JyonnyNovice - from Novice to Master!

[JyonnyNovice]

Posted this stuff for Artloader, but figured I'd post it here too in case it's useful for anyone:

[JyonnyNovice]

Decided to make a concerted effort with colour, followed Alex Negrea's 'ambient occlusion method' tutorial, really feel like I have so much more control doing it that way!

Working with one of my inktober drawings from above.

First image is the original ink, then the ambient occlusion pass which really helps so much to get the pieces feeling solid and 3d, then the flat colours, then shadows, then more shadows and bounce light and highlights.



Here's the 'finished' piece, recombined with the ink to hide the lack of finish xD (I could've spent a lot more time refining and polishing, but needed to stop and work on something now, I might go back to it after or probably I'll do a new one but put more time into the polishing stage)

[Artloader]

Hey nice result Jyonny :).

That looks like an interesting workflow, I might check it out myself.

Good luck with your other stuff mate :).

[gregorkari]

great work! keep it up!

[JyonnyNovice]

Thanks Artloader and gregorkari!

I've been finding this quite a fun way to warm up and practice gestures. 1 min poses (the red lines) then put away the reference and go back over them drawing the characters, without a time limit (although aiming to be fast and loose still). It's quite a nice way to do a bit of imaginative / memory drawing but without having to think of each pose yourself (which I find makes the session grind a bit, since I slow down when a pose doesn't come right away).

[IrishWhiskey]

Hi Jyonny! 

The giant leaps you are making is truly inspiring and your figure drawings look very nice in your style you got going on too. 

i mean those inktober sketches tho 

2017 is going to be your year buddy!

[JyonnyNovice]

IrishWhiskey! Thanks dude! Yes I really feel this year is gonna be awesome! Things feel like they are coming together at long last!

Kicking off the year with a magazine job! doing the front cover of a Buddhist magazine. Not getting paid but it's a good chance to push myself to complete something from start to finish. It's a subscription only rag but has about 10,000 subscribers I believe, so something else might come from it! Here's the rough version and a more developed underdrawing:

[JyonnyNovice]

Some Makoto Shinkai studies for sky and rocks - he was described to me as skyporn and it's so true! Check him out if you want some cool stylised skies!



Progress so far on my illustration, C&C welcome! I have til Thursday to finish it off.

[JyonnyNovice]

Getting there, nearly done! Got to fix up their expressions and eyes. It needs to be tighter!



I found this really useful to do to try and keep the lighting consistent:

[Artloader]

Dude - congrats on getting that magazine gig - even if it is none paying it still a great testimony to your art skills.

And thanks for sharing that stuff about Makoto Shinkai - I'm focussing on enviros this year so will definitely look him up.

Good luck and keep going!

[JyonnyNovice]

Artloader Thanks man! Yea for sure it's definitely a great confidence boost, and hopefully it'll lead on to more stuff. I want to do a monthly comic strip for that magazine so I'll get some strips done and approach the editor now that I know her.

Here's the finished version and some close up parts. I'm happy with all the characters except the asian guy in the middle, just could not get his expression and eyes working for me, he seems to be staring off into space at nothing in particular. The 'norms' tell me they like it and it's fine, so it will do I suppose! deadlines and all that!









I added some noise to it to try and kind of unify things and make it not look so clean and digital. Not sure if it works great, maybe should've gone with one of the photoshop 'canvas' filters or something, but it's ok!

[JyonnyNovice]

I'm doing a schoolism caricature course and going through Proko's videos too. Really so much fun! I can practice drawing realistic features without the boredom and frustration of doing proper portraits!

[Artloader]

Hey those caricatures look great Jyonny! I love how you've captured the forms of those faces.

Nice work - keep posting dude!

[JyonnyNovice]

Artloader Thanks dude!

Been a while! I'm still working on caricature stuff amongst other things. Recently did this for a friends birthday, it's got some in-jokes but hopefully it's still humourous to people who don't know him:











Working on this next one for my barber shop, if they like it they'll put it up on the wall and maybe I'll get some business out of it.



Crits are really welcome! I want to make this piece the best that I can! Looking for something funny for the lady to be holding, right now it's going to be a blowtorch, since it looks a bit like a hairdryer, and the gas pipe and canister will be visible under the desk.

[JyonnyNovice]

Still working on the above caricature, will post when there is more progress! Also trying to find a nice method for using photo's / photobashes / game screenshots as backgrounds for comic panels. Haven't hit on the right process just yet, but getting there:

[Flow]

Hey Johnny! You go quite a little mileage in the last 1-2 years, I like how the caricatures turned out and the inking stuff is pretty cool, I know how hard inking is... the "comic bashing" thing looks interesting, I tried stuff like that before, too. Keep going!

[JyonnyNovice]

hi flow! thanks for the comment! I'm really finding the more I learn and better I get the more I want to draw, so the learning really accelerates (as long as I remember to study stuff alongside).

Here's an update on my caricature, had a long break from it but back at it again, want to finish it off this time!

I'm going for a kind of film noir interrogation room lighting with the strong spotlight right above. The lighting is not really consistent, but I have to use the photo's of the people to get the likeness right, so hopefully I will get away with it's sort of similar. Any comments or crits really welcome! I am getting out of my comfort zone now and into painting and values and all that stuff...

[Flow]

Hey man! So I think you could probably get more out of the composition if you use the values to your advantage and push them in your point of interest. For example a sharp white blade of the scissor could help direct the image a little better. :)


Also - and I am by far not the best to tell you that since I personally totally suck at it still - the washy and undefined texture brushes in the pants, on the floor make the whole thing look undecided and undefined. The caricatures themselves look pretty cool I would say.

Keep it up mate!

[Artloader]

Good to see you back in the saddle Johnny :).

The barber shop piece is coming along nicely, I think maybe pay more attention to the lighting as you've already said.

Just a couple of ideas for you: The guy's right elbow looks like it should be in shadow and maybe show the circle of light on the floor?

Keep it going fella!

[JyonnyNovice]

Thanks for the crits guys! I will address these things now ^^