DrPetter's sketch blog

Pretending to paint

2011-05-30T14:38:00.001-07:00

I figured that I need to work on my painting a bit, see if I can loosen up and not worry too much about immediate details and flaws. Rather being on top and drawing through the mess on paper/screen, towards what I want regardless of what is currently there.

Anyway, these are obviously not paintings - yet. I noticed that, by focusing on the purpose of painting over them later, my sketches became more effortless and easier to work on. Since they are not the final result, it doesn't really matter how they turn out, as long as it's a useful base for painting. So it's not a drawing meant to be pretty, but rather visual notes for me to use at a later stage. As a side-effect though, they can in fact also be pretty. I need to make sure the character and expression shine through as strongly as possible, at the same time as pointing out all the important features and shaded regions/transitions/borders. Basically getting a framework onto which I can attach strokes of color later, but also having a simplified overview of what the end result should be. It's sometimes easier to visualize the key elements of a picture from a simplified drawing, compared to looking at a reference photo directly.

Hopefully following this post will be one with the finished paintings.

50 more faces

2010-05-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

This time from reference. See previous post for further explanation.

For viewing reference images, I set up my iPod on a hacked-together stand made from cardboard and tape. It works quite well. Drawing from reference is fun, but I look forward to the next page of free sketches. Let's see if I learned something.

50 faces

2010-05-05T06:54:00.000-07:00

I recently went through my whole collection of old sketches from the last four years, and noticed that I've deviated somewhat from my original goal of learning to draw good stuff without reference. Over the last two years I've increasingly drawn from photos, and it's been a long time since I really tried to do anything "free". As a result, I tend to still struggle with those things.

To remedy this, I've decided to do more of it. Starting with this page of 50 faces drawn without reference. I scribbled 50 circles over the paper and then drew an improvised face/head on each one. Most of them took 2-3 minutes.

The process and results were actually better than I had feared. It was kind of fun, and not too difficult. My plan is to do another page of 50 faces from reference grabbed out of a video clip, featuring the same person from different angles. After that I'll try another page of 50 from my head, attempting to get some of that person's character/look into the sketches.

As a fun comparison, here are a few similar head sketches that I found from almost exactly four years ago. While I still haven't mastered the human head, I think it's safe to say that I've at least improved considerably.

Hughes and photos

2010-02-14T17:00:00.001-08:00

Dug up a few old Adam Hughes sketches and drew from some of them. Also worked through a couple of photos I found. Particularly fond of the bottom-right woman.

Force it

2010-02-13T15:15:00.001-08:00

Animation

Random stuff today, of course. Was initially inspired by an image of some Mojo (not ppg) 3D model, but quickly detoured into very unrelated stuff. The bottom-left head was done most recently, and I added a little 2-step animation of that since it started out pretty bad, yet I was confident that I could salvage it. Click the link to see it. Line quality is terrible as usual, and the scale is really tiny.

Slow start

2010-02-12T14:44:00.000-08:00

I haven't been completely out in the drawing department lately, but evidently the blog hasn't seen much action. The last two months have been busy with code, but I'm trying to ramp up sketching a little bit. Currently I'm mostly doing a few scribbles just before bed every night. At least it's something.

These are two from yesterday. Just the old random female head, side view. No reference, and some agony with non-erasable lines (a couple of which I've actually erased after digitizing the image, yay for computers).

One problem I have with this view is that I consistently mess up the size proportion between head and torso. Whenever I go down beyond the shoulders, I end up with a torso that's ludicrously small. Not sure why, but I don't really have any solid experience and "inner reference" there, so I will probably have to find and draw a bunch of photos.

Contrast

2009-11-15T16:05:00.000-08:00

This is what tends to put me off from drawing. Depending on my mood, the time of day, and any number of obscure planetary alignments, I can draw either reasonably good stuff or completely crappy things, often right next to each other and in the same session (though crappy stuff tends to breed more crappy stuff out of frustration).
Greens are "good", red is bad. Actually the green ones have technical flaws in themselves, especially the top one, but they carry some kind of "life" which makes me happy with them, and I know there was a clear feeling while making them that I could see where I was going and knew what to do. By contrast, the red face was a struggle all the way, and it's evident that I pressed down hard on the pencil in frustration to try and correct mistakes without really thinking about where I went.
It's almost entirely a mental struggle with attitude, patience and temper. That's what makes it so difficult - I know that I already possess the skills to draw at a certain level (proven by results), but it's only accessible to me when I can relax and go about it in an inspired and loose manner.
Confidence is what I lack, premature self-criticism what I have in abundance.

