(Indie rp blog for my Descendants OC. Multiverse) Another poor soul coming to visit me? Well, fine. Hello, dear! In case you didn't know, I am Arsulu, daughter of the greatest sea witch in all seven seas! I've just heard that Prince Ben has made a proclamation to bring fourth myself and a few more of us villain kids to Auradon. Does that bookworm beast prince think he can convert ME to the other side with ball gowns? How immature. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have tables to clean. Later, freaks! (Keep in mind, this is a SIDEBLOG! If you receive a follow from little-de-vil, that will be from my main blog)
REBLOG this if you want to be added to a directory of other descendants roleplayers! original characters, multi-muses, and other characters with a very active descendants verse are going to be added as well!!!
if you are interested, there is also a discord for descendants roleplayers. join and come chat!!
RPers, please reblog this if you’re ok with para responses that don’t include dialogue.
Often it seems like an expectation that dialogue will be exchanged in every para response, but sometimes characters are nonverbal, or don’t have anything to say, or are in a situation that would make talking impractical. If the writer puts enough attention into describing their actions, though, there’s still plenty to respond to even without dialogue.
Non-dialogue responses are not “going nowhere.” Non-dialogue responses are not “filler.” Non-dialogue responses are not non-responses.
I don’t work at Cartoon Network any more. But I’m going to give you a very quick portfolio review in hopes that you find it helpful! Here are some things I noticed when looking at your stuff - lessons I learned from brilliant people while working on AT for two years:
1) AVOID SYMMETRY. Humans are organic, randomly shaped animals. Perfect symmetry rarely exists in nature and if it does, it’s conspicuous - it’s the exception rather than the rule. Find interesting ways to throw your characters off-balance.
Don’t repeat objects in twos - (buttons or rips or whatever) - it feels prescribed - cluster things in threes or fives if necessary.
2) AVOID CONCAVITY - I don’t know what else to call this. But it’s those lines that go “in” rather than “out”. You are using inward sloping lines to describe many of your characters. As an exercise, try using outward, rounded, voluminous lines to draw EVERYTHING. Humans are fleshy lumps connected together by other fleshy lumps. Each mass is either in front of or behind other masses and as a designer, it’s your job to tell the animator where it is. As a designer, you are providing a technical blueprint for the location of masses.
Only occasionally allow a concavity to connect two convexities. Look at the work of Robert Ryan Cory (spongebob), Tom Herpich (Adventure Time) or Phil Rynda (AT / Gravity Falls) - master character designers - for examples of this. If you need to, trace a couple of their drawings and you will see what I mean.
3) AVOID GRAPHIC DETAILS - Some shows use a graphic style; it’s very appealing and looks clever when done right. But in animation, everything needs to move in space - so if you use a graphic element - it needs to correspond with an actual 3D thing that can move. Therefore it is better to start with a voluminous style and then revert to graphic elements where appropriate. Art directors will look for this. Do not jump straight to graphic representation if you do not yet know what you are representing.
4) STUDY JAMES MCMULLEN - To truly understand volume, and respect your subject, you should read very carefully High Focus Figure Drawing by James McMullen. Slow down and think about drawing “around” your subjects. It’s a truly meditative experience when you get there. Think about the weight and mass that your characters, props and effects are experiencing. Many students from SVA - Tomer Hanuka, Becky Cloonan, Rebecca Sugar, James Jean - studied under McMullen’s philosophy and you can see this common richness in their work.
Jeffrey Smith, a top student of McMullen’s now teaches life drawing at Art Center. These are two of the best illustration schools in North America - anyone who is interested in drawing living things, should probably read his book. Also look at the work of Andy Ristaino or Danny Hynes - two other character designers’ whose work is seething with volume.
I hope this is useful and I hope you have a wonderful career.
If you want to interact with me but I do not follow you, that is okay. Feel free to put something in my ask box, ask for a starter, anything. I do NOT mind. And if it works out, I’ll follow you back anyway.