Sketchbook & Progess Log - The journey is the reward!

[Cyprinus]

Thank you for your kind words, Lyraina! I'm already feeling better bit by bit, adjusting takes of course time and some days are worse, but it's going up.

It's good you bring that "studies are not about something pretty" back to my mind! Somehow I tend to forget that or I fear that it looks sloppy. I get so darn impatient sometimes though, like "why does it take me more than 2 hours? I need time to study other things, too". Maybe you know that feeling, too?

Thanks for your feedback about the chair pic! I thought that the seating looked kind of strange and off. Another friend said that the perspective looks kind of extreme, or better put, unusual? Like we don't usually see a chair from that perspective??! I can't actually believe I'm struggling over such a simple issue. But I've always had problems with perspective and above all, where to exactly put the vanishing point and horizon to make the perspective look natural. I need to do more studies and reread about the topic. I sometimes wonder if it's because I've trouble with 3D view. My oculist said my ability to view 3D is working fine but it's a bit of slow. That shouldn't really affect my 2D pictures though. I put the picture on my to-do-list for this week to have a look at it again.

Last week was fairly unproductive, because I was tortured by dental problems, which got worse after I went to the dentist. I've got another appointment tomorrow morning though and I hope this time it'll help XD Besides the stuff I'm posting I also did a little gift painting for a friend, but it's secret until I give it to her.

Some digital studies, rather quick, doing these mainly to learn about colour.







I swear I have no idea bout architecture stuff, haha. X_X



I still go to lifedrawing every week! Last week we had a pregnant model, which was an interesting change.

Stuff from imagination:



It's been a while I did something digitial from imagination. Right as I'm posting this it looks like his left eye should be moved down a little bit.

And scans from my sketchbook. I started sketching more often again. I feel like I'm not moving forward a lot atm, like I'm stuck. I need to move outside my comfort zone more and more, even if it will look like crap in the beginning.

[Archreux]

Hey, really awesome updates! Seriously, these sketchbook drawings, line quality, and style are just so, so good. Great paintings, too. I like the second study of the lady on the beach, and the character portrait.

I agree with Lyraina, the chair looks fine. What seems to be missing is a line to designate the ground plane, that way the chair has another point we can relate its perspective to.

Good to know you've been feeling better, and keep up the cool work! :D

[Cyprinus]

@Archreux: Thank you so much, glad you like them! I hope I won't disappoint in the future, as I want to try getting a bit looser with my sketches to overcome my perfectionism >_<
Thanks as well for the feedback on the chair piece. I didn't get back to it as planned this week but hopefully I'll have a look at it next week again. Sometimes I feel just like "mreh, this is old, don't wanna go back to it", but I really want to figure out what might help this picture so that I can do better next time.

So, what happened last week? Not much because my dental problems lasted trough out the week, although I went to the dentist. Basically it's wisdom teeth stuff and in June hopefully I'll have an appointment with a specialist to discuss their removal. The problem for me is the gum and inflammation, BUT it looks like I found a solution for my acute trouble, and today I'm already feeling much much better than the rest of the week together so I'm being optimistic! I swear I hate having stuff around the head i.e. teeth or eye because it distracts me so much and disturbs my concentration. I tried to watch some tutorial videos though, so hopefully I'll remember a thing or two.

So here's some stuff I did:



Study from my ref book I once had the insane idea to make a study of every single pose in the book. Maybe I should take that up XD





During the week I did a little digital doodle of my OC and there were so many parts of the face I really struggled with, above all the nose, so I did some studies today to have a look at it closer. It actually worked and I had an aha! experience about a misconception I held about the plane between the eyebrows. I have to say that the aha! experience really really fueled my motivation for studying again. Although in the end I didn't really manage to put it to good use in my application orz



On the left the original version, right is the version I did after I did the studies. It's still not 100% but I'll go back to this one until it's at least decent to look at. I think at least the tip of the nose is a lot better. Also, I have yet to find a style of semi-realism that kind of fits me and that I like...next thing I'll have a look at is probably the mouth. Right now I also see a ton of other things...going to fix them with the next installment.



I wanted to take part in crimson revolver challenge this week, but my wisdom teeth said NO ):
I had so many ideas and thoughts for the character but I didn't manage to do more than this very rough and initial sketch here. When I did this I also thought: What are proportions?

