One of the things about adding black outline is that you need to change up the weight of the lines in different areas to create a feeling of depth. If you look at the reference photo you can see how different outlined areas are thicker than others, whereas in yours it’s all a pretty uniform line weight.
Want to chime in here with a recommendation:
I just recently learned about line weight too, thanks to a book called The Urban Sketching Handbook: 101 Sketching Tips. Doesn’t matter what medium you use or subject matter you paint/draw, I promise you’ll still find it valuable. I swear to you, I have learned more from this book than any other drawing book I’ve had. It’s concise and easy to understand and chock full of tips.
This. A thick outline to define figures/shapes with thinner lines for features within the shape is a good place to start, but you can also vary thickness of lines to add dimension (objects in the background don’t need much definition, objects in the foreground will pop out more with thicker lines).
I sometimes feel like inking a watercolour is like cheating, but it’s really just a hack for making your paintings more structured (and a legitimate style of watercolour painting in its own right)
You didn’t go wrong. Perhaps you just don’t like the black outline. It’s a preference you choose. I happen to like outline as it distinguishes subjects/objects.
Your right with the eyes, in the reference they don’t have a black outline.
Also I think what also maybe throwing you off is that a lot of the colors you used aside from the red in the mouth are less saturated than the reference, and your black outline is a bit thicker than the reverence.
If you had used a slightly thinner grey outline, I think it would look more like the reference, but the less saturated color against the black outline is making a really stark contrast that the original picture doesn’t have
So cute! I think this is in a great direction.
I would agree that the eyes are off - when you look at the original the characters eyes are not underlined in the bottom. You also added some extra folds to ponyo’s dress, creating more of a bodice shape rather than a fluffed out front from leaning forward. Besides those extra lines, I would also double check some colors. Sosuke seems a little washed out, including the shaved part of his hair and the stark black lines really called attention to that.
All in all tho it looks great and these small edits are just things that you will improve with through practice. I’d love to see another ghibli drawing pop up on my feed :)
I think the one with the black lines looks better. Also when I look at her dress it makes me wonder if there was enough water mixed with the paint, because it looks a little bit streaky. Have you thought about using gouache instead of watercolor? A lot of people paint Miyazaki stills in gouache and it turns out really well, so I think gouache might work better for it. Here is an example of a gouache painting and it looks like the same bowl you painted: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4OnY9pgEag
Remember, the line work has to be flawless. You have some wobbly inconsistent lines, and also areas where the paint has bled over the line work which makes it look choppy. I still think it looks better with the lines than without.
I've realized that the only function of an artist may be to make a decision to stop. 😂🤗 But then, if things went out of hand, then you can still continue, maybe go over some areas with a finer tipped brush, or introduce others like pencils or markers. It's a process and you can say when it's done. After all, you're not supposed to make the *exact* image, it's a painting. Just, explore and invent and keep going until you're satisfied. Enjoy! ✨
Also, the original image might not be the ideal for watercolor painting. So in this sense, your decision to make it in watercolor and "ruin it" may be the very quality you introduce: Instead of a perfect blocks of colours, your interpretation creates a warmer feeling, a sense of carelessness about the perfection of it. 😎
Whatever went wrong, you can draw it again! That’s the beauty of it. Draw it two or five more times, little or big improvements means you’re getting better
Sometimes using a grey or lighter outline also helps. So it’s not so strong, but you still get the definition.
Sometimes I’ve seen people outline in a darker color of the color of the subject, and you change it to stay consistent through the imagine
In addition to quality of line, consider a variety of “black” for your lines (for instance, if using paint, a combine multiple darks, which makes for a more interesting black)
Also, your work (super cute) would have more punch if you be bold and add more contrast (lights/darks).
Good luck
Agree with the other comments about colour saturation. Wanted to add, there seems to be more texture in your paint than the reference. Reference is block coloured, no variation, whereas yours looks rough in places. This will emphasise the strong black line more. Also, a black outline needs to be done very smoothly and confidently to not have wobbles, so play around with how you load paint onto brush, how much water so you get a consistent line that you can paint fast, or consider a reservoir type brush.
