Chronicles of Jussi Tarvainen [Updated April 10th]

**Mischeviouslittleelf** · February 20th, 2009, 10:31 AM

Hey that master study is really comming along i think, but your life drawings are a bit behind, and there is only one cure: DO MORE!

-E

**Genome** · February 20th, 2009, 09:32 PM

Watch those shoulders , they tell us what is going on with the torso. Study them up for next time

**Jussi Tarvainen** · February 22nd, 2009, 09:08 AM

Mischeviouslittleelf: Whoa, thanks for stopping by

Honored by having your caliber in my book. You are absolutely right

Will do.

Genome: Oh totally hadn't even thought about that. Definitely a good heads up for next time. Cheers mate!

Okay I absolutely love doing these small quick sketches with pen and tombow brush markers. I went to walk around and did a bunch of these and here's a few. Oh and the cast study ought to be finished tomorrow! YAy

**Jussi Tarvainen** · February 23rd, 2009, 11:55 AM

So after working on this for three long months it's finally done. No matter how long it took I learned so much from it so no time wasted. Although I can already see many mistakes these are just the first steps and my first cast so I can only get better from this.

Next I'm starting another cast, my oil painting color charts and have one assignment to do. Here's also a copy of my new updated schedule I'm starting in a week.

**Jussi Tarvainen** · March 2nd, 2009, 05:45 AM

Here's a quick glass study with charcoal. This was a very interesting assignment. One needs to focus more on what not to draw than what to draw. I made it easier by having all white background for the reference.

**kikindaface** · March 2nd, 2009, 05:58 AM

hey dude, it's a really beautiful cast drawing ! I wanna see more ! For your schedule, i think you really should do life drawing everyday, instead of drawing 4 hours 1 time in the week, look, if you do just 1 hour of life drawing everyday, at the end of the week, you draw 7 hours, and you'll have all the wednesday afternoon to work another thing ( i think you can also work on color/light, and do some digital paintings it's funny

) Anyway, keep it up ! Peace

**Jussi Tarvainen** · March 2nd, 2009, 10:49 AM

THanks Walid D. Hopefully the next one will take tops 1/3 of the time this one took. No need to do the same mistakes again

THat's definitely a valid point Walid D. I might just ad that on top of everything else. An hour of day quick studies and then a 4 hour one on one day. Because you see I already do some life drawing. The cast study is all life drawing though a longer process. For anatomy I draw partly from life. ANd then I take quick life drawing class once a week... hmm that doesn't seem that much though. So I'm thinking maybe I'll do ad an hour per day. THanks for the idea mate!

As for color I'm staying away form it still for a while. I don't have any great urge yet to go to color because I like the b&w stuff and I still need to get better understanding of values before hitting the color. I do some life studies with a few colors and trying to concentrate on value on those too...

**kikindaface** · March 2nd, 2009, 11:07 AM

haha, even you're drawing 24 hours, 7 days, it's never enough

Anyway, try to draw a lot of organic things, do selfportraits, draw your hands, or draw your parents, your brother, or sister, because i drew a lot of objects before, did some still lifes, i thank i was quite good at drawing, but when i started to do selfportraits, or draw my hands, it really ucks, and now, i'm only doing it, because it's a lot more difficult than still lifes, and you will improve greatl by doing them ! So keep it up !

**Jussi Tarvainen** · March 2nd, 2009, 11:45 AM

You're absolutely right and you also need to remember to live and have time to go out and socialize because that is as important as drawing.

I stopped doing self portraits for a reason and the reason being that it is not worth it to me. I rather draw other people than try to get myself to the same pose after I've looked into my drawing if you know what I mean. It is much much better to do studies of other people who you can ask to stay still for a few minutes or longer. You can though learn to see some features when drawing self portrait but you can't make it very accurate "portrait" because you are never back at the same pose at least while you aren't really good at drawing and can't get back to same exact pose. Just my opinion. But yeah definitely ought to draw other people and hands are great for sure. Always available

**Jussi Tarvainen** · March 2nd, 2009, 01:00 PM

Walid D, you're an inspiration. Here's some life studies

I will definitely try to do these daily.

