Anthis' Sketchplace! studiescreaturescharactersspeeds and stuff

[ashess]

oh yeah thats how its done. I love those thumbs! funny thing about hands; if you get the thumb right you can just about leave the rest dont you think? hehe. I might copy those arm turns if you dont mind. they're interesting.

[Anthis]

shiNIN- Yea I was more or less pleased myself. It was a second try though, first round was really bad. You should join DSG more often- good exercise!

zou- I think it got a bit muddy, but at least I did something finished again.

ashess- Yea that's true, I think fingers are much more simple in shape and movement. Thumb placement is a bit peculiar and hard to figure out. You should totally do arm turns or anything involving your own body. It's good reference

November 1st was International Self Portrait Day again! Was really focused, hence the serious look :|

[Anthis]

New scanner is driving me mental by dousing everything in a bath of light that seems to wipe away all detail. Need to get the settings under control.
These were piling up though, so had to scan badly.

For a while I had to travel by train a lot, so I've been carrying a moleskine around to spend the time drawing/doing studies. At some point I decided to make it an exercise by doing a character each time. I no longer have to travel back and forth, but I've kept a habit of doing at least one a day.
Around 1hr each (for 1hr train trips initially), varying media (HB/B pencils, IKEA pencil, mechanical pencil).

Some days were definitely better than others, haha.

[shiNIN]

{Dsg... I stopped doing them when almost every round was about robots or aliens, later I stopped drawing own pictures... I plan to return one day though.}

Nice bunch in the last update! My favs are the 4 armed creature and the third one from the end

[ashess]

Wow! Thats a lot of characters right there. Very disciplined of you,to ddo an hour a day. I managed a drawing a day for maybe 7, 8 years. But they were more like 5 min pieces. Hehe.. still, its nice to flip through when I feel like im not progressing. I like the lady on p3. And th female knight on p5. One thing I notice is you dont seem to plant those feet to the ground. you could also maybe do with some bolder forms. espec on the hands. I know you can do those fine from your previous post. here you seem to try and not want them noticed...

[sony]

hey anthis! whats up, these are really nice, you are really hard working soul!

[zou]

great posts buddy

your selfportrait is nice, sweet colors. (the nose's perspective is a bit off no ?)

your one hour characters are great, and you can do better.

good luck with your nexts

[Iristhevirus]

oh wow, your sketchbook is amazing. Your art has a really interesting personality to it.
I look forward to seeing more

[Angel Intheuk]

Hi Anthis Great sketches and I like that you've concentrated on one theme for a sketchbook, keeps things simple and you've really pushed yourself with your creature and costume designs, especially like the bottom left two pages and the woman with the swords you did on 1/11. Are you thinking of working any of these up to full colour?

Also great self-portrait! I was having a small break when it was on and I missed it, there's always next year.

[Guik]

Yesss, motivation, keep drawing! Everything's looking great

[Anthis]

Time for frequent updates now.

shiNIN - Heya shiNIN. I'd agree the topic choice can be skewed sometimes. You still see lots of variation. Many more sketches incoming!

ashess - Very true. In fact, a load of feet studies is up next. Needs work badly. Its stupid because I KNOW they're important. I'd highly advise keeping a sketchbook around and drawing routinely. Let it run freely and great stuff happens.

sony - Hey man! been a while. I'd like to see more progress myself >:0. Its just... slow

zou - Yea well spotted. Especially mouth and nose. And the angry expression too... haha. Loads more sketchbook stuff coming in!

Iristhevirus - Thanks! I try not to bother much with style, but I guess a certain personality does develop by itself!

Angel Intheuk - Actually, I'm already diverging and more creatures/environments are popping up, haha. Main goal is still to explore and push the boundaries. I might do more finalized versions if I happen to create one I really like. Self-portrait day had a somewhat smaller turnout this year, hope next one will be big again.

Guik - Yea I think I'm on a roll now. More coming!




Results from an Amsterdam sketchmeet. Went to "De Hermitage" with Kapri to study some old masters. First time I did master studies from the original work. Was a great experience; planning to do this more often.

Mixture of Peter Paul Rubens, Anthonie van Dijck, Jacob Jordaens. Highlight of the exhibition was Kruisafneming (the 1617 version) by Rubens (first scan).

[zou]

nice posts as usual

i see some little proportion/structures issues but the overall is good

[Anthis]

Zou; Feel free to point out any problems! I can take the heat. I'd agree proportion is probably one of the parts there - I chose not to do any construction.


