The Soda Fountain

Generic_Soda

So I've got all of these drawing in my room, sitting in a corner, gathering dust. So I figured I'd scan a few of them and show them off a bit. Very few are my own, I must admit, I have very little artistic talent… Most of them are done by my close friends, though every now and then, I'll try to sneak in something of my own.

I write stories, and for the most part, these will be another person's take on my characters. There's plenty of familiar faces to be seen though, I'll make sure of it.

First up, one of mine, a basic sketch of one of the protagonists of my story, his name's Leon Bernhardt. I've cropped it a bit to make it smaller, and take out random scribbles. (It was done during school)

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Next, my friend Matt's first drawing of Leon.

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I apologize if he looks EXACTLY like Edward Elric… Matt was just getting into FullMetal at the time.

And finally, another sketch of Leon, done by another friend of mine, Megan. He's more feminine looking now…

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And one of his eyes is a bit off…

The main character, Seth Knight. I've put the most effort into developing him, and Matt in turn has made the greatest amount of drawing of him.

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He looks… A little more emo than I wanted him too... And his bracer's on the wrong arm. A goof on Matt's part.

And a bust of Soma Cruz from Castlevania, Dawn of Sorrow. I did this one. One of my better ones.

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EDIT:

Ah, hell's bells, why not… Matt's obsessed with his Mustang, so he drew a pic of it.

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I'll put up more stuff as time passes. Comments, criticism, etc., is accepted.

Kuroneko

Well, I shall say that your friend Matt did the best job. The character looks well-done, even though the resemblence with Ed of Fullmetal

Hawkeye

You don't draw actual characters very well from my perspective, but i found the fire you drew in the second picture quite good.

Zulen

Only advice I can give it so sketch out the head first very lightly so you can keep the basic form. Eyes actually are at the halfway point between our faces, believe it or not, so the eyes should basically be lower or the forehead enlarged.

$0.02

Generic_Soda

@Hawkeye:

You don't draw actual characters very well from my perspective, but i found the fire you drew in the second picture quite good.

I only ever drew the first one. …But I'll make sure to pass that on to Matt. I'm not concerned with drawing well, I just want to get my point across to others, since my artistic abilities are admittedly shoddy...

In other news, more stuff! Check the main post.

Generic_Soda

So I just found this picture while cleaning out my room. I barely even remembered that I have it, so I'm kind of thrilled to have it now.

Matt drew it a while back. It's another picture of Seth, but he'd just gotten into Shaman King at the time, so he looks a bit like Yoh, and thus is considerably younger than in the other picture.

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And this is a doodle from my school notebook, I did it in class randomly. It's a little awkward compared to the real deal, but I think it looks ok.

! I'm going to try experimenting with a similar style to this in the future, only drawing the facial features.

@Generic_Soda:

So I just found this picture while cleaning out my room. I barely even remembered that I have it, so I'm kind of thrilled to have it now.

Matt drew it a while back. It's another picture of Seth, but he'd just gotten into Shaman King at the time, so he looks a bit like Yoh, and thus is considerably younger than in the other picture.

! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/Generic_Soda/Sketches/YoungSeth.jpg

And this is a doodle from my school notebook, I did it in class randomly. It's a little awkward compared to the real deal, but I think it looks ok.

! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v622/Generic_Soda/Sketches/LuffySketch.jpgI'm going to try experimenting with a similar style to this in the future, only drawing the facial features.

Hey good stuff.
but im going to offer u some advice on the second one.
The hair seems to be coming out of the rim of his hat.
Try putting a line farther in, and having the hair coming out of that.
i dunno how clear this is, but i think if u look at it again ull understand.

Generic_Soda

Here's a few of Matt's things that I've dug up from the bowels of the interwebs.

Kankuro

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Akamaru

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Kuroneko

Wow, that is a pretty good Kankuro!

Generic_Soda

So I was randomly doodling today in math class, and all of a sudden I looked down at some of the scratches on my paper and thought "Hey, that looks like Yusuke's hair. So lo and behold…

GENTLEMEN! I GIVE YOU... CHIBIS!

! I had Pu in the picture, but decided that it looked weird… I like this one the best out of the three I did today... I't the first one I did, makes sense...

