Blog has Moved!

If anyone still visits this blog, you can find my work on Tumblr these days, at:

http://juri0juli.tumblr.com/

still posting loads, just like the connectivity to other social media a little bit better there!

Some Drama and Tidbits!

I'm still really happy with my owl chef. He needs some emotional poses though. Here was one!

 

Half an hour sketch of an old character I did for my 2013 portfolio. I think he looks much more flowing and dynamic. Forgot to add some hair to his thighs and chest though though! Creeped out much?

This was him in my 2013 portfolio. Stiffy stiffy...

New Character exploration for the Character Design Challenge on facebook. Artemis is one of my favorite Olympian Gods, partly because of her tomboyish nature. But for some reason, I've decided on miss sultry on the left. Want to keep this design really simple so I can practice some action poses.

Believe it or not, I've spent the week miserably failing and working solely on environments, but have come up with absolutely piss poor work. I was going to try and just push through it, but it was getting depressing, so i decided to take a break and work on my "acting" and movement instead.

 

Life Drawings - October

1 minute. tried to limit number of line and just follow the expansive feeling of the pose

Been working mostly on a character design this week, so only life drawings to post from this week. (well, last few weeks to be honest). Slooowly getting back on track. Somehow life drawing feels EXACTLY like exercise. You do it every day, you get comfortable and good. You stop for a few weeks and binge on Hagen Daaz and it's all gone. 

pushing forms, less anatomy here for sure..

been studying lots of pec muscles lately...the mysterious lift of the arm has been dispelled!

Was really happy where this one was going, but lost my patience after the ten minute beep.

the most complete 5 minute I've had in a loong while...

this one is probably from september or so..

Sketchdump!

Randoramma...

Working on a few fowl characters lately, doing some studies (get my pun?)

Various things from Denmark

Working on a Heron Character, they are quite fun to draw! But damn that proportion defying beak!

Some kozak sketches from one of my favourite movies as a kid "With Fire And Sword". I still have feels for the bad guy...poor thing.

more random sketches. got my hands on some new copic-wannabe markers (welcome to China) and figuring out how they blend and what color palette I can use.

The Coolest Guy on Earth

Various China Things

Hello! Been a while since my last post! Lately been working hard trying to keep both my comic updates regular, restarting my anatomy + life drawing knowledge and working tirelessly on character design for a new portfolio! This one will be much more strict in the requirements and I'm finding it a bit intimidating trying to make pieces specifically for it...: / Still have a few months to pump out something portfolio worthy, so I will start doing my weekly updates once again!

Detective time!

I'm not one for final renders done in Photoshop but....here's a few hours of work

This character proved to be a bit of a challenge. I initially drew some big nosed, underfed man heads, but it seemed a bit too overdone. I wanted to try a weird character design that would have to be worked to fit the role of a private eye.  I decided to go for a more sweet, clunky looking type of girl.

The chiseled girl on the right was my first idea, and I might still try my hand at designing her. Was referencing a lot of 30s hairdos. Decided to go with unmanageable hair that is still trying to imitate the popular style but obviously failing. The middle was my chosen design. 

her hatless hair proved to be a difficulty to draw and I still don't think I quite got it right.

I did about 9 pages of body drawings trying to find the right figure for her. For the longest time was trying this figure with thin legs, but she looks like she was going to collapse I quite like the quaint feet. : )

The Epic Owl Masterchef

Final Copy - Watercolor and quick bg in Photoshop

New Character Design challenge Character! Woot!  A Masterchef, who I based off of an old owl concept, back from college. Here is all my not so shitty process work (there is another mountain that will not see the light of day). Hope you enjoy!

 

Decided to take some photos as I painted. I don't really set the colors in right away like I did here but I'm happy with the result. : )

Testing out different body types

The first thing I usually work on are heads. I asked my very supportive better half's opinion and it took many takes to come p with a design that wasn't "generic"! Bottom right won!

This was the original design I settled on, but decided to make the face a bit more expressive and turn up the eyebrows.

The full body design of the head rotations above. Happy with the body shape but the head needed work.

Charatcer Design Stuff!

 Decided to try out the Character Design Challange on Facebook this week after following it for a few months. I think its just plain good practice to challange yourelf to get out of your comfort zone and draw types of characters you don't usually do. I didn't want to go too crazy and drop too much time into this, so the final piece is pretty simple. Also my internet was down all weekend and tryng out epic poses with a broom proved to be useless in coming up with something creative. Anyways, I'm happy to be back to using my Copics again! I even found a shop in Guangzhou that was getting rid of old inks, for like 4 bucks! I stocked up well....: D

Anywho..here is some of the concept work leading up to him!

Started with noses and eyes..I always seem to start with the nose..

Used a lot of homeless guys as facial references. Some preliminary sketches. Originally wanted to go for a techy old guy, but that wasn't coming along at all.

Liked how his cheekbones lead straight to his nose. I like jagged, mostly symmetrical things...Decided to go for a middle aged tough guy instead.

Tried a couple of body builds. I was pretty sure I wanted a bulky guy, but wasn't sure how his shoulders should play out. He looked too perky and tarzan-y in the first sketch, but more worn out in the second, so I went with that.

Front and side views. His nose is weird to turn...kind of makes me want to model him in 3D.

Decided he looked too mean. No man is a real man without a soft side. One of my students was really keen on small fluffy dogs and we spent a class talking about poms. I tried drawing the miniature one, but didn't even know where to start. Its just a ball with 3 circles..decided this little guy was cuter.

Put it all together, and gave him a backpack. I did actually do some fancier drawings of the backpack but got too lazy to clean it up.