Oh here's what I'm trying to pay attention to. Proportions of lines not features. Squint to simplify the values and block in the darkest and mid value and leave the lightest light to white. Angle of lines.

**Kristo Novo** · March 3rd, 2009, 06:49 AM

interesting stuff going on here - keep going
i´m also on my challenge to master lines and colors

**Jussi Tarvainen** · March 3rd, 2009, 11:51 AM

Kristo, thanks for the props!

Okay here's a few more quicktudies of people. 8am isn't a good time to find people to sketch by the way

**Jussi Tarvainen** · March 9th, 2009, 10:26 AM

Okay here's a bunch of drawings from life drawing course. I absolutely love studying nude models as anatomy is my passion. Also it's a great way to out in action different techniques I've learned and try what works best in which situation. These nudes are from 5 minutes to 15 so they're really quick. I tried to pay attention to proportions, land marks like collar bones, scapulas, hips etc., blocking in major values and angles of all the lines. I did a few with the technique where I blocked in VERY simply the over all shape of the figure. Only using max 5 lines and then fit in with right angles all the other lines. Also tried some techniques where I hardly used any blocking lines and just tried to swing it.

Oh and lastly my new cast setup with the appropriate blocking done. This was a bit tricky. My cast is huge and if I have my easel right by my cast the drawing will be too cramped in into the paper. So Jon instructed to either get a bigger piece of paper and drawing board or move the easel towards me so the cast "becomes smaller". So it will look like it's not very correct in the photos because the camera distortion etc. but after redoing the block in a few times I think I understand now how it works. This is a bit harder cause you need to be more accurate to get back to the exact same position in order to be able to produce an accurate blocking. But it's grrrrreeaat practice too though it might take longer for me to finish this but who cares I'm learning more

**Genome** · March 18th, 2009, 11:30 PM

ALWAYS use composition with intent, on everything! Think about it while doing SP's, while doing sketches at a bar/cafe. If you think about it and use it with EVERYTHING you draw for a month it will become almost instinctive. The more we practice it the better we get, the better we get the more woman want to sleep with us. Haha, hows that for a change of an old saying?

**Bushido** · March 19th, 2009, 01:34 AM

Intresting stuff, keep posting!

**~KJK~** · March 19th, 2009, 02:28 AM

Hey! Where do you get these casts from? Do you make them yourelf or...? Anyways, a nice SB man! You seem to put a lot of effort on your studies, which is great! Postaa lisää!

Cheers!

**a la bapsi** · March 19th, 2009, 02:57 AM

awesomestuff!
i see some real passion in this sketchbook.
keep drawing, you're doing great!

**Jussi Tarvainen** · March 30th, 2009, 10:01 AM

Genome, very true. Thanks for the heads up... I definitely need to keep that in mind!

THanks for the props Bushido!

Noodledoodle. Got them from Porvoo. Very good quality though takes a while to get them. http://www.koristevalukarkkainen.fi/
Thanks, trying my best

a la bapsi. Thank you, I will

Okie dokie. Been working according to my new schedule and it's coming along great. Here's a bunch of anatomy studies. Man you definitely want to draw every bone for a bunch of times from different angles to understand it completely and to memorize it. It all looks complicated at first but braking it down and simplifying things will make everything a heck of a lot easier.

Oh I sold my first art work and started a business. Pretty stoked though the journey is just starting.

