David Ogilvie's Sketchbook

[David Ogilvie]

Hi everyone. My name is David Ogilivie I'm an Illustrator and concept artist living in New Zealand. I've been lurking around this site for ages, it's always a great source of inspiration. So I decided to take the plunge and post.

From newest to oldest.

[(lark]

nice work dude! really good start to the sketchbook. now you better update! haha. but seriously, keep it goin'!

[David Ogilvie]

Hey thanks (lark. Yea I'm gonna keep at it, cheers.

[eirwin]

Very nice. A little critic from me - looking at the two girls i would say that some more anatomy drawings will be good. There are a few spots that don't look very right. Sorry, my english is not that good and i cant explain very well...

[David Ogilvie]

Thanks for the crit eirwin. Yea I gotta get studying, got to get better.

Cheers

[David Ogilvie]

Man I love this movie, its definitely one of my favourites. This was a colour/ lighting study, I'm trying to improve all aspects of my work. It was fun though, I love movie stills their such great source of reference for lighting, colour, composition, everything really.

Done over three nights, I probably spent around 4 hours on this, probably more than I should for a study. Oh well It was good fun.

[David Ogilvie]

For this piece, I was just messing around trying to practice some environments. I did this after watching one of Feng Zhu's tutorials. I think I over did it with the rock texture not that happy with it, oh well.

Cheers

[David Ogilvie]

So I thought I would post a step by step of the Invincible painting I did the other day. For anyone who's interested. I'm a big process junkie and love it when artists share their steps.

This isn't my usual process but I've been playing around with what works best for me lately. I've tried a whole bunch of different processes, from starting in grey scale then colourizing to starting straight in colour, blocking in the shapes and then refining. I still haven't settled on anything that I'm 100% on yet so I'll keep experimenting I think.

[David Ogilvie]

Hi everyone. Here are a bunch of random sketches, a couple of the gestures are from reference. I've been working on improving my anatomy and gestures. Plus I figured I shoud post some actual sketches in my sketchbook.

Cheers

[JesseM]

God, that movie still is gorgeous. ;-; You have some awesome work here. Your gestures, in your most recent post, are also impressive - they've got a lot of movement. (Actually, so does that movie still!) I also like your use of dramatic lighting. It makes your sb fun to look at~ o3o

But I think... there's something a little odd happening. Maybe because of your work process, going by the steps you posted, but I think you have too much black in your paintings. Maybe it's because you seem to be working right over sometimes-heavy black lines in your sketch, and it looks like you block in value with black, too..? As evidenced by the gorgeous movie still, if you work on a piece long enough, I don't think it's a problem, but for some of your pieces they do seem a little muddy because of it.

It does get you an super-strong value range, though, which helps with the drama of your work!

Anyway, I'd just consider experimenting with either sketching on another layer and then hiding it, to do a piece without the black lines, or try sketching in say, red, and see how that affects the final.

Either way, you've got some wicked work here - keep it up!

[EricElwell]

I have to agree with Jesse. You've got some great action; and in a couple of these the action is translating well into the composition. Totally agree on the use of black, feel free to experiment with colored shadows, even doing your base line work in color.

The one thing I think your work would really benefit from is just to step back and focus on planar values. It looks like you get a great drawing down, add base colors and then light the character with white/black. You've got a light-side / dark-side with back-light going on. Judging by your results, I am guessing you use a fairly small hard-round set to opacity. I always set up little rules for myself in order to train mind and process. I would suggest these three: Always use the biggest brush-head possible for the job, and shade with hard planes first, never shade with black or white (you can save these for your darkest darks and lightest lights, but don't even touch these two values until you consider the piece done, and you're adding the finishing touches).

Totally love your drawings! I hope you try some of these tips with your painting!

[David Ogilvie]

Hey JesseM.

Thanks alot. I definitely see what your saying, I've had trouble with my stuff being too muddy for a while. I've been trying to figure out how to get past it, I'll try out what you suggested, sketching in another colour.

