Istmin

Does hard work really pay off?

2011-11-28T18:46:00.000-05:00

This has come to my attention lately but the general rule is that if you work hard at something, there should be a reward or a pay off at the end. It seems that hasn’t happened to me yet. I’ve worked hard all my life. I ended up getting accepted into an art college with a good reputation. That was probably the only time in my life where my hard work really did pay off. It seems that after college...well...things have been up and down.

I’m lucky that I’m employed right now but I feel like I deserve a lot more in life for all the hard work and effort I put in. Whenever I do work hard, it never seems to be enough. I always have to do more. It’s not good enough or I’m not working hard enough, etc, etc. No offense, but it gets exhausting after a while. Sometimes I say to myself, fuck it. Working hard is pointless. But for some reason, I keep pushing myself. Why? It comes down to this. I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life.

I feel like there is something within me, almost like an instinct or a voice that tells me to keep going. That everything will pay off in the end. When though? When will that happen? I don’t consider myself quitting with my art or my writing anytime soon. I’ve certainly grown a lot in my skill set and talents over the years. That is probably the one thing that doesn’t make me quit. I still have things to work on (unfortunately) but I feel like that will always be the case. Perhaps this is a never-ending journey that I will continue to battle.

Some progress on my script (and other stuff)

2011-11-13T15:44:00.000-05:00

So I've been spending at least two - four hours a day writing my script, trying to get through the first draft. At times it great and things just flow and the story starts writing itself. Then there are times that I'm like...what the fuck do I do!? This isn't going anywhere. This scene isn't work. Why is this so damn hard?! I stare at my screen like the answer it will magically come to me. But when I'm in that state, I have to just write something anyway. That's the only way to get out of the rut. What I notice is that even though my writing might suck, there is something in there that actually has potential, or it sparks a new idea to keep my story moving forward.

Yes, I have an outline. But sometimes I notice there are little bumps in the road and I don't realize them until I start writing. They are minor things and not many of them, but at times, they are there.

And I have to keep something in mind when I'm writing my first draft. IT IS MY FIRST DRAFT AND IT WON'T BE PERFECT. I have to stop putting pressure on myself that this has to be all there. It's a first draft and I will have time to revise and keep revising it later. It's a habit that will be hard to break but I need to keep telling myself that.

It's funny how I mentioned in my last post that I won't be pursuing art anymore and yet I found myself drawing last week. I don't know. I just felt like it. It was a nice break between writing I guess. Who knows? But I've noticed something similar to screenwriting and drawing. You're first pass when drawing won't be good but you try and draw it out so you have something to work with. This would be similar to your first draft to your screenplay. Then as you keep drawing and painting it, you keep revising and fixing it until you feel like you've done absolutely everything you can to make it as good as possible. After you write your first draft of your screenplay, you do a second pass and you keep revising it.
I'm not saying it's the same thing but the process is pretty similar. The only difference is that you can finish an illustration faster than a screenplay.

Overall, I'm glad I'm finding the time to write. There is always something that gets in your way in life from doing what you want but you have to fight through it anyway. That's what I've been doing basically. I don't think there is any way around it. But I'm still passionate about this idea and already have about 55 pages written so far.

Outlining definitely helps me prepare before I write because this way I have a plan of some sort. If I just start writing from scratch and have no plan, writing a feature length screenplay is a very overwhelming task for me.

I've been submitting my short screenplay called "The Bank Teller" to a couple of contests. It's a little scary putting myself out there but I feel strongly about the theme of the script.

I'll keep everyone posted on whether or not I place in anything.

If you would like to see my creature I drew, you can view it here http://twitpic.com/7dxjgq

I guess I don't see myself giving up art completely. It's a frustrating experience.

In Pursuit of a Different Path

2011-11-03T14:18:00.000-04:00

I know I haven't posted here in a long time. I know that noone reads this anymore because I don't use it that often. At this point I don't really care if anyone reads this or not. This is for me and that is why I started this blog in the first place. Or maybe I did. It was probably both.

So what have I been up to? Well, I've always wanted to pursue writing and have taken a bunch of writing classes in college and have continued writing on and off since then. It was only until the summer that I realized that I want to pursue a career in screenwriting. Why? Because I feel ike I can express myself better when I'm writing stories rather than drawing some random thing that doesn't mean anything to me. I also have always been fascinated with film and like seeing things visually. I have a bunch of stories to tell and when I'm writing I feel like I am creating my own world. I don't quite feel that way when I'm drawing.

What happened was, I was still working on getting better at my foundation skills in illustration (anatomy, value, light, etc.) and started my own sketchbook on conceptart.org. I was working hard not necessarily because it was something I loved and enjoyed. (I did to a certain extent) but I was mainly doing it for the wrong reasons. Basically, I was doing this so I could get a better job. It was really for getting more work. I kept pushing myself too much to a point where I honestly hated creating art. I felt that I wasn't making any progress and I wasn't improving on my weaknesses no matter how hard I tried. I eventually lost my passion for art. That's when I decided to change directions and actually do something I've always wanted to.

