ZIRNGIMANIA --"Physical Sketchbook" Update-- (4/03/10)

[Zirngibism]

Warm greetings, everyone! My name is Kirsten Zirngibl and I've decided to attempt posting my journey to improvement online, where it will likely be buried under the great churning gob of awesomeness known as "other people's sketchbooks". We'll see what I can do to stay afloat, and maybe learn (or perhaps teach a little) something along the way! I want to get into the habit of posting something every day, even if it's a piece of simple schoolwork. (I'll be a junior illustration major this fall.)

I hope to get better at drawing from my imagination (especially anatomy), using good stroke economy, and composing my images with more clarity.

I don’t want to post a whole lot of old work here, so please check out the links in my sig if you want to get an idea of stuff I’ve done.

But I guess I’ll kick off this thing with some stuff I did only recently so I can trick myself into thinking this is a good start.

[Zirngibism]

OK, here's some of that more recent stuff. (More info on 'em can be found on my dA and cghub.)

I feel like I'm kind of all over the board style-wise, like I haven't really "found my voice" yet. Maybe I can develop that as I go on in this SB.

[Parsakoira]

:P cant wait!

[Zirngibism]

NoodleDoodle: Thanks! Hopefully I can stay motivated and not peter out... :-\



Here's what I'm currently working on:

I have to do an illustration about the release of Windows 7, and how it relates to the Provantage company, which sells computer accessories. It's my first commercial print illustration.

(About 250,000 people across the US, half business, half personal consumers, will be getting this buyer's guide in the mail. I'm both psyched and scared. I'd hate to have some big problem with it and know there's nothing I can do to change it once it goes to press.)

But if there's anything that's fixable and jumps out at you for whatever reason, point it out and I'll take it into consideration. (I have a couple days left, so I can't completely overhaul it.)

Finally, keep in mind that I'm still refining edges and small details.

[BlackDelphin]

nice start! :)

i really like the perspective you did in these posts so far, and the two alien dudes at the table..really nice idea!

what can i say?! so far so cool, and
Post MOWR! :D

[Zirngibism]

BlackDelphin: Thank you!

Here's something I finished just today. It was a pencil sketch I did during a lecture back when I was working on this (http://mechaorthopteroid.deviantart.com/art/A-Bridge-Between-Two-Cities-131923174). This is basically one of those bicycling workers. He's a "light hazardous waste" cleaner.

Anyway I scanned it in and forgot about it, then decided to color it today in photoshop.






(The entire thing was done without ref. I guess I was kind of testing myself to see what I struggled with most. I remember having a little trouble with the pose. Anyway, crits appreciated!)

[Tofa]

woot, those enviro's kick ass O_O

[Zirngibism]

chriis.zed: Thank you! Enviro's are probably my favorite things to do. I love the "God" feeling of creating a whole space-- like creating a whole new reality as opposed to a single entity...


Anyway, I'm going to try to make a habit of posting something every other day or so, even if it's just a measly scribble or study.

Here are some random structural drawings. I'm taking an industrial design class called "advanced structural drawing" (though my teacher's going to let me get a little more crazy with my designs since I'm an illustration major.)

I did these these quick drawings during class for about an hour (though I didn't draw the the whole time). He told us to draw whatever we wanted, so he could get a sense of where we we all were.

(I really like doing this stuff!)

He didn't say much about mine, but I figure-- no news is good news!

[Zirngibism]

Here's a little 5" x 5" study I did in acrylic.

Just trying to get a feel for the medium. I'm also trying to get myself to paint more thickly and boldly... figured it would be best to start small.

Don't remember how long I spent on it, but it was two rather short sittings. I'd guess an hour total but it was probably longer... it always takes longer than you think...

Based on a scene in Bhutan (awesome place, look it up!)

Anyway, I might digitally paint over this-- I have some interesting ideas about what to do with it.

[Zirngibism]

Here are some things I did at the Columbus Zoo I did this past monday. They're all from life, and were really hard to do because the animals wouldn't stop, well... being alive!

[Brun]

Dude, your brushwork is awesome !!!

great stuff :)

(ps: maybe a little bit more anatomy here and some more knowledge about light and colours could put u on the next lever, tho u allready rock)

[Zirngibism]

Brun: Thanks for your comment! Yeah, I totally agree-- I think a couple weakest areas right now are anatomy and color. Currently working on both, though.

Here are a couple figure drawings I did this past Wednesday.
(Decided to try out charcoal pencil. 1st time using it-- I have mixed feelings, but intend to give it another shot.)

About 4 mins on the 1st & 2nd.
About 1 hr 15 mins on the 3rd. (It was kind of an odd view and still bothers me a tad bit but the proportions actually are pretty accurate.)

:lifedrawing:

[Zirngibism]

The art director sent me this-- it's the buyer's guide cover with the final text. It will ship in a couple of weeks. I'm excited!

Anyway, it was cool to see how much the wording and text evolved among the comps.

[eparts]

nice sketchbook! I like your illustration style and the use of directional strokes :) stars for you ;)

[Zirngibism]

eparts: Thanks so much!

Here are some studies I did yesterday, for the purpose of better blocking in values before starting on an actual landscape painting. These were 4 different hours, and we (as in, my landscape painting class) drew them from a projector.

About 25-30 mins each.

[polydrawer]

great work

clean studies and i really like your brushstrokes, rough and yet defined :o

keep up the good job

[pantless_wanderer]

I love the loose and painterly style of most of your stuff. I think that there's something not quite right about that old man in post #6 (maybe the legs?), but that's really the only thing I could find to crit. Everything else is great!

