Ostrander's Sketchbook of Shtuff

[Ostrander]

Wow, sorry for being so non-responsive.
Listing- That's pretty interesting. Thanks for stopping by!
(c)- Thanks! I was being goofy, couldn't resist.
spiffiness- Hi Spiffy, hope your studies are going well. Thanks for the comment, and noticing the angle of that back leg.
Mr. Joe- Glad you like the zombies. I was using painter for those. I modified the scratchboard tool, by changing the angle a bit. Thanks for dropping in!

Well, not too long ago I particapated in a Tdome based off of the "Chicks who draw chicks" calendar, only it was the guys turn. Here is a rather large WIP of the process and the final frame shows the finished piece.

Hopefully I won't be so neglectful of this thread and post more.
Happy New Year!

Best,
Glen

[oma]

haha fantastic !!!

happy newyear!!

[Beelow]

Reminds me of Leyendecker kind of hehe! Was this image inspired by his body of work at all?

[warda]

i love your stuff, especially the transluceny on the animals. the light.

-------------------
my sketch book
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=86039

[Ostrander]

oma- Thanks oma, I'm glad you like my work. Happy New Year to you too!
Beelow- Hi Beelow, It was inspired by Leyendecker, as well as Rockwell. I was trying to go for that "Post" look. It could use some more tlc in spots but with the time we had for the contest and the approaching holidays. It's all I could muster. I thought your piece was pretty successful. It's one of my faves of the bunch. The lighting reminds me of a piece by Stephen Stahlberg. Thanks for dropping by and taking a look!
warda- Hi warda, thanks for the comment! I'm glad you like my work.

Here is a piece I'm working on and have to get done for the Schoolies vs Selfies Tdome.
I have a long ways to go and it's due on the the 3rd. Yikes!!

I did a whole lot of smack talking to my opponent on this Tdome to not pull through. Of course it wouldn't be the 1st time I've done something like that.

[chaosrocks]

its due on the 2nd silly
I loved the Santa

Chaos

[Ostrander]

The 2nd?? Really? I thought it said the 3rd on the 1st page. Doh! Now I'm worried. Thank you Chaos, I'm glad you liked the Santa, it was a fun tdome. I wished some of the other guys put a little more effort into theirs to give it that "spark" that the girls calendar had. Maybe in the next one. Thanks for stopping by!

[Ostrander]

Greyscale update. Too tired to work on it anymore tonight.

[sve]

It's due on 3th, for us, in America,on our 3th at 12am, you have two more days roughly.

Thank you for the friendly messages in my book, you jokingly said you love me, love you back, in the same way .

You posted a bit too late your image and I'm afraid to give you any big critique, because it is really what we can call interfering with artistic process, it will just make you do many things at once.

But I think I will give you some of my thoughts, because ... well despite of all the reasoning, that's what i would prefer for myself.

You gave him heroic proportions, his figure is a bit stretched. I think you know that it gives him a fantasy touch, super human, so to speak.
He looks like a wild, uncontrollable, strong, obsessed, independent. strong headed, uneducated (ehehehe),dark, spooky character already, in my opinion.

I think his main features are that he is strong, physically and mentally too.
His will is unshakable. He can destroy everything on his way, and this force is one the border with a force of crazy, extremely agitated, obsessive mind.
That's a bit of a contradiction, his mind being strong and sick in the same time, but that's what I think looking at his wild face.

The other thing I think about him is that he is dark. His heart is dark, he is cruel and merciless. I think he might be the kind of guy who does ugly things only when he needs to do them, for his own safety and good, but he might be the one who enjoys them too. It can go both way with this character.

He looks almost like a wild animal to me, acting out of his instincts rather than out of his rationalizing. He is ignorant, his mind is dark too. Questions of good and evil are nonsense to him, or better say he lives without acknowledging them.

Why I think that.
It is because of his closed, unfriendly, but bold glance from beneath his bushy eyebrows,

and because of the energy in his well fit, well adjusted to any hardness figure,

and because there is so much wind in your picture, wind in his hair, wind, playing with his tunic. "Wind", this word is making an immediate association subconsciously with freedom, wildness, uncontrollable force, homelessness, loneliness, nature. For me.

Critique,

his figure is a little off balance, a little bit not steady standing, slanting to my left side.

From the waist up I think his body is a tad longer than comparing to what it should be with those legs, in my opinion. I might be wrong, though.

His shoulder are a bit narrow, but it is not a big deal, they are slanted to my left though and this adds too the slightly dizzy feeling.

Really don't think you should hide half of his left foot like this in the front banner. Bad juju.

Face looks great, a lot of personality and I value this a lot, especially in a portrait. One of his mustache is down, it give a humorous touch to the image, but suit yourself if you want to go for this in your image.

