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Digital Dirt and a Broomstick : Children's Book In Progress

Discussion in 'Art Corner' started by Owly, Jan 6, 2018.

  1. Owly

    Owly Friend of the Eco, Foe of the System

    Torako
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    For my most recent Creative Writing assignment, I have to write and draw a children's book. Most of the work is done already. It's written, and all the pages have been envisioned and laid out in a dummy book. However, now I actually have to make the thing. And that's the problem.

    I'm terrible at visual art and I don't pretend I'm not. And because of this, I'm going to need some serious help. Up until the complete book is due, I'm going to upload drafts of pages of Dirt and a Broomstick for artistic critique. Compliments are fine, but what I'd really like is tips on how to make them look better.

    The first two pages of my book are due on Monday. They don't have to be in order, so you'll notice that I skip around a lot. Here's the first page I've drawn, which I think is around page five or six in the book.

    [​IMG]
    Apologies for the large and slightly distracting signature, I couldn't be bothered to make it smaller. That won't be present in the final copy.

    I'd appreciate any suggestions you have for improvements on this page - in terms of text placement, size, art quality, and general aesthetic!

    Also, I'd appreciate any tips people reading this might have for drawing wings and/or cat ears, because I have no idea how I'm going to go about drawing those.

    Thanks so much!
     
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  2. Wolf Expert

    Wolf Expert Canine Scholar

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    Moon Ball ★★★★Love Ball ★★★★★Premier Ball ★Friend Ball ★★★★Luxury Ball ★★★
    It looks a little creepy for a children's book. That's just my take after seeing one page though, so it might not be in the full context.
     
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  3. Owly

    Owly Friend of the Eco, Foe of the System

    Torako
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    Second page!

    [​IMG]

    Which is actually not the second page. It's two pages after the one I posted in the first post. Again, I'd love any suggestions you have for me, especially in terms of aesthetics/art quality.


    Thanks for your input; that's mostly intentional though :) There are pages that are a lot brighter and all of that is designed to better portray the message.
     
  4. awney

    awney i'm lame

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    Poor Carbon looks so lonely :C. I'm assuming it's supposed to feel a little lonely considering the empty black background?

    Also tips for drawing wings! It helps to draw out the basic shape of the wing and then add feathers. No idea about cat ears those.
     
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  5. Hikari

    Hikari Poké Maniac

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    It helps to look up images of what you’re going for. Maybe practice drawing those images, and then see if you can add those to... whatever you’re going to do with them, lol.
     
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  6. Owly

    Owly Friend of the Eco, Foe of the System

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    Don't worry, Carbon gets less lonely :D

    Thanks for the tip! I'll try doing that once I get up the courage to even attempt wings


    That's a good idea, thanks a lot! And yeah, I can see at this point that it's a little hard to understand what I'm doing with the wings and ears (which I may end up scrapping). It'll come clear once I actually decide to draw one of those pages though

    So I finished another page! And I found this really pretty particle brush that I decided to use for the backgrounds, to make the page "pop" a little more. I added it to the other two pages too if any of you want to see those again, haha, plus some other pretty things. Anyway, here's the next page - page 5 in the book.

    [​IMG]
     
  7. Owly

    Owly Friend of the Eco, Foe of the System

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    This is one of those pages that I'm going to keep editing until right before I'm ready to print . . .

    I've learned my lesson, anyway. I put Carbon's outline and the background color in the same layer, which made it really hard to color in later. Next time I draw it this way, I certainly won't do that again . . .

    [​IMG]

    Oh, and in unrelated news, I decided I didn't like the swirls in page 5, so I took those out.
     
  8. Owly

    Owly Friend of the Eco, Foe of the System

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    So I realized I never posted a good picture of Carbon in its not-smoke form, here's part of page 2

    [​IMG]

    I drew page 8 and now I'm working on 9. 7 is also done but I'll probably end up redrawing it . . .

    [​IMG]

    I'm basically speed drawing the rest of the pages today since this book is due tomorrow haha. More updates to come
     

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