An Exploration of Style and Technique (Patreon)

I sent out Bubbles yesterday and was happy with it. But, I'd also like to get your take on different styles and also explain some things about them.

The original I sent out lacked line work. The lack of line work makes the character softer and warmer. Distinctions between elements are handled with crisp coloring and hard edges accompanied by subtle shading.  Line work is also tedious in my opinion. Unless it requires it, essentially tracing your work only adds time and tedium to creating. There are trade offs in creating art. It's possible to over work each separate element and end up with a muddy mess. Too much line work with too much shading and highlights can create a disaster visually. 

Example 1: simply added line work. It certainly defines the character more but it feels less colorful with them and makes the character harder. 

Example 2: A blend between a cell shading technique and the original with added line work. It's not much of a change. It also lacks soft highlights because they tend to clash with cell shading. 

Example 3: This is very close to the look of an animation which makes sense when doing a character that originated in animation. It's clean and simple and would be easy to repeat and has the added bonus of being fast. This style is not something I'm especially familiar with. The visual simplicity of cell shading betrays the actual difficulty in doing it well. 

Another technique not presented here is coloring the line work to soften edges that are normally present with pure black lines. I'm considering going back to it as it's something familiar. 

Let me know what you think of the variations and if you'd like me to explain any elements in creating this pinup.