+++janshi's visual journal of learning+++(August 3, 2007)

[Janshi]

Hi there. This is the...2nd?...incarnation of my sketchbook. I've been doodling for quite a while but I haven't really grown beyond style - which is why I've started this. I want to develop as an artist so I've decided to start this up. I desperately desire critique, comments and suggestions.

I know I suck, so if you can, avoid 'you suck' as a response

I plan to do anatomy and enviros heavily in the future...I know I desperately need to improve them.

These are a selection of older stuff. Some are months old, some I did yesterday.


Kingdom of Heaven sketches.



Markers.



Images for a personal idea.



Black marker...and daredevil Oh, and there's doctor brand from caballistics inc.



More markers. Look, there's Lucifer!



More for the personal idea. yea, the marker bled through....i'm dumb.



Mess.



Fun! Some photo refs, a scene of a story i'm writing, and a naked lass! Yay!

[Zorky]

I like the one before the last, the girl is nice.
In my opinion sometimes your sketches are too tiny to give them any shading.

[Micaiah Nelson]

you have a great collection of work here.

[Janshi]

Zorky: 'Tis true. Probably should have zoomed in a bit more...thanks!

Micaiah: gracias

Two new sketches...I've always been more of a thumbnail kind of guy so I tried to go big.

[Alex Baer]

Janshi, you have some nice studies but I agree with Zorky, they are too small. It would really help your skills to work larger and get in more detail, especially when you work on people. you don't have to work huge, just enough to get the details that you want to show

[kovah]

Nice stuff, some anatomy problems here and there so that is probably something to practice. And as Dabaers said working abit bigger is helpful to practice your details and whatnot.

[Janshi]

Dabaers: Thanks! And yes, I need to get out of my 'comfort' zone. I'm so used to drawing small. I've been populating my sketchbook with bigger figures.

kovah: Yeah, anatomy is very important. Look forward to some of them in the future!

Only two new sketches today...I have a few more, but the scanner that I am using (at the office) is meh and my sketchbook is too big...so I'm going to see if I can get a smaller sketchbook/get my own scanner


two of my friends, photo refs.

A bad daredevil sketch and an incomplete ghost rider one....I have to figure out leather...

[Janshi]

Evil evil resolution problems. I've given up on the office's scanner. I'm getting my own scanner very very soon, so I'm afraid updates will have to wait till then. Fear not though! Much doodling will be done between now and the (hopefully soon) then!

[Janshi]

And I'm back! Got a brand spanking new scanner and eager to try it out.
A mix of old and new stuff.


Character for a fan-fic, based off of the guy from 30 seconds to Mars...in progress, still.


Cat named Tigger that's taken a liking to me. These were sketched on the go as the little bugger peeked curiously around.

He deigned to give me a few precious seconds of still. Part of the pose (head and forearms) and the cross-hatching are all done from imagination and guessing. Not a patient lad.



Jant, from Steph Swainston's fantastic Fourlands novels. He's an absolutely brilliant and believable character, and so are the people and world that he lives with and inhabits. I have a larger character render going on but it's still in production.

MGS sketches. Still one of the best games EVAR.

Some random sketches...Death...the Death Head Brigade, a concept that I'll elaborate on more later.

Watched a NOVA program on the Incan invasion. Studied the subject of Spanish conquest in Latin America also in my first semester, so I wanted to do some stuff about that. Look forward to more.

faces.


Ref (the face is mine, but the proportions got messed. Hands are mine as well) and randomery.

close up.



Life sketches from Borders. Bookstores, I find, are the best places to get life sketches. Everyone is in their own little paper-back world and wonderfully still for your sketching pleasure.

[Eva K]

Good studies you have so far. Just remember that everyone has to start from somewhere and the more you practice the better you can get. Draw a lot from life and study anatomy to see how the body is built up ^^

Please keep posting

[dierat]

Yeah anatomy studies will definitely help you learn to fill out your figures and breath life into them. I actually like some of your small stickly sketches; they have interesting personalities, and I hope you can bring that to your larger sketches when you get there. Also, I think you have promise for drawing from models; it's obvious which sketches were drawn with a reference in what you've shown here. And one more thing - I get the feeling that you're assuming your angles, as in the last sketch (girl with book). Make sure that you're not just drawing a book (for example) from memory, but from sight... if you know what I mean. Kudos and keep drawing! ;D

[Janshi]

Oscen: Thanks for your comments! I know, I really need to do some more anatomy.

dierat: Haha, you caught me! Yes, the book was drawn from memory...she moved the book about and so I had to improvise. And yea, I like my thumbnails more than my big sketches...I'm working out a system for that.

Sorry for the break...been busy with loads of ideas. Have a game idea in my head I want to explore, so I've been writing loads. Anyway, here's some sketches of stuff.


Some more Death's Head Brigade sketches. I have to develop that idea a bit more...regular troopers along with a heavy-version. Inspiration drawn liberally from W40k Dreads and Termies. As well as some other stuff.


Sersi redesign. It sucks. It was more about trying to get an interesting posture....


Crap sketch of an idea of a Macroplex/Ark - a city on the sea. Inspired by the incoming global warming and a 'how do we survive...' It is rather terrifying to know that global warming will happen no matter what we do, and that the ice caps WILL melt, and all that we can do is try to lessen the backlash (look up the 'Little Ice Age' ...circa 1300s to something or other, the exact dates stump me). I thought that cities on the sea would be one way to ensure that no matter what humanity will survive this. Of course, the ships would require massive amounts of greenhouses to not only sustain the passengers but also the ship itself - I'm thinking massive bio-diesel engines to power this baby. Solar panels as well. The design is based on a yacht, but I think I may go back to an extremely wide super-aircraft carrier. Well, I'll have to go back to this anyway. The drawing sucks.
And a cute little walking tank. I like the idea of walking tanks.


sketches of Victoria's Secret women and women in general. Sucks again.


Part of a 'What if...?' project, if Nazis had access to magic and all that...I'm going to explore it more.


Same. Thumbnails expanded really large.

[Janshi]

Honey, I'm home!

...

<crickets chirp. No, really, there are crickets chirping outside my door.>

So, sorry to my fans for the long dry spell. My lovely group of fans, population of...0. Well, 1, if you count me I've been sketching busily away but I often come back to my sketches so I just didn't feel that it was right to scan them in. In fact I have two pages of sketches that I shan't include simply because I'm still doodling in them, filling things out. Terrible habit, I know.

Some ideas and random scribbles included. Enjoy!



Viking hero-character. Likely to do some sequentials for him, inspired by Travis Charest's lovely Spacegirl sketches.


Girls. And Nightwing, because Oracle and him belong so.


The ladies, because I enjoy them so. On the right is a costume sketch idea, in the middle Ultimate Scarlet Witch, and on the right is just some random gun-chick.

Quick sketches for a sequential I'm thinking up.