Semirelatedly, one thing that I've noticed is the benefit of a quick glance at reference photography before starting to draw, even if the reference isn't referred back to during the rest of the drawing. Getting an initial "seed" of reality and direction can fuel the sketch even if most of the refinement is done from imagination alone, and it's almost certainly more focused and educational to spend all your time looking carefully at your drawing rather than to go back and forth between it and some pedestaled reference that reminds you of how inaccurate your copy is.

I need to draw more and think less. It is the truth.

newgrounds

2009-10-18T15:41:00.001-07:00

Found the music section of newgrounds. Lots of cool stuff there. Listened to some while sketching this, again in cherrybrush. This is a crop, since it started out as a face and the rest turned out kind of random. I like her gaze. No reference.

Random big-eyed woman + wine glass

2009-10-18T10:26:00.001-07:00

Arbitrary female face drawn in cherrybrush, grew into a half-figure (which obviously means the pose is stiff and boring). 100% cherrybrush means no selections or transformations, so I spent some time repainting stuff to fix proportions until I got bored/blind. Her whole head should probably be a bit smaller in relation to the body. Eyes are definitely too huge, but I didn't want to redraw them (again).
I'm actually sort of happy with how it looks if you zoom in to a crop just around the face. I had big problems with the mouth and nose though, and I don't feel like I could comfortably shade/paint those areas fully. Maybe I should attempt that next time.
No reference used, of course. Wouldn't have been such a struggle otherwise.

Mint space chick

2009-10-15T11:30:00.001-07:00

I set aside most of today for drawing, but ended up outside running multiple errands and inside doing other stuff. Spent maybe two hours drawing, tops.
I think I'm having some trouble bringing myself to just draw random practice stuff right now. Feels like I ought to try doing something more sensible, like posing and finishing off a drawing or painting rather than just copying photos for no particular reason. When I'm working on a "piece", I can easily go on for hours without stopping, but when I do random meaningless stuff I lose focus after just 15 minutes and start looking for a way out. It's fun while actually drawing, but as soon as one sketch nears its rough completion I have no desire to start another.

This one here is the last I did today - it was a head loosely based on an image I found, which I drew quickly and lightly. Decided I wouldn't risk ruining it by going over it with darker lines and more definition. Made the "mistake" of trying to add a body which went all kinds of bad places. Eventually salvaged it (more or less) and added a gun and colors to distract the viewer from spotting bad anatomy. Actually tricking her out with a suit and accessories was fun. It reminded me of a short period I had a few years ago when I drew cheesy old-school sci-fi women. I might take that up again, make a little series.

White bodysuit

2009-10-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

...with a curious black dot sewn into the stomach area.
I spent the longest time today not really wanting to start sketching for some reason... millions of reasons why I had to do this or that first, and wasn't feeling up to it. Then I forced myself to grab a pencil and hammer one out before I went to play some games, and it ended up being pretty enjoyable. Go figure - you have to actually try before you can tell if it'll be uncomfortable or not.

Sketch week

2009-10-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

Drawing has been taking a back seat while I was working on my latest flash game. It is done now though, and I've decided to make sketching my main focus this week. We'll see how ambitious I end up being - so far it's going slow but I'm happy with the results.
These were drawn from various reference found online.

Reachess

2009-09-28T14:37:00.001-07:00

Sketched for a couple of minutes in CherryBrush, just something random. I've been working on a game for the last week and haven't really had much drawing practice besides game graphics. Will hopefully finish the game in a couple of days and then get back to doing some painting.

