Values > Colors all the way. In fact, there's a video out there by Marco Bucci (Or was it Mark Brunet??) That basically proves that color choice doesn't really matter as long as the values are consistent.
@@Jack_Woods Actually most manga is made in monochrome using screentones to save time and printing money because chapters are released on a weekly basis. The coloured pages usually just have lots of planning sketches and ideas which is why they are so good to look at.
At least "How To Draw Anime" books actually have good looking art that doesn't look wonky and is only anatomically disproportionate as an intentionally stylistic choice. Butch's looks like he doesn't even know how to draw something that looks really good.
"it's because someone competent chose Maddie's color scheme for a reason." sassy professional artist destroys local cartoon creator for awful character design
Chad Stephen Silver: Appealing, iconic character designs. Encourages artists of all ages and levels to create. Humble yet extremely skilled. Built his career on hard work and genuine skill. Speaks compassionately about mental health and lifestyle. Wonderful teacher. Virgin Butch Hartman: Ugly, wonky art. Coasts off of his undeserved reputation and little else. Traces anime promo art for commissions. Ego larger than the diameter of the planet Jupiter. Speaks condescendingly to anyone he thinks is 'beneath' him. Born-again Christian who puts himself on a pedestal for his faith. Joked about a former colleague's suicide.
Honestly I don't know an artist who has enormous ego and is good at the same time. I mean, some of artist have well built healthy egos and believe in themselves and some are less confident, but artists with potenti are naturally critical of their work, which makes them improve. At least I think so, from my observations, and counting myself in (even tho I often overcritisize and tear my art down). With big ass ego you don't see a reason to improve, and that's exactly why Butch doesn't improve. At least I think.
Beast Wars’s Tarantulas made 3/4 of those colors work, but he’s at least got the restraint to tone down the vibrancy of the green and avoid red entirely.
Like Finn said, value is the real savior, it's not that "these colors can never go well together", more so "these colors with these values rarely work together specially so saturated and in so much quantity"
legit, when you got to the spider lady i was actually like "why cant i stop looking at that spot, i cant be that shameless" and you spelled it out perfectly
For me I was staring at the chest, the spiderlogo gave me more rest for some reason but still. So I either look at the chest or the crotch, good choice :/
It's because Butch is too #Christian to add detail there. He didn't even want to draw a crotch, but he couldn't just leave a hole there. Mostly because that could also be interpreted as sexual.
that's a big thing about creative stuff. Anyone can go "huh this music is weird" but a professional musician can explain why it sounds weird. same will art, dance, cooking, and most creative media, hell, most everything
@Darling Vexa Art first of all anyone who's profession is art is a professional artist. two, I agree. he's not very professional in the traditional sense. Three, I also agree that he is not an artist who follows any sort of art theory of any sort. four, IDK if you believe this but I don't think he's good are art, I think his art is bad. nothing about my comment was meant to say contrary. I was just saying that well-trained people SHOULD be able to pick out and better explain the stuff they're trained in.
A professionals job is to look at what is done correctly, and give constructive ideas of how to improve and why. That's the difference between destructive and constructive thought, and critique.
@Darling Vexa Art This is true, but I'd like to add I think that it's good to help confidence building as a teacher, you need to say I like X, Y is excellent you did this well, here is what I would've done and why. In my opinion the reinforcement of improving in any skill helps people stick to it.
You say that but I see way too many people sympathizing with the Tumblr/Calarts/SJW artstyle. Not only is it ugly to look at but it spreads like a virus and anytime it gets criticized, they just reply with "just let people draw what they want"
Sadly, he's into a very 90s Anti Hero aesthetic, but without the ultra detailed art that came with it. The designs in McFarlane hands would look intense but Hartman... He lacks it.
Also the amateur kinda coloring kinda gives off the same vibe to the 90's comics. because back then digital art was so new that the coloring (or anything in it really) wasn't fully utilized to the fullest extent. so alot of people just put in flat colors, add in black for shading, white highlights and maybe use gradients and the airbrush tool and call it a day. And this went on til the early to mid 2000's when people had a better grasp of digital coloring.
I mean, it's probably because he is white, a man and Christian. He is as privileged as someone can get. I can't imagine a woman drawing this way or a poc drawing this way without hearing any racist or misoginistic stuff about how untalented women and poc are.
Honestly when I saw his shitty 200 dollar commissions I legit didn't even think of him. I thought it was some 14 yr old's fanart. Someone out there went out of his way to redraw the commissions in his old style and captured it better than butch does lmao
@Darling Vexa Art also, thinking of and making sure the character looks like they fit in their environment is helpful too! Example: if a character lives in a cold snowy place, they would maybe wear darker and thicker clothes, maybe jackets and gloves, and boots to walk in the snow.
I've been animating and designing characters for over 6 years and I'm still learning new things. This video really helped clarify some character design ideas I didn't know, as well as reaffirm some ideas I already had. I swear this video alone has taught me more useful lessons than my first year of animation school.
Whenever I feel down about my choices when designing a character, I look at Butch's drawings and tell myself "At least I don't still draw like an edgy middle schooler who calls everyone an idiot for critiquing their art"
@Darling Vexa Art Yeah, same. It took me a while to even start understanding anatomy, and color theory, but man, am I glad that I actually AM learning and getting better.
Honestly, I commend and respect you for designing characters at all. I don't know a thing about all the technical aspects of art (so this video was very informative to me). I never got past the stage where you imitate another person's work (though I do love the experience of sketching something). So, because art is so difficult for me to do, I really admire people like you who are making designs and putting them out there. Keep it up :)
Same, it's also very informative to hear more about the importance of color. I'm self taught and partially color blind myself, so this is extremely helpful.
I so agree! I noticed that I have made several mistakes Butch made on my own design! I never learned about lines, or value -and that having been to an art school + having an artist as a parent? Man do I feel cheated!
He really likes green, but like the worst, most oversaturated shade of green. On everything. Thats the problem if you insist on green in complex designs just make it less... just less.
Reminds me of vivziepop with yellow and pink. And liefeld with reds and blues. Idk why they like to stick to certain color pallets. Though I like liefelds are he tend to draw the same stuff. And I like todd mcfarlane better.
The spider lady design is so, so unintentionally funny i canot take it. She has a literal freaking spider on her chest, on her head, on her staff and as if it's not enough she has a spider web cape. She could have just had the cape, or just have 8 eyes, why is she so literal. Also as if the painfully on the nose spider theme is not enough, she is colored with red, purple, green and black. All the ''villain'' colors. Not one, not two, but ALL OF THEM. I can't handle this design. I can't.
“if you can reduce your art to black and white, and it still looks readable. that art has strong and good values” [exhales a HUGE sigh of relief at my own character designs] oh thank god, i’m doing something right
I am so glad that i only have a couple OCs that are a bit unreadable but they're all wearing tactical gear and muted colours, so makes sense for em to blend into the BG
It's important to know he didn't do the main character art or really any of the art outside of maybe concept art. I'm currently studying game design and have been told by professors that you don't need to be a master artist to be a concept artist. You really only need to be able to get your concept across. His main job was writing the stories and coming up with the concepts of his stories.
@@purplelily2608 I understand that but he's been doing art in some form for a while, I assume, and his youtube channel gives viewers an association of him as an artist. Not to mention he took pricey commissions that looked... well, not better than examples in this video.
I've heard someone say that's because it's easy to replicate. I've never been great at art, but I remember being little and copying his style fairly easily. Must make it easy to hire artists and merch designers and such since they don't have to work with something too difficult.
@@constantlykianna3685 I like his cartoon cool book, when I was in elementary I loved it- despite some of the weirder paragraphs about how to make a teenager girl face look "sexy", and him telling me funny/goofy eyed characters don't look "sexy" Otherwise I like his style, I'm mediocre too but he really emulates simple old school and comic books 2000s cartoons went from retro (head variety for main characters) to bubble cheek head for most cartoons now.... I don't hold cartoons to realism standards. He probably got ahead in his career how so many youtubers do now, connections. Now hopefully you all understand, talent has little to do with it
there was someone else who did a LOT more art on his old nick shows, i cant remember the guys name but he basically deserves all of the credit for making butchs shows look so iconic
at my art school, one of the professors has done a lot of work on cartoons and describes Butch as "one of the biggest nightmares in the cartooning industry to work with" alongside Jhonen Vasquez
dont wanna go into specifics, and my professor does respect the work Vasquez did with Invader Zim quite a bit, but he has apparently been late to a lot of things and when he does arrive, he is always surrounded by a circle of 20 year old women at every moment, apparently he has this kind of faux rockstar kind of vibe or at least he did when my professor was working with him
@Darling Vexa Art i only learn to draw seriously for about 4-5 years now, and like-hell yes i agree. Sure, i get why you trace if you were super young and new to the arts BUT LIKE???? PROFFESIONAL 300$ ART? _REALLY??_ GODDAMN HAVE A CLASS PLEASE
Wait let me get this straight.......... So Butch is charging $300.00 plus sales tax for a drawing...... that was traced off another persons artwork? I honestly have no words to describe the disgust I have......... As a self-taught artist of 16 years who never went to art college and basically drew a crapton for years, Butch makes me sick.....
