Let me know what you think of Kim Jung Gi's art

[mechafeedalert]

This guy here https://www.instagram.com/kimjunggius/

As of my opinion I don't think his brush work is even possible to do. I mean he figures his anatomy, composition dynamics, number of strokes, line weight, black spotting pretty much in one go, in that one stroke. That stuff is just impossible.
I've seen most pro inkers do their stuff. This is a person for the most part of their career only have to deal with line weight, strokes, and black spotting (sometimes). even that involves an insane amount of things to get right. Most inkers attack one aspect of comic inking at a time. For example, they do overall outlines then adds in the details, then black spotting or shading. And that is just one small part of the overall drawing process.

As for his pen drawing at least I think that it's achievable. You have to deal with fewer problems like composition, anatomy, etc and I see many other artist that does freestyle drawing as good or almost good as Kim does. Guy like Katsuya Terada, most of the American Comic OGs like Joe Kubert and Neal Adams can draw great drawings in freestyle. As does many other not as well known artists, illustrators and concept designers mainly.

What practice do you guys think that'll help us to get to that freestyle drawing ability?
Or it's just Koreans were born with advanced spatial awareness because they seems to thrive in most things that require that exact skill.

[MinNCompany]

I did some research on this artist because I didn't know who he is, and it appears that he's drawn ever since he was a kid and he studied art in college. Korean art colleges are highly prestigious, more difficult to get into than the best art schools here in America. So clearly while he has talent, he has the passion, the countless hours of hard work ever since he was young, and an excellent education. This was not just something someone was born with.

Or it's just Koreans were born with advanced spatial awareness because they seems to thrive in most things that require that exact skill.

One thing about Koreans (and I'm not saying this because I'm Korean!) is that they have a kind of self-discipline and crippling societal pressure to succeed that isn't as prevalent here in America, where you have more freedom to make mistakes and try again.

[Shanny8]

The guy is friggin amazing- that's all I can say. He does awesome pieces!

[mechafeedalert]

I didn't know that so thanks for the info, as in the art school thing in South Korea and South Korean mentality.
But then again most comic artists start drawing since they were kids.
Japanese I think have the same attitude as Koreans in pressured into greatness but none of them could draw in the way he does.
Every one of his peers in the SuperAni group couldn't draw like him. It seems like he's an outlier amongst artists these days. That's why he's called the Saitama of drawing lol.

Coming back full circle, in the 80s, or was it 70s there used to be a French tv show hosted by the late Moebius (your favorite artist's favorite artist) inviting most top comic artists to do a sort of freestyle drawing battle with him. There's guys like Neal Adams, Joe Kubert, others from French and European scene as a guest artist. Then Moebius will start with things like drawing an open Pandora box and other guess artist need to answer that with their own drawings. Those guys back in the days is such on another level than current artists. Not only they can draw pretty visuals, in freestyle, they could also tell a story or respond to a narrative challenge in a short amount of time. Looking at Jung Gi's drawings it seems like he understands and applies the same fundamentals in his drawing and taking it a step further. Heck maybe he was even influenced by that tv show.

I don't think just by practicing we could draw like him, at least not in 100 years. We have to think like him.
He said that he sees all of the objects in the world as a clump of box. So you just have to sorta arrange the box corresponding to the object you want to draw. I don't think that's the hardest part. That's just how to get an object's dimension and proportion right. It's so basic just like Saitama telling us to his basic x100 exercise in order to be strong as him. What I'm getting at is I don't get how he manage to think of several set of problems and come up with a solution that satisfies said set of problems in a fraction of a second, in every single stroke he made.

TLDR: I kinda get it, but I kinda don't.

[MinNCompany]

I encourage you to read the interview that i found: http://www.kimjunggi.net/bio/interview-2/

Two important things i noticed from reading it: Observational drawing (lots of it!) and studying photos with dynamic perspective basically memorizing the form that normal objects take on from a unique view. I think it's because of these things that the artist is able to be versatile yet accurate in his lines.

[indagold]

I guess practice with drawing from life? I mean personally for me I don't really care for this particular artist. They have a really good grasp of anatomy, composition and are technically skilled but their work just looks like every other big shot comic artist out there working for marvel/DC. Doesn't do anything for me because i've seen it before lol

[jiany0u]

Wow, this looks like a lifetime of hard work combined with an innate gift. Thanks for introducing me to this artist; his skill is really impressive.

[mechafeedalert]

I appreciate your preference, but saying artist working for the big two have the same generic style isn't true. Marvel for the most part have diverse styles it's just DC who until recently, stuck to their DC style(Jim Lee's style). JRJ, Frank Quietly, Essad Ribbick (I mah have butchered the spelling), the artist doing Hawk-Eye (dunno his name ), Tradd Moore are some small set of artists working for the big two and they have diverse art styles and influences. And Jung Gi's style isn't even remotely looks the same as those I've mentioned. His style is more along the lines of manga like Katsuhiro Otomo's and early (pre-DBZ) Akira Toriyama's work.
Actually he made some manga (Japanese comic, for Japanese Publication) a long time a go, as popular as a C-class hero like Saitama lol. He was very underrated back then.

Also most comic art involves thumbnailing, pencilling, then inking. (I skip coloring because his work is mostly in B&W). Even those steps can be divided into smaller sub-steps. He doesn't do all that he just skips to making strokes with brush, no pre-drawing whatsoever. And that is just his inking technique, not to mention his complex composition, full mastery of anatomy and proportion of human, animals, cars, scenery, and just everything that exist in this world. Even most masters only grasp one or two thing, even then some of them would have trouble to draw those straight in ink. If that doesn't amaze you I think you're just lacking the fundamental understanding of art in general.

