Modern...Fantasy?

I got a new project to complete for a client, and it's a strange (unusual?) mix of modern/post apocalyptic sort of stuff with fantasy races.

This is my first test sketches:

The races are gnome, dwarf, elf, half-elf, orc, robot, human, lizard-man, halfling.
Classes are mad scientist, gangster (pimp?), punk drifter (wasn't sure about this one), celebutant spokes model, cop, mad max/wasteland survivor/bounty hunter, Navy Seal, Starfighter Pilot.

I can say for sure it's stuff I usually don't draw. At least not in this sort of context.
Challenges are good though! 0: Let's see how I do!

Now for self-critique and such: I personally like the dwarf, the elf, and the orc best. tbh, the robot turned out not bad for a first try...though it needs a lot more work.
These will be all coloured, so I will have to pay attention to vary the colour schemes a little, making nothing seem repetitive.
The ones I am NOT happy with are the gnome scientist, the starfighter halfling, and the lizard navy seal. probably because I am too clueless about the 'classes' to add a distinct character? =/ hmm.....

Anyway, less talking, more practising. Thanks for looking!

Monkeys

Okay so, the tiger bits are nearly complete, but I've moved onto the monkey. Since the old post got long, I decided to do a separate post now for the hero monkey. :3

So yeah. this entire sheet was a pain. Just trying out various combos and mostly disliking them.

Some elements are nice, but I couldn't decide.

Asked friends for advice while slowly trying to find my favourites and fixing elements.

I really liked the last one, (bottom right) his colours were directly taken from a photo of an Orang Utan. 

Sadly, he looks too dark and 'evil' for a hero type character.

I kinda liked the white monkey thing, my friend Marcks had suggested this combo. 

Not settled, but we'll see. More testing and asking for advice from specific people.

[update Jan 16th]

Trying to decide and compare. =/ 

The colour choice at the end needs to look good next to the tiger, but I just can't decide for the life of me.

Red, brown or white monkey? Dark, regal or light armour? DX ARGHH!

This can't fill my entire day again, I have to finish this!

Colouring tigers....

So yeah, started the colours...
This entry will be updated as I go along I think. I am still trying stuff out and such, so a lot is weird looking still.

^First try: deciding on colours. 

I had one version where the tiger looked a bit too yellowish brown. 

Got some refs and fixed that. still not 100% sure, but we'll see as I go along. 

Maybe I'll swap colours later.

^Flats down, even if messy. 

Also, lined cleanly now. trying to keep lines thinner these days, as colours become more and more important... =/

^I tried some blending in SAI, which turned out terrible, 

so I settled on Photoshop, sketching the colours down instead of painting. I feel more comfy cross-hatching, even in colour. 

Added some shading, fixed his face (was missing some 'beard')

Looking at it now, it's still a bit too orange/yellow to me. I might change up his gear/clothes colours. 

Hmmm.......

[Jan 11th Update]: 

Looked up some reference and followed fiancés advice, 

changed the shorts and cloth colour arounr the hips. Also, added the weapon. 

I keep forgetting what it's called. ._.;;

Okay, now starting with back and side view. I really like the sketch from the side.

The other one gave me some trouble.

FLATS. LINES. phew. + u+

Anyway, will continue and extend this post as I go along, so don't forget to check back. :3

thanks for looking!

So I picked up an old idea I had, with the intention of finally finishing it....

Started out like this, until I realised this is no good. Chibi looks really out of place, and I need to stylise more, cartoony or something... Thing is, I never draw in cartoon style, despite having grown up with Disney films. Never occurred to me to draw the characters.

So this is where I went looking for reference.

Lots of Disney (jungle book) Dreamworks (Kung Fu Panda) and more (mostly from here: http://characterdesignnotes.blogspot.com/ )

Left half is just freehand eyeballed stuff. Right hand side is my attempt to feel comfortable drawing this style.

I'll keep you posted with how it goes. 

One more~

Getting closer to what I was aiming for:

[ Jan 6th ] Update:

Sketched some more, and added a new monkey. perhaps a hero type!

Very much my own Sun Wu Kong version I guess.

The other bamboo warrior jumping on tiger thing will be picked up another time.@_@;; I am a bit angry at it still.

wip

Gonna be fixing this piece of crap for a while.



[Update!] New bits:

Can you see the differences? 0:

-guy is bigger, better in perspective
-popping out of the image itself to make it look more...'in the action'
-sword and arm fixed a little
-tiger smaller, lower
-perspective fixed by adjusting bamboo angles.

It's still not what I want, so I'll be fixing some more today, but it's slooowly getting there.
A lot will probably be adjusted in colour as well. we'll see.