelda has lost a lot of her cuteness in transition from rough to refined sketch, and Peach's expression seems to missing something. I will try to tweak those two as I go along. Also, I think Samus' hips are a bit low, so that will be tended to next. Adding value to a drawing can uncover problems that would be difficult to spot if it were only lines, so I try to get to this step as soon as possible.
07.22 : Here
Continued to work on coloring and shading, still very rough. I spent some time fixing up Peach and Zelda as well, and I think they're looking better. My next step will be to go back and finalize the line art. I'm about 60% done with the illustration at this point!
07.27 : Here
Starting to clean up and finalize the line art, and Peach is nearly complete in both lines and shading. I was having a little trouble shading the bridge of her nose, though, so I'm moving over to Samus for the time being and I'll come back to Peach later. I adjusted the colors a bit, giving the image more of a red/orange tint. These were originally just supposed to be filler colors, but I've grown to like them a lot, especially Samus' suit and how contrasting it is to the oranges and yellows of the picture, so these are probably final.
Overall I'm pretty pleased with how distinguishable the girls' faces are, Zelda in particular. I still need to fix the hands, but otherwise the illustration is very close to being finished!
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
APEX 2010
a.k.a. "There are a hell of a lot of characters I have to fit somewhere"
* current progress as of July 27
Concept
I realized that I was leaving out a lot of people's favorite characters by only doing four relatively small-scale illustrations, so I decided to do a huge poster-sized drawing to make up for it. The idea is to include every playable character from all three Smash Bros. games and have them set around the word APEX, to mark the occasion. From the onset I was only sure of two things: I wanted the drawing to have a somewhat sketchy/doodle-like style, and I wanted King Dedede lounging on some letters. Everything sort of went from there.
Process
07.27 : Here
Here is the initial sketch. For now I'm just trying to get all of the characters on the canvas, and I'll start scaling and moving them around once they're all crammed onto there.Eight Eleven down, 35+ to go...
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
I will continue to post here as I make progress!
So I figured I'd make a thread to document my process (for those who care) and for taking some suggestions and getting feedback. I've never sold my art at a table before, so any advice in that area would be superrr appreciatedddd as well.
I won't be doing special orders or commissions, as I just don't have enough time, so I'm aiming to do a set number of illustrations and selling 8x10 prints of those. As of now I have ideas for five drawings, but depending on the time I may do a few more. Here's what I have in mind:
☆ Top Tier ☆
Marth, Fox, Sheik and Falco (Melee's top tier) standing together looking really hardcore
Girls of Super Smash Bros. A nice little drawing of Peach, Samus and Zelda hanging out
APEX 2010 A big drawing that includes every Smash Bros. character (SSB64, SSBM & SSBB) outlining the word "APEX"; will sell as a 13x19 poster as well
☼ Wombo Combo! ☼
It's going to be amazing
The Kings, Princesses and Princes of the Smash Bros. universe--Marth, Zelda, Peach, Dedede, Jigglypuff (with a crown of course); sort of tentative about this one
Looking at the list, it's obvious that some characters are getting more exposure than others. If you have any suggestions for the concepts (or ideas for new ones) speak now! In the meantime, I'm going to begin working on the ones that I am 100% behind. Starting with...
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
Girls of Super Smash Bros. a.k.a. "Zero Suit Samus and Zelda looking pretty lesbian...oh, and Peach"
* FINISHED
Concept
This idea has basically been done to death—and done well (like this and this)—so I felt like I really needed to take a different approach to it in order to stand out. Initially, I wanted to give it a more pin-up look, but I decided that was just done way too much. So instead I went with a more casual "girls' night out" feeling, as though they are all together posing for a photograph. This way, they can still look like their usual attractive selves while also showing a bit of personality, which I think would appeal to more people. I basically tried to walk a fine line between sexiness (which is downplayed but still there, in another way) and tastefulness.