Coil

2009-09-20T14:41:00.001-07:00

Just a couple of random sketches today. After doing a few, I noticed a trend in dynamic poses that there's often a curve or line of tension reaching through the body like a wound spring or coil, waiting to be released when the action is performed (be it a running step or a kick/punch etc). It probably has something to do with building up leverage in the opposite end of the body, in the form of mass that can drive and balance the motion to deliver maximum force in whatever is the key element (fist or foot for instance).

I imagine that a football player arches backwards, extending his abdominal muscles and moving the arm opposite his kicking leg back, before moments later compressing all his frontal muscles leading to an opposing contraction of the body, with the leg being thrust forward forcefully and balanced by the arm and upper torso bending forward at the same time.

Seen like that, most such "coil" action seems to happen diagonally through the body, across an arm and a leg. It makes for nice poses anyway (not really put to use in the larger sketches on this page, as they were drawn before I thought of this).
You have to play the action back and forth in your head to figure out what should happen before and after the imaged moment and thereby how the figure should be posed to appear most sensible. It's no doubt a healthy mental exercise, and stick figures are quick and painless to draw so I guess this should be a more common element in my sketch routine...

Definitely not a sketch

2009-09-01T18:51:00.001-07:00

Well, it started with a sketch, or several actually. The first image shows all the preliminary sketching that took place before I scanned and started painting.
Watch the digital process on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDkyqQ2uVHQ

Elvgren stuff 2

2009-08-29T13:47:00.001-07:00

Some more from the book. Actually I'm still in the first section of it where his influences are presented, along with pictures drawn and painted by other artists. None of these images represent Elvgren's own work.
I'm particularly happy with the little boy in the bottom right pouring water. I was really in the zone while sketching out his chubby little arms and hands, making them very organic and believable, imho. I almost ruined them by trying to go over some parts one more time, but forced myself to leave most of it alone in the early rough state.

Elvgren stuff 1

2009-08-29T13:30:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, I got a great book on the life and work of Gil Elvgren. A few days ago I set out on a crazy path to drawing every single picture from that book, including various historical photos and whatever else came up. Mainly though it's full of amazing women stylized and exaggerated just enough to make them look "super perfect" (in the words of K.R.)

I'm not trying to be 100% accurate with everything here, just using the images as inspiration and guide for what to draw. Sometimes I attempt to match the exact lines seen in the original, while at other times I draw something very different that's just based on the same angle or scene shown in the book, or a particular detail thereof (like a face or a piece of cloth).

So far I'm having a lot of fun with it. I'm not worrying about completing the whole book, I'll just keep going for as long as it feels worthwhile. The whole point of course is to learn, and to be influenced by some of the best art I've seen.

Bar

2009-08-21T12:17:00.001-07:00

Photo reference, but used loosely. Just before this I had made another one of the same model (Bar Rafaeli) which turned out horrible and was a struggle. With this one I constructed the head on my own, just glancing at the picture from time to time. I didn't go crazy with getting angles and lines to match up on my version, I just tried to make it look good and natural. There are a few wonks (forehead, ear, near shoulder) but I'm very pleased with it. Critically, it was also fun and "easy" to draw. Listened to great music while making it, might have helped.

Hairy heads

2009-08-03T08:00:00.001-07:00

Kind of boring, but I thought they turned out relatively nice.

All in one

2009-08-03T07:55:00.000-07:00

Several quick efforts from different days all on the same page, and another inside shot of the same car. Both were done while I sat waiting for other people to buy food.

Scenery stuff

2009-08-03T07:52:00.001-07:00

Tiny framed scenery drawings. They're fun. Your pencil strokes become so much wider at this scale, almost like using a brush.

Various females

2009-06-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

Most from reference, done over the last week or so.

I bought a neat book recently, containing sketches and preliminary roughs by Frank Frazetta. There's some inspiring material in there, but it's not really suitable for use as straight reference since it's all scribbly and stuff. However, I also ordered another art book today which has tons of old-school pinup paintings by Gil Elvgren. I expect to do a lot of studies from that one, some of which will undoubtedly end up here.

Scribbly figures

2009-06-30T11:26:00.001-07:00

Sat out in the shade one day and drew some 16 pages (tiny A5). Most of it was crap, but I had a random flash of inspiration where I made a bunch of small loose figures with very little definition to them. Some had discernible legs and/or arms, while others were more like a vague draped figure. I didn't really know where I was going with them, but it was fun and some ended up rather dynamic.
The two lingerie-clad women are from a different session with photo reference.

