Vaéi's Sketchbook - 27 May, Domestic/Industrial Space Ink Drawings

[Vaei]

Admiring y'all from the sidelines won't make me better; walking a step a day I might just get somewhere. I appreciate suggestions and criticisms - don't hold back :)

Vaéi.

[Vaei]

(1) Hand, from life, pencil.
(2) Colored - Painter, acrylic variants. I'm not very happy with my use of color, but I don't know what to experiment with.
(3) Totem, from life, pencil.
(4) Teddy, PainterX sketch from life, 2B pencil and simple digital watercolor variants.
(5) Construction Site, life, Pencil tightened with ink.
(6) Eyes, from photo, pencil.

[Vaei]

(7) Purgatorio: Sigil Hive Ward. A digital piece (Photoshop). A larger image and the painting process is linked here: http://www.roguedao.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1046

(7-details) Cat

[Vaei]

(8) Limboship interior. PainterX, from imagination. A quick sketch to clarify some ideas for myself, ~20 minutes.

[Vaei]

(9) Head Study. Digital sketch from photo (http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=161990986&size=l). Photoshop CS, soft brush on low opacity, 30-45 minutes. The proportions are slightly off when checked with a post-drawing overlay. The first time someone's watching me freehand.

[Vaei]

(10) Female Head study. Digital sketch from photo, 1.5 hr. I need alot of practice with heads.

[Vaei]

(11) Young man head study. Digital sketch from photo, PainterX. I have more problems drawing heads digitally (sensing proportions) than traditionally. Maybe this has to do with the little stroke I'm doing on my little tablet.

[Vaei]

(12) [i]Lamp{/i}. Painter X, 15 minutes - from life. I quite like this simple pastel variant, and I'll probably pick a less saturated color set for some portrait studies. This was a technical exercise to paint from 4 values (including paper color) without blending. I'm abit surprised at how eliminating the use of an outline lead to a more realistic quality.

[Vaei]

(13) Hand - Pastel variant as above. 45 minutes.

[Vaei]

(14-16) Hand Sketches. Ink, my hand, ~15-30 minutes each. The first time I've done sketches in ink. They appear hideous when I put them away, but don't look so bad when I look at them again.

[Vaei]

(17) Tablecloth - Sketchbook Pro / Photoshop. 30 minutes. I've never learnt how to show textiles without time-consuming pixel-by-pixel rendering... if you know how, please let me know!

[Vaei]

(/18/) Fire Extinguisher - from life, 45 minutes, sketchbook / Painter.

[Rist]

Great stuff here Vaei! Keep up with those hand studies as the hand is one of the most suggestive features of the body. Also look into doing some copying from the Masters to get a feel for real value and colour. Another good thing is learning your anatomy, life drawing and books can help greatly with this. One more thing, do you work off the computer too? If so lets see some of those!

[Bard]

Welcome to the group Vaei!


You are very brave facing hands..I hate doing 'em:P

The lamp actually reminds me of an apple:)

Keep it up!

[davi]

keep it up!

[alesoun]

There's something off about the perspective of the arm of the couch with the teddy bear sitting on it (the left arm as it faces us) but my first reaction on seeing the drawing was to chuckle; it's very endearing!

[Lazy]

Hey! Welcome to conceptart.org
I like your studies, especially the hands.
It's good that you choose different things to study, builds up a good mental gallery.
Keep it up!

[Vaei]

Rist & Bard - Thank you! I'm looking forward to being motivated by the SSG. I am fascinated by people's hands - the difference between each is minute but express so much physical and psychological significance. I'm eventually to do some beautiful, professional, full-colored fantasy work (ahem :) ), but I'll start with the fundamentals for now. So you're going to have to stick with some black-and-white form and value studies...

(I do both digital and traditional sketch - if they don't say "XYZ variant" or a program designation, then they're probably pencil/micron/ink in sketchbook. I don't have ready access to a scanner, so the thread is lacking on that front.)

Alesoun - You're right! I noticed that after adding color (that the far ends of the arm-rests should be on the same horizon), and never went back to correct it. I did make a mental lesson about "making sure the big forms are coherent with one another" - somehow I have a hard time with that when working digitally.

Davi and Lazy - Thanks for dropping by. You guys are the inspiration!

(19) A hand skeleton study, referencing Sarah Simblet's Anatomy for the Artist. Micron / brush-pen. I'm looking to slowly build on my repertoire, and hands are my first stop. I'm also reading and experimenting with colors from Betty Edwards' Color book - strange enough I find the ready-available colors on the computer very daunting, to the extent that I have no idea where to start. Some traditional training may be useful.


V.

[Nam]

Some nifty illustrations. Nice effort with the studies too.

