Walent's sketchbook

[walent]

[The Lama]

These are awesome man, love the texture studies you did of the alligator :)

[walent]

These are awesome man, love the texture studies you did of the alligator :)

Hey, thanks! It's a croc though, alligators have a wider snout.

[walent]

I'm watching a lot of TED talks lately, mainly about creativity and idea generating.
I'm really having a big issues with coming up with something interesting to draw.
And I'm not referring to the subject as in "draw some vikings fighting a bear" but to the actual composition and scenery, what's going on, where they are, how many, what is each doing, poses and so on and on.

Some seem to be talking about that state you're in just before you fall asleep, called Hypnagogia, and about the Dali's drop-the-key method. Gotta research more.
Others mention the importance of getting creative help from an imaginary "muse". That way, if the work is bad, it's not entirely your fault, the "muse" wasn't good enough that day. It seem like in ancient times, people considered artists to get divine help for their ideas and everything seemed fine, until one day the artists started taking full credit for their works and then this thing happened when they started wondering "what if my work isn't good enough?" Again, something to research further.

A few days ago I was on a hangout with Amit and even though I was really getting sleepy, yawning a lot, I felt I could get ideas down. I couldn't recreate that state after that.

Yesterday I worked myself pretty hard doing sketches and studies and finishing some commissions and today I was absolutely finished. I didn't even had the strength to start drawing, not to mention coming up with ideas.
And I noticed this: one day I'm getting amazing results, my linework is perfect, everything looks amazing, I handle the brushes very well, pen pressure is like my second nature and then, the other day BOOM, everything is gone. It's like I have to start all over again, reach that comfort again. And sometimes, like today, I look at some pictures that usually inspire me and make me want to draw, but instead they feel so complex that I know I'm gonna fail big time. My brain is "oh there's no reason to even start, this is totally gonna fail".
It's so frustrating, it's like I haven't drawn in 6 months and it feels like I forgot everything and I can't even hold the pen properly, but I only took a 10 hour break for the night. It's absolutely weird and I can't get why it's happening.

Talking about why things happen, I remember this story, something that happened to me a while ago.
A friend of mine invited me to his theater play, he was playing in it for the first time and I really wanted to go. But, as usual, I left a bit late, the location wasn't too far, but I had to take the bus and there's usually some waiting involved. But oh well, I got to the station and I sat on a bench waiting. And waiting and waiting. And then 10 minutes before the play, the bus came, the right bus actually. So I said "ok, I can still make it"
It was a 10 min ride and some 2-3 minutes walking.
But guess what, after a few stations, the bus suddenly broke down. I couldn't believe it. I was really furious, I felt like fate is against me that day. Luckily I was close to the next station so I went there to wait for another bus. After a short while another bus came, of course not the right bus, that meant I had to walk one station, or better said, run. Which I did. And of course I got there 10 minutes late and I was just picturing myself explaining to the lady at the tickets why I am late and how bad I wanna go see my friend play.


But when I got there, they weren't even allowing people to get tickets yet. That happened after another 15 minutes. The play started 30 minutes later than scheduled.
And there I was, looking like an idiot, wondering why is fate so cruel after the bus episode, not actually knowing that I could've taken my sweet time to get there.

I wanna think that every episode in our lives is meant to mean something or at least teach us something. Still trying to figure out what I should take from that story, other than fate has a sense of humor...

[Artloader]

Walent man your sketchbook is a huge inspiration to me - I love the way you render - indicating the contours of the form. Can't wait to see more.

And the way I see it - you were meant to see that play!

[walent]

Thanks, Artloader! I appreciate it!

Not much stuff lately, I've had a bad time. Took a week off from the computer, so I couldn't do any digital, but played around with pen and pencil.
Trying to regularly go to figure drawing sessions.
Working on my portraits, because I decided I'm gonna master this shit once and for all, which I still find difficult to approach, it's incredible. So there's not much else other than failed portraits and working on commissions in between.

Also trying to get the patience to do some still life because I believe it could solve a lot of my lay-in and planning problems
Renewed my subscription to NMA, but I can't really see any new interesting videos... nothing from Steve in months.
I'm gonna go re-watch his head drawing videos.

[roguesleipnir]

I really like the way you do lines. And the sketches are inspiring.
Seems very refined/professional to me. Do you go to art school?

[Piotr Jasielski]

I really like the way you do lines. And the sketches are inspiring.
Seems very refined/professional to me. Do you go to art school?

No he's way above the level of art school when it comes to figure drawing.

[walent]

I really like the way you do lines. And the sketches are inspiring.
Seems very refined/professional to me. Do you go to art school?