@Darling Vexa Art And if you're gonna trace do it over real life images , preferably ones you took or were given permissions too, or the how to draw books or bases and stuff, that's what they're for....lol. but ONLy for nonprofit personal free practice, to help train muscle memory or something and u should NEVER rely on it. its so weird we were demanded we trace when we were kids....my art teacher basically forced me. i hated it... it made me feel like she was saying I wasn't "good enough" when I was just a kid -_.'
to anyone confused about why she called the lips "minstrel," since it wasn't a main point and she moved past it quickly: it's not that they're full, it's that there's no separation between them. one of the core features of minstrel caricatures are the lips being connected into one big blob - it ends up making the lips look more like an animal's than a human's. i'm gonna safely assume this was NOT what butch meant his art to look like, i seriously doubt he had any ill intentions with this, but it's still something to point out as poor character design
At this point I'm gonna start calling Fairly Odd Parents and Danny Phantom "Stephen Silver" shows, rather than "Butch Hartman" shows. Hartman may get his name on the end-card but it's Stephen who carried the weight.
"Calming black sea of crotch." That's one for the quote book! It would be interesting to see what you would have done differently with Missery Vex and how much you would change. (It would be a lot we all know! lmao)
I think I was a bit swept up in the hype the phandom was going through when that vid came out lmao, and I think I could probably do better now honestly! Thanks for linking! :)
@@queersaint I really like your design but also would love you to check out the design that Capcom had for the armor in their Monster Hunter Rise - Charge Blade video, I think they handled the idea of a spider silk cloak extremely well in that design, for an interesting comparison on a similar concept.
@@seauqis the chaos! reminds me of the dude who had a channel for like 10 yrs then just suddenly posted the SpongeBob Skin Theory. What possessed the guy.
@@Sirvaria More like you don’t need to be a doctor or cook to know what you ate made you sick. You don’t need to be a scientist or cook to know whether or not a piece meat is safe to eat when it has grey patches
I'm pretty sure that the only reason Butch keeps using that neon snot green is because it was one of Danny Phantom's (the show) signature colors and he's trying his hardest to stay relevant by keeping a tight fist on that particular straw like, "Hey I'm the guy who made Danny Phantom! It's me! Wanna watch more of my stuff?"
I know you glossed over the anatomy portion but can we just talk about how gross the hair he draws looks? Grown-up Danny looks like he has a clump of cobwebs on his head. I'm not the best at drawing hair either, but a big difference between me and Butch is that I'm not a professional with 20-30+ years of experience under my belt. Also great video and I'll definitely be saving it and coming back to it later the next time I need to color something!
@@WackuJacku that it's less a design choice and moreso on who has the better art style. Alot of the bad concept drawings butch does looks better when someone actually draws them in the shows art style. Tho I dont think theres any saving to the ghosts design like Ember and Skulker (like did butch forget Skulker was a mechanical suit?)
Me: "Mmm, yes, uhuh, keep talking, this is interesting, go ahead, yes, yes" as I listen intensely while I look at my own designs on the side and drag them into a program to make them greyscale etc. to see if I've done XYZ and constantly find myself pleasantly surprised
@Darling Vexa Art it’s pretty funny you say it like that. I consider myself someone who loves art and does it but isn’t very good. But I know my art is atleast art because people’s eyes don’t hurt when they see it lol
Sometimes I wonder if he was trying to make his art look that bad because I refuse to believe a man who’s had that much industry experience doesn’t understand those basic concepts
I've been making art for about 18 years and I've always been absolute shit with colors. I've seen tutorial after tutorial about color theory and why to use particular schemes, but this is the best explanation I've ever seen of why it matters, and such a clear visual example (contrasting Hartman vs stove's designs of flynn)
Same, most of my characters have white hair and in grayscale it blends with their face and I don’t know how to fix it without changing the colours to much.. ;-;
@@wafflesthearttoad6916 play with the colors, sometimes the shading will influence the color and sometimes separate them. It depends on the light source.
I have mixed feelings about Vivziepop as well as her writing, Anatomy on certain characters and other things she did, but I'm convinced that Vivzie can make a better design that Butch can
you’re roasting Butch Hartman’s “artistry” in the most professional way possible AND you brought up several design points that helped me improve my own character design, so thank you!
I feel like this is a prime example of the "Learn the rules of art before you break them" trope. It doesn't seem that BH actually learned ANY art rules but now goes around touting himself as some sort of idol amongst plebian artists.
As an aspiring 14 year old artist, I do often have moments where I feel like my art isn't that good, but Butch's art immediately makes me feel better about mine. Thank you for the great tips and I hope they'll help me improve! 😁
To be fair DeviantArt has all types of skill levels so it’s bound to remind you of some of the art there I know what you meant, just that the reminiscence is vague enough, probably
Bc Stephen Sliver was in charge of the character design. Even tho fairy odd parents and DP have similar art style it's the approach to the coloring, body language, and animation that makes them different which Butch didn't master
The funny thing is that Stephen Silver doesn't even care about Danny Phantom that much because he's an actual prolific artist and keeps doing incredible art.
I'm not a professional artist, more of a hobbyist, I guess. But your insight on value, clutter, and saturation has really helped me. I love your art, by the way.
The way Butch does his lineart is quite similar to mine, and it's concerning considering I have a total of about 8 hours of digital art experience under my belt
Can we talk about that Butch wasn't even involved in art or writing of Danny Phantom. Why he thinks he is the only one who created everything good about DP
That's my thought. He keeps saying he "made your childhood," but aside from concept and storyboarding (which is the bare skeleton of the show), other people created what was more memorable about it, both how the story and characters went and how they looked.
It’s sad that it’s just seen as another Butch cartoon. Like I always thought he designed the characters because of the fact that he tries to plaster his name,all over these shows. Feel sad for the people who actually deserve the credit like Silver
Steve was the guy who made our childhoods. Not only did he design the characters for Kim Possible (one of my favourite Disney cartoons of all time), but he also designed the characters for and did the majority of writing for Danny Phantom. And the Ghost designs ROCK in that show. Shoutout to my dude Skulker: his design screams “Cool Bounty Hunter”.
@@whatthehell8418 That was also the season when Steve was kicked from the show over 'creative differences'. I think we all know what's happened here...
@Darling Vexa Art the difference is, simpsons can use yellow highlights, because the characters have yellow skin, butch has characters with regular skin colors and yellow highlights, makes no sense.
Butch has no sense of colour theory. Everything is bright and clashes together. His backgrounds looks like he used the airbrush tool and sprayed whatever colour he can find. How this guy worked for Nickelodeon is beyond me
This video is not only super detailed but its chock-full of REALLY good character design tips and information, so I wanted to make some timestaps for reference! 3:04 PART ONE: General Design 9:42 PART TWO: Color 15:13 PART THREE: Value
God, the prospect of being good at art is intimidating as fuck. I keep coming up with ideas for stories that could be put in a visual medium (specifically a webcomic), but never feel confident enough in my drawing to do those stories justice. But this... this was some genuine great advice. Not advice I’m anywhere near being able to utilize properly because I have no idea how to shade or draw fuckin’ hands, but I’ll have to keep this video in mind as time goes on...
For years I hated my art, my brother always seemed better, but I kept going, so my tip for you is simply if you want to get better just keep going. Idk if that's the best idea though, Idk I'm just a random kid on the internet.
Well, I hear that a TON of people who work on any sort of comic develop their art super fast, just because they are working on it constantly, and are forced to move on from a panel to start the next one, instead of agonizing over it for weeks/months like someone would with a single painting. So start a comic! You don't have to publish it right away, but if you do, you can always go back and redo pages.
@@AlexiaSmith96 I drawed terribly and was considered to have a preschoolers level of skill by my art teacher at 5th grade. Nowadays my art is still flawed but I think its at least a bit charming and decent. It may not seem like much but it means a lot to me. I hope I can continue improving.
