Kjesta's Excellent Art & Animation Adventures

[dierat]

Ooo, sketching animals on your lunchbreak, that sounds pretty righteous. About the fabric, what I usually do is tack or tape up one or two corners of the cloth to the wall or a nearby piece of furniture. That way you can get some more interesting folds and shapes and it also illustrates how the fabric reacts to tension points and such.

[Kjesta]

I wanted to work either at a zoo or a protection station so I can sketch the animals and I'm very happy - there's a wide variety of animals. We have an owl, turtles, rabbits, birds, chickens, donkeys, chinchillas, fish, bees, goats, toads, lizards, sheep and aurochs, that'll give me something to do!

Anyway, I'll keep your advice on the fabric in mind. I'm a bit afraid to shift the set-up around now, but maybe I can still do something, I'm not that far yet.

[Steveland]

Love your sketchbook - I can see the improvements with each and every post.

[Kjesta]

Steveland, thanks for that! I've been a bit depressed because I feel like I haven't made any progress within the last years but maybe it looks better from the outside?

Not much new... I did small paintings for the two teachers at the kindergarten group where I was an auxiliary teacher for three weeks. Nothing special, just 15cm², but they were very happy. Sadly, the purple of the aardvark one doesn't photograph well

And I made myself work a little more on the still life. I'm really tired but didn't want to do nothing, so I muddled my way along... I know, it still needs lots of work.

[dennis.k]

Nice SB. Your animal sketches are not bad actually. Always pay attention to the proportions. Use the head as Unit of measurement. I personaly think this even works for animals.
Good job so far. I can see you improving.

[JeffX99]

Hi Kjesta!

I assume you want my honest opinion? Straight up? No sugar? OK...I think you're doing fine, completely on the right track with the right amount of experimenting balanced with drawing from life, imagination and book study. The horse skull planes studies are outstanding. Try the same thing with your giraffe mask still life - simplify it and define the major planes.

So yeah, you're off to a great start, if I had one bit of advice it would be just to do more, but maybe you're already at maximum for a healthy life anyway. I would consider getting started somewhere in a good school for visual art and design. You're already ahead of the game in many respects so just keep it up!

[Kjesta]

dennis.k, thanks for that. I'm currently trying to wrap my head around sight-size measuring with my thumb and/or pencil, slowly getting there - I'll nail those proportions yet!

JeffX99, I'll take my critique like my tea - no sugar ever That said, it goes down like something sweet anyway, I was expecting something much harsher. It's great to hear I'm not as stuck as I've been feeling lately.
That said, I do want to apply for an art school next year, which is the Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark, the character animation programme. I also draw a lot more than I show here. Sadly, I find that it takes a lot of time to take photos, resize them with GIMP, then upload them here with all that copyright stuff; takes me ages to select all those drop-down menus for every picture. So I rather spend time drawing or something rather than fighting my way through that... Ahem.
I'll rework the giraffe picture with your advice in mind. To not take other people's credit, though, the horse skull was merely copied out of a book by Gottfried Bammes I just noticed that I didn't mention that in the post.

I'll use this post and the next to dump some of the things I've done since June or so... Lots of animal sketches from life, some of them upside down because I have a habit of turning my sketchbooks around. Also an attempt at working on my storytelling (for applying to art school), an ink sketch of a My Little Pony G3 figure, a quick watercolour that never got finished because a storm ruined our plants... Nothing exciting there.

[Kjesta]

Part Two...

Looking at the stuff up there I realise I'm really happy with those ballpoint sketches of the plants. Did them spontaneously on the way to work. I think I'll have to do more in that vein, it's fun!

And I think I've discovered the joys of comics. I mean, I've liked comics for a long while, having grown up with Sailor Moon and Spirou, but I'm starting to get into superheroes like Batman too. If only I had the money to buy them!

[Rotor]

Hi SSG buddy.
Your animal sketches look good so far, they have nice solid construction.
just keep on working, you're doing good.

[Velocity Kendall]

youre going about things exactly right, drawing and finding beauty in things around you, photos, anything. thats the way!!

[Kjesta]

Rotor, thanks for having a look! I'm slowly getting there with the animals, drawing them from life is really teaching me a lot.

Velocity Kendall, that's such a nice thing to say I'm really into all that "find beauty in the small things" zen kind of thinking, so your saying that means a lot.

Here's a small update. Nothing terribly exciting, I'm trying to wrap my head around perspective and such. Also abandoned the giraffe still life for now; I noticed that with my limited experience in working with colour it wasn't the best idea to try something that's delicately airbrushed and makes seeing the shadows harder... I'll do something easier and then get back to the mask later.

Note to self: get into the habit of finishing things. Can't remember the last time I've produced a really finished piece.

Edit: Okay, that kind of didn't work. I'll post the rest of the pictures later.

[Kjesta]

Okay, let's try this again!

My first two days at work are over, btw, and it's quite hard physical work but very satisfying and interesting. There's so many beautiful and interesting things and animals at the environmental protection station, all these tiny nooks and crannies where some object of interest or cool plant is stuffed. I've done a bit of sketching already (which I'll show later) and there's definitely more to come! I just hope that I won't always spontaneously fall asleep after work like today... Have to do more drawing at home yet.

Fun fact: looking up at my earlier sketches of the animals I can now actually identify at least one of them by the drawing

Oh, and I bought a bunch (as in, 120 dollars' worth) of the downloads on sale. Good stuff! Downloading right now!

[Kjesta]

Been skimping on drawing a little because, um, I've been a lovesick idiot? Work kicked my ass, too. Anyhoo, here we go.

