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Robster gallery

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Robster gallery

This is a gallery of some of my stuff... updated regularly! Don't be afraid to tell me what you think or how I could improve :)

ROB

here are some illustrator created illustrations, the first one is based on the sketch I posted earlier...

and another illustration I made as a test, tracing from a photograph...

Wow. Your sketches are amazing, and the hair is all wonderful! Spectacular.
(How perfect that you draw hair so wonderfully and are doing a Rapunzel thing. Hooray!)
Also, cute eagle :D

"One of the major difficulties Trillian experienced in her relationship with Zaphod was learning to distinguish between him pretending to be stupid just to get people off their guard, pretending to be stupid because he couldn't be bothered to think and wanted someone else to do it for him, pretending to be outrageously stupid to hide the fact that he actually didn't understand what was going on, and really being genuinely stupid." ~Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Absolutely in love with these drawings. Has a definite Beauty and the Beast or Little Mermaid feel to them. I especially like the softness of the drawings. Kind of reminds me of the roughes that I would see by Glen Keane do for Beast or Alladin. Keep up the updates.

KalEl118

allo allo...

Awesome work! even at your blog!...i forgot the password to my eblog, o well...ill just have to website stuff..keep the nice sketches coming...

Go now! Its Free! YES Free!
www.derrickcanyon.com
See my work and me at these other sites! WOW!
http://fearcomedy.com/ (Comic Book Freelance)
http://derrickcanyon.blogspot.com/ (Sketcheroos)
www.radicalaxis.com (Atlanta Studio)
:eek:

fixed the images, more coming soon...

This really is rock-solid stuff. So far I like the Madonna caricatures (in your blog) best. Reminds me of the animation done for her "Music" video clip.
The girl looking on her destroyed home village (which I think is what you wrote about that character moment in your blog) is also extremely solid - still, in terms of design I think "that's been done before", if you get my meaning. Although none of us are really "above" that kind of thing, of repeating what inspires us (and I don't think that's a "bad" thing), have you tried taking the character in another direction, design-wise?

Thanx for the kind comments. The girl overlooking her ravaged city is still very abstract in my head, and it'll probably go through many variations as it progresses. I'll most likely try many variations, as I use these projects as a way to try out different stuff, different techniques, drawing styles, etc. Just to keep the imagination flowing.

Btw, here's some older stuff I did for a personal Rapunzel project. You can read more about it on my blog. I have worked on this personal project on and off in my spare time since the late 90's. I'll be posting some of the older stuff I did first, and then some of the more recent stuff.

The very first sketch is my favourite. I'd like to see her with red hair. Something about her suggests red hair to me.

yeah, I also like the hair treatment on her in the first sketch, the face is cute as well, but later on I envisioned her as a more feisty character, more atttitude. In that respect red hair could work. But I would think Rapunzel has this golden blonde hair which glistens in the sun when she hangs it out of the tower she's captured in.

In my opinion it's always a good idea to think a little outisde the box when designing. Surprise your viewers a bit. Rapunzel is a very well-established character and I think that can actually work to your advantage. What I like to do is take the first mental image that comes to my mind when thinking of a character like that - and then go against the most striking attributes.
You described what comes to your mind - long blond hair glistening in the sun whilst a young heroine languidly awaits her Prince Charming in a high tower. Now -
What if the hair was red and not at all shiny? A young girl trapped in a small tower room with more hair than she knows what to do with? What if she was a little scruffy-looking exactly because of that? I mean, hey, even if you're trapped inside a tower you probably won't spend an entire month taking care of every inch of hair until it shines.
Here we even come a little into how a story can affect design - what will your heroine do and what effect might it have on her outward appearance? Wait an eternity until some dude comes along to finally carry her away? You said you like yur Rapunzel feisty - why is she feisty, how does she keep feisty in a situation like that?

Don't get me wrong about this, I'm not suggesting a fairy-tale concept automatically needs to be transformed into something like Shrek to be appealing. (Shrek lost almost all of its appeal to me with the second movie but that's just me.) Shrek makes outright fun of classic fairy-tale concepts, yet visually a lot of its elements look exactly like what is meant to be spoofed. I think you can do the opposite thing here, meaning you tell a classic story with some subtle twists that creatively add to the original content while preserving its spirit.