And Sanji

! His hair looks kind of odd, and the proportions are off a bit… Eh, I still like how I detailed his suit.

It's really nice to get this done, because for the life of me, I've never been able to draw chibis…

Generic_Soda

So Megan randomly decides to give me a couple of pictures she drew on Friday, and I figured I'd scan them and upload them to here.

Roy

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He looks so bloody effeminate

Kratos

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I was really impressed by this one, looks like Fujishima-Sensei's early art of him.

And finally, Jack, one of my characters. Matt drew him though…

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He's an alcoholic. He looks a bit different than I first envisioned him, but I really like this, especially considering how long ago it was drawn.

Right, something I forgot, I'm thinking about starting my series as a sort of webcomic, and I'm not sure how to go about that. Any ideas/advice?

AWB

This post is deleted!

Generic_Soda

So did Rootbeer delete his post or did some Mod do it?

Tsuchirinhon

Seth Knight looks kinda generic, honestly, but you can always flesh that out. He needs something to give him some "Oomph!" to stand out. Generic protagonists instantly turn off a lot of people to a story.

And hahaha, what did he say?

Generic_Soda

I realize my main character is pretty generic looking, but I've done a lot of work into his back story. Also taking what you've said into account, his ice-based abilities are not designed to be artistic, they're used in conjunction with his swordfighting in unique ways that get the job done. My later characters are much more interesting design-wise. Also, I'm trying to make sure that the main cast gets a change of clothes or has their hair grow or start to show facial hair as the story goes on.

Rootbeer said that the art was good, but I lost points for having HunterxHunter stuff in my sig. lol irony.

Tsuchirinhon

Yeah, but from a marketing standpoint, your character has to catch the viewer's attention immediately. Just like reading a book, people don't want to trudge through eight chapters to see if they'll end up liking this guy or not. On the opposite side of the spectrum, if you instantly make them like the character, you won't have to worry much about his development doing that job; it'll give you more freedom to what you choose since they'll be hooked, anyway.

It might feel painful, at first, to change your character's appearance – I know firsthand that feeling. But eventually, you'll probably come to realize that the new look is just plain better, and it'll become just as special to you as the old one was. There's plenty of older designs that I loved at the time, but now I look back on 'em and wonder what the fuck I was thinking.

You don't have to make any ugly, weird fuckers like I do, but it still needs to make itself stand out. Luffy stands out very well, and all he wears is a t-shirt, jeans, sandals, and a straw hat.

But yeah, everything he says is so, so dumb.

Generic_Soda

@Cyringohn:

You don't have to make any ugly, weird fuckers like I do, but it still needs to make itself stand out. Luffy stands out very well, and all he wears is a t-shirt, jeans, sandals, and a straw hat.

Haha, something you said that made me really thing about Leon's design is that he's got a complex 3-layer top, and plain pants. I'm looking into ways I could gussie up the pants without overdoing it.

I'm still torn over Seth's design. It's very close to how I first envisioned it, but he's supposed to be more cheerful. He's supposed to be reasonably plain, aside from the fact that he's not human.

This first story is mostly an experiment for me, so it going to be reasonably generic at first, and I figure that I'll get bolder as time passes.

Tsuchirinhon

Oh, didn't even realize you posted a reply.

Anyway, if you ever need help on sprucing things up, just ask. Wouldn't mind doing a quick ten minute sketch of your character or whatever.

Generic_Soda

A few things. Firstly, I'm down to four more people I have to make for my manga, and I'm trying to go all out with them design-wise. I've already got two prospective designs, one of which is pretty much guaranteed to appear, the other needs some touching up before I approve it… the third thing is nothing special. Just something I did at two in the morning while trying to think up some stuff.

! I threw in the "ORA" after I finished
I have a new respect for Araki-Sensei after doing this. I'm sure I would have done a better job if I'd done it at any other time than two…

Generic_Soda

Changed some stuff around. Old characters getting new tweaks, redesigned some stuff you haven't seen yet but I've been thinking up. New things are coming, and I'm fairly sure that you'll enjoy the uniqueness of some of these designs.

Can't say when though(haha, my drawing skills suck and my artist is unreliable, but he pulls through), but I'll try and get them about halfway through January.