[bigus_dickus]

Gotta say, your illustrations are awesome. Consider this page 'bookmarked'. Ill be checking back later.

[Zirngibism]

polydrawer: Thank you!

pantless_wanderer: The painterly style is actually a relatively recent thing. Last year everyone was telling me that I was way too tight in my rendering. And they were right, everything was so blended it was stiff. I never thought I'd swing this much in the opposite direction, but it is a lot of fun and I'm more satisfied with my work. As for the guy, yeah, he has a ton of anatomy issues. I sketched him during a lecture. Probably should've cracked out an anatomy book and fixed him before I colored it... By the way, he's supposed to be around 15 years old, though I realize it's kinda hard to tell with the mask.

bigus_dickus: *snickers at name* I just watched Life of Brian not so long ago! And thank you.







Aaaaanyway... here's a landscape speedpaint I worked on today and yesterday. It's inspired by the colors of Thomas Cole, one of the Hudson River School painters of American landscapes. (By inspired, I just mean looked at-- I didn't colorpick.) I also based it loosely on one of his paintings.

Still not done yet, but thought I'd post my progress in tutorial form. Hope you find it useful.

Anyway, composition still bothers me... I think it's a bit too choppy with too many similarly-sized shapes breaking up the space... Live and learn I guess.

[Zirngibism]

Here's something I started last year for introduction to watercolor in my illustration class. We only had a class period and week to finish it for homework (I didn't really finish to my liking.)

So I finished it in the summer.

I'd say caricature is definitely not my comfort zone. Looking back, I probably could've tweaked the features I exaggerated.


Anyway, what I do like about it is it counters a lot of the serious, moody, and downright emo self-portraits I've seen done by a LOT of people. I want to show my enthusiasm for stuff, like right in the middle of my commonly exclaimed phrase... "THAT'S AWESOME!"




8.5" x 11", watercolor, color correction in Photoshop. Didn't record how long it took.

[nurraymjo]

Awesome... you have an outstanding sketchbook. I'm really loving your work so far. Share some more please.

[Alvaradolol]

The watercolor portrait is insane!

Raw work!

[Zirngibism]

nurraymjo-- Thank you very much. I'm hoping to make a habit of posting every day.

Alvaradolol-- Hi there! I think you're the first one I know in real life who's found my new sketchbook. Welcome, and thanks! I'm going to check yours out right after I finish this post!




OOook, new stuff.

I just dumped a pretty penny on a set of 12 prismacolor warm gray design markers, and some graphics 360 paper. It's the stuff that industrial, fashion, and interior designers use. (I got it for my advanced structural class.)

I decided to give it a try for fine art.

I was pleasantly surprised by how nicely one could blend without the aid of paper texture. It was buttery smooth paper, but by constantly changing markers, I was able to lay up gradation.



The first two images are of 5 minute quickies. They aren't very good-- still trying to get a handle of the markers.
The last image was about 2 hours, give or take. Pretty happy with it. Too bad marker can't erase though-- couple anatomy issues...

[Zirngibism]

Here are some things I did tonight. It was an interesting experience doing a heavier model. Had only drawn him once before as far as I can recall. Lighting was great.

Mmkay, the following are the short poses. A little crappy looking but I was trying to loosen up and find a technique that worked.

[Zirngibism]

Ok, here are a couple I'm more happy with. They were a little longer poses.

I didn't focus as much on the anatomy as I did on the play of light and color.

[Zirngibism]

Aw, what the heck. I'll post a step-by-step progress.

I usually like to build up tone slowly, but lately I've been trying to take a more alla prima approach and try to get accurate colors in at 100 opacity. So this isn't usually how I work.

(By the way, this was a 40 minute pose, so you have an idea of the time frame.)

Step 1: Try to nail the silhouette. Generally if you do this, everything else will fall into place nicely.
Step 2: Block in the areas where the light hits directly. It'll help to fill in everything later.
Step 3: At varying opacity, add color.
Step 4: Deal with subsurface scattering and bounce light by adding saturated color at low opacity.

[nurraymjo]

It's really neat to see your step-by-step process, this is actually quite helpful. Great post.

[Zirngibism]

nurraymjo: Thanks, glad you found it helpful. I intend on posting more stuff like that, but next time I'm gonna make them into one big image, 'cuz the CA unloader makes putting up a bunch of small stuff a PAIN.



Just found this under some papers.

First thing I did since I got my grey markers. Just testing 'em out. Linework is kinda stinky, and it's not an original concept (Toyota PM concept car) on my part, but I was really just doing it to use the markers.

[a la bapsi]

your sketchbook's full of awesome, mate.
Grats on your Cover illustration for the buyer's guide mag! It looks great and held up really well with all the text on it. :D
I'm also loving how you used a bunch of different things for your life drawing sessions, like marker on marker paper or digital. Really nice to see what came of that. ;D
Keep em coming~

[Mane]

you get such great perspective and character into your pictures, they are amazing!
The WoW one made me laugh

Keep rocking!
Chris

[Zirngibism]

Hi folks!

a la bapsi: Thanks so much! I'm glad you appreciate variety in experimentation as much as I do.