Thanks again

Hi EricElwell

Thanks for the critt. I get what your saying about coloured shadows, I'll definitely try and bring that into my work going forward. I've got heaps to learn about lighting and colour. Your right about the brush too hah ha. I'm guilty of focusing on detail way too early in a piece. I'll give painting with a bigger brush a go, thanks alot.

[Egg0]

Pretty awesome start mate! I love that movie "capture", and last study it's pretty nice to, just, keep going!

[David Ogilvie]

Thanks Egg0, apreciate it. I will keep going for sure.

Cheers

[David Ogilvie]

Hi everyone. Here's another colour/lighting study. This time from Alien. It took around 3.5 hours. The colour is slightly off compared to the original, this ended up too yellow and the blue is a bit off. But that's why I'm studying to get better with colour. Still had fun with it.

Cheers

[billakong]

really really cool stuff.

[bogan]

Cool stuff, I love Alien! It's cool to see your process too, I love it when other artists post theirs.

[David Ogilvie]

billakong - Hey thanks a lot, I really appreciate it.

bogan - Thanks. Yea I love Alien and aliens. I always enjoy seeing other artists process, it's really cool. My process is changing all the time while I'm trying to find what works best for me, so seeing how others approach things is really helpful.

Cheers

[seungy]

hey mate, great start to your sketchbook!. I really dig that pirate chick character design! Keep posting more!

[David Ogilvie]

seungy - Thanks alot I'll keep posting for sure.

Here are a few quick gesture drawings I'm working on improving my understanding of anatomy and psoes.

Cheers

[Ccs]

Nice work, I'm a big fan of Invincible. Keep the color studies up, your colors could definitely pop more.

[Lav]

wow, just one page and your sketchbook is looking amazing already I love the invincible paint, great job!!

[neonndreams]

that invincible piece is sick!! thanks for the process shots, as well. i love seeing how artists go about making awesome paintings (: and your gesture drawings are so good. they are all so dynamic & expressive, even when they have such small faces...keep it up, i'm subscribing to this thread to see what else you do. keep posting! (:

[David Ogilvie]

Ccs- Thanks alot, yea I'm really enjoying the colour studies. I'm learing heaps, but at the same time realising I've got tons more to learn.

Lav- Thank you. I've been meaning to start a sketchbook for ages so it's about time. Thanks Invincible is such a great character.

neonndreams- Thanks heaps. I must say that piece was done after watching Dave Rapozza's tmnt series so its a bit of a rip off in terms of theme and lighting ha ha. He did such great work on them I wanted to practice pushing my work further as a result. Thanks for subscribing too that means alot. Hopefully you'll enjoy the work I post in the future.

Here are three zombie concepts I did at work. I had a lot of fun on these, It's always cool drawing zombies.

Cheers

[Broderick]

Great stuff you have here. Love the colors you use, so real looking

[David Ogilvie]

Hi everyone here is some ghost rider fan art I just finished up. I started this piece to enter into a competition to illustrate a poster for the upcoming ghost rider movie . I got about half way through when I read the contest rules and it turns out I'm not eligible to enter because I live out side the USA (in New Zealand). Ah man stink. I finished it anyway because I was liking how it was shaping up, and having fun doing it. Man fire is supper hard to render ha ha

Broderick- Thanks a lot, I still have a lot to learn, colour is such a huge subject.

Cheers

[Guik]

Maan, so awesome, keep it up!

[David Ogilvie]

Heres a study from a John Singer Sergent painting called Olivia Richardson. It took around 2 h give or take. I did this over a few lunch breaks at work. It was good fun the eyes are a bit wonky and the colour is off a bit. I've noticed I tend to make things a bit too yellow and de saturated.

Guik - Thanks alot, got to keep moving forward. Cheers

[Psychobuddy]

Sweet stuff man, no real crits to offer; except keep it up!

[Michael Grieco]

nice nice!!
great job, man