Chickens, turtle, people on the way to work, donkeys, colleague with donkey (messed up the proportions, I know), figures from http://www.pixelovely.com/... It's been ages since I've done figure studies and they really suck. Need to do more. My cross-hatching is all over the place too.

Also, the guy with the donkey is probably going to be turned into a finished painting, birthday present

Need to study more hands, feet, heads. And perspective/enviros.

[Rotor]

Good studies.
If something looks out of place or odd when studying the human form, just think of the muscles and bone underneath and how they would function in that specific pose.
Keep it up.

[Odayga]

Really like your cartoons and development!! I'm liking the improvement from the first to last page! keep on going girl!

[GoGoJojo]

Those animals sketches are gorgeous, I love them! Are all of them done from life? And I can see your work with comics is paying off, your figures are very dynamic!

[Kjesta]

Rotor, thanks, I'll keep it in mind I do miss life-drawing because it made the understanding much easier but well, pictures will have to do for now.

Odayga, thanks so much! I still feel stuck a lot so someone saying that I've made progress is a treat

GoGoJoJo, around 90% of the animal sketches on here are done from life. I love drawing animals from life! It's hard but really great fun.

Haven't posted in a while but I swear I've been drawing anyway. I'll have to take photos of my other drawings tomorrow when there's daylight again. In this batch there's a bit of progress on a painting of a co-worker with his favourite donkey, and a small dog sketch that landed me my first real comission Woohoo! And 48€ isn't too bad for the first time.

[littlebones]

I don't have much in the way of advice, but your improvement in just three pages is inspiring to this pseudo-beginner. Your imaginative little characters are mega cute.

[Strato]

Hello,

I see some Pixelovely going on here. I should suggest that you should focus on shapes and volumes in addition to contours on your gestures. It'll help you start to snap things into proportion a bit better, and you'll be getting more of the complete picture.

Happy drawing

[Kjesta]

littlebones, you make me blush over here Thanks for that. I'll have a look at your SB sometime soon too! (Soon as I've finally had some sleep...)

Strato, thank you, that advice was just what I needed. I've noticed that I tend to rely way too much on contours rather than constructing the underlying shapes - time to whip out the Loomis again, I think.

More updates soon, for now here's the finished picture I did of a co-worker with his favourite donkey for his birthday. He was quite happy It's acrylics on watercolour paper. I was a bit short on time so I couldn't fix everything I wanted to (such as his skin and shirt) but I'm dairly happy with the donkey. The skin didn't photograph very well either.

[Rotor]

Hiya!
The painting looks good so far. Just something to consider, make sure to really block the forms and values in good before moving too close into detail. The animal sketches look good.

[Kjesta]

Rotor, thanks for that! I've been trying my hand at acrylics for a short while now and what you say it very true; I really need to pay more attention to the basic shapes before going into detail. (The donkey picture was kind of rushed towards the end, running out of time, but it's something I need to work on in general.)

Haven't posted in a while but I've been busy anyways! Here's some of the stuff I've been doing of late. The wooden something is part of a game called "viking chess" - I'd been at a seminar and one of the free time activities was building such a game. I couldn't resist and spent two hours painting the king piece Very proud of the "oh shit I'm going to be hit in the face with a stick" feel to his face. I'm proud of the hand studies and my self-portrait is alright... Working on it. The rooster thing is for a sign at the entrance to the environmental station I work at.

On the gestures; I know they're shitty... Right now I'm working my way through Marshall Vandruff's "Anatomy for Artists" and already I'm improving! So once I do more gestures, they're going to be better-constructed for sure.

[Kjesta]

Some more of the stuff I've been doing lately, split into two posts.

There's a pretty big portion of it that I won't post, which is the pages and pages of notes and sketches I've taken from Marshall Vandruff's "Anatomy for Artists" - I figured people should pay for it if they want it, it's pure gold.

Otherwise have a portrait of my boss's dog, anatomy, a bit of amateurish dabbling in comicking, my very first own superheroine (The Drape, she was stung by a radioactive sewing pin from outerspace) and me buckling down to do some perspective practise outside. Tough but fun. And some really bad sketchy fanart featuring Wiccan/Billy of the Young Avengers, I'm sort of obsessed with that comic right now.

[Kjesta]

And the rest of it... For now.

[Kjesta]

Been working on the comic page some more, still trying to figure out the layout. If anyone's interested in helping out, do so in here or here.

[strange purple]

really great progress from page 1 to page 3...keep going!

[Kjesta]

strange purple, thanks for that! I'm glad I've made some visible progress

Here's some more anatomy studies, a few sketches of the new piglet we have at work, and tackling my nemesis: facial expressions and acting AKA "the thousand faces of Billy Kaplan". Plus some drapery practice.

[jorvaa]

You're doing so many good studies. I love the last few drawings of the young man in different poses - and the hands!

[TFsean]

Very nice SB, perspective studies, anatomy studies, different mediums and different styles, you're doing everything right to become a better artist keep at it, one thing though although you probably are, when you are doing these studies dont just think study = getting better. When doing studies really think about why things are how they are and spend some time and try and use those studies to improve your rendering, nice sharp directional strokes.
Looking forward to more

[Kjesta]

jorvaa, thank you! It was a challenge keeping him looking the same while giving him different expressions, my year-long anime-obsession "only one face EVER" habit really has to go. I'm pleased with how it turned out!

TFsean, thanks dude You actually hit the nail on the head, I need to enjoy the process more. Drawing was a chore for a while but now that I'm back to drawing daily, I'm really happy with it again. Work is more fun than fun!

Here's some more doodle-y figure stuff, some quick sketches from life, and an abysmal attempt at colour. Oh dear. I'll have to try still-lives more often, might open a thread in the Fine Arts section specifically for perspective, colour, light and so on. I really need to work on those!