ismo's book

[ismo]

Greetings.

I'm 24 years old and have always loved to draw, but never really aimed to get good at it, so it has been more or less doodling to this point.
During last semester I studied art(education) as a minor at university and really got couraged to learn more.
Now I feel it's time to get a bit more serious about drawing and painting. That means studying anatomy and all that stuff that is vital to know to an artist.
That is why after a long time of lurking on these forums I finally decided to get myself an account here and start this sketchbook.
Hopefully this motivates me to draw and paint every day from now on.

btw, I went to the bookstore today and ordered Bridgman's Complete Guide To Drawing From Life. Can't wait to get it and learn me some anatomy finally.

For starters here's some things from the university studies and also some recent personal stuff.

The gorilla was done with charcoal lifting out technique. Really enjoyed working with charcoal, building tone is so much easier than with pencils. The second one is the second ever nude figure from life I did. It was good fun, really should do it more often. Then there's two digital master studies, one Bouguereau and the other Repin. Finally a quick lemon from life.

Any comments or critiques are highly appreciated.

[ismo]

Finished a portrait of Robert De Niro. I haven't done too many portraits so this was good practice. Didn't catch absolute likeness, but i'm satisfied for now. Gotta do more painting from life to learn how to work with colors better.

[ismo]

Color study. Reference images are from terragalleria.com. Great site btw!

[Mumph]

Great stuff man! Very nice model drawing. I think the top right and the bottom left of the color studies looks a bit flat. Could be because there only seems to be hard edges, maybe more variation in warm and cool colors could also help. Other than that I don´t have any more crits right now, just keep going!

[ismo]

Just doodling for a change. I'm not a big fan of gore, but this one just needed some good ol' brainjam.

[R-Russo]

Realy good work here. Liked everything.
You are certainly on the right direction.

[Icedearth15876]

You have some great stuff here,you are far from needing alot of practice. I love the portrait of Rober DeNiro it's perfect. Keep up the good work.

[Kidda]

Superb start. Keep that encouragement you gained in your minor because you have a great eye for detail. The gorilla is amazing, it's so full of life.

[Muemi]

Great works. You definitely have artistic eye, but I think you are a bit too cautious working with shapes. Your De Niro is especially full of rounded shapes. Round shapes in nature are quite rare and usually using them is an expression of uncertainty concerning the real shape.

One approach that might help getting rid of the vague barbapapa-like shapes is carefully studying the nature of different forms, esp. taking note of the the basic lines, and going over the top with the mad ventures to edginess.

In case you are interested, here is the most interesting De Niro drawing I have ever seen: http://jleal.deviantart.com/art/De-niro-31123953

[Chronberg]

Really nice stuff! Amazing gorilla!
terragalleria.com seems to be a pretty handy site.. thanks for the tip!
Keep on working!

[Mikko Voipio]

Tervetuloa, bienvenido...

It's the finnish invasion. Really love the master studies. Especially the Repin study. Where are you hiding those anatomy studies you were talking about?

[ismo]

Mumph: Thanks for your crits. You're absolutely right about the flatness of those two. I should remember to vary the hardness of the edges more. I didn't really pay any attencion to edges before I read the edge tutorial here. Your comment about the cool/warm colors reminded me of the painting course in university. After viewing my first acryl painting my teacher also mentioned about the importance of color temperature in painting, although at that time I really had no idea what he meant. Now I understand the concept but putting it into practice still causes trouble. Moar studying must I do, heh.

R-Russo: Thanks, man. I'll try keep the ship on the right course.

Icedearth15876: Really appreciate that, thanks.

Kidda: Heh, you're really trying to build pressure on me. Thanks so much. I spent way too many hours on the gorilla, but I guess it paid off.

Muemi: Very good points, thanks. I think one of my biggest problems is that I'm using too small brushes most of the time. Gotta remember what Stapleton Kearns emphasized in his painting blog "DO EVERYTHING WITH THE LARGEST POSSIBLE BRUSH." Great blog btw. Full of important stuff. Here's the link if someone's not already familar with it http://stapletonkearns.blogspot.com/

Chronberg: Thanks. It's an excellent site yes. I found it through Alpenfleger's (did I spell it right? ) sketchbook, so the credit goes to him.