Here's a bunch of anatomy drawings and where I'm at with my current cast drawing. Oh and some fun drawings from life and some studies from Vilppu DVD's. Vilppu is such a great teacher. I'm really starting to get a grasp now understanding the 3D form and how to put it down on a 2D surface. All these studies are making my brain over heat but it's great. I love doing these studies

As for the schedule it's constantly changing as I learn what I should be working on and what works best for me. Though I think it's very good for now for me. Some days I draw 11 hours and some only 4 but the minimum of 8 hours is becoming more and more consistent all the time. I wanted to put drawing from imagination for the last hours because when you draw from your imagination it will make your brain work harder and pick up those things you drew from observation and therefore they will stick in your memory better and you will learn to understand the form better. One thing I've learned too is that SIMPLIFICATION IS THE KEY!

**Genome** · March 30th, 2009, 12:09 PM

No critiques. Which makes me sad but alsooo oh soo happy. I wanna put down a bigger post but I am in history class right now, and the teacher is behind me sooo bye.

**Jussi Tarvainen** · March 30th, 2009, 02:57 PM

Good is always worth the wait

**Juhani Jokinen** · March 30th, 2009, 04:39 PM

Terve vaan!

You've got some great stuff going on here. Those cast drawings are really awesome and show great dedication towards improving your craft. Continue on this route and you'll be über awesome in no time.

Thanks for leaving a comment in my sb and you are spot on about the figures. I have been meaning to start learning anatomy for a while now and take it more seriously as opposed to learning how to make realistic looking environments. Anyhow, I seem to have some trouble figuring out just how should I go about learning anatomy? Copying anatomy books, photos and the sort?

Keep on going!

-Juhani

**Earendil** · April 9th, 2009, 04:02 PM

It's great you're figure drawing! I need to start doing that too! Maybe setting up a vertical line like your bargues would help you starting out, just make sure not to depend on it. Just something to establish your boundaries, and help eliminate those "too short" "too tall" problems.

Here's the SSG stuff here too.

**Jussi Tarvainen** · April 14th, 2009, 10:40 AM

Earendil. Heeeey thanks for that vertical tip! I definitely need to pay more attention to the verticals and horizontals *blob mental note blob*!

Juhani, thanks for stopping by and my apologies for the very late answer.

I'm in the mids o fwriting an article and part of it is about studying anatomy. I was going to wait till I finish it to give you some tips but it seems like it's gonna take a while so here's a few tips on anatomy which I've learned.

First off Algenpfleger said it in his thread that you should first learn to capture the action/pose/gesture of a figure with right proportions before learning anatomy. I agree 100% with him.

I'm just changing my approach a bit after I read that I realized that's what I should be doing. Glenn Vilppu has some great videos where he is teaching how to learn to draw the figure. Basically he starts with learning to understand the form, then he continues to capturing the gesture and from there he goes about using, boxes, cylinders to describe the form and slowly he starts adding simplified anatomy.

I would suggest tackling with the gesture, first getting the action down with loose lines and then simplifying the figure into boxes and cylinders. You're already familiar with perspective so that will help you out a lot.

As for learning anatomy here's some of my personal notes...

ANATOMY EXERCISES
-Begin first by studying the bones. Copy the plates in the anatomy books to familiarize your self with the form.

-Draw from skeletons. Start with the skull and work your way down. Draw everything from multiple views and label everything(Very important).

-Lay a piece of tracing paper on photographs, magazine pictures etc. and draw the bones on top of that and label everything, then lay another piece of tracing paper and draw the muscles on top of that and label everything.

-analyze the form
-simplify into shapes and planes
-draw sphere/cylinder and cube figures
-memorize proportions and their relationships to each other
-draw bones and muscles on separate sheets of tracing paper on top of a photograph
*make notes what you learned
*label everything but no need to memorize the names
----------------------------

Last but not least is my new schedule. Believe it or not a lot of thought went into this

I'll explain later.

**Jussi Tarvainen** · April 17th, 2009, 09:38 AM

Oh man I'm so happy. I'm finally starting to get over producing bad work and therefore not trying to draw from my imagination. I've been studying intensely through Glenn Vilppu's drawing Manual program and I'm learning so much. He has a great way of teaching figuring drawing starting with capturing the action/gesture with just a few descriptive lines, then working with cylinders to understand the form and slowly adding simplified anatomical details and so forth.

