Esben: Hi, my name is Esben Rasmussen and
I work as a senior illustrator for Riot Games. Today we're going to be talking about style,
specifically the style of a great artist that I admire a lot, J.C. Leyendecker. We are going to take you through the process
of analyzing his design sensibilities and then showing you how that can be applied to
a modern character. So, let's get started... Basically the first thing that we're going
to be doing is we're going to be taking different references, and I already had my fair selection
of it here. So, one thing that's very important while
we're doing this is actually the planning, especially you know, in illustration, that's
where a lot of the work is actually done is how you set yourself up for success in that
sort of sense. Jett, for those of you who don't know who
she is, she is this like high mobility character from the game Valorant. So, I know that we're gonna be playing around
with the element of wind with her, so maybe if that's like some wind in her hair, maybe
we can kind of like make some kind of graphical shape to show wind. Here's another picture, I believe this is
the 3D model of her just so you kind of have a reference of what she looks like. I believe she is Korean, so I was on the hunt
to find references for some of the features and somebody who would kind of like resemble
what Jett could look like for example, in real life. I think one thing that's going to be very
important if we break this down is the winged makeup that we see over here. This is going to be one of our important elements
is basically this winged makeup. So, I know that that's going to be a must
as we move into the painting phase. I know too that there's some of the cheekbones
that are very high that we want to kind of like play around with. And also how the eyelid is working. For Leyendecker, he has a lot of good references
that you can find from the internet. One of the things that you see a lot in his
work is this sort of like very stylized shapes is the silhouette, the overlaps... Everything is like slightly stylized so it
becomes stylized realism that's really wonderful. It's how some of these big shapes are contained
to be a big shape instead of like maybe adding too much in illustration. We call it fidelity but that basically means
that there's a lot of different details that shows like the form within it. So, it has this sort of graphical element
and we're definitely gonna be trying to emulate that, so, the focus on shapes. There's some of that also up here how the
back of the head is being treated. So, I’m gonna try to like put those angles
in where I can find them. I love how he's using graphical elements,
for example, like this dress and how it just becomes like one graphical element and not
really carrying a lot of shape, but it becomes this texture of detail and in a big shape. Over here where his focal point is, focal
point is the term that we use of like where you want your viewer to look at the most interesting
thing in the pictures. Basically we're going to define her face and
then we can kind of keep some of the other elements a bit more loose in graphic. And one thing that a lot of people are - including
myself are really stoked about is how his brush work - brushwork really works, what
you will see down here. He'll use - might need to zoom in a bit more,
but you see these sort of like canvas leftovers where his strokes are kind of leaving like
these sort of like, you can almost call it cross hatching and that's something that Leyendecker
is very known for. So, one thing too that Leyendecker doesn't
do a lot is background. There isn't really a ton of perspective and
depth in his work which is all right because he's mostly focusing on the emotion and the
storytelling of the figure. And whatever elements is in there, it's pretty
much just there to support you know, what is happening within that sort of context. Another element of like this kind of brush
stroke treatment is the thing that's coming down - happening down here or like in this
masterfully handling of like how this fold is being defined and rendered. One thing that he does a lot is this sort
of like treatment of the hair. There's the big shape of the hair and then
within it, it's like these very planar defined three-dimensional brush strokes that are really
defining where the light is coming from and then leaving things to be a bit more abstract
and graphic. And what I mean by that is if you look at
how this section of the hair, for example, is - then you know, it doesn't necessarily
find a lot of form or detail, but it kind of gives us an area of rest where there becomes
a bit of texture and a bit of noise if you can say... Maybe not noise, but a little bit of rest
for our eye to kind of coast on so it doesn't need to pay so much attention there and then
we have an area over here where we have the highlight that can kind of pop out. So, that leads me to one thing that we're
gonna be paying attention to when we are painting which is going to be the sort of arrangement
of detail. So, it's a concept that I like to - that is
called "area of detail" and "area of rest". And it's kind of like a rhythm... I want you to think about it like music, if
that makes sense. Like notes. There needs to be silence in between two,
where you have a guitar or drums, whatever it really is, when you hit you make a noise,
so I think of that as detail, something that's grabbing your attention and then you follow
that up with a bit of silence. So, you have the drum, boom, break and then
you can do your next kind of beat and then you can find you know, like that sort of rhythm