Oh by the way I've seen you on the Art Center forum. I've got some questions about transferring there so you might see me there, later on.

mysocksrock: Thank you-- yeah, I really like big spaces, vast distances. I think figuring out perspective is one of the funnest things about the picture making process. It's kind of sad to see people automatically assume they don't like it because it sort of resembles math, and they shut their minds to some of more creative possibilities it opens up.
And that WoW one was fun to do, hehe. I'm thinking about gathering up the guts to submit it to Blizzard as fan art.


--------------------------

:lifedrawing: Mmkay, here's a figure painting. My figure drawing teacher (Mr. Kortlander, if you're a CCAD student) is pretty open about medium of choice. I'm glad I skipped into one of the upper level figure classes for this reason-- the teacher already assumes you know kind of what direction you're headed and lets you run with that.

Anyway, this is the longest I ever spent on a digital life painting (except for one I did plein air). About 2 hrs.

It was also definitely the trickiest, due to the fact that it was lighted entirely naturally, resulting in more subtle effects, greater effects of bounce light, etc...


And, I promise I'll post a little step-by-step tutorial on how I did this tomorrow. (I learned a few things about color and will see what I can do to teach it.) Plus some gestures. Plus I've got a couple zoo sketches to scan.

It's late and I've got class early tomorrow! :yawn: Signing off!

[Zirngibism]

Mmkay, here's that little tutorial thing I promised last night.

And some gesture drawings.

[Zirngibism]

Here are some thumbnails I did for a book cover project.

The book is called "Hellstrom's Hive" by Frank Herbert. It was written in 1973. It's about a "hive" of technologically advanced humans living as social insects in immense chambers deep underground.

Luckily, Herbert wasn't very descriptive of the architecture so I've got some freedom in that department. I wanted to use lots of 60 degree angles that will have the whole "hexagonal shape" look. I think it's convenient that that's the shape in common with bee colonies and 70's futuristic architecture.

Anyway, the final cover is going to be a combination of a couple of these thumbs, but mainly the top right one.

[zippy]

Great stuff. I really like the WoW paint and the environments. Also want to say thanks on your digital paint process/tutorial as I'm thinking about starting to play in photoshop some more in my sb this weekend.

[GunTrouver]

Hi! Your stuff looks promising:) I especially like those stapled houses on page 1 and this more abstract painting from post #9. Would be cool to see some more of those non-digital paintings. Your digital stuff becomes better and better and you seem to work hard, so I have no doubt that this sketchbook will show up some great art in the near future;) Keep it up!

[Zirngibism]

zippy: Thank you. And I hope your photoshop sketchbook session goes well. It's a ton of fun to just kind of poke around and play.

GunTrouver: I really appreciate your comment! It's 5x better to hear someone tell me that I'm improving as opposed to them just liking what I've already done. I have a hard time telling when I'm getting better, I guess it takes an outside eye. I really want to push myself this year.

-----------------------







Mmkay, here's my first official homework assignment for advanced structural. Two things about this class:
1. No rulers allowed
2. No erasing allowed. We're only allowed to use colored pencils.

First, we had to draw a ton of lines and circles-- fill 10 big pages (18" x 24") with lines, 10 with circles/ellipses. The first images is an example of the line exercise. Good for warming up.

And then rotate two shapes into 9 different views, according to a blueprint showing the top, front, and right views of the shapes. It got a little tricky when you're just looking at a front and side view and having to figure out the back view, while rotating the entire thing 180 degrees on one axis, and 90 degrees on the other, and trying to keep it in proportion! (Luckily, correct proportions aren't crucial to this assignment.)

It was kind of fun actually, if you treat it like a puzzle. It was like some of those spacial problems on the IQ tests.

[Zirngibism]

Here are some more zoo drawings. They're from this past Monday actually.

Gray prismacolor marker on watercolor paper. This worked out pretty well when I tried it, because I was able to lay the marker on the top of the paper tooth, creating nice rock/tree texture.

The second pic was a study of the rocks at the penguin exhibit. They were real, and interesting. I thought I'd try learning a couple things about the light on them.

The second is an indoor exhibit of real mangrove trees. They're awesome! Like, almost as awesome as banyan trees. This is kind of a strange vignette sketch, but I did run out of time.

[Zirngibism]

Here's something I did at my late grandmother's cottage on a man-made lake. It was during a family gathering. This was the view of the lake from the picnic table in the back yard.

Kept having relatives telling me to move my laptop...

I knew I wouldn't have much time to do color, so I kept it black and white. It was a pretty quick one. I'd say 25 mins. Part of it is my imagination. I started it earlier, then finished it when it was almost dark, so, being without well-lit reference, I BS'd in some of the trees on the right to make it look a little more grand and epic.

Actually, come to think of it, it doesn't really look much like a lake. More like a field. Perhaps I should finish it and add some reflections... nah.

[Zirngibism]

Well,

When I made this sketchbook, I decided to include the failures along with the successes. While I don't think this totally fails, I'm not really happy with it, either.

It's an acrylic painting applied entirely with a palette knife, based off of a small graphite sketch I did on location at a park in Columbus. An exercise for my landscape painting class.

(The technique is so far from my comfort zone that it has a different area code!)

But it's actually quite fun, and I want to learn how to get better at it. Perhaps not to paint entirely with the knife, but to use it as a way to make a more dynamic painting.

[Bill]

I Know Those Turtles!! Are those the 2 really huge, really old turtles at the Columbus Zoo? I've drawn them also. It sounds like you go on Mondays, I wonder if that's with Ron Tardino's class?

that water color is especially nice, as is the Den of Theives piece. Nice Book. :)

[Zirngibism]

Bill: Yup, same turtles! There were 3 of 'em when I was there. As soon as I started drawing one, he started moving toward another one, climbed its back, and started up some hot turtle action. It still wasn't too hard to draw, but a little awkward.

