neurotic parrot character

[supercrazzy]

Hello everyone! I recently drew up this rather odd guy and attempted to color it in photoshop using the "overlay" technique over the black and white shaded drawing. I don't really like how it came out, tho. What do you think may help it? I was thinking perhaps a lighter background and ditching the border and redoing it in photoshop rather than freehand. Also, would inking it digitally have been a better idea? Thanks for any input!

[Koncept]

i think the main problem here is the way you inked it. try to slow down and really pay attention to line variation. thinkening the lines where its in shadow and/or the object is heavier.

i dont mind the sketchiness of it tho, actually i rather like it.

[Jessica Hook]

Yeah...check out Arthur Rackham for line variation and line quality.

jess

[Idiot Apathy]

I think one of the biggest things you could work on here is clarity - the process you have used has sort of limited the amount of contrast, most notably value contrast which would really improve the readability and overall look of this painting.

I get a little lost with his left hand, our right - and also in the darkest darks here.

As far as process, don't be afraid to tweak your original scan with levels, curves, brightness/contrast or a combination of all. I would recommend getting a nice clean white for everything but the lines if you want to explore this technique further - however having a little bit of texture from the paper can be nice as well. You might also try using soft light or overlay layers to brighten things up if they get to dark, can also give a nice perhaps wash-like feel to things.

Cheers!