So far I've written two short screenplays. Both are dramas with some comedy thrown into them. I really like how my second short screenplay came out and I'm going to enter it in some contests and see what happens from there. I'm currently writing a feature screenplay called Bicurious.

I honestly never pictured me doing this in my life but feel I have more of an instict for writing than I do with art. I'm not sure why but it "feels" right to me to be writing rather than drawing.

Will I give up art completely? I can't say no for sure. It has been something I've been doing most of my life and I still doodle occasionally.

The thing is...I don't have all the free time in the world. I'm at a point in my life where I really have to focus on something. I can't focus on more than one thing. Some people can but I can't. I only have around 2-3 hours of free time after work and I need to use my time wisely. Writing has had it's struggles, especially with screenwriting because there are a lot of rules and specific ways of formatting that I had to get used to but I feel like I've been getting the hang of it.

I'm taking baby steps for now. We'll see where this road takes me.

I fixed some of it around

2011-05-25T13:14:00.000-04:00

I worked on this some more and fixed some slight anatomy issues.

a doodle that is turning into something...

2011-05-22T14:11:00.001-04:00

This is a doodle I've been working on since yesterday. I've been working on the other character from the post below too. I'll post that soon.

some progress....

2011-05-11T23:03:00.000-04:00

Here is some progress to the drawing below. I finally had some time to work on it. I've been tweaking some of the anatomy as well. I'm starting to feel more confident with myself and I will continue to push myself some more.

I haven't had much time to draw in the past couple of days because I ended up getting a freelance graphic design gig. A local company needs e-blasts done for events that they put together once or twice a month. This is really my first real freelance job that I got. I don't know if that's a sad thing or not but I'm glad I'm starting with something. Unfortunately, the past two days have been really stressful because the company needed it to go out in the beginning of the week so I've spend Monday and Tuesday night finalizing the design and coding it in html. Let's just day I'm glad it's over. The finished e-blast ad is pasted below. It was nice to work on a drawing for a change tonight and not anything graphic design related.

It was probably the most challenging thing I've done in a long time because at both my part time jobs, things have gotten a bit boring and they aren't the most creative places to work at. I feel like I really pushed myself with trying different techniques and ideas where at my other jobs, I don't always have that opportunity.

Luckily, everything worked out and he wants me to work on another e-blast later this week. Hopefully this will be a continuous thing and it will give me some extra money in the bank.

Any thoughts and comments are always welcome.

new doodle

2011-05-08T13:46:00.000-04:00

This is a doodle I was working on yesterday. Thought I would share it.

another sketch

2011-05-02T10:39:00.000-04:00

I'm working on two characters at the same time. This is another character I'm playing around with. I'm really trying to break the human figure down into basic shapes to really get the form right. I've been drawing from an ImagineFX magazine that specifically focuses on anatomy. It's been pretty helpful.

something new

2011-04-30T16:40:00.002-04:00

This is something new I started working on. I'm really taking it upon myself to really master anatomy. Wish me luck.

Contact page finished...

2011-04-26T09:47:00.000-04:00

My contact page is finished and the contact form is officially working now. For the first time, I was able to do all the form validation using javascript. I found a website that had the code for the it and it's pretty interesting how they do it. It's much more organized than how I've done it in the past. Check it out when you get a chance and test out the contact form if you like.

I'm almost done with my website!

2011-04-18T00:39:00.001-04:00

So I'm almost finished with my website. Since I'm still struggling to create a slideshow in javascript with a fade/fade out effect I ended up doing it i Flash. I still want to figure out how to do it in Javascript but at least I have something up there anyway.

I still need to add some content to some pages and add the php to the contact form page but overall, it's working and my graphic design work is up. I'm also planning on redesigning my pdf resume so it matches the same look to the website.

I figured out how to have someone get redirected to a different website so that's what I did when someone clicks on my website link, they will get redirected to my new site in progress. I think that's pretty cool and it's actually very easy to do in Javascript. Anyway, you can see more progress of my website if you go to www.iantopple.com. It will redirect you anyway. This is great so when I'm looking for work, they can see my new website.

I added a couple of more pages

2011-04-10T16:08:00.000-04:00

If you read the post below, I mentioned that I'm redesigning my website. I added a couple of more pages to it. I added the print design and web design pages and my resume page is also up. On my resume page, I still have to make a pdf that people can click on but I also put my resume up on the web anyway for people to read. You can view the site here: My website thus far. Not all the links work yet but so far my contact, resume, home, print design and web design pages are up and you can click on them. More to come soon.

I'm currently redesigning my website...

