Chiara - Art School Journey

[chiara.arcidiaco]

Here is a full anatomical study in zbrush. I wanted to make her tall with a narrow bust but I don't know if it's still believable, let me know what you think Also If you spot some anatomy mistakes hahah

It's still a WIP, so I haven't done yet the breast, feet and hands ( I struggle with that because is merged with the body ), and the head of course hahah

[chiara.arcidiaco]

Good Monday everyone!

This week I will work on character design topic, so much stuff going on hahah
I have some ideas in mind but this is what I was thinking:

• Theme: jungle
• Young girl raised by a panther, sexy indigenous, maybe hunter
• self-confident, agile, animal instinct, feline attitude/pose

This is the basic idea, I think that It will change a bit during this week
Before I was thinking about an alien indigene girl (almost like the Avatar movie) but I would like to see the animals and creature class before, so maybe I will refine it later.

I started browsing on the internet trying to have references and understand better my ideas.
I started with a figure drawing (still WIP), it was not really related with the main theme but I liked the sexy pose and the intense eyesight, exactly what I had in mind.

Than I started thinking of the siluette of the character, here there are some gesture drawing and then I expanded the concept of three of them.
I'm so sorry they are very bad but I didn't want to spend too much time on that, I wanted just to brainstorm.

Sorry I haven't done gesture drawing for a while and that sucks hahah

My thoughts about the siluette study:

• A: I really like the angle between the shoulder line and the hips line (I don't know how to call it ) I think that it's my favorite one
• B: very stiff, I don't like it so much even if the siluette is really readable, maybe with hands on the hips could be better
• C: I like the torsion of the body, like if she was walking. In the reference the girl was holding a leash of a dog, maybe she could have a spear instead

I would like to know what do you think about the theme, if it could work or not and if you like it of course
Maybe also which is your favorite siluette and if you have any advice to modify them.

Enough talking, thanks in advance If you live a comment to help me with this character
Have a great creative week!!

[dangras-almeida]

Hey @chiara.arcidiaco,

Really nice study going on here! Congrats!

To your questions:
* The theme: Loved the theme! Could work for sure and the final character will probably turn out super badass. Excited to see the final results! While browsing your pieces, for some reason, I remembered the Marvel character Storm/Ororo Munroe, from the X-Men. Could be a good reference. There is another artist (that I'm having a hard time remembering the name. As soon as I do I'll come back here) that is also a great female character illustrator and has a similar theme - but his characters are huntresses in a jungle filled with dinosaurs! 😅

• The silhouette: Options A and C for me, so far. C is more dynamic because feels like she is going somewhere. The spear idea is also pretty nice.

Don't have any advice just yet. Would like to see how things turn out more before giving any feedback.

Keeps us posted and good luck!

[ghostmonster]

those gestures on the second page are so strong. 'A' is such a knockout pose for the theme your going for, that pose says so much without any detail.

[WeirdOwl]

Love your gesture drawing! I'm struggling with those so much!
As for poses, I prefer A the most for the theme you chose. Since you want your character to have feline attributes, I think you should go with the most fluid/curvy pose possible.

[chiara.arcidiaco]

@dangras-almeida thank you for the advice!! Yes I really like Storm, I like how powerful she is and the fact that she's levitating and controlling thunders is so amazing hahah I would like to implement her in my style and study her artworks more.
And I'm looking forward to get to know the other character that you was talking about!! It seems almost what was going in my mind hahah

And thanks @ghostmonst3r and @WeirdOwl for choosing the best pose!! It helped me a lot

So today I tried to focus more on that pose and adding some elements and some ideas of clothing piece (really rough, always just to brainstorm).

Still missing hair, don't worry she won't be bald hahah

• A: I really like the focus on the face but maybe too many details
• B: here is my favorite cloth, I think that it's the most "self done", not something bought in the civilized world haha and I wanted to try how panther spots works on her skin, but I think that there is too much focus on the torso area right now
• C: I like how the upper part of the bodysuit reminds a panther's face but I think that it doesn't work very well, I didn't spent so much time either on this one

I used white only to make clothes pop up, values and colors are still WIP.

As the other post I will really appreciate your opinion, and thanks again for the previous comment, It really helps me to understand others opinion on a subject like character design

After that I went on some animal figure drawing (feline to remain on the same theme )
I also watched 2/3 documentaries while I was drawing and It was very funny! I also learned a lot of things that I didn't knew before. That will surely help my character design

This was fast and loose too, but I like to achieve something decent (far away from finished) in short amount of time and keep testing other things.

Have a good day and see you soon guys!

[WeirdOwl]

Ohh! I really like the B outfit. I do like the markings from option A, but if you add intricate hair, those details might clash. I guess it will depend on hair and jewelry.

[chiara.arcidiaco]

Thanks @WeirdOwl!! I've chosen that outfit hahah but I don't know what kinda of jewelry put on her due to the fact that she lives in a forest lonely apart from her panther.
I think that gold it's out of question hahah also because it's not easy to create something from that without proper tools.

