BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

So basically I've been wanting to make my own shirts and the best way is vector based artwork, which can be silk screened on as large or as small as you want.
i was too lazy to go and vector out a blue tongue myself so i commissioned a quick and dirty vector of a northern blue tongue using mine, Austins and an image i found online (i wanted the pose more than anything) as it represented bluey characteristics. originally it'd of been a shirt for Austin or myself to wear. so what can i change, what can i do to improve the image, i was going for very minimal detail to accent what everyone loves about blue tongues.

in the long run of things i'm hoping to do one for each of the localities in Australia.

here is the vector based work, what do you all think and what could be improved, i paid the guy already but i may end up redoing the work myself once i find some motivation. The shirt would of course be on black (technically any color, but i'm starting on black)

I would add a bit more detail to the legs and neck, but otherwise its pretty good

The feet.. they almost looked webbed in this image.. and broken (and the toes are going in the wrong direction for this particular position). The top of the head is a bit off, but the bottom looks nice. Looks like the base of the tail needs a bit more work, as well. The left side of the stomach (the part you see the most) comes to an awkward end.

Overall looks nice, though

I went and re-did the vector work myself just to see what i could get done. i still don't like the feet, they seem to be the hardest part to get right, now that i got the vector done and i can change literally anything i want.

Now that is a good bluey drawing! Head looks spot on, belly fixed, back feet positioned well, even the eye looks great! Only thing I see that I would suggest fixing would be, like you said, front feet, and maybe a tad bit more adjustments to the back right foot (only see 4 toes, lol). Other than cleaning up the lines, which I'm sure will come as soon as you fixed all the minor stuff.

I wish I could do vector-based drawing. I can barely even draw on paper as it is.

Keep in mind i'm doing this with a mouse on my laptop on software that is almost 10 years old now (so it's free) and not with the wacom tablet that my expert buddies use and a digital pen. this was about an hours worth of work and 10 layers of detail.. i did the front feet on a seperate layer so that i could redraw them hundreds of times till they are right.

Jbolar wrote:i did the front feet on a seperate layer so that i could redraw them hundreds of times till they are right.

That is a very good idea. My pet peeve with learning how to draw "on the PC" was all the layers, now that I do go back and try to draw something, I always make sure I have a layer per each portion/color, which makes things so much easier.

I can't get over how spot on the head is. When I draw blueys I feel the head shape is the hardest thing to accomplish. Surprisingly enough I do not have trouble with toes (although it is definitely a trial and error process sometimes..)

Can't wait til it is done, I'd like to get one. Would be awesome to have 1 shirt per species in my wardrobe.

still trying to figure out the proper accents on the back and how to utilize orange port holes

I like the original feet the better, honestly

Here's a suggestion: why not take a photo of your skink and edit it using Photoshop or Gimp? They have artist effects which would alter the photo making it look like an oil painting, cartoony, and etc. You would have to work at cropping out the background, but I feel the results would be better. JMO.

Here's an oilified example:

To be honest I like the first one the best. I think it looks more like a cartoon then a real drawing. If you have your skink look more cartoonish I think the feet are fine, it's not supposed to be perfect. The only thing I would like to see are the stripes on top of the body. But if your going realistic then the feet need work... but as I said before I think the first one is fine. I would buy one.

Speaking of shirts if this website made a shirt with their cool skink on it I would buy one of those too. There are no good shirts for a BTS lover out there.

I agree with jdheff I think advanced software will do you with more justice

Because filters and effects are not the look I was going for, also lack any artistic talent at all. The point of the image is to be simple outline while accenting 3 points..the body, the tongue and port holes.. had I wanted it to look like crap I'd of used filters on an picture of my animals.

Jbolar wrote:Because filters and effects are not the look I was going for, also lack any artistic talent at all. The point of the image is to be simple outline while accenting 3 points..the body, the tongue and port holes.. had I wanted it to look like crap I'd of used filters on an picture of my animals.

So, you're saying my animal looks like crap because I applied a filter to its picture? Thanks... Kind of a harsh recoil for a suggestion, don't you think?

Animal doesn't look like crap, the Photoshop filters don't go much, nor what I want. This is a illustrator based work, I can make it as big or as small as I want without distortion, I can make stickers.. photoshopping an image using filters is extremely cheap looking and limited

The orange portholes on the first image look really good, maybe combine those with the bands on the third somehow? Or maybe just the first images orange portholes on a black background, that would look really great too. I love the overall image though, its prefect and simple, a great logo idea since it'll be easily replicated, putting to much detail into portholes will make it loose it's nice clean looking simplicity. You could also stripe the tail with fat alternating black and white bands if a northern bts is the look you're going for, that combined with the orange portholes from the first image will give it a great overall simply but easily distinguishable northern bts feel. Can't wait to see it when its all done, great job!

DID SOMEONE SAY VECTORS????

The main thing that stands out to me is the bend of the tail. I know in the picture your drawing off of, the tail does have that sharp angle on the left side of the image near the base. However in the photo you can actually see how the bed seperates from the top of the tail and the bottom as it goes around. In a much simpler vector image, you dont see that and such it looks more like a broken tail. I think going back to the curvature of the first image would help with that.

The back right leg looks great, but again for the shape of a vector I would draw the left leg the same way as the right (With the knee going over the foot) - as again without that depth and 3Dness of a photo, the foot just looks like its broken (Even though it is accurate to the photo).

Same goes with the front toes. They just look like two different styles of drawing. I would do the left leg the same as the right, and perhaps put a bit of a slight bend in the right leg.

Perhaps oval the eye a bit and make the pupil a small dot of colour and slightly off centre - Have a fiddle, it might help it to look more natural.

I like the lines in the first image you did~

All are just suggestions of course! Vectors can be cartoony and inaccurate as they are supposed to be basic~ (Especially if youre wanting to screen print!)

What program are you using? Just sounds a bit odd that youre having to use so many layers~

If James is set on screenprinting, than a vector is definitely the way to go - Screenprinting a filtered photoshop photo would cost A LOT, and thats if the company agreed to do it in the first place. (Cause yeah, no one would do that themselves ahaha!)

Nae, first off thanks for that great response, it has a lot of insite.

i'm using a very old version of illustrator, CS2 i think.. it's got some age to it, as it's free now. that being said yes , i definitely need to add more points in the tail, the feet are frustrating but i will attempt what you suggested.

i've already been working on the eye to be more oval.

feet are just incredibly annoying..

i have about 12-15 layers because i like to work in parts or turn off and on layers, or do multiple lines of the same thing to see which fits best, in reality should be about 4 layers.