Jared DiPietro
Jared DiPietro
Windsor, Ontario
Freelance Illustrator and Graphic Designer
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Jared DiPietro
I try to always start my day with 30 minutes of gestures for warm-up. It was nice to have these to shake it up from my usual routine. Especially Week 3 with the hands and feet. I must admit, it was tough sticking to the time limit, as I usually like to give myself a little longer if I'm really enjoying the figure. It was fun to push myself though and keep myself moving. Though, full transparency, there were a few moments I gave myself just another pencil stroke or two after the timer moved on. Week 1 said "submit at least 20 drawings" I did 2 sets (Set A and Set B) but if I was only supposed to submit 1 please take Set B. I'll separate all the weeks into individual comments.
Jared DiPietro
Week 3
Jared DiPietro
Hey Lo, First of all, it's great to have you here in the Proko community. I know that, at least in my personal experience, it can be daunting to share your artwork and open yourself up to criticism (especially when you may find your work "embarrassing") but it is certainly a big and beneficial step. Aaravi has some good points. Learning how to create art is a journey and everyone's journey can be different. It's important to be able to sometimes just let go, experiment and see where it takes you. But I understand the frustration. Oftentimes we have an idea, even if only vaguely, of what our art should look like (or of what our "destination" is on this journey) and when we fail to achieve that ideal, it can be disheartening. I often think back to this video with a speech from Ira Glass. https://vimeo.com/24715531 It may say storytelling in title but I believe it fits all kinds of creative expression. You may have to do a lot of work to get to the point where you feel you are consistently creating things that live up to your vision, but I believe with good practice and perseverance you can get there. Now, you came here asking for a concrete plan. While there is a balance to be struck when it comes to following a rigid plan and allowing your creativity/desires to flow, I, as an artist who is also always learning, will try to give you some ideas that I think will help. You're probably familiar with the saying "practice makes perfect" and maybe you've heard the follow-up from Vince Lombardi "Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect." In this case, I believe the answer is somewhere in the middle. You can do a ton of work and make progress, but intentional work will in most cases get you further faster. With that said, here are some things I would recommend focusing on. Structure: The Basic Forms This was something that I neglected for a long time, and it wasn't until I started going through Proko's figure drawing series that I really started to grasp and incorporate it. Being able to consistently draw the basic forms (spheres, cubes/rectangular prisms, cylinders) can be key to leveling up your art. Even before knowing anatomy, it can take a flat, lifeless drawing and turn into something that looks like it really exists in a world on your page. Take this drawing I did almost a decade ago, and compare it with just the underdrawing of one of my recent projects (For an even better example of using simple forms to construct the figure, check out Proko's Mannequinization Lesson in the figure drawing fundamentals course https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/mannequinization-structure-of-the-human-body/assignments ) I see so many newer artists who can do beautiful things with colour, but it's effect is muted because of the flimsy structure beneath it. You don't have to be a master of anatomy to draw the basic forms that help the objects you create to feel real and tangible. Breaking things down into simple forms also helps with shading. When you're armed with this knowledge/ability you can really make your drawings pop! I really like to look at animators, or artists with a simpler style when it comes to studying these basic forms, as it can be easier to spot the building blocks they used. Some of my favourites to look at are https://www.instagram.com/seangallowayart and https://www.instagram.com/gurihiru In addition to breaking down real human models into basic forms, it can be fun to look at artists you enjoy and do the same to their work. This can open up your eyes to new ways that you can break down the human body into simple forms. Looking at your work and one of your time lapses, it looks like you already have a fairly good grasp of this area. Your piece with Ganondorf, Link and Prince Sidon stands out to me in this regard. Especially Ganondorf's arm, you can really feel the form. Continuing to work on these foundational elements while expanding your knowledge of perspective and anatomy will serve you well. Even though this is an area you already do well in, I wanted to cover it before getting into the rest of the points. I have to take a break for now, but when I get back I want to talk about using interesting shapes + rhythms, line quality and confidence. Also, I will try to draw over some pieces to help give some visual examples that might be more helpful. For now, I'll leave you with this. I think your work is in a great place and I see a lot of potential! It's been fun to look through your work and I'm excited to see what you do in the future!
