Jaik's Sketches & Thoughts

[Lyraina]

Every time you post, I think "damn, need to to more gestures/figures" :P It's good you keep doing those on a regular basis. If you didn't see yet, Proko posted a nice video on gestures, nothing really new, but it did have some good reminders and interesting bits and pieces for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74HR59yFZ7Y

The illustration is looking really cool so far! I strongly prefer those which have a cooler second light source, and a saturated firelight, like E/F. It does look like he is lit by moon- or artificial light though, not like fire/another toch in a dungeo anymore, so keep that in mind! Looking forward to more updates on this piece :) Just be careful not to create tangents when continuing to work on it (his head and the shadowline behind, and the way you cut the foot on the bottom of the picture - at the moment it's fine)

Love the composition practice with simple forms (on my to do list as well^^), my only problem with this approach is: How would one flesh out an illustration like that to a full painting, without making it look very flat? Or is this not really the goal, but just practice to get a feeling for composition?

Also, didn't comment on your post from last week: Those 3 value environments are really, really cool! Lovely compositions, and they really tell a story. Respect for doing all those emotion faces, that really is a tough topic to paint.

You're doing great Jaik, you very well deserve some time off now and then :) Enjoy it!

[MrFrenik]

So much stuff in a week, man, I'm impressed! The comp studies are great as well as the master studies. You're right, 5 values is tough, but if it helps stick to 4 values for now ( 2 light/2 dark) and then you can push ahead to more and more inbetweens. I agree with Lyraina about the lighting for your illustration, however I don't think your composition is solid enough yet to continue on. It looks like it should be somewhat of a suspenseful scene, yet the camera angle you've chosen has us looking at it almost as if watching a play on stage; not very engaging. It might be nicer to have Link closer up to the camera and taking up your foreground, with the Medusa character either in the mid or background so as to add a better sense of depth and space.

[Jaik]

Lyraina: That vid is great. I love proko, really professionally done and uber informational. That's exactly what its meant to be, moonlight coming in through a hole in the roof :D so thats great :D
Good question about the composition thumbnails. If I were to develop them further I would probably use them as a guide for basic values/arrangement of the larger shapes.
I still feel guilty for my time off :P

MrFrenik: Those are good points about the composition. Now that you mention the stage thing I completely see where you are coming from... I might have to think about that for a bit, see what I can come up with.. Tanks for stopping by.

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Just a really quick update this time. Nothing to show, took a few days off so didn't really do a lot.. Got more distracted by the new Fire Emblem than I wanted to.. Damn that game and its classic mode and interesting plot...

Doing this at work.. Just noticed how different everything looks on this screen... Not sure how to go about this..

Anger portrait from imagination.. Terrible but I will get there one day.



Tried out gauche thumbnails.. These arent very good, but wanted them up as a good baseline for improvement lol. They are fun and I will try doing them more often.



Visual library drapery stuff.. Kind of interesting, mostly taken from a tutorial by Ron Lemen (fantastic artist) in an IFX issue.


[Lyraina]

Don't feel guilty about the time off. But I know, that's easier said than done. :P Most important thing is that you come back and continue studying eventually!

Your expressions practice pays off, but I think you could emphasize the important muscles a bit more, in this case the wrinkles between the eyebrows: When I look like that, I have more wrinkles, going up a bit further on the forehead. (Or maybe I'm just too used to looking angry!) Also, even though this was probably not the point of the exercise: don't forget to add shadows in the corner of the mouth, it really helps making it look like it is a part of the face, not just added on top.

I'm always quite fond of your environment thumbnails, looking forward to more made in gouache! Do you sketch them out with pencil before you start painting?

Good idea to study the different types of folds, completely forgot to do that...

I wish you a great & successful week!

[anzhou]

yes you'll get there man, keep the faith!

enjoy the fire emblems man.

love the gouache work, i think you can emphasize the 3 values more strongly? that will make you decide on the light direction and consequently the form read.

great job on the drapery too man!

i second lyraina have a productive week man!

[Jaik]

Lyraina: Totally applied your crit to that angry face but forgot to upload it =/ I did listen! I swear D: The shadow crit really did help set it on the face, was an instant improvement, thanks!
As for the thumbnails I just splotched paint on, I had no idea what I was doing, I think next time I may do a few lines, but working straight into shapes is quite liberating.

Anzhou: Yeah those 3 values really needed more pushing, I could blame the paints, but I probably was more to blame, I think its a blow back from just smearing on paint. I need to do more deliberate practice.

