Daniel Halkjær's sketchbook. - Drop by!

[DanielHalkjaer]

Hey everyone! I'm just starting out doing digital paintings and stuff, and this will be where i post all of my works. A lot of it is going to suck in the start i reckon. Haha.

These are some of the things i've done so far:

[DanielHalkjaer]

This is a tree thingy i did a few weeks back.

[AmandaMyers]

These aren't too bad, if you're just starting out. I might suggest working on the tree painting and mountain painting some more. Find references if you aren't using them already. Also, pay attention to your light sources. It will help show the forms better and tie your pictures together. Right now, especially in the tree painting, all the elements seem very separate from each other.

[DanielHalkjaer]

Thanks man! I'm glad you think it looks okay. I'll try going back to the tree painting and see what i can do.

Here's a light study i did today with my new Bamboo

[DanielHalkjaer]

Some goblin sketch i did. I have no idea how to color it. like which things to do first and stuff. If anyone is even following this, it would be cool to get some advice on what you would do to color something like this, lightsource and stuff!

[DanielHalkjaer]

I did this Game of Thrones inspired wall of ice painting just now. I think it's okay.

[DanielHalkjaer]

Also a quick light study. Tell me what you think! Are the shadows dark enough compared to the brights?

[DanielHalkjaer]

Tried doing some robot concept art Also a very simple perspective study.
I tried doing the "wall of ice" picture as well, from another angle.

[DanielHalkjaer]

It's been a while since i've posted here. Here is a jungle-like environment i did yesterday

[DanielHalkjaer]

I've been trying some character design, starting with silhouettes. Here's something i did today, it took about 3-4 hours.

[DanielHalkjaer]

Here's a study of Feng Zhu's mountains! I find mountains sooo hard to do, so this is definately a step in the right direction, i think

[DanielHalkjaer]

Did some inspirational "Stop pollution" sort of speed painting

[Psychobuddy]

Hey I think you should really invest some time in working on the fundamentals, no matter what type of art you want to do, having a working understanding of colour theory, and anatomy is always important. James Gurney's Colour and Light is great, and so are the Andrew Loomis books, which you can easily find pdfs of. Good luck!

[DanielHalkjaer]

Hey! Yeah, i already have Loomis' book about character drawing and have been reading some of it. Not nearly enough though! In the beginning i just wanted to like pump out a lot of drawings to sort of get the feel of everything. I will definately read some more

[Dayle]

Hi Daniel, Cool start with your sketchbook.

Like Psychobuddy said, it is really important to learn the fundamentals and Loomis, Hogarth and Bridgman are essential. However, you won't last very long if you feel forced to do something you don't enjoy, try getting a balance of doing studies and stuff from imagination. That way you can keep up the intensity, apply new principles but not get frustrated doing the same things over and over. I think the Feng mountains look really good.

About the light studies, you'll definitely need references (as with most things), find some tutorials, pictures and youtube vids to give explanations on the way light hits objects, casts shadows and reflects.

Here is a link that might be useful (I've just been through these myself!)

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=51913

Good luck!

[DanielHalkjaer]

Hey Dayle!
Thanks for the tips! Getting those types of comments is very helpful I'm glad you liked the mountain things, and i'll definately look those names up and read loads! If anyone else knows of some good books or something to help studying, please post names/links

[nouge]

Hey, Daniel! Good job on starting a sketchbook and keeping up with it! I like the light study of the ball and the character design in #10 best so far Are you practicing with pencil and paper as well? It's very good to have a solid grounding in the basics and traditional media before doing just digital.

E: Subscribed to your thread, so keep on posting!

[DanielHalkjaer]

Hello! Keeping it updated isn't the hard part, progressing is! I am practicing with pencil and paper as well yeah, just don't have a scanner to upload sketches and stuff. And cba to take photos really Thanks a lot for the compliment and for subscribing!

Here's some more stuff! First one is a color + persective study, and the other is just something bleh i did one evening

[nouge]

Good update! Nice, sunny feel to that enviro and cool rock elemental.

What goals are you working towards? If you keep updating then I'll keep commenting, and it'd be nice to know what direction you want to get pushed in!

[DanielHalkjaer]

Like most people on here (i guess) i'm hoping to work in concept design at some point Right now i'm still getting the fundamentals of perspective, colors, light and everything down though!

[DanielHalkjaer]

Been a while since i've posted here, since i've been doing a lot of pen and paper stuff that i didn't really want to upload. Here's a color study i did today of some picture i found

[DanielHalkjaer]

Working on some more color stuff, and just generally practising tablet usage These are very low res and each took about an hour and a half.

[DanielHalkjaer]

Merry christmas guys

[DanielHalkjaer]

Just got a brand new pc and screen, so things are running a lot smoother now First a color study that i played with a bit and then a painting from imagination!

[nouge]

Nice, I like the colors and texture in the study You keeping up with perspective stuff as well? Would be nice to see more of those!

[DanielHalkjaer]

Thanks man, i think i'm beginning to see some improvement in my technique I have been doing some perspetive stuff - mostly on paper though. Will upload some soon probably along with some enviro thumbnails!

[DanielHalkjaer]

Here are some thumnails for environments

[DanielHalkjaer]

Aaand another one i did tonight, think i might be going to finish this.



Edit: Somewhat finished it! Please critique this to pieces. It's the most time i think i've ever spent on a painting, so comments would be very much appreciated



Edit: After consulting Sean S (TFSean, who's also got a sketchbook on here) i ended up changing it even more. Comments still very much appreciated though

[DanielHalkjaer]

Wretched hive of scum and villany that i did this evening in about an hour.



EDIT: Decided to take it further, and i changed it to an a bit sinister version of Red Riding Hood instead! Coloring something that was made in black and white is sort of weird imo, but i like the result

[DanielHalkjaer]

Interior I did, starting with a photoplate of just random photos