Logo Design Tutorials: Animals

[phattmatt58]

It is relevant because it is a.) drawing animals, and b.) read a few posts up and I mention exactly what I'm looking for and c.) it is only a rough draft. I was simply asking for advice on how to make them more "logoesque".

This is not a tutorial of how to make a drawing "logoesque", it is how to make a logo. All of these steps lead to making it look like a logo.

It is good that you have this drawing, for the fact that you see what you want it to look like and you can go to that point making the logo.

How can I not communicate this any clearer? I know what this page is for, and I know that what I made is a logo, I just need it to be more polished and sleek, thus more "logoesque". It's hard for me for these reasons: 1- while I can draw, I've never been a 'sketch it out in several phases' type artist, which does me no favors, 2- It's a rather complicated design, with three bulldogs and chains, and 3- I'm using CorelDraw, and it's hard to get it looking like I want it to. This whole terminology of Vectors and Rasters is foreign to me, as my Photoshop skills are very amateur, and I don't have Adobe CS (yet), so I'm just looking for some tips/pointers on how to make it better, yet all I seem to be getting is confusion and criticism.

Okay, dont take this the wrong way but to my eye what you have there is not a logo but an illustration (the piece with the three bulldogs). The difference between a logo and an illustration is in the execution. In your piece you rely on thin outlines to create the shapes and all the details within, but with a logo you would do that with large blocks of solid colours, The simplest way to think of it would be create a stylised silhouette and then lay areas of highlights or interest on top of that in a second and third colour, there shouldn't really be any lines at all to speak of and anything that appears to be a line will actually have been created by making the highlights on top follow the same shape as the outer shape but have been positioned within the the main shape giving the impression of an outline.

Because what you have right now is a line drawing you are going to struggle to make it more "logoesque" as you put it without starting over from scratch, because you dont have any areas you can fill a second colour without covering up the lines you've used to imply detail. You say you're not an artist that works in iterations or stages, but the truth is no one is from the get go it's a process you have to learn just as you would have learned to draw the way you are comfortable doing it just now.

Best advice I can give is buy a tracing pad and find good reference material. Work over the reference material and work on an accurate silhouette then take that sketch and with a new sheet of trace work on simplifying that shape and stylising it until you have it distilled to the simplest and most dynamic shape you can, do the same with the highlights and details, but dont think in terms of lines think in terms of blocks or areas of colour and you'll be sorted. I find it easier to work on paper first, but it's still the same process as Davidson explained at the start, and you may find it a quicker and easier way to work that way if you're finding Corel hard to use or dont yet have access to any of the Adobe products.

You seem to have a fair level of skill when it comes to sketching so I dont think this is anything you'll struggle with, it's simply a new technique that you'll need to get comfortable using is all.

9erssteve

Alright, here's a 2nd draft, this time of just the Bulldogs. I don't know if I fully comprehend about what you're saying for the blocks of colors, so I'm asking for a little help- I'm a visual learner. Is there any way you could show me an example, or perhaps do a section of my drawing and get it back to me? Any and all help would be appreciated.

[Davidson]

this is really a help section for a particular tutorial. this piece doesnt really have anything to do with that style. if you are looking for help on this i suggest you make a new thread.

[phattmatt58]

You're right, I suppose a topic which is about drawing animals isn't the place for seeking help drawing....animals. All apologies, :censored:s.

[Davidson]

If you took two minutes to read the thread you'd understand what I mean. This thread refers to a specific tutorial. One you clearly have not referee to. Why not chill out and post a new thread, I'm sure people will help you out.

[Cola]

You're right, I suppose a topic which is about drawing animals isn't the place for seeking help drawing....animals. All apologies, :censored:s.

You have a lot of internet anger built up. Why don't instead of acting like you know it all, which apparently you do not, you just listen to the advice and recommendations you are getting here?

[icecreamtester]

You're right, I suppose a topic which is about drawing animals isn't the place for seeking help drawing....animals. All apologies, :censored:s.

Well if this thread were about sharing notebook sketches (the quality of which suggests that with minimal effort you could learn how to make some decent sports logos) and asking people something as vague as, "tell me how to make this look logo-esque" then you'd be in the right place. But instead you harass professionals and continue to assert that you know best. In all honesty if that is how you are going to act towards some of the best designers on these boards then maybe these forums aren't for you at all.

[phattmatt58]

I'm not harassing professionals, and I have nothing but respect for davidson's talents. However, I feel as if asking for a little help and encouragement in THIS topic wasn't a lot to ask. I don't necessarily see why a tutorial topic about drawing animals isn't the place to seek help in drawing an animal- just seems like simple logic to me. I am still an amateur at this, and admittedly so, but I know that is/was a logical assertion on my part. In fact, I did start my own thread, and only one person has replied. Here's the link:

http://boards.sportslogos.net/index.php?showtopic=76650&pid=1423229&st=0entry1423229

BTW, I laughed my ass off.