As an artist who does really bright neon art there is a certain way to do it without it looking ugly and butch doesn't seem to know how to do that it's all about matching certain colors I seen many artists who use neon colors to make beautiful pieces of art
Stephen Silver came to my local Museum and I got to talk with him. He is a delight to talk to and a very humble person. His signed image of his KP character designs is a prized possession of mine (he signed it with his name and a little doodle of Rufus). His lecture was incredibly informative and fun.
I tried the grayscale trick on a drawing I was doing this week, and it felt SO SATISFYING to see every color still so clearly... This video, although a torn down for Butch, was a build up for me to know what to look out for in character design, so thanks for that!
I'm still learning about Character designs, despite being 19 and steadily becoming an amateur artist/cartoonist, and this was a good way for me to learn about this Edit: I'm 22 now and have gotten much better at character design. Still learning though
Every time I doubt that my dream of becoming a successful artist with like two animated series, I look at Butch Hartman and think "if THIS GUY made it, I WILL make it"
Me: dissatisfied with my art style and progress at 14 Butch hartman's art skills: there there, it's ok, i got a job with this style, you'll be fine kid.
When I first saw the characters you were giving advice for. At first, I was like “They seem fine to me” but when you started talking about value and use of color, it made me realize what makes certain designs truly special. These videos could really help beginning art designers who would want to get into this sort of thing.
Now I'm a teenager, I'm no professional at all, but I do pursue a career in being a cartoonist. Now I'm a self learner, and over the past years I've been boosting my skill I've learned something. Neon colors can be great of use, and bring character to your, well, character. It's just, butch does it badly, and it's extremely overwhelming.
Yeah I feel like neon is good sometimes but when it’s everywhere in a character design... maybe rethink your colors. This is general btw you can obviously still use neon colors
The fact that I, a person with 0 talent in drawing art and lack of studies of art in general, created my characters in games with complementary colour palettes instinctively all my life while this dude with decades of experience doesn't realise his art is legit painful to look at is both hilarious and makes me cry :')
@@pranavghantasala6808 Run, for they only have one wish, that being to BUTCHer you Okay jokes arn't funny when repeated I'll see myself out the doooorrrr
the fact that someone who worked in the industry so long still can't pick colours and values amazes me, you would assume after at this point it would just be instinct. like was he just asleep the whole time??? I'm honestly so confused??
This is what happens when you can’t take criticism and (most likely) you have a big ego. You’ll never improve. Butch is probably the biggest example of that.
this video is great for two things 1. dragging butch down a few pegs in a calm and calculated way 2. genuinely educational and useful information! i legit started looking back over my own art and was like "OOOHH so thats why it looks weird" XD
@@Caterpillartears I can't answer with 100% certainty, but I would say it's the way they're drawn, not that they're plump. They're very reminding of racist caricatures, with the full outlining of the lips and all
@@Caterpillartears because theyre one single peice instead of two distinct lips. that way of drawing lips either has roots in racist charicatures or simply resembles them too closely (i dont recall witch)
Wow you highlighted a lot of what I struggle with in art and helped me understand why some things didn’t look right, which is good and all, but I really didn’t wanna find out that I was anything like this guy...
It can be really hard to keep all of these things in mind while you are drawing. It's something that will become more natural overtime if you are honest with yourself, accept critique and practice things you are 'weak' at. That is the biggest issue with Butch's work, the fact that he seems to think himself above critique as if he has nothing to improve on. I'm sure your work isnt as bad as you think either.
Making mistakes and realizing why they're mistakes is how you improve at anything. Keep practicing, learn from your mistakes and over time your art will improve. It's just a matter of time!
I’m a fan of Problem Solverz, FUCKING PROBLEM SOLVERZ, and I was still disturbed by these designs. Granted, I like the show because of its extended lore as well as the obscure goldmine of possible fan-theories and AUs about it, not the art, but that still means I can bear the latter if I actually managed to watch it.
I honestly would have never realized that was supposed to be Jazz if you hadn't said that's her there's nothing that connects her 10 years later design to her og look in the show
1:21 "And one does not need to have studied and trained with cooking for years to know when something tastes like sh*t." Well you still need an idea of how it's supposed to taste. Imagine a patron complaining his lemonade is sour and yellow when he believes it should be orange and tangy.
Why is Butch's adult Danny's mouth so high up and to the side? And the D is so wide it barely looks like a D. It looks fine at a glance for the first moment, then I'm like "Something is just a bit weird but I can't put my finger on it," then it just....
I always disliked the 10 year art of Danny phantom cuz I feel that the white parts of the suit overpowered the black parts. The neck is just the worst part of it. It looks like a piano notes. I like the old design. It's simple and distinguishing. Too much details can ruin something.
Idk calvin, for me his art style looks like he's trying to make an odd version of anime art style combining Stephen Silver's art style with an rookie bad pallet colors
So the reason why Butch’s art is hated is because the designs are super cluttered, therefore making them super complicated? And in order to maintain proper visual hierarchy, they need less stuff. This is really interesting stuff. I’m still very new to art, and this is really insightful.
Black person here. There's nothing minstrel about those lips. Shape and the overall character design/coloring matters. Just because they dont separate in the corners, doesn't make them minstrel. Appreciate the "concern" though, i guess.
Lol yeah. His colour schemes remind me of some of the akumas from Miraculous: WAY too bright and WAY too over the top. Like, my God. Some of the designs work (shoutout to my girl Lady WiFi who got a nice and simple colour scheme that wasn’t an eyesore), and then you have the likes of The Bubbler and Reflekta.
Darling Vexa Art Yeah. For some of the villains bright colours work well. Also, I need some validation here: am I the only person who liked Queen Wasp’s design? I mean, she looked a bit uncanny, but I think that worked in her favour. The yellow skin and freaky eyes sort of added to the whole “monster” angle she seemed to be going for.
Darling Vexa Art Yeah. I hated the Scarlet Akumas for two reasons: 1) They did my girl Wasp dirty. How dare they use RED on her design! Who’s ever heard of a red wasp?! 2) We got cheated out of seeing the actual designs for Rena Rage and Shellshock.
This video has actually educated me on how to verbalize why some art is bad. I was never formally taught about art and I've kinda just... winged it. I never want to be a professional with my art, but I am curious on how my designs look. Im kinda bad at critiquing myself because I usually just beat my art down to a point where I just hate it so I was wondering if I should take it to a professional to get it critiqued? I know my anatomy is off (I've been trying to make at least semi-recognizable hands for years) but I'm wondering about my colors.
There's even a chance that you could message an artist you like on Instagram and ask if they could critique your work, of course they probably wouldn't answer immediately and it might take a few tries but it might work out ya never know.
@@parentalonion6552 that's a pretty good idea. Im not much of an Instagram-type person but I bet all sorts of social media have artists out there willing to help! I'll see what I can find.
My advice as an artist is to focus on gesture before anatomy and value before colors. You can study anatomy as much as you want but if you cant pose a figure or get the proportions down properly, it won't matter. As far as value goes, do some gray scale studies and that should help you understand contrast.
Great video explaining design but I can't get over how weirdly Freudian it got, like, a guy known for being a conservative Christian ends up drawing so much eye to the groin region... lol
@@crpalstuck2966 I'd say it's largely because of the skin tight clothes he chooses for characters? You know, straight comic artists love the tight spandex and they get to focus on unnecessarily uncomfortable shots of the crotch or butt. He may be Christian but he really comes off like one of these people..
@@TheNobleFive it's not about sexuality at all, it's a superhero trope to have skin tight costumes that show of how powerful, toned, or sexy the heros are and emphasize how they are the pinnacle of ability visually.
I wouldn't say it's a straight thing most artist do that but, the problem with butch is already explained in the video, he's just a horrible artist and only uses 2 colors and horrible color choice. This man probably never went to art college at all and rather wanted to go on from his weird fantasies than anything and the bastard was lucky enough to be hired in nick. Art has nothing to do with people's sexuality at all tbh.
I was at an online talk with Stephen Silver last September, and he explained that he ended up changing his initial designs for Danny Phantom because “Butch wanted it to look more like the FairlyOdd Parents”. This is what happens when you’re so hell bent on having a style that you never let it change once you’ve made something work in a specific way and don’t accept crit or suggestions from any other artists. (Judging by the contents of this video, it’s thanks to Stephen Silver that the designs in Danny Phantom were cohesive at all)
I'm an animation student, and last year we had a few classes about character design where we were taught about most of the topics mentioned in this video. Even if I didn't feel like our professor didn't do a good job teaching us about the subject, I'm really glad I found this video, because due to the pandemic, unfortunately our classes felt a little rushed, and there were tons of interesting topics I'd have loved to have explored more during classes. It's really interesting to see what our professor taught us not to do in real examples. There were tons of little tips about character design that I either didn't remember or didn't know about. So, thank you, thank you, thank you for making this video!! Don't know if you're gonna ever read this, but it was great to listen to your thoughts, and I will definitely keep things from this video in mind for the future. I shall even recommend it to my classmates. Greetings from Brazil! 💕
the way Danny is posed with his gauntlet shooting into the air actually leads the eye off the page and for that I actually have to thank him
LMAOO
This comment deserves 1k likes
I wheezed lmao
LOOOL
Pro tip: If your art sucks, just make the viewer look away!
