My Digital Sketchbook. regularly updated. (image heavy)

[ndhill 0]

Hey everyone.

 

Some of you may know that at conceptart.org, I maintained a digital sketch book that I updated once a week. Because of my busy class schedule, (which, unfortunately contained no digital painting in the curriculum) and the fact that my last server went down and took my site with it, I could not update as regularly as I'd have liked... In fact, I got so frustrated with disorganized classes that lacked focus; and professors who told me that there's no future in digital art or conceptual design (most of them believe that it's still the 1970s) that I spiraled into a pretty big rut. Now with my site back up and with it, the ability to share my work online where I can get feedback from people who know the field (Mostly at forums like Conceptart.org and cgtalk) I decided to give it another go.

 

Anyway, ranting aside, the process works like this; I make at least one finished and refined digital painting weekly to post here. The rule is that I post whether I like what I've done or not and since I hate publicly displaying work if it's glaringly not up to snuff (to me anyway), I'll have that little bit of added incentive to devote the time I need. Constructive criticism is strongly encouraged and would be appreciated. I’d certainly recommend that any artist here does the same with the medium that they’re devoted to. It’s a great process especially if you hold yourself accountable, and the idea of displaying what you’re working on really makes you push yourself. As one of the better teachers here said,“You can take expensive classes and buy good materials but ultimately you’re only as good as the time you put in”

 

Here's what I've completed from the beginning of my last run up to when my site and stamina went down.

 

 

 

Here's a of six digital self-portraits that I had been doing for a little while. They were all pianted from life with a mirror in fron of my computer... No cheating.

 

 

 

 

More to come soon.

[ndhill 0]

"Soon" being now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that this is up to speed, expect my first realtime installment on sunday evening. Again, I'd seriously recomend that anyone give this a try.

Thanks.

-noel

[szupie 0]

Wow, these are great! You are a very talented artist. Did you use your mouse to do those? How long does it take you to do each of them?

[ndhill 0]

Thanks! Did I use a mouse? Heck no! I've seen a rare few who can pull that off. I don't figure it's worth the trouble. I use a wacom tablet and Corel Painter. Basically these allow me to utilize the computer the same way I would with a traditional medium. It's all hands on so-to-speak.

[szupie 0]

Yeah, I figured that anyone who can do this with a mouse wouldn't belong here... Hmm... Do you think a touch sensitive would be better or worse than a tablet in drawing? I mean, if you were able to put the screen on the table flat. (Although that was an subordinate clause, it still kinda makes sense...)

[ndhill 0]

I'm not sure. I know Wacom makes a very pricey piece of hardware called the Cintique which is pretty much an LCD monitor that you draw on directly with the Wacom pen, but I don't know of anyone who is insists that it's a necessity... Let alone anyone who's rich enough to buy one. For the most part, the number one tablet is the Wacom Intuos which comes in a variety of sizes to fit your needs and budget. I think once you get the feel of it down and use it regularly enough, the fact that you're not making marks on an actual surface doesn't even really occur to you.

[harriko 0]

i like this. this is really good! i love this style of drawing on the computer. you must be very creative to be a concept artist. i remember they only used pens, pencils, and papers for the concepts.now its a whole new step on the computer system. it makes the pictures a whole lot sharper and clearer. anyways, GREAT WORK!!

[overture 0]

Again; well done on the artwork. I really like the horse on your last picture. Was the Samuri (or however u spell it) inspired from the film The Last Samuri played by Tom Cruise? cos that is what i first thought of when i saw it.My second favourite and probably my overall favourite is The Dunes (that is what i named it) one, with the very ickle man and the vast sand and hills (or whatever they are called when they are made out of sand ) i love the perspective in that one. you can almost think what he is thinking (FU** me that is a SH*T load of sand! ).Well done.Keep 'em coming.overtureedit: if it is not a desert i apologise i haven't slept much --tired smiley here--

[wwheeler 0]

Wow, those are great. I wish that I was that good of an artist.My biggest art form is writing.

[amkint 0]

wow! dude you really have some really good talent... thats really good. i don't even know how to paint in real life.. painting in a pc is too much for me... i'll stick to programming and web designing ;-)

[ndhill 0]

harriko: Thanks for the kind words. Actually, where I attend classes anyway, there's still a lot of controversy over digital mediums. There are a multitude of ways professors will try to discredit it too. "There's no evidence of your hand", "there's no one original piece that acts as a template for your prints" etc. It's kind of hard explaining to them that it's not like pushing a few magic buttons to get a solid piece or that when you use a Wacom tablet, there is evidence of your hand as you're using your own brush strokes and pressure.overture: Thanks. Actually, I'm a big fan of samurai movies in general. Check out anything with directed by Akira Kurasawa or starring Toshiro Mifune.wwheeler: Thanks. You ought to post some of your writing sometime.amkint: Thanks. Actually painting on a computer isn't too different when you have the right tools. I love how with every passing year the line becomes more blurred.

[friso 0]

great work, all of them. I especially like 'dune' and 'griffin'.
Is that griffin based on some kind of real animal or dinosaur, or did you make it up yourself? and i like your drawings, but how good can you draw portraits, really? i mean, maybe you look really different, and you suck at portraits (just kidding) but could you post a photo... thanks.

and just one thing, maybe you shouldn't post images hosted on your Xisto account. if a lot of people look at this topic, you will lose quite some bandwith.... i'd go to an imagehost for that, at imagecave.com (http://www.imagecave.com/rg-erdr.php?_rpo=t) you got 1,024.00 MB of bandwith every month, and that way you're sure your own site will stay online... just a suggestion

love the paintings, keep up the good work!

[ndhill 0]

Thanks. The Griffin was done for a conceptart.org design challenge where the object was to redesign a mythological creature.

 

I've been meaning to put a picture of myself on my site for a while but I can never seem to remember to barrow my fathers digital camera whenever I go home.

 

Anyway, Here's my latest. It's kind of a metroid-inspired aquatic blob monster. That's the best title I can think of right now.

 

[szupie 0]

OMG!!! That squid looks half like a fetus... Maybe it's a fetus-squid? Looks like a skull too. Or maybe a nose with lots of hair sticking out...

[ndhill 0]

Haha. I can just imagine the plaque;"Fetal-Squid-nostril-skull-blob"...