My first sketchbook...

[Istmin52]

I've been looking at lots of sketchbooks for about a year now and I finally decided to start my own. Right now I'm working as a part time graphic designer. I've been really pushing myself more this past month to further improve on my painting and drawing skills. As I'm getting older I realize that I need to be at a certain level and I don't feel like I am. I started a blog of my drawings about a year or two ago but no one looks at it or gives me any feedback. That is also another reason why I'm starting a sketchbook. The truth is, even though I've been working hard, I've been feeling a little depressed and discouraged because I feel like I'm not improving fast enough and I notice that some people don't need to work as hard as me and they are still a million times better. I just don't think that's fair and I don't get why it takes me longer to remember and understand things. I'm hoping to reach out more to the conceptart community and to hopefully get some encouragement and feedback. The illustrations below are pretty old but the sketches and painting studies are pretty recent. Hope you enjoy and I hope to learn and improve on here. If you would like to visit my website as well, you can go to my site here.

[Istmin52]

This is a rough painting I did in the early afternoon. It's nothing special. Just a painting of a spoon. I probably spent about an hour on it. I didn't really feel like finishing it because there are other things that I want to do. Enjoy and comments and crits always welcome. This was done in Photoshop.
www.IanTopple.com
Sketchbook

[Istmin52]

I decided to practice drawing animals from memmory. This is what I came up with. I'm not completely satisfied with the more rendered sketch from below. What do you guys think? I guess I could have worked on it more but my laptop is dying so I need to plug it back in.

[vearitas]

some nice stuff here.
you asked for some feedback on the last sketch. it's creepy enouph as is, but looks alittle odd only having an animal head and the rest humanoid. is it a sort of frankenstien creation, stitched together pieces, but with animals? i think you could push the idea abit more in the rest of the body. maybe even break up the face with pieces of the horse mixed with a person. like a normal persons face with big horse teeth and eyes, idk.
anyway, post more

[Istmin52]

vearitas - Thanks for the comment. I wasn't necessarily focusing on the concept of the drawing. When I'm drawing in my sketchbook, not everything is meant to be a good concept. It's more just for practice in drawing and seeing if I'm capable of drawing what I want from imagination. But thanks for the comment. I never really thought about it that way before.
What I meant was I wasn't really satisfied with the way I painted it.

Anyway, this is another update. The painting of the digital camera is something I did a while ago but I felt like posting it. I worked a little more on the sketch I made from yesterday. I think the main problem I had was that I really didn't know what color I wanted for it in the first place so I ended up really struggling with it. I decided to stop working on it because I want to move. I didn't get to do much drawing because I've been trying to build up a web design portfolio so I really need to do that. Comments and opinions always welcome. See ya.

[Istmin52]

I didn't have much time today because of work but here are some sketches I did while watching the olympics.

[septomin]

hey, nice sketchbook dude! I can totally relate about getting depressed with art...it hurts to see people younger than me who are so much further along. But...I guess it's just something you have to work through.

You asked me about rendering though, so this is what I know...the first thing you do is divide your subject into light and shadow, using only two values. Once that looks right, you can move to half tones and dark darks. It's super important to keep the values organized; you're supposed to know which parts of the painting are in light and in shadow at all times. And make sure when you go lighter or darker it's a conscious decision.

I hope that helps anyways...there are definitely threads floating about that explain it much better than I could.

[BRANDONJONES]

Looks like your best rendering is coming through on that image with the Cartman key chain. You can't help but improve through doing studies of different materials in different lighting conditions.

Jason Manley's color theory had a section about doing studies using only black objects on a white background, and vice versa, some with colored lights. I am sure that is the type of thing they do at the atelier to get perfect color and value rendering.

Keep it up, there is obvious improvement on this one page!

[Istmin52]

septomin, BRANDONJONES -- Thanks for commenting on my sketchbook. Yea I watched Jason Manleys color theory video stream about a couple of weeks ago. It was def helpful and I should probably rewatch it. It was a lot of information to take in at once. I think the reason why the Cartman keychain was rendered well was because it had really strong lighting. My still life's lately have had very subtle light.

Anyway, I didn't have much time to sketch today. I've been in the process of learning Actionscript 3.0 and also working on a website to build up my portfolio. I tend to notice that Dreamweaver has a lot of little glitches so I'm not sure if I'm going to continue using Dreamweaver. I might switch to text mate. I'll see.

I ended up doing a painting of my driveway. It's not finished yet but I was trying to block in the shapes first. I don't tend to paint outdoor scenes as much because they aren't as convenient when I could easily put an object in front of my to paint. I should do more of them. I think the reason why I don't necessarily is because I'm afraid because there is so much stuff sometimes to look at and to paint that I get overwhelmed and I'm afraid the painting will turn out bad so I get discouraged.

[justinkhuong]

Hey man thanks for stopping by my sketchbook, and for the helpful advice!
Interesting stuff you have here, I will keep an eye on yours, too.

Cheers!

