Vapour's sketchbook

[vapour]

Hi and welcome to my sketchbook. I am Vapour and I live in Germany. I recently started to be a bit more serious about drawing and plan to visit an Illustration School either spring 2011 or if I manage to get good enough to be accepted autumn 2010.

I should have started this Sketchbook a long time ago so I just gonna dump my stuff from the last couple of months so you can (hopefully) see some progres.

Crits are always much welcome.

[vapour]

More stuff all from 2010 from here on

reposted to fix the attachments

[vapour]

recent stuff

[vapour]

This mermaid is part of a fountain in my town featuring two huge centaurs fighting over a fish. I decided to start with the mermaid to avoid getting overwhelmed by the centaurs which will be pretty challenging.

Just the Mermaid alone took me about 4-5 hours. I am so damn slow. Hopefully the life figure drawing i intend to start next week will help with getting faster.

I used to draw way too much from imagination not learning much. A week ago I started visiting a zoological museum with lots o stuffed animals to draw. I really like it there and am about to make it a habbit to spend my weekend afternoons there drawing.

If anybody knows why my second post's attachments are still shown as links and how i can ix this please notify me.

[love tank]

Dude great sketchbook so far. The mermaid is commin out pretty sweet, can't wait to see the centaurs with it. I really need to start working on some shading and tonal values like you have, my stuff is mostly line work.

But yea, love that robot thing (the first pic), and your eye studies too. I'm getting ready to do some in depth eye studies myself, right now I'm trying to figure out exactly how the eye sits in the eye socket... when you break it down, the entire eye is actually kinda complicated.

[vapour]

Yay Love Tank i just very very recently started to go into tonal with using the side of the pencil and it feels like I took a step forward when i did so. After all Loomis basicly tells us to use the side of the pencil to render and not the point.
I am afraid you will have to wait a bit longer for the full shot of the fountain. I am still very intimidated by those centaurs. They are huge they are in tight manhorse on manhorse action and there is even a fish invoved. Real oldschool epic stuff right there! Basicly it kinda looks like this:




So I did the merman instead for now. I ended up rushing it at the end because I have been really cold owards the end and just wanted to get into somewhere warm and drink something hot. It shall remind me to never use only one pencil. With the mermaid I used F HB B 2B 3B and 6B the merman I think i used only HB and B and now the the values are all middle tones.
I dont want to go back and finish the rendering though I rather want to do him again from scratch and hopefully also do a better job on the basic construction.




random sketch while waiting at the station

[love tank]

yea manhorse on manhorse action is the worst! But the results are always sexy.

Can't wait to see what it all looks like put together.

[vapour]

I had my first nude figure life drawing session yesterday. I've got to say: Wow that stuff is tough. After the three hours of desperately trying to hit at least some proportions sometimes and to see and dscribe the planes or at least the areas of light shadow and halftone I did feel tired and kind of exhausted.

The results are pretty humbling. I am planing to attend to this stuff on a regular basis from now on since there are two sessions every week for only 4€ each and another more expensive one for 8€. Hopefully I learn fast.

[vapour]

Random sketches from imagination I did instead of more helpfull studies. At least no-ref stuff like this funktions as a huge flashing arrow pointing to where learning is needed the most.
I need to study hands and feet for real.

[vapour]

I intended to post tonight's nude life drawing session's results here.

Only that the model was missing in action, so one of the students volunteered to stand for us. She would wear top and shorts though.
I would not actually feel comfortable to pose nude myself so fair is fair the cloth tended to get in the way of the anatomy though not making things necessarily easier. Given the fact that I am still struggeling with basic stuff like proportions though I wont complain. There was still more then enough challenge for me

Behold tonight's "The clothed nude figure" life drawing

[vapour]

Pictures of session 4 will be following in the next post.

[vapour]

I really enjoyed yesterday's life drawing. Had a feeling of improving in the better moments of the session that made me grin like a madman during the drawing. Definately had more flow in the drawing of some lines then the sessions before.

I am really looking forward to tomorrows life drawing.

[Kfeeras]

great lifedrawings, keep that up! its important to draw from life as much as possible, not only akt but real everyday life like people from coffeeshops, from the bahn and stuff that lives on your desk.

also look at many different anatomy books to find out which you like best. i for one sont really like hogarth, I'm more the Vilppu Guy ;-) he also has GREAT Videos!

where are you from?


cheers,

-a

[Sumisoul]

I love how you really show a focus.
Looks like you and I have a common problem as well. A lack of Line economy.
More contour drawings should help you build a trust and confidence with your lines.
It's just a suggestion ^_^ I like the bulk of work you have already.

[vapour]

Half a year went over like a breeze and boy a lot of stuff happened in the time. Managed to finish 2 sketchbooks and am in the middel of the next one. Started to learn new medias.
And got accepted by the art school I applied at and now study there since mid august. Life is good.

Thanks for the comments you made while I was absent.

