Yet Hope - Jackie
(by Tobias , Nov 19, 2005
This picture is actually the very first drawing I made of Jackie - and it's many months old too, but I still thought I should show it around - and I also wanted to make something similar to a character biography in the meantime, to tell a little about him as well. Jackie still has short ears in this drawing and is carrying his key in his mouth, instead of having it on a string around his neck, but that's pretty much it.
Despite of that, there isn't too much to say about him - Jackie lives in St. John, a little village with a girl called Clarissa, is agile and fast, and can fly just fine too with his wings (he can't carry really anyone though, even though he'd probably try and just end up in whatever is below them again ;P ). He is mute as in that he cannot talk to others like other characters can (like, Tobias can speak just fine), however he can still give out ultrasonic chirps (as bats can) and thus find his way around in the dark (so should you ever get lost in an all dark cave and he's around, he'd be able to help you getting out save and sound again ^-^ ). This is also the reason he's not really scared of the dark at all, like Tobias sometimes is.
Personality-wise Jackie is helpful and very caring, even though he's also a bit overcautionous and worrying at times. He tends to overestimate his size and strength as well, often forgetting that he's not much taller than a mere fifteen centimetres, but can still achieve suprisingly much despite of that.
He wears a little key with him at all times which he had for as long as he can remember, and has a little silver whistle he got from a friend, which he uses to get her attention ^-^
~
Technique-wise the picture was one of the first "night" drawings I did, and I actually coloured the character first, and then made the background black. Phiyrr's drawing was the second one, where I started with a black background and threw colours in - which is probably the better way to go , come to think of it ^^ Heh, you learn something new every day, right? ;P
Anyhow, hope you like it ^-^
Comments?
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Yet Hope - Jackie - Comments
Awww, so cute and pretty!! I can't wait until you put his whole biography up, I wanna read about him. ^^ I should do that with some of my characters, a lot of them have interesting stories... -slaps self back onto the subject-
I like the way you always put the shadows of plants and grasses in the very foreground, it really adds a lot of depth to the picture. Jackie himself looks really adorable - so cute and innocent and curious, playing with those pretty little fireflies. ^^ And I really like how you've hinted at the hills in the very background, using the same dark blue as the sky - it makes it look like they go on forever, it's very nice. :D I love Jackies eyes too - they look so sweet. ^^ Well done, it's very pretty!! :P I love it. ^^
Aww, thanks Kazzi ^-^ And yush, you definitely should put do the same with your characters, I'd really love to read the stories behind them *-*
And thank you for your feedback too - making the hills in background look a lot like the colour in the sky is something I tried recently, and it seems to work all well - so it could be something you could try out for your backgrounds too, to see how that works for you? If I can help you somehow, just drop me a note and I'll try my best at the very least ^-^
Take care <3
OOOOOO!!!
Night pictures are SO fun, ja?
I like the little flies, and how Jackie is kind of...messing around with them. X3 I like the movement here too, you can easily tell he's going along the path in a fast pace. I LOVE how the foreground is darkened, it reminds me of a theatre! I adore his cute little wings too. I wish I had wingssssss.
The only thing I'd pick at is that the moon is giving off too much light around it. It looks cool, but if you want realism...you know? ^^; It's alomost as if the moon wasn't the moon, bu concentrated light and am I making any sense what so ever? X3;;
Very nice! Yeah..doing the background first tends to be easier. (well, doing a sketch first of the whole thing is of course idealistic, but coloring the background is pretty much easier..can be different amounst people though :3)
It would probably get pretty annoying to carry a key around in your mouth, I'd say, so I'm glad for zJackie he doesn't have to carry it around in there anymore, since it's in his neck- I'm sure he likes that character design tweak as well. ;3
Nicely done Tody, keep up the awsome work! *hug*
Hehe, yup yup, I loooove night pictures a lot (as you noticed, seeing that my last pictures where all night pictures) ;3 They make the colour look so much nicer, and they're often also more calm than day pictures ^-^
Thanks for your comment and your critique - I know what you mean with the moon, since that's somefthing you already critiqued the last time, so I was thinking whether to make it look more realistic, buuut then I kind of liked the way it was, and figured I didn't want to change a not on it ^^ But you're right, and yush, you're making plenty of sense ^-^
Yup, doing the background first is definitely easier for me - it also helps you getting the lighting right - otherwise the character might be too bright or too dark for the background, you know?
