Tuesday, March 6, 2012

New Lessons




Just picked up the new FX magazine. It's as good as the last one. James Gurney is in it, again. This time with lessons from Howard Pyle. Dan Dos Santos has a great composition article, too. This image, along with the two preliminary images, are studies I finished right after reading the two features.

8 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. This is a really nice sketch, Justin!
    I love the shapes you've created and the way they intertwine. I also like the twist in his neck, which adds a bit of added tension. The light effects from the eye are really nicely handled.

    Only two reservations: the arms end a bit abruptly and begin to resemble cut-off stubs. And the wings are a bit hard to figure out (they are similar in color to the background, so it's hard to see if they are even there under his pits.)

    I'm not sure what kind of effect you are going for, but you may at some point, go for a bit more expression on your creatures, perhaps with a lower eyelid or a thin slit of an eye or something. Not necessarily Disney-like, but even animals in the real world have expressive faces. Since the composition is relatively simple, you may also want to finesse and elaborate on the scale patterns and the way they accentuate the turning forms of the body.

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  3. I wish it didn't SAY that someone deleted a comment. Cause then I'm just super curious about it :P Thanks, man. I appreciate the feedback. Yeah, this is just a simple thing. I wanted to show it to give an example of what I was up to. I'm actually starting other work on new covers. I'd like to revisit this soon and use it for a cover, too.I always appreciate the feedback, Chuck. There is LOTS more work to do on this image. And, like the other images I post here, they always turn out less saturated when I upload them. Only here, though. I don't get it... I usually correct the images specifically for this site.

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  4. Reposted the dragon as it should be,. It's not much darker, but it's enough to get a feel for the darks and lights.

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  5. It is cool when one gets inspired. Imagine FX is a great magazine.

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    1. Agreed, Christina. Although, it's really hit or miss for me. They have so much bad art in there all the time. But, then you have the last couple issues which featured James Gurney, Howe, Pyle, and Dos Santos... Whatchya gonna do? :P This last one, though, was so awesome. I am thinking about my compositions in a whole new way. It's so great.

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  6. I've also noticed that my images look different on Blogger. Weird.

    And I agree about the deleted-post notice —strange feature.
    Not too worry though. I just deleted a few expletives and some name-calling that I thought wasn't entirely necessary.

    Haha, just kidding. Actually, I corrected one typo. (I try to be a stickler about grammar.)

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