Butch's art looks like it gets spraypainted on T-Shirts at festivals.
THANK YOU MISTA
Hey, that’s offensive to the spray painters. At least they put some effort in. Butch put none
@@mangledfoxy2052 bro I've met 9 year olds that draw better then him😔😔
it's a insult to anyone that you compare him to
His art is scarier than the number 4, wouldn’t you agree Mista?
Damn hahaha
So THAT’S why they make us paint in monochrome first in my painting class!! They were subconsciously teaching us values!
Values > Colors all the way.
In fact, there's a video out there by Marco Bucci (Or was it Mark Brunet??) That basically proves that color choice doesn't really matter as long as the values are consistent.
That's why Manga is first made in monochrome and then gets colored
@@Jack_Woods Actually most manga is made in monochrome using screentones to save time and printing money because chapters are released on a weekly basis. The coloured pages usually just have lots of planning sketches and ideas which is why they are so good to look at.
I was thinking this
@@DonVigaDeFierro Checkout my Danny Phantom Title Card: th-cam.com/video/FiH3bis2TuY/w-d-xo.html
he practiced his autograph more than his actual art
Underrated comment lmao-
Edit: I'm proud to see how far this comment has come :)
I wonder if he traces it.
It’s like his pride and joy more then his vomit paintings
@@stevenharper9108 most likely yes since look up silver's signature he even copied it as well
Probably thinks the autograph is the actual worthwhile part of his art
Butch‘s art be looking like those "How to Draw Anime“ Books
I know
Chris Hart books.....lol! 🤝
Idk some i have seen are actually better than butch's stuff
At least "How To Draw Anime" books actually have good looking art that doesn't look wonky and is only anatomically disproportionate as an intentionally stylistic choice. Butch's looks like he doesn't even know how to draw something that looks really good.
don't even do chris hart like that
At least chris hart improved. Butch hartman? Not so much
"it's because someone competent chose Maddie's color scheme for a reason." sassy professional artist destroys local cartoon creator for awful character design
You know, I was expecting her to bring up Jazz, but Maddie works too XD
For some reason right as I started reading through this comment, it was right when she addressed it in video seconds later.
with FACTS and LOGIC
Butch drawing adult characters:
man is LARGE and BIG and MUSCLE
Lady have BIG THIGHS
His anatomy is so odd
@@KhayJayArt no complaint on thighs tho
@@KhayJayArt AWOOGA AWOOGA
You haven't seen JoJo's
I'm gonna just use Butch as a "don't do what Butch does" tutorial
@Darling Vexa Art Do you mind naming a few? I'm honestly curious.
@Darling Vexa Art Thank you!
Danny Phantom was how I taught myself how to draw as a kid, oh God oh geez oh fuck.
@Darling Vexa Art yeah he doesn’t respect much outside of himself it seems smh
@@TheDBPhantom don't worry Butch wasn't the main character designer in the series.
Chad Stephen Silver: Appealing, iconic character designs. Encourages artists of all ages and levels to create. Humble yet extremely skilled. Built his career on hard work and genuine skill. Speaks compassionately about mental health and lifestyle. Wonderful teacher.
Virgin Butch Hartman: Ugly, wonky art. Coasts off of his undeserved reputation and little else. Traces anime promo art for commissions. Ego larger than the diameter of the planet Jupiter. Speaks condescendingly to anyone he thinks is 'beneath' him. Born-again Christian who puts himself on a pedestal for his faith. Joked about a former colleague's suicide.
Honestly I don't know an artist who has enormous ego and is good at the same time. I mean, some of artist have well built healthy egos and believe in themselves and some are less confident, but artists with potenti are naturally critical of their work, which makes them improve. At least I think so, from my observations, and counting myself in (even tho I often overcritisize and tear my art down). With big ass ego you don't see a reason to improve, and that's exactly why Butch doesn't improve. At least I think.
@@Lucifer-vb8gd I was going to say that I’m a good artist with a big ego...
But then I got what ur saying so I’m taking it back lmao
@@lamplol7120 Damn I need to explain myself better in english lmfao
@@Lucifer-vb8gd what noooo ur good I’m just stupid lol
Thad Tetsuya Nomura: Recycles characters with tons of belts, no one complains except for virgins.
It's like he tried to incorporate every sterotypical bad guy color palette into one singular character.
Black, acid green, Maleficent purple and R E D. All really nice 'bad guy' colours, but really an eyesore when combined together.
Beast Wars’s Tarantulas made 3/4 of those colors work, but he’s at least got the restraint to tone down the vibrancy of the green and avoid red entirely.
Like Finn said, value is the real savior, it's not that "these colors can never go well together", more so "these colors with these values rarely work together specially so saturated and in so much quantity"
legit, when you got to the spider lady i was actually like "why cant i stop looking at that spot, i cant be that shameless" and you spelled it out perfectly
its also kind of the middle of the picture in a way? :/...
@@AlphaTengua actually you are right, it's also on the middle of the screen
For me I was staring at the chest, the spiderlogo gave me more rest for some reason but still. So I either look at the chest or the crotch, good choice :/
bro i didnt even want to look for a second at her head, it was so busy i was getting headaches.. I'd gladly stare at her crotch
It's because Butch is too #Christian to add detail there. He didn't even want to draw a crotch, but he couldn't just leave a hole there. Mostly because that could also be interpreted as sexual.
Everyone that consumes art can tell if something looks like shit. But a professional will tell you 'Why it looks like shit' in many details
that's a big thing about creative stuff. Anyone can go "huh this music is weird" but a professional musician can explain why it sounds weird. same will art, dance, cooking, and most creative media, hell, most everything
@Darling Vexa Art first of all anyone who's profession is art is a professional artist. two, I agree. he's not very professional in the traditional sense. Three, I also agree that he is not an artist who follows any sort of art theory of any sort. four, IDK if you believe this but I don't think he's good are art, I think his art is bad. nothing about my comment was meant to say contrary. I was just saying that well-trained people SHOULD be able to pick out and better explain the stuff they're trained in.
A professionals job is to look at what is done correctly, and give constructive ideas of how to improve and why. That's the difference between destructive and constructive thought, and critique.
@Darling Vexa Art This is true, but I'd like to add I think that it's good to help confidence building as a teacher, you need to say I like X, Y is excellent you did this well, here is what I would've done and why. In my opinion the reinforcement of improving in any skill helps people stick to it.
You say that but I see way too many people sympathizing with the Tumblr/Calarts/SJW artstyle. Not only is it ugly to look at but it spreads like a virus and anytime it gets criticized, they just reply with "just let people draw what they want"
He designs characters like a late 80s d-list superhero comic that's trying desperately to be the next cool™ antihero
I was just thinking that his work looks like he took design tips from Liebfeld.
The art for his show Elf Detective looks like something from a how to draw manga book lmao
really reminds me of Rob Liefeld and his character designs
Sadly, he's into a very 90s Anti Hero aesthetic, but without the ultra detailed art that came with it. The designs in McFarlane hands would look intense but Hartman... He lacks it.
Ayo 1000th like
Butch's character design reminds me of that era of comic books where all the heroes had to be muscular and edgy.
1994-2007 comics lol
Lol,accurate!
Also the amateur kinda coloring kinda gives off the same vibe to the 90's comics. because back then digital art was so new that the coloring (or anything in it really) wasn't fully utilized to the fullest extent. so alot of people just put in flat colors, add in black for shading, white highlights and maybe use gradients and the airbrush tool and call it a day. And this went on til the early to mid 2000's when people had a better grasp of digital coloring.
Comics from back in the day, and even now at least had fun designs and silly stories, but Butch just throws whatever at the wall.
@@Skibidi_spinda Ugh why this is so true lol
The fact that butch had made it so far in the art industry with a skill level that i have surpassed already, gives me a lot of hope
Tell me about it
My inspirations were Sticking around and Turbo teen....look at those Yenny and ANYONE can make it in the industry!!!!
