Jotunheim's general scribbles

[Jotunheim]

Hey guys.

Figued I'd do a general artsies thread on here to post stuff not related to the Lords of the Nine project (Which I will update on as soon as I can. Paid stuff comes first ;) )

This might get kinda longish:
Christmas Present portrait of Ladyfriend, myself and sister-in-law in fantasy party versions
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16287008/Fantasy%20Group.jpg

Dark Priestess Lady
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16287008/Priestess%20mk%20II%20color15.jpg

Cover for my Band's Second Album
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16287008/OIB_Cover_1000x1000.jpg

T-shirt art for my band
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16287008/Raise%20Your%20Horns%20DA.jpg

Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16287008/Inquisitor11.jpg

Fire Genasi
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16287008/Fire%20Genasi3%20copy.jpg

Character Doodle
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16287008/Omegaseven%20doodle2.jpg

Primarchs Horus Lupercal and Sanguinius
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16287008/Brothers18.jpg

Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor laying down the smackethdown
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16287008/Heresy15.jpg

Tech Priestess Doodle (NSFW)
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16287008/Tech%20Priest3.jpg

Black Templar Chaplain
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Chaplain9.jpg

Inquisitorial Retinue
http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Retinue%20Fulvia2.jpg

Succubus
http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Succubus5.jpg

More Inquisitorial Retinue (BG isn't finished)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Retinue%20in%20Combat11.jpg

Just a random face sketch for the lulz.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Yelling%20punk1.jpg

And a doodle of a D&D warlock because my portfolio needed a bit of new stuff
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Charea%20Doodle5.jpg


Inspired by recent television events.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Bloody%20George.jpg


I liked the warlock character, so I did a small scene with her. Might do more with this if the mood strikes me.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Sacrifice4.jpg


I wanted to do a character design of satan, and figured he wouldn't be bothered with such mortal notions as clothing.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Satan4Censored.jpg

Here is a noncensored version (Warning. NSFW. It has a ****):
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Satan4.jpg

This concludes the artdump. I'll post more stuff as it happens :)

[flyingchicken]

to be honest I wish I could color like you but that's about it--do you feel like you could or should improve your figures and perspective and depth and posing and stuff, or is this it for you? it won't be a terrible place to "end" but it'd seem like such a waste

[Jotunheim]

Yeah, you've said. Guess I'll just have to disagree with you on most of that, but you're certainly entitled to your opinion ;) Looking at your stuff it seems we have a different stylistic approach to artwork. I was never much of a fan of the old school animation "noodly" style of gestures.

[Eldan]

I like your stuff a lot, but there's one thing I notice. You seem to draw a lot of foggy, indistinct or even completely abstract backgrounds and that made me wonder. Do you paint much besides humanoids of one kind or another? Have you tried machinery, buildings, landscapes?

[Jotunheim]

I have, but architecture and complicated backgrounds are A. time consuming, and B. expensive. Often the smoky background is a more affordable solution both in terms of what I have time for with my for fun pieces and what is affordable for clients.

[Eldan]

Fair enough. I only do bad pencil sketches and I know how time consuming backgrounds are. I was just wondering, really.

[Jotunheim]

Perfectly alright. I -am- more character driven in terms of what I draw than architecture driven when I get to decide what I do. Also, for character designs, I'd rather not the background detract from the focus of the piece.

[Jotunheim]

Speaking of characters, I doodled a few familiar ones as a quick warm-up sketch earlier.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Order%20of%20the%20stick1.jpg

A few derpy eyes here and there, that I'd sort out if it wasn't just a doodle but eh :P

Also some quick people poses and sketches.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Poses.jpg

[Jotunheim]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Shubby3.jpg

Today's doodle-thing. Shub-Niggurath, The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young. Might give it a once over in the morning to make it finished, but it was a fun enough thing.

[flyingchicken]

well, it's not really a "style" thing, I have no idea what you mean by "noodly" style of gestures--idk, I want to like your stuff because i like people putting in effort, but the poses are a bit stiff and in a lot of them and the perspective looks always a bit weird (reminds me of pre-Rennaissance art)

the first artist of note I would compare you to would be Frank Frazetta (his painted fantasy concepts, not his work as "Fritz" though I'm sure things he knew as a funny animals cartoonist helped him with his concept art), but lacking in a "flowiness" (I mean that's the biggest thing for me really)

but if you're disagreeing that those aren't things to be improved on (I guess you are?) then I guess that's it for my comments here--but if you're disagreeing that "flow" is not fundamentally necessary for a good illustration (is that what you mean by "noodly" style of gestures?), why don't you think so?

