Oh man it's a livejournal mood icons page!

Why's he thinking of blue chicken? That can't be tasty. <:P

Nah. Its just an incomplete thought is all!

Still... bleh. <:P

Blue chicken could be a delicacy where this hybrid is from!

I suppose...

6 years have passed.... and I must kick this joke in the ass. That was a stupid reply *ahem* I shall try again.

"Nah, hes not into blue chicken. This is Aqua chicken. MUCH more fresh. Free ranged too!"

So, question, do you also have problems sometimes stretching complex markings over ginormous mouths you draw for crazy expressions? It always sucks for me if there are any markings between the mouth corner and the eye, because I often draw the mouths going beyond the eyes...

I do! And actually, that particular pattern was hard for me to decypher at first. A lot of folks design characters (including human ones) without thinking about how the features will move on top of the structures of the face and it's proportions.

It's hard for me to explain my way of figuring it out. I'll have to think about it for a bit ^^;;
Although what do you mean by the mouth going 'beyond' the eye?

As in, in a sideview, it goes farther to the back of the head than the eye does, or in any view, when I pull up the mouth corner and cheek so high they cover the eye (a bit like on my icon, but even more extreme).
I love character designs like this: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/163737/ but when I draw crazy faces like that, it just doesn't really work! If the markings are very complex I feel like it doesn't fit the toony style either, so I often adapt a slightly more realistic style then.

Ah! I gotcha. :)

Well, I don't need to go into too much about structure because your drawings are always solid! But that's really the key to controlling complex markings and the like.

I die for the name of accuracy, but I also know that as the face squashes and stretches with everything else, most importantly, this causes things to overlap so more often than not, those little details end up being hidden/distorted with the shapes the face make. It's a matter of keeping in mind the proportions of the structures of the face.

I took your icon and applied a similar marking structure to the character you linked so you could see what I mean (I hope you don't mind!)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u.....ekeexample.png

I guess... keep in mind those big, meaty parts in the face and it gets easier to figure out when you meet a new character! As it is I spent about ten minutes working out the 'base drawing' marking, and then I *really* figured it out as I went along (and adjusted the previous ones) :3

I hope I didn't come off as condescending or anything in my explanation! I was trying to figure out how to explain it still while I was... trying to explain, haha. I love your work and you obviously know your stuff and I adore it, so I didn't want to sound like I was talking to you in a way that suggested otherwise. x.X

Erp! sorry for the complexity of his markings! heh to be fair, he has been redesigned a number of times. But this turned out awesome! nailed it all!

Ahaha, no worries man! I've come across a few markings that were harder to decipher, actually, haha. But this was just sorta "dog hearing weird noise head tilt" confusing for a bit.
You know I love ya <3

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