These illustrative Journals are my way of sharing tips and tricks and knowledge that I've acquired over the last few years in the illustration industry. I'm simply sharing it with you all in the hopes that it helps somebody. If you too would like to offer some tips and tricks, please note me and I'll include it. This is for those who wish to learn after all.


Months back, I asked people for ideas of what they'd like to learn something about in these art journals. Unfortunately most of these are things that require actual image tutorials... and since I really dislike adding in images to these (mostly because I spend enough time writing these, I don't have much spare time for drawing things to accompany them as well), at least of my own work, I've avoided a few. But since nobody asked any major questions pertaining to this week.... I figured I'd go back to that list and see if I could pull something out.

Let's try realism in creative art. That sounds fascinating. It can branch off in a number of directions as well.

It doesn't get a whole lot more blunt than this: Fantasy art isn't real! And yet clients asking for images of this genre want primarily realism.... how do you learn realism? By imitating it. See the problem here? So how do you work on the realism of a subject that doesn't really exist? Like dragons, or a giant castle like fortresses built into the recesses of volcanoes (dumbest place for a fortress imo), or minotaurs.... or whatever it is you're illustrating. Sure, we know what people look like, but what about the fantasy clothing? I doubt they're standing there in jeans and a band t-shirt. And how do you take a realistic thing, like a skeleton and make it intimidating without distorting it too much?

This is all stuff that a fantasy illustrator (though any genre faces this, I just say fantasy since it's what I know. The knowledge will apply just the same) faces with his or her pictures. We'll start with people since they exist........ I'll move on to other fantasy elements next week.

Study anatomy. A lot. I don't care if you do anime styled art, graffiti, or actual realistic styled work – you will have a hard time genuinely distorting the human figure if you don't know how it's built. And I don't mean just the “yeah yeah, two arms, two legs” structure. I mean the subtle dips and curves that make a person a person. The muscles and how they interact. Yes there is a point where a dumbed down figure doesn't need that stuff, but for the most part, by learning from life you can learn to take it back to a distorted figure (likely the sort of figure that inspired you to draw in the first place).

Now, a successful figure will eventually need to be clothed. Personally I tend to find influence in other artists and how they do the clothing, then I adapt it to how I'd like to see it. I tackle something like this by touching on the realistic purposes of the outfit. The leather straps must have weight to them, tying off at the correct points, buckling with tension to keep something actually on the body and what not. A piece of leather shoulder armor for example usually must strap around the torso, under the opposing arm, and then around the bicep, securing it well. You could do variations of this, but roughly the structure must work this way. It must have that opposing force to hold it in place. Likewise, a sword at the hip must be connected to the belt and can't go passed the legs. Otherwise they're digging a trail as they walk. This, I hear, makes it hard to be a swordsman.

With this in mind, develop your clothing and accompanying details of the figure with the individual in mind. Where are they located? How do they act? Are they homeless? Do they care about the small things in life? This tells me if they'd polish their armor, dress more conservatively or more open, not really caring who sees them (apparently most women in fantasy art aren't very modest....), if they are in the sun perhaps they'll have lighter clothing, in the rain they'll have longer clothing for shedding water, and so on. A warrior will have tighter clothing to not tangle up, a pickpocket will be suiciding themselves if they wear big boots.... etc etc. It's all common sense, you must ask yourself the purpose of this individual, and be their psychologist for a moment. Ask questions til you got it nailed. Then? Try and make em look cool. Lets face it, it's fantasy art, you have some leeway. If you were to be completely realistic they'd be farmers.

From there, lets touch on gravity. Gravity is important, our friend, and for some reason everyone ignores it in art. An armored fellow will not out jump the loosely clothed pickpocket unless that is one stupid pickpocket. This is simple weight logistics. Hair doesn't stand straight up unless the individual doesn't bath, in which case, don't draw anybody else near them.... who'd want to be near that. Assuming they are moderately clean, focus on the weight of hair, how it lays about the head and gets lighter in weight near the tips as it ungroups.

Clothing has a weight to it, and the further out to an edge of an article of clothing, the lighter it will seem. The longer it is, the more wind drag it will gather (giving you great visual movement opportunities). With this in mind, be aware that the clothing wraps with weight, folding as if it wants to fall to the ground. This causes tension points on clothing. How do you draw folds of fabric (I'm asked this often)? Draw the gravity upon said fabric. Also, weapons – the lengthier the weapon, the stronger this person must be. I don't enjoy artwork where the woman has a 5 foot sword.... some do, but I've met a lot who get bored by it. Why? There's no realism in that. Swords that you fight with aren't made of the same materials as the swords that you find for cheap prices online. Stainless steel is what you make pots out of..... real swords? That's full steel. It's heavy. This causes muscles to bulge that might not have existed before.... this causes arms to strain, and a person to lack counter-balance of their swings.

So really, put some thought into your figures, get into their head, explore their build. Ask people to model for you (they don't have to be nude for you to learn), study good anatomy books. And then add little things to them for flavor..... jewelry, designs, the small stuff. We all have small things that make us who we are, that make your friends who they are, etc.

My general thought process is to touch on two things in a picture: Common sense physics – gravity, anatomy, etc. And then I touch on visual relations, which has similar points to the other, but is more vague and open ended.

We have to have certain things in a picture to relate to it. Fantasy art isn't entirely about going so far into the creative field that it makes no sense..... that's no good. People have to look at something and be able to tell the story in it – so you gotta use those realistic things like the gravity and anatomy. It's a given. But then you gotta use the symbolic colors such as I covered what.... last week? Two weeks ago? Either way, warmer colors have a different feel that cooler colors. Reds give a certain emotion that greens won't, and so on. Posture of a character says a lot. What was it, over 60% of our communication with others isn't verbal? I think it was something like that. No matter the number though – we do a lot of talking with our posture and body language. Include this! It's one of the reasons I loved psychology so much as a student.... it helped me in my art. Getting into a head, figuring out how they'd move, dress, approach a situation – it's all so very important.

Next week we'll talk about...... I dunno, something cool. Wanna try creatures? That sounds fun.

Also, a definite thanks to those who donated questions to the pursuit of the art journal that I wish to take to some art directors. For those who didn't catch that - I will be taking questions (or at least the good ones ) that you all bring me, to a few art directors (pretty much anybody I can con into wasting a few minutes of their time) where they can answer them and offer some industry insight on portfolios, development, decisions that they have to make, or whatever else you have curiosities about. If you've not thought of any questions yet..... get to it! I'll not be taking these questions to people for a few weeks now, so you have some time to think and compile a few .

We've got some fantastic questions so far, but the more stuff you guys ask, the more people I can take them to, in which case you'll get far more feedback.