iuliae: 2D Art Thread

Iuliae

Hi everyone! My name is Giulia, I started a few years ago as a 3D artist but decided to switch to 2D since I wanted to focus more on the pre-production and initial creative process.

My objective is to work in the videogame industry and my dream would be as a creative director, since I love to design stories and characters and basically I'd love to see my ideas take form as videogames!

I understand it's a bit farfetched and I'm not sure how to proceed, so right now I'm studying by my own digital painting and trying to push in a character design and concept art direction.

C&C, advices and feedback are mostly welcome!!

You can also find me on ArtStation, my website or Instagram

This is one of my latest work:

Iuliae

I'll start posting a collection of the latest things I did, you can also find oldest work on my ArtStation or Instagram

These are photo studies I did while studying online digital painting:

An illustration I did a few months ago for a personal project I'm still working on. It's a bit old and I'm already seeing a few errors /:

The main character of the ten I did for the Artstation Wild West Challenge:

Emily, another original character and another project, still in the early development stage:

Lately after all the study I was losing the fun and I needed to cool down a little so I did a few fanarts:

Iuliae

Still trying to blow off some steam with a thing featuring the latest Prada collection. After this I'll probably go back to some studies.

Iuliae

Calling it done. It took much more time than expected and there're lot of things I'm not happy with. I always end up with a realistic shading and I feel like it clashes with my lineart. I was thinking about doing some studies from photo to learn to convey my style better.



As usual all kinds of feedback are most welcome

Iuliae

Value study, the lion was about 2h, the angel I think 5h.

shane_valentine

Great stuff ! Keep up the great work, Giulia

Iuliae

@shane_valentine Thank you!!

Here's another value study. My hand slipped, I went way too literal and it took me ages. I'll definitely try to keep it more simple the next times.

Iuliae

I've always wanted to copy some of my favorite classical statues, so since I'm in value study mode I thought I could make a series or something like that. There's always a lot to learn Ratto di Proserpina by Bernini, wip.

Iuliae

Posting my progress since for a few days I'll be away from my pc and unable to continue. I'm already around 5 hours in... I thought there wouldn't be something worse than the lion mane, but her hair definitely is. I tried to keep it more loose at the beginning but ended up going too literal again. Hope I'll able to be more quick with time and practice.

Iuliae

My progress so far. I'm gonna stop with this for a bit since Battlerite launched a new Art Contest and I wanted to participate I'll post some thumbnails and my references for that soon

Iuliae

As promised here are the references I've collected this far for this work:

I wanted to do something splash art-like with Poloma Halloween's skin. These are some thumbnails:

What do you guys think? Personally during the process I was already thinking about going with the 3rd, but I must admit that now I prefer the 1st pose. 4th is really Halloweenian too so right now I'm thinking 1 or 4.

Iuliae

I decided to go with the 4th, so I could do something funny which also really relate to the Halloween theme. My progress so far:



Tomorrow I plan to finish the base drawing and setting the mood, possibly start painting too. I want to add some references to the other heroes inside the cauldron, maybe avoiding to make it look like she cooked them (even if a friend told me he would dig that lol).

Iuliae

Final lineart:



And these are two quick mood setups:





Originally I wanted it to be exclusively purple-green, but I admit it looks a bit too confusing with her hair since it's the same color. So I'll probably go with the blue one.

Iuliae

Progress

Iuliae

Aaand it's done! You can also check it out on my Artstation page.

The rendering part was getting pretty exhausting in the end but it was really fun and I'm satisfied with how it turned out. Here's also a gif process:

As usual C&C are most welcome!

Iuliae

A little something to try out a different style. Wip

Also I'm really happy to say that my illustration was chosen as one of the three Grand Prize Winners in the Battlerite Contest! Check the contest page here to see the other entries

Iuliae

First Pastel Girl done I think I'll do a few of  these to keep experimenting a little.

Iuliae

Second one in progress!

At the beginning I wasn't sure of the pose, these are the sketches I did to find the right pose which would communicate the right character:

And this is the final in flat colors!

Iuliae

Done!

Iuliae

Happy new year guys (a bit late)! I'm starting it with another pastel girl Pose exploration and final in flat colors:

Iuliae

Done!

Iuliae

Pose exploration for another one. I'll probably do this and another one and then close this project.

I think I finally settled for the last one (5), I'll fix it a bit tomorrow and it should be ready to go This one was particularly tricky because the long dress will be semi-trasparent, so I wanted to show it without getting too confusionary and without using a standing pose which is a format that doesn't work well with the other pastel girls.

In these days I've also done an art test for a mobile game company, I didn't sign any NDA and it didn't involve anything company-related, so it should be safe to share here! I'll wait for the reply and then post it

Iuliae

Flats

Iuliae

Done!

Iuliae

Before I forget, this is the character I designed for the art test! The request was a military strategy mobile game set in a near future setting, so I thought of a squad commander, a tactical support unit with extremely high strategical skills operating real time on the field through an advanced communication system. It all took no more than 10 hours 

Profile art and top-down in battle views:

A bit of exploration:

Thinking of fixing up a bit the top-down view and then I'll probably add it to my portfolio

Iuliae

I just moved and it took me ages! Now I finally got a hold of my pc and an Internet connection, so I can finally start to send stuff in again Meanwhile these are a few pencil sketches I made during this break:

Iuliae

Back when I didn't have Internet I also managed to keep going with this old value study and I finally finished it:

I'll keep more loose in the next ones. I promise.

I followed a brief perspective lesson and this is an exercise I made:

Not too happy with how it came out, especially the guy on the gondola, I think I was too focused on following the photo while I should have used more my perspective grid.

Also working on the next and last Pastel Girl, I'll post the sketches soon

Eric Chadwick

That is my favorite sculpture in the Borghese, and they have some amazing pieces in there. Bernini is awesome! Kudos on the painting.

HorribleJohn

Looking cool

Iuliae

@HorribleJohn @Eric Chadwick Thank you guys! Yeah it's one of my favorite sculptures ever! The way fingers sink in the skin and thinking it's marble... it really is out of this world.

Another perspective I'm a bit happier with:

A study of a screencap to focus a bit on color and light, since I feel they're my weakest point right now:

I'm also working on my last pastel girl, these are the poses' sketches and the final in flats:

Iuliae

A value exercise with a new method I'm studying (around 4h)

And the final pastel girl!

Iuliae

Another screencap study:

A wip exercise I started to try coloring from black and white, but I rushed too much the sketch part and it took me ages to fix it. I underestimated how difficult is to get portraits right. This is the progress so far:

And another pencil sketch I did while away from home

Iuliae

Portrait progress, much happier with it right now, I'll wrap it up soon, maybe adding a color pass:

Another screencap study, I'm 3 hours in already but I still need to fix up some stuff. I'll probably give myself another hour on this:

A portfolio piece I'm working on, reworking an old concept of mine of the Goddess Amaterasu Making some exploration for now...

Sorry for all the scattered wips, I gave myself a weekly program with each day dedicated to something, so I don't get stuck on the same thing for too much time as I usually do

And lastly a couple of pencil drawings

Iuliae

Screencap finished!

Finally finished Amaterasu's exploration, ended up doing one more than expected, but I still wanted to try out some things

As you can see after doing some research I already had some element fixed that I wanted to be recognizable, like the type of kimono she wears, the junihitoe, or the magatama necklace. I wanted her to look pretty divine but still doable, if she were for example in a videogame, so I didn't go too crazy, even if I will probably exaggerate some elements more in the final version. What do you guys think?

Also a couple of wips I'm working on in my free time which I forgot to post: one inspired by a song and the other by the books of A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) which I just recently finished reading

Iuliae

Leaving a quick update before going on holiday! Wip of Elizabeth, my DnD character:

And some pencil drawings I forgot to post

Iuliae

Here's the character finished!:

A little bit of insight: we're making a goth-themed run and she's a Wizard's homebrew subclass called Diabolist! It's my first time playing so I'm a bit clunky, but I couldn't lose the change to do something demon-ish Her name is Elizabeth Bathory. The symbol on the top right is the design I came up with for the house's emblem. It is carved on her signet ring which it's also her arcane focus, the item wizards need to cast spells.

I'm really happy with how she turned out. I think I'll try to do some kind of model sheet with her expressions before posting it on ArtStation.

Also finished up the portait I started for practice a while ago:

Iuliae

I've started a class on lighting, this is the first assignment, both the plain version and the textured one:

Another screencap study, only 3 hours this time! Textured brushes surely do magic...

I was pretty happy with the process so I made a gif, if anyone is curious

And finally some progress on my character design, this time her weapon:

Yes, giant swords  I put her silhouette for size comparison (I still have to define her final design, but that is generally the silhouette I'll be going for).
According to the myth the sword, Ama no Murakumo, is double-edged, so no katana (even if I gave it a try with 6). I want the sword to be massive but still elegant, so I'll probably play around a bit with proportions because right now some of the design look like simple one-handed swords. But those are the ideas, pretty much. Let me know what you think!

Iuliae

Small update since it was a busy week! Still doing light exercises:

Another timed screencap study (4 hours):

And a sneak peak on the first Elizabeth expression I'm doing for her model sheet!

Iuliae

Lighting exercises again, losing my mind with refraction. I was getting tired so I sorta quitted on the second one, but I think I got the gist of it (in the first one the background is not mine).

Work in progress of another screencap, two hours in. It looks messy but I think I know what I'm doing... for now

Progress on Elizabeth's model sheet:

And finally some pencils! After my little experiment with the second IG account, I decided it was too dispersive and lately I haven't been able to dedicate much time to my sketchbook too. So I decided to just try making one simple original character a week, just to keep the creativity flowing.

So my IG account remains this one and only: iuliae_art.

Thank you all for reading and sorry for the long post Cheers!

Iuliae

Really small update because I've been busy with an art test and a small freelance project, and I'm also working on my preparatory sketches for Inktober! Can't wait to ink and post them 

Light study on hair and fur, not really my interest so I tried to be quick and did only the relevant parts for the assignment (the subject is not mine).

Screencap finished! It was a mess but I'm really happy with how it turned out:

And lastly I got the inspiration for this from an Instagram challenge, draw yourself as a Pokémon Trainer  Work in progress:

Iuliae

Pokémon Trainer finished! I tried to apply what I've been learning so far in my color & light course.

Iuliae

First four Inktober post following the official prompt list:

RING - MINDLESS

BAIT - FREEZE

Iuliae

Second batch

BUILD - HUSKY

ENCHANTED - FRAIL

Iuliae

SWING

PATTERN - SNOW

DRAGON - ASH

Iuliae

OVERGROWN - WILD

LEGEND

ORNAMENT - MISFIT

SLING - TREAD

Hanging on. I feel like my technique is really primitive but it's funny nonethless. I hope I'll find the time to keep practicing it even after Inktober!

Iuliae

TREASURE - GHOST

ANCIENT - DIZZY

TASTY - COAT

DARK

Silly sketches to vent.

Iuliae

Last batch

RIDE - INJURED

CATCH - RIPE

Iuliae

Small update before going back home for holidays because sadly I've been really busy for the past month and a half with a project I can't still show yet. Hopefully I'll be able to wrap it up and post it online soon!

I wanted to color digitally the Happy Halloween Inktober illustration, this is my progress before giving up because it was getting way too late for Halloween

It was still a good try on a new technique I'm working on to render a lineart drawing, which I'm using for this one too, a fanart of a game I've played recently, AI: The Somnium Files:

I'm bringing my sketchbook with me during the holidays, I'll try to make up for the lack of personal work with a few pencil drawings 

Cheers everyone and Happy Holidays!