Jaik Art Sketchbook - Beginnings

[Jaik]

1 Hogarth and more work on my mates tattoo.. Couldnt take a picture of the sculpture because its raining and I cant get a good pic...

I think this marks the beginning of my 6th page, when I look at other people on 6 pages they have improved so much more than I have.. Maybe I should focus more on quality instead of quantity.. gah..

[IntoTheVoid]

I think this marks the beginning of my 6th page, when I look at other people on 6 pages they have improved so much more than I have.. Maybe I should focus more on quality instead of quantity.. gah..

I think that has more to do with frequency of posting than quality or quantity. Instead of comparing to other people on page six, compare to other people who started 4 months ago
And besides, you can see for yourself the progress you've made since page one. Some people find it hard to see their own progress. If you're having that problem, try redrawing one of your old COWs. That's a pretty reliable method.

About the tattoo design:
The clothing design is good. It fits the style and brings in a lot of design elements that work fairly well together.

For some reason I thought from the thumbnails they were going to be facing backwards, which I actually liked better. That's just on a whim though. But right now they're both standing in a neutral pose and staring blankly forward, which just doesn't convey much energy.
If you're going for a "family photo" kind of feel, I think maybe both of them looking at the same spot would work better.

The umbrella is touching the tip of the hat; the cane is touching the tip of the shoe. Those things create tangents which flatten the image and create tension in the flow. I suggest either moving them, or making the overlap a lot more obvious.
The hands on both figures are distractingly tiny.
The man's feet are lower than the woman's - they should be on the same ground plane, right?

Coming along nicely all in all

[Jaik]

IntoTheVoid Thanks for the crit man, I fixed a lot of the flaws you mentioned especially the hands.. you were right lol they were very small. But for the other stuff, it is basically just what he wanted, not how I think it should go, but I think its coming along aright.
Also thanks for the confidence boost, I didnt look at it that way

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Started comping some bloodsports, first time I've thought of entering. Also an update of the tattoo.

[eclip-se]

It develops nicely, gogo!

[Jaik]

Hehe thanks eclip-se

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Okay so today first up is perspective, working through successful drawing then some free hand buildings.

And then some anatomy, using gesture drawing sites to copy just the legs, if anyone can read my writing: any of the muscles which have a ? next to them I need help with. I am not sure if they are right or what muscle makes the bump, especially on the one marked with A, B and C. Thanks for help for anyone who tries, sorry about handwriting

[Lyraina]

Aah, what a nice sketchbook, it is nice to see you continue working so hard on your skill. As opposed to some of the advice you got
earlier, I would definitely encourage continuing "boring" studies, even if they are not 100% fun all the time - one first has to gain
some knowledge before being able to draw something well.. this does not come from just making stuff up. Also, it is good to leave
one's comfort zone now and then. Just wanted to have said that, and give you a small heads up about your continued efford!

I absolutely love your latest perspective work by the way - I did all those perspective exercises from Loomis as well as
"perspective made easy", and still can't really translate the knowledge to real world problems Nice to see that it indeed
is possible, makes me want to try even harder now!

I can relate to that "U, page xyz, I should be better by now", but you definitely made progress! Just remember not only to copy the
anatomy stuff, but also repeat it from mind now and then to check if it stuck with you. (I myself found it helpful to not even scan
those sheets, makes me less afraid of mistakes, so I can concentrate more on remembering stuff instead of making it look pretty).

I like you environment (value) studies - you seem to be aware of the "the further away, the lighter and less contrast due to
atmosphere" stuff, but maybe you could push it a bit further in some of your concepts. Just look at some painting from
masters like Bierstadt for example and you'll see what I mean.
http://vintageprintable.com/wordpres...-Bierstadt.jpg

About skintones: I hate them too But would love to be able to paint them better, still working on that though. Maybe try
adding some more non-skintone-colors to your faces, like red/pinks where the skin is well supplied with blood (the nose tip
for example), and cooler tones like blue, yellow or green on other parts, best do some research on that, so you know what
to look for in your references (also depends on the surroundings and light source of course). By the way, I found doing
master studies to work better for practicing skintones, because photos eat up so much of the subtle color shifts...

Now, that was a lot of critque and stuff, but I feel we have a very similar way to approach things and also struggle with
very similar problems. So I felt like sharing some thoughts, or things I discovered so far... but please take everything
with a grain of salt, as I am still very lost on my journey to art, and do not have any mento, so those are just my
amateurish opinions.

Keep up the great studies!

[Jaik]

Lyraina Wow, thank you for all of that, I had to look twice, thought I was looking at someone elses sketchbook, didnt expect such a detailed comment out of the blue like that, thank you Everything you say rings true, its the boring stuff that makes the interesting stuff more.. well, interesting...

Ive only just realised that I havent really been applying my anatomy studies at all, which is why I started using the gesture drawing tool to pick out muscles etc.. But I may try your way too, as it makes a lot of sense.

I love that picture too, it really shows atmospheric perspective in a very exaggerated way and it looks good and right.. I may try to emulate that in a later piece.

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Sooooo I coloured that house quickly in Photoshop, was fun, didnt take long, maybe an hour?