Alison

2009-06-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

Actually I didn't have any intention of uploading this when I started it, but I did - so happy bonus sketch or something. Most of it was nice and relaxed, but I ended up noodling a little bit too much around the chin as I wasn't happy with it. Also the shirt/vest is very confused.

Reference from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3Zm6gA1IcI

Some faces

2009-06-10T07:51:00.001-07:00

Got inspired by this little video and decided to do a few random heads. Attempted to go rather loose with most of them, with varying degrees of success. I mainly like the right-most ones, and the ape at the bottom.

Ride gets bumpy

2009-06-07T02:46:00.000-07:00

I will probably be missing days here and there from now on. Going up to stay with my folks for a few weeks, vacation-style. I'll likely draw a bunch but I might do so at my leisure and just upload "the good stuff" every other day or so.

iSpecs

2009-06-05T17:12:00.000-07:00

Gotta gear up the cool when summer comes around... These are not for seein', they're for bein' seen in!

Face of light

2009-06-04T18:27:00.000-07:00

I was going to draw something out of Bridgman again, but couldn't feel the buzz. I fancied a face instead, and did this one without reference or anything. Started with the bridge of the nose. Kind of angled back a bit... I really like it though. The weird lines at the top are parts of another sketch, disregard them.

Jill

2009-06-03T17:40:00.001-07:00

Quick and simple portrait reference. Could use a bit more poof in her hair, but otherwise ok.

Bridgman studies 2

2009-06-02T18:32:00.001-07:00

Some quick hands, don'tchaknow? Loosely referenced from Bridgman again.

Troll from above

2009-06-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

...but mostly random stuff. I'm tired, again.

Bridgman studies 1

2009-05-31T17:22:00.001-07:00

This is my new sketchbook shown on top of the book I used for (very loose) reference. Bridgman's figures are all very dynamic and lively, while not going crazy with realistic proportion and detail everywhere. It's refreshing to be inspired by his lines from time to time.

Liz B

2009-05-30T17:56:00.001-07:00

I actually cheated a tiny bit on this one. Corrected one eye in photoshop after digitizing it.
This is the last sketch in my current book, off to start a new one tomorrow - yay.

Reference: ebanks_GL_19dec08_pa_bt.jpg

Face again

2009-05-29T18:02:00.000-07:00

Same routine as yesterday. Got some glare on the picture. Was about to go terrible early on, but I salvaged most of it (still some smudge left around her mouth and jaw that won't erase). Couldn't get her gaze properly fixed on the observer - tricky part, especially when drawing on this scale. Still looks ok that she's glancing off to one side though... I think mine ended up looking more "western" and "traditional" than the reference.

Reference: http://www.bartcop.com/barbara-stoyanoff-08.jpg

Face on neck

2009-05-28T17:34:00.000-07:00

She's a little bit crooked. Expression is completely off, but I didn't even try getting a likeness. I just used the photo as a loose crutch to make some kind of "typical female face".
There are a million things I could adjust in Photoshop, but I won't... I'll just make a few mental notes for next time - vertical eye symmetry, longer nose / less upper lip, jaw symmetry (watch angles). Whoops, mental notes slipped into text. Her head is actually rotated to picture left, which can be seen by looking at the neck. So the picture right side of her jaw/cheek should be wider than her left, not the other way around. An uninitiated observer immediately notices this (though possibly on a subconscious level), but it's very hard to see and fix while drawing. Honestly though, I didn't even think of the neck hint when I drew it. Could be useful in future attempts.
Reference: http://www.bartcop.com/barbara-stoyanoff-01.jpg

Cheshire girl?

2009-05-27T16:57:00.000-07:00

Very quick, from reference. Actually I tend to like this approach better than the "opposite" where I start blocking in facial outlines first... it's so hard to enclose something that's not there yet. Building a face from the "inside" is easier. Eyes turned out crazy large, now that I look at it again. Or rather, the nose/mouth parts ended up smaller than intended. I started with the eyes.

