Friday, July 12, 2019

More Coco Bandicoot - 20+ Years later

Last time I posted some sketches of Coco Bandicoot but I wasn't comfortable with straying off model from what she would normally look like. So I've created a few more drawings where I tried to get her appearance to be more on target. Blue pencil and black line ball point pen.



17 comments:

Anonymous said...

She definitely looks more in line with her original design, nice work!

Hazman said...

Look's much better in these one's. I can see Coco' overalls are a little bit more detail. Is because she has different clothing materials than Crash's pants or shorts?

Charles Z said...

Thanks guys. I noticed as I was drawing her that I was being much more deliberate than before. At the beginning I was drawing her with more of a spontaneous feel back when I was creating the character. Now it seems my intent is to keep her on model since she's established.

Nicholas Bayless said...

like the drawings the only thing I would change is her overalls to be higher.

Charles Z said...

Hi Nicholas. Noticed the difference with the overalls. Next time I'll make an adjustment. Thanks for your comment and for pointing this out.

matthewme said...

Hi Mr. Zembillas, can you please upload some concept sketches you've done for Crash Nitro Kart? Me and the gang have been in love with the characters ever since they've been added in Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled, and we'd love to learn more about how they came to be.

On that same topic, have you played either of the remasters? What are your thoughts on them design-wise?

Charles Z said...

Hi matthewme. I posted some art I created on the development of Velo in 2012 on my blog. You can do a search for "The Road to Velo" and see what shows up. You can also go to this link at Crashmania.net where it's organized on one page...

https://www.crashmania.net/en/games/crash-nitro-kart/artwork/charles-zembillas/

Other art from CNK needs to be scanned. There's a lot of it including more work I did plus a ton of stuff the other artists came up with as well. Backgrounds and vehicles etc. I did most of the characters. It would take a long time to do this as I'm usually very busy and I can't say when I'd have a chance to dig it all up and digitize everything. But I will at some point.

I haven't played the remastered games. They look great and play great based upon what I see and what others have told me about them. I stopped playing videos games some time ago as they were getting in my way and I couldn't get anything done.

X said...
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Anonymous said...

Hello. I was wondering how you take such nice pictures while drawing with pencil(Coco Bandicoot drawings for example.) I use an iPhone XS, and Photoshop CC for editing. Thanks.

Charles Z said...

Hi X. Sometimes character personalities change over time and with new directors who see the characters differently. For example compare the first versions of Bugs Bunny from the early 1940's to how he was portrayed in the 1960's. Those things happen with characters when they've been around for long periods such as Coco for better or for worse.

Hi RatchetX. I scan the drawings and then make some adjustments in Photoshop. I try to get the image to match up to the original as much as possible while enhancing it a little for a good presentation on monitors and smart phones and tablets.

Anonymous said...

Thank you. I don't have a printer, but I can edit with Photoshop CC. What kind of printer do you recommend if I may ask?

Charles Z said...

I've had pretty good luck with Epson. There's several companies that market good printers. Canon is another one. Look for something that's within your budget and read the reviews. A printer that scans 11" x 17" images (28 x 43 centimeters) is important to me as I often draw on larger size paper. Best to scan the whole page than piece it together in Photoshop. Good luck I hope you find something that works for you.

Anonymous said...

Thanks. And I was wondering; how do you trace with a blue pencil after you draw something with a pen?

Charles Z said...

I start with blue pencil. It's used for creating the initial composition. After I have the image worked out I go to black pen or pencil or whatever for the final line. I prefer a black line pen with permanent ink so the drawing will last forever or as long as time will allow. Blue pencil and graphite pencils smudge but permanent ink will endure. The pencils are Col-erase blue (brand 20044) by Prismacolor. They're the straight blue color which is what we use in the industry. Personally I avoid light blue or non-photo blue as they're too faint. Sometimes indigo blue works out pretty well. It's a little darker.

Charles Z said...

I should mention that sometimes after I finish with black line I go back into the image and do some shading with blue. When I scan the drawing I use Photoshop to adjust some of the color levels to make the tint of the blue more authentic and closer to the look of the original drawing. Sometimes I darken the levels a little so it shows up better on a monitor.

Anonymous said...

Okay, thanks. I'll try to remember that next time I draw.

Nicholas Bayless said...

after looking at some of your sketches I try using a blue pencil and pen. It works great for making shapes to build characters and other stuff.