One Eyed Martians - Could use some help with Martian Anatomy!

[pixelmech]

This is a collage of some of my finished drawings from my comic. I'm hope this is the right place to post this. I've been drawing this comic for over a year. As you can see I draw these martian characters, there are 3 main ones. The red and pink ones are female, they have the "mascara" look or the one eyelash going up on each side. The green one also has a different shaped eye.

People seem to like them, and I get nice comments. But I am not happy with the way I've drawn them at all. They lack a consistency and a solid construction that I have been stymied on figuring out for whatever reason.

The biggest challenge I have is drawing the legs. You can see sometimes they look okay and sometimes they look real odd. I'm never quite sure where they originate, or where the hip is.

Also for the female eye, it works okay but I'd like to refine it to be better. It still has to be simple, but I'm thinking there's a better way.

Even the shoulders I have trouble with sometimes, as the body is nothing more than a "bean" shape, it's hard to tack on a shoulder there without looking odd sometimes. Basically the way I construct them is three circles with an action line. Bisect the middle circle gives me the shoulders. From there it gets iffy.

I realize this is just a comic strip, but I'd like to draw the characters more consistently. Any suggestions anyone might have would be great, and if you wanted to take a crack at drawing them and showing me some ideas, especially on the legs, I'd love to see them.

[Beastie]

Well....I dunno.....they look ok to me.

I don't seem a massive difference from drawing to drawing.

[Mr.Hades]

hey man. I've sketched up some stuff that might give you some ideas...Trouble being the scanner at my work is out of order, so i'll upload what I have done tonight.

[pixelmech]

Great, thanks Mr. Hades! And thanks for the comment Beastie - I'm not saying there is some kind of wide variation, but I think it does exist, and this is only a small sampling. There are times when I just can't figure out a certain pose, or how a leg should be when they are walking, or where the shoulder is - and the eyes in particular.

Frankly I included some of the best examples here, not the worst.

Coming up with good expressions with one eye and one brow is tough. I'm doing okay, but I'd like to improve it.

[Mr.Hades]

IT guy fixed the scanner! Yay!

To be honest, I don't see a real problem with your work at all, what I have done below is just a bit of artistic interpretation really:



I tried to draw them with their arms sitting just below their mouths, made the female bean more slender, male bean has a flat eye where female has a more curved one with lashes, male bean has clunkier feet. Me speak in short phrases. :?

I hope this helps in some way(?)

[pixelmech]

I like the idea for the male eye for sure - that helps set it apart from the female eye. You kind of made the female eye narrower vertically too, and I think that helps a little.

I guess I am doing it very similar to what you did in regards to the legs.

My biggest problems with the legs are drawing them from side angles, I'm never sure where to put things so I often avoid those poses altogether (which is lame).

Thanks for doing this, it helps!

Would be glad to see any and all other interpretations if anyone else is willing. I'm kind of at the point where I want to revisit the design, so I'm open to all suggestions.

[Bryan E.Warner]

Hey Tom
what your doing works...but I understand wanting to experiment a bit..are you looking for cuter? less-cuter? More detail? less Detail?

[pixelmech]

Thanks Good question. I wouldn't mind a bit more cuteness and a bit more detail. It's still a comic strip - I don't want to add much more complexity.

Basically I'm looking to tweak the character designs so I am open to any suggestion - I'm just not quite happy with where they are. But - my readers seem to love them, so I cannot stray too far.

I was just talking with a buddy artist of mine, and I showed him the Horton Hears a Who concepts by Jake Parker

http://agent44.com/blog2/?p=312

And I was struck by the similarity in the "simpleness" of the basic Seuss character and my martians. What if my Martians had that type of hair? The girls then could have a pony tail, or something. Not saying I want to make "martian seuss" characters, but that maybe there are things like that suggestion of hair that might work...

Like I said, any thoughts or ideas or sketches are welcome.

[ENTITY]

Instead of hair, your could maybe give them different types of antennae or tendrils to signify a difference. Like a curly or wavy version for the female and a sort of flat topped, spotty tree stump configuration for the males (or just none for the males).

This may also help differentiate them from looking so much like Plankton from SpongeBob Squarepants fame.

[Bryan E.Warner]

Thanks Good question. I wouldn't mind a bit more cuteness and a bit more detail. It's still a comic strip - I don't want to add much more complexity.

Basically I'm looking to tweak the character designs so I am open to any suggestion - I'm just not quite happy with where they are. But - my readers seem to love them, so I cannot stray too far.

I was just talking with a buddy artist of mine, and I showed him the Horton Hears a Who concepts by Jake Parker

http://agent44.com/blog2/?p=312

And I was struck by the similarity in the "simpleness" of the basic Seuss character and my martians. What if my Martians had that type of hair? The girls then could have a pony tail, or something. Not saying I want to make "martian seuss" characters, but that maybe there are things like that suggestion of hair that might work...

Like I said, any thoughts or ideas or sketches are welcome.

Nothing ventured nothing gained...try one or two sketches to see how it feels