Okay - so I think you need to look at the 'flatness' of your designs - you can see, especially on the profile images, that they're both very 'straight up, straight down' and this shows that they're lacking structure - or shapes - or shapeliness. Take a look at these references for a sense of what I mean:
I think you need to think about greater exaggeration too - so looking again at the features and thinking about them as 'shapes' - a test as to whether or not your character is working is to turn them into silhouettes - I think if you were to make your boy and father into silhouettes, you'd find that they'd both be difficult to read as distinguishable, clear character types:
Hey Graeme,
ReplyDeleteOkay - so I think you need to look at the 'flatness' of your designs - you can see, especially on the profile images, that they're both very 'straight up, straight down' and this shows that they're lacking structure - or shapes - or shapeliness. Take a look at these references for a sense of what I mean:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/6b/5b/44/6b5b443bac04510a8bafb95986166c20.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ae/ef/a0/aeefa0d0e2c33a162768425da807f053.jpg
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e4/61/ae/e461ae1a7873e917095249b57812e57a.jpg
I think you need to think about greater exaggeration too - so looking again at the features and thinking about them as 'shapes' - a test as to whether or not your character is working is to turn them into silhouettes - I think if you were to make your boy and father into silhouettes, you'd find that they'd both be difficult to read as distinguishable, clear character types:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Hc27foH9KAw/TO3uCToenqI/AAAAAAAADs4/KV9UdanI_Wo/s1600/CharacterSilhouetteSheet.jpg
Thanks Phil, I'll see what I can do :)
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