Jason needs improvement so beat his ass with critiques

[MacTire]

Wonderful stuff Jason! Great improvement too. Thanks also for reminding me of mike Biereks blog and schedule, will definitely be trying out this method of scaling the timing on studies.

[GEB]

Some really great stuff in here dude. looking forward to more

[Velocity Kendall]

i absolutely love how intense and expressive your characters are; the viking imagery cross with her terrified/crazy expression (it varies interestingly between sketches) really adds up to an amazing original image. so much more interesting than the usual "im super badass and im really cross" expression.
Same goes for the zombie-slaying musketeer girl. She looks like someone would after stoving in the heads of the monsters that used to be her family. What a great character. 5* and then some.

Edit actually are they zombies, or has she just been on a rampage? In either case, her expression is what sells it to me. That and the ears.

[Candra H]

Hope you don't mind me bumping your thread.

I spent some time looking through your sketchbook and wanted to tell you how much of an inspiration it was. It's an epic journey of study and learning you've been on and it was amazing to see how much you've progressed and developed as an artist.

I'm glad I decided to check you out. Fantastic stuff all round - no crits from me, but no doubt you'll be more aware of any weaknesses in your work than anyone by now.

[Obstfelder]

Love your sketchbook! Really impressive across the board, designs, rendering, sketches and everything.

I'm subscribing.

[IanLlanas]

This post #959 shows dramatic improvement in your figures, you just leveled up or something. Nice job and happy birthday!

One thing I noticed was that on the Naga (snake guy) painting, the lighting from the fire isn't consistent. It's reflected in the swords which face us, and that guy with the blunderbuss would have more light on his front side, for example. Just details though, looks great!

[will123will]

great sketchbook, love the last illustration

[Overtoom]

Amazing illustrations, love to browse through these pages! Thanks for that

[Jason Rainville]

Thanks guys

So it's been a while, again, and I've come back with some studies that show my continued lack of proficiency with the good ol' pencil. I've been really busy lately and haven't had nearly as much time as I want with studies, but I did manage to squeeze some in here and there. I think I'll ditch my approach where I detail what subjects i covered at the top of the post. Instead you'll get images seperated into "wok" and "studies."

So here we go;


Art for a banner ad and my first released (but not my first completed) art for Pathfinder;







She originally had hair;




Annnnd onto studies and sketches;










































Here's me preparing for some fanart by trying to explore Inuit facial features as applied to Korra's face;

[Jason Rainville]

BUMP - for some reason this didn't show up on the front page? I waited for a while thinking it was just a hiccup in the system but it never showed up for me. Bumping just in case.

[Mark Tarrisse]

I really love what you did for pathfinder, the studies are looking good, except sometimes the edges feel a bit loose (for the painted stuff of course)

[Jason Rainville]

I really love what you did for pathfinder, the studies are looking good, except sometimes the edges feel a bit loose (for the painted stuff of course)

Thanks, yeah for the colour studies this time around I had very little time. They were actually quick studies done just before jobs that had similar subject matter and as soon as I said to myself "ok I get what the colours are doing" I stopped rendering. I hope to do some actual longer studies soon.

[Lightship69]

Hi matey

Some cracking studies up there with a good sense of movement in them! thanks for taking the time to post them up matey I got a lot out of those.

stay well and all the best.

[diamandis]

Un-freaking real.

You know what would be cool? If people who've had sketchbooks for a long time and who've improved massively could update their SB's first post with notes on how they accomplished what they did. A timeline of major events along the slow crawl of getting to be epically good: where/if they went to school, what they focused on, what exercises/inspirations yielded the fastest improvement, etc. It'd be easier for viewers than having to mine the long threads for hints. (Although I see from your site that you're self taught. Mother of god. Gives me hope!)

[p sage]

double post??

[p sage]

Hi matey.

That's all I wanted to say to you.

And the upper arm is too short in this one (the female)

[Jason Rainville]

Hey guys, yet another long time without an update. lots of things I can show, lots of things I can't and as always give me a boot if anything looks out of place.

Work and studies, dump!



















eugh I hate this one...

[bill618]

Great stuff in here.
Fantastic record of progress and development.

