first-timer

[tenki]

this is my first post in the fanworks forum

these are a few pics i've done trying to think up characters for a story i may or may not do.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v35/1tenki1/sfmikans.jpg
this was a first trying to color with b/w dot patterns kinda like in manga

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v35/1tenki1/sfmichelleoriginal.jpg
this was a sketch.. ignore the notes in the back unless you think they might help ^^;

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v35/1tenki1/sfmichellebg2.jpg
and this was the colored version, a first time using shades instead of outlines to show some parts


i'm kinda new to cg-style coloring so any comments on how to make them better can help. thanks ^^

[Yebyosh]

Your sketches so far show you have a decent grasp of character designs. Looks like you love big eyes It seems the ears do need some more work if they are needed to be detailed.

There are some things needed to be worked out but as you implied, it seems to be more an issue with your CG skills. In the first picture, the outlines are too rough and thick. If you want to use screentones and you are using Adobe Photoshop, you can download Patterns and Brushes that emulate the real screentones, one such site is http://psychobob.xepher.net/screentonez/

For the coloured version, the colouring scheme used is not matching. If you are going for the general manga/anime colouring scheme, all that is needed is the main colour itself with just one darker shade ( for shadows ) and/or one lighter shade ( for highlights or you can simply use white in place of this ).

If you are going for a more realistic scheme ( more varying shades of colour ), use a faint darker shade of the main colour to ink an outline of the object. You would also have to play down on the contrasts as the solid black and white eyes look out of place with the gradually coloured nose. The skin looks too artificial, likely due to an excessive use of highlights. The blouse also looks too flat for this scheme. More use of darker shades for the creases and folds are needed.

[bakanekonei]

in addition to what yebyosh posted, i would think the use of photoshop grass is a bad thing, but if you are using your mouse i'll not argue, when i used to use my mouse to color i realized how hard doing your own grass is.