Placeboast: Kiitos, kiitos. I haven't got my copy of Bridgman yet, but when I do, you can expect lot more of that stuff. Also I haven't got a scanner at the moment so I can't post any pencil drawings - which I prefer over wacom when doing drawing studies - right now. I did find his Constructive Anatomy from Archive.org and made couple of digital studies though. Here's one of 'em. I'm trying to tackle one body part at the time, and decided to focus on the arm first.

Ok, here's some new stuff. Study of a simple metal plate from life and arms from Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy.

[Muemi]

Good job, the arms are in my opinion your next best works here after the gorilla. The anatomic forms appear realisticly edgy.

I think I'll buy the Bridgman's Anatomy book to get some traning in anatomy. It costs 8,10 € in Adlibris.com. Do you think that's a good deal?

[ismo]

I checked the biggest finnish bookstore suomalainen.com, and their price for Bridgman's Constructive Anatomy was 6,90 €. The book I bought, Complete Guide To Drawing From Life, costs 13,90 € there. So if you meant the latter, then it's without a doubt a good deal.

[Jesus Food]

that zombie cannibal is scary man... nice SB so far, cant wait to see what u come up with

[ismo]

Jesus Food: Thanks, man.

Sargent study, about 2 h. During the making of this I realised the importance of a good linesketch. I rushed into painting way too early and that lead to fooked up proportions especially in the face area. Figuring out the proportions first with line saves you valuable time! Gotta remember the importance of a solid foundation in painting from now on.

[Strassenpenner08]

calm down looks nice ^_^

[ismo]

First update in a while. I've been very busy with school (read: I've been lazy) lately and there's been really no time left for art. I'll promise to update more frequently from now on.

Did this on a 3h traintrip. Inspired by the passing trainyards, but no reference was used.

[Frank Gressie]

nice works! keep this up! you have talent

[ismo]

Fast still life/color practice. Painted just what I saw at the moment on my table.

edit: heh, had to do another right after. Too much fun.

[ismo]

Last one for today: a late night rusty scifi-enviro!

I think I'm finally starting to grasp the use of color dodge and texturing using the chalk brushes. Maybe over did both a bit in this one, but atleast I had a blast doing it.

I'll also post the EOW I participated. Not that happy with it though.

[Randis]

Love the Ape drawing and the 3th pick that study looks great, love the eyes a lot!

cheers

[Morgado]

Heya Ismo, thanks for stopping by my sketchbook!

I can see you do vary the themes alot more than I do, and structurally everything seems right.

Some of your images have somewhat blurred edges, but nothing that a sharpen can't fix.
On the other hand, you seem to dominate light and color very well, I like it. Keep it up

[ismo]

No time for drawing today, so I'll post an older Edelfelt study and a modified DSG entry.

Started studying art history as a minor at the university today. Yay!

Frank Gressie: Nice words, thanks a lot!
Randis: Thanks! Your sketchbook is filled with killer stuff. It's such an inspiration to me.
Morgado: Your're right about the blurriness. I've been struggling with that a long time.

[ismo]

Stone texture study.

[ismo]

spam! Very random speedy bot.

[Morgado]

Morgado: Your're right about the blurriness. I've been struggling with that a long time.

What I've found out about it, it's because of 2 factors: brush used and the way you use it. If you use the brush in a glazing manner too much, things may start to get blured.

But in a last ditch effort to save an image, you copy it, give it an unsharp mask filter, and erase whatever you don't want sharpened

[PippinIncarnate]

i must say, your painting of the train really resonated with me, mainly because it reminds me a lot of my home town.

anwyway, i love your loose and gestural style and thanks for viewing my sketchbook!

[ismo]

Morgado: Thanks for the tips.

PippinIncarnate: Thanks. Trains resonate well with me too because I grew up in a town that was originally build around a railroad junction. Got lot's of railroad engineers in the family too

I took the time to practice some nudes from photos. After all, what's a CA sketchbook without boobies.

And why not include some zombie boobies as well...

[The man with no name]

nice nude studies, the colours and form look great although I think the last girl went a little overboard with her makeup, green seems to be the new tan