[Matsign]

Hey, stopping by here. I like your explorations with painter, good studies there. The ink work on the bones of the hand and arm are good. With the hands I'd like to see more concentrated hatching. Don't add another line unless you want it there. The recent bone study compared to the hands show that your doing this. I'm subscribed and will be keeping in touch!

[Rist]

Hi.

Great attept at the hand bones! The Ulnar and Radius bones look a little chunky (only slightly!), but still look great!

The question on my mind right now is, are doing detailed bone studies actually worth the effort? Why not just learn the silhuette of the bones and then just learn where the muscles attach. Both quicker and easier. I suggest the Structure of Man DVD's if I have not mentioned it earlier.

[Bard]

Ughh! I definitely should start studying hands too! :(

I have some medical 3d hands with lots of pics and cadavers, If you want.
I'll pm em them later...

Yeah! I for one definitely get inspired more of people yearning for knowledge rather than working pros. I hope we continue, helping each others art!

[Vaei]

Epi - thanks for the encouragement!

Matsign - the bone study was roughed in with pencil before inking, whereas the hands were ink from the beginning (so the preliminary lines are still there). For ink, is it the expectation that the inking comes after a pencil rough? (it feels like cheating :P ) I do have the tendency to use more scratchy lines than I'd like, and that's certainly something I'd like to see improvements in...

Rist - I've looked up the Structure of Man DVD set... it seems really affordable compare to all the other ones I've seen! I would love to look at it soon. The reason I'm doing the studies is that I crave the ability of artists who can draw from imagination - I was blow away watching a lecture by Vilppu, when he constructed such detailed anatomy from memory and imagination. That is just so, so much more versatile than the "descriptive" work I've been doing. I'm figuring that starting to learn the bones, the tendons, and the muscles would go a long way in being able to do that.

Bard - thanks for dropping by again. I think I'm having a look at the Structure of Man DVD that Rist was recommending, and that should occupy me for at least 43 hours ;)

--

I've been watching Vilppu's video on lower-arm and hands, and read Loomis' hand-drawing. I then tried to follow the cylinder construction to describe what I see, and tried to use the same method for constructing from imagination (20). It is certainly faster than a haphazard outline-value description I've been doing, but I have no success with drawing from imagination.

(21) Chinese Teapot, oils, 18"x28" illustration board. I can't do color, and I can't do real paints. I suck :S

Oh, an exciting development is that I signed up for a summer course in drawing at the University. That should keep me juiced-up and knowledged-up :)

[Vaei]

(22) More Hands. From photographic references, pencil.

[Vaei]

(22) Random Doodles. Photoshop default hard brush. I've been quite tired of doing focussed studies, to the extent that I'm almost dreading to draw. So I decided to just forget about it, and doodle from random internet images and imagination.

[Bard]

Nice colors of the painting but the construction of cylindrical and half spheres should be checked...but i think you know that:)

I think you are using too dark on the shading because in those case you have no where to go in gradating some form change.
Having 5 values should be considered and is an ideal.

highlight
bodytone
terminator(coreshadow)
reflected light
cast shadow

try to look for tese in every geometry, it will help define forms more:)

[Vaei]

Bard: Thanks for the comments, and here's my followup questions:

- What do you mean by "the construction of the cylinder and half-spheres should be checked"?
- I've heard the use of 5 values, but how do you actually execute it? E.g., in Photoshop, would one use a fully opaque brush together with a palette of changing values, or is it better to use a single value but changing opacity - or does it matter which way I go about it?
- followup on above, from a grisaille, can I expect an awesome painting (like yours :P ) by overpainting on a top-layer in "color" mode? How do you go about your rendering process?

Rist - I've got the set of Structure of Man DVD, and I'm slowly but religiously working my way through them. Thanks for pointing them out :)

--

About me... I started the drawing class last week, and I'm enjoying myself tremendously. The curriculum moves at light-speed, and I'm thankful to have some background padding. We spent a fair bit of time making a range of marks and exploring different medium, and have since moved onto values.

Since class began, I've done exactly none digital work, and have been working entirely traditionally, in sketchbook, and on 18x24" newsprints. This update is from scans of sketchbook. I've placed a premium on trying out different lines.

