Jack Leapt: Lets share our inspiration and WIPs!!

[J. Morgan Looney]

Today's live stream inspired me to start on the April prompt. Not sure if I will make it in time, but here's the start.

The idea is that Jack is a bandit jumping to get away from the law. I'm not sure if the lasso mid-jump makes sense(or if I will be able to draw the physics of it), but it seemed like a a good dynamic pose when thumbnailing. Would love to hear thoughts on it!

PS. The gryphon is a turkey vulture and a horse

[kayleenartlover]

I think I’m liking the composition on the bottom thumbnail, but not sure which version to do, with the griffin on the left or right?

[Fey Realme]

@kayleenartlover those look great! Action should generally read left to right, so i recommend the right version! Cant wait to see it!

[jenn]

@MarcRobinson Ooh, very cinematic! this scene reminds me of the golden eagle who saves Gandalf. And just as epic.

[jenn]

@kayleenartlover I agree, the Right one. These panels look great, it is very clear what is going on, there's a nice rhythm to the angles and zooms.

[jenn]

@J-Morgan-Looney the 2nd one with the arrow pointing to it could work. Maybe the hind legs of the griffin could bend forward a little and the lasso be nearly hooked on. The lasso could still be open/slack or whatever the technical lassoing term is. I like how everything is silhouetted. And I just happened to see a turkey vulture for the first time a couple days ago. They are magnificent! Nice choice.

[MarcRobinson]

@jenn hey thanks Jenn I appreciate it.

[J. Morgan Looney]

@jenn thanks for the input. Started moving in the direction of Jack riding the gryphon, but I think I will revisit the lasso pose with your feedback!

[skeletortoise]

Hello all,

My idea this month is to draw a pirate who has just stolen from the gold hoard in a tower. I’ve interpreted the “swooping low” as the griffin being in pursuit of Jack and Jack has to jump to get away, though in a couple of comps I played with Jack being chased by other pirates and the griffin is helping him.

I’ve done some composition sketching, but I’m concerned not everything is lining up with the prompt. Will it look like he’s trying to jump to the ship instead of just into the water? Will it look like the griffin is his friend? Is it a problem if Jack isn’t exactly at the edge of the tower but instead outside of it? Any feedback would be appreciated!

As a clarifying note: in #1, 4, 5 the griffin is after him, and in #2, 3 the griffin is helping him while bad pirates are chasing him.

[kayleenartlover]

I designed Jack even though he'll be pretty small in the final illustration, next is just the griffin before putting it all together

[Fey Realme]

@kayleenartlover that is great! You might consider adding a cloud and a bit more castle to fill in the negative space. I think this is perfect for a book spread, especially if you leave space for text, you have already avoided the gutter beautifully!

Heres what i mean about the castle and the sky

[kayleenartlover]

Just working on the griffin before make slight changes to the background. Thanks for all the comments and critiques ️

[Julia Hegetusch]

@kayleenartlover hi. I love yout tiger griffin design

[Jason Crowley]

Here's my sketch before I move to the final. I'll be rendering this in pencil then scanning into Photoshop and colouring in behind in the pencil.

Sooooo much reference needed for me to get this basic looking image together, as I'd never drawn pretty much everything in the image

I wanted the text to mirror the 'falling' of the character by spacing it out in vertically staggered slices.

I've designed this to picture book dimensions and have accounted for the gutter in the middle so nothing of importance is cut off.

Some process stuff:

Thumbs

I ended up doing a basic blender model of the castles to help me visualise camera angles and the like. I find this a super useful approach for interiors and buildings.

I flipped the composition eventually so the griffin is facing right and so that the text can be read left to right.

Here's the two point perspective guides put in place.

I wanted the reason that the character was escaping the castle was to save the captured baby griffin and return it to its mother. I thought about cropping this in so this can be clearly seen but I figure in the context of a book this would be emphasised in another section. I also felt that showing the griffin in full would make a more dramatic composition.

[kayleenartlover]

@Julia-Hegetusch Thanks!

[kayleenartlover]

would love any tips on Jack if he looks too stiff,
I'm thinking the threat at the top of the tower will be the Giant from the beanstalk fairytale...

[Larue]

@Jason-Crowley
Looks like an adventure time character...love it!

[MarcRobinson]

@kayleenartlover I love the low down angle of the illustration! It's super dynamic. Remember to avoid symmetry in the pose. Also keep the head off the centre line too. At the moment the character is very upright, and the limbs are out like a star almost. Try going "too far" with the pose, then reigning it back if you need to. Try having the head lower, more bent body and limbs all over the place. You might hit a fun pose by accident.

[kayleenartlover]

@MarcRobinson I think I was going for this being his jump but if his head is lower it would be more like the falling part of the leap. I had a hard time finding reference photos for the pose. If you or anyone else have ideas on what I can use as reference that would be great

[Fey Realme]

Hey yall after lots of internal struggles with my story this is the direction im going for my image— any feedback is welcome!
Text will read “I lept for Griffin and we made our escape from the evil wizards palace”