character design: ju ju man

this is "ju ju man", done in illustrator with a tablet. took about two hours. any feedback concerning the use of color, and generally the drawing itself, would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.zeekart.com/artwork/elicolored.jpg

*also, the colors are much richer than they appear above. there was some desaturation when i converted the original for the web viewing version.

this is "ju ju man", done in illustrator with a tablet. took about two hours. any feedback concerning the use of color, and generally the drawing itself, would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.zeekart.com/artwork/elicolored.jpg

*also, the colors are much richer than they appear above. there was some desaturation when i converted the original for the web viewing version.


Very very sweet...

good job

Nice and interesting character

only comment that i am going to make is that my eye focuses on the really lime green color. mabe tone it down a bit so it doesnt stand out so much..

;)

ooooo... me really like ju ju man.

I really like the way it was done. (w/ illustrator and a tablet?)

explain more! me want to know more about nice picture!!

ooooo... me really like ju ju man.

I really like the way it was done. (w/ illustrator and a tablet?)

explain more! me want to know more about nice picture!!

well, hmm...first of all, i sketched the ju ju man on photoshop with a tablet using a general 3 pixel brush w/ 50% flow and #cccccc swatch:

http://www.zeekart.com/forum_posts/eli.gif

then i copied the layer in which i sketched ju ju man, onto illustrator, and i began outlining the sketch. outlined, colored, shaded and highlighted, and... wallah. that's more or less the gist of it.

and yeah, i'll work on toning down the bg more when i get to it.

thanks.

that is truely excellent stuff, i wish i knew how to use illustrator.

that really does look totally awesome!

Much as I hate American Idol, the guy who rips people is funny as hell, and everyone loves you. Time to play my favorite game, devils advocate.

Thats some bad ju ju, in all honesty, I could do something with the exact same effect, in far less time in flash. The details around the eyes are piss poor, and the background does little to supplement the bright coloration, blah blah rip rip.

It looks pretty good, but for 2 hours work, you need damn good.

Marine, you're mean (that rhymes)

I like it, I think it's very well done and well shaded, and maybe it took two hours because it was the first thing you've done with this method?

That character would be great in a comic or something.

[QUOTE=PokeGravy]Marine, you're mean (that rhymes)[QUOTE]

That wasent the point, I said I liked it, but everyone else said it was good, you need a negative with positives.

well, hmm...first of all, i sketched the ju ju man on photoshop with a tablet using a general 3 pixel brush w/ 50% flow and #cccccc swatch:
then i copied the layer in which i sketched ju ju man, onto illustrator, and i began outlining the sketch. outlined, colored, shaded and highlighted, and... wallah. that's more or less the gist of it.

and yeah, i'll work on toning down the bg more when i get to it.

thanks.

Wow! I was unaware that you could use a tablet with illustrator.
I, myself, know illustrator, photoshop, etc. but, I know extremely little about the tablet.
Can you give me some details on the tablet itself?

That's certainly a well done illustration. It makes me wish I had a tablet.

Marine, I'm curious to see if you think you could do a better job. Post something here.

I use a wacom tablet and illustrator to make all of my comics, but I've never seen a sketch like that done in photoshop. That's interesting, oh and good work on the character.

Oh and Marine, like Mr Demaree said, why don't you put your money where your mouth is.

Much as I hate American Idol, the guy who rips people is funny as hell, and everyone loves you. Time to play my favorite game, devils advocate.

Thats some bad ju ju, in all honesty, I could do something with the exact same effect, in far less time in flash. The details around the eyes are piss poor, and the background does little to supplement the bright coloration, blah blah rip rip.

It looks pretty good, but for 2 hours work, you need damn good.

i hate american idol too, and the guy who rips the contestants is indeed funny as hell, but at least he knows what he's talking about...

- if you think the details around the eyes are "piss poor" as you call it, you might as well say the details for everything else is "piss poor". there is little variation in the amount of detail put for every portion of the drawing. the "details" are generally simple throughout the piece, as it was meant to be.

- the two hours it takes to draw this includes the brainstorming process/sketch, which means i erase and alter as i think is necessary, and the process in which i produce the final version on illustrator is very tedious. those lines you see there are not strokes. i drew those lines. they are essentially shapes. unless you want the mundane, lack of control, stroke widths that adobe illustrator (and flash) spits out, with either pen or pencil, you need to either tinker with the tablet sensitivity, which is god awfully insane, tinker with the pixel fidelity which is simply a waste of time, or you have to literally the draw the lines as if they were shapes. if there's one thing i've come to hate, it's the lack of variation control in the strokes produced in illustrator.

