Ruan Jia worship thread

File: june-29-2017-1.jpg (796KB, 735x1000px) Image search: [Google]

796KB, 735x1000px

nope. but i am.

>>3042199
Nope, God would say that he's "just" a hard working chinese human... Worship your maker, and only you maker!

File: screenshot.guild-wars-2-heart-of-thorns.4184x2160.2015-10-23.194.jpg (2MB, 4184x2160px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 4184x2160px

>>3042199
watching his demos recently made me realize how dumb i was for having so many brushes.

he only uses 2-3 basic brushes and just hand paints all the smoke/metal textures/etc. what a god.

>tfw you will never eat his brain and consume his knowledge

>>3042220
god this is shit you guys are terrible for liking this

>>3042220
where do you watch demos ?

>>3042222
why is it shit

>>3042228
>god this is shit you guys are terrible for liking this
Don't feed the trolls ignore them, and they will be lost in the replies.

>>3042228
the basic forms are incredibly simple, they are just over designed and over rendered. The castle is a bunch of cubes, the dragon is basically a tube, the figure is incredibly simple and shows no understanding of anatomy other than "two arms and a head and a body"

It's already been shown in that sketchbook video of Ruan that he has little to no understanding of observational drawing so none of this should surprise you. All he does is render things in ugly colors, and blow out light sources and shadows. Digital wankery from a guy who can't into the simple complexities of fine arts and observational work.

>>3042241
stfu ruan's terrible he's a god to beginners, and an amateur to actual artists.

File: asdasdas.jpg (879KB, 1545x940px) Image search: [Google]

879KB, 1545x940px

>>3042224
There are a few on youtube (an orc, a female, and something else).
Then there's a hoverbike painting (pic related) that you can find if you dig, I can't find the link at the moment.
And another hoverbike he painted at THU, which you have to either torrent or pay $130 to see.

>>3042250
>>3042249
Post your art.

>>3042259
here
>>3042206
better than anything ruan has done in his entire career, and i did that painting in an hour

>>3042265
we good? stop spamming this guys shit art all over the frontpage

File: af04e48878d94c127b117d6759e28777.jpg (67KB, 550x734px) Image search: [Google]

67KB, 550x734px

>>3042265
Ruan Jia did a ton of still lifes, and it shows in his work, as it all looks structural and it has dimension to it. He understands form, he understands light, he understands how different materials interact with light, and he has interesting edge control. Where is all of that in your painting?

>>3042315
That painting is an atrocity why are you defending him? He can like "kind of" alla prima paint. And alla prima is about as simple as it gets. And even then he barely knows what he's doing.

>>3042315
That hair is horrid and it looks like she has leprosy. No understanding of thick over thin painting all just one wash of ugly color after another. I can't even imagine what kind of horrible color theory went behind those terrible paint choices.

File: 1449820674797.png (456KB, 804x876px) Image search: [Google]

456KB, 804x876px

>people still falling for the Comforti Bait™

/ic/...

>>3042324
God forbid someone on this board know what they're talking about

>>3042265
(you)

>>3042331
You guys are such dweebs. You still think video games and comic books are radical. That shits for children grow the fuck up

>>3042337
(You)

>>3042340
Nobody but 13-30 year old nerds care about this shit. Get a girl, get her naked, paint her tits. That's art. Not whatever the fuck this dude does.

>>3042346
>calling things like video games and comics immature, fair enough
>paint her tits xdddddd boobs!
Not him but (you)

>>3042354
Not gonna argue the merits of tits over video games with you, anon

>>3042356
It's alright, I'm not interested in discussing such things with people who have yet to finish puberty either.

>>3042356
You are unironically a child, at least mentally

>>3042362
What the fuck does that even mean lol. I'm 24. Your sjw white knight women are more than objects is showing

>>3042367
You're "worshipping" some concept artist how childish can you get? Go jerk off to anime girls for the third time today why don't ya

>>3042372
I am le woman you motherfucker

>>3042374
And if I ate your pussy for an hour then painted you a portrait you'd worship me more than some guy that draws dragons for a living

>>3042369
>Your sjw white knight women are more than objects is showing
This is a genuinely stupid comment. I don't understand how you even came to that conclusion.

