I.D. Student in Development (Closed, I've moved to a new SB)

[brandon.leedy]

I've moved! Go HERE to my new sketchbook to see my latest work.


This is an old sketchbook and is being kept up for posterity and development's sake. Just a place to see how far I've come in my work. Enjoy.

Hello I (was) leadster618. Now I'm a pre-junior in Industrial Design at DAAP and have changed my name to "brandon.leedy". I was inspired/encouraged to join CA from a friend of mine, Invincible Wombat. Most of this early work is from my junior and senior high school work, in class sketches or from my sketches during my free time...I'd love to hear any comments and or criticism... Also apologies on the quality of the sketches, I can't easily access a scanner so I'm photographing my work until then... enjoy...

[brandon.leedy]

Here is when the modern work kicks in...from here on out are things I have done during the freshman year of college chronologically up until present day...enjoy!

[brandon.leedy]

[invinciblewombat]

alright you've got a lot of stuff going on here so ill just throw down some general critiques.

first you need to work in proper perspective ALL OF THE TIME. they will skull fuck you over this next year and it's good to get ahold of it before you develop any bad habits. some of these are looking pretty good in that respect but the ones that are really jumping out are the boots and the cameras. on the cameras the ellipses are really bringing down the image quality, your drawing prof may hate you for it but it might be worthwhile to invest in a set of ellipse guides, but still practice them. on the boots it doesn't really seem to have much perspective at all, it seems like you are getting more caught up in the stylization and the drawing of what you think a boot should look like rather than what a boot actually does look like. use references from life in theses cases. it's not cheating to look up images or just look at real life examples to help you draw, it's how you learn and the fact that you're expected to invent and draw completely new things makes it essential that you get it right.

secondly work on figures/anatomy. you have a few figuree drawings in here which is good, keep at it. nobody at this school is going to teach you anatomy, you have to do it yourself. you're going to be lucky if you get a week of figure drawing in foundations. this is an incredibly important skill to have, you might want to check out some copies of loomis or hogarth to help you with this but be persistent in it, it will make all the difference.

other than that not too much to say. they do not give you nearly enough drawing work in foundations to acclimate you to what's going to be expected of you next year so go above and beyond what's assigned, next year you are going to have to have 12-30 sketchbook pages due per week so just draw your ass off in your free time so you're ready. keep it up man, you've still got 4 and 1/2 years to go.

[brandon.leedy]

Okay here's the latest...the plates and dishes were ideations for our rendering of the dishware set...I also did the car and the chairs are all ideations for the final chair study, My dreamthrone...Props to DeMita on the subconscious Native American influence...also threw in my designs from this past form quarter the first one is my final proportion study...and can't forget the texture near the end which is burnt papers and was so cool i couldn't leave it out... Finally there are some random boats and a fanboy sketch from kingdom hearts which are a few sketches i've been doing in the free time...I hoping to post the stuff I'm doing now (a large set to practice some skills over break) before break ends....I'd love to hear some critiques, as always perspective is sketchy but I know there are other things so let me know!

By the way my goals over break is to put some of my sketches into photoshop paintings, for example the unfinished one with the future police vehicle is going to be a sweet painting and if you think any others would be cool as paintings (previous posts count too) I'd love to hear from you!

[invinciblewombat]

the line quality is looking nicer on the cars, but you have to make sure to keep everything in perspective.

[brandon.leedy]

Sorry for such the long delay, but I have been swamped with work! Here's my latest stuff including: Master Copy of an Alex Ross page from the graphic novel "Marvels" handpainted in watercolor....it took a while! Also the first two pages of my comic book (pages 3 and 4 coming soon, when my wacom comes back from the shop I wanna revise the whole set) and the renders of my 3d replication of Andy's Room from Toy Story. All these took FOREVER, but they look great and I am really pleased. I hope you enjoy them just as much as I do...Look for more works at the end of the month!

Random studies from recent times...









Zoo Studies (below)







Finals from this quarter:

[DiMb]

i like the 3d stuff and the comics the best seems to be a higher quality than everything else. Also what rendering software did you use for these 3d images.\
-DiMb

[invinciblewombat]

1 year down man, 4 more to go, you have to gritty up your cd, it's modeled well but everything looks so clean and plasicky, put some "dirt in the cracks" as it were and it will look a ton more realistic. the last spiderman page is looking boss, don't slack off now that it's summer though or it will bite you in the ass in the fall man.

