To Render or Not to Render? - Batman Animated Gif Style Study

[RAYD!]

I've struggled with this myself a million times. Thought I'd bring it out here.

I've always wondered what style to go in. More cartoony (Joe Mad)? More realistic (Butch Guice, Dale Keown)? Realistic with rendering (Dave Finch)? Mainstream Realistic (Jim Lee, Kuberts)? Realistic without (Steve Scroce)? Cartoony with grit (Greg Capullo)? Stylistic Cartoony (Mike Mignola)? Mainstream cartoony (Mike Wieringo)? Highly stylistic (Travis Carest, David Mack, Lienil Yu...). Then there's going back to the sorce of these guys, and so on. There's also painting and more.

There's so many different styles, all of which I love for different reasons. To really develop a style, you have to focus on it. My stuff is constantly morphing It's a little less frequent since I started focusing on storytelling, but I've got that down (there's still more to learn, but it's the experience stuff), and I've been thinking more about style and some of the other aesthetics of art.

Below you'll see a more realistic approach to Batman style study. It's an animated gif, so wait for it. You'll see several stages of creation on this. I started this, planning to go with no rendering or very little. After I finished the first version (no rendering), I saw some areas that could use some rendering to give it more depth and a 3rd dimension (the rib cage on his left side). I then decided to create another layer (I work in Photoshop with a Wacom) to add rendering, so it could easily be deleted, if I didn't like it. Can't just have rendering in one spot and none on the rest of the image, that'll look we'red. So, I rendered the rest of the image. After that, I created another layer for striking through the hatching lines, creating a broken line effect. They all look pretty cool. Oh, and the final frame with the background. Just ignore that. through that in there for fun.

I'm conflicted. What do you think?

Oh, and I still haven't decided if I want to go more cartoony or less or what. This is just for rendering of realistic style. Like I said, I'm conflicted.



Thanks for your thoughts! General critiques are also welcome.

[dwing]

Welcome to the club!.......The question is ...What are you best at?
You've got to develop a style that will make you stand out from the pack...every line has got to have your signature that identity...
Finding myself in this mediem is a struggle, but that is what makes it fun! I try to remind myself that I love the art, and that I love to draw....Being an artist is like being a musician at what ever style...it has got to come out from the inside and then it will speak on it's own.

[Johnny Blaque]

This is good, you definately have skills but Stop wanting to be like someone else! Even the people you admire had heroes, and sure, they wanted to draw just like them when they were younger but as they turned out to have(Sometimes radically) different styles than their heroes. I dunno, your art is going to constantly change by itself into something you'll like maybe even more than your heroes if you just DRAW. Sit down and use your own knowledge of the Human body and other aspects of art and just draw, do it enough and you might be surprised at what you find. Don't let style enter your mind.

As for crits on this piece, I think the torso is too huge. It's like his ribcage is enourmous and he's holding a big breath.

[Ian Miller]

What I do is when I want to re-think my style, I don't read or look at a comic for a few days, and then just draw. I also draw from life, so I'll look in a mirror that I have in front of my desk and use my face for facial reference.

But that Batman pic is pretty good.The second to last slide is pretty good. I think if anything, that's the style I like the best.

[RAYD!]

Let me clarify. Those guys were just examples. I'm not going to rip someone else's style, but just focus on what direction to take my style, how I want to render, what kind of proportions I want to use, what stylistic lines I want to put in. I don't idolize or even notice other artists in the industry anymore, unless I'm working with them, and even then it's just part of the job. The magic of other people's art is gone. I'm trying to find my own magic.

I won't be directed by it, but I will be thinking about it. Putting lines down on a whim can be good for discovering a style, but you really gotta think about which ones to discard, which one's to keep and how they should be crafted to be able to fully develop an individual style.

For example, the way some people draw only shadow, no contour lines. Or how some draw put specific looping lines to define a chin or nose (as I've done in this piece). Or how some people hatch in a very distinctive manor. Or structure the face and body.

Or how some people will let objects fall into shadow where others make sure everything has a bounce light source or halo effects to define every bit of form. This is something I've particularly struggled with in the past. A few years ago, I was drawing everything with multiple light sources so none of my details of form and anatomy were lost. I realized I was doing this and other artists were confident enough to loose that detail or even entire appendages in favor of realistic moody lighting. I liked that a lot, so as hard as it was, I started forcing myself to do that. Now that's one of the staples of my "style". I still use multiple light sources but only for particular reasons of storytelling.

So, anyway, I'm not going to copy anyone. That's the point of analyzing what I do and how I do it. I stopped paying attention to style when I first started learning storytelling and the basics of figure drawing and perspective. I decided that if I was going to focus on that stuff, I had to let everything else come naturally. I had to ignore the urge to focus on the aesthetics. I've got the basic stuff down (the rest is fine tuning that comes with experience). Now it's time to fine tune aesthetic style while continuing to enforce and expand on the basics. Notice what I like in my work, change what I don't.

Thanks for your responses and reading my rants.

[Johnny Blaque]

What you just wrote is idea I was getting at.

[MC Fumunda]

I'd lose the fake BG.

[RAYD!]

Me too. Just threw it in there for the heck of it. Took a couple seconds and it's on it's own layer.

I'd never put that on a real project. Looks horrible.

[snakeI]

I like the third step the most, before you started adding all the hatching...but I love anime and alot of really clean design aesthetics...so yeah. I also like the total opposite, that is hatched to hell and back like albrecht durer or M.C. escher...but for this pick I dig the simpler/cleaner look.


and yeah, that bg is annoying.

[Iwillbe1]

The style should fit the task would be my take on it .....if you were doing Batman Adventures ......

but you can draw man, I too use a Wacom, its liberating and has definitley accelerated my development....

but as for your dilemma, it seems that you can render many different styles, so you have the luxury of possibly drawing "what's hot" as opposed to a guy like me who has to hope that his style will be appealing ......

anyhow, great stuff!