Jared DiPietro
Part 2: Interesting Shapes While a lot of work can go into our artwork to make it look three-dimensional, at the end of the day we are still creating shapes on a 2D surface. And the shapes we construct have a lot of power! Proko just did a great video on this not too long ago, I actually just finished watching it. https://youtu.be/ID8r0OhiYe0?si=_hT0IPJ4P7a--ccn Shapes can add a lot of visual interest to otherwise standard, or static, drawings. They can imply movement and energy, or be used to guide our eyes around a piece in a specific way. A simple "trick" is to have contrast in the shape. This could be as simple as one side being straight, and the other side being curved (Like in this video by Ethan Becker https://youtu.be/mFuNdJoEhq4?si=l1SmPFsuhb5uSnYe He has a lot of great stuff, including a few more on shapes so I highly recommend checking him out) When we make shapes that are interesting and have a clear direction, it also can make our work look more confident, which I will touch on more later. You can combine your knowledge of shape design with anatomy to make drawings that are both accurate and full of energy. Being knowledgeable about our shapes and how they work together can also help with creating rhythms through our art, helping to guide the viewers eyes and create a pleasing design. Continuing to use your Legend of Zelda piece as an example, we can break down the shapes of the arm. I did my best to trace over the different parts of Ganondorf's arm in the image attached alone. Through each of the parts I drew a line from the "peak" of each side, similar to Proko at the beginning of his video. I did the same over a couple reference photos to see what we can learn. As far as the peaks go, we can see that your work is pretty good. It's clear that you paid a lot of attention to the forms. Looking at our reference we can see ways to push it even further, especially in areas like the delts (shoulders) and forearms. You can see that in the last two images I've drawn some simple representations of the upper arm and the for arm. For the upper arm, going so far as to depict the bicep as a straight light, with a small angle at the bottom, the the triceps as a large curve (not unlike the lemon shape in the Ethan Becker video that I linked). What's cool is that when the arm is bent you see almost the opposite happening. The bicep becomes very round and pronounced as it squeezes to bend the arm, and triceps becomes more stretched out and flat. This push and pull, along with just the general placement and shapes of the muscles, does a lot to establish rhythms throughout the body. You can see an example of these rhythms from Luis Escobar, in the second image attached below. As you grow in your knowledge of anatomy, you'll begin to notice the variety cool shapes and rhythms that pop up as you see the body from different angles and in different poses. You might even choose to exaggerate some of these shapes past what is commonly seen to better show motion, tension or just to make it more interesting. Animators and stylized illustrators are great to look at for how they simplify the shapes of the body at different angles, but almost all artists do it to varying degrees. And as much fun as it can be to study how other people simplify the body, don't forget to make your own observations from life and experiment!
Jared DiPietro
Hello everyone, This is a piece that I'm currently working on of Johnny from the fighting game, Guilty Gear Strive, performing one of his super moves (reference attached). I've more or less completed the basic layout and wanted to get some fresh pairs of eyes on it before I move on to the next stage. I'm open to any thoughts or suggestions you might have. I drew the split card in the foreground as a vector, so it can be moved around/flipped/rotated no problem. The smoke and spark effects are very loose placements, they will be the last things I finalize after everything else is inked and coloured. But please feel free to share any ideas for their paths/shapes/placements, especially for things like the sparks in the foreground. The idea is that everything will be rendered/lit more or less like the reference, with objects in the foreground possibly being out of focus. Thank you for checking this out, I look forward to sharing the completed piece in the future!
TK
Jared DiPietro
Really cool to come in here and see all the improvements over a relatively short span of time. Great stuff! I'm also a big fan of using ballpoints for sketches, do you have a favourite pen that you use?
Scott Lewis
I FINALLY finished this piece. I incorporated a lot of the feedback I got here, or tried to. I spent a total of 13 months working on this piece and redrew it more than 2 dozen times in different media on different papers. Ultimately the "finished" piece was done in Prismacolor pencil on French Paper Co. Speckletone paper. I like the tooh of the paper and it works well with the Prismacolor though it's not really a drawing paper. This was a gift for my wife. The character is our dog, Marlow, who died 2 years ago. He loved water so this is how I envisioned him in doggie heaven.
Jared DiPietro
This looks fantastic! I haven't been on the site in a long time, but what welcome treat to come back and see this. So much style and character built on top of solid shapes and structure. Not to mention, the amazing patience and perseverance displayed sticking to it.
