Jaik Art Sketchbook - Beginnings

[MrFrenik]

Good stuff, man. I have a few quick things that I'd suggest to push you along further. Take some time and study perspective until you can't help but use it correctly. At the very least it'll correct a lot of proportional and viewing errors that are occurring in your work. But what it should also help with is your rendering, as your values need to be pushed much more in certain areas to help with your read. You've definitely got the right approach with studying all the things you're studying, but focusing it a bit will benefit you the greatest right now.

[Joe777k7]

Here is my response to your comment in my sketchbook!!! "Hey thanks!! Its a Canson Earthbound Sketchbook. I got mine from a barns and nobles lol i about to order some of these Strathmore Tan and gray paper sketchbook. Only sucky part is they only have 50 pages but if i fill 50 pages i should feel proud so worth buying i suppose"

But hey on to your recent post!!!! Loving the renderings man!! Not much to comment on there, i would say follow some more of Mr Freniks cool advice and also, the girls face on the character design needs some work. I would hit up those face books by loomis. Those are so awesome to study from!! Keep up the awesome work man!!! Always to see what cool stuff you do Cant wait to see more!!!

[Joe777k7]

Hey!! Where are you!!!! lol

[Chilingo]

hey great effort on the studies but one thing though. When you see a shape/object that has smooth surfase. Render it with a smooth brush. always make the brush adapted to the texture. and don't rush it

[Lyraina]

Jaaaik, where are you? The bronze study is cool. And the shoe. Your own shoe from life I guess?

Don't be mad if something does not work out the way you'd like to... always try to ask yourself "why does it not look good and how do other people treat silmilar subjects?"
If you struggle with values, maybe work in black and white first? Or turn your image to black and white sometimes to check the values.

By the way, the face of your character design looks awesome! +1 rendering and portrait skill!

And now come back and update! (Please?)

[Jaik]

Joe and Lyraina: Aww thanks guys! Didnt realise my absence would be so noticed. All smiley now

MrFrenik: Thanks for the advice, I think I know exactly what you mean. Will work towards more focused studies. Thanks!

Joe: Thanks for the positive comments as always. I completely agree, satisfaction of filling a sketchbook is well worth it, and toned always makes things look cooler (dont know why)

Chillingo: Thanks man! Rushing is a common problem these days. Good to see you around on CA.org too!

Lyraina: Yes, its my usual hit-the-town on a Friday night shoes.. If you like the shoe, you should see the dress
The problem I kept having was that even turning to black and white I could see that the values were wrong but didn't know how they were wrong.. Kinda hard to explain, but I think I will studdy more black and white images, see if that helps.


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Focuses this week:

Relaxing


Hello all, been a while, I haven't done much work over the last 2 weeks, in fact I took this last week off completely (it took me 3 days to consciously stop myself drawing every chance I got) so there isn't much art in this update.

I did however, get the internship I mentioned in previous posts, so I have been working at that after my day job a few days a week (its only 5min away from my work which makes things so much easier). See how it all plays out.

This week I plan on getting back in to rigorous study though, since I have no need to continue working on my portfolio for the foreseeable future. I will probably start with anatomy as that has, as always been a common crit.

While on the topic of rigorous study, I made note while I was taking some time to recharge of something someone said and that is that people talk a lot about how many hours you need to put in to become good at something, it is a lot... A LOT. But these hours have to be deliberate hours, they are meant to be uncomfortable, that is how you know you are learning. If, after a study session, your brain doesn't feel like pudding chances are you are doing it wrong and sticking too far in to your comfort zone. I feel as though I have been doing that far too much lately and if I try and find that area where my stomach feels like lead and every move I make has equal chances of success and failure. That is where, I believe, the biggest gains in improvement to be found. Doodling mindlessly on a piece of paper isn't going to improve your art. Let's see how it goes. See you in a week.

- Jaik

Serge Master study, undetermined mount of hours, I just finished it off to this level because it was sitting in my WIP folder for too long.



Decided to do a valentines day drawing for facebook. As you can guess, I prefer to spend it alone lol.



Finishing touches on this.. Not a lot changed.

[eclip-se]

Glad you'r back in the game patience & discipline, your enviroments looks better! Me, tried one and it's hard as hell it's different from painting face or body, feeling pretty confused with them.

[Jaik]

Thanks eclipse! Yeah enviro's definitely require a different kind of thinking than anatomical and figurative based art. But you'll get there!!

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Focuses this week:

Anatomy


I definitely struggled to get back in to everything, it is amazing how much your skills degrade over a period even as short as a week. Again I struggled with proportions but during my struggles something a life drawing instructor told me, which was a quote from a famous French figure drawer (who I have gone ahead and forgotten the name of) is that when asked how does he get his proportions right replied with "I am never certain of my proportions". It only occurred to me this week that all this practice just helps to see when the proportions are wrong, not so that you instantly get proportions right. I'm also updating kind of late, and there isn't much, mostly because I've been busy and spent most of my time working on one piece that I would rather finish before posting. I'm trying to increase my patience with pieces of art as I never put more than about 3hrs in to a piece.

