The Utopian-Dystopian Illustration Series and Other Artwork

[dripik]

It was about time I started a thread for my non-OW stuff. I know, there's the Exchange Alien thread, but I want to keep that one solely for the comics. This thread is where I post the rest of my drawings.

To start with, I present to you the first piece of a Utopian-Dystopian Illustration series I recently started. The series itself was mainly inspired by a course I took up this semester, which, surprisingly enough, is concerned with Utopian and Dystopian fiction. There are some awesome novels in the schedule, so I'd say there will be more illustrations to expect.

So, here's the first image, featuring the Fourth Book of Gulliver's Travels, where the protagonist stumbles upon an island belonging to a society of horses.



A brief quote from the book, just to introduce the background of the image:


“What you have told me,” said my master, “upon the subject of war, does indeed discover most admirably the effects of that reason you pretend to: however, it is happy that the shame is greater than the danger; and that nature has left you utterly incapable of doing much mischief. For, your mouths lying flat with your faces, you can hardly bite each other to any purpose, unless by consent. Then as to the claws upon your feet before and behind, they are so short and tender, that one of our Yahoos would drive a dozen of yours before him. And therefore, in recounting the numbers of those who have been killed in battle, I cannot but think you have said the thing which is not.”

I could not forbear shaking my head, and smiling a little at his ignorance. And being no stranger to the art of war, I gave him a description of cannons, culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets, powder, swords, bayonets, battles, sieges, retreats, attacks, undermines, countermines, bombardments, sea fights, ships sunk with a thousand men, twenty thousand killed on each side, dying groans, limbs flying in the air, smoke, noise, confusion, trampling to death under horses’ feet, flight, pursuit, victory; fields strewed with carcases, left for food to dogs and wolves and birds of prey; plundering, stripping, ravishing, burning, and destroying. And to set forth the valour of my own dear countrymen, I assured him, “that I had seen them blow up a hundred enemies at once in a siege, and as many in a ship, and beheld the dead bodies drop down in pieces from the clouds, to the great diversion of the spectators.”

I was going on to more particulars, when my master commanded me silence. He said, “whoever understood the nature of Yahoos, might easily believe it possible for so vile an animal to be capable of every action I had named, if their strength and cunning equalled their malice. But as my discourse had increased his abhorrence of the whole species, so he found it gave him a disturbance in his mind to which he was wholly a stranger before. (...)
- Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels (Book 4, Chapter 5)"

[Disgruntled Intern]

The lack of a tragus on his ear is bothersome to me. It almost becomes the focal point. Other than that, I like it. Sort of.

[Gwan-Thwei]

It's a bit cartoonier than I'd expect from you, but that doesn't matter.

What bothers me (besides the ear bit) is the guy's hands, and the horses's jaw. One arm also seems longer than the other to me, but I get porportions like that wrong all the time.

[Disgruntled Intern]

It's a bit cartoonier than I'd expect from you, but that doesn't matter.

Then why the fuck say it at all? You're dumb.

[MeechMunchie]

Your style reminds me a little of mine (my avatar is a good example), but I agree with DI about the ears. Even a sort of lopsided S-shape would look better. Work on it, it's not too hard to get the hang of. The hands could use a few creases as well.

And there's something about the arms that doesn't quite look right. I'm not sure what. Apart from that, good. Have you thought about shading?

[Disgruntled Intern]

The only real problem I have with the arms is the right arm that's being bent at the elbow. The line you've drawn to indicate a crease in the jacket/bending of the arm drops down too far. If you erase the bottom 1/4 of that line so it's not connecting to the line that makes up the outer arm, it'll look a lot better.

[Gwan-Thwei]

The porportions of the head look off too.

Other than minor details like that, it looks great.

[CrissCross]

I reckon its really good

[dripik]

Thanks for all the comments guys, that's some proper constructive feedback there. I'll attempt to reply to all of the points you've mentioned:

a) The ear - yeah, I know, it's rather simplified, the way I draw ears. I guess it's something that I grew doing through my comics (example, see rest in signature link). I might revise that, it wouldn't be much of a bother to change it.

b) The arms - to start with, I'm still learning to pay attention to proportions in general. I thought that here, I got the length of the arms right (well, compared to my usual standards). Changing the jacket's crease on the right arm is a good idea, I'll change that too.
(The hands don't have creases, nor fingernails, because those are supposed to be gloves - there is proof for that in the text. Might improve that area later.)

c) The horse's jaw - what can I say, first time I draw a horse.

d) The head - again, it's the style that evolved through my comics. It seems that every time I draw a face, it somehow fills up the whole length of the head.

e) Shading - I might as well do that too when I get to addressing all the previous problems.

Being honest, I was eager to post this before the weekend, since I've just returned from travelling. That's probably why the picture looks the way it looks. Again, thanks for pointing out these faults, much appreciated.

[Disgruntled Intern]

The porportions of the head look off too.

Other than minor details like that, it looks great.

Shut up.

[Gwan-Thwei]

The arms - to start with, I'm still learning to pay attention to proportions in general.

Ah, dun worry. I get porportions wrong all the time. Mine isn't the same sized limbs though, mine is getting the head too big, the legs to small, shit like that.

The horse's jaw - what can I say, first time I draw a horse.

Ah, all is forgiven then.

[dripik]

Ah, all is forgiven then.

Man, am I relieved.

[Splat]

For the first time drawing a horse, that's not bad. Though almost the effort you've put in to make it look right makes it seem slightly out of place in the more cartoon-y scene.
But yeah, it's your style, and it's good. Like me with writing, you're getting better at this drawing lark every time you do it.
Could almost expect Head to be peering over the fence

[dripik]

A new piece of artwork, this time in the Other category. I had a go at making a portrait of my old LOTRO character, Talemac of the Fallohides. It's perhaps a bit less cartoony than my previous picture, albeit still a bit rough, I'll admit. It definitely looks better in RL. I used a screenshot from the game, and I had to tackle the generally blank expression of the character, which I hope I managed to pull of.

[dripik]

Turns out that I actually managed to come up with something that's related to the original main theme of this thread. To be honest, the idea itself is from about a year ago, when I was working on my thesis, and in a dull classroom moment I started doodling about the various dystopian novels which were the subject of my thesis paper.

After a year, a full PC formatting and the purchase of a drawing tablet, this happened to be the result of my sketches.

One of them should be familiar to everyone. It gets harder as you go from left to right.