Thanks!
Piotr is flattering me, but yeah, I didn't go to any decent art school, everything I know I've caught from other artists, Gumroads and online tutorials.
A style that I can call my own was developed over time. I wanted to be free from being influenced by one artist and doing whatever studios want from me, so I mostly spent a lot of time studying on my own and doing freelance.
Plus, the only art university I have in my city is a joke.

Here's more head drawing from today, re-watched some older videos from Steve Huston
A few of the heads are quite nice, but most are still junk
I'm thinking I'll spend one more week on this stuff

[Intakt]

damn! wow ! i love your lines you made it look so simpel ahhhhh wtf beautiful sketchbook!!!

[Slapper]

I could fap to that.

[walent]

Thanks guys!

Been focusing so much on figures lately, but today I realized something.
I don't know if this is a momentary thing and I'll forget about it when I'll wake up tomorrow, but it does feels real right now.
I've always liked anatomy, but when I was young I was scared of drawing people because I thought they were so damn hard to draw. So later on, I found out that facing your fears is a good thing, so I went for it, studied hard and got to a point where I can do a decent job on figures.

So now what? I feel the need to create / design something but I can't seem to be able to create anything anatomy related. Nothing that could feel like it belongs to me anyway. I can do a lot of characters, I mean I'm doing them for commissions and even if recently I've been able to deliver very decent work, I still can't keep myself motivated.


I even decided I'm gonna join a character challenge on FB and I managed to get an amazing portrait.
And I feel that's it, that's mine, but now that I really think about it, it might just be the style, the linework, the accents, values, forms and not necessarily the subject.




Then I thought about how much I love shapes, and how amazing it feels when I see an interesting shadow shape outside. Even the shapes of the buildings around my city, they're just killing me, I absolutely love them and I don't know what to do with them.
Every time I try something, perspective gets terribly hard and I find it impossible to just construct complex structures.
I can't possibly have a different set of vanishing points for almost every structure I have (since I wanna place them at different angles) that will take ages to construct.

Same thing for shadows. Of course I can cheat a bit and modify some angles to get the shadow shapes I want, but still there's a lot of work involved. Technical stuff, that I really hate.


So I though using 3d would be the best substitute for manually constructing perspective and shadows.
But I kinda get demotivated when it comes to learning a 3d program, they're very technical, again.

The only program I've been successful with is SketchUp, but maybe because it's so basic, so I can't do complex stuff with it (at least not that I know of) like placing artificial light sources.


So today I tried it again with a 1 minute 3d layout, basically just some boxes. Painted over in PS and my mind was immediately flooded with all these ideas and I got the feeling that I was there, in the painting and watching those structures and imagining all these elements that I've seen over and over around the city I live in. I didn't even get to pulling out references.
So I guess it's just the fact that I spend a lot of time around interesting buildings and I get influenced.
Point is, when I paint those things I'm not in this world anymore, and damn, that's exactly the feeling I'm looking for.





I decided I'm gonna spend 1 full day studying the figure like I did so far but this time I have to finish my character for the challenge, and also another full day on perspective, shapes, creating an interesting structure, building it in 3d and creating a finished piece.
At the end of those, I should be able to decide which is going to be my main focus.

Either way, I'm never gonna quit drawing figures, since I'm having too much fun.

[Slapper]

You might need to expand your visual library if I understand you correctly. Watching movies, video games walk-through and listening to audio-books (I listen to the warhammer 40k horus heresy books myself, they're pretty descriptive.) all in the goal of checking for cool designs and then combine them as your own. Just my 2 cents!

[Intakt]

love the update :)
Since your are so good at constructions and you work is so based on these constructions you might wanna try some abstract methods to come up with more or other ideas. I mean i`m far away from your lvl so i`m really not in the position to give you any advice.... but i read some articels and alot of artists have the same problems. SO they used abstraktions to come up with ideas . Look at the artbook "the skillful huntsman" it really desicribe the process also jama talked about abstract methods alot. there is also a gnomon dvd about orginallity in design or so with this process.

sorry for my english and keep posting
i love your art!!

[walent]

You might need to expand your visual library if I understand you correctly. Watching movies, video games walk-through and listening to audio-books (I listen to the warhammer 40k horus heresy books myself, they're pretty descriptive.) all in the goal of checking for cool designs and then combine them as your own. Just my 2 cents!

Yes, that might be one of my issues, I'm trying to do that every day.

love the update :)
Since your are so good at constructions and you work is so based on these constructions you might wanna try some abstract methods to come up with more or other ideas. I mean i`m far away from your lvl so i`m really not in the position to give you any advice.... but i read some articels and alot of artists have the same problems. SO they used abstraktions to come up with ideas . Look at the artbook "the skillful huntsman" it really desicribe the process also jama talked about abstract methods alot. there is also a gnomon dvd about orginallity in design or so with this process.

sorry for my english and keep posting
i love your art!!