Then I did some crappy still like, about 40min, cept the chalice was really grimey so it didnt turn out right.. especially the top.. need to practice elipses again...

2 speed enviros, 20min each

1.5hr enviro from my head

and 2 20min quickies.

[IntoTheVoid]

Really digging those buildings - nice! Sweet creature sketches too
In your anatomy sketches, watch out for the feet. In about half of these the feet are way too small. It may sound counter-intuitive, but a human foot is nearly as long as a human forearm.

Something that's really good about your enviros is that they're easily recognizable even without the reference picture. Unfortunately not as much with the one from imagination; I'm not sure what's going on in that one. Is it a cave? All I know is there might be a hoverbot inside
Nice work all around

[Jaik]

IntoTheVoid Yeah, i figured feet were an issue, Im not good at drawing feet in perspective so when they arent flat on the are always too small.. gotta practice more >.<
I agree with the imagination enviros, it was meant too be a cave with some sort of robot, I think I made all the values too dark. Better luck next time i guess :3

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Worked through successful drawing some, and then failed at another portrait

[alti]

Dude you are levelling up every day.
Keep pushing ahead, keep doing what you're doing.
-alex

[IntoTheVoid]

Worked through successful drawing some, and then failed at another portrait

Dude, I'd hardly call that a failure. As a value study it works very well. Everything reads as being in the right place and at the correct range, with maybe just a couple shadows missing from the lit side of her face (just because it's lit doesn't mean the protruding forms won't cast shadows).

Just for curiosity's sake, I superimposed your study onto the original to check the lines and they are pretty much all spot on! I tried a super-quick paintover with the corrections to get this:

Not sure why you're using a hard brush for something as soft as a human face, but if it's for practice then you should really limit yourself to no more than 5 values. I can see nine different values on the chin alone! You could have represented it with 2 or 3 if you wanted. 9 is overkill.

Anyway I avoided changing the mouth too much because it had a lot of detail in it already, but two things that I think made a difference were:
1) replaced the individual strands of hair with a solid mass of hair.
2) added a bit more life to the eyes. This only clicked for me as I was doing this, but remember that the pupil is an actual physical hole. The specular highlight on top of it would fit like it would over a transparent bubble protecting the pupil, rather than a flat spot of white on a flat spot of black.

Hope this helps! Cheers

[Hunin]

the buildings in perspective you drew are impressive, there is definitively improvement here from the first page, don't beat yourself up!

Maybe practice from real life object more, not just from books and from photos. draw what you enjoy drawing/ what you're interested in

[Jaik]

Thanks for visiting Alex and for the support.

IntoTheVoid: Thanks for the paint over man! I didnt see any of those mistakes, Ill take your advice and try a more limited value range for value studies.. And I am sad to say that the hair WAS my attempt at making it big shapes >.> lol. I'm also glad you could get more life into the eyes, I struggle with that and making her eyes look like they are focusing and not staring or looking in different directions lol.

Hunin Thanks, the buildings look like buildings so I cant complain there and thanks for the support Ill try drawing more from life but I have no knick knacks (we move around a lot so I tend to throw non-essentials) so I struggle to find things to draw D: setting up an interesting still life is harder than I first thought lol

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Sorry for the late update, was at the first day of my life drawing class yesterday Which I forgot my sketchpad at a mates house so I cant show any of that but they were just 1 and 3 min gestures. Drawing from a live model is awesome, cant wait for next weeks but I do have some sketches I did on the train down so I'll try and find my sketchbook a bit later.

From the day prior I have leg gestures, because I realised I wasnt applying what I learnt in my anatomy studies, and an enviro from head, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially since I started colour again, it didnt flop like my other ones, still not great though...

[IntoTheVoid]

And I am sad to say that the hair WAS my attempt at making it big shapes >.> lol.

Lol, no no, I did notice that and it was an improvement It's just that there were still very strong lines, much thicker than any strand of hair could be, so I felt getting rid of those would be a good idea

I love the warm palette on the enviro, and also the leafy textures. Are those custom brushes?
Looks great so far. Only crit I can think of is the large leaves in the righthand corner: right now they're competing for attention with the vine. It's making it harder to tell which is closer. Maybe making them darker and more blurry will help focus the eye better. Nice going

[Jaik]

IntoTheVoid: Yeah I definitely see what you mean with the leaves. And yes it is a custom brush, I made it myself though its not very good because its just a random shape >.> but it got the job done.

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Okay today has the sketches from the train the other day, still dont have my sketchpad i used for class but I tried to apply what I learnt in some 1min gesture drawings, its focuses on the 2D shape rather than line quality etc, so its a step backwards line quality wise, and i need to learn to use a lighter touch and not draw like im an ogre on steroids.
Then I did some lower body muscle studies, about 5min each from my head which is tough lol, and some knees from bammes, I did all but the first one from memory and then corrected and slowly learnt it.
Oh and a speedy, about 45min, ill try and add some more details to it though, i need help with the perspective and how to work out how to place the castle in the foreground if anyone can help.

