The ABCs (animals, beasties and critters)

[Vermis]

A pageful of crocotrolls. Trying to make it a touch more anthropomorphic. Dunno if it worked so well.

[Vermis]

Some fallout-style giant mutants, and a water dragon. Haven't stippled in years. I forgot what it does to my wrist.

Could use some rippled light, though. And backgrounds.

[Vermis]

Some sketches from yesterday's zoo trip. I intended to cut down on hairy lines, but I think ended up with more. Hey ho.
It was good I passed the fossa enclosure when I did. They're usually well hidden when I take a look, but there was one out in the open, a few feet away, tucking into it's second pigeon...

[Misplacedhippos]

I want to see some sculpted dragons!
Nice animal studies.

[Vermis]

Sketch dump!

I saw copy blue pencils in a shop for the first time, a few weeks ago. I decided I needed one to go with the Pentel brush pen. Appropriate, because the pencil didn't make a lot of difference either.
Anyway. In the inked stuff there's a halfling, a mascot for a miniature-sculpting site. It ended up being stripped down to just the stylised sculpt he was working on.

Then, doodles, sketches, even a study or two! Down to the bottom: a page of Bambiraptors. Top one's a fleshed-out restoration based on Gregory S. Paul's skeletal diagram from the Scientific American Book of Dinosaurs, which these days is apparently a breach of his human rights, or something. We'll see. Anyway, after that page I figured I needed to know a lot more about the life appearance of feathers. So I have a book on raptors (the other kind), full of good quality photos, recently procured from The Works. Studies should be showing up here soon. Hopefully. Maybe.

[Vermis]

Only a photo ref; may Jeff forgive me.

[Vermis]

I was all set for a trip to London, visiting the Natural History Museum first. I reorganised my sketching gear; bought a bunch of new materials to try out; sneered at my camera; and made just two sketches.

And they suck.

I'm going to cry excuses, though. I had three hours sleep the night before, was up at 3am to catch the plane that morning, and still had to rush and panic when I almost missed it. After taking a look round most of the museum, bushed wasn't the word.

I was most looking forward to the dinosaur hall, including plenty of famous fossils I'd only read about or seen photos of: the first discovered dinosaur remains: the 'Mantell-piece' and the Megalosaur jaw. Also Baryonyx, pieces of Polacanthus, and other, more obligatory and 'mainstream' dinosaurs. Pity the hall was laid out like a theme park's haunted house: dark walls and very dim lighting; a cramped, winding, one-way track; exhibits at awkward angles - including some skeletons mounted up by the ceiling, only viewable from narrow walkway that you daren't pause on, or hold up the crowds. Awful.

By contrast, the marine reptile hall was a single, wide, straight hall, naturally well-lit by the glass roof. Most of the fossils, in their matrices, were mounted along one wall; benches lined the other. It was a great place to sit and sketch the pliosaur below. If only the sketch had turned out as great.
(The problem with skeletons, IMO, is that they have a lot of bones in 'em. I'd think differently about a study, but for a reasonably quick sketch it's a bit of a drag by the fourteenth or fifteenth vertebra. I tried describing the general volume of the ribcage and erasing rib highlights, but it didn't go well.)

Then the Diplodocus from the main hall. Had to have a bash at that, so I tried taking a leaf out of James Gurney's book. The result is why some of us newbies are worried about mucking up an expensive moleskine with the first sketch. Neck's about two-thirds of the length it needs to be, and the legs twice as wide. I went to the gift shop, got a fridge magnet, and escaped.

Next day, a couple of token efforts at gestures, at the wargaming show. And done. Here endeth the travelogue.

[Vermis]

Allosaur scribbles, from photo references to a spiky Saurophaganax.

[Vermis]

Ponies, testing out Derwent tinted charcoal and inktense pencils. I'm still scratching my head about how you can 'tint' charcoal to a fairly bright yellow-orange colour, and I think the other might look more 'inktense' if it wasn't black. Anyway. They're pretty nice to use.

A horse at an agricultural show. Same one as last year.

English longhorn cow and calf, from the same.