2011-04-09T08:53:00.000-04:00

I finally decided to do a major rebranding of myself so the first thing I'm doing is redesigning my website. The site I have now takes too long to load and there is a lot of unnecessary stuff on there. After doing web design for almost a year now professionally, I decided to redesign my website in html/css.

This is what I have so far. click here I was able to create a drop down menu in pure css and I'm experimenting in CSS3. There are a lot of new features you can do now and you can even do some simple animation effects without using Flash. Unfortunately only Safari and Chrome support those features for now.

To see the website to it's fullest extent, I would view it in Safari or Chrome. So far, I only have the home page and contact page up. I created the resume page yesterday but I haven't uploaded it to the web yet.
Anyway, I'm curious to know what people think of it so far.

Thanks,
Ian

finished.

2011-03-20T14:11:00.002-04:00

So I fixed up some minor things and I'm calling this done. I'm not sure what else I could do with it.

more progress...

2011-03-20T01:57:00.002-04:00

So my goal for finishing this didn't quite pan out but I came pretty close. I'll finish up some loose ends tomorrow.

more progress...

2011-03-18T22:25:00.000-04:00

here is some more progress....

I got a new wacom tablet...

2011-03-17T23:05:00.001-04:00

I ended up having to buy a new wacom tablet because my last one broke. I just got it yesterday. To celebrate, I decided to start drawing something fun. My goal is to finish this by the end of tomorrow. I'll then finish my last character design from my last post.

more progress...

2011-03-07T10:17:00.000-05:00

As an exercise, I decided to try and draw this character from a side view. It was a little more challenging than I thought and I might need to fix some things. I'm also not sure if the head is still too big on the figure. I'll have to take a look at it later.

I think it's done...

2011-03-02T10:20:00.000-05:00

This is the final result of the character. I've been trying really hard to get the proportions down. I'm sure along the way, I'll probably find some minor errors to fix. Enjoy.

redoing previous black and white character...

2011-02-27T19:35:00.000-05:00

I decided to redo the previous black and white character from a couple of posts down because I wasn't completely satisfied with it. I'm liking how this is coming out but I'm not sure how I feel about the face. I'm not sure if I like the stylization of it yet. I'll look back at it later.

What I'm noticing when working on something for a while is that I'll take a break, then look at back and notice a shit load of anatomy problems that I didn't notice before and it's a constant back and forth battle. It took me a little bit of time to get most of the anatomy problems fixed and I'm sure I'll keep fixing it along the way. I guess the good thing about this is that at least I'm noticing these problems and resolving them to the best I can. I should start thinking that at least it's a start in the right direction. I always have to take a quick break to notice these problems though. But at least I'm noticing them which means that my instincts are getting stronger. I'm going to put some finishing touches on it tomorrow and it will hopefully be finished with it. I didn't have to spend as much time on this either compared to how long some other characters take. I spent about 3 hours yesterday and a couple of hours today. Not sure if that's slow or not. I'll keep posting soon.

About optimism...

2011-02-26T21:56:00.000-05:00

I know that being positive is really important, especially when trying to develop my skills. For instance, today I was in a much better mood then yesterday and have been working on a character design. I'm actually redoing the previous one in black and white because I'm not completely happy with it. It's not bad but I'm not sure if it's how I wanted it to look. Because I'm in a more optimistic mood, I feel like I can be more productive and I've actually almost finished with the redesign of the character.

My problem is that being positive is only short lived. It's a brief moment where I feel like nothing can stop me and I'm just doing my thing. My question is, how do I keep thinking positive all the time? I generally have a nrgative attitude towards a lot of things. I feel like when something happens in my life that is negative, it takes me back to thinking pestimistcally. I honestly don't understand how people can constantly be happy all the time. I don't find that realistic. When I'm depressed and not thinking straight, my artwork suffers and slows down my progress. Any suggestions on staying positive no matter what?

new character...

2011-02-22T21:30:00.000-05:00

This is a new character I'm working on. I'm also thinking about redoing the character in the previous post. Not that it's bad but I don't know if I'm totally satisfied with it. We'll see.

finished for now....

2011-02-20T15:19:00.000-05:00

I think the character is finished for now. I might work on it more in the future if I see anything wrong with it but for right now I want to move on.

I also did some face studies today.

I think I will be doing studies on the weekend and do my own stuff during the week. That schedule might work out best for me.

more progress..;

2011-02-16T22:05:00.000-05:00

Here is some more progress. I'm sure I will find other anatomy issues to fix but overall I think it's going well.

more progress on the character

2011-02-14T20:55:00.002-05:00

Here is some more progress of the character I posted before.

pondering...

2011-02-14T00:49:00.002-05:00

I've worked more on the character I posted below but I will be posting progress of it sometime this week.

