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I really like it. Very nice, natural looking comic style.

 

Except maybe for the base, IMO it looks a bit too perfect and clean. Maybe a mixture of concave and convex circles, with different height would help.

I'm not 100% happy with the base either, but I'll have to see if I've got the time to re-work it after I get the rest of the manual done. My time is pretty tight these days, until at least the end of this month.

I didn't think the first knight you showed me was "awful". But the new one is cool, and the effort you put into it shows.

 

Not to micromanage, but I liked the way the knight in the first draft was all-black, including the eyes and teeth.

Nice! I enjoy seeing the process from rough to final draft. I only wish I had a fraction of your artistic talent!

I didn't think the first knight you showed me was "awful". But the new one is cool, and the effort you put into it shows.

 

Not to micromanage, but I liked the way the knight in the first draft was all-black, including the eyes and teeth.

 

I liked the idea of doing that, but it just never worked quite right. I couldn't get any personality into the eyes when they were all black. That's one of the things I spent a lot of time on while revising it, but I just couldn't make it work. (Although... maybe I could make them gray...)

 

Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes.

Did some more work on the Four-Play manual, and just e-mailed it off to Zach and Albert to look over. I'd say it's "mostly" done, pending approval, and the usual round of corrections.

 

I also re-worked the knight a little bit. I think the base is better now. The gray (or black) eyes just didn't work though. Too lifeless.

 

IMO the base is looking much better now.

Nice! I enjoy seeing the process from rough to final draft. I only wish I had a fraction of your artistic talent!

Thanks for the kind words. For what it's worth - I'd always wished I could draw like other people. At some point though, and it's been pretty recently, I've come to realize that I enjoy drawing the most when I'm just drawing the way that I happen to draw. I tend to get frustrated when I try to draw like other people do.

 

That doesn't mean I'm not inspired by them, or don't try new things from time to time. But I no longer worry about being "as good as" someone else at something. I draw the way I draw, and do it for the enjoyment of it. Anything else, for me at least, isn't worth the effort.

 

It's always been fascinating for me to see the art process, too. Although the sketch shown in the first post isn't all that rough. Prior to that was this one:

 

 

And prior to that one, were a few other attempts which I'm not about to post here.

IMO the base is looking much better now.

Thanks Thomas. I appreciated the feedback. Sometimes I'll look at stuff like the base and think, "eh... good enough" when I know it could be better. But if someone calls me out on it, I feel obligated to fix it.

Thanks for going the extra mile on Knight Jumper. I would have been satisfied with just a few screenshots!

Although the sketch shown in the first post isn't all that rough. Prior to that was this one... And prior to that one, were a few other attempts which I'm not about to post here.

 

I'm reminded of a quote by someone who said that the way to carve a marble statue of an elephant is to take a big block of marble and carve away everything that doesn't look like an elephant.

Chuck Jones once said the easiest way to draw Bugs Bunny was to draw a carrot, and then attach a rabbit to it.

Thanks for going the extra mile on Knight Jumper. I would have been satisfied with just a few screenshots!

 

You're welcome! When I did the MiniGame MultiCart manual last year, I always regretted not having the time to make custom illustrations for each game. So this is kind of a way to make up for it.