I assume you're in Tuesday's class this year? Anyway, I don't remember meeting you before. Probably saw you though...

Anyway, thanks for the visit/comment!

-----------------------


Mmkay... here's an update!

Some more figure painting and step-by-step of one of them, this time without captions because they would probably be pretty similar to the one I already posted above.

The first image was an interesting experience, because it was an attempt to get good color despite low lighting (it probably looks even darker on my monitor since my monitor is darker than average), as well as a combination of natural and artificial light.

Followed by some gestures and a shorter drawing.

I also uploaded another crappy "all palette knife" painting, this one done directly on location (river in Downtown Columbus) instead of from a small value study.
I think I spent more time riding there, unpacking, setting up my new portable easel, then packing up to get out of the rain, wait for the rain to stop, move back to my spot, and then clean up and unpack, then ride back, than I did painting... Seems like it anyway. Probably an hour and a half of honest-to-goodness painting, less if you count mixing all the colors. :nohope:

[SaintAsh]

I adore your watercolor self-portrait; it's brimming with a crazy energy. :D Did you add the grainy texture in Photoshop, or did you use some sort of granulation medium?

[sansan]

love your style!!very much!

[maria riaz]

love ur style, gr8 sketchbook....goofy self portrait is my favourite so far

cheeers!!!!

[Zirngibism]

SaintAsh: Thanks! I hope it helps to counteract all the moody, emo self-portraits people are always doing at my school.
As for the texture, I didn't use granulation medium or Photoshop. Actually, I think part of it comes from the fact that the paper was starting to break down. It wasn't the best quality paper, and after several glazes (plus the fact that I kept putting clear water washes over it to dampen the paper), it started to make the paper disintegrate slightly. Think that's it, anyway...

sansan: Thank you! I don't really think I have an actual "style" yet, but then again I don't necessarily have an objective view on my stuff.

maria riaz: Looks like that portrait's a hit. I'll have to remember to enter it in a contest or two... thanks.



-----------------


Anyway, here's some advanced structural stuff.

The first image was drawn for fun during class, during a time where our teacher let us run free. It's supposed to be a hybrid of a catamaran (boat with two hulls) and a submarine, in which the submarine (part in the center) can be lowered into the water with the top part remaining afloat to pull it back up. Maybe for marine biologist experiments?
I may pursue this design further in terms of speed though, because this layout would probably mean less drag on the water overall. And it would probably HAVE to go fast because the surface area is too small to hold up that weight if it was going slow.
I didn't develop much in the way of technical details, and from an engineering standpoint it probably wouldn't hold up too well, but I was going for style and concept, so no biggie. Done in blue colored pencil and colored in Photoshop.

Anyway, the 2nd is some 2-minute bottles. Our teacher timed us to draw pop/water bottles around the room, and made it into a competition for us to see who could make the most design-ey bottle in that amount of time.

The one with the star ended up winning. I was pretty surprised!

The last two are just some homework, more turning shapes in space, this time with freehand ellipses. While it is all freehand, I used rough geometrical guides in the first, and none in the 2nd. Faster with none, that's for sure...

[eekolite]

I really love the goofy self portrait. Nice work!

[Datameister]

Really a fun sketchbook so far. :D And I agree with those who love your distinctly non-emo watercolor self-portrait! However, my favorite piece in this entire thread so far may be the second one you posted, the one of the river with the trees. Really nice colors, brushwork, composition...in short, the whole package.

[Semphora]

very nice work in here. 'specialy the boy in the zeplin thingy, and of of cause your selfportrait..i love it.

[Zirngibism]

eekolite: Thanks
Datameister: Thank you! That one was actually done from life-- I took my whole laptop outside to a park behind my house. Maybe that helped it work better.
Semphora: Haha, I hadn't anticipated this one to be a crowd favorite, but OK, I'll roll with it.
-----------------


Missed a post yesterday! grrr...

Anyway, here's my rough draft comp of my book cover, a development of the thumbnails I put up a few posts back. The first is a rough color comp with some re-working, the second is the original layout, no color. Any opinions as to which works best would be appreciated.

The last thing is something that was done from the 4th floor window of the fine art's building, for my landscape class. It's been fun so far-- don't consider it done yet. It's pretty small, I don't know the exact measurements but I'd say 7" x 10", perhaps a little smaller. No preliminary drawing-- just went right in and painted. It's taken about 4.5 hours so far...

[Alvaradolol]

Damn, the structural homework is amazing! As is everything else!

[mariusz]

Hi!

Very cool studies! Keep it up!

all the best,
Mariusz

[Zirngibism]

Alvaradolol and mariusz: Thanks!

Been awhile again... I was posting every day, missed just 1 day, and got totally derailed!

I've decided to post some of the stuff I've managed to photograph and scan, though it's not all of it. Oh well, who's really keeping track, anyway?



Anyway, here are some paintings I did from life.

The bridge one was about 2-3 hours, gray city was about 2 hours, the water one was about 4-ish.

The bride was this awesome, antique train bridge over the oletangy river in Columbus. The second is a view of Columbus from the window of my 4th floor painting class. The third is the view of a creek at Whetstone park of roses, also at Columbus.

