Jaik's Sketches & Thoughts

[Lyraina]

Wow Jaik, that last piece is really cool. Very intersting composition and camera angle. And design. :) Right now, the horse's head is really prominent because it's just a huge black dominating shape, so if you want the focus to be on the monkey's face, maybe tone down the horse-head a bit (not too dark and also be careful not to render too many details/contrasty stuff, unless you really want us to look there). I don't know what you're planning for the monkey-head values, but take extra care to put your strongest contrasts (value, color, detail level, whatever works..) there, if that's going to be a focus point. Same goes for the (very much awesome!!!) cat. I like how you framed her in darker values and made her stand out.
Also, a minor thing.. I'm not really sure about this, so please take it with a grain of salt. While I really love the way you are working with diagonals here, they all seem to go into the same direction: The staff, the tilt of the rider's head, the horseneck. All are "declining" diagonals (I mean like a backslash \ ). This makes me feel a bit like I'm falling over, because there is nothing to oppose that force, especially with the horse looming so dark and oppressing in the upper right area. Maybe you could add something similar dark valued on the lower left part of the image, to balance things out?
I like the ribbons (hope that's the word?) in the background though. They offer a nice (although comparably weak) counterbalance to the strong declining diagonals. Please ask for clarification if it's not clear what I am trying to say, I'm having a bit of a hard time explaining what I mean here :P
The design is awesome btw. Nice way to put the still life practice to use. And I think it's great that you're doing an interesting composition/illustration and not just a plain portait painting!
Sorry to hear about the globe thing though, that sucks :(
Good to see you do all those anatomy basics. They might be tedious at times, but will help to get better results in the end. Be careful not to place the breasts too high though. Unless you're drawing low-gravity breasts. And always remember that the movement and stretch/form of the breasts follow the arm; if the arm goes up, the breast follows (especially noticeable if one arm is up while the other is not). I recommend doings some field research :P
Random question: Do you have a favourite muscle group so far? ^^

[Tygerson]

Wow, yet another fantastic set of muscle studies!

[draktvin]

Great great study jaik! I really love how you break down each muscles. Keep it up!

[ramalooke]

Fuuuuuck. This still life looks really hard. Lots of tiny details. Your the man for attacking such hard still life. I bet you learn a ton from it <3

[rioriorio]

wow jake, the still life study is kick ass, so many tiny form, how many hours it takes?

for the crypt cat, the horse is too contrast, and value of BG and monkey face is looks like the same, make it hard to see where is the main focus.

[MrFrenik]

Really great anatomy studies and sketches, Jaik. Looking back over the year, I'd say you've definitely improved quite a lot, so don't worry about that any. Just keep kicking ass.

P.s. I posted a small cone of vision demo in my SB for you. Let me know if it helps at all.

[Jarrad]

Hey Jaik! I really how you've blocked out the shadows as flat values first int the monkey piece! I find that it helps figure out a shape design as well as a value hierarchy easier!

the forms on the monkeys face aren't quite turning as far as i can tell. the edge between the side plane of the head into the light has a pretty sharp edge which makes for a sudden change.. that being said, it is obviously early on in the illustration and overall I'm really excited to see how it turns out!!

[razvanb08]

The anatomy studies kick ass, and that still life is wonderfull, I like how you applied it to you personal piece. Good job and keep'em coming :).

[Warburton]

Sweet stuff man, killing it with these studies and you've improve a ton since the start of this sketchbook. Great job man, and keep um coming!

[Jaik]

Thanks everyone! A lot of help was given this week. I really appreciate it. All replies will be in your sketchbook by end of day :)

--

Good news, I got a globe today so I can finish the still life this week. Or at least I hope so.. Some thing called 'Christmas' and 'Family' may get in the way.. but I will still try my best.

I finished the trunk, or what I consider the trunk, this week, so now the next two weeks will be spent doing mostly form studies of the trunk.. I am trying to develop a personal course that I can repeat with the other parts of the bodies that will give me a really solid understanding of the muscles and how to render them. Let's see how it goes.

Anatomy. I decided to make these a bit smaller because last weeks images were a bit large for my taste. I like being able to see the whole thing on one screen.