Random figures

2009-05-26T17:38:00.000-07:00

Very nearly forgot to sketch something before heading to bed. Ended up doing some boring figure scribbles inspired by the last few days of pose reference. I wasn't very "into it" though, very tired. Will have a more serious go later. I like the kind of male back view seen on the right - there's something satisfying in blocking out the whole back ribcage/scapula region with just a few lines.

Posemaniacs 4

2009-05-25T17:03:00.000-07:00

Let's keep doing this for a while... No effort or imagination required. 30 sec/pose, once again with my modified randomizer app, which I've concluded only works on my computer for some reason. I might port it to javascript or something for better compatibility.
I can feel myself getting a bit looser and more comfortable with these quick figures, which is great. They should probably be coupled with some more careful study though, as I find myself wondering about some specifics now and again, only to have the reference image disappear before I can really figure it out.

Posemaniacs 3

2009-05-24T16:14:00.000-07:00

More, 45 seconds this time. I got a bit fed up with the weird poses that would sometimes show up on the official randomizer, so I wrote my own that only selects from a few hundred "normal" poses and angles.
You can try it here (but do as the instructions say and download the swf).

Posemaniacs 2

2009-05-23T10:15:00.000-07:00

Some more of this.

Posemaniacs 1

2009-05-22T15:58:00.001-07:00

30 seconds per figure. Really neat way of sketching. Try it @ posemaniacs.com

Male rear ... head

2009-05-21T16:38:00.001-07:00

Simple little thing. No reference, sort of winging it. Worked out rather well I think. I don't think I've really studied ears from this angle, took a few tries to get something plausible.

He-Man recollection

2009-05-20T15:51:00.001-07:00

Re-did the He-Man pic from a few weeks back, without reference. Comparing the two was interesting - most obviously I completely forgot about the shoes, but the overall pose and body shape is also much less dynamic and interesting... sort of falling back towards a stereotypical "anatomical" front view and smoothed-out shapes. Not very surprising, but clearly illustrated by this.
I think I'm going to try this kind of thing some more, since it wasn't particularly daunting to just go ahead and repeat stuff I had moderately clear in my memory - I didn't have to try anything "new".
I'll have to focus more on trying to "jazz up" my pose and shapes though, to avoid boring averageness. Refreshing a bit on anatomy for inspiration wouldn't hurt either. It's much easier to go wild with design and shape when you feel the confidence of knowing where everything should go (through reference or experience/knowledge).

Susan P

2009-05-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

Kind of ok. Not awesome likeness but she looks cute enough. Like many others, this one started off very bad and I wasn't sure if it was worth continuing with it (actually I should have taken a snapshot at this stage). I kept tweaking and adjusting though, and eventually it sorted itself out somewhat. Not the ideal way of working, surely.
I find some comfort in the fact that I can "salvage" an early sketch even if it's looking rather bleak. It should mean that I don't have to accept poor results as long as I stay patient and don't ruin the thing by making lines too heavy to erase early on.

Reference: http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/susanpleshette300,0.jpg

Macaque

2009-05-18T17:19:00.001-07:00

I thought I was going to have more time for sketching today than I ended up having... so it's a late-night weak effort once again. The expression on this guy's face ended up even more insane than the original, I think.
Reference: http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l144/Ferry_Lee18/Snow_Macaque.jpg

Face again

2009-05-17T15:23:00.001-07:00

Similar story as yesterday's. This time I left the "warmup" until right before bed though...
Had more confidence with this one, didn't need to do any major corrections. Jaw is a bit arbitrary, I think I improvised a bit there instead of following my reference by the numbers. I like her fluffy hair.

Elizabeth Taylor

2009-05-16T13:19:00.000-07:00

This was actually just meant as a warm-up done earlier today before embarking on some more elaborate sketching and studies, but I ended up spending more time than anticipated on this and then I sort of didn't draw any more all day ;)

The image actually started out rather terrible, with eyes way too big among other things. I hadn't done a referenced female portrait for weeks, so there was definitely some rustiness going on. Managed to salvage the whole thing rather well imho, and I experienced a relatively rare sense of... "sensing" the face/shapes/image in general after working for maybe 20 minutes. I think it's partly from spending all that time and attention on the same thing, but also from actually trying to work in shades more than I usually do.
Trying to shade surfaces is obviously more intimate than just drawing outlines. That, and the time aspect, made me kind of "zoom in" gradually - at first the nose was just a vague scribble, but towards the end I was very aware of all the angles and shapes going on there, working very carefully to refine some parts of the nostrils.