I've been pondering lately on what's more important. I have an interest in writing as well and I want to start working on a comic again. I feel like it's a strong idea that could potentially work. I even started writing a script for it but my problem is that I can never seem to find the right work flow for myself. I've stopped working on the script recently because I've been trying to rebuild my art portfolio to hopefully get freelance work. The problem with that is that it's taking much longer than I thought. Let me give you a brief history. About a year ago, I was laid off from a really crappy full time job that I hated. Granted the money was somewhat decent but in a way, I was happy about getting laid off. It was a dead end job anyway. Since I had more free time on my hands, I decided to start really taking art more serious than I have before and began my journey to improve my skills as an artist. It's been a year later and although I'm seeing progress and I'm finally starting to feel more relaxed and comfortable when I start drawing(which is a huge accomplishment considering that at times, I always felt worried that whenever I would start something, my work would always suck) yet I still rarely have anything to show for it except for a couple of character designs that I put on my website. I was hoping that I would have more work to show and put up on my website but I don't. I do feel like I'm finally heading in the right direction and feel more confident that I can produce more work faster. Throughout the year, I've also gained two part time graphic/web design jobs so at least I'm making some money although I don't have as much free time anymore.

I guess my main dilemma is that I have a lot of ideas that I want to start writing about but then I start thinking that I need a better art portfolio to get at least some freelance work and that might be more important so if I build up a descent portfolio, I can then focus more time on my comic but since building up a portfolio is taking longer than I thought it would, should I stop creating artwork and just go head strong and spend more time working on the comic? Or should I alternate days and work on my comic one day and work on a portfolio piece the next day?

I'm also going through a lot of roller-coaster emotions over my artistic journey. One minute I'm optimistic, the next I feel like giving up. There is also the pressure of finding a better paying job that I can live on. As I'm getting older, I'm putting that pressure on me as well.

I shouldn't be so hard on myself though. Over the past year, I have gained graphic and web design skills and I can actually create websites by hand coding them which is honestly a skill I thought I would never have. I'm proud of myself because I practically taught myself on how to do these things which I never thought I could do in the first place. I definitely feel more confident with myself and feel like I have grown as a person and as an artist. So then why do I get so hard on myself? Why do I suddenly start thinking negative thoughts. Perhaps I'm worried about my future.

But what's more important? Doing a comic or building up a portfolio? I feel like writing a story is more enjoyable to me sometimes than creating art.

I guess from what you can tell is that I'm confused at what to do with my life at this point. I tried to write at least 20 min a day but that method can only last so long because it's hard to find those 20 minutes sometimes. I will have to think of a strategy to conquer this.

New character

2011-02-11T21:36:00.000-05:00

This is a new character I'm working on. I'm really going to keep working on anatomy and proportion and push myself to get better. Within the past year I've def been seeing progress so I'm going to keep working hard. I don't know about some people but if you look through this blog from the beginning and until the last post of work, I can def see an improvement. I was wondering if anyone else can. Thanks.

finished with character duo...

2011-02-11T11:08:00.002-05:00

Here is the finished character duo. Enjoy! I'm curious to here what other people think.

more progress...

2011-02-01T23:09:00.000-05:00

Here is some progress. I ended up changing the side kick character. I'm starting to like this more.

A new update... lol

2011-01-29T16:53:00.000-05:00

So I know I said I would stop posting but I decided to post something new anyway. I've been working on a character duo so this is my idea so far. Enjoy!

My conceptart.org sketchbook...

2010-02-24T18:36:00.000-05:00

I finally decided to start a conceptart.org sketchbook thread. It's basically like a sketchbook except you post your work online every time you have something new and have people comment on it.
Here is the link to mine:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=181423
I don't know if I will be posting here anymore due to lack of comments. All of my new artwork I have been doing I have been posting on conceptart. Anyway, take care.

a page from my sketchbook....

2010-02-13T13:31:00.000-05:00

Okay, I don't mean to sound rude or annoyed but does anybody look at my blog anymore? I haven't gotten a comment in god knows how long and the whole point of this was to branch my work out to the people on the web to hear there thoughts and comments. It doesn't seem like anyone notices this blog except for maybe a couple of people. Maybe my work isn't interesting enough to make a comment. I'm not sure but the lack of comments is making me less motivated to put my work up on here. I've been thinking lately of starting a sketchbook on conceptart.org. It seems like people get more feedback on that site so you might not see me on here as often. Anyway, this is a page from my sketchbook that I did a couple of days ago. When I create my sketchbook on conceptart, I'll post it on here.

just for fun....

2010-02-09T15:48:00.000-05:00

If you scroll down below you'll see a sketch of this weird female sketch. Just for fun, I felt like painting it. It's not finished but I don't think I'm going to finish it. I think I'll use what I've learned for another illustration in the future.

Highlighter painting 5...