I'm sorry if you feel like this is a bit rude but idk, sometimes people hide fundamentally bad composition and forms behind the glitz of rendering and that sometimes rustles my jimmies--plus I think you have the potential to be really good and I want to have a say in that'd if it'll help usher that in

[Jotunheim]

@FC: Honestly, yes, you did come across fairly rude in that first comment, and I would not advice you to employ that tone with others because what you're trying to get across criticism-wise gets lost in your tone.

That being said, certainly I'm working on improving all aspects of my artstyle, and I'm no more immune to the occasional wonky perspective than any illustrator out there. What I mean by noodly is that your sketches seems to sacrifice weight and grounding for motion and woosh.
Some of the pieces in here are older, and, sure, in some of them I can see things that I would do differently, but that's the nature of artwork, and I'm both confident in my progression craft-wise, and in the quality of the work that I offer.

Edit: For the rest of you, turned this doodle into a slightly more finished one:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Shubby5.jpg

[Dernwine]

Well it's perhaps not productive but I can really only say I'm very impressed. I especially like what I hope I'm not wrong in thinking are the OOTS cast sketches.

[Jotunheim]

Well, perhaps not so much productive, but certainly encouraging. And that's so obviously the cast of Questionable Content. What's wrong with you? ;)

[Dernwine]

Well it's been a while and I'm only just starting to catch up on OOTS so I still needed some refamiliarization with the characters :P
And no problem, I just always feel guilty when I can't give anything more constructive than "good job" even though I know how important just "good job" can be...

[Jotunheim]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EI7ebzBrOms/UfKNFOlVPvI/AAAAAAAAACk/1Oix2bN1x94/s1600/Sheeva+sketch3.jpg
Played some mortal kombat again recently, and I got kinda nostalgic. Decided to do a minor redesign (really just a new outfit) of one of my favorite characters from the series, Sheeva.

[Jotunheim]

Redid a good part of this painting:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Brothers_Revision3.jpg
The original version:
http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Brothers18.jpg

Also did some more on this:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Sheeva%20sketch7.jpg

[Dernwine]

I'd almost suggest reposting your initial painting in spoilertags down here with the repaint to make comparison easier... it took me a fair bit of looking back and forth before I started spotting the differences. Certainly like the serene commander more than the really angry one (I'm sure he has some sort of title, forgive my lack of warhammer knowledge).

And ah, I had wanted to say "you should focus more on the armour and less on the face" for the image of Sheeva, shoulda figured it was a WIP.

[Jotunheim]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Freaky4.jpg
Now I just need to find a black/death metal band who need some cover art xD

[Grinner]

Out of curiosity, approximately how long does each one of these "scribbles" take you?

[Jotunheim]

That's kinda broad question, innit? :p Sometimes something will take me an hour. Sometimes it'll take me 10 days. Depends on the job. This one I just posted now is probably about 4-5 hours at this point.

That's, incidentally, is also why artwork is so "expensive". I'm still amazed when I talk to a client who don't seem to think that they should be paying me at least minimum wage for my time.

[Domochevsky]

Tell me about it... :smallsigh:

Incidentally, I second the notion that you should use some damn spoiler tags for the wide stuff up above. :smallwink:

[Jotunheim]

Thare. Made the whole thread a good deal more readable, and spoiler-tagged all the initial art dump. No reason for people to have to scroll all the way through that each time they come in.

[Jotunheim]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Freaky7.jpg
Baby! Because babies are creepy.

[Grinner]

That's, incidentally, is also why artwork is so "expensive". I'm still amazed when I talk to a client who don't seem to think that they should be paying me at least minimum wage for my time.

By expensive, are we talking "experienced writer possessing a handle on fair rates" expensive, or "average Joe trying to fulfill his lifelong dream of writing a comic/RPG/novel/whatever, but can only spare his monthly beer budget" expensive?


https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Freaky7.jpg
Baby! Because babies are creepy.

That's a baby?!

[Jotunheim]

By expensive, are we talking "experienced writer possessing a handle on fair rates" expensive, or "average Joe trying to fulfill his lifelong dream of writing a comic/RPG/novel/whatever, but can only spare his monthly beer budget" expensive?



That's a baby?!

