The Art of Jakkal

This is an art journal.

Please do not friend this journal if you do not like to see several large images that are not hidden behind a cut. I know it's rather rude of me to do so, but I often look back at my pics to see my progression on my work, and what I've been working on. This is a lot easier for me to do if it's not behind a cut. And please don't ask me to put my pics behind a cut, because I don't intend to. I made this art journal so I could make my regular journal, jakkal free of huge posts with several large pics on them.

Thank you.

Yep, I started another painting. This is mostly a study to help me with shading on the human form, lighting, and stuff like that. I don't expect much to come from it, but I do have some ideas for a 'finished' version (Which will mean scrapping everything that I post here.)

As as a note, I will not be putting these pics behind a cut. I know these are large pics, but what do you expect from an art journal? It helps me review my progress if I can see my pics on my main page without clicking every little cut.

The lineart here was mostly focused on the faces, especially Endymion's. As it went out from there, the lineart got really sloppy to nearly nonexistant. I'll probably chop this piece so it's upper body only.


Darker shades around the faces. I might try the hair next, because the blankness of the hair is throwing me off.

And now the final pics! When last we left our intrepid couple, they were still... kissing... and holding... and well, obviously they didn't change.

But omg, a tree just sneaked up on them! Run Gaelins! It's a peeping tree!



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP50FS.jpg

Clearly I have gone insane from working on this pic for so long. But the show must go on! The tree needs DETAILS!




FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP51FS.jpg

Then it needs LEAVES. I used a custom brush for the leaves, it does a good random splody effect with them.



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP52FS.jpg

Did some more detail work to the tree, but I decided I didn't want to stare at the leaves, and so I put in some happy clouds. .. Then I went back to the leaves.



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP53FS.jpg

TREETAILS! ... Get it... Trees... Details... Meh.



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP54FS.jpg

And finally, after doing some touchups, changing Endy's pants leg to blue, redoing the shadow, and more touchups... it's done!

Yes, I see the flaws. But after two months of working on it, I was frankly, just tired of working on it. I wanted it done.



The FS version is here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/MotionlessFin.jpg

And that's it. And here's the dA embeded pic


Motionless by ~Drakkolupen on deviantART

And now, more fun with backgrounds!

So I did more with the rocks, and I added a temp shadow for the couple against the BG. I don't intend to use this one, as I want to refine it and make sure it fits the contour of the rocks, but I felt having a placeholder would help me when working on all these rocks.



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP46FS.jpg

Moar rahks!



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP47FS.jpg

Now, time to get to the nitty gritty details! I turned on the pebble layer again, time to work on them. And you know what that means? shadow and highlight them individually! This alone took about 2 hours. I also darkened the general sandy/gravel ground as well.



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP48FS.jpg

And finally, I didn't feel like trying to tackle that fore-ground tree just yet, so I added some general bio-noise to the ground (pine needles and dried up grass and stuff) and some fun leaves! I really like the way the dead leaf on the right looks.



FS version here:http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP49FS.jpg

All for now.

Oh my god, I spent all night working on that stupid rock. I'm starting to hate rocks. I actually did some of this work yesterday and the day before, I just didn't bother posting because I didn't have much to show for it other than tiny, tiny detail work. I'm sure some people might want to see it, but it seemed like a waste of space and bandwidth to post it all.

So here goes!

First things first, I did some work to the mountains in the back. I think they look better this time around. And then we have the mountain in the foreground, which looks too much like a too-busy bush. I will probably redo that, but for now I left it up.



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP40FS.jpg

Mostly some detail work to the rock and the foreground mountain.



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP41FS.jpg

I felt like the rock wasn't looking right. And going back to my reference pic, I realized it didn't have a lot of color to it. When I tried to make it a dark grey, like in the reference, it looked like a giant shadow of nothing. So I decided to stick with some browns and greens. I also added some sand/gravel for the ground work. I also added more grit to the rock itself to make it look more grainy.