I'm starting to shift my thinking into not thinking the paper as 2D object but the paper being just a surface which I draw into 3D objects. I dunno if that makes sense but it's all starting to make a heck of a lot more sense than ever before. The results do not look good but for me they are huge improvement as I am starting to think differently of how to construct the form. Also I am able to laugh at them not being pretty and being happy that I'm learning something and now that I am loosing my fear of not knowing what to do and how to do it and so not drawing from my imagination.

Here's a bunch of stuff from the VIlppu, where I'm at with my seconds cast study at classicalartonline.com and last are few pages from imagination with pencil. Oh and I finally started my oil color charts which is very exiting! I'm aware of the proportional error that the cast should be more narrow in my drawing and it's something that will teach me to pay even more attention to the proportions next time. It's very hard to notice some stuff until you have some tone down to help you see it. Good lesson

**Jussi Tarvainen** · April 17th, 2009, 11:51 AM

Almost forgot. Here's a pencil portrait of real life reference. 2H pencil used and the idea was to simplify the values in the range of the 2H pencil.

**Jussi Tarvainen** · April 20th, 2009, 10:32 AM

Oh man I'm pretty stoked. Before when I tried drawing something I'd only try drawing heads, because I thought I'd learned a some kind of technique to do it. Well the heads looked absolutely horrible because of the lack of information and training but I tried at least. I never really tried drawing figures because I didn't know any tools of technique for it.

Now that I've been watching Glenn Vlppu's videos I'm starting to get a grasp for seeing form on 2D srface and I've learned some tools how to build a figure. I mean now I have something to base my drawing into which is absolutely wonderful.

I'm just having a glimpse of how far I still have to go but the main thing I will keep in mind is how far I have come already. A year ago I didn't have any tools or techniques to draw from life or even think of drawing from imagination and knowing what I'm doing and how to do it and see the end result in my head before I lay a single line on my paper. Now things are very differently. Obviously these are still horrible and far from pretty but I know that I'm heading the right direction and now it's just all about balancing training and having fun while drawing as much as possible.

Here's a few figure drawings from top of my head.

PS. First capture the action with few simple descriptive lines, then build the form squares and cylinders and third lay over the anatomy

**Emil_J.** · April 20th, 2009, 10:50 AM

your figure drawings are coming along really well. Have you tried posemaniacs.com ?? - i find the 30 sec drawings to be a great help.

**Suncut** · April 20th, 2009, 02:57 PM

Hey! First of all I have to give you huge props for working on your own on a schedule like that, I really admire your dedication and drive. I'm scared shitless of next summer when I need to put forth at least 8 hours a day of painting with nobody to watch me.

Great work with the charcoal drawings, tho the last torso seems a little thicker in your drawing then in the picture. We drew that torso for months at school, I'm so glad it's over. You certainly have improved a lot from where you started.

Where do you go for lifedrawing, are you situated in Helsinki? I'm trying to scout out different classes to figure where to go after school is out.

I don't think you should give up completely on the selfportraits, even if it's kinda boring doing the same subject from life over and over again, it offers you a great chance to really digest the subject. In some drawing book I read there was a suggestion to put tape in the mirror to mark where the top of your head and the side of your head are when you start, so it's easier to return to the same position while drawing. Never tried it myself, but it seems logical.

Good luck with your studies

**Jussi Tarvainen** · April 20th, 2009, 02:58 PM

Thanks for the encouragement and tips Fumble. Yes I tried it way back but now I rather just draw gestures from photos because I felt the posemaniac poses were too generic. Still might go back to them one day, we'll see

**Josef K.** · April 21st, 2009, 05:55 AM

yeah! great studies man! the blue vilppu (?) studies are cool! awesome schedule buddy - but don't you forget to do a lil art of your own or you'll forget why you learn all this stuff - characterdesigns or illustrations or whatever you'd love to do in the future! keep rockin!