(24) Egg Bennies - crow quill pen / ink. On location sketch.
(25) Duino Map - a bird's eye map of a semi-fictional village I was designing. Pencil.
(26) Water Bottle - Pencil, micron pen outline. From life.
(27) Skull - Pencil. A study from Sarah Simblet's Anatomy for Artists.
(28) Cylinders - I don't really know how to draw them. (Relates to what Bard was saying?)
(29) Portrait - pencil. It doesn't really resemble the sitter.
(30) Bridgman Studies 1 - pencil, from Bridgman's Complete Guide. I find the terse language in Bridgman's book very hard to follow, even though the drawings have such character to them.
(31) Bridgman Studies 2.
(32-5) Character Doodles 1-4 - pencil / micron pen. Some from photos, others imagination.
(36) Essential Oil Burner - What do you do when there's a bottle of nail polish and an oil burner on your desk?
(37) Backpack - pencil / micron pen / conte. A class assignment: "An object that's ordinary". I wanted a more sketchy line style to convey the "everyday-ness" of the object, but then I decided to render it, and all the spontaneity bleeds out by the time I finished overworking it.
(38-40) Structure of Man Studies. Ballpoint pen / micron pen / ink and brush. Thanks Rist :)
(41) Polly. Ink & brush. From life. Class assignment: "An object that represents part of yourself". I wanted to make a more spontaneous expression here rather than the tight rendering I usually end up doing.
(42) Cintiq. Ink & flat brush. Class assignment: "An object you want". I wanted a loose, lyrical line here.
(43) TWSOHS. Micron pen. Class assignment: "An object that is beautiful". I think machineries are beautiful... originally I wanted to construct the entire set of top/front/side and isometric view, but I'm running out of time here. Hard, unvarying line to suit the subject matter.

Phew!


Vaéi :)

[h2rra]

Keep drawing! Do you have A3 wacom? :O

[Bard]

Yeah..that's enviable..I only have graphire:(

Sorry I hadn't been posting, I have no electricity at the moment...

I think you have answered, the 5 value question on your own by looking for some answers. Good job on the ball:)

About the grisaille part. Yes you can paint color on it by glazing and then using more opaque colors when finishing it. Hadn't done that yet, I'm still doing value studies and not color theories. I think in LAAFA atelier program, they do that for a year before allowing students do full color work...

And the funny stuff is, you can actually carry the technique over digitally..exactly as it is.

Do a grayscale, glaze in color by adding a layer set to color mode, then finish with more opaque colors.

Love what your doing in class!

[Vaei]

Thanks h2rra and Bard for dropping by. Of all people, I can't believe Bard is disallowed from using colors :bashful:

And no, I don't have a Intuos A3... I have a graphire 4"x5". That Cintiq was a wish :P

A couple more sketches.

(44) Weird guy. A random doodle on the bus, imagination ~15 minutes, conte.

(45) Campus. Pencil sketching outdoors. My back really hurts after bending over for an hour.

(46) Mall. Pencil sketching indoors. Nice comfy couch, 90 minutes.

Time to finish some more sketches and go browse CA.org sketchbooks! :)

V.

[Vaei]

(47) Domestic Space - dip pen / ink.

(48) Industrial Space - technical pen, chemistry laboratory.

[Nam]

Nice sketches, love the hall. The 'domestic space' your place? I'd say mine is probably messier.

[Bard]

Wow I love how you categorize everything!hehe
I love what you are doing with those interior spaces and enviros! Observation is also important!
Chem lab looks cool and the mall drawing is the strongest:)

[Matsign]

That Wacom illusion made me smile. These last two live drawings (or so they appear to me) slash environments are keen.

[Vaei]

Hello all,

It's been a long hiatus. I haven't felt like drawing since staying up doing those 30x20" in a row for the drawing course - but more importantly, my computer crooked (see picture :( )

It's fixed, I'm feeling good about picking up a wacom pen again - though I'm spending much more time with newsprint and charcoal nowadays - and I've actually had a finished piece to share!

(49) Dwarf sketch - post Class, watercolor and pencil, 20 minutes.
(50) Shadow Reaver - PainterX and a mirror. ~9-10 hours total; I have the intermediate process for these, and I'll post it on the finished work thread.

Phew. Good to be back, and I'll go see how much you folks have progressed since my away from the digital world!

Vaéi

[Nam]

Glad you're back man! : ]

Keep posting!

[Sleepy_Head]

I like the two environment sketches, tres cool.

The dwarf needs a little work around the arms. They look like they have been stuck on the sides rather than coming out of the body.

Nice stuff.

S

[Bard]

Dude, the same thing happened too my computer a year ago...got fired because I wasn't able to produce art....:(

Glad you're back! The last one has cool color scheme.

Glad you used a mirror on that, now I know how you look like! :P

[Matsign]

Hoping to here from you soon! Our SSG is low on the art producing/uploading part right now.

[Bard]

Let's do something about it then!:)

[Rist]

Great pieces. Never believe you are finished though! For the drawf image you could enhance it further by introducing acrylics for the highlights, and refining those edges! The zombie dude looks great, but when you introduce too much dark values the viewer feels they are missing something and other artists feel you are hiding something you could not draw/paint. Even the suggestion of a counter and possibly a few broken objects littering the floor with a glint of light hitting them.