Meh.

I'm not as happy with this one as I could be, and I think it boils down to two major problems I've been having: color and backgrounds.

Now I know I did a whole post about "hey look I can make backgrounds now!", but it really doesn't matter unless the entire piece as a whole fits. In this case, I tried several different park scenes, none of which fit with the one-point perspective scheme I already had going on, even after scaling and skewing various pictures. It just wasn't happening. My end result then is this dull, parchment-colored gradient background with a bizarre shadow over the main character.

Which brings me to the second problem I mentioned, the coloring. Man oh man, I am not a freaking colorist. And it's sad because I really do want to be, but I think ultimately I just don't have the mental wiring in place yet - but don't worry, we're working on the installation at the moment, so just please excuse our appearance in the meantime. [end terrible metaphor.] Thing is, this point in the story is actually supposed to be a rather murky and muddled moment for this guy, the main character. So I don't really mind the scheme being on the dull and realistic side. I'm just worried that it's boring to look at, and that stylistically I won't be able to break away from this kind of "meh"-ness in color.

Worry worry worry. Mess mess mess. I think I'm just annoyed because the digital flaws really distract from what I felt were huge positives in the original sketch; I felt I did a great job with the pose, the subtle expression on his face, and most importantly the hands and the clothes - the last two are traditionally very hard to do. So yes, I'm returning to the habit of putting the original sketch up along with the final digital copy, because sadly I feel like I have something to prove with it.


I. Final Copy.


II. Original Sketch.