Trying for noir-ish vibe. Opinions and suggestions welcomed.

[crouchingbacon]

So I've fallen in love with the whole noir aesthetic, and I'm trying to get it to work, but something feels off about how I color/shade my work.
The faces also feel kind of boring somehow, lacking the "pop"/contrast the whole noir style seems to have.

These are sketches for a project I'm working on, and I'll be developing sprites for these characters as well. Hoping to improve on these portraits before doing bigger stuff like full body sprites.

Pointers would be much appreciated, thanks!

[skyeworks]

Shading is way too light for a film noir style imo. Basically, the pop/contrast that they have is really dark shading and really light tints. Your work is very grey which looks nice but definitely not like film noir. Character design are nice though.

lots of shadows, with lots of light areas. Film noir uses pure black and white to contrast and make it "pop"

Here's me painting over your work with a mouse:(So basically this isn't as film noir as it could be but I don't have a tablet with me atm so I'm to scared to shade too boldly.)
(Excuse the weird areas that is not blended and stuff and the areas that badly painted. too lazy to fix.)(Also this just my preference, but I just made the lines thicker.BUT THATS TOTES NOT IMPORTANT)



So basically SHADE THE HELL OUT IT. (you can erase change transparency to ease up to your preference, but use Pure black somewhere and pure white)

Does the shading need to be really detailed? No, but it does need that black shadow and really white light. (mine just looked detailed because I drew on top of yours) Sometimes they just leave the skin to be white.
Examples: See how they have the blackest black black and the whitest white whites?

http://orig07.deviantart.net/9592/f/201 ... makkon.jpg
http://media02.hongkiat.com/film-noir-d ... m-noir.jpg

[crouchingbacon]

oh my god, you made it look 900% better.
kinda liking the thicker lines too, gives it a more... comic book feel.

thank you for the pointers, skyeworks!
now here's the part where i sweat blood as i try to learn how to shade ;u;

gosh, she now looks like some neo-nazi who had to walk through a coal mine

[skyeworks]

oh my god, you made it look 900% better.
kinda liking the thicker lines too, gives it a more... comic book feel.

thank you for the pointers, skyeworks!
now here's the part where i sweat blood as i try to learn how to shade ;u;

gosh, she now looks like some neo-nazi who had to walk through a coal mine

Leslie with shadows white background.png

Looks Much more like film noir! Looks really really good!

Hmm, one thing I would change that red on her hat to a bright red instead. I feel like it would make it look more interesting! (Like how the tech on her eye is a bright green color that makes it stand out, the red part of the hat would look good too? )


just me throw ideas out haha.

[Katy133]

I've been studying noir art lately, so I can give you some notes I have.

Noir uses a certain type of lighting called Chiaroscuro. Another term to use when searching for reference is "hard lighting." It's the total opposite of "soft lighting;" hard lighting creates the effect of shadows and strokes of light that are hard. There's very little blending. That's important. Avoid blending. Have bold, straight lines and blocks for shadow and light.

Looking at European comic books and graphic novels. Here is a panel from The Adventures of Tintin:


Link to image source because Tumblr has been fickle with image links. -_-

Tardi is also a good example, using a more painterly effect:



My favourite noir film is This Gun For Hire. Look at the lighting and shadows here:



I would suggest starting a drawing with JUST using black and white, and then add the shades of grey later. Use a digital brush with 100 percent opacity when you begin a sketch.

Video game examples would be White Night...



... And Renoir uses black silhouettes like animators Lotte Reiniger and Michel Ocelot:



There's also this piece of animation. Note the Sean Jimenez and Mary Blair-style art style for the backgrounds, where the art is painted using what looks like digital gouache brushes, and the blocks of colour are unaligned with the black outlines (it's made to look like an old comic book printing error).

[crouchingbacon]

Whoah, thanks for the cool ideas and the detailed notes!

@skyeworks oh, I see what you're getting at. Sure, pops of color look great against black and white.

@Katy133 Damn, this is all really useful information. Got it, no blending (but ugh, drawing in pure blocks of black and white makes me nervous, since if the silhouette is bad, everything else gets kind of wonky ;u;)! It all feels so final.

The animation is actually pretty cute and witty, cool kids show.

Will try to apply all of these tips and see if I can make something out of them.

Edit:

Well, after some thought, I decided to leave the main sprites without eyes, kind of like this.
Maybe it'll be better to add the faces with expressions in a small box by the side of the text?

Juuust realizing that the backgrounds are going to be a pain ;u;