The mask- painting

[dario.campanella]

Hi there is a project that I wanted to bring to digital, this is a previous illustration I came up for march of the machines contest.

I did look good on paper but i decided to make it digital later on.

I still thought that wasnt enought. I really loved the idea and I wanted to cam up with painted version

there still a lot of work that needs to be none. but im happy to have some suggestions.

one is about the decorations. of the Robot. I think I would like to maybe put a cassette recorder and some other oldies instead. there is a lot of squarish stuff. so maybe have something that is round may help. like the buttons. any object that comes into your mind may help.

also I want to revitalize the expressions make those faces joyful. Im not sure if im going to keep the eye style. Im trying different ones but im not convinced yet.

lately Im not sure if I want to keep the gun-arm. is good to have another arm on the otherside to help the composition + story. is just that having a weapon on the otherside doesnt appeal me anymore. I would like to put something like a sping-punch or similar.

the bacground. God I wish I have any Idea how simple perspective works. the it looks weird. maybe because I have to put the girl on the same level ot fhe boy.

lastly. I have no Idea if want to put any forniture on the back. maybe because my perspective issues. I have the feeling that putting a simple book shelf can really help.
if you have any picture of any piece of handcraft that looks cute. dont be afraid to show it. any idea can help.

-dont be afraid on critics.

[PeterH]

Hehe, this is looking adorable. The first drawing really is very sweet.

Going down through your concerns,

This is what popped into my mind when you mentioned cassette player https://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/300893836407-0-1/s-l1000.jpg , has a bit of roundness to it like you mentioned and at least with a slightly older viewer it should bring back some memories.

The simple eyes from the first image are pretty delightful. No need to change them unless you really feel the need.

I did not pick up in the original image that it was a gun arm, just that it was another boxy part of the robot, and you do indeed need that element there just like you said it helps the comp.

Perspective- in your original image you had the perspective of something very close to the ground looking up, its cute, like another kid sitting on the floor watching, you can see it because you do not see the top of any of the boxes, only the side and bottoms. So I think that holding to that would be the right idea. In your painted image you are showing the top of the two boxes, and the angles of the box sides does not work with seeing that, nor the wheels or the ground. That is probably what you are picking up on there.
I will do a quick paint over and show you those corrections.

I love the wall paper and drawings idea for the background, we just put wall stickers up in my 4 year old boy's room to that effect. No furniture needed, the floor and the floor board will show plenty about where they are.

Its looking great, keep at it. Ill post the paint-over corrections in a few minutes.

[PeterH]

Alright, here are the changes for the perspective fixes, I highlighted the things moved with red, and obviously you can just compare to see the things that needed to move.

Feel free to ask anything if the marks don't make sense.

[dario.campanella]

Hi

thank you for spending your time towrite and make that one up.

I kinda had the feeling that the focal point was too high. I probabily gotten carried over and i wanted to show more, at the same time I put perspective too high.

I can set guides from there and hopefully I should be allright.

one important question: I noticed that you didnt put the girl feet at the same level of the cardboard I guess that should help to give a sense of dept am I correct?

I do tend to keep image very flat and leave anything on the same line. but that is not necessarily a good answer

[PeterH]

I was picturing the box that the boy is in being rather deep and her being back closer to the wall, kind of like a robot tank. But you can of course drop her feet down to get them more even with him, that is fine too. It is really the white baseboard dropping down that was important to get them both to feel more in line with the rest of the images perspective.

Its looking really good.

[Artcaster]

Dear Dario,

First of all I love the drawing style and the concept warms my heart! Both the sketch and the digital drawing have a ton of potential and I'd love to see more like those!

Now there are certain issues that you need to focus on to make the digital image pop. You don't have to make something perfect. After all, no artist sees perfection in his/her craftworks Just try to cover the things that you mentioned:

1) Decorations of the robot and the room: It is impossible to create something beautiful/interesting/captivating without prior knowledge. Research is everything. For example if you do a quick google search for "retro robot toy" you will get a ton of images like this one:

That image alone can give you a ton of ideas to decorate the costume. See the antennas on the head and the flash beacon? The gears and the contraptions on the body? You can use just a couple of those details to make the costume feel real. But remember! Do not copy and paste. See 20 robots and pick 5 details that you like. The picture I posted is just a sample.
You should do the same for the room.

2) The expressions: I agree with Peter and suggest you see some children books like Charlotte's Web to see the faces of the characters. Try to understand what emotion they express and how the artist achieves it. Also look at classic comics of similar styles like Peanuts or Calvin and Hobbes.

3) Perspective: Peter's comments were better advice than I could ever offer so I'll just add that in general perspective might sound boring but let's be honest. If you don't acquire enough knowledge about it, your drawings will lose a lot of potential. But the good news is it's easy! 1 point and 2 point perspective is all you need at the beginning. And who knows? You might realize that you like it so much that one day we will read fish-eye perspective tutorials from you! There are a ton of videos to help you with the basics. Try them with multiple angles until it becomes intuitive. There are also a couple of good books I can recommend if you are interested.
Good luck and keep drawing!

[dario.campanella]

Hi

thanks again for the helpful reply.

I will definely go and do more research. I kinda want to imagine what kids could have used to make the robot(something like a used telephone and other things). but looking at vintage robots could definely help.

and thanks for the shouting out of classic artist I should go and see.

hopefully the more I will start to do complete artoworks (since im used to limit myself to characters) the more I will start to understand perspective better. since this artstyle in finding myself found of (it has been shifted recently in the last year) I dont even need to go complicated. I still have the art course to complete. so I hope that will help me as well.

hopefully I could have time to continue this the next 2 weeks (but im juggling between this and daily sketches) so let see.

thanks again.