2010-02-04T23:09:00.000-05:00

This is my 5th highlighter painting. I spent about an hour on this one and I'm starting to see different colors that I haven't seen before. It's also painted in different lighting. Unfortunately, when I post on this blog, my colors feel less saturated than what the actually painting looks like. Does anyone else have this problem? I notice than when I look at it on a pc it doesn't do that. More to come soon...

a 40 min painting...

2010-02-04T07:57:00.000-05:00

I probably spent about 40 minutes working on this. It's the same highlighter but in a completely different lighting scheme. I just really liked how the lighting looked on it so I felt like painting it last night. This is probably my favorite of the highlighter series so far. I think I had more fun painting this because I liked the lighting situation more. I think the reason why I might have had trouble with the previous highlighter paintings was because I wasn't as interested in it. I thought the lighting in this one was really cool. I think I just liked the warm lights and darks in it mostly and I started to pump up a little bit of the saturation in the midtones. If I had more time, I would have played around with that more. More to come soon...

Hi-Liter... third painting.

2010-02-03T14:08:00.000-05:00

This is my third attempt at painting this highlighter. Some of the color is a bit more saturated than how is shows on my screen so it might look better on a pc. Anyway, I spent a much longer time painting this and trying to understand the neutral tones in the highlighter. I'm still gonna keep working on it.

another Hi-Liter painting....

2010-02-01T11:45:00.000-05:00

This is another painting of the same highlighter. I'm starting to realize that painting something with only mostly medium tones is really hard. There really wasn't much mass light and the shadow core is extremely subtle. Also the reflected light was also really hard to paint. I guess I haven't painted much subjects with this type of light. It's really frustrating because I felt like I was actually improving and then I started painting again not long ago and I feel that I'm struggling again. Maybe I just need to paint objects in more of this type of light to get used to it. The transitional light is tough to get right to me.

painting of Hi-Liter....

2010-01-31T14:33:00.000-05:00

This was another half hour painting of an orange highlighter I had lying around in my room. I usually try to break up the form in simple shapes before I start added in the midtones but I feel like when I do that, it looks really flat and wrong until I start putting in the midtones. Sometimes, depending upon how things are hit with light, they don't always have simple shapes to break up the form. Like the duck I painted yesterday in the face, there weren't any real forms I could see to break them up. If I simplified the form into the shapes, there would only be two values I could see distinctly and it would look really weird and flat. I could see some forms in here very quickly to block in the shape but when I did that it still didn't give much of a 3 dimensional view. It took me quite a bit of figuring out what the core shadow color and reflected light is. I still think the color is a little bit browner than what I have. I figured to use blues and purples to mix into a brownish orange to get closer to the color I saw. I also noticed that there was only cool light hitting it so to get some of the highlights I used a light grayish blue. It seems to work but I wouldn't have thought of doing that before.

I'm sorry these are really wordy. I guess I'm just trying to understand what I'm painting. I think I might paint the highlighter again because it is a basic shape to paint. Anyway, more to come.

another drawing....

2010-01-31T13:15:00.001-05:00

This is just a doodle I was working on. I ended up buying a streaming video that conceptart.org has on artistic anatomy. Normally they are close to $100 but this weekend they had them at 60% off. It was def worth the money. As I've been studying anatomy on my own for quite sometime, I have been caught up in little details and sometimes forgot the big picture and haven't always thought about anatomy as form. I think that was the big problem for me. The guy also broke up the muscles into groups which made things easier to understand. I think if you have been struggling with anatomy or always wanted to learn, def check it out.

another painting....

2010-01-30T14:07:00.000-05:00

Remember Devil Ducks? Well anyway, they were pretty popular at one point. My mom used to collect them. They have all different kinds of devil ducks. Since I haven't painted in about a couple of weeks, I decided to paint on of these. This was actually pretty hard to paint. There really wasn't too much lighting except for a faint cool light coming from the side of it. Painting a cool yellow light is a little odd because you don't want the color looking washed out. The duck was also mostly in gray tones which is super annoying to deal with. I spent a little bit longer than I thought I would be painting it and I'm still not entirely satisfied with it. I haven't painted in a while because I have been busy learning other things. I've been brushing up on my Dreamweaver and CSS/HTML skills incase I need it for my job. I've gotten a lot better at it and learned a lot about HTML and I'm actually going to try and teach myself Javascript.
In the mean time, I just started taking another Flash/Actionscript class. This one is a bit more advanced but it hasn't been too bad so far. The next two to three classes will be more of a review so that will def be helpful. I finally learned how to create a custom scrollbar. You can view it on http://iantopple.posterous.com/ I I'll be doing Flash experiments on there so def check it out.
I also just started a new job. It's a part time graphic design job at a company not far from home. This has been my second week. So far things have been working out and the work environment is a lot better than my last job. That's about it for now. More postings soon....

New Blog.