I mean, it's probably because he is white, a man and Christian. He is as privileged as someone can get. I can't imagine a woman drawing this way or a poc drawing this way without hearing any racist or misoginistic stuff about how untalented women and poc are.
@@ender5892 I don't think he's an actual christian I think he just uses it
@@ender5892 this ain't got nothing to do with race or gender
@@borderlines8021 still uses the label, gives him privilege either way
When ur family claims to support you but they don't even wear ur logo all over their bodies 😔
damn
id leave them
Yeah...
What if you kissed me while wearing my logo all over your body... haha jk... unless😳😳😳
@@theteethburglar4716 😳👉👈
if you showed me Butch's artwork without telling me who made it, I would probably mistake it for my old deviant art page.
If you ever feel bad about your art
*Remember Butch exists and that you have already advanced beyond him*
Honestly when I saw his shitty 200 dollar commissions I legit didn't even think of him. I thought it was some 14 yr old's fanart.
Someone out there went out of his way to redraw the commissions in his old style and captured it better than butch does lmao
@Darling Vexa Art imagine being Butch Hartman and think you actually have 200$ level quality and not get caught tracing every single one of them. XD
@@HezrouDhiaga actually that old style wasn't Butch's, he didn't animate his shows.
@@HezrouDhiaga fam I've seen 14yos that draw better than him
I BEG of you to make a video on how to design characters, this video is a gateway drug.
sameee
@Darling Vexa Art you literally said:
"How to make a good character design:
1- make good design"
XD
I NEEEEED ITTT
@Darling Vexa Art thats true
@Darling Vexa Art also, thinking of and making sure the character looks like they fit in their environment is helpful too!
Example: if a character lives in a cold snowy place, they would maybe wear darker and thicker clothes, maybe jackets and gloves, and boots to walk in the snow.
Someone said Butch's art style looks like a parody of his old art style, and now i see what they meant
The ‘old art style’ isn’t his
yeah as the other person said, the "old butch hartman style" doesnt really exist, its just stephen silvers so he probably always drew like this 😬😬
I've been animating and designing characters for over 6 years and I'm still learning new things. This video really helped clarify some character design ideas I didn't know, as well as reaffirm some ideas I already had.
I swear this video alone has taught me more useful lessons than my first year of animation school.
It's..... it's you the one who animated gamerz 6 years ago ahh the good ol days
Same!
my art looks like sh*t right now but I can at least say I don’t draw like him
wow 6 years and your drawings are still bad... what a waste of time.
@@tr4sh37 wow you must've pulled that statement right out of your ass huh, since it clealy looks like you don't know how art works
Whenever I feel down about my choices when designing a character, I look at Butch's drawings and tell myself "At least I don't still draw like an edgy middle schooler who calls everyone an idiot for critiquing their art"
As someone who actually did start their DA accounts in middle school, I can agree with this comment.
@Darling Vexa Art Yeah, same. It took me a while to even start understanding anatomy, and color theory, but man, am I glad that I actually AM learning and getting better.
At least your still learning and improving while Butch is 56 years old and refuses to accept criticism ☺️
Same.
Honestly, I commend and respect you for designing characters at all. I don't know a thing about all the technical aspects of art (so this video was very informative to me). I never got past the stage where you imitate another person's work (though I do love the experience of sketching something). So, because art is so difficult for me to do, I really admire people like you who are making designs and putting them out there. Keep it up :)
Not only was it extremely satisfying to hear butch torn down like that, but I also learned a lot about character design. Great video 👍
Same, it's also very informative to hear more about the importance of color. I'm self taught and partially color blind myself, so this is extremely helpful.
@Darling Vexa Art true true, besides I know nothing about anything and I just wing it.lkk I do what feels right.
I so agree! I noticed that I have made several mistakes Butch made on my own design! I never learned about lines, or value -and that having been to an art school + having an artist as a parent? Man do I feel cheated!
Butch isnt even good. The character designer is the one who deserves the praise
Same here I’m trying to be a better artist
He really likes green, but like the worst, most oversaturated shade of green. On everything. Thats the problem if you insist on green in complex designs just make it less... just less.
Reminds me of vivziepop with yellow and pink.
And liefeld with reds and blues.
Idk why they like to stick to certain color pallets.
Though I like liefelds are he tend to draw the same stuff.
And I like todd mcfarlane better.
So basically Butch is a 50 something Scene Kid
So butch is a scout main.
@@ClockworkCrusader well I can understand Viziepop colors, they usually just pleasing to the eyes.
@@Zeronigel332 yes, but it's every single drawing.
The spider lady design is so, so unintentionally funny i canot take it. She has a literal freaking spider on her chest, on her head, on her staff and as if it's not enough she has a spider web cape. She could have just had the cape, or just have 8 eyes, why is she so literal. Also as if the painfully on the nose spider theme is not enough, she is colored with red, purple, green and black. All the ''villain'' colors. Not one, not two, but ALL OF THEM. I can't handle this design. I can't.
“if you can reduce your art to black and white, and it still looks readable. that art has strong and good values”
[exhales a HUGE sigh of relief at my own character designs] oh thank god, i’m doing something right
Thank GOD I made 90% of my ocs without color
I am so glad that i only have a couple OCs that are a bit unreadable but they're all wearing tactical gear and muted colours, so makes sense for em to blend into the BG
I'm looking at this lineart and can't understand how this guy had a job...
It's important to know he didn't do the main character art or really any of the art outside of maybe concept art. I'm currently studying game design and have been told by professors that you don't need to be a master artist to be a concept artist. You really only need to be able to get your concept across. His main job was writing the stories and coming up with the concepts of his stories.
@@purplelily2608 I understand that but he's been doing art in some form for a while, I assume, and his youtube channel gives viewers an association of him as an artist.
Not to mention he took pricey commissions that looked... well, not better than examples in this video.
I've heard someone say that's because it's easy to replicate. I've never been great at art, but I remember being little and copying his style fairly easily. Must make it easy to hire artists and merch designers and such since they don't have to work with something too difficult.
@@constantlykianna3685 I like his cartoon cool book, when I was in elementary I loved it- despite some of the weirder paragraphs about how to make a teenager girl face look "sexy", and him telling me funny/goofy eyed characters don't look "sexy"
Otherwise I like his style, I'm mediocre too but he really emulates simple old school and comic books 2000s cartoons went from retro (head variety for main characters) to bubble cheek head for most cartoons now.... I don't hold cartoons to realism standards.
He probably got ahead in his career how so many youtubers do now, connections.
Now hopefully you all understand, talent has little to do with it
there was someone else who did a LOT more art on his old nick shows, i cant remember the guys name but he basically deserves all of the credit for making butchs shows look so iconic
at my art school, one of the professors has done a lot of work on cartoons and describes Butch as "one of the biggest nightmares in the cartooning industry to work with" alongside Jhonen Vasquez
Why Vasquez...?
vasquez?
@@SPOOPINATURAL Creator of Invader Zim
@LegalAssassin i’m aware, just confused as to why he’s being described like that
dont wanna go into specifics, and my professor does respect the work Vasquez did with Invader Zim quite a bit, but he has apparently been late to a lot of things and when he does arrive, he is always surrounded by a circle of 20 year old women at every moment, apparently he has this kind of faux rockstar kind of vibe or at least he did when my professor was working with him
shout out to when he traced for a 300 dollar commission
@Darling Vexa Art i only learn to draw seriously for about 4-5 years now, and like-hell yes i agree. Sure, i get why you trace if you were super young and new to the arts BUT LIKE???? PROFFESIONAL 300$ ART? _REALLY??_ GODDAMN HAVE A CLASS PLEASE
Wait let me get this straight.......... So Butch is charging $300.00 plus sales tax for a drawing...... that was traced off another persons artwork?
I honestly have no words to describe the disgust I have......... As a self-taught artist of 16 years who never went to art college and basically drew a crapton for years, Butch makes me sick.....
@Darling Vexa Art really seems like your trying to advertise for your commissions. I dunno tho, your point about Butch still stands tho.
@Darling Vexa Art And if you're gonna trace do it over real life images , preferably ones you took or were given permissions too, or the how to draw books or bases and stuff, that's what they're for....lol. but ONLy for nonprofit personal free practice, to help train muscle memory or something and u should NEVER rely on it. its so weird we were demanded we trace when we were kids....my art teacher basically forced me. i hated it... it made me feel like she was saying I wasn't "good enough" when I was just a kid -_.'
he did it again lmao
to anyone confused about why she called the lips "minstrel," since it wasn't a main point and she moved past it quickly: it's not that they're full, it's that there's no separation between them.
one of the core features of minstrel caricatures are the lips being connected into one big blob - it ends up making the lips look more like an animal's than a human's. i'm gonna safely assume this was NOT what butch meant his art to look like, i seriously doubt he had any ill intentions with this, but it's still something to point out as poor character design
Ngl I'm black and I was confused about that so thanks.