Jared DiPietro
I've been starting to deal with a lot of the same problems. A lot of my focus has been on black and white, or grey scale, pencils and inks. Recently for commissions I've been doing a lot of colour work. I quickly ran into the same problems where my composition worked great in the ink stage, but started to become really shakey with the colours. I've definitely started making the shift to designing my pieces with the colours in mind. A necessary lesson to learn, even for pencillers/inkers because someone's probably going to have to colour it. I'll see if I can find some links, but I read a lot of stuff about perceived brightness and the LAB colour spaces.
Yiming Wu
3yr
Ahh "perceived brightness" this is a huge topic... Be aware, LAB isn't perfect, CIE LAB has very problematic hue shifts especially in blue (Well do some quick google and stuff, if you want to experiment, for digital art, use OK LAB or HSLuv) I think the problem is mostly practice visualizing it in thumbnail stage. Ink with color fills are another topic as well, if you want to have inks to show up well, the fills can't go really dark as well, very problematic... but anyway, keep experimenting XD
Jared DiPietro
TLDR: Looking for feedback, any glaring mistakes, suggestions for background, additional clotheslines and/or falling clothes - yes/no? Update: Almost there! Normally I do my roughs digitally and then print them out to finish with traditional pencils, but I decided to challenge myself and get the whole thing done digitally (Even after a few years of having a surface, I still find that I draw many things more quickly on paper). At this point I'm mostly cleaning up, finishing up a few details (Like putting in her web for the first panel) and trying to figure out what to do with the background. Originally I was just going to put another building, but I'm not a huge fan of how that's looking. I also worry that a whole cityscape background will have too many elements that cut into the action in the foreground. Right now I'm tempted to leave it blank, but that's probably just me wanting to be finished. Any suggestions on this front would be appreciated. I'm also considering adding some more clotheslines, either into the foreground or further back, but I wonder if this would be too distracting/too busy. Similarly, I was thinking about having some clothes falling through the air but the same concerns pop up. Also, if anything stands out to you I'm open to any critiques as well. Not sure how much more I'm going to go back into this, but I always want to learn more for future projects (Who am I kidding, if you point something out there's a good chance I won't be able to resist fixing it). Thanks everyone!
Serena Marenco
Hi Jared, nice page! I would turn Miles about thirty degrees clockwise, as the last panel is a little too static.
Jared DiPietro
Hey Terrence, I really enjoy these designs. I think that my favourite just by feel would be the center one of Alex. That hair + face shape is just fantastic. What pops into my mind is that he'd be completely at home in my favourite video game series, The Legend of Zelda. As for which designs work for those personalities. My personal pick for Alex is still the center one. I think that the smooth gentle curves make him seem really kind and inviting. The one on the left would be my second choice, it just doesn't seem as unique/interesting as the center. I'm not sure whether you were planning to keep the pairs together (center Alex with center Georgie), in which case I would still go with the middle ones, or if you wanted to mix and match. For Georgie, I'm leaning towards either the center one or the one on the right. I think they are both just more interesting than the one on the left even though it still captures the character pretty well. I think the one on the very right gives you an interesting visual contrast between the brothers that coincides with the difference in their personalities. But the middle one also works for the character if you want them to look more alike. Additionally, my gut reaction is that the middle one looks slightly more naive, while the one on the right captures the wild aspect better. I hope some of these thoughts prove helpful. Just the designs alone make me want to read the story and learn more about these characters. I'm excited to see the final product!
Jared DiPietro
For books in general, I've always preferred physical. I'm much more likely to casually thumb through a physical art book (for example, when eating or relaxing in the evening), than a digital book. Some of it is probably because I already spend so much time at a computer/on my phone, it's just nice to get away. I also use my computer to display all of my reference/inspiration images when working (plus usually a tab or two open from the Proko anatomy course) so having physical books keeps my screen from getting too crowded.
Jared DiPietro
Hello David Finch, thank you for the stream. It's fitting that you are drawing Stan and Marshall, as one thing they often talk about is art mentors. When Jason Fabok spoke at my highschool he told us about how he got connected with you and then you "re-taught" him how to draw for comic books. I was wondering if you could share that story from your perspective. Especially what it was about his art and/or personality/character that ultimately led you to teach him.
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