Imagination gestures for the Spartan Camp (see sig)

Mixed bag, should be better by now.

[Anthis]

Quick quick more more. Moleskine and digital stuff is up next.

For now stuff from this week's Spartan Camp.
1,2: A combination of Bridgman and Loomis studies.
3,4; Studies of my own left foot.
5,6; Imagination feet.

[Kapri]

Cool to see your results from our sketch trip. You managed to get in allot more detail.
I really like the way you rendered the cloth in the Rochus sketch.

Also, nice process with the feet sketching. Seems like a good idea to train both with and without reference to really memorize the anatomy.

Have you ever looked at Hampton's book? Probably the besg book on figure drawing I ever read.

[Othrandir]

That's alot of studies man! Keep 'em coming!!

[Alrap]

Cool studies, keep it up

[Anthis]

Kapri; I try to make a habit of alternating between reference and imagination. Study stuff from life, then put to use drawings from imagination directly. Solidify what you've learned. At least, that's the idea.
I've heard of Hampton, but never tried his books. Should do so, looks very promising.

rastaray; Will do! Now only if the pay-off were a bit higher.

Alrap; Yes yes, thanks!


Two challenge entries.
First one for a contest held by Mike Corriero on Facebook (concept challenge; swamp-dwelling ungulate with markings)
Second one for this weeks' creature of the week activity ("white stone crusher")

I started on each of these one day before the deadline. Was interesting, but I'll make sure to plan better next time.

[zou]

hello dude your first creature i nicely done, i like it
the second is interesting (the idea) but seems lacking contrast and his pose from this angle is pretty symmetric.

cheers

[MrChow]

Amazing sketchbook, you put a lot of effort into it and the progress shows it, your creatures have awesome design and color, so much imagination! congrats for winning the creature contest!

[Anthis]

zou; Thanks! Getting good contrast is still a weakness. Can't seem to get the right detail in the right place.

MrChow; Hah, always exciting. They're a great exercise. Helps you follow a brief... work with deadlines.. critique is nice too. See you at the spartan camp!



Still going with the moleskine stuff. Next batch will be better.

Also more gestures for the Spartan Camp.

[Nyoron]

oh my goodness, wonderful wonderful works!
i like anatomies/gestures, they're wonderful!

[zou]

great work as usual

the bunch of houses on the cliff is great

figure are nice to
it's not very important but pay attention to proportions

[lennon]

Well, the portrait is top-notch, you really capture the liveness that is so hard to the rest of us. The figures show a long path of practice, everything is proportioned and the gesture is great. You should practice more with the anatomy, clearly you know the position and relationship of the muscles, but you place them a little off the place, it's a minor thing and I'm sure you're probably deciding now wether if you should focus more in the muscles, or in the hands or in the heads, etc, so I'm probably not telling you anything new.
The creatures are superb. You project the shadows really well, I could learn a lesson from that, maybe you could use it to get a more interesting lighting scheem, with more of a fight between light and darks, rim lights and so on.
Great stuff.

[Rob Powell]

Lots of awesome studies and sketches here mate! And congratz on the recent Cow win, beat me by one vote you bugger, haha!!

[Overtoom]

You have some really really nice studies in there, all those pose studies are very goodlooking, I especially like your strokes.

[Anthis]

Overtoom; Hah, not nearly good enough.. but I guess progress is there.

Rob Powell; Thanks Rob! I'll comment in your sb!

lennon; Thanks lennon. I've noticed those muscles start deviating from their positions. Even though I've been practising those a lot. I've already started repeating some anatomy studies. Just... so much to learn...

zou; Cheers!. Panning to do more environments.

Nyoron; Nyoro~n.... ! Thanks for the support!


I've got a decent routine of daily sketchbook drawing by now. I remember this being one of my goals last year. Not much, but at least I got that down. Next year will be more ambitious...

More moleskine stuff. Thought I'd post them at actual size this time. No hiding!

[surus]

Great! More moleskine pencil pages, please! I love some of your imaginated ideas! Keep on posting and keep the spartan camps alive!

[AllyAlbon]

Great character designs, love your monsters.

[ashess]

some awesome pieces in there! I really like the lady falling apart(28 11) and the sorceres (12 12 11); I see you're drawing on both sides of the paper. I hope you'll at least put cheap paper between all the pages, or there will be little left of your work in a few years!