andofryn's sketchbook

[andofryn]

Hey all,

Been wanting to take drawing and illustration seriously for a while now but somehow life or "safer paths" always came in between. The urge of wanting to draw and paint and express myself then slowly always fades away until suddenly it comes back again at full-strength. This has been going on for a few years now, one thing is for sure though: no matter what happens or how much time passes, the urge to draw always comes back. So I figured I should try to stop always getting distracted by other things and throw absolutely everything I have at this dream to see how far I can get with this!

In this sketchbook I will try to regularly post most of the stuff I produce. The goal is to do a combination of studies and random sketches from imagination as well as (hopefully D: ) some more finished work every now and then.

Let's all grow and get better at this together! :)


Some sketchbook pages from imagination







A couple of thumbnails




Glamdalf







Studied a piece of ginger from life:




Giving inktober a go:




A digital drawing from reference:

[andofryn]

Time for an update!

These are some random sketches from my sketchbook(s)














Cats hardly sit still!





People from a cafe:





Both from photo ref:








I started going to life drawing sessions, these are the results of two sessions I went to so far.. Loads of stuff to improve, I find it hard to work smaller, I always reach the end of the paper too soon, and I always get absorbed in detail way too early. Also haven't figured out yet how to shade big areas in a quick way. I should do some anatomy theory studies and figure out a process to put down forms/planes accurately!



















I went to Berlin last week for a work-related conference and was lucky enough to have my visit overlap with a 'drink and draw Berlin' meetup. A big shoutout to the organisers and everyone who attended the event, I had loads of fun and it was incredibly humbling being around such an awesome bunch of people. If you're ever around in Berlin keep an eye out on their facebook page and don't hesitate to go!








Some quick sketch on the iPad:





One of the people I met in Berlin was the amazing Igson and she let me have a look through her gouache sketchbook. I was blown away by it and was instantly inspired to give gouache a try as well. Last Friday I did some shopping and today I did my very first 'gouache in the wild'! Of course it was a massive failure, I encountered loads of obstacles, first of all my inability to paint anything, second the medium and third my freezing hands. I haven't figured out how to properly blend the colours or work in an organised way yet. On top of everything it started raining which meant I had to give up and go home. Once I was home I tried to fix a few things with colour pencils but that didn't help too much. Definitely loads of fun to try out though!

[Artloader]

Nice start to your sketchbook Andofryn!

Your guoache came out looking really nice - I like the sense of form around the tree trunks.

I think you're right about giving the art thing a try if you keep on finding yourself being drawn back to it. And you've come to the right corner of cyberspace to do it - this place will turn you into an art tyrannosaur!

If you're interested in figure drawing you should check out Proko's YouTube channel if you haven't already.

Personally I am studying from Proko and Michael Hampton's Figure Drawing Design and Invention and I can recommend both as being great resources.

Good luck with your journey mate - keep posting!

[andofryn]

@Artloader Thanks for your kind words and the recommendation, I'll give them a go sometime soon!

So life was happening again pulling my focus away from sketching and so on. I feel like I'm at a crossroads in my life where I have to make conscious life decisions to continue pursuing my current career path or focus on art. While I didn't make any decision that goes against my current career path (which is in a completely unrelated industry) I would say that with the decision I made so far I have put my career on hold (i.e. stay where I'm at now) so that I can focus more on drawing and painting.

This also means I haven't been drawing lots in the last few weeks as a lot of time was spent worrying and thinking. I had good momentum going previously with drawing every single day but I lost it.
I found this video posted on Reddit and it kicked my butt though when I saw it yesterday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5RH3BdXDOY :)

Anyway, moving forwards! (Hopefully D:)


I have posted very little digital stuff so far, that's actually because in my previous update I had completely forgotten about the still lives and so on! So here they are:

This is actually copied from bumskee's digital painting tutorial, to sort of go through the process he describes and try to understand what he's talking about:




A cactus fruit from life trying to apply what I've learned from copying Bumskee




This is a very quick colour study I did some time ago




What I want to do in the end of course is digital illustration. But I found that I wasn't actually doing what I wanted to do, most of my time drawing I spent doing studies or random pencil sketches. While of course studies are important I think it's important to also do the thing I want to do, otherwise I might become a very boring person and will forget why I actually wanted to do this in the first place. So I did a few small thumbnails for some ideas I had floating in my head:







Some vanderpoel studies on how the pelvis and ribcage are constructed and how they attach to the spine and shoulders. Some of these are copies, some of them are from imagination, some are from photo ref.



















Life drawing:





































Some random sketchbook pages either from imagination or from sitting in a cafe sketching some people there

























This is an attempt at sketching a coffee machine :/




Some hogarth studies, again some of these are copies, others are from imagination, I'm sure you can tell which is which :)



















I started a new sketchbook for times when my brain is too tired to think (i.e. early in the morning, just before going to bed, or after a rough day at work). So I don't really care much about what I put in here, I want to draw but I don't want to think. So most of the times I just start putting down some random lines and go from there. Cool thing with this is that it's hard to be disappointed if you have zero expectations anyway.
















Thanks for having a look!

[andofryn]

This update is loooooong overdue. So decided to throw the stuff I had lying around on the floor and take photos of it. So here you go and have a great day!

Also: I'll try updating more often.. :D

[andofryn]

from ref:


Some more loomis practising:



Warmup:


Trying to learn some digital painting. I feel slightly bad saying this crap took me 4 hours! But I guess time doesn't matter, need to do it more!