Lastly, my first dabble with oils - unless you count some old Georgians, which I prefer not to. I present... l'pomme de terre #1!
Titanium white, burnt umber and ultramarine blue on acrylic-primed card. I'm under no illusion about my skills (or lack of them), and bits didn't turn out the way I'd planned, but I'm pleased with how it turned out anyway, and compared to the Georgians the quality paints (Michael Harding and W&N) were a revelation. Pretty enthusiastic about working and learning with them.
I need to work on photography too. It got washed and greened out a little and gimp couldn't quite fix it. Though I can jigger with camera settings when I get a couple more sketches and studies, and maybe dare to show my face on the fine arts board.

[LordLouis]

wow, kudos for trying out the pomme de terre
I would love to try out acrylic and ESPECIALLY oil painting, but yeah I think its quite a leap from drawing on paper, so I'm yet to grow balls for that- nice that you seem to have already :p
I really like your animal studies, especially the cow and some of the horses. Drawing horses as well at the moment and regard it quite a challenge. Keep it up

[Vermis]

Ta. I started out with acrylics and didn't think I'd ever move onto oils, but thanks to a few frustrations and people here talking about their ease of use...

Well

I did.

But like the bigwigs round here would probably say, grab some and start sloshing colours about. The only way to learn...

Not so much paint this time. Derwent drawing pencils and sticks:

[Vermis]

Thinking about it, in my case the lack of a zippy up-to-date computer, tablet, and a copy of photoshop probably influences more mucking about with physical paints and things.

This week: Conte crayons, and an African buffalo skull, hanging beside the gaur skull from last week. Some gomer forgot to allow for the horns, right after he reminded himself to allow for the horns.
I think I scrubbed at it too much, too. I haven't got the hang of suggesting or optically mixing subtle duns and greys with a box of bright yellow, cyan, ultramarine etc... But that's why I'm here.

[Vermis]

Idleness with new white charcoal and red chalk pencils.

[glaudarien]

I love the depth in which you go when studying the different creatures / animals, very inspiring stuff. Keep it up, look forward to seeing you continue to improve.

[Ville_S]

I have been lurking around this sketchbook for so long that I'm ashamed that I haven't posted a comment untill now. Your animals studies are just brilliant! Just absolutely lovely. They way you experiment with diffrent sort of poses and actions for extinct creatures and the way you document poses and actions of living creatures is just awesome. Looking trough your sketchbook I have sudden urge to grab my sketchbook and run to the local zoo or museum. I feel truly inspired.

Oh and those skull sketches drawn with derwent drawing pencils and sticks. Brilliant, more of those please!

[Vermis]

Ta very much. Though I wish the gestures could be a bit more polished - as much as gestures can be - and JeffX99 is responsible for my going out and doing more life sketches, recently. And I need to go do more still!
Greg Paul is also partly responsible for the dino poses, at least in that I want to avoid the look of some of his work. But that's a rant for another time...

Also, your wish is my command! Though this is only finishing the Conté buffalo from two weeks ago. Strange texture on the horns, like rotted, splintered wood. I hope I showed it all right. I lost track of time on it anyway, and missed Bradbury Graphics' closing time by seconds.

[Lhune]

Hey there Vermis,

lovely and truly inspiring work and studies. I couldn't agree with you more on the importance of realism in fantasy creatures, a discussion I've got myself into so often. Keep up the great work and I particularly adore the gestures in your creatures, something I need to work on quite a bit myself still.

[Vermis]

Ta Lhune. Very much appreciated.

Some cattle sketches. No shortage of those around here, though I would've got a lot more done today if I hadn't dozed off after Sunday lunch, and left it late. Watch this space.

On a related note, old sketches I somehow haven't scanned 'til now. Fallow deer from Parkanaur forest park, which is nearby and which I should have visited so often already I should be able to draw fallow deer in my sleep.
I don't know why I haven't uploaded those yet, but for the next set I can guess why. They looked ratty back then and haven't aged well since, but here they are anyway. Stuffed eagles from the Ulster Musuem. Mostly the white-tailed eagle I think, with the dark-taloned foot from the golden eagle. Difficult to check - when I went back four weeks ago (and came away with the gaur sketch) they'd both been taken off display. Pity.