[Ryan DeMita]

hey buddy. you are very dedicated which is great to see. how did you like your first year? keep working hard. i agree with what john said in this thread. always keep an eye on your perspective. next comes form with value and then contrast, composition, line quality and more and more advanced concepts such as anatomy and color which you'll develop as you go a long. dont take the summer off, practice as much as you can to prepare youself for the up coming year. pespective is the most important skill to have at this level. every artist struggles with perspective, so getting an early jump on it will make your life a lot easier.

i noticed this comment you made in john's book:
"Whenever I see I.D. work its clean in line quality so I really try for that on everything, but at times it does seem to take away from my work...ie. furry animals with straight line coats"

you're definately right. like i mentioned above drawing from life will help you develop a wide range of abilities as far as line quality and representing texture. for now i would focus on "ID style" and learning to draw straight lines and all that jazz. save fuzzy animals for later..

keep up the hard work my friend. take your time on some drawings and really struggle to bring them to a finished state as well as keeping up with the quick gestural stuff. i feel like a hypocrit "draw fast! draw slow!" but i think a blend of both will help the most.

take care
ryan

[ped454]

the comic stuff looks like the most clean and developed stuff here. I love your plate painting. Looks very realistic....

to be honest i'm not too fond of perspective either but it has a big part to play in drawings. keep up the work. you're definitely improving

[StarbonesCoffin]

Thanks for stopping by.

I got a question to ask, are those first pictures are made from a ref ? Your comics looks awesome, real awesome.

[Cup of Joe]

Nice stuff mate, especially those last comic pages! Oh, and sorry it took me so long to get my lazy ass over here.
The main thing I think you should work on is getting those pencils tight. They're a lot better than when you started this SB, but there's still some sketchiness going on. Also, getting our pencil rendering down will make it easier to judge values when you're doing colors.
Keep it up man!

[brandon.leedy]

Well I seem to have better internet again, and now I can show some of the stuff I have been working on over the summer. Alright here is goes...there are explanations intermittent...but these are only a better fraction of what's been going on this summer...I don't think I have the patience to photograph every sketch I've done so far, but I will be more consistent with updates now that my internet is better.

These first four are trials I did before I embarked on relearning anatomy, facial structure etc. I intend to redraw them once I finish my crash course and see if there are improvements.





The next three are examples of what I have been doing to warm up lately. I either take a dvd (pause it) or a comic and I spend about 5 minutes drawing whatever is in the frame. The Monsters Inc. set I really enjoyed as its something completely different.




The next three are some of the more recent examples of my work with relearning the head. The last two took about 45 min each.




These are my idea sketches for the Teen Challenge. My first idea with a horse was too common to me so I went with the second sketch, and enjoyed it. The final is father down below and on the teen challenge page.(be sure to vote!)



This I can safely say has taken a lot of time and effort with digital painting...I have about a page and a half done, and here is panel 1 compared to the old version of my comic...when I get all four pages done I'll post it in its entirety.


These last three are leaning more towards my practice with everyday object being drawn with an I.D. style, I am focusing on line quality and design accents with my extended lines. I hope to use these in background templates for my website which I am currently building.




Finally, here is my Teen Challenge 32 submission, Husk...if you want to read the backstory, check the Challenge Arena and vote if you like mine!


Thanks for checking it out, I'll be updating again soon!

[Cup of Joe]

Nice work starting up on anatomy again.
The best advice i can give you is to ALWAYS supplement what you learned that day or the last with drawing from imagination. It's the only way to make sure what you put in your head stays there. Also, once you get past bones and into muscles, try and learn both the names and insertion points. It's more work, but will make it all so much more rewarding in the long run.
Also, a few crits on the TC. Watch those proportions. I Know you were going a little stylized, but keep it grounded (that ribcage is way too wide, for example.) Also, try not to use pure black, at least not in such large paches. It really flattens an image. And of course the ever-relevant 'Use big brushes!' I might try and throw down a paint-over for you a little later.

Good improvement, just keep up the hard work!

[invinciblewombat]

wow a big update, the head and skull studies are tops

a couple of things that pop out right away though:

on the alien horse it would really improve if you used a reference to see how horses legs work and connect ro the torso.

on the comic page, i am actually digging the analog a lot more, the digital version looks very akward because the figures look so out of place from the background and i think handwritten text adds a lot to it.

on the teen challenge try to avoid using pure white and black to shade and highlight your painting, it flattens out the image

the perspective on the three really sharp pencil drawings towards the end is looking really tight, overall just keep the pencil moving man, more practice the better and school is coming up fast.

hope this isnt too incoherent it's rather late.

[Krigbrann]

Wow, the 3D and the comic book work looks amazing, although the comic book pages seriously need to be scanned neater. I think the web-head deserves more respect.

You have a wonderful amount of subject matter, especially the Disney stuff, and the anatomy looks great. However, I'm not sure if I'm right or wrong but your inked lines in the comic pages look slightly sloppy. I'm not sure whats up with that.

(Thank you for visiting my sb!)