[Istmin52]

I ended up working more on this painting. I'm making some progress but I've having some trouble painting certain details on the bushes. When I paint them, they look like globs of paint right now but I think my values look accurate. I don't get what I'm doing wrong. Any advice. More to come soon...

[Istmin52]

I have been doing some hand studies lately so I decided to post them. I also am trying to paint this goat like creature for fun. I still don't feel confident rendering form from memory yet and yes I know what you are going to say. Paint still lifes and landscapes, etc, etc. and yes I've been painting a lot more than I ever did but I'm still struggling a bit. I have def learned a lot but I feel like I'm busting my ass and yet I see people who are younger than me and they are an exceedingly higher level. I really wish someone told me that I should have been doing this stuff since High School. Sorry for venting. Comments and suggestions?

[Blondebeard]

Great improvements! Keep it up =D.

[Istmin52]

Haven't posted yesterday so I have a lot of stuff to upload today. I have about 11 pages from my sketchbook that I scanned in. God posting this stuff takes a while. Does anyone else get annoyed that you have to fill out so many little things before you can finally upload your file. I find it highly time consuming and annoying. Just let me post my shit without asking me categories and sub categories and shit. Anyway enjoy! Unfortunately no painting this time

[thegrayslayer]

Nice start to a sketchbook, although the first few cross-breeds are a disturbing insight! Hehehe..

On a serious note, some good investigation work and it's obvious you are really serious about getting the muscles and body structure 'right'. I think that's crucial, even more so when you're trying to successfully blend creatures together and have them remain believable.

I checked out your site too, some interesting work there. Keep drawing to maintain and improve - and don't get so down on yourself! I think you're in the right place if what you say about developing is really your aim. If nothing else, this forum encourages you to draw regularly, there is no better way to improve.

~Slayer

[Istmin52]

I know I haven't been updating my sketchbook at all this week but that doesn't mean that I wasn't drawing. In fact I've been drawing every night. I haven't really had the chance to scan everything and upload it here. It's really time consuming to upload work on here. I wish the process was a little bit faster. Anyway, some anatomy stuff and work from imagination.

[Istmin52]

I haven't done much painting this week so today I felt like doing another still life. I think I need to choose more interesting subjects and maybe better lighting. What do you guys think?

[oren90]

these studies look great, keep up the good work

[Istmin52]

Just some still life's and a drawing I did in Photoshop. I didn't get to finish painting the still life's because the light was gradually changing so I just stopped. I have more sketches in my sketchbook but I haven't had a chance to scan anything yet. I'll probably do that tonight. After my last still life painting I'm beginning to feel a little more confident with myself and I think I was having more of an overwhelming/psychological problem when I would sit down and paint. I'm noticing that I don't have that problem as much. Enjoy!

[Istmin52]

This is a painting I started today. Overall I'm liking how it's coming out. I need to fix the window a bit but I think I'm going to try and finish this tomorrow. I'm not as overwhelmed as I used to when starting a painting and worrying whether or not it's going to be bad. I think that was one of my problems when painting in the first place. There main purpose is to gain more practice and learn from it so when I paint out of my head, I'll have a better vocabulary on what I'm doing. I'll be posting more soon.

[Istmin52]

Just some arm studies... More to come soon...

[Lav]

got some interesting stuff going on here, will be looking forward to see more

[Istmin52]

Lav - Thanks for the comment

Some sketches I did later today. After drawing the dog from imagination, I realized I need to keep doing more animal drawings because I had some difficulty with it and realized that I had confused myself with something else. Stupid me. Oh well. Enjoy.

[ActonArt]

You've got a really nice start here. Your hands are looking great and your painted work has a nice feel for shades and lights. I do think you can benefit more from doing figure studies. Your monster things look really creepy, but the anatomy looks a little skewed still.

Good work, keep it up.

[Istmin52]

ActonArt -- Thanks for the comment. As for the skewed anatomy, I sometimes like to do that on purpose because I like the way it looks but I can see what you're saying. Doing more figure studies wouldn't hurt me.

These are some sketches I did last night. Comments and suggestions always welcome.

[Devere]

keep going more life studies try establishing simple geo form in you bodies then add detail.

[Istmin52]

Devere -- Thanks for the comment. I try breaking up the tones geometrically but it's difficult to do that sometimes if you have very subtle lighting. Thats something I've noticed. I try to do some kind of painting everyday but it's hard to find the time.

Some more sketches I did yesterday. I think I was tired so some didn't come out as good as I thought. Some are from photos and others are from imagination.

[Istmin52]

This is a painting of a diet coke can I found lying around. I spent about an hour or 2 on it. Not sure when I started painting it. Enjoy.

[Istmin52]

I painted the same coke can except this time it's in a different lighting situation. The lighting is much warmer than the painting above.

[Istmin52]

This is another still life I did today. I never painted a clear cup before and was a little nervous I wouldn't be able to paint it. I really need to stop being afraid of things because I think sometimes that I'm my own worst enemy. Comments and suggestions always welcome.