CGAN July 2015 Challenge - Mad Hatter's Tea Party

These are two great first sketches!
Cherry: Fantastic expression and the the way you connect all the characters using the hair is very clever and dynamic. There are winding paths that lead your eye all around the picture. Can't wait to see more detail.

And Susie: I love the formality of this composition and the thoughtful arrangement of the characters. The chiseled cheek bones of the hatter creates an interesting contrast of geometry with the softer female (and feline) faces. Will look great with the imminent colour.

yeah thanks Val Hope I can paint some more the next days, LEO is also challenging me a bit

Susie1981: I like it, Susie1981! The ladies are a great idea

I disappointed myself a bit in the last challenge so I'm determined to do better in this one. Go Go Schizo!!

Been struggling a bit with all my attempted scribbles since the last challenge. Every day this week I seemed to waste a couple of hours doing something awful and then ditching it with the usual fury. But today wasn't quite so bad....







It's not quite what I initially had in mind for this (I wanted to go dark and creepy but it's gone cartoony again!) and I am not confident about finishing. Multiple character scenes are a real struggle for me but I'll keep going for the time being.

hahahaha always great how your paintings turn from kind of weird to something great Val.

Love Alice' expression a lot

I spent some time to get in this new style for me But it is a lot of fun trying new things So here comes the colored and inked version of the march hare - the one I love the most ^^

CherryGraphics wrote:

hahahaha always great how your paintings turn from kind of weird to something great Val.

I certainly agree with the weird comment! I don't understand how everyone else's sketches look fantastic but mine look like I had an epileptic fit while playing with an Etch-A-Sketch! Weird indeed.
I just can't do linework.

Your picture looks good with some colour added. Just getting rid of the white background makes such a difference.


Did a bit of work on mine but I'm not sure about the character designs. I thought of the mad march hare as a kind of mental patient in a hospital gown wanting to pull the tail off the white rabbit while looking like a Donnie Darko style cuddly toy. Not sure it works.
Also while doing the hatter I was reminded of how Schizo always tells me how I draw similar faces over and over again. And he's right, I do. I really do! This one looks like the kid in my Sorcerer's Apprentice picture. Again.
I just have no imagination whatsoever. It's very embarrassing. But I doubt I can be bothered repainting and redesigning. No imagination and lazy too!



Also I think I could rearrange the characters in the frame. Although I like the way they're clustered around the table I think some of the overlaps aren't working so a bit of change here and there could improve the overall space. And I don't like the purple colour of the cat, may change that too.

Valence- good start...The characters are a bit scrunched together and pushed off to the left with a fair amount of empty space to the right. Perhaps moving the Mad Hatter to the end of the table would help.

Also the table seems to cut most of the characters off. Arms, hands, elbows are all behind the table edge so perhaps some overlap there.

Group scenes are challenging so I find it helps if you take just 2 or 3 characters, get them to interact to each other and then place those groups in a pleasing way to each other.

Some very cool works going on for this challenge.

hobbyhorse wrote:

Group scenes are challenging.

Ain't that the truth!
I left the gap to possibly add another character peeking over the table but that all depends on how well the other characters develop. If I don't feel happy enough with that then a recrop will definitely happen.
I do wish I could work out these compositions in advance (like Susie's picture) but my brain doesn't stretch that far into the future and I end up making it up as I go along!

Hi there

was a bit lazy the last days and rediscovered my playstation and final fantasy..

I changed the format a bit because now the characters will be a bit more together. And there's the mad hatter and the dormouse