True, might be interesting to explore. I had indeed already thought about what she would do inside that tower. My take on things was books, reading, studying, very intelligent little girl, interest in herbology, biology, astronomy, things she could study from outside her window, also writing, and painting. Kind of a loner, but very sociable, in the tower to animals around her, in the outside world with people. A very positive thinker, nothing can get her down, and always believing in the kindness of people, even the witch who locked her up. My story would be as much about the witch and her reasoning as it would be about Rapunzel. The two would play of against one another. The witch has a backstory of being teased and mocked by friends in her youth. Which led to her living a life in solitude, and an ever growing hype around her persona of being a creepy woman. When a man stumbles in her garden to get some plants from the garden he is caught by the witch who is sick of people taking advantage of her, and suggests a trade with the man. He can take the plants as much as he wants as long as he'll get his first born child. The man thinks it's all a big joke and agrees. But then the witch does take the child as soon as it's born and vanishes. Then we see Rapunzel being raised by the witch, finally having someone around her that she can love and who loves her back. But as Rapunzel grows older she also gets more popular with many friends and even a blossoming love with a boy in town. The witch can't handle losing the one person she has in her life, the one person who loves her and is not about to share her. And thus she has a tower built and locks up Rapunzel in the tower. That's my set-up of the story.

Here are some more recent sketches I did for my take on the story, one is Rapunzel, the other a sketch of the witch, based on Glen Close.

Yes, I see. Now I wonder where the focus of your story lies. Is it solely on Rapunzel? You mean her to be a clever and optimistic girl but frankly, that can be said about the vast majority of animated heroines. What sets her apart? She knows about herbology, astronomy and so forth but how does that, how do her qualities, contribute to the story in interesting and unusual ways?
Then there's your witch, a wronged loner - or at least that's how she sees herself. She cheats an innocent man out of his child to have someone of her own to love and I see potential for a tricky dilemma here that might well carry the more dramatic part of such a story. Is your villainess all evil and remorseless? In the original story, the witch bargains for the child using the man's desparation to her selfish advantage: the man's wife is dying and he needs the plants from the witch's garden to cure her. He agrees to the deal not realising during that moment what it might mean later. I'm sure you see there's a more sinister edge to the witch's part in that version of the plot.

So the ultimate question is, what will you do that's new? I see a lot of opportunities opening up here: what if Rapunzel who has never known parents other than the witch had learned to be a witch from her? What if you kept her (and the audience) guessing about the witch's true intentions by not revealing at the beginning she's not Rapunzel's real mother, and what if the witch was such a positive character that no one would guess she's really the antagonist? What if the witch had higher goals than just jealously guarding her ill-begotten daughter and what does that daughter mean to her in the end? Is Rapunzel someone she truly loves, was she really the desperate one when she tricked the man into giving away his child? And as such a character, is the witch to be despised or pitied? And, of course, how does the love interest feature into this?

Again, that's my take. I really admire the craftsmanship and solidity of your work. There's a lot you can do with it. C'mon, I'm audience - surprise me! ;)

You are talented. Keep it up! :)

I really like your style, and I can tell you are a hard worker

Yes, I see. Now I wonder where the focus of your story lies. Is it solely on Rapunzel? You mean her to be a clever and optimistic girl but frankly, that can be said about the vast majority of animated heroines. What sets her apart? She knows about herbology, astronomy and so forth but how does that, how do her qualities, contribute to the story in interesting and unusual ways?
Then there's your witch, a wronged loner - or at least that's how she sees herself. She cheats an innocent man out of his child to have someone of her own to love and I see potential for a tricky dilemma here that might well carry the more dramatic part of such a story. Is your villainess all evil and remorseless? In the original story, the witch bargains for the child using the man's desparation to her selfish advantage: the man's wife is dying and he needs the plants from the witch's garden to cure her. He agrees to the deal not realising during that moment what it might mean later. I'm sure you see there's a more sinister edge to the witch's part in that version of the plot.

So the ultimate question is, what will you do that's new? I see a lot of opportunities opening up here: what if Rapunzel who has never known parents other than the witch had learned to be a witch from her? What if you kept her (and the audience) guessing about the witch's true intentions by not revealing at the beginning she's not Rapunzel's real mother, and what if the witch was such a positive character that no one would guess she's really the antagonist? What if the witch had higher goals than just jealously guarding her ill-begotten daughter and what does that daughter mean to her in the end? Is Rapunzel someone she truly loves, was she really the desperate one when she tricked the man into giving away his child? And as such a character, is the witch to be despised or pitied? And, of course, how does the love interest feature into this?