[Zirngibism]

Though not all-inclusive, here are a couple things I did for illustration classes. More on the way.

First one: here's the "final version" of that cover.

2nd one: An illustration for a hypothetical card game about superstitions. This one was: If you leave a house through a different door than the one you came in through, it's bad luck.

3rd and 4th ones: A couple of spot illustrations based on different types of "annoying facebook users". It was an exercise in how quickly we could work: they had to be read, concepted, and done before the end of class.
3rd one is "the vowel lover"
4th one is "the verbal acrobat"

[Zirngibism]

More quick digital life paintings, coming right up!

I tried to post them in chronological order.

Most of these were one-session poses, which means about 2-2.5 hours. Some were done in class, and some I did voluntarily in the "open figure" sessions my school offers for free.

I saved an average of five steps for each one I did, but still have to put most of them together. It takes more time than I'd like though, so unless someone asks me to I probably won't...

Anyway, I feel like I'm finally getting a little better at understanding how light plays on human flesh, though I think I have a ways to go still before I can really portray it accurately without any reference at all...

Anyway, I've been trying to get away from layering, and instead working on selecting accurate color the first time.

[Zirngibism]

More structural drawing.
Again, this is not all-inclusive.

First you see a couple of exercises,
then a design for a night hiking lamp,
then some brainstorming for gas mask redesigns,
then some ideas/drawings for redesigning the hand-powered juicer,
then some ideas for totally redesigning a can opener (had some fun with this one!)

[Zirngibism]

First time I've ever done a storyboard before.

My school needs a promotional video, and is having the students do it in what's called the "pipeline project". The project is a voluntary thing where CCAD students come together to come up with an idea, and execute a video.

It's supposedly good "real world" experience.

I made a storyboard that shows an allegory of a student's experience at CCAD in sort of an "action-adventure" style.



I didn't use any ref for any of the storyboard, because I was afraid having it would tempt me to detail the crap out of it, and I was trying to draw it out pretty quickly. So yeah, there are some anatomy problems but it's just supposed to get the idea across.

[Zirngibism]

Just some miscellaneous sketches and stuff, for now two storylines I'm working on... I'll explain them both later when I put up more polished stuff...


Oh, and the first thing has nothing to do with them. It's just an experimental sketch.

[ROCKNROLLA]

Great SB! I really enjoy your figure paintings.

[Zirngibism]

kvanzant: Thanks-- and more are on the way!

------------

First two are some more life figures. I used Painter for much of the first one.

The third is a 4th floor window view of Columbus, in acrylic. We were supposed to go on location but since it was rainy we stayed inside and painted for a period.

[Thujon]

Hey very informative SB, thanks for the post and your help! Its been very prrrrrrreecious to me... =)

Regards

[Novbert]

Cool SB. I really love your life drawings and the way you use flats and planes to render stuff. The anatomy flaws in that storyboard thingy suggest that you still have room to improve in that area, but all your other stuff is awesome.
I'm not really comfortable with those renderings with striped patterns - like the first one in #59 - but I can't point out what my problem is with them.
Oh, and keep on posting those step-by-steps! Really helpful and informative.

[moving.pictures]

holy schmoly, is there anything you can't do? :drool: honestly, i'm very impressed with all the variety you got there, keep 'em coming, you're getting better with every update :) wish i was in art school coz i just love your life drawings :D you got yourself a new fan :teeth:

cheers, dave

[Zirngibism]

Thujon - Thanks, hope I can help even more in the future! :-)
Novbert - Thanks. Yeah, I do have room to improve in anatomy. I probably should have used some reference in the storyboard, but I was trying to knock it out as fast as I could and every time I use ref I end up slowing down. But yeah I should be able to do better from my head regardless. Studying the figure should probably interest me more than it does...
moving.pictures - Thank you. Yeah, I'm trying to work on a variety of stuff right now. I don't want to dig a hole for myself.


Ok, here's some stuff from late October (sheesh, it's been awhile!)

Further descriptions can be found on my blog.

Wow, I didn't realize how long I'd gone without putting up anything, so I just remembered to put up the second Provantage cover I illustrated, which was actually finished at the end of October. I only did the illustration, the graphic design was done by Mark Filipiac, the art director.

You can also see the site banner that went with it, here: http://www.provantage.com/

Now, while I was doing this cover, my styles and concepts class had a "game concept" project, so I decided do make a game theme that would go along with my Provantage cover, so I came up with a concept centered around a "high tech" christmas. I looked at old central and northern European architecture and how to make it futuristic. It was really fun. I'll post the story description later on, probably.

I enjoyed thinking about the designs so much that I might want to make this the theme of my project for illustrative drawing next semester.

[Zirngibism]

In chronological order. All of these were 1-session poses or less (I think the 3rd one was 1.5 actually).
Descriptions can be found on my blog.

[Zirngibism]

This is a project I worked on for Mr. Tardino's "Illustrative Drawing" class. The original idea started out for an MMO game, though I would actually like to adapt it for a children's book.

This was the first time I really went after quantity over quality. Most of the digital scenes in here aren't really well-developed. I made this project more about finding many different possibilities and variations of stuff before committing to a big render... Ah, if only I had more time...

I also did a lot of the structural drawings for an open-ended assignment in advanced structural class. (I did plenty of work for each class. For example, we only needed 20 boards for Illustrative Drawing, but I did 52.)