Process
07.17 : Here
So here is the initial sketch. First, I started out really rough, just trying to get the correct proportions and shapes down. I don't use references in this stage—just quick, loose lines to keep the flow going, so that my figures don't look too stiff. I do a lot of cropping and moving lines around, lots of experimenting with how the overall composition can look best. Then, after things are generally how I'd like them (albeit looking very messy), I make a new layer and start drawing over it. Now I start to get into the faces, working out the exact angles of their heads, how the eyes look, and also going more in depth with the clothing. This is where I try to work out any smaller compositional problems—what is visible, are there any awkward shapes, where are the focal points? Again, I move stuff around a lot. I also zoom out, and flip the canvas horizontally, to make sure that everything looks absolutely fine (your eyes can sometimes trick you into thinking that everything's correct, even when it's not). References for the characters and for any problem areas anatomy-wise come into play. I try to get everything right. Then I make another layer. This is where I start zooming in and working the faces in detail, trying to get their expressions exactly how I'd like them. In the back of my mind, I'm considering the values of the illustration—highlights, what's going to be in shadow, what's going to bring out the focal points? This is the final stage before I start adding color.
In terms of what's going on in the picture, I tried to give some variation on their expressions and the angles of their faces. The most important thing to me was making sure there was some interaction between the girls, as I didn't want them to just be standing and posing. I wanted Samus to be doing something, so I just raised her arm up there and started drawing Zelda—eventually coming up with the idea that Samus could be playing with Zelda's ear. So I just worked from there. There are some issues I still need to work out, like how wonky Zelda's hand looks and where exactly Samus' boobs are going be
but otherwise I'm almost ready to color.07.21 : Here
I've worked out the sketch enough to where I'm confident that there won't be any major changes. The linework isn't done yet, nor is it very clean, but I wanted to move on ahead and add some value to the picture. I put down flat colors for all three girls, the colors themselves not that important—I just picked them up from their Brawl renders, to get a general feel for their various color schemes. Eventually, I'm going to change the hues to better match what I'm aiming for the illustration. But for now, I want to determine the light source and work out all of the values and shadows. This is the most important part of the entire process, as value will absolutely make or break a picture. And since Samus' line art is the closest to finished, I've started adding values to her first.
The other two girls still aren't exactly how I want them to be. Zelda has lost a lot of her cuteness in transition from rough to refined sketch, and Peach's expression seems to missing something. I will try to tweak those two as I go along. Also, I think Samus' hips are a bit low, so that will be tended to next. Adding value to a drawing can uncover problems that would be difficult to spot if it were only lines, so I try to get to this step as soon as possible.
07.22 : Here
Continued to work on coloring and shading, still very rough. I spent some time fixing up Peach and Zelda as well, and I think they're looking better. My next step will be to go back and finalize the line art. I'm about 60% done with the illustration at this point!
07.27 : Here
Starting to clean up and finalize the line art, and Peach is nearly complete in both lines and shading. I was having a little trouble shading the bridge of her nose, though, so I'm moving over to Samus for the time being and I'll come back to Peach later. I adjusted the colors a bit, giving the image more of a red/orange tint. These were originally just supposed to be filler colors, but I've grown to like them a lot, especially Samus' suit and how contrasting it is to the oranges and yellows of the picture, so these are probably final.
Overall I'm pretty pleased with how distinguishable the girls' faces are, Zelda in particular. I still need to fix the hands, but otherwise the illustration is very close to being finished!
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
APEX 2010 a.k.a. "There are a hell of a lot of characters I have to fit somewhere"
* current progress as of July 27
Concept
I realized that I was leaving out a lot of people's favorite characters by only doing four relatively small-scale illustrations, so I decided to do a huge poster-sized drawing to make up for it. The idea is to include every playable character from all three Smash Bros. games and have them set around the word APEX, to mark the occasion. From the onset I was only sure of two things: I wanted the drawing to have a somewhat sketchy/doodle-like style, and I wanted King Dedede lounging on some letters. Everything sort of went from there.
Process
07.27 : Here
Here is the initial sketch. For now I'm just trying to get all of the characters on the canvas, and I'll start scaling and moving them around once they're all crammed onto there.
/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /
I will continue to post here as I make progress!