2010-01-27T17:08:00.001-05:00

This is a new blog I'm starting. I started a Flash class yesterday and our hw is to create a blog and speand 15 minutes a day playing around with the lessons we learned from class and post it online and write about your experience and process with it. This blog will be a place of experimenting Flash stuff using actionscript 3.0. I posted something up on the site already. Def check it out. I'll be posting on that site almost everyday. Don't worry though. I'll still be posting stuff on this blog too.
http://ianflashstuff.blogspot.com/

some new stuff....

2010-01-12T17:03:00.000-05:00

The above drawing is the finished drawing from the post below. I'll prob draw the same character from a different view again. The drawing below is another doodle I was playing around with. Enjoy.

another drawing...

2010-01-11T19:36:00.004-05:00

This is something I've been working on since yesterday for a little bit. I'm hoping to finish it by this week.

On another note, I was finally able to figure out how to add other blogs that I visit on my blogsite. I wanted to do that since last year but I never really took the time to look through the options on blogger. I ended up figuring out how to do some cool stuff and personalize my blogsite. I'll probably make a more interesting header but for right now I'm going to leave it. Oh I also changed the time zone so now I don't have to manually change the time each time I post. Unfortunately on some of my past posts, the time is off because I changed the time to the correct time when my settings were set on pacific time. Long story short, the new posts will automatically have the correct time. See ya!

this is just a doodle....

2010-01-09T02:58:00.000-05:00

While I was working on some other stuff I decided to take a break and do a little doodle. This is what I came up with. Maybe I'll finish this. I'll see.

just a sketch....

2010-01-07T21:10:00.000-05:00

This is a doodle I was working on today by while doing some studies of tanks and motorcycles for an upcoming illustration. I like how this came out and I like the slight anatomy distortions in it. I might bring this one to a finish. I'll see how it goes.

another half hour painting...

2010-01-07T17:13:00.000-05:00

This is another painting study of the same frog wind up toy that I painted. The one I painted yesterday is the one on the right and the new one I painted is on the left. I only spent about a half hour on the one to the left. The painting on the right was lit from above with high hats and it was painted at night so there was no outside light hitting it. The painting I did just now (to the left) has some outside light hitting it from the side. It's interesting how different the colors changed from two different lighting situations.

I decided to post this....

2010-01-07T02:25:00.000-05:00

I've working on these paintings of objects on one canvas in photoshop and have been cropping them everytime I post a new painting. I decided to show them all on one page and post it. The frog is something new I've been playing around with today. It's probably my most challenging to paint so far because there are lots of subtle midtones in it and not too many shadows on the face to create the form. I didn't quite get a chance to finish painting this but it was def a challenge. It was also an odd shade of green so getting the color right was a bit difficult. Anyway, enjoy!

soap bottle painting....

2010-01-06T19:00:00.000-05:00

This is another painting I did today of my soap bottle. This one was a little more difficult to paint because a lot of the color was in the mid gray tones so there wasn't too much color on the bottle except some slight dullish yellows. I didn't spend too much time on this one either. Any comments and suggestions always welcome.

finished robot creature....

2010-01-06T02:25:00.000-05:00

This is the finished robot creature I created. For the most part it's finished. I might tweak it later on but for the most part it's finished. I notice that I have a tendency to have really dark backgrounds in my work so I'm going to try and change that up a bit next time. Enjoy.

Cartman keychain....

2010-01-05T19:01:00.000-05:00

This is a painting of an old Cartman keychain I used to use back in high school. I found it in my room and felt like painting it today. More stuff coming soon...

painting of keys....

2010-01-04T20:10:00.000-05:00

This is another painting today I did of my house keys. I spent a little more time on this one but I was happy the way it turned out. More stuff to come soon...

more of an update....

2010-01-03T15:33:00.000-05:00

I don't know if anyone else has this problem but for some reason when I post something on here it washes out some of the color and makes the colors lighter than what they really are. Does anyone else have that problem? I guess that's what happens when it shows up on my screen anyway. Well here is more of an update. I started adding some color to it. Hopefully I'll finish this one soon. Any thoughts or comments always helpful. Thanks.

work in progress...

2009-12-31T17:24:00.000-05:00

This a work in progress of a robot. More postings soon...

rough painting of my bathroom....

2009-12-30T15:09:00.000-05:00

This is another half hour painting I did this morning. This time it's of my bathroom. I was just trying to focus on getting the big shapes in there and I'm trying to capture the light by using a couple of bigger strokes than layering the color like I sometimes usually do. I've been watching some more tutorials lately and I notice that they block out the shapes pretty quickly. I'm also doing some more illustration work. I will post some more of that soon.

very rough painting....

2009-12-29T15:51:00.000-05:00

This is a very rough painting of a banana I did just now. I limited my time to a half hour. I think I might do this a little more often. It's interesting how reflective light works. There is a little bit of pink on the banana from the pink paper. I guess it's not really that interesting but it is to me.