[Krigbrann]

Yeh Deadlines suck. I hope you can display some more polished comic book works because I like what you have.

BTW: FFXII? OMG *GASP*

[ped454]

Personally I think you've improved by leaps and bounds. In your very clean linework drawings it appears that you're following a set structure and it seems that that really works for you. Your values got better as well. It seems to me that you're not imagining your subjects in 3 dimentsions. I suggest drawing a very basic geometric shape of the object you're going to draw beforehand.

Love your change in progress.

OH AND PS: As to the deadline comment. I think deadlines are the only thing keeping us on track. Whether or not you see them as a curse is up to you but if you think about it...they give you perfect incentive to plan . just a personal though. till next time mate

[Krigbrann]

Ridiculously unrealistic deadlines suck.

[AmontilladoAg]

Cool to watch your improvement here, L

The lantern and lighthouse look great and you get mucho coolness points for your Pixar sketchies

Keep up those anatomy studies! And heed the advice of Invincible Wombat -- skewed perspective can throw off an otherwise perfectly good drawing

Cheers

[brandon.leedy]

@maxofthesouth and @ped454: Ha I have to agree with both of you for different reasons. Yes max, the ridiculously unrealistic ones are really awful...but at the same time, we at DAAP manage to make them, albeit lacking some sleep. But on the same token, in support of ped454 those deadlines ARE the only thing keeping us in line, and the more we learn to work within them, the better we get. I don't enjoy them, but at the same time, especially during the summer, I wish I had some deadlines (yea for teen challenge) so I would be forced to draw. Let's face it, there are some times you want to slack off, haha but it feels better when you choose to draw. Like you are becoming a responsible artist.

@ped454: Thanks for the glowing comments! Its good to know that people are seeing improvement. I do feel like I'm getting my structure down in terms of how I draw. In response to the lack of 3d feel: I know what you mean, I have been told to "draw through" before and I think I'm going to focus on that more. Leaving some underlying structure beneath my sketches to fill them...instead of a "mask" on top of an outline.

@AmontilladoAg: Thanks for the compliments as well, I enjoy the pixar stuff a lot, they make some great movies...I will definitely be keeping up the anatomy, its helping a lot! And I promise I am working on perspective everyday, it really can screw things up if done wrong. Thanks mate!

[StarbonesCoffin]

Hey there, thanks for stopping by again, i was just wondering, if you've been reading Loomis ? Great proportional skill tho, i admire on that... Anyways, more and more please, ;D I've rated it ! Argh, exams !

[Camara]

MMmmmm,sweet pencils here!!!I like your style!Keep posting studies,and do more life drawings to improve your skills with anatomy!

Cheers!!!!!!

[Briantoreilly616]

I love your spidey pics, the last is very Alex Ross. And your skull study is great!

[Krigbrann]

You make me wish that I had a deadline.

[Anuran]

Wow, Leadster... you make me feel like a slacker. I totally agree with you about focusing on the importance of structure. One of my professors used to say that no amount of polish would hide bad structure in a drawing. You definitely have made some progress on the perspective work. We actually built a viewfinder of sorts that would help us guide our eye back to the same position when doing perspectival work. It helped immensely at the beginning of last year and eventually we eased away from using it. What really excites me is your color and computer work, which is something I have'nt touched all summer. Since we are at the same point in our respective programs it'll be neat to compare progress, I'll be checkin in, and thanks for stoppin by my thread dude.

[Krigbrann]

Your killing me Leadster... you keep leaving me comments but you have no updates for me to marvel at! Oh well I guess I'll rehash. The Skull under your Pixar stuff is AWESOME!!!111

[brandon.leedy]

@MaxoftheSouth: Ha ha well I got something for ya, lol I was gonna post this tomorrow but I was too excited...

Here is my sketch for CA Teen Challenge 33 - Bounty Hunter (Turn Around)
This is the front view, and I'm half way through the side view (I should have that and the back view done tomorrow, or at least the paint silhouettes for them, I may just do the rest by tablet). This took the longest cause I wanted to get through my basic studies of the female frame before I did it. Also I got distracted cause I was watching the Marko Djurdjevic dvd...OMG its ridiculously amazing...it made me want to draw. I highly recommend it to anyone! Anyways, here's my sketch. Crits please! I have a week to paint render it in Photoshop now...

btw, I know its photographed, the thing on the right near her arm is a satchel, but its got glare on it. It does have shading and volume to it, ts just hard to see.

[Krigbrann]

Thanks for fixing the size.

Thats really cool and since its in an early stage I'll just say that you did a really nice job getting the body's shape down (with the exception of the hands) and overall it looks like a great start. Also the belt probably doesn't curve around the breast, since the laws of physics dictate that it should hang loose. Lol.

Nice job and good luck!