Revision






More anatomy. I realised I missed studying the scapula, and decided to add the deltoid to my definition of the trunk, since originally I considered it the arms but it got too hard ignoring the elephant in the room on every study.




Crypt Cat update. I lightened the horse and completely changed the background. But after rendering the armor, my background is now too dark so the silhouette doesnt stand out. So I will lighten that once I have finished the monkey and know my final values and adjust from there. Colour wise (and this took me many failed attempts) I want to go for a semi limited palette, mostly in the warm colours. I havent done a piece with a limited palette so I figured I would push everything as far as I could out of my comfort zone.


I also spent a day or so beginning to code my website. This is sitting locally so I couldnt link it, so I screen shotted it. This is the beginning of the HTML prototype. After this I will convert it to a wordpress theme so that I can use wordpress to upload and adjust portfolio images. The red and blue are not staying, its just so I can see where I put my columns

[Lyraina]

Looking forward to the finished still life :)
The personal course sounds like a good idea, anything that's adaptable and repeatable is good for wasting less time with planning and organization.

Crypt cat piece is coming along nicely - that armor is badass! O_O

[rioriorio]

hi jake, for the crypt cat, i think you jump into detail too soon, but it's just my opinion
your progress of anatomy study is great, can't wait to see you applying it

[Heavenwill]

I'd agree with what rio said, a few gesture/pose studies would help that monkey sit there a lot better.
Keep it going Jaik :p

[razvanb08]

Those anatomy studies are killer, really in-depth. It's nice that you posted what you are thinking about doing with the personal piece, good to know how you aproach it.
Keep it up! :)

[ramalooke]

Yeah, Christmas tends to get in the way ;) Glad you still working and producing those awesome studies ;) It looks like you putting some thought into them, which is good. Many people tend to brainlessly copy what they see. And I simply love this illustration you are working on. Great application of your previous still life. However in my opinion, his head postion needs fixing. It looks unnaturally tilted to me and the neck is definetly to long for my taste. But side of that it's really promising piece with good composition. Can't wait to see it done. Cheers!

[Yann.F]

HI Jaik & thanks a lot for dropping by and giving advice!

very very impressive sketchbook! glad you found a new globe so you can finish that awesome study!

Interesting to see that you try to develop your own learning process. You definitely have a very structured and rigorous approach, you're basically making your own anatomy book at this point which is impressive!

Your monkey knight is looking great, definitely see the inspiration from that mask study in the armor. One thing is i wonder if raising that mountain in the background helps it, because now the mouth of the horse , the staff, the flowing piece of cloth and the tip of that mountain are all up there having a fight, but maybe lightening the background as you said will fix that!

Anyway i'll definitely be back here! Keep it up!

[smrr]

Whaddup fellow Aussie!

Man, this upcoming piece. Holy shiiiit! Love the design, it's so out there... so whack! And in a way, kinda creepy :'c, reminds me of that awesome track by Basement Jaxx - which always creeped me out, in the best way mwahah

Also, it's interesting to see how you're going about the studies for the piece. An orderly approach, nice work!

Well dude, thanks for the support in my sketchbook and elsewhere on the interwebz. Really helped keep the firing burning, y'know? Anyways :3, hope you have a Happy New Year! keep being awesome and I'll see you on the other side :D

[eclip-se]

Jaw droped, eyebrows up :D awesome! happy new year Jaik!

[dracken]

Good anatomy studies, I'd say try to apply it by drawing from life if possible. I saw in the previous page you went to life drawing, but it's closed for a while. Try to draw people at a coffee shop in the meantime (I sit in the window and draw people chatting across the street) That way you can get groups of people and learn how humans actually balance themselves out in the "wild." You need to know the muscles, but with people being all shapes and sizes it's helpful to know how to apply the "ideal" proportions.

"..see if I can work out some way to do digital work while I am there, on my ipad, or take a laptop or something."

A cheap laptop with an extra battery and a medium Wacom are pretty much perfect for traveling/ doing digital figure drawings from life. You don't really need a dedicated graphic card or fancy tablets, just some Ram and battery life, if you're interested I'll look up the exact specs of my ancient laptop.

[meat]

Wow, I don't got much to say, just awesome!