I expect suitable colors for the guy like this, probably bright, strong, on the border of being effective and indifferent to effects, bold, mature, colors of adult person. Should be a hint on his dark nature if I guessed right.
Texture of stone, rocks will help this image too, I think. Colors of nature will help too.
He has a charisma probably and could have been potential leader if he didn't value his independence and freedom more than fame and his own authority.
Please ignore what I have to say about him if it is not what you want to say about him. It's just one person opinion.

Great Santa, my favorite is the one dressed in boxers with hearts.

[Juhani Jokinen]

hey mate! It's been awhile.. You've improved since I last visited your sketchbook. Pretty nice stuff!

I'll be back soon to crit some more.

JJ

[Pascallo]

Cool stuff and cute monsters - especially like the deamon and wolve-thing.
Great work - keep it up like this!

[Ostrander]

sve- Your thoughts and crits are so nice to read. I fixed some of the things you had mentioned and went to color on my entry. I didn't give myself enough time to plan this image out very good. In short I hung myself with the deadline.
His hands went neglected as well as some of the details I wanted to do with his clothes and shoes. I'm glad that I was able to at least feel somewhat comfortable to put this in the final images thread. Time got the best of me.
I'm glad you liked the Santa, I went with the thong for the funny factor. I think he looks better in boxers as did most everyone I asked. Looking back on that Tdome, I completely missed the point of it. I went with a humorous approach as opposed to what I thought women find sexy. Maybe I'll get it right next time.
Anthriel- Hey man thanks! I'll get my lazy butt over to your SB and throw some crits and comments your way. Thanks for dropping by!
Pascallo- Thanks man, I appreciate your comments!

Here's the final image for the Schoolies vs Selfies Tdome.

[entdroid]

Hey Ostrander!!! Thanks for stopping by my sb
I like your entry too, and that border really adds a lot to it. I'm sure we'll kick those selfies asses!!
I had a lot of fun going thru your sketches. I like the zombies on page 1 a lot. And the hypnotizing goat was golden! I think I voted for that one on that COW.
The Santa is really cool too! Not really what I would consider sexy (and the thongs really put him a bit too close to the gross side ), but really fun and well executed.
Have a great new year and post some more stuff!

[jdeegz]

i am so freaked out, the art is awesome but the subject matter was so un expected! hahaha keep it up i love it.

[spiffiness]

really great illustration of Santa, but it's not something that I would want to hang up on my wall for a month as a pin-up ;p I've noticed that you have your own style of using really small brush strokes. Maybe as a stretching exercise, you can try using larger, faster brush strokes for a piece? Just a suggestion. Keep up the good work!

[Nyx702]

Yes! I had something like that on the tip of my brain! I think you made a great observation Spiffy! That may help some of the overworked-ness that Ostrander has mentioned.

Again, great idea.

[Pascallo]

The robe of the guy looks a bit flat, like it is blown just to the right. but it should come a bit forward to get through the gate. maybe you should add a fold that definetly shows it comes forward? And I am not quite sure if I like the cape having a shadow on the white... hmmm.
but otherwise great picture!
cheers!

[Rich Pellegrino]

That santa piece is creepy dude. haha. Did Grumble ask you about the sketch group yet? I think he said Saturday RISD open drawing and then some sketching at a local cafe or something. Keep up the kick ass work mate!

Rich

[designboot]

Very nice works here!
I like Santa's progres

cheers

[Rich Pellegrino]

Hey Glen! it was nice meeting you too. The sketchgroup was a blast and I hope we can do many more in the future.

Rich

[Ostrander]

Entdroid- Hi there! Yeah that Santa has either disturbed alot of people or made them laugh. Sometimes a little of both. Although I think deep down, some people think he's HAWT. He really isn't what I find sexy. I just wanted to do something that I thought was funny. I really should have taken the challenge a little more serious and given the women of CA what they really wanted to see. But I knew Chuck was gonna be bringing it home with his peice so I thought he had it covered. Thanks fo stopping by again Ms. Ent, I'm glad you like my work.
jdeegz- Hi jd, thanks for the compliment. I think that over time you'll see that I'm all over the place with my work with verying subject matter and styles.
I'll keep posting when I can. Thansk for stopping by!
spiffiness- Hi Spiffy, I agree with you and Nick. I do have a tendency to overwork and I should really loosen up a bit. I think that bigger brishtrokes are good if you can still achieve what your after in the end result. Doing it good though takes practice. I will certainly try your suggestions. Thanks for your crit!
Nyx702-Yeah, I think you two are on to something. I will definantly give it a go. Thansk for checking in on me.
Pascallo-I agree with you 100% on this observation. I had a tough time deciding what to do with this piece. And I had alot going on at the time of the contest. All I can really say is I waited till the final hours efore commiting to anything and hung myslef because of it. I think the piece really lacks heart. I mean you can tell when someone who isn't into a subject or who's rushing to get something done loses heart in a piece. I think the my opponent, sve, had a lot more heart with her piece. Alot of love went into to her work. I think that this would pass for a decent color comp, but not a finished piece. Thanks for dropping by and giving me your thoughts.
designboot- Hi Designboot. Thank you I appreciate that. This one was done with a bit more time on my hands. I had worked on this over the course of 2 weeks. Did alot of research, looking at JC Leyendecker and Norman Rockwells work. I happend to be reading Rockwell's autobiography at the time, "My adventures as an Illustrator" which was a great read btw. And I just tried to mimick the style of those ealry Post covers. It was great fun to work on this. Thanks for stopping by!
voodoochile- Mr. Voodoo! Yeah I'm looking forward to our next meetup too. I had alot of fun. Hopefully with more practice I'll be able to get back up to speed and be comfortable with my quick figure drawing agian. Thanks for dropping by!