that's kind of going into it. So, how that kind of goes in if we break that
down, let's take the picture of this piece from Leyendecker is I will be detail because
there's a lot of information right there. The rest, not really a lot of information
over here. This is detail if you really want to break
it down into smaller one, then there's a rest right around here before it goes into detail
again. But there's a big area down here that can
be a rest and then a little bit of detail over here again and then over here, a rest. So, like this kind of continuation of rest,
detail, rest, detail. It's like a rhythm of like you want to balance
your detail and rest, so when you then apply the detail, it really gets the room to sing. I know I’m going to do something like more
of a portrait of her, so I’m going to pick a few of these from this reference board and
then we're gonna pick a few, put them to the side and we're gonna start drawing. So, I’m making a small list in terms of
the things and points from when we're kind of going through these pictures and finding
out what's important for us before we go into painting and drawing this. One of the things where we're going to need
something that looks like a traditional canvas, the next thing is going to be we're going
to have graphic shapes. We're going to have some of those cross hatching,
it's a little hard to say, and then we're gonna have a background that's gonna be simplified. I’ll put that over here just as a little
gentle reminder. So, this is the part where as you go into
it, you have to just be prepared to fail a lot, you have to be willing to try new things. I’m going to start with a bit of a, probably
some bigger brushstrokes just to kind of like find the general feel and direction of Jett. I like some of that attitude that's kind of
going on. I feel that giving her a bit more of like
a standoffish attitude and maybe a little smug, something like that feels appropriate
for her character. She's a badass, and I really want to kind
of sell some of that feeling of her being confident, aspirational and got this under
control and can easily kick your ass if she needed to. First thing I’m going to do is like I’m
just defining a bit of a shoulder line here and I’m basically thinking that my camera
is looking up. So, that's going to be one of the things that
I’m playing around with here. I’m going to hone in now and just draw along. One of the things I like to do is like try
to get some of the bigger shapes down before I go into detail. So, before I even start thinking about her,
you know, eyes and nose and all that then, just focusing slowly on kind of getting the
overall shape. And because she's kind of like looking down
at us, I’m going to try to take this lips of the head and a little bit off so we feel
that she's kind of like looking down. So, also here, what we're gonna try to do
is like we're gonna find some different ways of trying out how we can make this hair feel
good and graphic and have a strong shape because that was one of the things that Leyendecker
always used to do is like always find and design a really strong shape for the characters. One thing that I’m noticing down here from
the 3D model is that there's some good shapes but it can definitely be pushed a lot more
in the illustration. So, I like some of these side, just these
side lumps of hair. We're gonna definitely play around with some
of that. I think her forehead right now it's a bit
too big, so I grabbed the lasso tool and I’ll take that and put that a bit down. I’m trying to like use that angularity to
define some of this ponytail. One thing that I learned over the years to
being an illustrator is, especially when doing female characters, you want to be careful
with the neck. One thing that I did a lot, at least when
I was starting out, I always kind of made the necks a bit too thick. If you're trying to create somebody who's
really like - feels feminine and like apart you know, different from masculine characters,
it's easier just to kind of like slim it down, make it a bit more stylized. It will feel less masculine. It also depends on your female characters
of course. You know, if you're trying to create a female
character that's very strong and you know, like her main thing is strength, maybe having
a bigger neck is gonna sell that kind of character more. But for Jett, I think we're gonna keep it
a bit more on the smaller side. So, this is a fun part... We can have like this hair strain kind of
like go in front of her face and essentially when a form is going in front or behind of
something else, that's often what's being defined with an overlap. And it's a good way that you're showing how
the forms are sitting with each other and it's a way to create dimensional shape. I’ll just show a little tip here to - in
image rotation, if you say Flip Canvas Horizontally - English is hard man [Laughter], then you
can kind of like flip the whole thing. And essentially what it does is like it kind
of refreshes your eyes, you're seeing it again a new and it'll just help you kind of like
spot out some of your mistakes and keep your eyes just - have a more fresh view. And mistakes will be made always, that is
part of the journey. It's human to make mistakes and we all do
it. So, it's to be expected. So, I’ll embrace the mistakes that will
come along the way and fix the ones that I can. Let's see, we'll flip it again, boop... Also like when drawing, make sound effects,
definitely make sound effects. It makes it more fun, it makes it to feel
like the impact of your action is stronger [Laughter]. So, one little tip that I’ll do a lot when
I’m kind of drawing and I’m pushing and pulling and I’m finding the picture and
