Magnusson's Sketchbook

[Magnusson]

I figured that it'd be nice to start a sketchbook thread to keep me producing work on a more regular basis.

A bit of background...
I'm an academic double-major at Vassar College, and so art has been a self-taught affair, going to figure drawing sessions out of my own pocket.
Currently, I've applied to CalArts for character animation, so my standards are very high; trying to live up to those has been giving me ulcers.

The drawings attached in this post are selected from my extra-curricular figure drawing sessions in London during my junior year abroad. The average length of each piece was around 10 to 15 minutes. They're a bit old, but the only works I have on my computer at the moment.

Here's hoping this motivates me to get more done!

[Eric Young]

Wow your figure drawings are really good and im shocked it only took you 10- 15 mins each. Im in my freashman year art art school, studying animation also. Keep up the good work!

[Carbono]

Nice studies, i really need to do them. Nice to see that you do them quickly too.
Great start, looking foward to seeying more from you!
Keep it up!

[Magnusson]

I found some photos of my figure work as well as my watercolours. Took me a while to colour-correct the photos, since my dad took them in a hurry for me. Wish I could have done it myself, but I was putting my portfolio together to run it to the school at the same time.

The pencils are pretty quick, ranging from something like 1-2 minute to 15. They were done during the summer. The watercolours are based off my travels through Stockholm, and weren't timed.

[Magnusson]

My friend started a project where we have to do a drawing every week around a random theme he pulls out of a hat. This week's was "Oh Canada?".
So, I quickly put this together.

[Retronym]

I like the expressiveness of your figure drawings, but it seems you've made the legs too short on a number of occaisions.

Keep posting!

[AsaB]

I also noticed the leg problem Retronym mentioned, but otherwise you seemed to be pretty steady with your life drawings. They've got a lot of motion and life in them. But sometimes your shading gets a tad too sketchy--maybe just me, people tell me to tone it down all the time! In sketches like this one (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=269214&stc=1&d=1199079049), the brush/pen strokes take away the attention, they're all over the place. At least it bothers me some, maybe you could try to simplify them some. Anyway, still nice start to a sketchbook, keep posting!

[Magnusson]

I think the leg problem often developed from me being really careless with the space I thought I had on the page. I used to draw legs too long, so somehow I started overcompensating by extending the torsos, leading to the issues here. I'll have to keep track of that in the future. Thanks for pointing it out!

As for the sketchiness, I definitely see what you mean there. I probably should have chosen a specific direction, so the energy is all in one direction and doesn't seem as "all over the place". I haven't done any hatching for a long while. Unfortunately, nor have I had any access to figure drawing, either. :[

Thanks again for the thoughtful, considered responses; they are definitely food for thought.

[AsaB]

I can relate to that, the feet are often cut off my characters while sketching. Maybe an A3 sketching pad would help ;)

If you can't get to figure drawing, you should check out PoseManiacs (http://www.posemaniacs.com/blog/). There are tons of different poses in the database with digital models, which you can rotate. Also I recommend the 30 sec mode (although you can adjust the seconds up to 90), it's very helpful. Not a substitute for the real thing, but something helpful nonetheless :)

I forgot to mention it last time, but I respect how you're aiming for CalArts, it's an amazing school. So have you been accepted already, or is it still pending? In any case, keep up the good work!

[Magnusson]

I forgot to mention it last time, but I respect how you're aiming for CalArts, it's an amazing school. So have you been accepted already, or is it still pending? In any case, keep up the good work!

Thanks. I applied on the preferred decision deadline, but I haven't heard back yet. I don't know if I'm good enough to get in, though. I have very little faith in my abilities.

Anyway, this week's theme was "headphones".

[lalovergel]

i am impressed by your figure drawings, and i like the fact you time your work. I can also see you make good use of quick gesture drawings as a base for your studies. Keep it up, i'll be pleased to see more from you!

[Magnusson]

The theme I was given this week was "reset".