That is indeed a baby (in the sphere. Look closely)

And prices do vary depending on whether or not you're a private costumer or er big company that is going to make money off the work. The best idea would either be to write me a PM, telling me what you want and I can give you a quote, or you can tell me roughly what you're looking for, and what you want to be spending on it, and I can tell you what I can do for that amount :) So I guess it depends on how much beer you constume ;)

What I meant was that a lot of people seem to think that they're just paying for the product as if it was a print, but they're actually purchasing two things beyond that. 1. Some degree of rights to the finished products, varying on the agreed upon terms, and 2. the time of a skilled professional. At least I think that's what a lot of people don't seem to consider when looking to have art done :)

[Grinner]

That is indeed a baby (in the sphere. Look closely)

Oh. So it is. (I had thought that was something else completely.)


And prices do vary depending on whether or not you're a private costumer or er big company that is going to make money off the work. The best idea would either be to write me a PM, telling me what you want and I can give you a quote, or you can tell me roughly what you're looking for, and what you want to be spending on it, and I can tell you what I can do for that amount :) So I guess it depends on how much beer you constume ;)

What I meant was that a lot of people seem to think that they're just paying for the product as if it was a print, but they're actually purchasing two things beyond that. 1. Some degree of rights to the finished products, varying on the agreed upon terms, and 2. the time of a skilled professional. At least I think that's what a lot of people don't seem to consider when looking to have art done :)

I'm sorry if I led you on. I was merely genuinely curious about how the freelance art business works.

Illuminating information, though.

[ShadowFireLance]

You know, You're "Scribbles" outdo my best work. Awesomeness.

You know what you need to "Scribble"? A Tyranid. Just mentioning it..:smalltongue:

[Jotunheim]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/BT%20Blocking1.jpg
Rough block-out for a painting-to-be.

[Jotunheim]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/BT%20detail1.jpg
Doing a bit of rendering on this one now that I'm happy with where things are. This might be a long one.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/BT%20Rendering2.jpg

[Jotunheim]

Went to an art hangout cafe for a few hours yesterday. Did some random scribbles in my drawing pad.

Random scribbles:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Scan%20Angel.jpg
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/People%20Doodles%20C.jpg
Scanner was not overly kind on them, but it is too late for me to make a lot of noise doing a bunch of scannings at different settings, so it'll have to do.

[Thanqol]

Hey, there's an art thread I haven't looked at, I wonder if it's - HNG

Oh dang, that stuff is extremely professional, I am extremely impressed. Questions follow: What program do you produce these in, how long does a typical piece take you, and do you have any advice for those greyscale-type paintings? I have spectacularly failed at almost every attempt at greyscale I've made. I'm also particularly interested in finding how blend-y you set your brushes.

[Jotunheim]

Thank you very kindly. Questions answered in order: I use photoshop CS3. I do have newer versions, but I'm just not comfortable with the UI, and they don't offer anything that I don't get out of CS3. A piece takes everywhere between a couple of hours and two full weeks of paint-work. It all depends on the level of detail, the degree of planning, the revision work, and bladibladibla :p

As for the black and white stuff, most of my paintings are first done in grayscale before I add color to them. This, I would like to stress, is but one approach, and while it works for me, it does not work for everyone. A friend of mine goes old school with his digital art and picks out a full color palette before starting a painting, and just goes to town with color right away. I find it easier to break down the values before I have to worry about hues. The amount of detail that goes into the black and white part depends from piece to piece.

As far as technical advice, almost all of my work is done with a regular round brush, set to 100% Opacity, 100% (sometimes changed a bit), Opacity jitter defined by pen pressure fo my tablet, and size jitter set to the same. I do also use a large variety of custom texture brushes and the like, and if you'd like, and don't mind a biggish download, I can link my brush library (Warning. It is presently huge, and messy and repeats itself a lot. I really need to clean it up).

One easy bit of advice for getting a bit more smooth blending in your paintings is to turn the smudge brush into a blender brush. The standard smudge brush is a piece of grade A poop. It is useless for everything, but if you take a brush (ideally with a bit of texture to it) and set it to the following:

Size Jitter: 0% with Pen pressure (Minimum diameter: 30%)
Angle Jitter: 100% (No modifiers)
Roundness jitter: 0%
No flipping of x or y

Apply scattering (both axis)
Scatter: 45%
Count: 2
Count jitter: Off

Opacity Jitter: Off
Flow Jitter: Pen Pressure

And hey presto, you have a nice blender that still adds a bit of texture to make smooth transitions. Just don't go over board with it ;)

[Jotunheim]

Also, I did a quick speed paint on this. Couldn't help myself:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Death%20Angel2.jpg

[Jotunheim]

Continuing the proud tradition of me replying to my own thread, here's a quick little doodle I did in between commission work:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Faye2.jpg

[Gullara]

Just stumbled across this thread today, and I wanted to say that your artwork is really great. I'll have to keep an eye on this. *nodnod*

[TheCountAlucard]

I really like that doodle. Nice job.

