[Marley]

DETAIL TUTORIAL


Geoff Darrow


Seth Fisher

To begin =P

This isn't so much a tutorial. Its more of a guide to improving page environments. Which in turn gives your pages more depth and life and love. I bring up Seth fisher and Geoff Darrow because they are masters of detail!

When I mention detail in pages, I'm not talking about drawing nooks and crannys and cracks in pavement. I'm talking about all of the little things that give a location character. The layer of dirty clothes and various posters in a teenager's bedroom. The flourescent signs, cigarette butts, club flyers, dirty plates and empty beer bottles you find in a typical bar. The numerous objects that you associate with a location. Open your mind!

This will improve your comics greatly. It will make you think of your environments on more of a personal scale, and it will make a greater impact on the reader. It will also help in the development of your character. Readers will know what brand of cigarettes the character smokes, what kind of leftovers he/she/it leaves on the counter overnight, if he/she/it is the type of person who makes their bed every morning, and so on.

Details like this may not seem as important as say a fight scene, but gaining a reader's attachment to your characters is one of the key elements to a successful comic, and adding in all of your character's little life details are like a freeway to your reader's heart.

PRACTICE

This practice requires you to use your imagination. I will give you a basic location, and then you in turn will draw them and populate them with as many details as you would associate with them.

For example, if I tell you that the subject is a Coffee House, not only am I going to be looking for a typical coffee bar, tables and chairs, but I'm also going to be looking for sugar packets, coffee creamers, various blends of coffee on display, empty dishes, books, magazines, band flyers, cork message boards, possibly a pit with a mic for musicians and poetry readings. I want Crazy posters on the wall or some awesome wall murals. What you expect to see when you enter a pure coffee house.

The subject for this practice is going to be a kitchen.

When you draw this kitchen, tell me the type of person this kitchen belongs to and thats it. It can be ANY person. Just keep in mind what you would find in that person's kitchen!

GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL


ps- you may be wondering why I only asked for ONE drawing. That is because I want as much effort put into this as possible. Clean pencils or ink please!!!!  

[galvo]

bravo dear.
i might maybe possibly even do something remotley like this.






perhaps maybe possibly.

[(Pi)]

I'm down for this.

[Dingo]

this is like a jam come true....  <3

[Ravist]

I really dig where this is going, along with all of the recent void university stuff. I'll jump on this ASAP after I finish my battle.

[oh shada]

oh man I am so digging this VCU stuff. I only had time to do a couple hands for the last one, because I found out about it.. the day before it was due. BUT.

I'm all over this one. It's EXACTLY what I've been needing to practice. I think.
HOMAN LET'S GO!

[Berlin Poe]

Sounds like something I'd say I couldn't do...so that's why I'm gonna go on and try to do it...cause it'll teach me.

This is a great thread.

[(Pi)]

is there a deadline for this?

[Marley]

I don't think you need a deadline for one drawing..... Its kind of something you could do in a night?

I'll be posting mine tonight =P

[Marley]

OK here's mine =P



James and Ayumis kitchen. Obviously Ayumi has control of it because there aren't cigarette butts everywhere, and the sponge is in its clean area. Theres a little plant too. Bunch of crap blah blah

PS - I consider this to be clean pencils hahahahha

[Stplmstr]

Just a sketch but it was fun to do knicky knacks......weather anyone other than me can make em out or not. Plenty o perspective mistakes and a fridge that would have to be 14 feet tall to fit in like that



oh blarg my kinda kitchen, real messy cause I am one lazy guy.

[HeyZoos]

i'm workin on a kitchen right now, about halfway finished with it, i'll try to get it uploaded tonight.

[(Pi)]

Ah, it's just that I haven't had much time for art lately...

I'll see if I can get it done this weekend in vegas.

