Mentor Experiment: Oskar van Velden Critique

Above is my critique of Oskar van Velden’s three drawings. Bigger versions of his illustrations can be found on his Tumblr blog. Click on the image above to see my notes. To summarize, Oskar needs to really exaggerate the pose for it to read properly as the emotion his drawings are attempting to convey. Exaggeration can be accomplished by making the line of action even more curved.

Oskar’s first pose (left most, aka “Tired”) has a strong line of action, but the silhouette can be potentially confusing with the character’s hand intersecting across his leg. The fix would be to frame the arms such that they are not overlapping the legs. Oskar’s second pose hints at “happy” through the hand poses – but reads more as a run than the attitude of “happy”. Open fingers and an exposed chest (i.e. not concealed by arms etc.) indicates confidence and the jump gives us that sense of delight.

Oskar’s last pose could read as anger, but it’s not really exaggerated to make it absolutely clear. Play up the fists and really bend the line of action. Good work, Oskar! Let’s see some resubmits! :)

-Krishna