Lagomorphosis - Vin's Sketches

[Velocity Kendall]

Wow V your pencils are really something.
This and the yellow warbler are really lovely.

[vineris]

@Velocity Kendall - Thanks man. I've been doing them the longest but when my time was really limited I had to put them aside. It's nice to know the mojo is still there.

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So after scrambling to get everything ready for the fair and then coming home with it all damp and in buckets, I realized that all my work areas were a disaster. The art got put on hold a bit as I tried to get to the point where I have surfaces to work on again. The good news is that I can now walk into my office. The bad news is that that's about a third of the work and it took all week.

Anyway, here's some stuff I never got around to posting.

Weird food doodles:



A reworking of an older Chimera picture that never got to the point of being worthwhile to post.



The kids' illo finished up. I really don't like the colour shift between the Cintiq and my other monitors. I can't seem to get anything calibrated properly.

[vineris]

The Sacred Carrot


A couple paintings done on location at the art fair (see my Landscape thread for a more detailed explanation):

[krysjez]

VK is right, I am really enjoying the pencil crayon pieces. (I had to go look it up to realize that just meant 'coloured pencil') and I looked through some of the previous pages too and your ink work makes me quite envious.

The paintings are a lot weaker in comparison though, maybe starting with a tighter sketch would help. imho the watercolor one especially feels kind of too loose for the subject matter - architecture, 'harder' subjects.

[vineris]

VK is right, I am really enjoying the pencil crayon pieces. (I had to go look it up to realize that just meant 'coloured pencil') and I looked through some of the previous pages too and your ink work makes me quite envious.

The paintings are a lot weaker in comparison though, maybe starting with a tighter sketch would help. imho the watercolor one especially feels kind of too loose for the subject matter - architecture, 'harder' subjects.

Yes, I'm really not that good at paintings yet. I've only been painting "seriously" for 3 years. Before that I took one art fundamentals course back in 1998 and every painting I did in that course was so terrible that I didn't touch my paints for 10 years.

At this point the watercolours are only plein-air sketches, so they're all going to be quite sloppy for a while. I'm going to try using them as colour reference for some longer studio paintings, which will need some tighter pencils and more careful work.

Oh well. I'm sure that after about 150 more paintings I'll be much happier with them.

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I found a sketch for a door on a sticky note, so I thought I'd do up a rough:


Kittens. Mushroom. Fireflies.

[vineris]

A couple of things for DSG:





A cat commission in acrylic, about 10x15":



I didn't remember to take a photo of the final piece. After the third wip I changed the shadow and made some small adjustments to the lighting and positioning of the feet. I'll try to get a photo later this month when I'm visiting family in southern Alberta.

[Velocity Kendall]

wow that distant giant is effective!

i recommend doing landscape studies and then incorporating fun fantasy elements in, then you get really realistic colours and a cool new image too. loads of fun.

[vineris]

The finished cat portrait:



A couple of watercolour sketches from life:

[vineris]

Figure drawin'.

[vineris]

[vineris]

Last of the life drawing:





Illustration Friday Topic: Tall

[vineris]

New paintings.

Garden onions:


Plein-air sketch:

[vineris]

Random cruft from my sketchbook.







I ended up at the world's emptiest art fair. It was raining, and the art fair was in a facility where everything was closed for the long weekend. Its only redeeming features were that it was indoors, free, and I got to spend four hours doodling and chatting with the other artist who showed up.

[Greenhouse]

Hey, you've got so much good stuff goin on in here! I like the veriety of sketches and paintings.
The Pencil cryons in #246 is smashing good! The ricepaper lantern in #255 is so beautiful!
It's always a plesure to visit your sb

[vineris]

Hey, you've got so much good stuff goin on in here! I like the veriety of sketches and paintings.
The Pencil cryons in #246 is smashing good! The ricepaper lantern in #255 is so beautiful!
It's always a plesure to visit your sb

Thank you! Both of those sold so I think that quite a few people liked them.