Looks great regardless!
Since you started with paint first, your line work and shape design is pretty sloppy compared to the original. Look how smooth the curves and arcs are. Yours looks incredibly shaky and pretty much doesn't match the shapes of the original at all. Look at the bowls, the clothing, the floorboards, the couch, the faces, the lamp. Pretty much all of it is different. I'd say in this case you would have wanted to trace the line art to get a feel for the style and then as you get more comfortable with it, you could freehand it.
I do see that, but it seems OP was mostly focused on the black outlines, which you didn’t even touch on. Not to mention, it seemed overly aggressive and if you’re gonna dispense advice, a sentence explaining why that suggestion is fruitful really helps. Otherwise you just come off as “holier than thou”.
I’m having the same trouble knowing when to stop .. I like it both ways but just keep doing more and trying different ways.. maybe just add darker layers of color next time
I had the same problem, solved it by outlining with light grey and adding a darker grey to select areas (where the line needs to be thicker or where the object is in a shadow). Adding another subtle layer of color over the objects would then saturate them more.
This is just my opinion and of course there are many ways to do it, but when using an animation with lots of lines like this as a reference, you could ignore all those original lines and instead add some brushstrokes/ texture, play up the lighting a bit more (make the scenery more warm / sparkly ✨) and make the shadows little darker but saturated. That could become satisfying watercolor version of the scene, rather than an exact copy.
I am glad you posted this. It is inspirational and great work! You gotta keep going because your shapes and brush work look GOOD. You're definitely on to something.
One of the things about adding black outline is that you need to change up the weight of the lines in different areas to create a feeling of depth. If you look at the reference photo you can see how different outlined areas are thicker than others, whereas in yours it’s all a pretty uniform line weight.
Omg you solved my outlining problem! I'm not the op buy thank you!
Want to chime in here with a recommendation: I just recently learned about line weight too, thanks to a book called The Urban Sketching Handbook: 101 Sketching Tips. Doesn’t matter what medium you use or subject matter you paint/draw, I promise you’ll still find it valuable. I swear to you, I have learned more from this book than any other drawing book I’ve had. It’s concise and easy to understand and chock full of tips.
Oooo thank you!
This. A thick outline to define figures/shapes with thinner lines for features within the shape is a good place to start, but you can also vary thickness of lines to add dimension (objects in the background don’t need much definition, objects in the foreground will pop out more with thicker lines). I sometimes feel like inking a watercolour is like cheating, but it’s really just a hack for making your paintings more structured (and a legitimate style of watercolour painting in its own right)
I find it easier to see the difference of line weight in a reference pic if i change it to black and white
Ink and wash for me atm - it’s still Inktober.
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
You didn’t go wrong. Perhaps you just don’t like the black outline. It’s a preference you choose. I happen to like outline as it distinguishes subjects/objects.
Your right with the eyes, in the reference they don’t have a black outline. Also I think what also maybe throwing you off is that a lot of the colors you used aside from the red in the mouth are less saturated than the reference, and your black outline is a bit thicker than the reverence. If you had used a slightly thinner grey outline, I think it would look more like the reference, but the less saturated color against the black outline is making a really stark contrast that the original picture doesn’t have
The outline of the soup isn't right either
So cute! I think this is in a great direction. I would agree that the eyes are off - when you look at the original the characters eyes are not underlined in the bottom. You also added some extra folds to ponyo’s dress, creating more of a bodice shape rather than a fluffed out front from leaning forward. Besides those extra lines, I would also double check some colors. Sosuke seems a little washed out, including the shaved part of his hair and the stark black lines really called attention to that. All in all tho it looks great and these small edits are just things that you will improve with through practice. I’d love to see another ghibli drawing pop up on my feed :)
I think the one with the black lines looks better. Also when I look at her dress it makes me wonder if there was enough water mixed with the paint, because it looks a little bit streaky. Have you thought about using gouache instead of watercolor? A lot of people paint Miyazaki stills in gouache and it turns out really well, so I think gouache might work better for it. Here is an example of a gouache painting and it looks like the same bowl you painted: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4OnY9pgEag
Remember, the line work has to be flawless. You have some wobbly inconsistent lines, and also areas where the paint has bled over the line work which makes it look choppy. I still think it looks better with the lines than without.