And finally, it may seem paranoid, but since I have future plans for some of this stuff, I just want to say that all of the below is (c) Kirsten Zirngibl, Dec. 2009. Not sure if typing that does anything for me, or if anyone besides me thinks any idea here would be worth taking, or if anyone even looks at my blog for that matter, but it's just that I've got detailed descriptions of stuff up here for the world to see and it makes me feel a little vulnerable... I guess the risk is worth it for self-promotion...

[Zirngibism]

Here's a breakdown of my character and object development for the New Eden world. More of an industrial design approach.

[Zirngibism]

Here is some more stuff regarding the world and survival.

[Zirngibism]

Final batch!

[Zirngibism]

Descriptions can be found here: http://kirstenzirngibl.blogspot.com/2009/12/landscape-painting-stuff.html

[Zirngibism]

I got my first toned paper sketchbook a couple of weeks ago. I'm really liking it. Since I've started to get used to drawing with colored pencil for advanced structural, I find it also works nicely on this brown paper.

The last thing I put on this post is random, miscellaneous sketch stuff I scraped off my hard drive...

[Jamie Romoser]

awsome sketchbook you have a very unique style and your progressing like a wild fire :sungod:
have a good one keep it up
-Jamie

[struve]

that is a mega post today, haha. I really like those Santa illustrations.

[Seage]

Woah, that was a lot, haha. Awesome work mate. That looked like it took forever!

[Zirngibism]

OmertA: Thanks! It's good to get an opinion from an outside source, 'cuz I don't really "feel" like I'm progressing.

struve: And the post isn't over yet, haha! Thanks.

Seage: Thanks, and it did take a long time, but not as long as you may think. My advance structural drawing teacher pushed us to work faster, to to "sketch as fast as we could think". Still can't do it that fast... 0_o

------------------

Ooook, now for some miscellaneous illustration stuff. (Descriptions can be found here: http://kirstenzirngibl.blogspot.com/2009/12/miscellaneous-illustration-stuff.html)

[Zirngibism]

This is something I'm doing for EOW and I was wondering if I could get some input on it so far. I view it as about 70% done or so...

My concept is not a war on an city, but instead a near-future economic war in which factories and chemical refineries are attacked. Sort of a war to sabotage the resources of the opposing side instead of directly going after civilians themselves.

(Yeah, yeah, a political scientist would probably be dubious of such an "industrial war" because it would raise the price of those resources for the entire world economy, [both friendly nations and enemies], for trade.
But hey, perhaps this could be an environmental war, where extremist environmentalists with a cleaner but more expensive technology resort to terroristic means by taking down major refineries in order to raise the price of their less eco-friendly competition?)

So in this scene, the opposing side/eco warriors have set up rocket launchers on the upper scaffolds (that's what that gun thing is in the relative foreground) and are aiming at storage tanks.




Crits would be appreciated!

[Giorge]

wow hard work here , you work allot , try to take some time and look at your stuff and see what bothers you and then work it out

perspective it of , more study recommended there

take care and keep up the hard work

[derss]

haha, yes a rly massive dump it was :D cool stuff, like the "jumper" trasportation thing :P
like giorge said, the perspective is abit of, and the image seems kinda flat, more contrast would make it pop more i think.
Keep it up! :)

[Betelgeuze]

Very inspiring work, really! ^^

[a la bapsi]

now that's a dump.
good stuff. :]

[jimmy'z]

very good color paintings and some graphic ;)

[C-CLANCY]

I love your sketches, very architectural!..detail, detail, detail.....:)....your self-portrait is my favorite, too rite there is too many emo self-portraits, i am guilty of a few of those lol, keep up the good work

[Bummer6]

Your "book" was REALLY inspiring and thorough. GREAT WORK!

[Zirngibism]

Giorge: Yeah, there's already stuff that bothers me! However, the weaknesses in perspective are due to two things: pushing myself to draw quickly, and not being able to erase. While I know I still have a ways to go when it comes to rendering, I'm pretty confident in my actual understanding of perspective itself. If I'd given myself the ability to erase, I'd spend 80% of my time fixing the perspective instead of just designing!

derss: Thanks. Again, in this case I wasn't paying as much attention to perspective as design. It didn't bother me too much but if it's distracting to others, well, now I know! Which image did you think was flat?

Betelgeuze: Thanks!

a la bapsi: Haha, yeah. It took forever to upload everything, though. I kind of wish this site would let you bypass entering all that art registry info... >_<

jimmy'z: Thanks, and what did you mean by "some graphic"?

C-CLANCY: Thank you, and we're ALL guilty of emo self-portraits, including me! Though I think part of it is that, when working from life, it's very hard (I mean, impossible) to hold your face in any other position besides "serious" for long. And plus, dark dramatic lighting is needed to highlight the planes of the face. So if you're doing an extended portrait from life it's pretty much a recipe for emo-ness.

Bummer6: Thank you, I'm glad it's not for nothing.




Oook, here's an update on that EOW. Mostly refining some of the detail, especially flame.

It's been pointed out to me that the perspective is off on this piece, which is true, depending on how you look at it. I kind of bypassed laying out grid lines intentionally, because whenever I do that, the scene ends up becoming stiff looking. George Pratt (comic book artist) told me to try just eyeing it. Since it's supposed to look kind of destroyed, I was hoping it would be off-kilter enough to be more convincing.

Also, the background area is supposed to be about 40 feet or so lower than the foreground.