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Was going to complain that I couldn't do much this week since I was sick the last 3 days but when I was tallying up the work, turns out to be about normal.. So no complaints here, maybe I can do even better this week :D

Working away at things, trying to get a couple of strong portfolio pieces together.

On a side note, I discovered Trello, which is a to do list manager and it works great. I'm really going to try and apply it in the next week or so but at first glance its very intuitive. See how it goes :)

Visual Library: Japanese Architecture



And some more.



WIP of this piece (Been a while since I updated I think) A friend pointed out the face is too long/too big, so shrinking down the jaw line will help with that. Let me know if anyone spots anything though :)



Gestures, the last few were trying to be more dynamic. I think they are getting worse..



Drapery studies because I didnt do enough last week.



Happy for Suzannes class.



A figure study I thought of doing, left is from an image, whereas right is trying to draw a male in the same sort of position.. Surprisingly hard and made me realise I need to revisit the differences again..



Character design WIP



Longer gestures



Face for the character design, also tried to make it contempt for suzannes class. Failed so hard at that expression just like last time. Also tried a different way for shading.



Master studies - value


[Jaik]

Sorry, didn't update last week, I threw my back out like an old man at work and was only really able to sit at the computer for about 20min at a time before I had to retire to my bed with my walking stick..

So this is kind of a bigger update since its two weeks worth of work (or 1 and a half).

A lot of quicker master studies in colour:


First set

Second Set



Longer master study (didnt get to finish it, this was around the time of the dreaded back demons)



Another master study done at the same time.



More colours



Actual finished master study



Sketches between 20-60min each








Working one of the thumbs to completion (WIP)



Studies


More studies


annnd more


Applying studies as a warmup


Character thingy WIP



Still life quickies


Longer one (I hate these so much)


soooo much

[Jaik]

Not a lot for the last few weeks, definitely went with quality over quantity because I wanted to apply for the Bali Workshop in November and they need a portfolio (which I didnt have) so worked really flat out to get these new pieces done to add to a few of my favorite old ones. So tired @_@

Character sheet


Sci Fi Environment


Waterfall City


High Class Trash

[darktiste]

High Class Trash


don't forget eye do have really small vein it not perfect white only if you photoshop the image xD anyway it only if you want to go more realistic also the skin look to perfect try to had hair on the arm and on the finger or some beauty spot or some skin pore also the finger need to have somekind of wrinkle on each place where it fold. One of the finger is cut?One of the finger seem blury.Perfection is ugly xD

[Jaik]

Darktiste: You're right, I was sort of going for a Serge Birualt style instead of strictly realism, but i do want to try and do a portrait and push the realism. Thanks for commenting :)

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So it's been a while.. I spose I kind of got distracted working on my portfolio, then took a break, then struggled to get back into it, blah blah. But good news! I got into the Bali Workshop, so in Novemeber I will be seeing soooo many of my idols :D Can't wait, gonna learn and heap and it'll be the first time I get off of my rock and travel to a smaller more international rock.


Reworked the old comp, tried again and got this, pretty happy with it but would like critiques ;)




The start of a new illustration, going for a more dynamic pose, starting in black and white and trying to control my values (which I will work on next), compositionally I think this was the best, but feel free to weigh in.




My failed attempt at the starveil comp. I got demotivated and stopped working on it. But it's good to post failures as well as successes.




Fore- Mid- & Background studies

[CoreyH]

Damn, working hard. Heaps of progress. Keeping an eye on this one :D

[Lyraina]

So many lovely new paintings in here! You really are improving in every aspect (color.. rendering.. anatomy.. vast improvements!), but what really impresses me most is that you seem to develop a sense for good composition and design very rapidly... those really are valuable assets, and also quite hard to practice (for me, at least). Maybe that's due to your visual library and similar exercises? Anyway, you always manage to surprise me with yet another lovely environment piece etc. The Zelda piece is very catching as well!

About the still lifes, I don't think you should push yourself too hard if you hate doing them - in the end, it is only one of many ways to learn something. Maybe just do one or two if you need to learn something specific for a piece (material, lighting situation..), so then at least you get some motivation through the purpose. Personally I do enjoy doing them, but I'm not sure if I'm learning a lot except practicing rendering with PS...

Congrats on getting into the Illustration Workshop, that's awesome! Pleeease report how it was afterwards!