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After writing up a forum post about sketch journals back in early September I decided to start a sketch journal again. I used to do a lot of life sketching 6-7 years ago back when I posted on Drawingboard.org but the only time I ever do it anymore is when I'm on vacation. So I bought a crappy blank book at Staples and got started. These are all drawn (and in some cases inked) on location:

Apparently I can't spell zucchini:



Week of Welcome beer gardens at the University:



I was biking home the same day as the beer gardens and the sheep pasture at the University Farm had *cows*. I had to stop.



Then when I was sitting there, mere steps from the cows, I remembered boingboing's Cow Week. I was like "please don't kill me, tasty steakbeasts."

[kevin_]

a lot of good work in here! see a lot of potential, keep it up!

[Greenhouse]

What an great idéa with the 'sketch journal'! It combines both 'sketch studies' and the actual 'presence', whithout taking any photos.
Can I ask what sort of pen you use? I think I'm going to start my own sketch journal, seems fun! And 'zuchini' isn't easy to spell!
Oh, great that you sold those images, obviously! They are great!

[Kambei Shimada]

I love this sketchbook and I love the 'journal' style approach.

Your chracter studies are very expressive.

I'm going to Thailand in February to train in Muay Thai camp for a month (gulp!) and I think I might start up a sketchbook specifically for that trip now.

[vineris]

@kevin_ - Thank you kindly!

@Greenhouse - Yes, it is a lot of fun! I like flipping back through my old journal sketches. You don't just get the memory of the location, but because you're sitting there for longer than you would to take a photo you remember all the things that happened -- people who stopped to talk to you, people who got in your way, strange people who wandered across the scene while you were there... And it helps get me out to different places to find something different to draw.

I use ordinary technical pens (Staedtler drafting pens, Microns, Faber-Castell Ecco pens, they're all approximately the same, I buy whichever ones are available and on sale) in 0.2 and 0.3 sizes and a Faber-Castell PITT brush pen to fill large areas with black quickly. I usually do a quick pencil sketch first to get the proportions right. Sometimes I take a photo if it's obvious that the scene will change soon, but that's not practical to do in waiting rooms or on the bus so mostly I've learned to sketch quickly.

Let me know if you decide to start a journal sketchbook, I'd love to see it!

@Kambei Shimada - Thank you! Thailand sounds like a great opportunity to sketch. Hopefully you'll have some time to relax and draw. I'd love to see the results if/when you post them! One thing that I've found is that non-artists get pretty bored if they're with a sketching artist, so if you're there with other people you'll have to squeeze the sketching in wherever you can.

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Some friends at a party I went to.



The next day at an art fair. It was almost completely dead, and also I felt like crap from all the partying the day before.
Weird sculpture with day lilies planted in front of it:


A quilt artist sitting across from me. I've got to get me an umbrella.


BTW, Sketchcrawl 37 is happening on October 13 so look up a group in your area and if there is none go out and sketch on your own! It looks like I might be going out with the local Urban Sketchers contingent this time around so hopefully I'll have some sketches from the local cemetery or undecided indoor location if it snows.

[Mr.Ebony]

You have some very good works! But I think your sense of color and lighting could use some work in your digital studies. You could use some bounced light and warmer highlights considering the light source is coming from the left in your chimera piece. For example, see how this male lion has very distinct, almost white highlights with the secondary lightest color being the yellow and the shaded colors being more of a blue brown? Something along those lines would really make this piece pop. :0

Hope that helps!

[blogmatix]

I wouldn't presume to try criticizing your work, seeing as my own is still rather amateurish. Very nice stuff you have here in your sketchbook, and quite an inspiration to me. I especially like your pen and ink drawings; I can see why you recommended I try the medium. Not sure I would be much good with it though. :-)

[Flashback]

I love your sketchbook Vineris, I'm subscribing. I like how precise you are with your strokes. And how expressive your characters of your illustrations are (that sentence sounds awkward). I wish could give you a critique, but none come to mind. By the way, some of your files appear as broken.

[Greenhouse]

Fun thing this "Sketchcrawl 37", never heard about it before! I visited their homepage and it sounds like a cool event. They started out sketching in some pubs and now they have taken it to new levels gone worldwide. I have actually signed up for a life sketch class that day, very convenient I hope you'll have a great sketching day and maybe show something from your 'sketch journal'. Thanks for answering about the pens!