I also learned something new in photoshop yesterday. I finally learned how to control the opacity with just using the pen pressure. It's actually really easy to set in the brushes preferences. I've seen tutorials online where other people use it and I never realized how they painted without constantly changing the opacity. Now I do! It takes some getting used to and sometimes I find it a little frustrating because I might accidentally press to hard and get a darker value. I'll just have to keep working on it. More work to come soon.

another painting....

2009-12-28T15:59:00.000-05:00

This is another painting of some wires I have. I didn't really feel like finishing this completely because I want to focus on some other things. I think I'm going to maybe focus on painting metal like objects because I notice that that is a challenge for me.

another painting sketch...

2009-12-27T16:42:00.000-05:00

This is another painting that I started. I didn't have time to finish it because I had to use my keys and my cell phone. Hopefully I can do a finished painting soon.

random concept sketches...

2009-12-26T23:32:00.000-05:00

This are just some doodles and concepts that I'm working on. Some more finished work coming soon...

painting of my digital camera....

2009-12-25T16:48:00.000-05:00

This is a painting I did of my digital camera. I didn't have time to finish it but maybe I will another time.

random sketch....

2009-12-21T17:40:00.001-05:00

Just a random doodle.

some more progress...

2009-12-14T21:19:00.000-05:00

Here is some work in progress. I'm gonna start adding the color to it now. I'll post it when it's done.

work in progress...

2009-12-12T17:52:00.000-05:00

Here is some work in progress from the sketch below. Enjoy!

i finished putting the costume on

2009-12-09T13:32:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I finished drawing the costume. Now I'm going to try and paint this sometime today. On another note, I updated my website. I ended up changing my resume page and added up and down arrows instead of the three page buttons I had before. Def check it out when you get a chance. (http://www.iantopple.com)See ya.

new illustration on working on....

2009-12-07T18:16:00.000-05:00

I'm actually going to try and finish this one. Since I have more free time on my hands, I'm going to try and bam out some work. I'll work on the costume tomorrow and hopefully start painting it.

I've also been getting a lot more into flash web design. I found out some amazing stuff you can do using the 3-d affects in flash. It's really amazing so I found a great blog that shows you how to make 3-d affects using flash and actionscript. I def want to try them out. Morw work will be coming soon. See ya.

just another quick sketch...

2009-12-02T23:15:00.000-05:00

Here is another quick sketch I did. I need to bam out some finished work. I haven't done any in a while.

another sketch yet again....

2009-11-08T22:42:00.000-05:00

another sketch

2009-11-07T15:54:00.000-05:00

this is another sketch i did on photoshop today. I really need to get some finished stuff made soon.

random sketches....

2009-10-31T00:46:00.001-04:00

random photoshop sketches.

this is a rough painting....

2009-10-25T21:25:00.000-04:00

This is a rough skeleton painting I did today. I really don't feel like working on it anymore. Hopefully more work soon.

a rough skeleton painting....

2009-10-18T21:51:00.000-04:00

Here is another painting I did today. It's not done but I think I get the idea. I may or may not finish it. I'll see.

some other stuff....

2009-10-17T15:32:00.000-04:00

This is a rough painting sketch I did today. Enjoy.

random sketch....

2009-10-10T21:57:00.000-04:00

This is a random doodle I made. More to come soon....

random face and painting of a spoon....

2009-10-03T16:54:00.000-04:00

This is a rough painting of a spoon and a random face I drew. I think the values on the spoon went a little too dark but I'll prob go back and fix it.

another sketch

2009-09-25T23:19:00.000-04:00

another random sketch.

another elf sketch....

2009-09-23T22:14:00.000-04:00

I know I've been posting alot but here is another sketch. Drawn in photoshop.

new elf sketch.....

2009-09-23T20:45:00.000-04:00

I'm trying to redraw one of my drawings that is currently in my portfolio. I did an elf drawing a long time ago and I'm not really that happy with the outcome so I want to redraw that too. I did some sketches which you can view below. This is the final one I came up with. I ended up using some reference for the face to get it to look right.

box painting....

2009-09-22T22:09:00.000-04:00

Here is a painting of a box. Pretty simple.

Here is another painting....

2009-09-21T22:12:00.000-04:00

Here is a rough painting again. This time it's of a plastic frog toy that I have. Enjoy.

another rough painting....

2009-09-20T17:48:00.000-04:00

Here is another rough painting I did today.

random elf sketches....

2009-09-19T22:22:00.000-04:00

Thinking of redoing an older sketch. Just doodling around.

rough painting...

2009-09-19T18:19:00.000-04:00

tThis is a rough painting I did today. I'm still having some trouble with the car. I'm not sure how to paint all those details into it and I feel like I'm getting nowhere with it. Grr.....

some more work on it....