[Vermis]

Some gomer forgot to allow for the horns, right after he reminded himself to allow for the horns.

You'd think I'd've learned that lesson. I thought I had.

Parkanaur II: The Fallowing. First (top left) in Derwent sanguine drawing pencil, the other red sketches in Lyra grease-free red chalk pencil. Both remind me why I like Derwent's pencils.
The Lyra chalk is hard, gritty, scratchy, and doesn't give up it's colour without a fight, especially if you've rested your hand on the paper for a second. See the scribbles in the top right - it's like trying to get the ink in an old, dried biro to flow freely again. That doesn't strike me as right. I had the same problems with Faber-Castell pastel pencils, which I soon gave up.
So, moaning and venting, but also: if anyone with experience of dry sketching pencils passes by here - any corrections or recommendations?

[SemperOne]

Really love the animal sketches, I'd love to be able to draw creatures well, so good work on that haha, let me know your secrets!

Keep it up man

[Vermis]

Ta SemperOne.

Fallow deer from Parkanaur forest park, which is nearby and which I should have visited so often already I should be able to draw fallow deer in my sleep.

For that matter, there are four ponies (the same ones scattered through this sketchbook) a couple of hundred yards from my house.

Quick fifteen minute sketch. Riddled with innaccuracies (like the, er, left legs), but boy howdy I'm getting to like this here charcoal malarkey.

[Vermis]

Specs on the Citi.

[Vermis]

I'm still trying pencils. I was given a sepia conte pencil years ago but thought it was too scratchy and messy. After a bit more 'wisdom', and buffalo-related encouragement with conte crayons, I dug it back out and bought a sanguine to go with it. Kicks Lyra red chalk all over the shop. The conte pencils aren't half as scratchy as that is, and while there's a bit of resistance on hand-greased paper, it doesn't flat-out refuse to lay any colour down.

Sketches from the last month or so. All the birds, except the geese, are from the Belfast Zoo. They have a great collection there that I've concentrated on, but haven't been able to do justice. Apart from the ostrich (needs no introduction), those in the sketches are:

Fulvous whistling duck
Ringed teal
Bali starling
Red-crested turaco
Blue-eyed cockatoo
Scheepmaker's crowned pigeon - the biggest double-take on the list. A near-terrestrial pigeon the size of a small turkey, with a huge, lacy crest of feathers.

I took out my watercolours for that one. More fool me.

[Vermis]

Almost a year since my last moleskine sketches. I'm gettin' good mileage out of this thing. Ponies. Some from last year and one from today, at the end of a mild but slightly soggy winter. Looks almost like a scruffy dog.

Edit: removed the life drawing. I don't want to give the wrong impression (pro or anti) because of the NSFW tag for one drawing! I'll maybe stick it up in fine art, sometime.

[jcpahl]

Fantastic animals. Great lines all around. No crits occur to me; just great work.

[Vermis]

Some idle stuff. Though if you've seen the Games Workshop black dragon; not entirely indifferent.

[Vermis]

More ponies and deer. Magoo here forgot his scope and specs for the latter, so fell back on gestures of the bright white blobs in the middle distance.

[Vermis]

Got to thinking about ink/watercolour sketches after those deer gestures, and pencils4artists is having an introductory sale on those new soluble artbars from Derwent.

I'm not wowed straight away. Partly because of my severe ineptitude with watery media, but partly because I personally don't like the wax-crayon-like grain and layering as much as I thought I might. Colours are good after washing, but I'm not altogether fond of some of the heavier grain left. Washing layers together can be a little muddy in places, but again that's probably me. I need much more practise with washes in general.
I liked them best lifted off the bar like watercolour; but used only like that for outdoor sketches, a little tin with a few half-pans might be more convenient for me, and cleaner.
Or, like I first thought, a couple more inktense pencils.

[Vermis]

Thinking about the current COW: winged megamouth. Not competing, just thinking.

[ezekrialase]

Nice work!