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP42FS.jpg

Doing more detail work to the rocks. I also turned off the pebble layer because they were in the way on some of the rocks I was painting.



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP43FS.jpg

Now, time to start working on the other big rock.



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP44FS.jpg

Adding the details:



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP45FS.jpg

And that is all for now.

Okay, started working on the BG. I knew kind of what I wanted, which is green, forest covered mountains in the background (Like the Appalachians). The foreground would have some trees on the sides, to darken it up a bit, and try to point the attention towards the two characters. They'd be standing on a rocky ledge.

All the RL BG Shots I have are from trips to the NC Mountains and one from the Upper Penninsula of MI. (It was a lot brighter than the pics I have from NC due to NC's humidity). You can actually see how clearer the mountains from MI in comparison to the ones from NC by looking through the leaves of the tree in the foreground. Look at all that hazey blue!



FS image here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP34FS.jpg

I thought the ground would look good in the above pic, it's also from a cliffside spot in MI, but then I just didn't like how it looked like dirt and a dropoff. So instead, I grabbed a pic from Bridal Veil Falls, NC. This used to be a waterfall you could drive under, but in 2004, the remnants of a hurricane flooded the area, and a huge chunk of the waterfall fell onto the road below. It's about the size of a full size truck, but I thought it would be good for Lookout point (You can sit on it!).



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP35FS.jpg

It's funny that the rocks that are about the size of his shoe are actually bolders just a little smaller than I am!


With all that in place, it's time to paint! I did the mountains on separate layers, the one farther away of course gets to be more blue because of the haze. I'm thinking about redoing them completely because I don't like how they're turning out.



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP36FS.jpg

Working in the details on the mountains:



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP37FS.jpg

Still don't like how the mountains look, decided to work on the foreground rocks instead. The technique for the rocks is pretty much the same as the dress. Scribble in, smudge, paint in details.



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP38FS.jpg

I used a special brush to give some color and 'cloudiness' to the rocks. You can get these kinds of grungy brushes all over DeviantArt. I think these came from Adobe. (But not in the default set.)



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP39FS.jpg

I really love painting rocks. I have no idea why.

All for now.

I spent most of the night working on this tonight. So there's pretty significant updates here.

First, I got to work on Endy's legs, his pants and his boots mostly.



Fullsize image here:http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP27FS.jpg

His boots were a dark grey on my monitor, but I asked some people if it looked too dark to them, They could barely see any of the details, and it was mostly limited to the highlights on the boot (The metal studs and the shine). So I needed to make it a little lighter. I made the whole thing lighter, then added some highlights in, so I think it turned out okay. But it's probably still quite dark to several monitors.

First boot down.


Fullsize image here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP28FS.jpg

Time to work on the second boot. Endy wears leather 'knee high' boots that are popular in the fantasy genre. The studs are clips just to hold the boot tight. It has straps on the sides and on the top, which is covered in the folding over. Endy's from a fantasy setting, so it fits. I'm thinking about adding his sword on his hip to make it a little more obvious.

Both boots done:



Fullsize Image here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP29FS.jpg

Now, Niixa wears a bangle bracelet that Endy got for her. It's a big wooden thing with a nice pattern carved into it, and some kind of mineral in the carving. I think I originally said it was jade, but it kind of looks more like emerald or malachite. Whatever. That's not the point. The point is. Oh my fucking god, I have to paint a bangle bracelet with an obscenely complex pattern on it!

Well yes, and I did it t'boot.



Fullsize Image here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP30FS.jpg

So one might think, "God, is she stroking her ego or what, over a stupid bracelet a 5 year old could paint." I dunno about you guys, but nonorganic stuff is really hard for me to paint. If it has to conform to a specific shape, in this case a torus, then I'm screwed. Not just that, but it also has to have this funky swirling pattern on it. To me, that's *hard* and that's a *challenge*. And I think I nailed it. But I will also share with you the secrets of doing such a thing.