- yes, assuming you can draw as well as i can, i suppose you could achieve the same result in flash. but if you want the lines to be as they truly are, it's gonna take you just as long. your perception that you could do it with the exact same effect and do it in a shorter span of time, assuming you never even saw this drawing or idea, as my art professor next to me puts it, is horseshit. you are ronald mackinnon of plugged nickel no? if so, i see no need to say anything further about my skepticism towards your claim.

- i'm glad to hear you like it, but at the same time, i think your "negative" feedback was rather inconstructive and simply bullshit.

unknown comic: the tablet is really useful in the sense that it replicates the feeling that you're drawing. given that "manipulation" if you will, you can create something with the type of "finesse" that you would only normally achieve if you did it with a traditional medium, i.e. paintbrush, pencil, pastel, etc.. of course, it takes time getting used to. the tablet that i have now is a 6x8 intuos 2. i recently upgraded from the graphire series. i strongly suggest you visit the wacom site (http://www.wacom.com/index2.cfm) to get a better feel of what tablets can do for ya, and also check this site (http://www.goodbrush.com) to see what some artists are capable of producing with photoshop and a tablet.

just when my bills have started going down, I've been bitten by the spending bug.

Maybe you should get some "Raid."

Very impressive. It's the first I've been compelled to actually look at your site, and you have nice work there.

The one thing he needs is some of that tribal war paint. You allways have to have the war paint damnit.

Wow. I'm loving the bold colors and cel-style shading on this. Reminds me of vector art.. Some-what. It's a pretty neat design. The details on the spear head and the feather's lookin' great. Nice work, man.

And lucky you with a tablet. I'm stuck with a mouse. :: Points at his avatar :: Did that on Paint. =\ ASJDSAKDSDS WOO!

well, its hard to say. it looks great. i love the shading and fully agree on the spearhead and feathers.

but i wonder how or if the character will hold on when you show him in a more dynamic pose. his body is so round, and he has short powerpuff style limbs. plus the fact that his head is almost as large as his body, because of that trunk.
it might just be a portfolio-type piece, but i'd be interested in seeing how well he really holds up. because right now, he just seems a little boring. but as i said, its beautiful, also!

well, its hard to say. it looks great. i love the shading and fully agree on the spearhead and feathers.

but i wonder how or if the character will hold on when you show him in a more dynamic pose. his body is so round, and he has short powerpuff style limbs. plus the fact that his head is almost as large as his body, because of that trunk.
it might just be a portfolio-type piece, but i'd be interested in seeing how well he really holds up. because right now, he just seems a little boring. but as i said, its beautiful, also!

boring it is indeed in regards to the pose. i'm workin' on gettin' this tub o' lard to hold a dynamic pose, chasin'/hunting a pig in the jungle. i'm hoping his body will hold up like jello and cause little annoyance.

as for tribal war paint, i didn't want too much goin' on...i can still add it on later i suppose. i'll play with the idea.

thanks for the feedback folks.

For my two cents, the tribal war paint seems like an excellent idea to me as well. I see where you don't want too much going on, but at the same time you don't want too little, which is what you've got now.

My opinion is that this pretty much rox though. Oh, and I tried sketching my stuff in photoshop first, before drawing it in illustrator, and I've got to say it turned out quite a bit better. Before I just drew it straight in illustrator, which is a pain in the ass.

Oh, and I tried sketching my stuff in photoshop first, before drawing it in illustrator, and I've got to say it turned out quite a bit better. Before I just drew it straight in illustrator, which is a pain in the ass.

given the opportunity, i enjoy sketching on photoshop. the use of the layers can be quite effective; one layer for the bare bone skeletal frame, another for loose detail, another for more detail, vice versa. less erasing involved from my experience...

i do suggest though, that you not draw straight from illustrator unless you have a rough sketch of some sort drawn out. it can help refine your work and save time. and generally speaking, brainstorming, or in this case, rough sketching, is always a good idea. commonly overlooked, but never hurts...

marine, you said you can do the same thing in flash..put your money where your mouth is!

Zeek, what you said is exactly what I found out when I started sketching in photoshop after seeing you do it. I find I am able to both increase quaility, layout, and design, not to mention anatomy. I will never draw complex pictures straight in illustrator again.

Thanks again, you have made my life so much easier.

Nice work! Go Ju ju man!