[Joe777k7]

Wow you been working hard man, its great to see all of these works over here. Cant wait to see more :)

[Jaik]

@CoreyH and Joe: Thanks guys :D I appreciate the kind words.

@Lyra: Haha, you're the best. Everything that you listed as me improving in I felt like I wasnt making any progress. Especially the composition and design lol.. If there is any improvement it is definitely due to VL and similar exercise (I'm posting up a new one this week lol)
You're also right about still lifes, theres the OCD part of me that would love to sit down and develop my patience to get an object looking perfectly realistic but I cant really bring myself to have the patience to do so, I'd much rather paint something that doesnt exist rather than something right in front of me.

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Sorry for the lack of updates, between taking a week off, then a vacation, then a bunch of other stuff that popped up (including lack of motivation) I havent really gotten round to posting a whole lot.
I have still been working, hard to decide whether still working as hard.. But I have also enrolled in a world building course found here which I am rather keen for. Though it will overlap with the first week of my Bali trip (the first week was meant to be a sight seeing/holiday so who cares if I work through it right?) should be fun.

On a side note, I also decided to learn HTML which is coming along nicely, pretty soon I will recreate/design my home page, it's enjoyable coding again and having structure (learning this then this then this and hey presto, you have learnt html, unlike art which is like, try this, learn this, not know how to apply that, relearn that and realise you need to look at everything all over again, noodle these details, erase that, flip that, transform and liqiufy et al)

Left out super loose sketches and traditional (will hopefully add traditional next week)

Portrait from imagination.


enviro sketch


colour of previous b&w sketch. Dont like it anymore sigh...


sketches




char sheet for new ages piece.

[CoreyH]

Pretty solid work man! Really like the style of the character in the last piece. May want to revisit the rogue guys left arm, could turn into a really cool picture if you keep working on it :)

[Jaik]

CoreyH - Thanks a lot man :) That damn arm! You have no idea how many times I have gone over it lol, not sure whether I want it holding another sword, a dagger, in a fist -__- sigh. Thanks for stopping by :)

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Still working at 50% art, 50% HTML coding.

Trying to get more variations in color and mood into my pieces. From photo reference but trying to exaggerate colour changes, not sure whether I was successful.


Visual Library building - Hyenas




And trying to apply what I learnt with a piece that I will continue working on.

[Lyraina]

The world building course does look interesting, I'm looking forward to see what you are going to produce :)

Love that portrait from imagination, her smile is so genuine, seems to extend right into her eyes... only the irises are a little too sharp I think.

It's nice to see you play with more interesting lighting situations in your environments - why not push it even more? Same goes for the values - you're really getting better with that foreground/middleground/background layering, but I think you could push the value differences a bit more. And always remember to switch to black/white and check the values.
Regarding the color changes: It might help to simplify the colors first (like thumbnailing), decide which colors you see/want to use with a hard brush, and only then start painting the actual image. I feel like using soft or textury brushes makes everything muddy quite fast.
Do you use layer modes for introducing color variation? I like the overlay/soft light category for playing with color, but it's also easy to completely go overboard and mess up everything...

The VL stuff is awesome. That red plane-study looks very professional. ^^ Reminds me that I still need to do mine!

[Jaik]

Lyraina: Thanks! I want to push it more but have kind of run into a block as to what/how to? Like.. there are only so many times in the day, and everyone else can make it look more interesting.. Maybe I need to analyse a bunch of paintings. I have a feeling it has something to do with clouds and light/dark..
I completely agree with the colour thumbnailing. Thats a great idea and will definitely give it a try.

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Last day of the month.. Not sure how I feel about September.. Maybe I should have worked more.. Though at least the weather is getting warmer and days are longer..

New portfolio piece: Commander Ironfist - Character from a book by Brent Weeks, probably my fav author. http://fav.me/d6o0ze1 for on devART :D Pretty happy with it, tried to push my hand rendering (weakest part).



Thumbs for Ramrock Illustration, followed by the one I chose with some colours in it. If there is another thumb that works better compositionally let me know! Or any other compositonal notes you may have I would love to hear them.






Character/race thing... I have been thinking about world building a lot (hence the course) trying to figure out how I would create a race without stealing too much from what is already established.. (I know, it looks like a tauren with a dogs head -___-)



sketch (playing with styles, but o' experimentation)


env i did for warm up every day

[Kaffer]

Wow! Lots of improvement in colors&values! Good job! :)

[BenFlores]

nice to see the amount of content in every single post. keep up the hard work !