First, references are extremely important. And often times, when working with fantasy stuff, you won't *have* a reference, so you have to *make* a reference. Enter the 3d world of Second Life. Many of you know I'm an avatar maker in SL. But SL is *very* useful for providing references, from shapes to even character poses. In this case, I textured a torus to be the bangle I need:

I did the texture in Photoshop of course, and I used AlienSkin's wood filter for the wooden BG (which I ended up not using at all in the painting, but it gave me some ideas).



This method gave me a real good idea of how the design I wanted to use on the bangle would actually look on the curved surface of the bangle. So with my reference, all I had to do was sketch, refine, then paint!

So I had the basic design down, now I need to make it look like a carved bangle with a real mineral inside it.



Fullsize Image here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP31FS.jpg

I did some work to Niixa's dress here and there during these pics, when my eyes would get stuck staring at the too-dark boots and the little details of the bangle. So you'll see some changes in there.

So now, even though the characters aren't quite finished yet (Though Niixa now has some earrings), I decided I'd work on the BG. We thought they'd look best on a place near Endy's original home called "Lookout Point" where you can see most of the mountains surrounding his hometown. So I had a bunch of pics of the NC Mountains from vacations, and I picked this one to be my reference. The green works well with Niixa's dress.



Fullsize image here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP32FS.jpg

And now here's the sketch of it.



Fullsize image here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP33FS.jpg

Check it out, I worked on it again! I needed to start on Endy's lower body (Clothes) and then I can figure out what kind of background I want (I'm thinking the lake around Kaerwyn, bright sunny day). Once I figure that out, I can finish Niixa's dress.

First, I realized Endy's legs weren't quite right. I didn't like how they looked in the reference photo, and my attempt to redraw them didn't quite work. So I redrew them. Which didn't quite work. Then I had to redraw the 'dummy' so I could figure out proportions. One thing about being an artist, when you're staring at the same pic over and over again, for months, you're going to lose all sense of proportion. I had to get some friends to look over it as well to make sure his legs weren't too big or too small.

I'll spare you the side-by-side FS image and just give a link here:http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP24.jpg

Endy's wearing the kind of tunic that split apart past the beltline, so I had to paint that in. Tried to give it a silver trim, but it didn't work out that way, though it doesn't look bad.



FS here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP25FS.jpg

I got to looking at Niixa's dress again, there was always something about the back that really bugged me, which is one of the reasons that I stopped working on it and moved on to other things. But tonight, it got me, the back wasn't hanging right, and thus I chopped off a lot of the back of it. I didn't get around to re-detailing it, so it's still a little funky.

Also, Endy now has the basics of his knee-high leather boots on.



FS here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP26FS.jpg

So here's the next grouping. I showed the previous image to my husband and he said, "Good lord, is she wearing Endymion's loafers." And I was like, "lolwut?" and he pointed out that while the shoes were painted nicely, they looked like mens shoes. And yes, they looked like men's shoes. I just didn't realize how much like men's shoes until he spotted it.

So I fixed it.



FS version: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP21FS.jpg

Still not happy with the shoe on the right. I might redo it... for the third time. I'm still not done with the shadows, but I thought it was about time to work on the highlights of the dress:



FS version: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP22FS.jpg

So I added more shadows, more highlights and started working more on the back side of the dress (and the folds there).



FS version: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP23FS.jpg

So the good people of Kaerwyn were commenting on my pics, which mostly resulted in, "Lol, Niixa has really pointy feet!" and "Endymion ain't got no legs!" Yeah, thanks guys.

So I decided to take some time off the dress and give Niixa her shoes. Now I have no fashion sense, and Niixa is played by a guy, so combined we have no fashion sense. When in doubt, go with black. And black we did!



Full size version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP18FS.jpg

And time for the other shoe to drop. I mean get put on. I also decided to put on that silver midsection sash. It really does, in my opinion at least, break up some of the blah and make it look a little classier. It's nice.



FS version here: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP19FS.jpg

And then I did some more detail work, and added a silver trim to the armband part of the dress.



FS version: http://www.jakkal.com/paintings/CelebrationIP20FS.jpg