As an interesting (for me atleast) note, I signed my first NDA this past week, proud moment for me... I know it's stupid, but it's the little things.

Warmups lol


I decided to scan a bunch of pages from my sketchbook, as I couldnt be bothered finding all my traditional stuff, so most of this stuff is rather old.



And this is my workspace :3 I needed to take a picture for a diff reason and I thought I'de include it because I enjoy seeing other peoples workspaces


[Cyberman]

Great study on post 339, and liking your industrial stuff too, keep at it!

[MrFrenik]

Something that might help your figures and most construction drawing is to get away from round surfaces and focus on planar instead. Being able to break a subject into manageable planes not only allows for easier drawing but also, when it comes time to render, knowing where you form's planes turn is quite helpful.

[Joe777k7]

Ah man three monitors set up! I LIKE THAT!!!! I really wanna have three monitors one day. Do you just have two grahpics cards and use three out of the four plug-ins? Great work though man!! Im happy to see some updates again from you!!

[Jaik]

Thanks guys!

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Focuses this week:

Environments



I have decided to put up the WIP of the environment I was working on for the last two weeks, it's taking longer than I thought it would but I am rather happy with it as it stands, still needs another few hours of polish. I would love to get your opinions on it. It may look like there is not a lot this week, but there's some traditional stuff I just don't have the time to scan (getting back in to the Scott Robertson style vehicles for a bit).

I once again spent a while trying to work out how to continue improving. I have come to a couple of conclusions, first and foremost that I spend way too much time thinking about these sorts of things, and that I need to have tangible goals. 'Being good at art (or mechs, or characters, environments etc.)', or 'Becoming a Concept artist' are not tangible goals. So I have searched for artists, who's style I like on certain subject matters and printed them out and hung them up. Now when I wonder whether I should do something, all I have to ask is what do I do to get closer to that. A by product of this is that I think I will invest in the Gnomon subscription, since I only have one DVD of theirs I feel as though it is a worthwhile expenditure.

Sketcheroo



Enviro thats taking ages.



Character WIP



Late night mind vomit, working on form.



Enviro Quickies, about 15min each

[MrFrenik]

Aww, sad robot. And cool thumbs and environment wip. You've got some good atmospheric perspective started, however the values could be pushed further for better read.

[Jaik]

Thanks Mr Frenik! Ill give pushing the values a shot this week

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This weeks focus:

Life drawing
Visual Library building
Value


Bit late because of internet issues..

Hello all, work as usual this week. Put a gaping hole right through the heart of my bank account by purchasing a years subscription to Gnomon. Which I now know was 312 vids all ranging between 2-4 hours long, and I intend to get through a large portion of these, and learn 3D, whether that be zbrush or maya or what ever I am unsure, but definitely going to give it a shot for this next year. I started watching the Scott Roberston Matte painting DVD's and I have to say, I cannot recommend these enough, they are great for value and form recognition.

Went to a Life drawing session this week too, after being out of it for almost 6 months it was really fun to get back in to it. I will try and attend these weekly from now on.

I am also now doing a 'Visual Library Building' topic each week, choosing a topic and doing a few studies and sketches. It is important to build as wide a range of subject matter in your own visual library as possible, it allows for quick sketching since you don't have to look up reference for all but the most advanced and polished drawings, and I also find it helpful when trying to come up with things from imagination, since piecing together two or more concepts can make way for really quick iterations of the same idea, and variety is the spice of life.

Legs from photo ref


Visual Library Building - Asian tower things


Value Boxes


More VL building, had another page but it didnt come out well on the scan.


Life drawing, getting back in to it


[ANtY93]

Nice sketchbook, your environment art is veeery good, characters could use some work to achieve the same level, but it'll come with practice I'm sure.

Keep it up!

[Jaik]

ANty: Yeah I'll be working on them next I think, get them up to the same standard as my enviros, then its mechs, creatures.. and the cycle repeats lol. Thanks for stopping by!

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Focuses this week:

Environments
Bloodsports (failure)
3D Work
Wolves


Productive week for me, I feel like I did a fair bit, most of which is planning, learning and 3D stuff so not much to show for those as yet. But maybe next week I'll have finished the 3D model I am working on. Not much to write about this week. One thing though that I can recommend to people is the three Scott Robertson Matte shading technique videos. They are fantastic, really helped me get my values in order, just need to practice more and I should see a vast improvment. Also, for those interested I greatly recommend Art by Papercut's free magazine Vertex. The first issue is out now and it's a really good read, working my way through it in my spare-spare time. You can find their facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/artbypapercut


Oh and my visual library building topic for this week was canines, which just ended up being wolves >.>

10min study of a panther for bloodsports


1hr screen cap study from Kingdom of Heaven


Daily warmups, between 30min - 1hr


Warmups


Value cylinder, need to do more of these


Life drawing, hard to see sorry, scanner isnt very good with A3 >.>


Visual library building Canines (dodgy mobile pic)



Finished enviro, might tweak a bit here and there but all together pretty happy.