But I will agree with critiquers in that the composition doesn't really work-- doesn't really seem to have much of a direction, except maybe leading the eye off the right of the page... >_<

I'm also looking for opinions about color. I know my laptop monitor is too dark so I tried to make the image too dark to compensate so it doesn't look too bright on other people's monitors. Did I overdo it?

[George Abraham]

You are insane. I like your inventions and your twisted humour.

[drd]

Great experimentation, so many different things in here; I like where you're headed. Crazy progression-- keep it up!

[JeffX99]

Really solid...thanks for sharing!

[AlexEh]

Um ya wow awesome, 4 star sketchbook my ass. *****!!!!! Work hard :D

[MitchKempt]

Great sketchbook!

And I'm just going to come right out and say it... that volcano man (god) type guy in post #74 is awesome :E

I love it! Good work.

[Parsakoira]

Wow, the amount of work here is absolutely stunning! loving the designs, and your style looks very unique, keep up the awesome work!

[Zirngibism]

zaorr-- Thanks! I like the idea of combining the two. Twisted but humorous inventions. Haven't done that enough yet...
drd-- I like experimenting. It's a big fear of mine is that I'll fall into a stylistic rut when I go pro.
JeffX99-- :-)
Dy.laneA-- Thanks for the stars! I was right on the verge of 5 stars early on, and someone rated me a 3 (I did math, looking at the exact rating.) It's a goal of mine to someday attain a 5 star sketchbook. Maybe I'll just start a new one when I get better.
MitchKempt-- Thanks for reminding me about the volcano god... Almost forgot about him. Gotta finish that up!
Parsakoira-- Thanks so much! I'm really glad to get feedback on my designs as opposed to just the rendering.

[Zirngibism]

Here's my latest entry for the Environment of the Week activity. I put a crapton of work into it. I wanted to really push myself in the material rendering. It was also a good venture into fantasy/surreal. Usually I'm more comfortable in the sci-fi realm, so I think it was a good experience.

You can see some of the progression in the critique thread here:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2577378#post2577378

And the poll is now up. You can vote here:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2575756#post2575756

[witcrack]

Hi Kirsten. Many thanks for your critique :)

You have many interesting things happening here. I like your ideas, they're wild! The figure studies are done nicely and progressing surely, i'm liking this one (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=798810&stc=1&d=1255114594).
The last one for EOW reaps many response there at the critique center, you must have learned lot of things there. I do :). I admire your bold take on new challenges, like 3D modeling, to name one.

Keep up the hard work! :)

[Bartovan]

Hi, great sketchbook you have here. I like the design drawings: great style. The ellipsesseem off sometimes though. Keep going!

[Zirngibism]

witcrack: Thanks! Yeah, that was a great critique thread. The community here rules.

Bartovan: Thanks! And yes, some of the elipses are off, but I was being pushed to draw more quickly than I'm comfortable with, and wasn't allowed to erase, so some of those distortions I'm just going to live with, though I guess I could technically go in and correct them in Photoshop... But I should probably just move on! :-)









http://www.kirstenzirngibl.com/

In this past 5 days or so I worked pretty hard at designing this site and getting the content together. I had never really done an actual, functional website before, short of the rinky-dink projects in early High School. I wanted to "do it right the first time" so that I wouldn't be tempted to go back during this semester (or a year or two from now) to develop/overhaul it again. I originally had this super-complicated idea, and almost went with flash (which I haven't even tried yet), but I'm glad I used a more conservative layout and HTML. I think it's faster and just easier to get to the work. (Google likes it better anyway, and I hear art directors actually want to be able to download images so they can keep your work in a folder for future reference.)

I still need to fix some stuff in my bio and add some better titles/descriptions to the pieces, but for the most part I'm going to call it done for now, though I hope to update it with new work regularly.

Anyway, my site also represents the visual "brand" I plan to use in marketing myself. I wanted something kind of quirky, with structural forms in an organic layout. I wanted something that could somehow communicate versatility and detail-oriented, complexity-driven style. I wanted to enhance that message by making it look both new/futuristic and historical (kind of steampunkish?) at the same time, hence the color, texture and choosing serif font). I hope I at least somewhat succeeded at this. (By the way, I just realized not so long ago that this kind of reminds me of conceptart.org. If you thought that too, just know it wasn't intentional, and when you compare them side-by-side they look pretty different.)

(And major thanks to my dad for helping with the code. While I did some HTML/javascript/CSS back in High School and have a basic understanding of it, it probably would've taken me a week to look up and relearn how to do what my dad hammered out in half a day! He also had some valuable web design advice that I'm glad I listened to.)


Anyhow, I'd love to hear your comments/critiques about it. If there's anything easily fixable that you think would be better fixed, I'm open to going back in before I start getting busy.



Finally, make sure to check out the "links" section. I've got some well-known artists, but also some less well-known ones as well listed there, as well as some cool resources. And also, if you know me at CCAD and have a personal site of your own, I've probably linked to you. (And they're not in a particular order, just as they popped into my head.)

[ALH]

Bloody hell. Your sketchbook is simultaneously terrifying and inspiring. Your loose brush work is wonderful, and you really have the knack for environments. The colours too!

Your unreffed humans are a bit awkward though, like their flow is a bit 'off'. The parts are there, but its like theyre frozen, or carved rather than alive. Your dancer is a good example, her legs are rather stiff, she is contorting into this crazy pose but theres no tension, its like she is an action figure with the legs splayed out.

Your superficial grasp of anatomy isnt actually that bad- if it was, you'd not be able to do those wonderful life studies - its more the arcs of movement and constraints which are letting you down.