Again, that's my take. I really admire the craftsmanship and solidity of your work. There's a lot you can do with it. C'mon, I'm audience - surprise me!

Interesting thoughts. It's always good to bounce ideas around, as working alone on a project can basically make you circle around the same idea. Someone with an entirely different take and fresh look on things can make you think of possibilities and your own reasoning behind story desicions, so thanks.

My take on the story would be about the dynamic between the witch and Rapunzel, as Rapunzel is the trigger for the witch to tackle her own problems and past. I was interested in giving the villain a backstory. Usually you step into the story when the evil badguy is already bad and never go really deep into what got them in such a dark place. I wanted to explore that in this story. Maybe the original take of the man having to trade his child to help save his wife from death is a good set-up to show how bitter the witch is at that point of her life. Not willing to help her fellow man just like she was never helped in any way. But then when she gets Rapunzel she has a short period where she can open her heart untill her own fear shows up again and her fear for losing the only unconditional love she ever had. So she locks up Rapunzel like a rare, live animal in a cage/tower.

Basically, Rapunzel then becomes the victim of the witch acting like a victim. Rapunzel however is thrown between love, because as a mother the witch has always been loving to her, but she can't understand why someone who loves you can't let you live your life. She's thrown around between love, hate and misunderstanding. A storyline I still need to explore.

The idea of Rapunzel being a witch might be interesting. She could even maybe get her training from her mother. Who neglects to tell her certain spells. Rapunzel could maybe at a key moment find out that her real mother isn't the witch, and that her real parents are still alive. Further complicating matters for Rapunzel. And making the role of the mother she always loved and tried to obey even more complex. I know there's a good storyline in there, it sounds a but cluttered right now, but I still need to streamline certain stuff.

There is no REAL love interest, however a friend from the time she still lived in the village with a which goes to look for his friend. By the time they find eachother they discover love and he could eventually help her escape and find Rapunzel's real parents. But then the problem still remains, what happens with the witch. I would rather not kill her off, I'd rather have her convert in some way, letting go of her anger and insecurities and relieve her from her victim role. I've never seen that in animated movies, where the "villain" is so fleshed out that they can be really evil and bad but where the audience can still feel sympathy and compasion for as there is a full backstory to make them understand the "other side" of things.

Anyway, some more sketches:

Interesting thoughts. It's always good to bounce ideas around, as working alone on a project can basically make you circle around the same idea. Someone with an entirely different take and fresh look on things can make you think of possibilities and your own reasoning behind story desicions, so thanks.

And my thanks back - I've never been particularly interested in Rapunzel but you made me think about ways in which to tackle her and her story. Since I'm down with a cold at the moment I might just sit down at the lightbox and try some versions of her ...

But then the problem still remains, what happens with the witch. I would rather not kill her off, I'd rather have her convert in some way, letting go of her anger and insecurities and relieve her from her victim role. I've never seen that in animated movies, where the "villain" is so fleshed out that they can be really evil and bad but where the audience can still feel sympathy and compasion for as there is a full backstory to make them understand the "other side" of things.

I'd suggest having a look at some of Miyazaki's work for villain treatment. He does some noteworthy stuff with the Witch of the Waste character in Howl's Moving Castle. That witch may not be the story's "real" villain but she certainly starts out as a very negative character and gets completely turned around - without losing all of her sinister edge.

thanks very much for the very kind words. Glen Keane and his drawing style have indeed been a big influence on me. I love the way he uses his pencil to build shapes, make sculptures with graphite on paper. I'm also in love with the way he draws eyes and makes them really evoke emotion. The subtelty of his drawings is something I strive to every single drawing.

Anyway, here are two more Rapunzel drawings before I start posting some other work...

Robster, these drawings have a fantastic line quality and a great sense of anatomy! It's great to see you developing the character, both visually and by her backstory. You are setting a good example for us all.

Looking forward to seeing more,
Cobster.

Visit my website:

Claire O'Brien.com

Thanks for the suggestions :) I'll certainly look into it as I move along with this project.

In the meantime, here are some more Rapunzel sketches:

Great work Robster. I really like the Rapunzel sketch that is right above the villian sketch as well as the last Rapunzel sketch of her reading the book. It has a bit of a Little Mermaid feel to it, maybe that's why I like it. I also like the one with the flower in her hair. It really feels like she has a ton of hair in that sketch. You have very nice line work and form and volume.

Aloha,
the Ape

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."