[Jaik]

Not really weekly anymore, it's been a while. I will get back into weekly though, life's just gotten really busy week after week. Trying to juggle going in to a studio internship, working a paying job, a commission, bloodsports challenge, a computer dying and having to be rebuild from the ground up and then getting sick. There wasn't much time for updating. Not that those are excuses.

This isn't all I have been doing, I've forgotten where I've saved/what I've done in the past few weeks, so its really only the most recent stuff. This has prompted me to put all my work that I want to show into a 'quarantine' folder until it is uploaded, then sort it into my other folders. See if that works.

Just talking about what I've done recently, and my usual 'think too much, do too little' routine which I am trying to get out of, I have printed off some artworks from artists in various fields which I am aiming to be like/get to that level of quality. This sort of serves as a moodboard and every time I am not sure what to do next I look at it and think 'What do I need to do to get closer to this' then I just do it, it might not be the most efficient path to the mountaintop but going in any direction is better than standing still. On these lines, I looked at some concept art and it occurred to me that these people have done hundreds of thousands of figure studies to get the anatomy down, as well as studies, so gestures, figure drawings are incredibly important and until I do that mileage I will never be able to make poses up from my head. So that what I am working on now, is just doing anatomy studies, then I will go back to trying some personal work. It's boring but still fun.

My bloodsports 15 entry, I think it would have been much stronger if I added a background, plus some anatomy is off.



Progress gif n.n


Bunch of studies:

Beetle study - 1hr


Frog skin study ~1hr


Sea shells, 1hr


Iguana skin


Lion study



Warmups all between 30min to an hour





[Jaik]

This week I am going to focus on the importance of Visual Library building, which I think I have mentioned before, but because I have just started a group on Crimson Daggers for weekly Visual Library exercises I thought it would be a good topic to talk about.

As designers, all of the ideas we come up with are just amalgamations of memories. We combine a fish with a rock, or a bulldozer with a rock, or a rock with another rock to come up with a design. And the only way to replace the rock with something more interesting is to have a larger library of shapes, objects, animals.... rocks... So to do this, we do studies, except instead of the point of the study to be getting it to look realistic, the point of the study is to absorb as many visual ques from the thing we are studying, so the study can be done purely in lines, tones, it can even just be a list of notes. So long as you are actively thinking about what makes a dog look like a dog and not a cat, or a rock...

So, to increase my visual library every week I pick a topic and do some sketches, notes, anatomical studies etc to add it to my visual library. I have been slack the past couple of weeks, as it seemed to be lower on the list than other things so it got pushed off, which is why I created the thread on Crimson daggers, to force me to rotate my study weekly and to keep it going. I figure if other people count on me then I am more likely to do it, and if no one else joins, it wont matter because I will be doing it every week and posting in the thread so I don't look like a jackass with another failed idea.

The last visual library exercise I did was for Canines, didn't really do a too good a job of it so I think I'll try it again some time.

Also I finished up my commission so I should have that to show after this weekend

Figure Drawings, trying to increase my memory and attempt an exaggerated style on one.. Didn't turn out so well..



Skin colour, made up the lighting and skin colour, not a fan. Need to study more portraits.



Warmup Cloud practice



Left is from photo, right is trying to turn it in my head. Really challenging and fun. Will do this again.



WIP. Learning ways to add tattoo's to a drawing.


Visual Library fail.

[Jaik]

Hey all,

Spent a lot of time this weeks on Suzanne's portrait class, having a lot of fun. Hoping to catch up soon! Also saw a post by Mr Negrea on facebook, showing improvement from consistent drawing of 1minute gestures. I myself haven't gotten up to an hour a day, but I generally do about 40 a day when I am at home working. So I think this may be 160 or something. Lost count. But they were all from www.quickposes.com. 20minute challenges are great. You can do anything for 20minutes.

Also did my visual library building of Felidae, which was fun.

60 Second gestures. I need to keep them all the same size =/



Felidae Visual Library 1



Felidae Visual Library 2



Thumbnails for an enviro I want to do.





Assignment 2 of Suzannes Class



Bonus of assignment 2



Warmups in the morning.



Assignment 3 of Suzannes class



Bonus for assignment 3

[eclip-se]

Hey jaik, great progress from last time i visited, doing gestures will help you alot, i also recommend perspective, once you start feel the form more accurately you will progress faster. If you can, buy skull and draw it from life, it will help you alot. Keep drawing and have fun.

[Lyraina]

So many big updates from you, it's good to see you keep working hard, even with your job, internship etc going on.
The tatoo girl is looking cool!
I love the enviro thumbnails in #379 (as far as I can see them^^), they do look quite professional and also some interesting compositions and ideas!
For the anatomy - it's good you keep doing those on a regular basis. Maybe also experiment a bit with different principles (like the line of action I see you using) or approaches. For example exaggerating "pure vs. impure" lines of the body: http://babelab.blogspot.de/2013/01/pure-vs-impure.html

All those head/portrait studies - man, I need to do some more too...

Keep it up