I'm trying a new method to understand my messed up time management better and see where my hours mysteriously disappear as well. I hope it will end up with me being more productive, also because there's a convention in 2 weeks where I'll have a booth...

[Jaik]

THere are some really nice pieces coming through here and your improvement is great. I feel you with the productivity thing. Even when I work for a full day I still feel like I dont do as much work as I am supposed to.

I think you could benefit with a lot of perspective and architecture study. Just sort of backwards engineer some pictures and draw a bunch of cubes in space (boring I know) but they will help every aspect of your drawing and you will definitely see some improvement.

Goodluck with the convention!

[Nowio]

Beautiful update <3

[Lyraina]

Ah man, your character art is SO good… both paintings and sketches! Don’t worry about disappointing people when you are more loose with sketching or reducing time, we’re all here to learn right? :)
One method to get over perfectionism might be this: Dedicate some time just for this, i.e. 30 or 60 minutes in the morning (or whatever fits your schedule), take some cheap paper and a pencil or maybe even a pen. Then draw, either just from imagination, or from reference, that’s really up for you… but focus on speed, not making it pretty. Pen helps because you can’t erase anyway…
Do these sketches in the mindset that you’ll throw these pages away afterwards without showing anyone - if some turn out nice, you can still scan and keep them, but that’s not the goal. The goal is learning and studying without worrying what the result looks like. Another thing to do is timed gestures from reference - if your image disappears after 60 seconds, you have no chance to spend more time on them than that! Of course, this will teach you different things than longer studies - it’s a different kind of study. But both the „I’m gonna throw these away“ and the timed gestures (with pen) were exercises that helped me a lot getting a bit looser (and learn to love sketching in pen, even if it doesn’t look good… yet!).

Keep it up :) I hope your wisdom teeth will stop bothering you...

[pnate]

Oo Lyra's advice is so good, I will have to second all of that. It really isn't a bad idea to study all of the poses in your book btw. If you do, say, 30 min of pose studies everyday, you'll level up a lot. I always sing the praises of daily pose studies, just because it actually works. Hope you're feeling better by now! That whole process sucks; my head was swollen like a balloon for days when I had mine removed.

[Cyprinus]

Meant to update earlier, but life got in the way. I'll write something about it, but first of, replies!

@Jaik: Thank you so much! I'm glad you see improvement because I often feel like there's next to nothing, but that's really probably just impatient old me. Thank you as well for the advice with the cubes and perspective. I really, really should do this. Perspective is totally my weak point and I've been avoiding it for far too long already. Definitely  have to go out more of my comfort zone here.

@Nowio: Thank you! <3

@Lyraina: Thank you so much! I'm glad you like my character art! I hope I can develop this further, I'd really like to explore character design further. It's a subject I'm (obviously) very passionate about. And wow, these suggestions really sound they could help me a lot! I have to try this out, definitely!

@pnate: Thanks for your kind words and for visiting my sketchbook! I hope I can come back to a steady study rhythm soon.

So yeah. Life. What happened? Like two days after my last post my laptop broke. I had to dig into my savings and get a new PC (luckily I've been wanting to get a new machine for a long time already), with the convention may was over fast. Being busy with work and commissions june was over fast as well. I still have my wisdom teeth and they keep nagging me, but on july 13th I'll have them removed and hopefully won't have as many problems anymore. Unfortunately, because I was so busy, I don't have as much studies and it sucks. A lot of the time I'm also very torn whether I want to do studies (which I feel I should do) or my personal art (which I want to do most of the time...). My personal projects are never moving forward because I have long breaks in between and then I feel that the pages whatever I drew before are too old. I hope that soon I'll have more free time to do a little bit of both. Of c

So here's some stuff. Working digitally is more fun now with a big 24" screen and a new fast computer. Maybe that will help getting more into it.

