Need some help with pixel pulled paper

[Wanyo]

I've been working on this piece for a Kirby zine I'm submitting to and I'm happy with most of the piece except the edge of the paper that is being sucked in by Kirby. I just can't seem to wrap my head around how to make it look right. Right now it's extra horrendous with some serious banding going on that I was using as a base to try out wrinkles and folds, but nothing I've seems to look right. It either comes out looking like a mess or like textured rocks.

So here I am looking for any ideas on how to make this paper texture look right for this so I can hopefully finish off this in time for the cutoff date. Any ideas or suggestions I would be greatfull for! <3


3x for those on chrome or whatnot:

[Charlieton]

Taking cues from the box art, I presume?



It looks "paper-y" enough on that. Think about making it look like the paper goes back into his throat, instead of it just disappearing at some vague conversion point as it does now. Also, put some wrinkles that paper surface!

Composition-wise, I feel like it's a bit crowded on the left side.

[Wanyo]

Wow, that's super funny that I never even thought to look at the old box arts let alone find that the NES box art had the same concept! (I only owned the GB & SNES titles) Though it makes me feel so much less original now...:\ ah well, I'm still pretty happy with the idea! I'm going to give it a shot at tweaking the face of the paper wrinkles and such when I get home from the office. I'll have to try bringing it to the back of his throat too instead of the black hole style suction.

I've had a lot of mixed reviews about the composition of the background, initially it was more empty and I had some people say it looked too empty, haha!

Thanks so much for the reply and the ideas!

[Charlieton]

Wow, that's super funny that I never even thought to look at the old box arts let alone find that the NES box art had the same concept! (I only owned the GB & SNES titles) Though it makes me feel so much less original now...:\

What an amazing coincidence I think I've had similar happen to me, too, once or twice.

I've had a lot of mixed reviews about the composition of the background, initially it was more empty and I had some people say it looked too empty, haha!

Well, to me it's mainly that it's so imbalanced. I get that the right side is emptier, 'cause it's getting eaten and all. But it looks as though it was already a pretty empty area before getting sucked in. All the while, the left side has land, creatures, stars and clouds, all pushed up against the edge of the canvas. Anything stopping you from adding more width to the image?

[Wanyo]

I see what you're saying about the imbalance, I think at very least I need to move some clouds in toward the pulled up area and I was thinking about bringing Kirby himself over to the right a bit more. Unfortunately I can't add width to it, it has to fit on a zine page with when complete with I think another 1/4th inch off the edge (I'll probably have to tweak a bit more after I blow it up and check edges further). That said typing this out I think I'm going to also move the supporting enemies in a bit more.

[Willows]

The biggest and best thing to learn from that reference is that the paper is sold as paper in its folds and edges! The curled, iconic paper corner in the top right is no accident, and the crinkles, wrinkles and seams heading into Kirby's mouth do well to show you how thick the paper is, how firm it is and other such papery attributes.

That said, you're not far off now! The idea's already pretty clear.

[Pix3M]

Also consider that plain paper will probably not have highlights. If it does, they would be weak highlights since it's usually white.

[Wanyo]

Thanks again for the help everybody, I think I'm feeling pretty good with how it came out now. I know it can always be better though I learned quite a bit about making paper, hehe!
1x:

3x:

[Decroded]

Geez he eats everything the little porker!

Looking better, especially the crumples near his mouth.
I think you can still bring the outsides vertically towards the middle a bit more and increase the amount that the paper is affected along the top and bottom edges.
Use some solid lines to define drapery wrinkles.
Once you get some good curves you can remove the lines and replace with subtle shading.
It couldn't hurt to mess around with some A4 paper as reference ;-)

[Wanyo]

I always wondered what Kirby would turn into after he ate the whole world!

You have no idea how much paper I have destroyed trying to figure out how I wanted to set it up. I feel bad for the trees!

Unfortunately I had to submit this today to the zine so I won't get to work on it before going to print but I'm definitely going to refine it a bit more to toss in my portfolio. For the print version I brought up most of the paper edges, mountains, etc. an 8th of an inch (about 2 pixels expanded) to battle against the bleed that will incur but also give a little more paper pulled in.

I really like the idea of taking out the lines, I just couldn't get the shading quite right with it. After the next tweaks to the curves that's probably what I'll tackle next.

Thanks again!