my feeble attempt at drawing a Fedora

[Loopy Lisa]

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o45/loopylisa1/Fedora.jpg

I am working on a project for my wedding invite business. I'm trying to draw a Fedora for the Groom.

I googled "fedora illustrations" and the image on the left hand side came up so I used that as inspiration to follow like a guideline.

Truth: I spent all effing day (well, 3 hours off and on) trying to duplicate that in some regard and it never came about. So I tried it just off the top of my head and came up with the illustration on the right hand side.

I know it sucks. I have no drawing skills, apparently. How ever I will make it as a designer is beyond me, lol.

Despite the fact that both the bride and groom are funky stock figures, that's the feel I am going for, can anyone suggest what else i could do to make it look not so kindergarten and *little* more realistic? I thought if I added a curve at the bottom of the brim, that might help.

Feedback welcome, critique if you must I can take it. I even know it sucks ass. :D

[Loopy Lisa]

Sorry, that's funky STICK figures.

[budafist]

What is this project exactly?

It's not for invitations are they? It's just that the drawing is so naive and casual looking - nothing that I would expect to see on a wedding invitation.

[Loopy Lisa]

In my defense I am a little naive and casual I guess, lol.

Yes it's for wedding invitations. I've done a great amount of research and the trend is moving towards artsy fartsy designs like that. Fr'instance, your avatar...I've seen little cartoony designs on wedding invitations from different companies, so I assumed that that is what the market is trending towards...if trending is a word. If not I just made it one.

I can understand your point though, that's why I posted iboth images for comparison. I still want to achieve that cutesy look without it looking TOO kindergarten. Perhaps it's not possible, I don't know. I'm just messing around with some ideas I had, in Illustrator that's all.

Not all of my ideas are like that though...they range for sure. These are just some of the ones I am working on now to get myself familiarized and comfortable with Illy. When I have mastered a few techniques I will go ahead with the other ideas I had.

But I appreciate your input. :-)

[Linzzz]

you should play around with shading...

[budafist]

I've yet to see cutesy wedding invitations. Birthday, Bar Mitzvah, Baby Showers yes, Weddings, not yet.

Sure they are moving away from the frilly white and gold traditional kinds.
The ones I'm seeing these days are clean and elegant with san serif fonts and bright jewel like colours.

[Loopy Lisa]

not *yet* you say, lol...

There is always room out in the market for something a little more off the wall and eccentric. I've seen wedding invites along the lines of gothic and dark ideas, so for me to throw out a couple "cutesy" designs probably isn't going to kill me.

Linzzz - tried shading...I should try again. Thanks! :-)

[Kool]

I would go with the larger style fedora. Think Indiana Jones instead of Bing Crosby. :)

[vtwin_gary]

i think that the face is hurting you. the fetures either need to be more realistic or not there at all as in the other image.

[budafist]

Almost forgot - years ago I worked for a printer that mostly did wedding invitations. Look (http://aycu25.webshots.com/image/9584/2000580596660108419_rs.jpg) what I dug up! It's an illustration I did as a commision for a client's invitations. In the end the client wanted rounder eyes on all the characters. Was it a anti-asian remark? The round eyes made them all look very cutesy.

I guess there is a market for cutesy after all.
Just that most people don't go that track. If you're going to work global though, then I guess there may be enough to to keep you busy.

The printer I worked for back then only dealt with people locally, so they couldn't focus on 1 niche.

[Loopy Lisa]

Sweet Buda!
But to reinforce my findings:

http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o45/loopylisa1/CartoonVites.jpg

There's totally a market, yes...albeit small. But there. For small people like me I suppose, lol.

[Ned]

Silly. :D

And Buda... I have to admit that those eyes do look overtly Asian. Was this for an Asian client?

[morea]

Lisa - if you want the image to appear in your post you need to remove the spaces between the [img] tags and the url. ;)

[budafist]

Silly. :D

And Buda... I have to admit that those eyes do look overtly Asian. Was this for an Asian client?

Not an asian client. It's just how I draw eyes sometimes. I ended up doing some beady-looking numbers like this :D

http://www.geocities.com/yosemite/rapids/4362/momonga.jpg

[Loopy Lisa]

Morea: Odd cause I've been able to post it like that before and when I did put in the http:...., it brought up that underlined link, I clicked on it and I could view my image. When I *take* the spaces out I get this:

[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o...rtoonVites.jpg

Buda: I love those large wide eyes though, it's kinda funky-like. Draw me! That's your project for the day.

[morea]

huh, not sure why. I think imageshack has been being feisty lately. There's also www.photobucket.com (you need to create an account for that one) or www.tinypic.com if imageshack continues to be a jerk.

edit: after seeing Kool's post (below) now I remember... I did fix the link in one of your posts, it came up [url= yadda yadda yadda... be sure that when you upload to imageshack you are copying the very bottom link which is labelled "Direct". Then add the [img] tag to the start and the tag to the end, and all should be well.

[Kool]

Morea: Odd cause I've been able to post it like that before and when I did put in the [img] http:...., it brought up that underlined link, I clicked on it and I could view my image. When I *take* the spaces out I get this:

You had both link and image tags in there Lisa, that's why it wasn't working. I fixed it.

[Loopy Lisa]

Sanx Kool.
But to confirm:
space http:.... space ?
or no space?
dammit it worked for me that one time...

[Kool]

No spaces. :D

And no URL tags unless you just want a link to the image.

[morea]

dammit it worked for me that one time...

actually, I think I edited your post to make it work for you that time. ;)

No spaces is right. And use the "direct" link. If you set up a photobucket, it allows you to sort images into folders and also provides you a link complete with image tags so you can just copy and paste it into your posts.

[Bobbigirl]

What I've done is taken an image (like the one you found), bring it into Illustrator as a .jpg and lock it, then trace it. You don't want to "copy" it, so then delete the original .jpg, and play around with your "trace" to make it original. It's kind of like using the image you found as a template.

Mess around with some funky strokes, widths, etc...

[1ooScreamingTrees]

critique if you must I can take it. I even know it sucks ass.

if you know it sucks, why bother posting it? take it to the level that you feel content with - or at least to the point where you feel like you're heading in the correct direction.

but posting something that you "know sucks ass" is only going to receive verification.

your illustration sucks ass.

[Loopy Lisa]

if you know it sucks, why bother posting it? take it to the level that you feel content with - or at least to the point where you feel like you're heading in the correct direction.

but posting something that you "know sucks ass" is only going to receive verification.

your illustration sucks ass.

beCAUSE silly, I also asked for suggestion on what I can do to improve it. When I've worked on it a lil' better, I shall then repost it for further critique. And thanks for agreeing with me. :-)

[Loopy Lisa]

What I've done is taken an image (like the one you found), bring it into Illustrator as a .jpg and lock it, then trace it. You don't want to "copy" it, so then delete the original .jpg, and play around with your "trace" to make it original. It's kind of like using the image you found as a template.

Mess around with some funky strokes, widths, etc...

Sweet, thanks for that, I shall giv'er a go....

[Liquid Layers]

You need to draw the rim of the hat as an elipse and not as a line. Think about the object in three dimensions when you draw it.

If you want to do your own illustrations you should consider taking even a basic drawing class.