[Jotunheim]

Did another QC Doodle:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Dora1.jpg

And I am heading to a fantasy book convention this weekend to plug my illustration business, so I figured I'd play to the crowd and do a hypothetical young adult urban fantasy book cover:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/YA%20Cover3.jpg

Oh, also, I finished that big commission, so I'm open for those again :)

[Jotunheim]

Small update. Just some doodle work.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Abadoodle4.jpg

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Techpriest6.jpg

[Jotunheim]

New painting!
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16287008/Abaddon_Final2.jpg

[Jotunheim]

Updating this thing again, finally. Been doing more professional work lately, which is yay because money, and boo because non-disclosure agreement. That being said. here's an artdump of my more recent stuff:
40k stuff
Chambers Militant of the Inquisition
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/088/6/d/the_chambers_militant_by_vanagandr-d7c4jiv.jpg

Kharn and Argel-Tal
http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/186/d/8/kharn_and_argel_tal15_by_vanagandr-d7pcqok.jpg

Slaanesh-corrupted Battle-Sister
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/165/9/b/slaanesh_champion11_by_vanagandr-d7mdzsh.jpg

Inquisitor Design:
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/198/3/c/fulvia8_by_vanagandr-d7r5623.jpg

Same Design in Zbrush:
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/297/6/6/inquisitoress_armor5_by_vanagandr-d841l4s.jpg

Abaddon Design I'm working on in Zbrush:
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/283/f/d/abaddon8_by_vanagandr-d82bovi.jpg


Band Art
Cover from our third albu
http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2015/024/a/a/cover_setup2_by_vanagandr-d8f6emh.jpg

Interior art from same
http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2015/024/1/6/vanir_valkyrie_by_vanagandr-d8f6eum.jpg

New Logo
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2015/024/f/4/vanir_raven_logo_by_vanagandr-d8f6g6y.jpg

Miscelanious Art
Post Apocalyptic Lady
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2015/024/6/6/post_appocasig_by_vanagandr-d8f6fu6.jpg

Papa Emeritus
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2015/024/2/0/ghost3_by_vanagandr-d8f6ezs.jpg

Demon Face
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2015/024/7/8/devilhead_color_profiles2_by_vanagandr-d8f6ggr.jpg

I think that's all that I'm permitted to show you right now :)

[Jotunheim]

So, I've been off this forum, and the internet in general for a while now. A lot has changed in my life. First the good! I'm now a full time employee with Epic Armoury, the world's biggest producer of larp gear, designing and sculpting weapons.
The bad, I got diagnosed with MS. It's kept under control, and I still do work, but it's still a crap sandwich. Ah well, always forward, eh?

Anyway! Here's a few recent pieces I did!

Self-Portrait Sketch
http://i.imgur.com/IBolKJ2.jpg

Art Pieces I did for the New World Magischola larp:
http://i.imgur.com/oFNM7nf.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/nwgkmSE.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/cint9cG.png
http://i.imgur.com/P5jRpHV.jpg

Art I did for Fantasy Flight Games
http://i.imgur.com/a67Bbje.png

Lockwood sketch turned into a sculpt
http://i.imgur.com/uvi3qli.jpg

Faun head sculpt
http://i.imgur.com/XuTlaHE.jpg

[Thanqol]

why so handsome, man. why so handsome.

You're doing bang up work! But as you're kind of out of my league to provide useful art advice for, is there anything you're looking to get from this thread? What are you working on and practicing in particular? Anything you're finding especially fun to draw? Or do you just want to share what you're working on, in which case my questions are more along the lines of 'how do you do the thing'

Sucks to hear about the MS, man.

[Jotunheim]

Hey! I mainly just use the thread to share work that I do with the community. It's nice to share creative work with fellow nerdlings :)
Feel free to ask questions if you have em.

And thanks.

[lingotony]

I like your stuff a lot, but there's one thing I notice. You seem to draw a lot of foggy, indistinct or even completely abstract backgrounds and that made me wonder. Do you paint much besides humanoids of one kind or another? Have you tried machinery, buildings, landscapes?

Agree with that.