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nekonotaishou — Dog OC expression notes rough
Published: 2011-09-01 03:24:23 +0000 UTC; Views: 4485; Favourites: 124; Downloads: 0
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A rough version of something I hope to have done someday. Still, I'm sure this can be helpful, even in it's rough, incomplete state.Yeah... Jerome's markings are distracting as heck. Terrible stuff for a protagonist.
PS: Goodness, how many people watch my scraps??
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Comments: 33
The scar things seems to me more a problem of certain styles (obviously scars will be distracting if they have huge black lines around them) than a problem with scars itself.
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I can agree that a successful character is one that readers/viewers can easily connect to, but all of this makes no sense to someone like me. When you talk about scars interrupting the effectiveness of expressions, you didn't consider if the scars were important to the character and his/her role in the story. I have one character that had noticeable scars on his face, but because of what you said, I had to make the scars less noticeable! You talk about character from a design standpoint, but not from a storytelling standpoint. The reason why people add black markings and scars on the faces of their canine ocs is to make them unique and not clones of other characters. If people like you present these kind of rules to them (especially if they are thinking about entering the comic/graphic novel/animation market), many will have to make the tough choice to either fix the design or scrap the character all together. If they decide to fix the design, they have to be careful not to copy the markings of another character. If more and more people follow your example, than every character would be copying another design in one way or another!
Why does the Akita have a black mask on his face? Because you see that in real American Akitas! Why does one character have a missing eye? Because he/she lost it and it may have affected the character's personality and motivations! If you take away the thing that defines a character's personality, than you have no significant character to relate to!
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Wow what's with the rage?? If you don't agree/don't want to, you don't have to. Nothing happens if you don't except maybe slightly less effective character design.
The design points I highlighted here relate to professional level character design. If you're not shooting for that, just ignore this and continue on your merry way.
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I'm not that mad, it's just that if you suggest these things to both professionals and amateurs, than characters become less diverse and unique. One character I had since middle school started out like so many: an unlikable Mary Sue. When one of my friends pointed this out to me, I slowly began to change the character and eventually lead to an interesting, unique, likable character. I added some of my experiences with the things she goes through throughout the story and eventually the plot changed alongside her. No longer was it the usual story that many "newbie" writers/comic artists come up with, but it was a story about an unlikely hero appearing in a time of need while she tries to fit into human society after being isolated for her entire life. I'm not going towards professional levels of character design, nor am I a beginner, but I'm more in between. Although I design characters that may be effective to me (and some people), I still have a lot to learn when it comes to effective storytelling.
I do apologize for what I said before; I tend to act before I think. And this is not some "excuse", it's something that happens to me in situations like this and sometimes there are terrible consequences that come from this. I have a cocktail of high functioning Autism, a hint of Bipolar and some sensory OCD. You are a great artist, no doubt about it, but sometimes you can appear to be strict with presenting these things. It's like your sig says: "Critiques are medicine for the artist. They may taste awful, or hurt real bad. But take them regularly, and you'll get better in no time"
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The black markings are one of the issues I have with John's (and maybe also Jerome's) design. I know he's supposed to be a Shepherd and all, but the black turned-up markings around John's eyes almost work like eyebrows in the wrong way. He constantly looks sad and disappointed ALL the time.
Same with Jerome. Those black bags under his eyes make him look always tired and bored.
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Ahhhh this explains my annoyance at why so many black antagonists in animation have weird grey lips, lol. I always hated that.
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its nicely put together but personally i cant agree. the use of markings and such is what makes your oc interesting. without em it just gets boring
BUT NICE TUTORIAL!!!!
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Thanks.
This is with regards to a character for a comic or graphic novel or animation. It's all about readability, and black markings get in the way of that.
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Aaah ok.
I love that one expression. Where she (or is it a he?) is like
>:3
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Thank you for all of your tutorials.
You help me very well, you are my ... model.
I love your drawing, you're fantastic !!
>i'm jealous<
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Aah, you're very welcome!
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Th-they're distracting?... I barely notice them =w=;;
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oh! thease are really helpful!!! and yes, i watch your scraps!! thair always cool!
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Me 
I really love these, Could you make a Meme about them, than i can practice my characters and see witch one i should avoid ^o^
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Would you please tell me your opinion on those, Also do you want to vote witch one is your favorite, Since I let my watchers choice first and Than I'll make the final decision ^-^
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I did
PS: Here you go ^^ It's not a finished meme, but it's a start
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I Like to keep her head clear as possible, Though it isn't mostly seen in both Breeds, They always have those Facial marks, And I was like Maybe the black mouth of the Malinois and the eye dots that is most seen at the Saarloos Wolf dog.
# 3 Isn't really genetic, We just liked it 
Ill start when I have my Photoshop again, My PC Crashed a week ago -.-
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I do, this is actually very useful.
I'm in the middle of designing a character and the "black markings" comment rings true, so that cancels out like half of my designs. Thanks
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;A; I'm sorry about the canceling designs!
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Oh no, don't be! I had so many and couldn't choose, this made it easier!
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What a stupid question! ANYTHING you upload is worth watching, specially the scraps, i just love art concept and development!
You are absolutely right! Damn! Some of my favourite breeds have what is known as the "black mask" such as the belgian shepherd malinois or the leonberger... I've never realized that, but it's very true.
Your tutorials are always quite helpful! One you should think about doing (since you are being watched by a lot of novel canine artists), and i believe it really needs to be done, is a "size-breed" tutorial, i just roll my eyes in exasperation every time i see german shepherd or akita-sized husky, huskies are damn small compared to those other breeds, i'm sure you've realized that too, since you deal in your comic with big sized dogs (Rosso and Nordend), i guess you are pretty qualified to do it...
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That's a really good idea. I'm getting tired of those oversize dogs, too. It's gotten to the point where I see a husky IRL and I think "wow! Is that a really big Klee kai or a really small husky?" I need to fix that.
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In dog magazine i bought there's a dog show pic where you have a Spanish Mastiff, an American Akita and a Husky lined up, i'll try scanning it for you, the size difference is appreciable.
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I WATCH YOUR SCRAPS! And I think more people ought to look at this, especially those with OCs who look like they don't have a scrap of fur on them because they're so completely covered in scars.
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Thanks for watching the scraps!
Ugh. I hate those OCs. I can't imagine it's even possible to draw them right, even with the best ref possible. Furthermore, either those characters are danger magnets, or they fell into a giant shredder, there are too many scars.
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Forserious xD And I just remembered something I should have said earlier- you have a really good point about OCs with dark faces. I believe the points of color for dogs like Rotties and Dobies (and even wolves who generally have lighter faces and dark color around their 'eyebrows' are supposed to help draw attention to the face and help show emotion through their faces.
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Indeed, especially as those markings often are very contrary to nature. This is the reason I did this: [link]
Natural markings on a wolf, especially the eyespots and ear rims, can echance the expression rather than draw away from it. Also, as dogs don't have eyebrow, the eyespots can serve that purpose,too ^^
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I've seen some wolves with black face markings, and African hunting dogs have black faces: [link]
So I wouldn't say they're contrary to nature per se, but in character design they do make things difficult.
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I think veen as a rough version this is very helpful, and I lvoe teh expressions you chose for this ^^
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