James
02-13-2006, 06:13 PM
Happens sometimes. You have to change characters for some reason and you don't want to start from scratch.
So here was some fun. Due to an issue with the companies characters. The two central characters I'd been asked to draw had to be removed from the requested three part strip on the exciting topic of hand drying (who said illustration wasn't all action, eh?). They wanted to keep the idea, but suddenly I had to create two new characters to replace the old ones which had to continue the same sort of dynamic, but not be sun and earth/male and female.
In the end, after much talking with the company about ways of creating new central set of characters, I proposed they moved along and simply had two characters which would work for this strip. That way, the work wouldn't get slowed on an issue bigger than the issue of this small presentation.
I felt, soap and water would make central connecting characters in this context, however I couldn't deviate too much from the original picture. The original picture for panel 3 is below:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/casarbi/sam3.jpg
So to make sure I didn't have to redo the whole thing, I wanted characters I could "fit" over the top. After deciding on soap and water designs, I traced the new characters with pencil line over the top of the original Black and White Inks using layout paper, and then inked those new characters on the layout paper. I scanned the layout, upped the contrast and brightness to kill the greyscale, then moved to photoshop to colour.
Because the characters in the strip worked slightly differently and were slightly different in shape, the speech bubbles had to be rewritten and then reshaped.
After some more complicated colouring (as seperate PS layers), the two new characters were tidied up - as was the background so the new shapes fitted nicely over gaps made in pulling the old characters out.
So there you have it. Wendy Water and the highly androgenous "Soapy" as replacement actors!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/casarbi/8sam.jpg
So here was some fun. Due to an issue with the companies characters. The two central characters I'd been asked to draw had to be removed from the requested three part strip on the exciting topic of hand drying (who said illustration wasn't all action, eh?). They wanted to keep the idea, but suddenly I had to create two new characters to replace the old ones which had to continue the same sort of dynamic, but not be sun and earth/male and female.
In the end, after much talking with the company about ways of creating new central set of characters, I proposed they moved along and simply had two characters which would work for this strip. That way, the work wouldn't get slowed on an issue bigger than the issue of this small presentation.
I felt, soap and water would make central connecting characters in this context, however I couldn't deviate too much from the original picture. The original picture for panel 3 is below:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/casarbi/sam3.jpg
So to make sure I didn't have to redo the whole thing, I wanted characters I could "fit" over the top. After deciding on soap and water designs, I traced the new characters with pencil line over the top of the original Black and White Inks using layout paper, and then inked those new characters on the layout paper. I scanned the layout, upped the contrast and brightness to kill the greyscale, then moved to photoshop to colour.
Because the characters in the strip worked slightly differently and were slightly different in shape, the speech bubbles had to be rewritten and then reshaped.
After some more complicated colouring (as seperate PS layers), the two new characters were tidied up - as was the background so the new shapes fitted nicely over gaps made in pulling the old characters out.
So there you have it. Wendy Water and the highly androgenous "Soapy" as replacement actors!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v237/casarbi/8sam.jpg