Te-heh, you sure made some weird typos on this comment X3 Oh, and Lolly has wings, no? So she can fly juuuust fine ^-^ It would be nice to have wings for real though, it'd make it much easier to get to school and everything (and more fun too ^-^ )
Oh, yay, I really like the silhoutee's of the grass in the foreground, and the way that the moon is huge, and that really small comet in the background. The way that Jackie is playing with the fire flies has all to real motion and all, though the key that he is holding in his mouth actually looks like it's on his neck, on a little golden chain. ;D
Yep, night drawings are easier with black background, though I've never tried. XD
Well lucky OC has helped me muchly when it comes to getting to see all the detail inside! I didn't even recognize the grand scene setters such as the super shrubbery that really brings plenty o' detail and better understanding of the area he's in. :)
And my goodness, the wings with and no hands or arms anywhere! I'm very impressed, supremely original; so very like you Tobers! It's great that you allowed such a popular idea to stay away from your work. Definitely easier to identify him as a bat or some creature along those lines with that common confusion-bringer out of the way. :3
Though it might look a bit off to some since his head, body, and legs are all sort of thick but his wings seem a bit thin for all that... a little thickness at the top of his wings might stop that confuson some might have, but I'm too excited about how rare it is to actually have something that looks like it'd belong to a bat on the character to let that get in my way... So I like Jackie just the way he is! =)
Ooh, and the moon looks majical! It's a bit vague, but plenty of moons out there are bright enough to do that to the ol' specs. :B I absolutely love how it turned out though, just brings in even more beauty to the sky. :3 Which I suppose from now on I'll do before the subjects being drawn, since it seems you suggest that it works best that way. Good times! (:
Ooh, and his eyes... I had to look at them closely, since I couldn't tell if the light greenish-yellow was part of the iris of his eye or not... I couldn't tell if the sclera was a mix of light blue, yellow, and green, or if his iris was a compination of those colors and if all the dark blue in the center was part of the pupil or not... that sort of lost me, but I could stare at those eyes for much of a time. ;P Very hap, much of a mystery. You always know how to do these sorta things. :3
Hiya Nishi ;P
Thanks for your comment ^^ Actually a character without arms and hands isn't *that* original, but still, Jackie's a character I like quite a bit ;P No idea how much I'll draw him (I never know what my next drawing will be amount), but we'll see, right?
I know what you mean with the wings, comparing them to his feet they are rather thin and small, but I didn't really pay too much attention to realism (such as making them large enough that he could actually fly if this were for real), and rather just went with what I thought would look nice ^^ I can't really imagine him with thicker arms, at least not without making him look .. uh .. thick-boned or something? I don't really want to make his feet thinner either, since that'd make him look odd, unless I make the overall torso smaller as well, and then reshape the head to match his new body - I'd end up with a character looking close to real bats, without too much of a cartoon-y feeling anymore, I suppose.
I kind of like him the way he is, at least for now - he's supposed to be very agile, on ground and in the air, and his current anatomy kind of reflects that, for me ^^ (let's just assume he can fly perfectly fine with these wings ^-^)
Drawing the background first or at least together with the character sketch is a good idea, since it helps you to get the lighting on the character right, and usually it looks like interacting with the background more naturally either ^-^
And kudos for noticing all the different colours, the yellow-green fading into light blue should be his iris, while the dark-blue fading into black would be his pupil; the sclera is white, but it's dark so technically the pupils need to be open quite a bit so the light can get in ;P Keep in mind though that I didn't really strive for realism here, especially when drawing cartoon-y, or drawing a new character (and that was actually the very first picture of him), I usually try out what looks most like I imagined the character to be like - like for the eyes, I first had them all yellow-gold like, then blue, and decided that just doesn't look right, and went with green together with a bit of yellow and blue in it. But yup, I agree with you, and if you look at the
other picture of Jackie (this one here is actually older, even though I posted it more recently), it'll be much easier to spot his eye colours and everything (even though the other drawing has its faults too, I'm still trying to figure what Jackie will eventually look like - he'll probably change over time, like Tobias, you'll see) ^-^
Aww, I just noticed on my way here that in
this picture of Jackie , not only does he have hands (Perhaps he's still going through a phase and deciding which he likes best, since his ears seem a little different there too :P), but that the arm thickness on it was just perfect too (Just the sort I think I meant... not too thin or thick, just right for his character)!
Even if you don't keep it that way, since I think it's wonderful when artists decide to keep their ways cartoony instead of constantly real as reality is, I think he'll end up just right. :3
Not only do you have capital logic behind the lighting and background idea, but wonderful proof too! If I ever get to making decent art again I'll surely make sure to do so and spread the idea! ...Even if my results aren't as good as yours. :3
Yay! Another mystery solved. (: I think mixing all the colors was a great idea, especially when you're still deciding on a look for a character... these sorts of things are where all the fun comes in! And I hope there's plenty of more fun to come with this character, we'll all be looking forward to it! =)
![[Submitted Image]](/img/pictures/3_jackie_key.jpg "Yet Hope - Jackie")