the angle is I will go in to Filter, Liquify... So, one thing that we're going to do is, I
love kind of going into Liquify and then pushing and pulling a bit, finding ways where we can
kind of like tweak our drawing a bit more, fix some of the mistakes or make it more dynamic,
have it more - give it more flow to a curve like overall. So, you see this arm right now that has this
sort of line, I’m gonna try to like see if I can find a way to make that flow continue
up through the neck. So, it basically becomes a continuation of
the line of the arm and how that kind of goes up and turns around or turns into a line that
goes into the head. That's part of like this principle that's
called "Flow" before and after. One of the things too that's like very characteristic
of her is like she does not have like a very angular nose, so we're gonna try to kind of
get some of that in. So, you know, if you look at the noses, it
doesn't have a very kind of like sharp edges anywhere, it's very kind of rounded. So, we're gonna try doing something like that
too. She's a tricky one and I am definitely a bit
out of my comfort zone with her just because making Jett in this sort of style is interesting. One of the things is that with Leyendecker,
it's like it's often used for this very Americanized feel and style to it, you know? Also because of the historical context of
it and then making somebody who's from Korea in this style, it's going to be interesting. [Inaudible] and try get that winged eye makeup
that I was talking about in the start. That needs to be like really emphasized. So, right now what we're gonna try to deal
with is like we're gonna try out different expressions and see which ones kind of fit. So, maybe if she's more of this sort of like
badass, less of a smile and maybe she's kind of looking down at you, so we're going to
take the pupils here and kind of like maybe tilt it towards the viewer, see how that feels. I’m very much like a hands-on kind of illustrator. I tend to try to put down the mark and then
see it and you know, explore it and see how it feels and then kind of adjust it from there. With the first sketch down, I think we're
gonna go into exploring a different angle and then see where that leads us. I’m looking at this one over here right
now, just trying to see if I can take some from it and basically find something that
feels good, something that feels kind of confident, standoffish maybe a little bit too. So, while doing these too, there's a lot of
steps in terms of drawing fundamentals that I’m not going to be covering this tutorial. There you know, like there's a lot of resources
online too and I think you know, while you're on this channel already, take a look at some
of the videos that are kind of teaching you about anatomy... Just a good place to kind of like go and study
some of these things. These are some of the things that I have learned
when I was in school basically learning traditional art, you know, art, drawing croaky or life
drawing as it's also called. It's a great place to kind of learn about
gesture, flow and then when you go into like more anatomy studies and also figure drawing,
like longer figure drawings, is a great place to really learn about drawing the figure. And also when doing these first kind of sketches,
I’m not trying to be super accurate. I’m basically just trying to find the feeling
of it and then from there, I’ll kind of go in and refine more as I go along. But in the start, I want to be more loose,
get the feeling in and then from there you know, I can define if I’m capturing the
feeling first and then from there, we're gonna go in and we're gonna be more kind of like
analytical and break down like more drawing, make sure that the perspective is right, the
forms are reading, all of these sort of things. Trying this, mm, this sketch doesn't really
work for me, so I’m going to try something new. There's not really much of an up look, so
basically what I’m trying to do right now with the first couple of lines is like instead
of her kind of like looking like this at the camera, I’m tilting the head a little bit
more back, kind of like making her feel a little bit more kind of standoffish or basically
raising her head. So, it's part of like acting too, you know,
you want to kind of like maybe act out you know, the attitude of the character. So, you can kind of like break that down and
try to stay in front of a mirror and see how it feels to be you know, to be in that sort
of like attitude or pose that you're trying to capture. I think also over time, the more you do it,
you start to know a few of them, you know, like oh yeah, if it needs to be you know more
confident or it needs to be more standoffish, you know, these are the directions I can go. But in the start, definitely recommend standing
in front of a mirror trying to do these sort of things. Maybe there's a little bit of a raised eyebrow,
see if we can kind of like make it feel a little bit serious, maybe judging a little
bit. One thing too that I’m gonna try to do is
like see if we can find that fine balance between something feeling both confident and
badass but also maybe a slight bit of playfulness, you know, that sort of like carelessness if
that makes sense. So, here's an another little thing that we
could take from the references that we picked already in the start is sort of like how he
really simplify - like Leyendecker really simplifies the back of the head sometimes,
like making it into a bigger sort of shape. So, back here we have that sort of choice
again. Right now it can be a bit of a stronger statement. Right now, kind of contemplating if I should
