Donkey Kong piece

[joshmc]

Hi Folks, need a little feedback (actually a lot would be great). I've been given a really awesome opportunity to have an illustration published in a magazine but I'm having serious trouble with it, essentially it was an open brief for me to do whatever I want which was both a blessing and a curse because I'm irresolute about what I should do with it. Here's the rough layout, I know the anatomy isn't correct, I'll work on that, I'm just trying to get something about the composition right but I feel like I'm having a serious mental block. I've got about 2 weeks to come up with something but right now I'm stressing because I'm kinda scared I'm going to blow this opportunity.

[arenhaus]

Build a perspective plot of the scene, using a few boxes to represent the Kong. It'll help you place the figure better.

Change the horizon level, perhaps. This horizon is set too high to emphasize the large size of the gorilla.

[Line]

Well there's plenty of renders of Donkey Kong out there for you to use as reference.
That being said, go for something with a little more action than just DK "running".
And if you do go with just that, try looking at DK's run cycle in DKC, it was very good.

[JavierP]

You need to spend way more time PLANNING your illustration.

The Thumbnail

10 Things... About Generating Paintings

There is much more of course, but you should also do your own research. Hope this is a helpful start. Good luck.

[joshmc]

You need to spend way more time PLANNING your illustration.

The Thumbnail

10 Things... About Generating Paintings

There is much more of course, but you should also do your own research. Hope this is a helpful start. Good luck.

You're 100% correct. In my panic I was just throwing stuff down on canvas and hoping something would stick. I'm going to start from scratch, I've done better than this before, I'm just having one massive mental block at the worst possible time, it's like I've forgotten everything I've learned.

[Velocity Kendall]

yes, mental block picks bad times to strike; panic makes clear thought impossible.

however throwing lots of stuff onto the page CAN be productive, if you practice. you can use big brushes a blob of lightsource and start just throwing stuff on there in greyscale. if you do about 14 of those, you can usually see an image or two in there. then its a matter of carving it out. like how michelangelo said he waited till he could see the finished sculpture inside the rock, and then had to just free it. or something like that anyway!

look up thumbnailing techniques, i remember scott robertson did a good one, using random shapes to inspire his imagination. you know how the faces you see in clouds are oddly realistic? same deal.

my friend Ron Stevens at TAD is a master of the thumbnail and his use made a big impression on me, how you can quickly generate image ideas, even when your mind is blank.

[joshmc]

I'm going back and doing some black and white thumbnailing. It just dawned on me in my haste to get something done I skipped over actually working out the structure of what I had in mind, I was essentially just repainting the same images over and over again hoping it would magically just turn out correct. I think part of it is that having artwork appear in a magazine is kinda daunting and I've been apprehensive and indecisive in what I should do. That blank canvas has never looked so terrifying.

[joshmc]

Ok, I calmed down and took my time, did some thumbnails, put in a perspective guide and came up with this concept. Still rough but how is this looking?

[arenhaus]

however throwing lots of stuff onto the page CAN be productive, if you practice. you can use big brushes a blob of lightsource and start just throwing stuff on there in greyscale. if you do about 14 of those, you can usually see an image or two in there.

Yes, and the key here is making many of those. Making one or two quick thumbnails isn't likely to be of much use.

[joshmc]

Better rendered B&W. Thoughts? How are things looking?

[diamandis]

Better, and I like the extra bit of realism thrown into the face in the recent one. Nice twist. The framing could use a little work, though. His back leg is butting right up to the edge of the frame. I think folks around here call that a "tangent" ... where something butts up to something else (especially the frame) in an awkward way. Also, the fact that he's stuffed into the left 50% of the width of the composition feels strange, while the right 50% has relatively little going on. The vertical line going down the center, created by the palm tree and DK, feels strange. I'd move DK over to the right a little bit to fix all those issues. Maybe make the palm tree fronds reach farther right, over his head more, to break that vertical line. Also, the balloons get lost over on the right. I'd make one of them bigger. Also, no bananas?

[joshmc]

Better, and I like the extra bit of realism thrown into the face in the recent one. Nice twist. The framing could use a little work, though. His back leg is butting right up to the edge of the frame. I think folks around here call that a "tangent" ... where something butts up to something else (especially the frame) in an awkward way. Also, the fact that he's stuffed into the left 50% of the width of the composition feels strange, while the right 50% has relatively little going on. The vertical line going down the center, created by the palm tree and DK, feels strange. I'd move DK over to the right a little bit to fix all those issues. Maybe make the palm tree fronds reach farther right, over his head more, to break that vertical line. Also, the balloons get lost over on the right. I'd make one of them bigger. Also, no bananas?