I'm calling you out because teenagers still going through puberty and dicks-for-brains are sex-obsessed. It's hypocrisy on your part, that's all to it.
The fact that I even had to explain it is just pathetic.

>>3042381
Wow you're so wise

>>3042383
You'll understand when you finish puberty, don't worry champ :^)

>>3042321
I'm sorry, when did style and technique trump the fundamentals?

Show me "good" art, then.

>>3042379
>thinks women are objects
>eats pussy

Holy moly you don't even have intellectual consistency. Also your art is shit and you are dumb as fuck.

>>3042837

Why not be an object?

Objects are valuable. Human beings are inconsistent and fragile. I'd rather be something efficient and ego-free like a chainsaw or combustion engine.

>>3042837
whatever you say social justice warrior.

>>3042249
Will Ruan Jia ever recover from this obliteration?

>>3043171
Ruan should've tried harder in life, he's famous [on an art forum filled with beginners] for being autistic instead of being creative and artistic.

>>3042249
>Incredibly simple
>Overdesigned
Pick one

>>3042206
Stop humiliating Brian :(

>>3043214
He drew a tube then rendered it for a month. There, see? It can be both. He sucks and you suck too so I can see why you're defending him. If you guys make him seem important it makes you feel better about the useless shit you're making

>>3043227
no YOU suck

Imagine waking up in the morning and being as miserable as this guy >>3043227

File: Can you spot the difference.png (1MB, 1849x700px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1849x700px

Wow. Interesting.

>>3043412
Why did you post the same image twice?

>>3043412
wow, this is an interesting way to think of it simply

>>3042249
For this piece that's a valid criticism, but if you talk in a more general sense, his portfolio on Artstation has plenty of works that demonstrate strong drawing skill foundation, so I can't agree with you there.

>>3043412
heh

>>3043457
i've just never seen anything of his that wasn't rudimentary anatomy and shapes but rendered excessively.

If I was being generous I'd say that what he's doing is no different than how Picasso treated the human figure: Vague guidelines taken to stylistic extremes. The problem is it's been done before. He doesn't examine the differences in things, he recreates the same things over and over again. There's nothing peculiar about his work. There's no eye for what makes his subjects interesting, it's simply "In this one I'll draw a head" "In this one I'll draw a dragon" "In this one I'll draw a castle"

There's isn't a thoughtfulness to the strokes, there isn't an interest in each different image he creates, it all just blends together.

Same problem I have with KJG to a degree, and to the same extent John Singer Sargent and Leyendecker. It's a performance. They're more someone to be awed at because they are so weirdly obsessive and detached from their work, but they are certainly not artists. They just happen to make art.

These are all the artists /ic/ gravitates towards though because they are impressive while being inoffensive. It's "godlike" because they have dumped so much time and effort into otherwise lazy and simple artwork.

To me an artist, as it should be to everyone here, is Michelangelo. Someone who challenges themselves to see the big picture. Where a cube or a cylinder doesn't become the entirety of the pictures, but is just one of a million parts of a greater image.

I wish more /ic/ artists pushed themselves like that. Of course when you challenge yourself you will make a lot of bad art, but you will be more respected for it, and more fulfilled later if you push yourself out of your comfort zone and really attempt to see the world in it's entirety.

>>3043477
>hurrdurr shitting on a canvas is art and ruanjia isnt

>>3043477
That doesn't sound remotely like baiting, I'll go and analyze those artists for the points you've mentioned.
Thanks for the input.

>>3043483
not what im saying
>>3043493
it's two schools of thought, dating back to the renaissance. Try to imagine the route of da Vinci as leading to Ruan Jia, and the route of Michelangelo leading to a select fewer people, most notably van gogh.

You'll find more similarities between the mona lisa and sargent's work than you will between sargent's work and michelangelo's.

And more similarities between van gogh's work and the sistine chapel paintings than you will between van gogh's work and da vinci's

It's just a difference in types of artists. Some like the performance and effect and drama, some like to study and observe and struggle.

File: hand.jpg (732KB, 1000x1000px) Image search: [Google]

732KB, 1000x1000px

>>3043508
it's impossible to deny the connection between michelangelo and van gogh, they were both more concerned with representing the unique beauty in each subject.

da vinci was more interested in the painting as an illusion and a performance, michelangelo saw the painting as an extension of nature itself.

ruan jia is more like da vinci. The whole thing is a performance. And before anyone says "da vinci studied human bodies and drew the vitruvian man", much of his legacy is styles of painting he experimented with. Michelangelo's legacy is unique to him, and there was very little to be studied or understood about him other than he made great artwork. He was devoid of technique in a way, and so was van gogh. They did what came most naturally to them.