make her chin like really sharp. Mostly just for stylization purposes, like
making that sharp chin will also feel that she's more aggressive in her shape language. Her whole thing is like she has these daggers
that are very pointy. If you take a look at you know, the hair,
it's very pointy... So, we're gonna try to see if we can take
that you know, pointiness and like apply it to some of her design. That might not be as realistic, but it will
just help you feel more of that kind of aggressive razor sharp edges just by looking at her. So, maybe she's so edgy that you know, just
looking at her will kind of cut you. I’m basically just gonna try to push my
drawing again. Often when we draw, we tend to kind of like
make things feel very symmetrical or very even and the Liquify is a good way to break
up some of that evenness that is naturally happening when we're drawing, or at least
when I’m drawing and has really helped me push you know, even if it's at 5% in my drawings,
it's definitely pushing it. I’m gonna do a small before and after... After and before, after and before. Going back to our project points too, we have
another kind of cool thing where we can rely on some of the graphical shapes. So, if you look at the top here of the head
and down here of her neck, we can actually make a big sort of statement and just make
this one big graphic line that doesn't really like have a lot of different elements in it
than just being one big statement and it's gonna add that graphicalness that we were
talking about in the start. So, that's one of the decisions from the early
stage that we're going to be bringing in here. Right now I’m looking at the reference that's
up here in the corner. I think there's a lot of cool attitude in
this one. I’m gonna try to take some of that and like
make some like changes in order to hit maybe more of the attitude that we're going for. Speaker 1: So, before you take it to the painting
stage, do you typically do like painting thumbnails. Esben: I do, yeah, yeah. Not so much with colors but when - sometimes
with colors but like there would be like different compositions and you know, different lighting
scenarios too, you know, like different sort of moods and then from there I would kind
of like see what's working and I would have some sort of mission when I start for this
one with the style of Leyendecker, I have some pillars that I can always like go back
to and ask myself like 'is this meeting the requirements?' so, some of the main things
that I’m taking from the breakdown of Leyendecker is definitely the sort of graphicness that's
going into some of the shapes. So, I’m not afraid to make like bolder statements
in terms of like you know, this back of the head will be more graphic and will have more
of a bigger graphic shape to it. The same with the ponytail, is a big kind
of graphic shape. So, I’m trying to push those strokes and
really get as much power and energy out of them as I can. With Leyendecker drawing faces and portraiture,
he always pushes shapes. So, he values two things very highly; he values
the shapes and the graphicness of things and then the three-dimensionality of it too. So, he will kind of make the line kind of
like more flowy than you would maybe normally do and then he would focus in on really making
sure that the three dimensionality of the drawing is reading and that it has like a
strong kind of like shape to it. So, there's so much design that's happening
in his drawings and in his designs. Maybe not making it as realistic as it would
be, but instead, try to fuse the two where it becomes a stylistic and design choice as
well as trying to retain as much of the realism or stylized realism as possible. So, other good artists to kind of like check
out two I guess would be you know, the classics and I think a lot of people would - are already
talking about them but N.C. Wyeth, John Singer Sargent, I really love
Paul Bonner, I think his stuff is incredible. I actually had the pleasure of meeting Paul
very randomly. One day I was sitting at this small field
in Denmark with freelance illustrators and all of a sudden, in walks Paul Bonner with
a painting that he needed to get scanned and I actually got to meet him and say "hi" and
it was quite wonderful you know, meeting one of your art heroes from you know, like I remember
seeing Paul Bonner's stuff the first time for Warhammer and Paul Bonner was one of the
artists that really inspired me to draw and like show me also like what you could do with
art after you took a long time to practice it and some of the worlds you could help build
and it was insane. Like he blew my mind with some of these drawings
and lately I’ve been really interested and inspired by comic book artists, specifically
Metteo Scalera, also Gigi Cavenago... He's one of the people that I’m studying
right now and I find too that I’ll go to different artists for different things depending
on what it is that I’m looking for and I always find that for Paul Bonner, you know,
it's a sense of detail and scale too in his painting, that fantastical atmosphere he really
brings into this dark fantasy is something he does better than most people. I would go to some of these comic book artists
like for stylization you know, like for efficiency of how much you can express in very few lines
because they have to do several panels all the time and it's like it's mind-boggling
how well they are able to pump this out in such a high quality and in the time periods
that they get. So, I look towards them for learning about
speed and efficiency too. So, in terms of like good Danish artists,
the art community in Denmark is not as big as other places for sure but there is definitely