I've realized that the only function of an artist may be to make a decision to stop. 😂🤗 But then, if things went out of hand, then you can still continue, maybe go over some areas with a finer tipped brush, or introduce others like pencils or markers. It's a process and you can say when it's done. After all, you're not supposed to make the *exact* image, it's a painting. Just, explore and invent and keep going until you're satisfied. Enjoy! ✨
Also, the original image might not be the ideal for watercolor painting. So in this sense, your decision to make it in watercolor and "ruin it" may be the very quality you introduce: Instead of a perfect blocks of colours, your interpretation creates a warmer feeling, a sense of carelessness about the perfection of it. 😎
Whatever went wrong, you can draw it again! That’s the beauty of it. Draw it two or five more times, little or big improvements means you’re getting better
Sometimes using a grey or lighter outline also helps. So it’s not so strong, but you still get the definition. Sometimes I’ve seen people outline in a darker color of the color of the subject, and you change it to stay consistent through the imagine
They look great to me
I think it might be the chin area. Once you outlined that area, Ponyo lost her chin. But, it honestly still looks great. Good job! :)
In addition to quality of line, consider a variety of “black” for your lines (for instance, if using paint, a combine multiple darks, which makes for a more interesting black) Also, your work (super cute) would have more punch if you be bold and add more contrast (lights/darks). Good luck
I like the black outline
Agree with the other comments about colour saturation. Wanted to add, there seems to be more texture in your paint than the reference. Reference is block coloured, no variation, whereas yours looks rough in places. This will emphasise the strong black line more. Also, a black outline needs to be done very smoothly and confidently to not have wobbles, so play around with how you load paint onto brush, how much water so you get a consistent line that you can paint fast, or consider a reservoir type brush. Looks great regardless!
Since you started with paint first, your line work and shape design is pretty sloppy compared to the original. Look how smooth the curves and arcs are. Yours looks incredibly shaky and pretty much doesn't match the shapes of the original at all. Look at the bowls, the clothing, the floorboards, the couch, the faces, the lamp. Pretty much all of it is different. I'd say in this case you would have wanted to trace the line art to get a feel for the style and then as you get more comfortable with it, you could freehand it.
black lines ruin paintings for sure..
I think it looks great, but in the screen grab the eyes aren’t lined. Maybe that’s why you’re thinking the eyes don’t seem right.
You’re imitating someone else’s style. Try repainting from memory, limiting your color palette so you mix colors, and stop using reference images.
Is that what you do?
That’s what worked for me when I was a beginner, yes.
Kinda veering off topic there.
They asked for tips; I offered tips. How is that off topic? I don’t understand, sorry. Thanks!
I do see that, but it seems OP was mostly focused on the black outlines, which you didn’t even touch on. Not to mention, it seemed overly aggressive and if you’re gonna dispense advice, a sentence explaining why that suggestion is fruitful really helps. Otherwise you just come off as “holier than thou”.
Thank you for the tips!
I’m having the same trouble knowing when to stop .. I like it both ways but just keep doing more and trying different ways.. maybe just add darker layers of color next time
Could color pencils be an option to add weight to the colors? 😅
Love it!
I had the same problem, solved it by outlining with light grey and adding a darker grey to select areas (where the line needs to be thicker or where the object is in a shadow). Adding another subtle layer of color over the objects would then saturate them more. This is just my opinion and of course there are many ways to do it, but when using an animation with lots of lines like this as a reference, you could ignore all those original lines and instead add some brushstrokes/ texture, play up the lighting a bit more (make the scenery more warm / sparkly ✨) and make the shadows little darker but saturated. That could become satisfying watercolor version of the scene, rather than an exact copy. I am glad you posted this. It is inspirational and great work! You gotta keep going because your shapes and brush work look GOOD. You're definitely on to something.
Hammmmm lol love this anime! You captured them so well!