So keep working on my character design, I can almost see the end but a lot of stuff going on, still a WIP.
Here there are some hairs styles (I'm so bad at it haha anyone can give me any advice or some good tutorial to see? pretty desperate hahah) and kinda a general idea of my character with some basic color.

As always any comment on the concept design Is really, really appreciated

Other than that a fast and loose portrait drawing (It's been ages from the last one) and some color studying always related on the topic of the character. Also two animal figure drawing, most of all to get used to the skin fold and skin cavity brushes in Marc's advanced brushes pack.

Have a good day!

[mrlasagna]

Wow Chiara, have not been here in a while but you made a lot of progress, congratulations !

And i quite like your character design Well done !

[chiara.arcidiaco]

Thanks @mrlasagna!! It really means a lot to me Even if the journey is still so long hahaha

---

Anyway, today I worked a bit with animals/compared anatomy focusing on the shading part, still very simple (I didn't spent so much time on that) but I feel that I'm becoming a bit better on that, so this is the important part hahah

Than, just hands Anything to say hahah

I think that the reference was not the best one because they was shrouded in darkness and I couldn't see the overall form, hope to learn from that mistake

[dangras-almeida]

Hey, I'm back!

Finally remembered the name of the artist I told you about.
His name is Frank Cho (https://www.instagram.com/frankchoartist/) and one of his latest submissions is already in the same topic you are drawing here

Hope it helps! Nice work so far

[chiara.arcidiaco]

Today I worked on my character changing a lot of things, hope you like it

[WeirdOwl]

I actually liked the previous version a lot more. Hope you can combine the best elements from both and incorporate a feline pose.
I like the unruly hair and the outfit on the previous version better. I like the blue color for contrast you introduced here. I love the new necklace. Maybe you can make it bigger with huge teeth as a sign of her hunting skills. Have a stone/bone? knife? Don't know if she could get her hands on metal judging by her background.

[chiara.arcidiaco]

@WeirdOwl Sorry If I answer you back just now but I think that you're right, the design was more interesting even If I didn't like how the whole figure turned out.

I tried to do something different (again ) with the same character, maybe more like an "illustration" than a character design. Still WIP, I've just put some flat colors to see how it looks.

In the second one I tried to add a kinda of landscape but I don't know if it works or not Also the relation between the two characters, they don't interact so much, they just look at the same spot without expressing any emotion.

I'm not still super happy with her design (most of all the body paint, I'm not a master at it hahah) but, I don't know, tell me what do you think

[WeirdOwl]

None of us are masters here, otherwise we wouldn't be here getting whipped every Saturday
I like this design a lot better. I think the hair is perfect! The only thing that is bothering me now is her hand (check the anatomy) and the right forearm (seems to be too thin even considering perspective and being hidden by the leg). Not sure about the long nails too. Human nails are too thin to be useful in the wild and too difficult to maintain. Maybe have her use a makeshift bone glove? If she wants to fight with claws like her panther mother?
Sorry for my rambling. Not sure if this will be useful to you.

[chiara.arcidiaco]

@WeirdOwl It was a great idea!! And I was surprised also to find references of gloves with claws This is what I've done

I've also modified the arm making it a little bit bigger, looking at my reference in fact was too small as you was saying hahah

I've added also shading and trying to add light (failing ).

I figured out that her leg is very bad shaded, I will fix it I swear
Surely the light makes the character pop out from the canvas but it's too bad haha I think that I'm not doing it in the right way. Do you have any advice?

I'm setting the level to overlay and paint with a soft brush with a yellowish color, I've also tried to add the inner glow with an orange tint but it looked a bit strange, all my lightning setup looks strange in reality hahah

I've changed the light of the panther to a reddish color because yellow and black are so bad together I didn't thought about it in the early stage.

I think that I will work more on it (redoing it ) tomorrow with fresh eyes.

Last but not least @WeirdOwl I really want to thank you so much for your help with this character, seriously hahah I'm so thankful for that If at the end turns out good it's also because of you

[chiara.arcidiaco]

Progress, hope this is better than before

What do you think? Should I change something?

I know that the background is not good haha I didn't tackled that lesson yet, to you think that it's better to have a white background or keep it as it is?

Thank you in advance,
Have a good day

[chiara.arcidiaco]

Sorry for posting again but I modified a bit the image to make it brighter, do you think it's better?

Thanks again

[WeirdOwl]

I like the glove design! Funny how everything we think of someone already drew.
And you are very welcome. I enjoy watching your progress!

I think rough background is good, not distracting from the characters. If you feel like there's not enough depth, you can try adding some rough foliage in the foreground (leaf scatter brushes work well for that).

[chiara.arcidiaco]

Just wanted to do something different today, something back to my past.
Before the art school I was doing mostly abstract things (like mandalas and zentangles, don't know if you're familiar with it) and flowers.
I tried to add some difficulty adding colors (before I was doing just the lineart).

Not so polished but hope you like it.