Hulk and Batman

[Jaku]

Hello, there!

I would like to share with you two of my latest illustrations. I'm trying to move out of my comfort zone of caricatures and portraits.

First I did this Hulk, based on a promotional photografy of the movie The Avengers, adding some personal touches. I had a lot of fun with it and I'm quite happy with the result:



Then I went for this Dark Knight, doing it without any reference. With this one I tried to get a very particular dark atmosphere. The rain effect was something that was not planned but I felt like it would be a nice touch.



Well, any words and critiques will be welcome.

Thanks for watching!!

[danlambert]

Hey Jaku, first of all I gotta say I looked at your website and your caricatures are incredible, I love them!
Regarding the Hulk image, I would say I don't think you can claim it as an illustration, It's waaay too similar to the promotional image to be viewed as a separate image, it's basically a study, a good one! but a study none the less.
The batman image is cool, but doesn't seem up to the same standard as most of your other work, almost like it's a sketch as oppose to a finished piece. Biggest problem i see is the rim lights, the dude is pretty much outlined. If you're going for dark and atmospheric it's very much about what you don't see, and what's lost that really emphasise the mood. Tone down all the lights and really think about how much bounce light you're going to get (or not get) in a really dark image, there's going to be a lot of edges you're going to lose. I'd also loose the veins you've added, no way you're going to see them protruding through clothing like that, but that's more of a pet peeve of mine, I'm pretty sure it's not normal in the comic world/style. There's some issues with anatomy, that knee in particular is very weird, using a bit of reference to check your musculature would be beneficial for this piece I think.
Lastly I'd rethink his batarang thing. It looks more like a tiara atm, and it's handing in such a way that it has no weight to it. I'd also question why Batman is just holding it with a dangling bit if string, isn't it normally attached to something? If you do want to keep it that way then you're also missing a trick not having it blow in the wind.

Hope that helps,
peace!

[Jaku]

Hi Dan!

Thanks a lot for your critiques!
About the Hulk, you're totally right, it's more a study than a original illustration, I give you that. In any case I would like to people think than It's an original piece! :)

About the Batman, I really thank you for your words. I've specialed to much in using references and in copy them (with the portraits and caricatures), I based my lasts years in learn how to copy from a model with as much accuracy as I can, and when I want to just create from my imagination with a realistic style I have a lot of problems, overall with the use of light...
But that is exactly the reason why I came here, to try to improve in that. I'll take note of all of your indications and will try to use all of them in my incoming pieces.

Thanks a lot!!! :)