Thanks!
I tried it a few times, sometimes it works, but most of the times I end up pushing paint around and not getting anything interesting. But I'll check those resources and try again, thanks for the tips!


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I don't know if it's about comfort zone, but I absolutely hate everything that's technical. 3d is not for me. I even tried building stuff using matches and toothpicks. Turned out I need a really well made plan and cutting tools and something to measure and oh well... no. I really enjoy organic, uneven things, asymmetry, where if you get a line a bit too far to the left, no one would notice, where you don't need measuring, construction tools and you can just let go and have fun.

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I'm slowly transitioning from heads to hands. Today I just realized how much practice I need with hands.
I'm also trying to push sketches to a more refined/finished stage.

A couple of days ago I just remembered something from my childhood. Since I was trying to figure out what I liked drawing as a kid, I guess my subconscious mind was continuously searching for that answer and I finally got something.
I remember how my dad brought a new artwork done by a local artist, and how the moment I saw it, I just went and grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil and started drawing it. I remember this pretty clearly, I was amazed. It was a drawing of a man with a stag head, anthropomorphic. But the features were so in between human and animal that it just gave it an original look.
Then I though, hey, I remember how much fun I had painting those crocodile men, maybe that's a thing for me.
So I decided I would challenge myself to do 100 anthro creature concept sketches. That way I can work on a lot of stuff at once, portraits, posing, anatomy, hands and maybe even some design.

I'm pretty sure it's gonna be impossible to do 1 a day, but hopefully I can get 1 every 2 days.
Started with a Sun Bear:

[Hozure]

Heyo walent, I have to say I absolutely love how there's so much mark variety going on in each sheet of your studies/sketches (those years of figuring out your workflow are really evident!). I also find your comments to be relatively insightful. It's strangely relieving to hear that you still constantly struggle with challenges despite coming as far as you have.

While I don't have much to offer, I would like to ask: How would you rate Huston's NMA videos or compared to other human figure/anatomy sources? I was considering it, but if he's as amazing as you make him to be (and I don't doubt it, don't get me wrong), I might shift some priorities. Thanks and look forward to seeing more!

[walent]

Hey Hozure,

Steve has a structural approach, same as Vilppu. That helps a lot if you're looking to learn how to paint stuff from memory or use as little as possible from your reference. While it's nothing wrong with using/copying your own reference, you might find situations where you just can't find the right one or you might want to change the pose a bit, and this is where all this structural knowledge comes into play.
I would say Steve and Vilppu are the most influential teachers I had the chance to learn from.

NMA is subscription based, so you'll have to pay 29$/month, it's not like you're taking one of his workshops where you could pay hundreds of dollars. So I suggest getting one month, look at all the videos you want and see for yourself.
I keep coming back to rewatch old videos because I get new knowledge every time.
You can also find sample videos on their youtube channel and even some older lectures from Steve.
Here's a 3h video on head drawing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T7cDY7YDsg
It should help you get an idea.

[walent]

Not much stuff lately, I've been trying to focus on finished work, including commissions.
My anthro project is going really slow, I can't finish stuff, struggling with poses but I haven't lost interest yet.

I’m starting to put in whole hours in my work
Trying to be conscious about the lay-in, shape design, rhythm and all the beautiful energy that builds up at the early stage
But the more I spend on a painting, the easier it is to overwork and ruin it. It’s so easy to add a little bit here, a little bit there and suddenly, without even noticing, you lost all your initial shapes and you have a big blob that makes no sense.
So from time to time, when I realized I screwed up, I just consciously try to bring up the initial shapes again, over the rendered piece.
I keep getting parts in my painting that I really love, and they’re not always part of my rational mind, but more like intuitive decisions.

[Artloader]

I never get tired of seeing your sketches mate. Your lines are so expressive and I love the way you find the shadow shapes with lines and then block them in.

By the way I watched a couple of your Gumroads and it's had a big impact on the way I study. I take my time more now and as a result am enjoying it more: ). Thanks for sharing.

Looking forward to more dude!

[walent]

By the way I watched a couple of your Gumroads and it's had a big impact on the way I study.  I take my time more now and as a result am enjoying it more: ).  Thanks for sharing.

Hey, thanks, I'm really glad to hear that.
The shadow outlining thing is more or less the Riley method, you might wanna check that if you find it useful.

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I feel so close to my goal of reaching a finished stage in my work. I need to keep practicing poses, that's what's killing me right now.
I'm starting to have fun studying designs and I feel pretty satisfied with my portraits, finally. Time to move on to hands.