Likeness and accuracy towards the reference isn't great. Mainly her real face is sort of longer. I started refinement and detail work without really REALLY leaning back and going over the whole thing multiple times to iron out all the proportions. At first I was actually just going to do a quick study of the eyes and brows.

Reference here: http://www.dn.se/dnbok/recension-allan-klynne-kleopatra-liv-och-legend-1.867231

Scraps

2009-05-15T15:55:00.001-07:00

Look closely. This is what tends to happen when I really really don't know what to draw. The woman doesn't actually count since I drew her yesterday... The swirly blobby shapes constitute "raw flow" of hand sans head. Perhaps some day I'll be able to make something useful out of them.

Blob says Bleck

2009-05-14T17:48:00.001-07:00

Blecki got this idea for a sketch event - we'd each draw a random blob, then hand it over to the other person for him to draw something within that contour. After a few seconds of blank stare I saw this and then I couldn't get it out of my head even if I tried.

Lineless take 2

2009-05-13T15:16:00.001-07:00

It's a cat looking at a flower. No lines used for anything, just drawing the shade directly. Also no reference. I like it.

Lineless

2009-05-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

Blecki suggested that I do some value sketching without lines. This was doubtlessly not what he had in mind, but I left it for too late and had to rush something out before bed... Reincheck on that one.

Somewhat simplified anatomy

2009-05-11T15:59:00.000-07:00

I was going to do a quick proposal for a simplified anatomical figure/framework, shaving off needless details and isolating characteristic keypoints. Main inspiration was my memory of what Loomis used for figure frames (which kind of looked like awesome Doom monsters). I more or less failed with this one though, ending up with a rather traditional layout which is a lot more fleshed-out than I had intended, and less suited for quick pose sketches. I'll try again tomorrow, perhaps digging out some Loomis stuff for closer study.

Arms

2009-05-10T12:58:00.001-07:00

Trying to remind myself of the curviness and flow of human limbs. It's all too easy to just fall into the habit of doing random blobs or tubes vaguely based on some anatomical masses, without paying attention to overall coherence and "elegance". It's a lot easier to pull a focused and dynamic-looking pose if you have some natural curves to work with.

Biker

2009-05-09T17:18:00.000-07:00

Racer style. Rear view. Do you see it? Late night drowsy scribble. I had no idea what it would be until I had already drawn half.

Constructing some heads

2009-05-08T16:44:00.000-07:00

The topic of methodical head construction came up earlier today. Figured I might as well do some of that. I can't say it went very well... Started with some basic layouts for side and front view, then a reasonably successful 3D attempt (upper right). The next one after that (below) was really weird though - it started out pretty nice as a seen-from-below view, but the more I worked on it the more I gradually changed it into a level view... No doubt because that's what I'm used to drawing, and my eyes kept telling me that various details should approach that template to look good. I think I need to simplify this a lot more, and draw a very crude sphere+cylinder with a few lines on it before I start considering it as being a head. Weird perspective issues are best handled with an abstract model, while making it look like a natural face is something better left for later when all the keypoints have been established beyond doubt... Tricky.

He-Man

2009-05-07T16:29:00.001-07:00

Quick and dirty again, but with some reference to help me along. It's the title pose and pretty much the only image of him that's easily found everywhere. I intended to spend more time trying out different poses and angles to work on the anatomy, but as usual I left things until way too late when I was dead tired, so there's only this one for now. Legs are kind of disproportionately large, but I like how it looks. This guy isn't meant to carry any kind of earthly physique.