I would reccommend getting on youtube/hulu/whatever and watching a couple of episodes of Americas Next Top Model- one from the start of the run where there are a lot of girls getting a lot of crits, and one from the end where they're narrowing down the final girls and getting some really great shots.

The kinds of things they tell the girls to bring to their photos are the kinds of things which make character art 'pop'. Just a subtle parting of the mouth or a twisting of the foot can make all the difference. How leaning this way makes you look taller, or more fierce, or weak, or suggesting movement etc etc.

[badass]

that EOW is so sweet... youve got planes down really well

[Royzy]

Really amazing stuff! It was your self-portrait/avatar picture which caught my eye in a thread somewhere and brought me here. Keep up the great work :D

[Ian Barker]

really nice sketchbook! love your brush work. your website looks good too. the only thing on the site I'm not really a fan of is the boxes around the links, but that could be personal preference.

[GriNGo]

Great enviro, really creative :) Congrats on the website as well, it seems very thorough.

[drd]

Really cool. Can't wait to see what you do when you go pro!

Hope you get good news about TAD (and possibly scholarships)!

[VJTunes]

awesome understanding of lights + darks how did you come to understand it so well :D I'm starting to paint in photo shop but I duno how to bring the colors to life. Any advice would help =]

[Eddieee]

All I can say is WOW for that EOW piece at the top of the page. The figures look so sculptural and alive. Yee!

[spaztastic]

HOLY EOW woman!!!! your art is AMAZING!!!!! POST POST POST>. I want to see more updates XD

[llex_paul]

''Water of Life'' that's a great work! i like that water reflections, and who you solve that feel of transparency. i would only added more details, but it's cool anyway! i've checked your site too, nice works there! keep t up:D

[Sharkcellar]

Wicked sketchbook.

[Jussi Tarvainen]

Did I not stop and leave my mark here yet? You are doing one of the best and most versatile studies I've seen in the forums. I'm blown away and you gave me some great ideas and things to study!

And it shows. Keep pounding these and doing your personal work and man when it all comes together:)

How's your anatomy?

Keep up the great work and thanks for the inspiration!

[Verehin]

wow wow wow!

[Mac Con]

It was a complete joy to look through your work I Especially like your life model work the simplicity of the tones in your coloured models makes it look easy to accomplish but I’ve always had a hard time with colour

[Zirngibism]

Wow, it's been way too long since I've checked my sketchbook, let alone posted anything! It's really motivating to see all of the feedback here! For all of you from TAD, I can't wait to meet you all! It may not be until next year, though, as I've decided to go at least one extra semester at CCAD.

Anyway, getting bumped to :star::star::star::star::star: has convinced me to get my rear in gear and make this a proper sketchbook! No more huge gaps of nothing followed by gianormous dumps! (well except for today... >_>)

It's just one of those things where the longer you wait, the more daunting it becomes because there's more to post. Kind of a snowball effect, you know? See, I signed up for way too much work this year in order to try graduating early, so I've tried to limit my CA time.


OK, enough excuses, now for some art!

I'll start off with some more work I've done on my "eden 2.0" project from last year, which has morphed into a serious concept for an educational science fiction children's book. You'll also see one of my attempts at taking concept art into a 3D model. The storyboard is an early page spread study for the book, with the wide spread being sort of an elaboration on panel #7.

[Zirngibism]

OK, here's some illustrations. Most of them are NOT up to my quality standards, so I consider them WIPs. I've had to rush almost everything I've done this semester due to taking way too many illustration classes at once. Not recommended...

(But the Provantage one was a freelance job, and I would consider done, especially since it's gone to print and shipped already!)

I tried to show my process with some of these just to show how I kind of approach things. Hope it helps!

[mike butkus]

Beautiful work!

[witcrack]

Wow, Kirsten! You really rocks!! I love to see the updates and am looking for more.

[yahdood]

Holy canoli! Great update! I love how you posted the b/w version with perspective lines of your opium den piece. It's actually one of my favorite paintings of yours. :teeth:

[Zirngibism]

mike butkus: Thanks, I just checked out your sketchbook (not finished yet though) and I can say it means a lot coming from you!

witcrack: Thank you

yahdood: I enjoyed working on that piece, hopefully I can do more like it. Thanks.

----------------

Lately, the majority of my "physical" sketchbook has been thumbnails. But I thought I'd share some of the other stuff on here.

1.The first is a doodle I did of what would be some "low tech/alternate reality" flying machine that actually has propellers within its "wings". I think I'm going to incorporate it into an illustration I'm going to do soon.

2-4. The next are people I drew on the Columbus COTA bus. There are a lot of interesting faces (and personalities) on that bus, it's a great place to draw people. The guy on the first one caught me drawing him, and actually gave me 5 bucks. 0_o

5. I drew this of my grandfather during his funeral. He was a farmer, so I incorporated him as sinking into the ground of his farm. Sort of like what Andrew Wyeth did, showing his deceased friend melting into the snow.

6. Mark Sullivan
7. Brian Matyas
8. Eric Spray
All of these guys are awesome concept artists who are alums from CCAD. They came back to give a talk about their works and careers, give demos, and portfolio reviews. I drew each of them while they gave their demos.

9-10. These are examples of my thumbnails in my sketchbook. Really rough, but it's really my favorite part of the process right now. Toned paper is great for them! (Number 9 was for the "opium den" piece, as you can tell I selected the upper left one.)