Studies and some application:



Boxes in space, freehand


Workplace of a friend, from life:


Faces from photos:


Portrait done at lifedrawing, about 20min:


Selfportrait, couldn't continue because the light changed:


And something from imagination:


I really really hope I can update more and be more active. (Often I'd like to comment more I never feel that I have something qualified to say, because there are so many things I don't understand myself.) I love this place and it has helped and encouraged me a lot already, and I met many awesome people here ;3;

[ZombieChinchilla]

I've been subtly stalking this SB for a while now and it's great to see you back here! I really, really love your stuff. Your style is something I'd love to have myself, where you can make your figures stylized and anime-like while keeping accurate anatomy and having everything still be semi-realistic. It looks reallyyyyyy nice and I love it a lot. Please, please stay, and continue to grace us with your lovely art!

[Nowio]

*o* you did a selfie.... <3 that make me want to paint selfies, too... lets make it a thing, shall we? each update has to have a least one selfportrait! (damn that even sounds scary x.X )

Perspective is a cool thing, quite easy, too. thought it is boooring as heck. relaxing though... call the relationship between us a difficult one if you want xD what helped me though was going on tumblr and look for ikea rooms. you know, these overly clean luxurious ones, and then copy them in photoshop by using the line tool, creating a lineart and then blocking in the colors and painting the textures. because you're using the line tool you have to find the perspective points. and by blocking in the shapes and creating the lineart it is guearanteed that you're gonna fail and have to replace the perspective points. sounds tideous and without music it is... but you will learn a ton (also skyping or livestreaming is a huge help to not get distracted) ;)

as for characers... keep at it, you're better than me so there is nothing i can advise you with (...yet ];-P )

also there is watercolor... you're a goddess in using watercolor! huw u do dis?! o.O

And I hope the visit to the dentist will go smoothly. I hate dentists... they scare me... and I still have to get my wisdom teeth removed... D': Wish you all the best for the appointment!

[EduardoGaray]

hey! im really glad to see you posting again, dont really have anything to critique since i visit this SB mainly for inspiration myself haha.
Life is always getting in the way, i can only wish you the best, and hope you will solve those problems and get all the time you need to keep honing (even more) your craft.
Keep going :)

[aks9]

Heya Cyprinus. Finally getting a chance to look at your SB after you replied to mine a few weeks back
Cool that you got yourself set up again. Your portraits and characters really are a strong point, it'd be great to see more of that. That portrait from life is great and nice with the self portrait too. Seems like you might benefit from doing some more finished pieces? Or just more volume of work maybe? Things seem a little sparse, like you have bits and bobs here and there.

Anyway keep up the nice work

[Nowio]

Oh look, I drew something out O.O

[Vornag]

Those are some quality watercolor paintings right there

[Cyprinus]

Hey everybody!
First of, replies!

@Zombiechinchilla
Thank you so much for your kind words! Means a lot. Stylized, yet semi-realistic is actually really the kind of style I'm aiming for so I'm more than happy to read that you see it that way! Shows me that I'm heading in the right direction!

@Nowio
Thanks for your kind words and the advice concerning the backgrounds! I think I'll soon collect some reference and do some paint overs, to get a feeling for eye level and stuff (I seem to have trouble with it). Not sure though if I want to sykpe yet during studies. Right now I feel like it will distract me to much and take the focus away from the studying. Maybe later though! I was also surprised to see you coloured sketches from me!! x) I always like to see such stuff. Also the colours you used are interesting. You used colours and combinations I wouldn't have used. Btw, if you search for linearts for colouring practice, I stiill have some linearts saved on my computer!

I can only say it again: Watercolours need some practice, but it's very rewarding x)

@Eduardo
Thanks for visiting my humble sketchbook! I'm glad you can find inspiration here, as I sure do so in yours! Also, thank you so much for your kind wishes! I'm being optimistic, it can only go up from here!

@aks9
Thanks so much for stopping by! Glad you like my character work. It's clearly my favourite field. You're totally right about the finished pieces ): they get fewer each year, I really have to do something about it, as well as the work outside my comfort zone. I hope that the chaos which engulfed me the first half of the year is now finally over and I concentrate more on art again.

@vornag
Glad you like my watercolour works!

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So, the extraction of my wisdom teeth was okay and it's healing well, just some minor stuff here and there that's still bothering me, but all in all I'm good! I hope that now I can finally move on to the most important thing, namely art! Just need to see how I can balance everything with my current work but there'll be a way.
Please excuse the tiny update today, I need to get back into the swing of things now.