[Jaik]

Okay, worked 10 more min on the enviro and got bored, values are once again too light and perspective is off.
Started painting. New thing for me, doing my version of the temple of time from LoZoT because that game practically was my childhood. It looks warmer than it is because the light globe is very warm and it was still dark when I took the picture. I did try a yellow under-painting too, so hat wouldnt help, its meant to look like light is streaming in the windows (still havent painted that part in though, noooo idea what I am doing.
Practised ellipses and lines, i do this often, but havent shown it. I havent done the line exercise in the last couple of weeks and I noticed an improvement, so I thought I'de upload. Did some boxes freehand in 1 point perspective too, this was a PITA, took ages.

[Koh]

Glad to see you studying perspective, and your legs are looking fancy.

Keep it up, buddy.

[Hayden Zammit]

I smiled when I saw that temple of time painting. Playing through that game again at the moment haha.

[IntoTheVoid]

And yes it is a custom brush, I made it myself though its not very good because its just a random shape >.> but it got the job done.

Wow, neat! All the custom brushes I made are the boring but functional kind. Nothing I can really use for nice textures.
But man, you're getting really good at picking out good values for enviros. I'm impressed.

Okay, so now that I've participated in exactly one EOW, I'm obviously enough of a big shot that I can give others environment advice
Well, no, obviously I'm not, but I think I spotted something useful:
You want to figure out ahead of time how tall everything is meant to be. That plateau on the left side, assuming it is level, if the highest point of the plateu at the furthers point away from you is higher than the horizon, then the highest point closest to you will also be higher than the horizon. The same is true vice versa: if it's lower than the horizon close to you, then it will be lower than the horizon furthest from you.

A horizon is the viewer's eye level, so anything that's taller than that - there's no way you'd see its top side. Completely impossible.

Redline in case the above made no sense:


In any case I really like that little mountain range; very charming

[Jaik]

Koh: Thank you very much

Hayden: Best game lol, hope my rendition can do it some justice.

IntoTheVoid:
Hahaha the firs thing that came to mind when you worded it like this:

Okay, so now that I've participated in exactly one EOW, I'm obviously enough of a big shot that I can give others environment advice

was:


Just because of the way you worded it, the advice however, I really appreciate, it never thought of using mountains to find the vanishing point, the river seems to of almost followed that perspective too, which I guess is a positive lol.

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today we have:
Perspective (boring), anatomy (foot fetish ftl), and a face from my head. Tried doing greyscale first then changing to colour, it seemed to work somewhat alright.. better than starting off in straight colour, though that eventually will be the goal.

[Jaik]

Moar feet, facial features.
Not alot, my friend came back from america after 15months and i had no idea, so spent most of the day with him

[Jaik]

Not much today

[Lyraina]

I see progress!
How do you manage not to get confused when constructing that perspective stuff...
I also like that last environment, especially the rocks
Keep it up!

[Jaik]

Hehe, thanks Lyriana, and the answer to how not to get confused with perspective lines is simple. I do get confused.. very, very very confused...

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Not alot, have had a disorganised and busy last couple of days, but class yesterday was awesome, even if i was hung over...

[Jaik]

This is all for today, got a bunch of stuff I cant be bothered scanning, may scan it later.
Trying to practice facial features, so that I dont have to think about it so much and just concentrate on placing them on the head.

[Jaik]

Finished my eye sheet and practised seeing the cranial mass through hair, something I seem to struggle with for some reason..

[IntoTheVoid]

Whoa, eye studies look great! I'd be careful if I were you though; maybe it's just me, but I find practicing individual parts to be less helpful than practicing the whole. Cause, you know, there's tons of variation and the way parts connect to and interact with each other is what makes them look right. But yeah, maybe it's just me.

By the way, you really nailed the hair on that last study. Seriously, nicely done. The long cat pupils are making her look kinda scary, but looks pretty solid otherwise.

[Jaik]

IntoTheVoid Thanks but yeah, I really just studied them to try and work out how they work form wise, and how they sit on the face because I was really struggling with that. Turns out the next page of Hogarth did it anyway, but its good to know the conclusions I came to were right.
thanks in regards to the hair, I was constantly thinking what you said about hair and it turned out okay, so thanks for the advice a while ago too

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Destroyed my sculpture yesterday, the proportions were off and I dont have the money to get it fired, but I took a pic of it to record my first ever attempt with clay.

Did some Hogarth, Perspective drawing of Goldenstein Castle and another self portrait, came out better than the last one, so I guess it means I'm improving, right? RIGHT?!

[Steeliebob]

I see quite some improvement here man ! great work.

[Jaik]

Thanks Steeliebob! Thats good to know Glad I'm not going round in circles

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I Fixed my monitor! Slightly... turns out my HDMI powered monitor showed blacks WAYYYYYY too black, I havent calibrated it, but its loads better than what it was before..

Anyway, onto work.. Eviro from head (~1.5hrs), Enviro from reff (~3hrs, was meant to be 20min >.> I got carried away and it looks nothing like the ref) and a face of Jaqen H'ghar who is my new fav character on GOT, hopefully finish that soon.

Thanks for viewing.