@2 Bagels 1 Toaster As long as the lip shape is natural not too big and defined you should be good.
Don't know the Dan Phantom series so who is the Spider Lady?
Yeah I was confused why she would mention the lips possibly being racist. Seemed like a weak point tbh.
@@CMan-x7k hence why she spent 5 seconds mentioning it and then moved on
8:33 the switch from stephen’s actually good art to butch’s monstrosity was so jarring i had to pause and compose myself
At this point I'm gonna start calling Fairly Odd Parents and Danny Phantom "Stephen Silver" shows, rather than "Butch Hartman" shows. Hartman may get his name on the end-card but it's Stephen who carried the weight.
HONESTLY
"Calming black sea of crotch." That's one for the quote book! It would be interesting to see what you would have done differently with Missery Vex and how much you would change. (It would be a lot we all know! lmao)
She did on her Tumblr!
skellagirl.tumblr.com/post/637428207976579072/my-attempt-at-redesigning-misery-vex-aka-hot
I think I was a bit swept up in the hype the phandom was going through when that vid came out lmao, and I think I could probably do better now honestly! Thanks for linking! :)
@@queersaint I really like your design but also would love you to check out the design that Capcom had for the armor in their Monster Hunter Rise - Charge Blade video, I think they handled the idea of a spider silk cloak extremely well in that design, for an interesting comparison on a similar concept.
The black sea of THICC
@@queersaint ofc I like your style
Damn he got you so pissed off that you posted for the first time in 4 years just to tear him down. What a power move
what a chad
@@MaevaA_09 fortnite
Its like that one lady who was so pissed at the mulan 2020 movie she created a whole ass channel just to critique it
@@seauqis the chaos! reminds me of the dude who had a channel for like 10 yrs then just suddenly posted the SpongeBob Skin Theory. What possessed the guy.
@@SpecialInterestShow that video made me question my sanity tbh
I guess Butch never heard of "you don't need to be a pilot to know what a plane crash looks like"
Or even "you dont need to be a cook to know the soup tastes like shit"
@@Sirvaria More like you don’t need to be a doctor or cook to know what you ate made you sick. You don’t need to be a scientist or cook to know whether or not a piece meat is safe to eat when it has grey patches
or even "you didn't need to be a writer to know the story is shit".
@@naqibdaik7241 or a ‘You don’t need to be a professor to know everything’
I dont know from where i heard this but "Sometimes, an archeologist doesn't know how to cook a good steak"
I'm pretty sure that the only reason Butch keeps using that neon snot green is because it was one of Danny Phantom's (the show) signature colors and he's trying his hardest to stay relevant by keeping a tight fist on that particular straw like, "Hey I'm the guy who made Danny Phantom! It's me! Wanna watch more of my stuff?"
I know you glossed over the anatomy portion but can we just talk about how gross the hair he draws looks? Grown-up Danny looks like he has a clump of cobwebs on his head. I'm not the best at drawing hair either, but a big difference between me and Butch is that I'm not a professional with 20-30+ years of experience under my belt.
Also great video and I'll definitely be saving it and coming back to it later the next time I need to color something!
And what’s up with his belt buckle? It looks so off I thought it was supposed to be a cod piece.
What about in this design
images.app.goo.gl/M6kGL3VXBWP1mN3U8
Yeah his hair is really bad. It's not even like stylized it's more of a scribble without thought behind it
@@itsjustvin7630 That's quite nice in my opinion but that's also not Butch Hartman so I don't really see how it's relevant.
@@WackuJacku that it's less a design choice and moreso on who has the better art style. Alot of the bad concept drawings butch does looks better when someone actually draws them in the shows art style. Tho I dont think theres any saving to the ghosts design like Ember and Skulker (like did butch forget Skulker was a mechanical suit?)
Me: "Mmm, yes, uhuh, keep talking, this is interesting, go ahead, yes, yes" as I listen intensely while I look at my own designs on the side and drag them into a program to make them greyscale etc. to see if I've done XYZ and constantly find myself pleasantly surprised
@Darling Vexa Art it’s pretty funny you say it like that. I consider myself someone who loves art and does it but isn’t very good. But I know my art is atleast art because people’s eyes don’t hurt when they see it lol
Sometimes I wonder if he was trying to make his art look that bad because I refuse to believe a man who’s had that much industry experience doesn’t understand those basic concepts
@Darling Vexa Art Your art is so cute!
honestly same-
-i'm still not even super 100% sure if everything i did was right or wrong and it's driving me paranoid lmao--
Same.
I've been making art for about 18 years and I've always been absolute shit with colors. I've seen tutorial after tutorial about color theory and why to use particular schemes, but this is the best explanation I've ever seen of why it matters, and such a clear visual example (contrasting Hartman vs stove's designs of flynn)
Ikr?? Super helpful
congrats on 666 likes B)
just draw black and white pictures
XDXDXDXDXD
Same, most of my characters have white hair and in grayscale it blends with their face and I don’t know how to fix it without changing the colours to much.. ;-;
@@wafflesthearttoad6916 play with the colors, sometimes the shading will influence the color and sometimes separate them. It depends on the light source.
If you feel annoyed with how VivziePop does pink and red a lot, you’d be surprised with how Butch does his green
Honestly I think Vivziepop works a lot better with these colors than butch and his eye soring green
I have mixed feelings about Vivziepop as well as her writing, Anatomy on certain characters and other things she did, but I'm convinced that Vivzie can make a better design that Butch can
I knew I was going to see a vivzie comment under here
you’re roasting Butch Hartman’s “artistry” in the most professional way possible AND you brought up several design points that helped me improve my own character design, so thank you!
I feel like this is a prime example of the "Learn the rules of art before you break them" trope. It doesn't seem that BH actually learned ANY art rules but now goes around touting himself as some sort of idol amongst plebian artists.
His ego actually got him blacklisted from a few studios... His name is like a curse word in some offices.
@@LizzieShiro Very interesting.
*Adding it to “personal sociology, psychology & basic behaviors book”.
LizzieShiro Lmao that’s what he gets for acting like God’s gift to the entertainment industry. My man Steve is the REAL maker of our childhoods.
@@LizzieShiro "You're being such a BUTCH right now!" 😂😂😂
@Darling Vexa Art
I feel as though saying stuff like that makes you no better than him
I feel like in recent years Butch Hartman has sort of become the Ben Shapiro of the art community.
Genius comparison
@@Mae_Dastardly Thank you.
That... literally sums up everything omg
,,,,yeah that checks out
I don't get the comparison.
it felt like mercy when you turned his drawings black and white and spared me from looking at those hideous colors again
As an aspiring 14 year old artist, I do often have moments where I feel like my art isn't that good, but Butch's art immediately makes me feel better about mine. Thank you for the great tips and I hope they'll help me improve! 😁
why does butches stuff always look like something off deviant art
To be fair DeviantArt has all types of skill levels so it’s bound to remind you of some of the art there
I know what you meant, just that the reminiscence is vague enough, probably
Over-designing characters is a pretty common problem for beginner artists.
Man, that's insulting to DeviantArt. At least some people on there sometimes know what they're doing
Bc Stephen Sliver was in charge of the character design. Even tho fairy odd parents and DP have similar art style it's the approach to the coloring, body language, and animation that makes them different which Butch didn't master
The funny thing is that Stephen Silver doesn't even care about Danny Phantom that much because he's an actual prolific artist and keeps doing incredible art.
Me: Draws a simple cute bunny girl with white & shades of blue
Butch: *G R E E N*
But not just green.
Ｎｕｃｌｅａｒ ｇｒｅｅｎ ．
And this my friends is why green is not a very creative color.
I'm not a professional artist, more of a hobbyist, I guess. But your insight on value, clutter, and saturation has really helped me. I love your art, by the way.
Lamo
I'm kinda a beginner at art, i only seriously learnkng about art for about 4-6 years (?) And FRICK IT HELPS
@@whothatanthony3861 ?
My art might be bad for someone my age, but at least my characters don’t have gross looking yellowy-orange skin.
I really start to think reason to that is that whatever device he is using is not calibratred and to him they look normal.