[HeyZoos]

the owner is slightly unkempt, but not to the point of leaving moldy smelly food around. A more appropriate term would be cluttered. He is a huge music fan, as most of the items on the floor are CDs.

cripes, i fucked up the perspective >: (

[Marley]

This tutorial isn't really about the correctness of the perspective its just about using your imagination, so dont worry about it.

nice one stplmstr kitchen owner looks to be a tidy person =P Whats the thing with the funnel on top? orangejuice press?

heyzoos I'm really happy you're throwing down for this! Some suggestions I would say, since he's a messy cluttered guy. He might have more stuff on that counterspace to the right. More cans, empty plates and bottles. Mix it up with some things that wouldn't really belong in a kitchen. Like maybe he left his tv remote in the kitchen or something. Some medicine like pepto bismol and tylenol or something. I really like the shark on the wall hehehee

AWESOME YOU GUYS lets keep em coming =P

[Stplmstr]

haha oh well if I beat myself up every time I drew anything in bad perspective I would be a quivering lump of goo by now. Just recognizing and owning my drawing errors. The thing is a long story which I will tell but if you don't really care (I don't think most people will) then just ignore the rest of this.

I bought this coffee makerthing where you put the water and grounds in the container, leave it to brew for a bit then put the lid on, which has this filter like contraption that you push down that works like a siringe. Except that it is perferated so rather than pushing the water out it sifts the grinds out of the water and compacts them at the bottom. Now I used this a couple of times but discovered that the grinds at the bottom took up alot of space so it was making less coffee than I expected and I had to make more, more often which was annoying in the extreem. Secondly it did an alright job of sifting out the grinds but it still left some behind, and crunchy coffee is gross. So to fix the situation I bought a coffee funnel (which was cheap) and some filters and now use that to brew my coffee. So that would be the whole long pointless story

[Marley]

werd thats one of those coffee press things. I've got one too, but I thought you had to change the grinds at the bottom of the before you use it again??

PS I WANT MORE KITCHENS GUYSSSS

[Molotov]

used the tv remote as ruler.. perspective kill me..

[Marley]

I really like that this moves into the dining room. Good details too, the flyswatter on the floor, Veggie rug, and the toaster on top of the fridge hehe, butterfly magnets, and I think thats a cat bowl next to the oven. Thats a skillet on the burner too right?

Looks like this place is relatively tidy! who does it belong to =P

[Rose]

I definitely gotta do this; I always forget to put in those details.  I'll try something of Ancelin's...

[ablondin]

I have basic perspective skills, so I decided to apply them to this image. It came out alright. I feel that I still need more details, but that's why I am here; build up my skills.  -_-

[Marley]

Great job!

Putting in details can be a tough task, and I really like some of the touches you've added. Salt and pepper shaker on the table, newspaper, coffee cup, clock on the wall, notes on the fridge, and the posters on the wall.

I want to give you some extra tips on what to add detail wise to your kitchen. I don't know what kind of a person you are, so I can't choose your details for you, but I can tell you what I would have in there if it was my kitchen. I figure that maybe, if I tell you what I would have in my kitchen, you can think of some similar details that you would have in yours. You've gotta throw a kitchen sink in there though =P

I usually store all of my cereal, chips, oatmeal on the top of the fridge. I would probably have a loaf of bread in a bag on the counter. A coffee maker and a jar or bag of coffee grounds is ALWAYS on my counter. Maybe some boxes of tea. Kettle on the stove. I would have a broom leaning near the sliding glass doors. I would have a dish rag or pot holders hanging off of a cabinet handle. Maybe some extra chairs. At least one extra.

On the far right is that a minifridge or a dishwasher?

Sweet job again!!

[(Pi)]

Dead man's kitchen

[Hero Karma]

is that Pi's kitchen?  looks grimy.  Silent Hill grimy.  Nice work man.

[Marley]

Pi this is a good kitchen with nice grime detail, but its not really the type of detail that I'm looking for in this project. I'm looking for extra objects not detail within the objects, although you can add that too if you like.

Really try to get into the mindset of doctor pi and think of what objects he keeps in the kitchen.

What does he busy himself with? He's incredibly intelligent right. Wouldn't he have random little things that keep him occupied like a rubix cubes lying around? Maybe notes full of equations and theorums posted about.

He has all of those utensils and knives, so I assume he likes to cook, and people who like to cook usually keep ingredients like bottles of wine, soysauce and spices Handy. From what I see he also he has a super grimey kitchen, so wouldn't he be the type of guy to keep pots and pans lying about everywhere? Does he smoke or drink booze.

Just think in those terms. Think of how your character would go about his day. Whats the first thing that he would be searching for in the kitchen when he wakes up.