Kfeeras: Yeah tanks. Untill the day I got accepted i went to akt drawing sessions up to 3 tmes every week. Unfortunately I cant do this anymore now. At the time of those sessions I am now either in school where they won't let me draw the nude model yet or at work financing my school.
But at least I study the hell out of the skeleton we use for anatomy classes in the evening after classes.

I started to study Gottfried Bammes and really love his "Die Gestalt des Menschen"

Bleakheart:

Thanks a lot. You got me there with the line economy. I guess I will have to do some studies aimed at this to improve faster in this field.


I guess I will just post my latest finished Sketchbook and keep going again from there.

[vapour]

[vapour]

[vapour]

[vapour]

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[vapour]

[ZombieGrub]

Hey there!

Great to see so much stuff. You look like you're really enjoying your pieces, since you're taking the time to render them (unlike me, who enjoys them and then quickly hates them). Keep pushing out those finished drawings, as well as sketches. Good atmosphere with the watercolor, as well.

Now, for the critique. For your portraits, you're not giving the space needed for the back of the head. I see it improving with every new drawing, but now the problem is keeping the perspective correct for the back of head in relation to the face. Some of your faces have a lopsided back. Try drawing a box around the head to constrain yourself, and keep practicing those portraits.

Your studies, I believe, are coming from Burne Hogarth, which he's great, in my opinion. However, I'm a little worried you're focusing too much on recreating his art, rather than learning and applying it to your own. I say that only because it is so greatly rendered, but unless you're trying to learn how he renders his stuff, it's not really necessary. Shading is nice to find the forms of the body, but really ask yourself what you're trying to learn from each study. Anatomy? Form? Movement? His style? And instead of drawing what he does, take each form you've learned and apply it to something of your own. Additionally, don't rely too much on Hogarth - his stuff is amazing, but it is highly stylized. Grab a medical textbook if you're really interested in anatomy.

Your life drawings are great, especially for a beginner. You're not focusing too heavily on the outline, which is good, and you're not settling on straight lines. Keep finding those curves and the structure underneath, and you'll be set.

[vapour]

Hey there!

Great to see so much stuff. You look like you're really enjoying your pieces, since you're taking the time to render them (unlike me, who enjoys them and then quickly hates them). Keep pushing out those finished drawings, as well as sketches. Good atmosphere with the watercolor, as well.

Now, for the critique. For your portraits, you're not giving the space needed for the back of the head. I see it improving with every new drawing, but now the problem is keeping the perspective correct for the back of head in relation to the face. Some of your faces have a lopsided back. Try drawing a box around the head to constrain yourself, and keep practicing those portraits.

Your studies, I believe, are coming from Burne Hogarth, which he's great, in my opinion. However, I'm a little worried you're focusing too much on recreating his art, rather than learning and applying it to your own. I say that only because it is so greatly rendered, but unless you're trying to learn how he renders his stuff, it's not really necessary. Shading is nice to find the forms of the body, but really ask yourself what you're trying to learn from each study. Anatomy? Form? Movement? His style? And instead of drawing what he does, take each form you've learned and apply it to something of your own. Additionally, don't rely too much on Hogarth - his stuff is amazing, but it is highly stylized. Grab a medical textbook if you're really interested in anatomy.

Your life drawings are great, especially for a beginner. You're not focusing too heavily on the outline, which is good, and you're not settling on straight lines. Keep finding those curves and the structure underneath, and you'll be set.

Thanks a bunch for the nice words and critique. I have a very nice love/hate relationship with my drawings with emotions ranging from sheer joy to utter
loathing.

Agree on those heads. I need to understand them as a spartial object more. Hopefully studying the planes of the head will help a bit with that.

I abandoned Hogarth a while ago. Initially I planned to copy his whole book and decoraty my walls with the drawings.
And with whole book I mean Dynamic Figure Drawing, Dynamic Anatomy, Drawing the Human Head, Drawing Dynamic HAnds, Drawing Wrinkles and Drapery, Dynamic Light and shape - all together in one book. Fortunatly I stumbeled over the Hogarth discussion on CA before I did even a dozen pages and after reading the topic decided to avoid Hogarth.
I study Bammes now. Great stuff.

[vapour]

My current Sketchbook. Format is DIN A4. I dislike the paper. It feels too soft and has not enough tooth for my liking. Can't wait to fill it up and be done with the thing. Only another 43 pages to go. Cheers

[vapour]

[weashell]

nice study tempo amigo! imo u should check few master drawings and maybe trace their values and line. master copies = win at those phases

[vapour]

Weashell: Thanks but unfortunately my real tempo is not as fast as it seems to be at the moment. I am just catching up with where I am in my sketchbook currently. Usually I dont get to do more then 10 - 24 pages done in a week given that I only draw in it on the train and at work.
Doing some master copy drawings would be fun to do again. I have got this Waterhouse book waiting for me on my bookshelf. So much to do, so little time

[vapour]