>>3043525
>He was devoid of technique in a way, and so was van gogh. They did what came most naturally to them.
The fuck? So just draw like yourself and you'll be really good too?

>>3043477
Again, post your art.

>>3043477
>What he's doing is no different from how Picasso treated the human figure
The difference between Picasso and Ruan Jia is that from what I can tell, Picasso drew crudely on purpose to show that art can be good without being "correct", and that sometimes you need to change the appearance of what you're drawing to feel a connection. And some other abstract mumbo-jumbo.

Ruan Jia is very skilled at conveying form. In fact, rather than his rendering, I'd say it's his understanding of the forms he paints. He could paint loose like Craig Mullins and his understanding of value would still convey the same depth it always does. His edge control would still be the same. And you may not like his colors, but I think his colors make him more interesting than pretty much any western digital artist today. If you don't like RJ, that's fine. But I wish people wouldn't try to bullshit that technical artists aren't "real" artists. Art is subjective. It has many facets. I think abstract art is pointless. But I respect that being an artist means something different to everyone.

I'm surprised you don't like Sargent very much. What do you think of Rembrandt? Or Da Vinci?

I'm a big fan of Michelangelo. Are you saying the main difference lies in composition? That RJ is basically doing simple still life paintings featuring basic geometric shapes?

I'm actually really interested in what you're trying to convey here, if you're willing to elaborate.

>>3042249
>the basic forms are incredibly simple, they are just over designed and over rendered. The castle is a bunch of cubes, the dragon is basically a tube, the figure is incredibly simple and shows no understanding of anatomy other than "two arms and a head and a body"

even agreeing with this for the sake of the argument, none of that makes it bad. there's nothing wrong with simple forms and nothing good about making things complex for the sake of complexity.

he's doing everything right in that pic. values are on point. composition is fun to look at. awesome edges as per normal for him. he's painting promo art for a video game of a dragon eating some guys in front of a castle, and he's doing it as well as anyone. you're just being contrary.

File: feng-zhu010.jpg (30KB, 300x396px) Image search: [Google]

30KB, 300x396px

>>3043539
Draw what you enjoy. Just be critical.

>>3043542
We're discussing Van Gogh and Michelangelo here and you ask for some anon's art? How is that relevant to the discussion?

>>3043638
If that work was concept art, the director would say yes because it looks freaking cool, and then it would turn out shit because after modelling, the fancy rendering is gone and what you're left with is a giant tube with a lizard head.

Not saying it doesn't work as an illustration - it does - but there is a certain validity to the criticism.

File: fantasy-art-Ruan-Jia-3314045.jpg (240KB, 811x1151px) Image search: [Google]

240KB, 811x1151px

>>3043806
This is a better example of a "tube" dragon. What's wrong with this? It's just an idea, and it's not going to resonate with everyone. But it still deserves to be expressed. Not only that, but the execution is top-notch for this day and age.

>>3043836
It all depends on the purpose of that piece, if it's an illustration, a book cover or a metal band album then sure, because the rendering is inherently a part of it, but if we're talking about design, idea or viscom, it's generic and very mediocre.

There's a dragon that doesn't have any character or a design solution that would hint at how he flies, what he eats or why he is there in the first place. Same for the guys below, you don't know whether they're about to fight it, talk to it or feed it, they're just kind of standing there in raggedy, uncertain apparel doing nothing.
The situation must be pretty awkward when you imagine standing there.

>>3042199
I'd suck his dick but I wouldn't call him a god

>>3042199
not for long

>>3043916
Post progress mate I've missed you

>>3043918
not yet im not great enough, i assure you i train everyday

>>3043924
Bitch you better show something

File: 82c7822603932843a7d9d9de7287d6e2.jpg (17KB, 316x316px) Image search: [Google]

17KB, 316x316px

>>3042206
>>3042222
>>3042249
>>3042250
>>3042321
>>3043477
>>3042323

so many in this thread falling for this 2/10 bait

but i have to admit that his dedication to his argument does make him seem like a super autist level 3.