Random figures

2009-05-06T14:46:00.000-07:00

Not particularly inspired today. Starting to feel that I should practise constructing human bodies in 3D. One idea I had was to learn some specific superhero costume/figure and draw that one from memory in various angles. I sort of scribbled something resembling He-Man there, but needs more effort and reference to be useful. The main thing I often have trouble with is connecting upper torso and pelvis/legs. The stomach and lower spine are very flexible gizmos.

Grumpy face

2009-05-05T13:46:00.001-07:00

Sketched a lot of stuff today, but not much worth showing. I'll choose this one as it's kind of fun and not my usual kind of thing.

Female profile, again

2009-05-04T15:23:00.000-07:00

No reference. Getting closer to what I want. Mouth area is still a bit too rough and large, not particularly feminine. Reasonably good considering the long pause since my previous attempt though (more than a week).

Not from around here

2009-05-03T13:32:00.000-07:00

Visited an H. R. Giger exhibition. Saw the original creature stunt suit and prosthetic/close-up head from the Alien set. They were severely dried up and cracked from old age but it was all very cool stuff. This sketch is a loose "inspired by" thing using no particular reference other than a random pic of the mouth area for basic shapes.

Airliner

2009-04-30T08:07:00.001-07:00

Quickie today. I'm leaving for Germany on one of those tomorrow. Will be back on sunday. I'll compensate for the lost sketch days.

Killing off some tabs

2009-04-29T17:22:00.001-07:00

I have this bad(?) habit of leaving lots of Firefox tabs open with random reference images that I find and would like to draw "at some point". Today I found myself with nearly 40 of them so I figured I'd better work my way through some. The initial idea was to spend very little time on each and kind of rush through, but I knew I wouldn't be able to... With faces I just have to spend the extra time to tweak stuff around until it looks - well, better than it would if I rushed it. Ended up with around 10 minutes on each I guess. The top-center girl is hideous, messed up from early scratchy rush combined with lines too hard to erase. I'm relatively pleased with the rest though, being as sketchy as they are.
There are some more tabs open with cars and stuff. Perhaps I'll be able to "quick-sketch" them to a greater degree than the human subjects. I will give it a go tomorrow.

Bat revenge

2009-04-28T15:13:00.001-07:00

I looked up some bat wing reference and it helped me figure enough out to draw that little 3D fellow without further aid. Their anatomy is very similar to humans, and the wing is basically their hand. One site said that flying for them is like swimming through air, which is a neat way of putting it. Makes it possible to imagine all kinds of dynamic poses based on experience with your own hands. Fun stuff.
I also tried a new female side shot from reference to see if I could spot some immediate differences compared to what I did on my own yesterday. Measured proportions are pretty much equal, but the end result is very different indeed. Mainly it's the size and shape of individual components more than their relative placement, I think... I should definitely do a round of reference-free-reference-free back and forth of the same angle to figure out what's going on.

Less random

2009-04-27T18:33:00.001-07:00

...as in fewer instances of random. Still no particular inspiration or effort. I've drawn a million pages like this. Every bit of repetition does its own little part I suppose, but I'm still not happy with the look or consistency of my "generic female faces", so I probably need to do more focused studies than just sporadic free attempts and the occasional referenced angle that may or may not correspond to what I'm trying to grasp. Repeated fail is still fail.
I also scribbled some thoughts/queries regarding bat wings. I need to look up their anatomy once and for all, for those situations where you really want to fart out some kind of flying monster.

Randomized

2009-04-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

Yeah... nothing sensible. Heads in profile are always fun though, can't go wrong with those.

New ambition

2009-04-26T11:49:00.000-07:00

I guess it's not "inanimate objects" anymore. I'll leave it at "anything I please" until further notice. Will probably do a period of "non-referenced people" at some point, since that's one of my ultimate goals with this drawing thing, and I don't try it often enough.

Toon time!

2009-04-25T18:09:00.001-07:00

Have had some light discussion regarding cartoon/comic stylization and how I typically never attempt such. Figured I might as well. Went better than I had thought. Not too creepy.

Ellipses

2009-04-24T16:53:00.000-07:00

More boring stuff today. Sorry. Trying to get a better feel for ellipses and tilted circles. Once again the main purpose is to draw better wheels and rims. I will probably do another one of these focusing more on differently sized cylinders layered inside each other.