[indagold]

I'm not saying his work is bad or unoriginal. I just don't care for that style of work. You can like what you like, but personally for me nothing stands out about it to make him jump as an artist. Maybe because I just don't care for marvel/DC style works just like I don't care for most mainstream anime styles. Looks very similar and is for a specific targeted audience. god forbid someone has a preference

[LordVincent]

I think it's impressive as all hell in its own way.
That being said, I think talking about it as if it's some holy grail of art that everyone should approach is unfair to artists that excel in other areas such as expression, efficiency, colors, etc. We all have different goals, and if your goal is to approach something like what this guy does then that's all fine and dandy for you. But not everyone wants to do the Marvel/DC deal of only working with one part of the process, and not everyone is aiming to do super detailed art.

I think it's gorgeous and lovely to look at. But I don't want to read a comic that has that art, you get me? Because it gets too trippy and steals attention away from the story for me. That's not just for american comics. I know super impressive mangas that I can't bring myself to read, as much as I adore the art, because the art is too distracting. For this reason, I have steered my goal as a comic artist away from doing something as detailed as possible. I instead aim to tell a story and produce as good content as I can within as little time as possible, since I like to keep multiple projects afloat and that's what keeps my passion burning as an artist.

If your goal is to do super detailed art or be a super good inker, then I wish you all the best and hope it works out for you! We all have different preferences and different goals as artists.

[keii4ii]

Looking at this guy's work and wondering if Koreans are innately better at art is like listening to Beethoven and wondering if Germans are innately better at music. I'm Korean and I sure as hell can't draw the way he does.

[mechafeedalert]

My goal is to be able to really draw one-inch punch in one frame while not using speed lines, and to deliver the same feeling I get listening to MTH's Black Power G-man Spy through my pages, so isn't anything to do with his art, it's just the thing he does amaze me.
Am I the only one here that can appreciate great arts even though that it's not my style? Like I can look at Hiraoki Samura not using speedlines and still deliver the fast feeling you should get out of a fight scene and say "wow that's genius", then look at Fumiho Takano's simple lines and say the same thing. Look at Akira Toriyama and looks behind his aesthetic, the way he arrange his paneling is genius. Look at Katsuhiro Otomo's famous SFX-recoil panel....etcetc.
I mean also looks at most tumblr artist and could still say "wow that's so fluffy, I wonder how they did that".

Great art is great art, no matter the style. I just prove the other thread's question on style as a crutch in this.
When does style become a crutch, it's when the artist sees a great artwork and brushes it off as something as "meh it looks like all the other thing I don't care about, they have good technique but that's it, I'd rather look at this non-mainstream artist, because he's so not mainstream so his style is cool".
That's just ignorant.

You can call me an asshole. Just like Bruce Lee I'm just honestly expressing myself.
"Be like water my friend". Cool so I'll just send waves of insults so I can mold this rock, if I didn't break them first.

[mechafeedalert]

I said if, and only if you can't appreciate the thing he does, then you just don't understand that's all. Everyone can have a preference of course, me for example I would like to point out if somebody has bad taste or that they're being ignorant. That's just my preference of course.

[mechafeedalert]

I just don't personally like if somebody said.. "Sure this artist is great but just leave it at that, I don't really want to discuss his technique because it's not my style so that'll be fucking waste of time"

[LordVincent]

....you asked "what do you think of this guy's art?". You're gonna get answers that involve personal preference. Besides this, the way you phrased it was kind of problematic in the sense that you made it seem like this artist is some elite that we are all supposed to aim to mimic, and you also pulled korean stereotypes into it as if asian kids don't get enough of that from their ignorant class mates that think they can help them with their homework because they're asian so they totes must know math 'n stuff.

I did recognize that the guy has skill. I said that it's gorgeous. But because i didn't share your opinion entirely you go at me as if I just said his art is nothing special and all this other stuff I never said. You can't just ask "what are your opinions" and then get pissed off that not everyone just agrees with you ^^''

[mechafeedalert]

Sorry maybe I should change the title.
I also talking more about the poster above you. I get that you get his skill and all.
Also about the Korean stereotype.. It's just what I observed. I mean @keii4ii arts put us into crippling depression.. Or at least me. I don't have the Dungen-Kruger Effect.

[monotone_ink]

I think his skill is extremely admirable - to think that he can create entire scenes straight out of his pen is utterly mind-blowing, as well as making it look detailed and good in general.

I had a look at some pages of his comic though, and I came to realize that the way he draws things is more suited to standalone illustrations than panel by panel comics. I think someone else mentioned it in this thread, but the detailed and cluttered nature of his style doesn't really transition well into a medium that places great emphasis on simple, visual direction.

His art is pretty great nonetheless - he's a guy to look up to.

[scythe]

If you one day you make it back to the West, what will you tell men of this strange word, "Kung Fu?" Will you tell them that it means to fight? Or will you say, like a monk from Shaolin to summon the spirit of the crane and the tiger? Kung Fu. It means, "supreme skill from hard work." A great poet has reached Kung Fu. The painter, the calligrapher, they can be said to have Kung Fu. Even the cook, the one who sweeps steps, or a masterful servant, can have Kung Fu. Practice. Preparation. Endless repetition. Until your mind is weary, and your bones ache. Until you're too tired to sweat. Too wasted to breathe. That is the way, the only way one acquires Kung Fu.

Hundred Eyes

[indagold]

I said he was technically skilled and a competent artist, what more do you want dude? You seem really angry for no other reason to be angry that i'm not praising his work the way you want me to praise it. You asked for an opinion so don't get angry if someone's opinion is different than yours.

[mechafeedalert]

Damn that's one beautiful way to explain things. I have pretty much the same thought.