James's Sketch Book

[Jamesxwu]

Priest Studies

[Jamesxwu]

priestess design

[BrushNoir]

What is there to say, lovely sketches! :D

[Jamesxwu]

Thanks Brush Noir


some studies and sketches

[JyonnyNovice]

Hey James, long time fan of your sketchbook : ) You use gouache right to paint into your sketchbook? You mentioned sometime back about adding chalk to watercolour to make gouache-like paint. Could you elaborate on that a lilttle for me? I have watercolours, but don't want to invest in all new paints just to add a bit of colour to my traditional sketchbook. When you add chalk do you match the colour, or just use white chalk, or something else? Or any medium you could suggest to add some life / colour into my paper sketchbook without buckling the pages all up? Sorry for all the questions, thanks for any response!

[Jamesxwu]

@ JyonnyNovice, Hey Jyonny, thanks, Yeah I use some gouache and watercolor and if I want to make a painting totally opaque or paint over something a bit then I add some chalk and mix it into the watercolors only a tiny bit to give it some body, the chalk is just white chalk powder, calcium carbonate, nothing more. if you have a hard cover sketchbook you can get some clamps on the edges to tighten up the page your painting. Hope this is helpful.



life study

[Jamesxwu]

some watercolor and ink studies

[Jamesxwu]

thieves and rogues sketches

[yangdaniel027]

Wow I'm loving the amount of work in this sketchbook. :)

One thing I can see immediately is proportions though. Although the drawings themselves are solid, the proportions of some of your characters seem a bit off. A few of them are only 5-6 heads tall, some of the legs are too long, and heads too small etc.

[Jamesxwu]

ok thanks Daniel will work on it 

Tamara study

[Jamesxwu]

Heavy knight design, trying to design a veteran old warrior, old, but still strong and can give good advice to a young hero. any crits would be nice and choose which would be the best to design.

[Toxicpanda]

These are some incredible sketches. I love some of your last pages. As for design of old but strong warrior- E seems the best fitting for the story. Both stance and armor design is well done however sword might be too big for older warrior so maybe sword from G would fit better.
Great job : ) It's always so inspiring to check out your work.

[Adam Lina]

Nice knights and medieval costume design! Got any recommendations on good reference to study that?

[Jamesxwu]

@ ToxicPanada-Thanks Kristina I think I will try to come up with a final design for both,

@AdamLina-mostly google images to search for armor pintrest and hua ban provide some additional browse work, would also recommend to watch some documentaries on youtube, they kind of provide the idea of what it was like fighting and mounting plated armor for people.

figure studies and doodles

[JyonnyNovice]

Hey James, awesome stuff, like always! In the second image, the group of 3 guys on the left I can see it the most, those grey looking strokes. Are those dry brush strokes you use to lay the figure in? Or do you use another tool to lay them in?

[Jamesxwu]

@JyonnyNovice

Hey Jyonny, the grey is just a lighter stoke from the same brush i used to make the darker ones, it just a bit diluted but not too wet.

some doodles at the zoo and portrait

[smrr]

Jamessssss, the style you're cultivating is sexy af

don't stop, get it, get it o/ !!

[Jamesxwu]

@Smrr

thanks will keep going :)

 figure drawing study

[Jamesxwu]

figure drawing and girl with hat

[Jamesxwu]

china town sketch