Donald trump lookin asses lmao
I feel like I can imitate him online and get away with it
@Conn Lucifer Probably, if they have a very good understanding of colour
@Conn Lucifer I mean making a gross character that looks gross that works
The way Butch does his lineart is quite similar to mine, and it's concerning considering I have a total of about 8 hours of digital art experience under my belt
Can we talk about that Butch wasn't even involved in art or writing of Danny Phantom. Why he thinks he is the only one who created everything good about DP
That's my thought. He keeps saying he "made your childhood," but aside from concept and storyboarding (which is the bare skeleton of the show), other people created what was more memorable about it, both how the story and characters went and how they looked.
It’s sad that it’s just seen as another Butch cartoon. Like I always thought he designed the characters because of the fact that he tries to plaster his name,all over these shows. Feel sad for the people who actually deserve the credit like Silver
Steve was the guy who made our childhoods. Not only did he design the characters for Kim Possible (one of my favourite Disney cartoons of all time), but he also designed the characters for and did the majority of writing for Danny Phantom. And the Ghost designs ROCK in that show. Shoutout to my dude Skulker: his design screams “Cool Bounty Hunter”.
i’ve heard he was more involved in the third season, which was ironically the worst one
@@whatthehell8418 That was also the season when Steve was kicked from the show over 'creative differences'.
I think we all know what's happened here...
the character and art designer for danny phantom was Stephen Silver, butch obviously gave up on copying Stephen Silver's artstyle
Okay but why does he color skin with a saturated orange/yellow, it’s such an ugly choice and it bothers me so much
He colors the faces with orange and yellow, and then scribbles a background in a random color.
@Darling Vexa Art the difference is, simpsons can use yellow highlights, because the characters have yellow skin, butch has characters with regular skin colors and yellow highlights, makes no sense.
Butch has no sense of colour theory. Everything is bright and clashes together. His backgrounds looks like he used the airbrush tool and sprayed whatever colour he can find. How this guy worked for Nickelodeon is beyond me
all his color choices are bad honestly
@@RC.- The best part of his drawings is his signature, because at least that looks good.
8:11
“Buttons for cool stuff”
Man
I respect that
This video is not only super detailed but its chock-full of REALLY good character design tips and information, so I wanted to make some timestaps for reference!
3:04 PART ONE: General Design
9:42 PART TWO: Color
15:13 PART THREE: Value
Why thank you on the timestamps
God, the prospect of being good at art is intimidating as fuck. I keep coming up with ideas for stories that could be put in a visual medium (specifically a webcomic), but never feel confident enough in my drawing to do those stories justice. But this... this was some genuine great advice. Not advice I’m anywhere near being able to utilize properly because I have no idea how to shade or draw fuckin’ hands, but I’ll have to keep this video in mind as time goes on...
For years I hated my art, my brother always seemed better, but I kept going, so my tip for you is simply if you want to get better just keep going. Idk if that's the best idea though, Idk I'm just a random kid on the internet.
Well, I hear that a TON of people who work on any sort of comic develop their art super fast, just because they are working on it constantly, and are forced to move on from a panel to start the next one, instead of agonizing over it for weeks/months like someone would with a single painting. So start a comic! You don't have to publish it right away, but if you do, you can always go back and redo pages.
@@AlexiaSmith96 I drawed terribly and was considered to have a preschoolers level of skill by my art teacher at 5th grade.
Nowadays my art is still flawed but I think its at least a bit charming and decent. It may not seem like much but it means a lot to me. I hope I can continue improving.
@@cortomaltese5206 I’m glad you’ve gotten more self confidence!
@@killerdoodlebug as someone with ideas for a wrbcomic, finding your comment was great.
Could watch an entire series of you fixing Butch's art. His designs hurt my eyes so much. Seeing you fix his art was healed the pain
His cell shading is just.... **shiver**
even worse than mine smh
Butch’s art lately is so good I would put it on my trash can
I feel better about my art now
@@thatnerd7351 Misery Vex: th-cam.com/video/hp-Nr5Ogb7A/w-d-xo.html
As an artist who does really bright neon art there is a certain way to do it without it looking ugly and butch doesn't seem to know how to do that it's all about matching certain colors I seen many artists who use neon colors to make beautiful pieces of art
I luv ur pfp
Butch’s art looks like one of those create your own manga books you had in middle school
Nah even those can do better than him 🤡
20 minutes of preaching local deity stove, the new god of the hearth
as it should be
You can really distinguish the priorities of an artist when they seem to spend more time on their signature than their actual work.
The fact that many people forget that Stephen Silver was the original designer and not butch Hartman is beyond sad.
Stephen Silver came to my local Museum and I got to talk with him. He is a delight to talk to and a very humble person. His signed image of his KP character designs is a prized possession of mine (he signed it with his name and a little doodle of Rufus). His lecture was incredibly informative and fun.
I tried the grayscale trick on a drawing I was doing this week, and it felt SO SATISFYING to see every color still so clearly... This video, although a torn down for Butch, was a build up for me to know what to look out for in character design, so thanks for that!
I'm still learning about Character designs, despite being 19 and steadily becoming an amateur artist/cartoonist, and this was a good way for me to learn about this
Edit: I'm 22 now and have gotten much better at character design. Still learning though
Same '-'
Bruv I'm an artist that hates drawing and Butch's design literally made me want to draw again out of pure spite
@@an0nym0us_slash35 You have no idea how long I've waited to hear those words!
@@wispy_nova wait really? Damn why
@@an0nym0us_slash35 I mean the Butch's design part.
I'm positive your art is great!
His art looks like he got all his knoeledge from a "how to draw manga" book
Every time I doubt that my dream of becoming a successful artist with like two animated series, I look at Butch Hartman and think "if THIS GUY made it, I WILL make it"
I actually felt my headache alleviate when I saw your redesign of Exodus at 12:30
Same
Same, my eyes kept moving all over the place, then my eyes just rested on the face
As an artist, this really made me feel better about my art
I mean my art is shit but atleast it isn't like BUTCH'S ART
Same i think
Edit: i think i suck at value ;-;
Same here
@@Coolskeleton2030 I understand.😭😭
Hearing the fact that Butch doesn’t own the rights to Danny Phantom anymore makes me so, so relieved
Me: dissatisfied with my art style and progress at 14
Butch hartman's art skills: there there, it's ok, i got a job with this style, you'll be fine kid.
My friend who literally has a fifty times better grasp on anatomy than butch when 16 y old: 🙃
Same.
When I first saw the characters you were giving advice for. At first, I was like “They seem fine to me” but when you started talking about value and use of color, it made me realize what makes certain designs truly special. These videos could really help beginning art designers who would want to get into this sort of thing.
Now I'm a teenager, I'm no professional at all, but I do pursue a career in being a cartoonist.
Now I'm a self learner, and over the past years I've been boosting my skill I've learned something.
Neon colors can be great of use, and bring character to your, well, character.
It's just, butch does it badly, and it's extremely overwhelming.
I agree. Just looking at Butch's drawing in this video is so exhausting
Yeah I feel like neon is good sometimes but when it’s everywhere in a character design... maybe rethink your colors. This is general btw you can obviously still use neon colors
@Darling Vexa Art
100% on that. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Same here! Kinda used this video as a warning of what not to do for my own character designs
The only video that helps me understand color choice, value, and overall character design
also I didn’t even notice Danny’s family and friends had his logo on them. It’s too cluttered
The fact that I, a person with 0 talent in drawing art and lack of studies of art in general, created my characters in games with complementary colour palettes instinctively all my life while this dude with decades of experience doesn't realise his art is legit painful to look at is both hilarious and makes me cry :')
A lot of Butch's artwork feels like an assault on the eyes
Or we can say he BUTCHers the designs.
I'll see myself out
Really breaks my Hartman
Where did those torches and pitchforks come from
This joke make's me wanna BUTCH myself.
Welp I feel Disappointed in myself.
Stayyyyyy
@@pranavghantasala6808 Run, for they only have one wish, that being to BUTCHer you
Okay jokes arn't funny when repeated I'll see myself out the doooorrrr
2:33 "buttons for cool stuff"
Simplicity really is key in design.
the fact that someone who worked in the industry so long still can't pick colours and values amazes me, you would assume after at this point it would just be instinct. like was he just asleep the whole time??? I'm honestly so confused??
This is what happens when you can’t take criticism and (most likely) you have a big ego. You’ll never improve. Butch is probably the biggest example of that.
Getting into the industry doesn’t seem like as much as a skill game as it is a luck game. This guy didn’t deserve to win.
I was thinking the same thing. The man went to Calarts; you'd think he'd know a lot about color theory by now.
