Hey there! I was wondering since you have MJ's art as your blog header, can you tell me why Alex and Ezeke are drawn in the same style and what's the difference between both artist's? I can't tell apart their style and often mistake the two! XD
So to answer your question, Misjudgment (creator of OC Alex) and DarkenedSparrow (creator of OC Ezeke) are actually identical twin sisters! So this could possibly be one of the reasons why their styles look slightly similar. HOWEVER, twins are not the same person– we happen to be unique and individual like any other set of siblings. I know, I’m an identical twin, and though I share the same DNA with my sister and happen to have a lot the same interests, we’re also very different. That being said, if you study Sparrow’s and MJ’s art very closely, you can draw a number of differences between their two styles that makes it easy to tell them apart.
Similarities: So they’re both tremendous artists. That much is apparent. They both have a great understanding of light and shadow, depth of field, perspective, detailed backgrounds, and colors and contrast. They both use Adobe Photoshop CS6, so they have similar effects in their art. Also, they’re really great when it comes to portraying romantic and/or dramatic settings, as seen below.
‘‘Rolf x Ezeke- Letting Go’‘
‘‘EEnE- EddAlex- Don’t Let Go’‘
[She deactivated her account years ago so I am unable to link you to the original source, but her art is floating around pinterest and some other sites.]
At a glance, it looks as though both pieces were done by the same hand. But I’ve been a huge fan of both artists for years and have studied their styles over time. So let’s look at the differences, shall we?
I’ll begin with Sparrow. So she tends to have a slightly ‘‘rougher’‘ lineart, from what I’ve noticed. Her lines are actually ‘‘squiggly’‘ like the show style.
She also tends to draw the characters more accurately proportionate to how they look in the show. For instance, each character’s height difference is just how they look in the cartoon. And even on rough model sheets such as the one above, she always adds subtle shading.
Now for MJ’s art, her lineart tends to be ‘‘smoother’‘ and ‘‘cleaner’‘, and a little more fluid, if you will.
Her lines aren’t as thick as her sister’s, and you can tell she did the lineart on this model sheet for that reason. She also doesn’t shy away from flat shading for accuracy. I really love MJ’s style because even though it looks very close to Antonucci’s, it’s also very much her own, and I can say the same for Sparrow. But MJ tends to draw her characters much taller and thinner than they are in the show. Each character has a ‘‘leaner’‘ look. She also doesn’t draw nails on the hands, and this becomes her signature trademark.
Here is an example of how MJ’s Rolf and Ezeke look:
You can also see here how she draws Alex’s size comparison to Edd’s:
Alex is much smaller in proportion to him (her head size is tiny), but this is also because of the way she draws Edd as much taller and lankier than he looks in the actual cartoon.
Compared to the way Sparrow draws Alex and Edd, they’re sized more how they would be using the show size models. There isn’t as great of a size difference between them, especially between their heads:
In fact, the twins have drawn each other’s characters as gifts for one another and you can see the difference in the way they interpret each other’s OC’s.
Here’s MJ’s art of her sister’s ship, Rolf and Ezeke:
And here’s Sparrow’s art of her sister’s ship, Edd and Alex:
The more you compare each art style side-by-side, the more you’ll notice the differences.
Apologies this was so long. Anyway, I hope I answered your question.