[Magnusson]

Man, I've been away from this for a while. I had to finish up a final project, and have finally found the time to do some more figure drawing. I'm currently taking a figure class at SVA as well as a course that has me drawing around the city.

Most of the figure studies were done for 5 minute poses. The last two were untimed, one an on-site drawing in Union Square, and the other a "contour drawing" which means I never took the pencil off the page.

[Magnusson]

New update.

Last one is a quick willow charcoal drawing of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

All the figure drawings are about 5 minutes.

[Magnusson]

More figure, and one drawing of Rockefeller Center from outside Saint Patrick's Cathedral.

[AsaB]

Hey there, I remember you! You just disappeared! Glad to see you're still drawing, though. Now just remember to update this baby regularly and you'll see improvement soon :)

Nice sketches, too. I like the charcoal, and the architectural pics look very atmospheric and cool. Keep it up!

[Magnusson]

I sorta disappeared because I got a bit distracted by school. Now that I've graduated with my academic degree, I have time to work towards an arts one!

Actually, the new drawings are mostly in graphite. The charcoal is only used in the "on location" pictures of the city.

[Magnusson]

First is a quick image I made because a friend needed an image that somehow conveyed a "lapse in communication". This was all I could muster in the time given.

The second two are images for a thread on SA for Pokemon.

[Magnusson]

More figure and a location drawing this week. The location drawing is Grand Central Terminal, drawn in willow charcoal.

The others are done in colored pencil, but because all I have is tungsten lights and bad ones at that, have been converted to grayscale for ease of shade correction.

[Mischeviouslittleelf]

Hej! Bra teckneserie stil du har, jeg liker godt hvordan du har en fin stil som har mulighet til å utvikles. Gleder meg til å se mer fra deg, og forresten, den "Oh Canada" tegningen var kjempemorsom^^

-E (en nordmann^^)

[Magnusson]

Hej! Bra teckneserie stil du har, jeg liker godt hvordan du har en fin stil som har mulighet til å utvikles. Gleder meg til å se mer fra deg, og forresten, den "Oh Canada" tegningen var kjempemorsom^^

-E (en nordmann^^)

Err... tack så mycket?

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand this. I'm still a bit of a novice at Swedish, let alone Norwegian. :(
My heritage is Swedish, but my language is English and oddly enough, Japanese fluency. :bashful:

[AsaB]

I'm no Norwegian expert, but I studied Danish so I'll try to decipher!

"Hi! Nice drawing/comic style you have, I like a lot how you have a fine/delicate style which has the possibility to grow more. I'm looking forward to see more from you, and for the record, that 'Oh Canada' drawing was hilarious ^^

-E (a Norwegian)"

Well, that was fun! Although you should let some natives double-check, heh. But to the art:

I like your figure drawings a lot, they've improved loads! Just watch those proportions, also in the face. But this is great, keep them coming :)

[Magnusson]

So my friend showed me this cover and I immediately thought... something's not right here. So I quickly whipped up this skeletal structure from memory. There's quite a few errors in it, but for a 10 minute job or so, I'd say it's okay.

[Magnusson]

I feel like I might have taken a step backward this week. :[

I think I might be a little too detail-oriented, which causes me to manage my time horribly and create horribly unfinished pieces.

The average time I would say is 6 minutes per pose, with the max being probably 8-9 minutes and the minimum as 3.

[Magnusson]

I should mention that I also do photography. Someone told me about how you can make fake tilt-focus lens effects in Photoshop, so I put this old photo of Stockholm to the test. I found that using a sense of perspective and utilizing masks, you can help the effect work better when you isolate objects in their respective foreground and background relationships.

I probably should have done a heavier lens blur, but going up to 80 or 90 causes the computer to take forever!

[Magnusson]

Figure this week wasn't very good, so I haven't had a real chance to photograph it yet out of a lack of will to do so. Instead, I have this.

Drawn in 8B pencil.