[Kambei Shimada]

@Kambei Shimada - Thank you! Thailand sounds like a great opportunity to sketch. Hopefully you'll have some time to relax and draw. I'd love to see the results if/when you post them! One thing that I've found is that non-artists get pretty bored if they're with a sketching artist, so if you're there with other people you'll have to squeeze the sketching in wherever you can.
.

Yeah i'm going on my own so that should be fine (the girlfriend isnt too interested in Thai Boxing). Should be fun training and drawing!

[Istmin52]

Hey thanks for commenting on my finished (well I thought it was finished) illustration. Your most helpful feedback was that the composition was boring. I actually knew that going in to it but thought I could have pulled it off. I should trust my instincts more. The perspective was correct in the original drawing but I think it got slightly messed up as I was painting it.

Nice sketchbook. I would say for your figure drawings on post #280-281 that your proportions on them are a bit off. I think the heads are too big and the person looks more like a child.

I didn't mean to cause an issue in the critique center forum. I was just angry that I didn't realize these issues earlier because I could have fixed them. I'm not sure whether to start over or just move on to something else.

[phoenicorn]

great improvement from the first page. would be nice to see some perspective studies from you. You got some real nice works here

[vineris]

Thanks for the replies, all!

@Mr. Ebony: Thanks for pointing that out! Lighting is still quite difficult for me. I'll try your suggestion out when I'm done with my current projects.

@blogmatix: I didn't really like pen & ink much when I started either -- that lack of erasing thing is so irritating! I stuck with it because pencil smears and I got tired of opening my sketchbook to find that everything had become a big graphite blob. Over time I grew to really like it. Even if you're not sure about it you might give it the occasional go just to change things up a bit.

@Flashback: Thanks! I'll have to check the broken files, I think it has something to do with the CA update.

@Greenhouse: Thank you! Have fun in your sketching class!

@Kambei Shimada: Have fun on your trip and don't box so much that you can't draw!

@Istmin52: Yeah, I've found that listening to your gut is often the best thing. Half the time I already know what I ought to have done, but I don't do it and then I mentally kick myself when everyone points it out in critique. Your pic has potential, if I were you I'd do a few thumbnails from different camera angles and emphasizing different things and get some opinions on those. If you end up with a thumbnail you like, try redoing the pic. If not, leave it for later.

Thanks for the crit on the heads. I noticed myself doing it again in the most recent life drawing session, I'm really going to have to watch that. The perils of drawing kids all the time, I guess.

@phoenicorn: Thanks! I'm getting some perspective practice in right now, doing some comic panels. Although I probably won't be able to post them until the project is done.

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Random sketches:



Latest children's illustration:

[syrella]

Cool stuff! I especially like your more cartoony works. By the looks of it, you are doing all of the right things. I think if you just keep at it, you'll see some good improvement.

As for the use of color, I think the main problem is just your palette choice, even more than the lighting.

Do you choose colors before you begin and make swatches? Similarly, it is a good exercise to work from the primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and see if you can't mix all of the others. When it goes to actually use the colors, make sure that they are "related" to each other some how. For example, try using all warm colors or all cool colors. Similarly, most colors, save perhaps for complete opposites on the color wheel have some primary color in common. Use that knowledge and it should help a lot. Study color theory.

Also, check out this tutorial:
http://cpresti.deviantart.com/art/Un...rial-290073389

Best of luck!

[Amarok]

As far as your worries about colour go, I actually think that thinking a little bit more about values can help you with some of your colour problems! I turned some of your cartoony finished works into greyscale and noticed that a lot of the time your figures are basically the same values as their surroundings, and you're relying solely on your linework to maintain their silhouettes. I've been doing a lot of master studies recently and have noticed that almost all of the time in them, the shapes/figures very clearly pop out from the background thanks to close control of values. Maybe before you even think about what colors you're going to use, ask yourself: is this going to be a dark figure against a lighter background or a light figure against a darker background? When you just have a light-on-light or dark-on-dark figure, it's a lot muddier and harder to maintain a focal point and a sense of atmosphere

[wutangclam]

WHoa! hello fellow albertan! love your illustrations!