Wheel studies etc

2009-04-23T17:26:00.000-07:00

Not much of a "real" sketch tonight. Mainly did some thinking on wheel/rim construction to help me when drawing cars. They're mostly a set of layered cylinders, but spokes can be kind of confusing at times, bending through the depth axis of the wheel. Drawing on a slightly larger-than-thumbnail scale would no doubt help here...
Also, some weird concepts of frog creatures crept in on the same page.

Bathroom

2009-04-22T17:52:00.001-07:00

Yeah. Was going to draw my shower drain cover, but dang it was more full of holes than I remembered. The initial sketch here doesn't even show nearly enough lines to hint at their number. It was like 8x8 intersecting plastic circles acting like a grid. Yuk. Drew the floor scraper instead. Turned out nice except for the fact that I wasn't paying attention initially and thus crapped the perspective/proportions a little bit.

Lamborghini

2009-04-21T16:26:00.001-07:00

It's terrible. I've made better before, and I'll make better ones in the future. This one is all twisted and scratchy. I had no patience at all. Too tired perhaps. Don't look at the wheels.

Telephone

2009-04-20T16:02:00.001-07:00

Nobody says "telephone" anymore. Maybe the remote nature of communication is implied, and the only interesting part is that you're talking about audio? Not extremely happy with the sketch, it turned out kind of chubby and odd. Some lines were entertaining. Referenced from physical object.

Spoon

2009-04-19T20:59:00.001-07:00

It's a spoon. I'm tired.

Rough Tesla

2009-04-18T16:37:00.000-07:00

Someone requested sketchier sketches. I try to please. This one was kind of fun to draw, although I messed up the wheels again. Should have refrained from filling in shade. Also the whole thing looks rather skewed when seeing it small-scale. Very quick process, maybe 10 minutes total, with all the general shapes done in the first minute.

Morgan roadster

2009-04-17T15:15:00.000-07:00

Was off to a rocky start with this one, had some proportions way off. Managed to correct most of it, but wheels are still a bit all over the place - as is symmetry in some areas. Fairly ok though.

Pressure helmet

2009-04-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

Some neat helmet from mid-last century. Either british or german, not entirely sure. Looks cute at any rate.

Coca-Cola

2009-04-15T13:51:00.001-07:00

Some typographical exercise. Hopefully recognizable. Had to adjust the circle to fit snugly around the text after it was done, and that might have been the hardest thing. Very tough to isolate the roundness when there's a huge asymmetrical object in the middle throwing off your judgement.

Roman architecture

2009-04-14T15:49:00.001-07:00

Some 17th century roman structures, drawn off an image in a book of mine. Attention to detail is rather uneven, as was my patience. As a result, parts got kind of wonky. Old buildings are fun to draw though.

X360

2009-04-13T16:06:00.001-07:00

Something less complicated today. Again from life. Was kind of tricky to fit all the details in, I probably squished it a bit. You should be able to see what it's meant to be though.

Tree

2009-04-12T09:50:00.000-07:00

Biked out to a relatively remote piece of woodland (as remote as you can get in such an urban area as this) and sat myself on a rock to draw this here tree. It was horridly difficult, and the result is terrible, but the whole experience was fun. Weather was really nice and I even ran into some wildlife, as can be seen in the image. There were also little birds in another tree right above me eating some nuts or seeds, dropping stuff onto my paper (fortunately neither wet, sticky nor smelly).

Shoe

2009-04-11T14:03:00.000-07:00

I was going to draw both shoes but ended up spending so much time on this one that doing it all over again for the other seemed like a bore.

On another note, I realized that categorizing trees as "inanimate objects" might have been a questionable thing... but after checking some dictionaries it seems that the word "inanimate" is sometimes used to differentiate between moving animal-like objects and stationary ones without any obvious signs of life (with plants given as an explicit example of this). I will let it slide. Perhaps we'll see a tree tomorrow?

Ambition

2009-04-10T16:28:00.000-07:00

Will try to make daily sketch posts here on the topic of 'inanimate objects'. Stuff like buildings, trees, lamps and computer mice. Starting tomorrow, of course ;)