Some digital studies from photos done a while ago. I'm still not used to doing this kind of stuff digitally. Also, I had studied arms already a while ago but I always feel like I forgot everything. WHY

The past few days I had an artist friend staying over (fun times!) and of course we went out to draw and paint a bit.




Sketches done in a café. My pen was almost out of ink ):





These two paintings where done en plein air with watercolours and a bit of gouache. FINALLY something out of my comfort zone. I hope this is the starting point for a lot more stuff that challenges me and helps me push myself a bit harder.

[Nowio]

haha sure, let's collab and put Jana and Hannes in the shadows, that would be awsum <3

Glad to hear that the teeth are healing! (Still missing a self portrait though ;P )

As for the images the digital ones feel a bit clunky... but I guess practice will do. Yet their heads seem too big... ;)

For watercolors... I won't even go there ._.

And I don't know what to do with the pen sketches... Really! Should I love you as for how awesome it is??? Or should I hate you for how awesome it is???

[Lyraina]

Oh man, those plein airs! And that’s being outside of your comfort zone… and already looking so nice. Do more of them, please! :D It’s nice to see you use your pro watercolor skills put to use for studies like that :) I also like the pen sketches though - nice and dynamic.

I’m glad to hear you’re healing well :)

[Archreux]

Awesome, awesome, awesome stuff!

Really love that character lineup of those different armor variations. I've gotta step up my game. You're killing it. The style is just . . great. Those watercolors are lovely as well.

Only critique would be to post more! Haha. Also, wisdom teeth can suck, good to hear it went pretty well for you. :D

[Cyprinus]

@Nowio: Haha, don't get too high-spirited all at once! Hannes and Jana are a whole different league from us. We are a bunch of rookies! It's not bad to dream big though! So lets work hard and we'll see where our journey will take us!
Thanks for your feedback, glad you like the stuff! You could be right about the digital stuff, unfortunately I can't compare because I used some random internet pics and don't have the ref anymore. Otherwise I would have looked into it, but I will definitely pay more attention with the next studies! Gotta pay more attention to proportion in general anyway.

@Lyraina:
Thank you so much! I'm glad you like them. It was so much fun to do, although I really think I have to pay more attention to hues and values. Like the one with the river, I put on too much black orz But it's always so hard doing everything at once. well, Rome wasn't build in a day! I hope I get to do more of such stuff soonish.

@Archreux
Ahhh thank you so much! So glad you like my humble posts. I'll try to post more often, I mean I really want to, but right now I'm totally lacking the time, but I think it will soon get better. I hope I won't disappoint you then!
And yeah, the wisdom teeth really played their game on me, but they can't anymore! HAH!

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So yeah! I'm still working to finish the huge backlog of things to do that I'm carrying around, but I think after this weekend I can finally cross off one thing from the list. I hope that a bit more time is just around the corner. Also it's unusually hot here and it's really disturbing my concentration and workflow. Despite the hot weather though I've been paying more attention to my body and I try to exercise more, because last week Thursday I simply HAD to lay down because of terrible back pain. I need to be more careful to prevent such things, that is important too.

On the other hand, I finally continued to read Slam Dunk at the weekends to relax a bit, and I feel how it's fuelling my motivation to work hard to reach my goals.

So here's some stuff!


(ref: http://faestock.deviantart.com/art/Face-R2-75019333)


Two 30minutes I did the last days. I also found some cool brushes for Clip Studio Paint I want to test further. My plan is to try and do such 30min studies at least every 2-3 days.



Another horrible attempt at a self portrait. Don't ask me how I got the stupid idea that including a hand would be
awesome. Also, the glasses..........orz I absolutely don't like looking at myself for such a long time, but I'd like to do a self-portrait every month, maybe. It would be interesting to compare them. I didn't put in much time in this because my hand felt like it was dying off. Next, for the time being, without a hand, obviously.



A character concept I'd like to finish and develop into a portfolio piece. I still need to fix the legs. Other feedback is highly welcome!

I did some more stuff from imagination but it's more or less a bit pointless doodling. More stuff hopefully soon!
Also need some more time to visit your sketchbooks...SOON, SOON.

[Adam Lina]

Hey you're posting again! Huzzah! Hopefully this will be a regular thing?