[HarperK]

I'm not harassing professionals, and I have nothing but respect for davidson's talents. However, I feel as if asking for a little help and encouragement in THIS topic wasn't a lot to ask. I don't necessarily see why a tutorial topic about drawing animals isn't the place to seek help in drawing an animal- just seems like simple logic to me. I am still an amateur at this, and admittedly so, but I know that is/was a logical assertion on my part. In fact, I did start my own thread, and only one person has replied. Here's the link:

http://boards.sportslogos.net/index.php?showtopic=76650&pid=1423229&st=0entry1423229

BTW, I laughed my ass off.

Dude, just try your best to use the techniques that are shown in this thread (And start from the beginning!). Think of this thread as a class. Davidson can be played here by Bob Ross. Everyone participating in said class is going step by step trying to learn from his specific technique of drawing animal logos. You, on the other hand, show up to the class with 10 minutes left with a finger painting, asking how to make your finger painting better.

...And BTW, he referred you to this thread because it can help you, not because your current drawing belongs with this tutorial.

[VC//]

The guy clearly doesn't get it. So let's make it easier for him to understand what everyone means by "use the methods displayed in this thread..."

* Notice how you mirrored the dogs at each end? If you draw these dogs in the methods outlined in the first page for each dog, you could put them together for a unified logo.

* Re-read the first point like 10-15 times, let it sink in, go have a beer, watch a movie, sleep and then return to this thread and re-read the first point I made again.

* If the 2nd point hasn't helped with getting the point across. Burn your computer.

And another thing phattmatt58, research pictures of bulldogs, it's not like the internet doesn't have many of them, that's a popular dog for logo's and a dog you will find a ton of pictures of in that specific stance. The mouth part, you might have to dig deeper, but I am sure you can find it.

There is NOTHING wrong with tracing a real picture of a dog to get an idea of the distance between the eyes, size of the nose, jaw, head in relation to the body, muscle structure of bulldogs, etc.

Do some damn due diligence before you get pissy with people that are trying to help you by pointing out that you can either look at page one or stick with your thread, bump it every few days and hopefully someone helps you.

You know that silly saying I am sure a few people have told you "you catch more bees with honey than vinegar"....yeah.

You clearly need to work on your illustrator skills, so reading through the first few pages of this thread will help, big time. Get your lines right, get the shading down and then the rest will fall in place. I'm sure you took art in highschool.

Remember those lame exercises that they made you do? Cross-hatching, the sphere you had to shade, etc...well that crap helped along the way with drawing objects, or whatever.

Same applies here. Don't scoff at people that want to help. Either you are open to it or continue to act this way and never get better.

[VC//]

Sorry...got a little carried away.

[wyopokes2]

x

[Redbull]

not huge on the color scheme, but the rest looks great.

[wyopokes2]

x

[Osborne]

Great tutorial and great advice on hand drawing outlines. Changed my game. Thank you.

[TopicDesign]

Changed a few things up including the color scheme. I went with red because it is a more common color of betta, and it is also related to the town of Kemmerer. I also changed the name to the Krowntails because one type of betta is the crowntail. It flows better having the same initial sound.

Nice illustration, the typography is very good but i think the fish can be a little more stylized (sharper, more aggressive edges) Also maybe a thicker stroke around the fish.

[Cola]

Changed a few things up including the color scheme. I went with red because it is a more common color of betta, and it is also related to the town of Kemmerer. I also changed the name to the Krowntails because one type of betta is the crowntail. It flows better having the same initial sound.

Looks good...especially the body portion and the facial expression. The fins need to be cleaned up...too many jagged edges that could be smoothed out and you'd still get across the same effect.

[kurpit]

Just made this a couple days ago. It's my first attempt at an animal logo, and really just my 3rd shot an a sports team logo. I'm fairly pleased with it.

I think it came out pretty generic, but i guess that's kind of what i get for choosing Hawks. Let me know what you think.

also, i'm trying to give myself an avatar on here but it gives me an error message when i try to go to my profile.

"An Error Occurred. [#10245] You are not permitted to view member profiles." Any idea what the deal with that is?

[VC//]

Maybe not enough posts, did you actually read that thing you accepted when you joined this place? (if there was one, don't remember...its been a long time).

[kurpit]

Maybe not enough posts, did you actually read that thing you accepted when you joined this place? (if there was one, don't remember...its been a long time).

i don't know if i've ever read a disclaimer. that's probably not a good thing, but really, does anybody read the disclaimer?

it's working now. i don't know what the deal was.

[Davidson]

Some more recent animal logos: