Christophe Young

Design Workshop 16 - Design Session

10:00-12:00pm ET

Going to start a little earlier to try a finish a whole character in one session! I'll be doing another character for the beach rampage themed monthly challenge.

Figure Painting Study

Another one! Every time I work on a figure painting I learn something new about anatomy, color, and light. How muscles change shape depending on the angle of underlying bones and how that affects the shadow shapes created on the surface of the skin. How skin reacts and changes color and temperature at different angles to the light. And so on...

Recently, I've been more cognisant that the ...

Updated Tiers!

The previous Sketchbook and Spicy Content Tiers have been permanently deleted. If you were still in the Sketchbook or Spicy Content tier when they were deleted, you’ll still be my patron, but you’ll be a “no tier” patron, and won’t have the same access as you previously had.

You can change your membership tier whenever you like. To switch tiers, follow the steps below:

<...
2023-07-28 00:32:21 +0000 UTC View Post

Figure Painting

I spent a couple sessions on this figure study to practice painting straight ahead in color on just on a normal layer. Most of the time I had my background set to 50% grey so I could judge my values and color temperature properly as it's really hard to do that against a white bg.

I did the hand studies after the fact to test out a bit of a different approach, sketching with a bright orang...

Design Workshop 15 - Lighting

10:30 -12pm ET

Today we're talking about planing the lighting for your character illustration, how to think about light and shadow, and conveying mood and story through the use of lights. I've attached a practice sheet for you to follow along with if you so choose!

Jessy Lighting Study

I've been experimenting with some new ways of setting up my illustrations so I can test lighting schemes quickly and found some cool techniques in the process. My PSD is attached and you can check out my new video where I walk through the layers one at a time to explain the strategy.

https://youtu.be/XtrPoqa3fds

Brendan

Brendan is a troublemaker. He won't just ruin your sandcastle, he'll pee on it. He's that kid you see and ask yourself "Where are his parents?" and then realize they probably gave up. So he's probably good to have on your side.

Design Workshop 14 - Design Session

10:30 - 12pm ET

Today I'm going to work on some final designs for the summer themed character design challenge. I'll be basing them on the quick ideation sketches I worked on in last week"s stream. 

Beach Rampage Character Sketches

Sketches from the Thumbnail Design livestream. These were really fun to draw! Next stream I'll cover how I expand on one of these ideas and turn it into a final character design.

Design Worshop 13 - Thumbnail Design

Livestream 10:30am -12pm ET

Today I'll be demonstrating some character ideation techniques using thumbnail sketches. I have a few fun character ideas to try out for this month's challenge theme, so I can't wait to get started and share them with you! See you there.

Figure Study

Here is also the PSD with the analysis overlays.

July Monthly Challenge!

This month's challenge will be our first character design challenge!

Theme: Summer Super Soaker Battle Royal FPS 👙🔫🍡🌞

The beach is a deadly warzone, littered with destroyed sandcastles and fallen super-soaker soldiers. Your character is armed with the highest grade watergun, water ballon grenades, and other deadly childhood fun backyard toys. Are they the big armored tan...

July 2023 Update

Hey everyone! Here's a quick update on what's happening this month.

Restructuring in Progress

With all the tiers being merged into the Character Design Academy, there are a couple things to consider. Firstly, I must manually go through all my previous tiers and decide what will be available and what won't. For the most part, the nude figure studies from the previous...

Monthly Challenge Livestream - June 2023

Starting at 10:30 ET

Reviewing all your beautiful fashion studies from the past month!

Design Workshop 12 - Fashion Studies

Today I'm going to stream some fashion studies in light of this month's challenge theme. This is going to be a more relaxed drawing session, so feel free to grab some references and draw along with me. See you soon!

Sunday Livestream Reschedule

Hello! I'm going to have visitors tomorrow so I'll have to push the regular Sunday livestream. I will host the livestream Monday evening at 8pm ET instead.

Renegade Illustration - Full Process

Renegade

Here's my latest character design, and I recorded the whole process for your enjoyment! The PSD is also attached below.

Figure Drawing Ep.02

Restructuring my Patreon Ver.2

Tier 2 (Workshop) becomes the Character Design Academy

The other option... is just to simplify everything and have one tier that contains everything. I understand some of you feel like the previous post kills the workshop tier a bit, so this is my solution - One tier to rule them all, priced the same as the current workshop tier (fyi price is in Canadian dollars).

Figure Drawing Analysis

Every figure drawing has its own set of challenges. Some rely more heavily on gesture and lighting, whereas others might rely more on anatomy and structure. This one was leaning very heavily on anatomy, and was a great challenge, especially with the torsion in the upper body.  Here are the things I analyzed throughout the drawing process for this figure.

Figure Drawing

Reference by Grafit Studio

I'm working on a process video, it will be up on youtube this week!

Restructuring my Patreon

Starting July 1st, this will be the new tier structure and benefits for my Patreon. Tier 1 will remain the same, but tiers 2 and 3 will be unpublished on July 1st. You will still have access to your memberships' contents until the end of July, it just won't be visible to the public to join. Also, a lot of the content I've already published will be transferred to the new tiers to make the change...

Design Workshop 11 - Hardsurface Design

10:30-12:00pm ET

Today we're going to look at the philosophy behind hardsurface design. From defining the basic structure to design panel lines and mechanical details. 

Design Workshop 10 - Cloth & Folds

10:30-12:00pm ET

In light of this month's challenge, I'll be covering the topic of cloth and folds. How to approach understanding them, what forces create what kinds of folds, how do different materials change the characteristics of the folds, and much more! 

June Monthly Challenge!

Fashion design is a staple in character concept art, and it all starts with building your visual library. This month's challenge revolves around fashion! 

Pick 3-5 references of fashion items/accessories, study them closely, and draw them with as much fidelity as you can. No need for color, but pay special attention to the material quality. Make silk feel extra silky and leather feel...

Figure Study

In this study, I was really focused on the foreshortening of the limbs and stacking the main volumes (Pelvis, Ribcage, and Head) in perspective. 

I wish I could share the process video but Youtube is shredding my nude figure study videos to pieces as they apparently violate all the community guidelines, yay... (Even if they are unlisted, rated as 18+ content, and marked as inappropri...

What are you interested in learning?

Restructuring Patreon/Discord

Hey everyone! The first few months of launching my patreon has gone very well overall. But as you know, with anything new, there's a learning curve and mistakes are bound to be made haha. That said, I'm currently reviewing the pros and cons of patreon and discord, the different tiers, the kinds of content I'm creating exclusively for patrons, the direction of the discord server, etc. 

June Update

Working From Home

As you might (or might not) know, I work a full time job as a senior character concept artist on Star Citizen. I've recently started working from home to better balance my studio work, patreon, youtube, and other aspects of my life like eating and going outside to touch grass every now and then. This is quite a new change for me but so far I am enjoying ...