like Jesper Ejsing whose acrylic Magic: The Gathering painter, fantasy stuff you know,
like he really is doing a lot of the things that I’m also doing in the day-to-day with
Splash Art. He just was way before my time and definitely
also help lay down some of that groundwork for what fantasy illustration is today. A lot of the Danish people that work within
this industry eventually move out of the country, move to find work mostly because the entertainment
industry and everything is stronger in other places especially in the U.S. Denmark do not
have a lot of options on that front. Speaker 2: Do you get inspired by any comic
artists? Esben: Sean Murphy is one of my all-time favorites
right now. He basically drew his whole comic and came
up with the story too of the White Knight and is - yeah, it's masterpiece. It's definitely one of the best comics I’ve
ever read in my life if not the best. There is Dylan Dog, that one is beautiful
and really wonderful. Those are some of the things that are really
inspiring me these days. Like comic book artists are just beasts... They have so much power in their hands, you
know, because there's a overall larger message that is trying to be delivered to you and
every single little component of that needs to be harmonized in order to deliver this
message as well as possible. It's almost like a chef cooking for you, making
sure that all the ingredients and everything are harmonized in the best possible way. So, it hits you the hardest the second you
take your bite, and are maybe helping you perceive and see something that you know,
you haven't really thought about or maybe you start seeing yourself in a hero and you
can take some of that courage or whatever it is that they're conveying in the story
and you can embody some of it and you can start to maybe push your own life in a direction
you want it to go. Instead of painters or you know, illustrators,
it's often trying to do all of that but do it in one picture which is hard. [Chuckles] It's a tall order and it's very
hard to be successful in it but that's what you know, illustrators are trying to do is
the same sort of thing but in the medium of one picture, which is hard and when done successfully
extremely impactful. So, I guess illustrators really can hone in
on making something feel believable because you know, they're defining the space and all
this often more than what comic book artists are but they're limited by that they have
to do all of that in one picture. What I’ve been doing right now or up until
now in my career has been to paint pictures in a fairly high detail level and try to capture
as much of the information in there as I possibly could. I see that I would definitely be using those
abilities that I’ve been picking up over the years. I know I can I can color things fairly fast
and create some sort of light and form. I think if I had to do a comic on my own,
using that and taking it a little bit further is something I could do. From here on now is when the refining and
then painting is going to happen. We have made three different sketches basically
exploring different angles, also if expressions of like how Jett could look like. In the first one that we're seeing here, I
do like - I really like what started happening over here; the neck and that kind of like
going into the flow of the shoulders, that feels really cool... Could look beautiful when painted up in the
Leyendecker style and fits that sort of like very graphic deal. Also like what's going on here in the ponytail,
so there's some really nice overall statements in terms of the shape... In terms of the face and the expression, could
definitely be improved upon if we are gonna go that way. So, number one I think is overall good in
terms of what we're trying to achieve with some of the pushed shapes and also like that
graphic sort of feel. She does feel like strong, stable and also
a little bit of kind of like that badass standoffish necessary. Number two, not a big of a hit but you know,
that's what the exploratory phase is for, is just throw things out there, don't just
take the first pick, do a few things, see what's working, what's not working and then
just find the thing that's the best before you move forward. So, number two didn't have a lot of great
things in it. It feels too casual and calm and I don't know,
not kind of like hitting the pillars in terms of that attitude that I’m trying to hit
with it. So, number two probably not. Number three feels pretty good. There's definitely some of that power that's
being conveyed, there's a cool kind of like looking down shot and there's some graphic
and big shapes that could be interesting to play with too. This would of course need to be improved upon
if this was the direction we would go. So, right now I’m sitting and I’m having
to choose between one and three. I think for this demo, I’m probably gonna
go with number three. I feel it kind of hits it the best in terms
of like some of that three dimensionality but also I really like where her face is kind
of at right now and there is also something about having something that's more front of
Jett and kind of like seeing where we can take that, where the promo art that was already
made shows a really nice side profile. I want to see if I can nail you know, this
kind of front profile in the Leyendecker style. So, that's going to be the next couple of
steps. So, we're going to move forward with number
three. Now we're done with the planning, found our
direction, we did a bit of exploration too. In the next video, I’m going to show you
how to take this drawing and turn it into a final painting. I’ll see you there.
