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About my new style
17 years ago
General
It seems most people are in the "change is not good" camp, at least the people who have taken the time to write decent comments on my submissions. A few people have said that the new style starting to grow on them, but most of them also throw in 'but I prefered the old style' at the end. It's not going to go back though, and I thought I should take some time to explain why I have gone in the direction I have.
First of all let me address the airbrush shading I started using. This was before the current style change but I kind of group it with it in my head, and I have gotten at least one well constructed critique on that already. I never really cared much for cel shading and found that I can do nice soft shading using the airbrush tools. It adds interest to my black and white sketches and it is pretty easy to add color to later just by layering solid colors on top of the airbrushing. I felt my sketches needed more interest to draw more attention to my gallery and increase the chances people will click through on the dev watch page. I also in general really like how the airbrushed stuff turns out, I just need to work on a few more things about it (like how Rough's hair was shaded in the last one). Needless to say, it is here to stay.
Now the heart of the matter, the style change to a more serious look. This has been a long time coming but none of you really had any way to know it. When I originally planned the story it was a light hearted comedy featuring a catgirl and mousegirl who were roommates, and that cuter style was perfect for that. Over time though I changed the focus, it became a heavy sci fi action story that gets really really dark towards the end. That cutesy style just is'nt appropriate anymore, so it had to go. I'll still likely do things in that style, like the chinchilla sketches for example. But the ModGene's need to be more serious and i need to get used to that now if I am ever going to get to the comic.
Well, that is about it for now. Feel free to leave some feedback on all of this here, I would love to see what everyone thinks (though it won't change anything).
First of all let me address the airbrush shading I started using. This was before the current style change but I kind of group it with it in my head, and I have gotten at least one well constructed critique on that already. I never really cared much for cel shading and found that I can do nice soft shading using the airbrush tools. It adds interest to my black and white sketches and it is pretty easy to add color to later just by layering solid colors on top of the airbrushing. I felt my sketches needed more interest to draw more attention to my gallery and increase the chances people will click through on the dev watch page. I also in general really like how the airbrushed stuff turns out, I just need to work on a few more things about it (like how Rough's hair was shaded in the last one). Needless to say, it is here to stay.
Now the heart of the matter, the style change to a more serious look. This has been a long time coming but none of you really had any way to know it. When I originally planned the story it was a light hearted comedy featuring a catgirl and mousegirl who were roommates, and that cuter style was perfect for that. Over time though I changed the focus, it became a heavy sci fi action story that gets really really dark towards the end. That cutesy style just is'nt appropriate anymore, so it had to go. I'll still likely do things in that style, like the chinchilla sketches for example. But the ModGene's need to be more serious and i need to get used to that now if I am ever going to get to the comic.
Well, that is about it for now. Feel free to leave some feedback on all of this here, I would love to see what everyone thinks (though it won't change anything).
But seriously, I think that it's an option worth exploring. Plus, it's not like a more serious style will pre-empt you from doing the occasional funny or cute picture if you feel like it.
just as a personal note, I had to do a heavy workout on my practice before finding a good look in my drawings, one I liked, and I've been using it, got comments on how nice it was :P
and yeah, not everyone gets used to change, but I say, we all need it sometime
and I like yours
The change is subtle but noticeable. I still think its great regardless. Do what you need to do -- all else will follow.