@@mollietenpenny4093 he went to calarts??? now im more confused,,,
Ngl you should do art discussion videos. You have a clear knack for it and you do this so eloquently.
this video is great for two things
1. dragging butch down a few pegs in a calm and calculated way
2. genuinely educational and useful information!
i legit started looking back over my own art and was like "OOOHH so thats why it looks weird" XD
I appreciate any good shitting on Butch video, but this was also really insightful and educational ^^ thanks!
ill give buch one thing; what he did with misery vex was a clever way to sexualize her
@@Caterpillartears I can't answer with 100% certainty, but I would say it's the way they're drawn, not that they're plump. They're very reminding of racist caricatures, with the full outlining of the lips and all
@@Caterpillartears
because theyre one single peice instead of two distinct lips. that way of drawing lips either has roots in racist charicatures or simply resembles them too closely (i dont recall witch)
@@Caterpillartears Because people pick issues with the most minor of things.
@@saucepart2electricboogaloo461 i thought it was going for a "pitch black goth lipstick" look....
She's not sexy thought because she looks so bad
Wow you highlighted a lot of what I struggle with in art and helped me understand why some things didn’t look right, which is good and all, but I really didn’t wanna find out that I was anything like this guy...
It can be really hard to keep all of these things in mind while you are drawing. It's something that will become more natural overtime if you are honest with yourself, accept critique and practice things you are 'weak' at. That is the biggest issue with Butch's work, the fact that he seems to think himself above critique as if he has nothing to improve on. I'm sure your work isnt as bad as you think either.
Making mistakes and realizing why they're mistakes is how you improve at anything. Keep practicing, learn from your mistakes and over time your art will improve. It's just a matter of time!
At least you're open to improve unlike him
God, I got eye strain from looking at his characters
I’m a fan of Problem Solverz, FUCKING PROBLEM SOLVERZ, and I was still disturbed by these designs.
Granted, I like the show because of its extended lore as well as the obscure goldmine of possible fan-theories and AUs about it, not the art, but that still means I can bear the latter if I actually managed to watch it.
Facts, that green lady thing or whatever it is felt like turning on Discord light mode-an eyesore.
I honestly would have never realized that was supposed to be Jazz if you hadn't said that's her there's nothing that connects her 10 years later design to her og look in the show
1:21
"And one does not need to have studied and trained with cooking for years to know when something tastes like sh*t."
Well you still need an idea of how it's supposed to taste.
Imagine a patron complaining his lemonade is sour and yellow when he believes it should be orange and tangy.
Yes, but that's besides the point that even a child could tell that Butch's designs are eyesores.
For food, if you eat something that seemed off or just didn’t blend well, you’ll know.
@@mysryuza I've tried chocolate and found it tasted off, doesn't mean it's a bad flavor, it's just not a flavor for me.
You eat with your eyes first, if it doesn’t look appealing you probably won’t want it.
@@mega_bird700
That comparison doesn't work here.
That's like saying I need to taste artwork first to get an idea if I will like it.
Why is Butch's adult Danny's mouth so high up and to the side? And the D is so wide it barely looks like a D. It looks fine at a glance for the first moment, then I'm like "Something is just a bit weird but I can't put my finger on it," then it just....
I always disliked the 10 year art of Danny phantom cuz I feel that the white parts of the suit overpowered the black parts. The neck is just the worst part of it. It looks like a piano notes. I like the old design. It's simple and distinguishing. Too much details can ruin something.
And the belt buckle thing is... weird. It just draws attention to his crotch.
Butch, what is with you and crotches?
Idk calvin, for me his art style looks like he's trying to make an odd version of anime art style combining Stephen Silver's art style with an rookie bad pallet colors
12:01
"NO CAPES!"
frfr tho this section is like, big informative.
it looks like it's either being ripped off of him REALLY violently or it's being unraveled off of him like toliet paper
So the reason why Butch’s art is hated is because the designs are super cluttered, therefore making them super complicated? And in order to maintain proper visual hierarchy, they need less stuff. This is really interesting stuff. I’m still very new to art, and this is really insightful.
Black person here. There's nothing minstrel about those lips. Shape and the overall character design/coloring matters. Just because they dont separate in the corners, doesn't make them minstrel. Appreciate the "concern" though, i guess.
It's was a stretch for sure.
Can we talk about how oversaturated butch’s art is and how badly the colors go together
Now i feel better about my artwork :D
Lol yeah. His colour schemes remind me of some of the akumas from Miraculous: WAY too bright and WAY too over the top. Like, my God. Some of the designs work (shoutout to my girl Lady WiFi who got a nice and simple colour scheme that wasn’t an eyesore), and then you have the likes of The Bubbler and Reflekta.
Darling Vexa Art Yeah. For some of the villains bright colours work well.
Also, I need some validation here: am I the only person who liked Queen Wasp’s design? I mean, she looked a bit uncanny, but I think that worked in her favour. The yellow skin and freaky eyes sort of added to the whole “monster” angle she seemed to be going for.
Darling Vexa Art Yeah. I hated the Scarlet Akumas for two reasons:
1) They did my girl Wasp dirty. How dare they use RED on her design! Who’s ever heard of a red wasp?!
2) We got cheated out of seeing the actual designs for Rena Rage and Shellshock.
@Darling Vexa Art Same! JuleRose is so cute!
This video has actually educated me on how to verbalize why some art is bad. I was never formally taught about art and I've kinda just... winged it. I never want to be a professional with my art, but I am curious on how my designs look. Im kinda bad at critiquing myself because I usually just beat my art down to a point where I just hate it so I was wondering if I should take it to a professional to get it critiqued? I know my anatomy is off (I've been trying to make at least semi-recognizable hands for years) but I'm wondering about my colors.
There's even a chance that you could message an artist you like on Instagram and ask if they could critique your work, of course they probably wouldn't answer immediately and it might take a few tries but it might work out ya never know.
@@parentalonion6552 that's a pretty good idea. Im not much of an Instagram-type person but I bet all sorts of social media have artists out there willing to help! I'll see what I can find.
My advice as an artist is to focus on gesture before anatomy and value before colors. You can study anatomy as much as you want but if you cant pose a figure or get the proportions down properly, it won't matter. As far as value goes, do some gray scale studies and that should help you understand contrast.
Great video explaining design but I can't get over how weirdly Freudian it got, like, a guy known for being a conservative Christian ends up drawing so much eye to the groin region... lol
Seriously what is up with Butch and direction in his images to the crotch?
@@crpalstuck2966 I'd say it's largely because of the skin tight clothes he chooses for characters? You know, straight comic artists love the tight spandex and they get to focus on unnecessarily uncomfortable shots of the crotch or butt. He may be Christian but he really comes off like one of these people..
@@Flareontoast Is that actually a straight thing? What do the gay comic artists do?
@@TheNobleFive it's not about sexuality at all, it's a superhero trope to have skin tight costumes that show of how powerful, toned, or sexy the heros are and emphasize how they are the pinnacle of ability visually.
I wouldn't say it's a straight thing most artist do that but, the problem with butch is already explained in the video, he's just a horrible artist and only uses 2 colors and horrible color choice. This man probably never went to art college at all and rather wanted to go on from his weird fantasies than anything and the bastard was lucky enough to be hired in nick. Art has nothing to do with people's sexuality at all tbh.
I was at an online talk with Stephen Silver last September, and he explained that he ended up changing his initial designs for Danny Phantom because “Butch wanted it to look more like the FairlyOdd Parents”. This is what happens when you’re so hell bent on having a style that you never let it change once you’ve made something work in a specific way and don’t accept crit or suggestions from any other artists. (Judging by the contents of this video, it’s thanks to Stephen Silver that the designs in Danny Phantom were cohesive at all)
I'm an animation student, and last year we had a few classes about character design where we were taught about most of the topics mentioned in this video. Even if I didn't feel like our professor didn't do a good job teaching us about the subject, I'm really glad I found this video, because due to the pandemic, unfortunately our classes felt a little rushed, and there were tons of interesting topics I'd have loved to have explored more during classes. It's really interesting to see what our professor taught us not to do in real examples. There were tons of little tips about character design that I either didn't remember or didn't know about. So, thank you, thank you, thank you for making this video!! Don't know if you're gonna ever read this, but it was great to listen to your thoughts, and I will definitely keep things from this video in mind for the future. I shall even recommend it to my classmates. Greetings from Brazil! 💕
I hate how some of his problems can be seen in my art.... 😓😔,
I also hate how his so called " *BACKGROUND* " are not complimenting his colors
But as long as you know what could be improved upon and if you are willing to improve it (which is sounds like you are,) I'm sure you'll get better!
At least you are humble and willing to learn... he’s been an “artist” for 30 years and learned NOTHING. You can definitely get better!