If anything, all of your criticisms for Ruan's art applies to your incredibly shitty 1 hour painting, which i'm fairly sure isn't even yours.

>>3043806
that's part of why i find these overrendered pieces that /ic/ admires so strange. For a board that overwhelmingly wants to be conceptual artists I'm not sure why you all look up to render monkeys. If I was the art director for a product and someone came in with a portfolio full of waaaaay too rendered characters I'm not completely sure that I'd hire that guy.

A lot of these people you guys like are illustrators, not concept artists. These images would be useless to the design process because they're so simple, and so impossible to render in 3d.

All of these images are meant to stand on their own, which is fine, but to pretend that ruan can crank out 50 variations of that tube dragon image by the end of a week so a designer has something to choose from is ridiculous.

>>3043861
like he said, this would all be promo art. I can't imagine Ruan does much work that is actually integral to a project's development. I'm not sure he actually has the eye for design necessary to draw 1000 different shield designs.

Same way I feel about a lot of these illustrators /ic/ likes. It's okay to marvel at how long they must have taken, but they're ultimately a very, very small part of the industry /ic/ wants to be a part of.

>>3043561
>I'm a big fan of Michelangelo. Are you saying the main difference lies in composition? That RJ is basically doing simple still life paintings featuring basic geometric shapes?
I'm saying the difference lies in the simplicity of what michelangelo tried to convey as opposed to what da vinci tried to convey. Michelangelo did every brush stroke, he wasn't trying to trick his audience into thinking his pieces were more complicated than they were. You just have to look at the Pieta to know that. He seriously knew every inch of the human body, and he never took any shortcuts.

da Vinci did a lot of study into conveying detail and mood and effect through different techniques. The Mona Lisa is a cavalcade of effects, from the smile, to the light source, to the imaginary landscape behind her. It's not simply a painting of a woman. If Michelangelo had painted the Mona Lisa it would be much more rudimentary because he had different priorities.

Also I like Rembrandt. There's a rawness and weirdness to his work that I appreciate.

File: dsddsd.png (229KB, 1000x659px) Image search: [Google]

229KB, 1000x659px

>>3044083
When he works at a studio, early on in a project he actually spends a lot of time doing these black and white sketches and attending meetings to help build the world of the game. He doesn't just do finished illustrations.

>>3044083
Ruan Jia is an illustrator though, and a huge portion of the board wants to be illustrators. Your looking at it through the lens of pre-vis, but that's not what Ruan Jia is trying to do. The design work he does has more to do with lighting and mood than with character or creature design, but even then he is primarily focused on fully rendered illustrations that can be used as splash screens or for marketing.

The reason people admire him is not for his ideas or subject matter, which are incredibly generic, but rather the way he paints things on a technical level. He's literally one of the best in the world when it comes to digital painting. He's a real master of form, lighting, contrasts, edges, shapes etc.

Also I feel he works a lot faster than you give him credit for, and you also are trying to discredit him by saying "anyone can render it like this with enough time" which objectively isn't true.

>>3044102
post more new art from him. i haven't seen any of the thu stuff before, is it good?

File: zzzz.png (897KB, 1100x652px) Image search: [Google]

897KB, 1100x652px

>>3044106
ok, here's one that he never posted to any website, because he considers it a failure. he changed the composition and subjects multiple times, spent probably hundreds of hours making changes, and still didn't like it.

he said that could've avoided this, if he just made thumbnails at the beginning of the project. because of this piece, he will always make thumbnails of some sort.

>>3044104
thats part of why i don't like him. He's not a smart designer, he just spends a lot of time on very simple things. He doesn't come across to me as particularly clever in any way.

There's so many illustrators like him that put all their effort into very narrow ability, when what they really need to be memorable is some structure and design-centric rules. If Ruan had a writer who could actually come up with original material for him to illustrate that would show me he at least has good taste in concepts even if he's not a great writer himself. A writer who comes up with concepts that are so specific that it wouldn't be necessary for him to render everything so excessively.

In a way that's something admirable about him is how malleable he is. He DOES have the potential to be a great illustrator he just isn't being given the right material. They tell him "Dragon" and he comes back in a month with a "Dragon". If he had a reason to spend less time on a painting, or more time on a very specific concept and it's design, I think he could make some truly great artwork.

