HOME | DD
Posthumus — Little Man
Published: 2008-04-01 00:38:10 +0000 UTC; Views: 1421; Favourites: 24; Downloads: 11
Redirect to original
Description
My poor, diminutive assistant...Sure, they might be able to cross distances of thousands of light years and build super weapons, but when it boils down to it... the size of different alien races might be a problem.
Professor Membrane appears to be approximately 8 or 9 feet tall, and Lard Nar is about 4 feet or so.
In a roleplay Balet and I are doing, he's working with Membrane in an attempt to educate Earth and thus gain the planet as an ally. But.. how can you teach when you can't reach the blackboard?
Thats Drake's Equation on the board, btw.
According to it, there are 10,000 intelligent races out there. Heh, and before you ask.. yeah, I believe in aliens.
Related content
Comments: 5
Oh my goodness, Aku. O_O The intensity of the contrast has improved your cell shading a LOT. I'll critique this one, since it's a good example of your recent skill, with it being a relatively normal a scene and all.
First of all, your lineart is wonderful. It's so smooth, and you distributed the width well ( particularly notable on Membrane's coat. ) I would make it slightly thicker if you're going for an IZ style, but it's still good.
From what I'm observing in the drawing, I'm going to assume there is just one light source coming from behind us a little to the left on the ceiling. You've done well making the light source pretty obvious.
I would darken the shadow on Professor Membrane's lab coat to match the shading in the rest of the picture. Notice that the shading on the black board, for example, is darker than the shading on the wall behind it. Since the wall is on a plane that's further away from the light source, it should be the one with darker shading. Similarly, I get the impression that Lard Nar's antennae are closer to me ( I say 'me' because the light source is behind me ) than the side of his head, since the shading on his head is darker in contrast than the shading on his antennae.
Imagine a light source. Everything that's close to the light source will be lighter than things that are further away from it. This includes bulges on any surface and in what sequence planes are stacked. This is a good general rule to remember when shading bodies, especially. It's what makes shading arms so difficult, because they're cylindrical and bulgy all the way around.
Great job on the placement on the shading on Nar's head, by the way. Aside from the little spot on the upper right corner of his head, it's perfect. Good level of contrast, too, though it could be darker since that they're probably in a room lit by lightbulbs as opposed to sunlight through windows.
Whenever you're in a well-lit room that would otherwise be very dark, there's more contrast in lighting ( especially if there's only one light source ).
I don't know if you were going for IZ style or not, but if you are, I would change the color of the shading on Professor Membrane's skin. It's an orange/ink, though the shading on skin in IZ is normally more of a brownish tint, which is what gives the style a less colorful look that you see in most other cartoons. The same would apply to the shading on Lard Nar's skin and the green parts of his clothing. To match IZ style, the shading of his skin would need to be grayer instead of blue, and the green parts of his uniform would need to be a less bright tint of green.
However, the colorful skin is actually recommended for standard lighting in anime cell shading.
Finally, I want to mention something that I'm not totally certain about, but wanted to pint out anyway so you have the option in mind.
I used to put shading on flat planes in a similar way that you did here ( on the wall and blackboard ). I stopped doing it, though, since it suggests a sudden change in the closeness of the surface to the light source.
When you're cell shading, you're simplifying realism. For that reason, sometimes something that is perfectly realistic isn't necessarily recommended for cell shading. We may see walls that gradually reach into shadows in real life, but I've found that it seems to look better if an entire flat plane is the same shade ( though I think I've seen it done the other way sometimes in IZ style ). Therefore, as an alternate way of coloring your picture, I would have made the wall on the right darker than the wall on the left. The blackboard would be /slightly/ lighter than the wall on the left that it's hanging on ( since it's a little closer to the light source than the wall ). The floor would be lighter than both walls.
Personally, the reason I chose to start doing it that way is also because it saves time. I thought of the scientific method when making the decision on some of my recent drawings. Theories that are simple and easier to understand are generally more favorable than those that complicate matters.
Anyway... As one last bit of criticism, I would make Professor Membrane's boots black and increase the contrast of the shine on them.
Again, great drawing. 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Before I start... WOW. Thanks for the comment! O_O Its not often I get big, meaningful ones, and it makes me happy when I do. Normally it means the picture is good or deep enough to evoke someone to say something other than "cool!".
Thanks! This entire drawing was an experimentation, actually. I recently downloaded Illustrator and was still getting used to the vectors, so I ended up doing most of the lineart there and cleaned it up in Photoshop, as well as colored it there. I was iffy about using a thicker brush because of all the details on Nar's stupid Star Trek uniform, and I figured it'd look strange if Membrane was outlined with a 3 pt brush and Nar with a 2 pt brush. Anyway...
The coloring was also an experimentation. I'm starting to get a hang of layer effects such as Multiply and Screen, and noticed that Multiply is very similar to IZ shading. I just used the color of something like Membrane's skin, created another layer and set it to Multiply, then shaded. It turned out surprisingly well with certain colors, but gave other colors a strange tone (like Membrane's skin).
Again, thank you SO much for critiquing this in-depth. I've always had trouble with shading backgrounds and bodies. Its most evident in the picture of the Fell Beast I did. The background is overwhelming and too dark, I think. It takes away from the main point of the picture, which is the beast itself. Consistency with shading is also another problem for me. What you said about his antennae/Membrane's coat is helpful.
As for the flat planes, I'll keep that in mind as well. I always felt like curved shadows made it less flat, but I expect its good for a passive background. The natural distribution of a single light source curves on a wall (from what I've observed, anyway). Looking at the picture again, though, it probably doesn't curve to that extent or have so many shadows. I really half-assed the background, heh. O_O I'll continue practicing.
And again--thanks! It was fun to draw.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
You're welcome.
About the shading on the flat planes... I think you're right, that it would have been good in certain places, but not as many as you used. Perhaps a little on the wall.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Nice pic! So does Membrane believe Dib now, or does he think Lard Nar is from some other country (Where the people have ram's horns)?
We don't get to see much of Professor Membrane. I should try drawing him some time.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Hehe. XD Well, according to what we have planned, Membrane now believes in the existence of aliens but will forget to tell his son that they're coming--leading to an unpleasant meeting between an undisguised Nar and a paranoid Dib.
I expect Membrane will still be skeptical about wormholes and alternate dimensions and Bigfoot.
He's fun to draw!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0