Zachary McLean's Sketchbook

[Zachary McLean]

Hi,
I recently joined this forum and it's been great so far! I'm 16, living in Canada, and have been working towards being a professional concept artist & illustrator for approximately 3 years. After high school, I am looking into going to Alberta College of Art & Design. Through this sketchbook, my hope to get other people to keep me accountable and push me in the right direction with my art. So here's a few sketches, WIP's, studies, etc.
Feel free to leave any comments or critiques and enjoy!

Here's a link to my portfolio if you're interested: www.zachmclean.com

Please let me know if I screwed anything up posting these images. Thanks!

[Samszym]

Wow, this is some seriously impressive stuff Zachary! I bet you hear this a lot but I wish I'd been working as hard as you at 16, you're in a seriously good position.

I think your greatest strength is how much you're thinking about composition, a lot of people just draw monsters and people standing in a blank space but you're actually making pictures, and I think that's awesome! Hope you don't mind but I tried my hand at recropping some of your compositions, they looked slightly off balance to me
but maybe I ruined them and you know exactly what you're doing XD

Honestly, I don't think you need to go to art school if you've been able to learn this much on your own, but I'm sure you have good reasons for wanting to go.
Welcome to the daggers, I hope you stick around, and I look forward to seeing more work and some finished pieces!

[Zachary McLean]

@Samszym: Thanks a ton. I hear that once in a while, but I really appreciate hearing it. Nice things about my work really motivates and encourages me! Haha. Glad you like my work though, and I don't mind the cropping-I want any and all comments, paintovers, corrections, etc! I guess I want to go to art school to have people that can motivate me, and push me to become better.. I also want to be given assignments and not just do the same piece of artwork over and over. Learning the fundamentals is another thing... which I think I'm lacking. I'm sure you've heard that one saying... "practice makes perfect." I looked at the saying again and thought.. "You know, it's more so like.. perfect practice makes perfect." You can work at something for eee-ons, and get nowhere, or not very far.. so I think it might be good to go to art school for that reason too.

Here's some finished pieces.. as well as a few old sketches. Hope it doesn't matter that I have also posted the finished pieces in the "Finished Work" section as well.

New 2013 Finished Work:





Old 2011/2012 Sketches:

[rainbowsorknives]

Really diggin the landscape with the wagons dude, and the scifi sketchs are nice!

[Zachary McLean]

@rainbowsorknives: Thanks! appreciate the feedback.

Here's a piece from the beginning of 2012, that I still have in my portfolio even though it's somewhat old.



These sketches are with traditional media (markers and black fineliner pens.)

[Zachary McLean]

Lighting study for a possible painting.. I learned a lot about the perspective tools/brushes & the shift key for making straight lines. This concept took approx. 10 to 20minutes.

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WIP. Need to do more paintings with dynamic/different perspectives.. like this! C&C's are always welcome.

Feel free to find more of my work on my blog: www.zacharymclean.blogspot.com

[kikindaface]

for the last compositional sketch, i suggest you to increase the constrast and make a better read of the foreground, middle ground and background ! also, in a matter of depth and focus, you should put more details and the harder edges on the guys and bottom part of the big tree, whereas you did it with branches on top of the trees . Keep it up man

[aangkat]

really professional :)
nice environments .

[Zachary McLean]

Aangkat: Thank you! I'm glad you like them.

kikindaface: I appreciate the critique! All very valid points. I will work on those factors of my painting. -Here's some progress I made on it before I saw your crit. After school I'll work on it more, and try to touch on what you suggested! Thanks again.

Progress... Added color and started to render more. Not very happy with the right side of the illustration.

[Zachary McLean]

NEW WIP. Entitled: No Longer Allies
Please do leave C&C's. It's very rough at the moment, but I'm just trying to establish the colors, character placement, story, etc.
Find more of my work, on my blog: www.zacharymclean.blogspot.com

[Zachary McLean]

Sketch I did December 2012. Just decided to paint it.

[Zachary McLean]

little bit of work I did last night.. enjoy

[TylerDonnelly]

I love the colors in your pieces and the compositions are fantastic! keep up the good work. I can't wait to see a final image from you :)

[Zachary McLean]

Tyler Donnelly: Thanks a ton! You've got some pretty cool stuff on your blog.

Here's a character study. I used the clothing/body section of one photo, then another photo for the head area to give a unique touch. Enjoy. You can find it also on my blog: www.zacharymclean.blogspot.com

[Zachary McLean]

Some freelance work I finished a few months ago. Happy with bits and pieces of it.

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This first sketch took about 10-15 minutes. I mainly was testing brushes, because all my brush sets cleared for some reason. I didn't have a backup, so I guess it was a calling for me to polish up my set to a maximum of about 15 brushes like I always wanted to do. Hah. I really need to backup my brushes this time... and especially all my artwork. -It's just such a pain.



This one was done in about 45min to 1hr. I need to make some more finished pieces! I have so many wip's.

[Zachary McLean]

Hi, here's a new update. I should have updated as I was working on the pieces, but oh well! Please C&C.

[OtherMuzz]

Nice work!

[Zachary McLean]

Hi, and thank you OtherMuzz

Here's some more work. I put all this on my blog, but never in my sketchbook here on CD. Enjoy.


1. blocking in shapes and establishing the composition.


2. create atmosphere and a mood with the addition of color


3. rendering by adding detail and texture to the painting.


4. Finishing touches & minor color adjustments. (finished piece).

[Zachary McLean]

new painting entitled "Unforeseen Surprise" & a character painting entitled "Lost in the Open Sea" I find it interesting how they are totally different styles.

Feel free to like my page on facebook & check out my website! www.zachmclean.com

[BenFlores]

beautiful work man! keep doing your thing