September Pin-up - Jinbei (Patreon)

 Hey everyone!!

 Along with Hirohiko Araki, Eiichiro Oda is one of my role models mangakas!! I love the super expressive faces, fun shapes and proportions, quirky designs and super creative gimmicks!! (everything I want Apparition to be!) 

 I particularly don't consume One Piece (I used to buy a lot of the manga in my teens, but they stopped arriving)... but I'm always looking at his pages and artbooks, as he's been the topic of many studies of mine. So you can say I had a lot of fun with this piece!!!

> Here's the sketch!! 

    Laying out a karate stance gesture, the rooooound shapes and the swirling motion of the breaking wave in the background! The focus here is entirely on the character... I wanted to be playful with his anatomy!!! <<:

> Structure pass!! One thing Oda does that I've been trying to get are the huge ass trapezius.......

> Putting his clothes over the structure. Wanted something flowy to add dynamism.... The way Jinbei use his robes down is similar to the one I do for Webisu!

> The structure of the whale shark below Jinbei wasn't very clear... So I wanted to try understanding it better, and layed it out again! A big fun grin!

> Here's the final structural sketch!

> Now let's go for the head!! 

    You know I enjoy working it out separately... Also notice how big the head is here! I usually make them oversized comparing to the rest of body when I'm sketching... maybe because I focus on it entirely, apart from the whole picture?

      Either way I adjusted it as I always do, as you can see in the next step!

> Final sketch!! Wow this is sooooooo rough (apart from the head) LOL

    It's nice to make it more polished so the lineart can flow better - but I wanted to go chill into this one so I didn't stress over it too much....

> Lineart! 

    This one doesn't have weight treatment.

> Now a weight pass! 

    Always being conscious of what is closer or further from the viewer, weighted lineart brings a new sense of dimensionality to the figure.

> Whale shark lineaaaart!! Did a bit of the shark skin texture.

> This is the set up I did  for the background!

    After working so much with the strong magentas in the background over the first chapter of Apparition, which is a color I have a HARD time working with... going back to blue, which is a color I'm familiar with, was soooo refreshing.

> For the pattern, I wanted to try my hand at rendering his design!!! 

    It was a very fun practice, it's always nice to try figuring out how people do ornaments!

> Rendered background!! 

    Swoosh!!

> The flats for these were less challenging than usual. 

    Maybe because his colors are so fun! Unusual colors for character skins are always cool to work with.

 >Worked out the pattern on the whale shark. Animal patterns are sooooo cool, it's always a great source of inspiration!

> I did something different for the shadows this time! 

    As Jinbei is a ROUND boy, I wanted to work him entirely with smooth shadows! Usually they are a bit less conspicuous, but here they are very dominant. 

     So I wanted to exercise different renderings in the same picture! I documented the smooth shadows this time.... so smooth....

> Hard primary shadows. 

    In the face to accentuate the intimidating factor! On this hair to give it more volume... on his clothing too! The only part of Jinbei's body that has hard shadows is his haki fortified forearm. I wanted to give it a HARD look!!

> Secondary shadows. 

    The haki forearm has a dramatic metal like rendering!

> Now both types of shadow working together!!!

   Isn't it interesting?? the way you render shadows conveys a lot about volume. 

   It's something I have been trying to be mindful of. Usually I go full hard shadow, but I have been getting more and more intimate with smooth shadows. 

    Guess knowing when to use them is a precious skill I'll invest more in!

> Whale shark is not the focus point so I rendering him in all smooths!

From here, I went to rendering!

 And that concludes our monthly pin-up post. I'll be opening the voting for the next character on the 1st!