Chris Jackson's Art

chrissybjackson 2018-11-12 13:34:07 UTC #1

Hey there!
My name is Chris and art has been a hobby of mine for as long as I can remember.

I'm trying to step up my art game so I thought I'd join a community to help me along my journey.

I don't get a lot of time to make art as I work full time and have a wife and 2 young kids, so I only get to dabble here and there.

Let me know what you think!
Hints, tips and critiques are welcome; as well as general banter.

Instagram:

Deviantart:

Artstation:
https://www.artstation.com/chris_jackson

chrissybjackson 2018-11-12 13:43:10 UTC #2

I'll start with some concepts I made during my lunch.

The idea is a futuristic female space station engineer.

Also, here are some still life studies of my morning apples.

jfreyz 2018-11-12 14:39:58 UTC #3

Nice work from what I can see so far! As far as critiques go, The apples feel a bit flat, maybe up the shinyness of them? its almost like the lighting isnt bright enough to get the actual feel of the skin texture.

as for the characters those are great prelim concept sketches, I really would love to see a push to final

Great work, keep it up!

chrissybjackson 2018-11-12 14:49:06 UTC #4

Thanks jfreyz, I agree. I think the lack of shadow also makes them look flat too, I was being lazy. I'll up the contrast and add shadows from now on I swear😁.

alf0 2018-11-13 07:18:28 UTC #5

nice work !!!

chrissybjackson 2018-11-13 10:16:15 UTC #6

Thanks alf0!

chrissybjackson 2018-11-13 10:21:26 UTC #7

I did some sketches last night. I wasn't particularly motivated, I just wanted to just draw and see what came out.

I feel like I draw way too stiffly.
My arm just tenses up when I put marks on the paper.
What I need to do is draw more often and loosen up.

Acolet 2018-11-13 11:03:07 UTC #8

These are lovely! I appreciate the bold shading.
To loosen up, I really recommend doing face "gesture" studies - with a timer like 20-40 seconds, it helped me a lot and I still like doing them

chrissybjackson 2018-11-13 11:22:18 UTC #9

Thanks Acolet, I'll try and do some on my lunch break.

chrissybjackson 2018-11-13 13:21:33 UTC #10

40 second "gesture" sketches.
Not sure if I fully embraced the gesture side.
I tried to lay in some gesture lines as well as landmarks and likeness.
They still look scratchy and stiff, but I feel that it made a difference.

Right, back to work.
PS. Sorry for the cast shadow, I'm in an office and it's crap lighting.

chrissybjackson 2018-11-14 09:08:11 UTC #11

Had another crack at gesture drawing faces to loosen up. Digital this time.

As you can see my first one was a "What am I doing?" sort of thing, then I quickly went into "Oh, I'm doing a continuous line thing".
I enjoyed doing these studies.
I was occasionally reminding myself to be loose and free; and to keep dropping my shoulder as it would slowly inch it's way up to my ear, becoming stiffer.
I tried to stop each study at a point where continuing would mean too much detail; and I like the minimal look.
About 60 seconds for each one (+/-).

UPDATE:
Did a 45 min study during my lunch break.

Acolet 2018-11-14 15:32:54 UTC #12

Wow! I must say I'm really impressed with the digital ones. It's visible how you got more confident over time and some of them - especially in last line are amazing, you clearly captured the features of the face even with such minimalism.
Very inspiring, now I have to make some one line faces for myself too!

chrissybjackson 2018-11-20 22:35:48 UTC #13

Need more time using photoshop. Trying out different techniques; finding out what works for me.
This is just an unfinished study. I started out with rough lines, then refined the lines on a new layer, then layed in a base colour on a layer underneath the lines, then started to add form on a layer above that. Unfortunatly it's now time for bed.