[Velocity Kendall]

5* accross the board, but that smeared face guy is one of the coolest things ive seen in ages

[cfhd]

Oh wow! there is some really amazing work in here. Awesome progression from start to finish! Gives me hope

[TomSeas]

Sick stuff, your progression is astounding. subscribed and 5* from me!

[Syle]

This is insane. There is so much progression from the start of this sketchbook to the present.

Yeah, I have to agree, that smudged painting one is just awesome. Great narration and execution all around.

[Mikko Voipio]

Yeah! What't with the fucking four stars. Awesome stuff! 5 from me.

[Andrew Sonea]

Really improving by leaps and bounds here! Some really nice execution on these--I love the image of the painter smearing the face, it's done really well and has a cool idea too. Now for the critique which you always ask for:

A lot of your issues that I saw before like having a "plasticy" look to materials is disappearing (although still present somewhat, but barely compared to before). Your design and everything else is coming along nicely too. I think your biggest weaknesses right now are the poses/gestures of people and composition. Poses are all very stiff feeling, and I think it would do you good to draw through with longer action lines connecting the whole pose together (or at least think that way), as right now it looks like you sorta move from one point to another ("okay, here is the torso, draw the torso, what next? Oh, now the upper leg, draw the leg, now the lower leg, draw that, now the foot, okay draw it, etc" instead of "okay, the big rhythm here runs right through the head and neck down through the twist of the torso through the upper leg arcing down through the lower leg and into the angle of the foot--all one nice long arc from head to toe"). I think perhaps you focus so much on construction of each part you forget the whole and how everything relates. A little trick is if you have a full length mirror, try to match the psoe as close as you can..I can guarantee that when you hold the pose yourself you will instantly feel silly and realize how unnatural it is. You right now are doing the fly-swatted pose a lot:
http://androidarts.com/tuts/tutlineart.jpg

The issue with composition has to do with the big shapes and value organization. Take these images and turn them greyscale then look at their thumbnails...they are a mess:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mqy586vurY...n-Vampires.jpg
http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...11770221_n.jpg

Control your value range so you limit certain value to certain areas, make sure to differentiate fore- mid- and background (preferably different value ranges for each), and then focus on the big interesting shapes instead of lots of little broken shapes. Take a look at some of the masters of shape design such as NC Wyeth, Andrew Wyeth, Craig Mullins, Jaime Jones etc

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WSejUWylcs...er_Display.jpg This one is definitely a step in the right direction. It's got interesting shapes, an interesting viewpoint, etc. The background with the devil (whose pose needs to be reworked) needs to be addressed a bit more carefully though. I like the sword as a com positional tool like that, reminds me a bit of this: http://www.donatoart.com/gallery/lordb.html Note though how Donato has used designed the shape of things and used values to his advantage. Oh, and since you're Canadian, you probably have a book or two on Robert Bateman (if not, get them!). I find he's quite exceptional at shape design and composition on an abstract level, so I'd take a look at what he's doing (I especially like the compositions in his new book, simply titled New Works).

[Psychotime]

...Yeah. There's a BIG difference from page one.

You're an inspiration, Jason.

[Arktulfy]

Your sketchbook is a great inspiration to me, it shows how great an improvement can be achieved and that motivates me to spend more time drawing.

I also think you have some very nice ideas, very original.

Now to read more carefully through the topic and steal all the tips you've gotten.

[walnut]

Very glad you keep posting here, the progress is impressive to say the least.

[Jason Rainville]

Thanks a ton for the detailed input Andrew.

I'm glad that you're confirming the things I'm feeling/seeing for myself right now, especially composition and that lack of control in my values. I recently read a few of gurney's books and the shapewelding hit me over the head. Is that what I missed by not going to art school? For the past year I was trying to silhouette everything rather than just the focal point. I agree on the poses too, but my process is actually what you suggested - it all comes from simple shapes and gesture lines, I take reference, adjust the basic sketch for the new gestures and lines of action and then re-sketch in detail before colours. Still things feel stiff. I'm not sure if that's me following my ref too closely or deviating too far when my posing skills are still poo.

[crisimikiwiki]

Stunning stunning work. Breathtakingly beautiful.