OK, so here's what I've got cooking for the Gods at War Tdome.
Posiedon vs Cthulhu
These are early and rough. I think I'll have a Pirate ship/Galleon on the wave to the left of the battle in the forground. I'm still tossing ideas around but I think this might be the general composition I'll be going for. I kno right now, I'll be going nuts figuring out how I want Cthulhu's wings to be positioned.

Also I just wanted to mention that I won't be replying untill I have something to post. So if I don't responed as quickly as some like I do apologize, and please don't take offense.

Best,
Glen

[sve]

Oh god, thank you very much, that's what friends for, right? I feel weak in my knees... Goooorrggiouuuussssssss!
Man, could you spoil it with something, like wrong colors or ship being stuck in the middle of the desert... I'm near of coma...

I was terrified and. I loved the piece from the first time...
Especially the intersection between two, Cthulhu? who the hell he is? Who is the bad guy?

And anatomy of the standing guy is wonderful, striking really,,, all these curves of muscles, very attractive.
It looks like digital drawing, my, my, I'm deeply impressed, those are beautiful lines and it looks like you got this truthful outline from the first attempt.

Well, you know if you really want you always find something to criticize. So here I go.

Both figures are pretty much lined up. Although I like their interaction and I like the composition, I think you will get double bonus if you make one figure slightly closer to us, another behind it... The other thing, you might create extra interest to your picture if you move one of the knees of the character forward. Like you know to make the pose less static, add potential dynamic, interest for viewer to finish the scene, to imagine next movement of the person.

Cthulhu's head is way too big for his body. They both look like their have very similar bodies. maybe it is not a big thing.
their bodies are almost mirroring each other, almost the same pose...

Is it wings behind Poseidon? interesting interpretation...
A lot of empty space on my left right now. I hope you will paint some beautiful waves. Here link for you, our best Russian painter, who painted sea all his life, Ivan Aivazovsky
http://www.abcgallery.com/A/aivazovsky/aivazovsky.html

Well that's all I've got. Anatomy is beautiful and this pose is very expressive.
Good luck, hope you are doing well after pour last chat, .

Wow, read your words about my piece... Man, how I want it to be real truth, not just you being kind and friend. Bye.

[Pascallo]

Man dont be such hard to yourself, your picture is definetly cool anyway. Maybe you´ll remember next time Cheers!

[enthombed]

great thread here man, your zombies are great, keep posting more like this.

Cheers

[(c)]

good sketch man!!! still i am dopting the comnosition feels empty on the left but maybe the light will help sooooooo please flesh it out

[Ostrander]

Reply-o-rama
sve- Wow!! You say the nicest things. To help you with who's who, Poseidon (King Neptune, King Triton) is the guy with the spear. And Cthulhu is the winged, octopus-head guy getting speared. (wiki cthulhu for more on him) Thanks for your wonderful comments, they are very insightful
Pascallo Hehe, yeah have a tendency to be very harsh about my stuff. Thanks for droping by again!
enthombed Thanks man! I have some more festering around that I'll post soon.
(c)- Hi C! I hope it's fleshed out enough for you. I tried to stay looser with my strokes. Thanks for your comments and thanks for dropping by!



Here's the final entry for the Gods at War tdome. I thought it turned out pretty OK. I didn't intend for this to be in color. Just black and white. I think just as much can be said with B&W. I tried to stay loose with this one and worked on this at 25% screen size for the majority of it. I'll link this to a larger version later so you can see just how scribbly and loose I got.



Hope you guys like it.


Til next time, thanks for dropping by!

Cheers,
Glen

[chaosrocks]

hey I like it!
still feels a little off balance to me... and you wussed out on Making Cthulu anatomical.. probably wise...(shudder)...

I love BW i think we should work that way more often.
chaos

[spiffiness]

Wow! Really exciting image! I love that wing! The rim lighting is really good too!

[Zombie_dla]

Where's the stars? Great work!

[Nyx702]

Aw, this is awesome. I haven't talked you you for a while. Busy I supose. I agree with chaos in the balance part. It almost looks like two separate images. That rim lighting is pretty sweet. It almost looks like something Anthriel would paint. The figures could probably use some more twist in there body to make them more dynamic don't you think? I think it definatly feels better with you working looser. How about you? I think it could proably go even more lose.