Rudy WIP - Shading, a Backdrop, and Some Shiny Apples

GenreChowderStudios
Apr 12, 2018
2 min read

The thing about shading Mr. Rudy here was how to carve out his face. No, not like that. In Animal Crossing, most of the characters are very simply constructed. His features are just kinda slapped onto his round head. But that would look weird in an illustration, at least in the way I draw people. A bit of it is the construction. His cheeks puffs out. His left eye is narrower vertically. He has a neck at last. Things like that help, but it's very much about the shading. What falls into shadow suggests shape and form. For instance, you wouldn't get that his eyes are somewhat inset and how his nasal bridge protrudes past the his farther eye.

His face was looking a bit too plain. I didn't want him to look as if he were embarrassed or wearing the makeups. And heck, he's fuzzy, too, so flush wouldn't show through much, if at all. I added a touch of red to his cheeks to give him a little life. But it's just enough to notice. I also added it to other parts of him to balance the reds around the picture.

A plain white background might be fine for some pictures. This one, though? It looks unfinished. There are too many light colors. Plus, while my use of brown lineart, the added flush, the apples, and the purple parts, and all the other little things unified the colors, it did make the art very ruddy. So why not use an aspect of Rudy's canon house to break it up a bit?

Rudy's New Leaf house has a cloudy wallpaper (don't know the actual name). I could appropriate it for a nice, light backdrop.

The circle was easy enough. It's just a circle, after all. The clouds were simple, too, as I've done them before. But they're less straightforward. First, I drew the lines for some very cartoony clouds. Then, I filled in the lines. And then it looks great, right? Nope. It looks ridiculous. Now, if we knock out the cloud lines, we'll have nice, soft clouds.

Without the lines, the clouds not only less stupid-looking, they also look less substantial. They seem to be affected by atmospheric mist or distance or whatever it was. Things farther away look paler and mistier than up close. The effect is enhanced by the white gradient coming from the bottom of the circle. It looks very much like the sky back there. Back there, they are far less obtrusive but still provide a smattering of detail. Lovely~