Like what if he was given a concept that required him to paint a child, or an animal, or a truck. Just more variety in his concepts. More clever ideas, less generic fantasy characters.

>>3043806
I'm asking because he seems entitled. Arrogant as fuck. I want to see how good he is.

>>3042199

How can he afford to work hundreds of hours on one image? I'd love to be able to do that, but I can't ask for pay that would make that worthwile. Does he just do it for his own fun and then do quicker stuff for profit? Does he not need to work for his livelihood?

>>3044272
He typically doesn't work hundreds of hours per painting. He said his longest painting (red umbrella environment) took around two weeks. And if you watch videos of his live streams, he can pull out a decent finished piece (girls on floating bike) in a few hours. Don't know where people are getting these 200-300 hours idea lol

File: 1472557548659.png (324KB, 499x281px) Image search: [Google]

324KB, 499x281px

>>3044264

>>3044278
That was the longest he spent on a guild wars piece, listen to it again

>>3043934
to be honest there is yet nothing interesting to show, i don't have many tools now so basically i exercise on lines with ink and shading with a pencil. i'll post when ill have decent finishes work.

>>3044278
Some of his personal work from like 10 years ago took him months to do, but that wasn't working full time on them, it was more if he had some spare hours here or there he would do it. Those ones that were the portraits of those girls and stuff too him many hours, possibly over 100 especially when taking into account the prep work and the number of changes he decided to do. He did them by glazing hundreds of layers and working in a slow and very transparent approach. Since then though he has changed his approach completely and has gotten way faster, but autists on the board don't seem to realize this and keep quoting his old process and exaggerating the numbers every time it is recounted.

>>3044287
I'm not good, I'm in training, I want to see that guy's work. I want to know if he is all that he is saying he is.

For me, it looks like that is an arrogant guy that is badmouthing Ruan Jia because he can't get on his level.

>>3044416
are we done here? can this thread be over. he's some boring chinese dude that draws dragons what the fuck ever

>>3044416
He literally said in the video it took him that long because he kept changing things, and it was a crazy long process. Re-watch it friend.

File: 5e475b33gy1fh36fluy0tj21f31w0npf.jpg (378KB, 1024x1363px) Image search: [Google]

378KB, 1024x1363px

>>3043412
nice

File: епуеуеуув.jpg (89KB, 943x671px) Image search: [Google]

89KB, 943x671px

>>3043916
aхaхaхaхa
dude, you're never gonna make it

>>3042253
Where do i torrent THU (not just RJ stuff) shit?

File: -=.jpg (447KB, 1280x720px) Image search: [Google]

447KB, 1280x720px

>>3044112

File: 8a90dc3b826de92120c014cb32604802.jpg (103KB, 564x663px) Image search: [Google]

103KB, 564x663px

>>3044505
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/thu2016/191943113

>>3044518
>can't do im poor

>>3044545
There will probably be a torrent of it. To whoever on here has it make sure you record a HQ stream of it. And if you're picky enough Ill happily trade a damn good schoolism video on light and colour from dice tsutsumi and robert kondo

>>3044112
From looking at this it seems like using hard edges at very zoomed in seems to be part of his workflow anyone know if this is true?

File: 2.6s.jpg (2MB, 2741x2484px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 2741x2484px

>>3044671
I've done many studies of his work, and the only way I could replicate his level of detail was zooming in, painting, zooming in again, paint, and then once more. This is on a 4k monitor too. He basically has details in his details in his details.

>>3044690
Yeah it seems like he uses a hard brush on very high resolution and lets the eye or the zoom level blend and create a lot of the edges.

>>3044690
I'm working on a painting right now, and referencing Ruan Jia's higher res paintings. And I've noticed that his work up close is actually really loose. He leaves a lot of detail out in certain places and lots of texture to describe detail in other places. He paints a lot of plane changes by use of carefully picked values. Zoom out and it all comes together.

>>3044466
thanks for the insight

>>3044641
that vid's on rutracker, m8, anyone who's gonna make it already got it

>>3045087
дa

File: bec52171gy1fe4pe9u2k3j20zk0qojzw.jpg (374KB, 1280x960px) Image search: [Google]

374KB, 1280x960px

>>3044690

I think it's more worthwhile to study his use of values than his brush technique.