Awesome. The realism thing I'd planned from the start, wanted to make a sort of middle ground between the game character and a real gorilla (I kinda love doing that lol), the initial ape was only ever intended to be rough for layout purposes. And bananas will come I can assure you! Just wanna get the main part of the image right first. Thanks for the advice.

[joshmc]

Sorry, double post.

[joshmc]

Alrighty, how's this coming along?

[Velocity Kendall]

the way the hovering balloons contrasted with his sullen grey expression made me laugh. as does his tie. delightfully absurd. poor kong. Donkey Kong 7: Job Interview Frenzy.
get palm tree refs that one looks carved out of clay and is positioned like its sneaking up on DK. good cartoony realism on his face.

thinking about it, as youve up-realed the face, youll have to design all the elements to fit; ie all the trees; are they totally iconic, partially realistic/catoony like his new face, 100% realistic. itll be a lot of choices.

[joshmc]

Yeah, I've got a stack of imagery from the game that I've gotten from google. Going to try and do a mash up of real world/game world as best I can. Good call on the tree too.

[joshmc]

Ok, I think I'm satisfied with the layout and composition but I wanted to get some feedback before I go crazy with the detailing. How is this looking to people?

[Pixelestial]

I feel that the far balloon is awkwardly close to his face. If it were moved more down and to the right, the composition would have a more pleasing flow. That same balloon could also use a bit less contrast, to place it more firmly in the background.

[Griffonnage]

Work more on the palm tree : you can use the foliage to get an interesting sense of depth. Be carefull with the road, I feel it's not exactly in the same perspective because of the scratch you made on it.

For the overall image, it's a funny one but why donkey looks so serious ? He remind me the gorilla in the movie "origins", the movie explaining how monkeys become the futur dominant race on race (planet of the apes). Good expression and intelligence in the eyes.

[joshmc]

Ok, some more refining. I shrunk the closest tree down because I thought it was overshadowing Kong. Thoughts?

[Griffonnage]

I think if Lacan take a look here, he would probably say to you : "you do not worked your entire image with globale values"

I think the composition is better, but it lack some "global lighting and shadows". You did a lot of work but I think because you reworked a lot some parts you started loosing the overall values in the image. Now you have a lot of "spots" that are dark, or white, but the overall image have the same "value" that make the result a little flat... You need to make Kong pop out ! Just suggest what isn't needed for the understanding, he is the main character, objects arrounds do not need to be all that visibles

Here is an OP to illustrate what I mean, I pushed the brightness and contrast too and changed some part of the foreground to reinforce the perspective, but that's not the best configuration, it's just to illustrate :

[joshmc]

Thanks for the example! That was something along the lines of where I wanted to go but for some reason I've never really been confident with perspective values like this. I come from a portrait illustration background so this is somewhat new territory for me. I've done scenic stuff before but never really something long these lines where I'm trying to convey a strong sense of distance.

[joshmc]

Ok, I'm hoping this is the last B&W image I have to post for critique. I really have to get this done in the next few days. I think it's looking ok now, anymore feedback would be great though.



BTW, I'd like to thank everyone for their feedback, you all have no idea how much of a panic I was in coz I literally forgot how to draw, I got this opportunity to do an illustration for a magazine and it scared the crap out of me. But as I've been working on this and taking peoples advice from this forum I calmed down and everything slowly started to come back to my mind and eventually I started enjoying what I was doing again. You've all been a great help.

[joshmc]

Also, I apologise for making this thread in the WIP section first, I didn't realize there was a sketch section which would have been more appropriate place for the first post. Won't happen again, promise!

[Griffonnage]

I think you can just make some minor touchs. The biggest one that can help to push the whole image in my opinion would be to play a little with brightness/contrast filter to make the light tone brighter without modifying the dark tones. I understand you will do the scene at dusk or dawn, but bright light is always better That will take you 5 min and can really help !

You can light a little some palms tree on the edge in the background (he big one especially). But you can do this part when you are are working with colors as well.

Good luck for the final steps, keep going !

[joshmc]

Thanks! Appreciate the advice! Hope to complete this in the next day or two.

[joshmc]

Ok, another WIP, I'm into the detailing stage now. I'm happy with how this is going now, but would like to get some opinions as to how things are looking.

[Suncut]

I think things are looking really monochrome, I did a little paintover to demonstrate one way of adding some color in. Generally it's pretty weird having an orange light source be the dominant color in your picture while almost everything is in shadow, you end up with just a really muddy feeling. Add some color to the shadows.

Also I thought the picture was great when donkey was looking really grumpy with his little tie, now that he's smiling it really removed the funny factor.

[joshmc]

Ah yes, it does make a world of difference, I'll overlay some colour in the jungle shadows. I don't know why but I tend to always have very muted colours, I'm always worried about making things too vibrant for some reason.

[joshmc]

Okey-dokey, what do we think of this alteration?