2009-09-19T15:32:00.000-04:00

Okay so the drawing is almost completed. I ended up redrawing the character to the left and started adding clothing and everything. Hopefully I'll start painting this thing soon.

I hope I finish this soon...

2009-09-17T23:43:00.000-04:00

i will post something soon. Hopefully a finished product of what I've been working on. I haven't finished yet and for some reason it's taking forever. :(

Almost completed....

2009-09-15T22:56:00.000-04:00

Here it is with more stuff. I added some cars and changed one of the buildings. I think I'm almost done drawing it. Just want to add some details to the clothes on the two characters. Then I'll paint it. This is taking too long.

more progress...

2009-09-12T22:35:00.000-04:00

Here is more progress. Excuse the perspective pink lines. Obviously those won't be there in the final version.

A new illustration I;m working on. At last....

2009-09-07T23:11:00.000-04:00

This is a new illustration I'm working on. It's based off of an older piece that I did right before comicon but I wasn't too happy how it turned out. I finally decided to do something because I want to produce another illustration before my class starts in October. There is going to be another figure next to the guy in the middle. I have to redraw him so thats why I took it out. Keep looking for more updates.

random doodles

2009-09-04T00:20:00.001-04:00

Just some random doodles for a possible illustration. I haven't done any new illustration work in a while so I figured I should do some more illustrations before my next class starts.

2009-08-27T12:36:00.001-04:00

I read an interesting article about how americans are obsessed with working and what it's doing to our society. Def worth a read.

http://www.esquire.com/features/thousand-words-on-culture/working-life-0909

crazy doodles....

2009-08-25T15:55:00.000-04:00

These are some doodles I did today. I have more but I haven't had time to scan them. I figured I would post something anyway because I haven't posted in a while

another sketch

2009-08-13T20:41:00.001-04:00

Another random sketch in photoshop.

my new website is finally up....

2009-08-13T13:33:00.000-04:00

My new website is finally up. There are still some bugs in it that I'm currently working on (yes I know I need a loader which I am planning on doing and a scroll bar doesn't work) but I was nervous about putting it up online. I think I was afraid I would have to change web hosting sites because I wasn't sure if I could upload all the files I needed to my original web hosting site. Luckily, I figured it out and I uploaded my files to an FTP site instead and that seems to work fine.

Def check it out when you get a chance.

www.iantopple.com

random sketch....

2009-08-12T19:10:00.001-04:00

Here is a random sketch I did today. Thought I post it.

random sketch....

2009-08-08T17:38:00.000-04:00

This is just a random sketch I made out of boredom. Drawn in Photoshop.

sample perspective study.

2009-08-05T16:53:00.000-04:00

Okay so I found a random photo online just to play around in perspective. What I'm noticing is that the building matches the two vanishing points on each side (2 point perspective) but what I don't understand is why does the cross walk (white lines on the ground. Refer to yellow lines above) connect to two different vanishing points on the same horizon line. They look like vanishing points inside of the two outer vanishing points for the building and I've read about perspective before and I don't seem to understand why it's like this. I'm a little confused. Does anyone have the answer? Thanks.

Hey everyone

2009-08-04T11:24:00.000-04:00

Okay so my new flash website should be up hopefully by the end of this week. I was having a technical problem but after spending 2 hours online last night trying to find tutorials to figure it out, I finally resolved my problem. I'll let you know when it's up.

I also found some really helpful tutorials on conceptart.org. I found this great tutorial on perspective. I've read books on it and I thought I knew it pretty well but after watching about 30 minutes of a video, I realized I wasn't doing it completely accurately. I would def recommend it if you want to get a better grasp on perspective. It's only $15 and you can download the files straight to your comp. (Just beware that the first download is a rar file and you need to download winrar to open it. You also need a pc to open the file because you can't open it on a mac. I have no idea why that file is a rar file but all the other files are zip files.)

rough foot painting

2009-08-02T23:08:00.000-04:00

This is a rough painting of my foot.

another painting sketch

2009-08-02T15:12:00.000-04:00

This is another painting sketch I've done. Maybe about an hour. I am really getting annoyed at these slight color changes when I upload it to the site. If you have a pc I think it'll actually look better for some reason.

On another note, I learned how to create my own custom playskin in Flash. I'm not sure how that will come in handy but it's still a neat trick.

rough building painting

2009-08-01T15:53:00.000-04:00

This is a rough painting of a building. It looks better on my screen than it does here. For some reason the colors aren't exactly right.

Another amazing website!

2009-07-30T13:26:00.003-04:00

I just found this interactive website too. Simply amazing stuff.

http://www.fbfx.co.uk/index.htm

I found this amazing website....

2009-07-30T13:16:00.000-04:00

I happen to find this amazing flash website and its simply incredible how much work was put into it. The only draw back is that it takes a while for it to load. Anyway, def check it out. It's well worth it and it's given me some more ideas for my own website.

http://www.mindflood.com