Sketchbook & Progess Log - The journey is the reward!

[Samszym]

Nice stuff cyp!!! Cool to see the freehand background sketches, I struggle with backgrounds too :/

[Cyprinus]

@Sam: Thanks!! Backgrounds are like my nemesis, I want to be able to draw them, but the fear is great. But there's no other solution we need keep on going. Working to get rid of my perfectionism though finally gives me the courage to tackle those subjects and makes me lose my fear.

I'm testing new strategies to manage my free time and productivity. I felt it was slightly better, yet I didn't get much done. Wth. At least I managed to work on some of the stuff which was on my list this week.

Hand studies and application



Some faces, from photos and from Urasawa



Feet in shoes



Went minimalist at life drawing yesterday and only brought a little pad and some ballpoint pens



Wanted to draw a guy sitting on a bench; failed miserably, figured I need to start with the basics of the basics. So I did those construction things here...



Then I wanted to do some background studies in gouache, inspired by Kazuo Oga. Only to discover that my gouache colours are mostly dried out and pretty much useless. Next time I'll have to use my acrylics I guess. Also how the hell do you use pastose paints. Using watercolours is so much easier for me...



I'd really like to participate in this weeks CHOW and made these sketches. The first seemed to much human to me, and when I heard "his giant limbs propelling him trought the forest" I somehow thought of a gorilla. So I tried the head design with a gorillas posture....but I don't like it. Gotta explore this a bit more hopefully soon and in time for the challenge.



And some stuff from imagination

[rafa zanchetin]

Hey, wb! Life always happen, don't worry.
You're still kicking ass on these lines, them sketches are so clean and pleasant to look at, even your colors from the previous post are awesome, keep it up! You're going places, and soon!

[Archreux]

Wooooooow, this style of yours has really been coming out these last few pages! I'm really loving these characters and those clean tasty lines of yours!

The illustration you put on the bag looks really cool too, and you should totally do something more with it if you haven't completely moved on from it.

No real crits from me at the moment, just keep doing more characters and pretty stuff like you've been doing. And try not to worry too much about how long/how much you've done, because something is always better than a zero, especially when there's life. :D

[Cyprinus]

@rafa
Thank you <3 Haha and yes, so true. There's always so much going on, and if you think you've got a moment to breathe it comes up with even more stuff sometimes. Thank you also for your kind words!!!

@Archreux
Thank you so much!! That surely is a compliment. I just love drawing characters so much...need to study more to make them more versatile though. Glad you like the illust on the bag. I haven't developed it further but I still like it somehow, I might go further with it if it suddenly hits me.


I decided just to take my time and sit down today to scan some of my watercolours from the last life drawing session, because I had a blast and felt like sharing. Also two portraits from photo ref, I'm doing these without sketches these days. The likeness suffers and there are major accidents, but it feels different from coloring over a sketch and I like it. I have done more stuff, just so little time to scan, also trying to squeeze in time for the comic is driving me crazy. I didn't have so much time the last days because I read so much, but it was all helpful stuff, and so I hope I can put a lot into practice soon.






Oh, and there was this thing going on at twitter where everybody showed old and new art, so I redrew this sketch from 2008 (:

[maggie]

I really like her hair (the new one), great progress. :)

[Nowio]

Wow there were A LOT of studies and work I've missed :O

Hey, long tie no hear :)

Seeing you still drawing and goint to live drawing classes makes me feel as a lazy bum that I were in the last months... Got lost in the students live and it just killed any sort of motivation to be productive... even for college D: hope to change that now so new updates coming tomorrow :D

Your watercolors are already crazy good and it won't take you long to addapt your knowledge to digital, for sure! ;)
The improvement you did since 2008 is just fabulous. You've devined your style and I am sure that it won't end here ;3

[Cyprinus]

@maggie: Thank you! (:

@Nowio: Hey, it's really been a while! Well, I could have done more as well, I guess. Sometimes it just happens and we stray from our path =/ The most important thing though is to notice this and get back into gear again. I'm glad you like my watercolours, hehe. And yay, thankies, I certainly hope so!

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Dang, time passes so quickly. Here's some stuff.

First, two favourites from life drawing.



Architecture-stuff. I'm using Clip Studio Paint for this, because the perspective layer feels like a true blessing. The first one top left is a study, the rest is from imagination. For the first two I used 3 point perspective, the other is only 2 point perspective. This looks so easy-peasy, yet it takes me so long orz I feel like I need too much time for this, so that no time for other studies is left. But what can I do? Little by little, one goes far.



Study from a photo



I did this from imagination right after the study. I have a feeling that my contrast is getting a bit better, because for this one, after I reopened it, I didn't have to adjust it like usual.



And I sat down and scannend some sketchbook stuff, mostly from imagination, though the faces on the first page are from photos, I tried to cartoonify them. And some other little things are quick photo studies as well.









So random! XD

[Nowio]

Just love your lines in your pencil sketches! :D

On the perstpective studies: Take your time, better to take a couple days/weeks to make an amount of studies that you understand than to rush a couple nice ones and forgett about in no time :/ What helped me was to abbandon all helpful grids/layers/brushes etc and do it the way hannes did, line for line. Because it takes so long just making the grid that you start thinking what is indeed needed and what you can left out. Makes you understand perspective a lot easier ;)

On that note I should go back to perspective studies myself... it feels like I forgott everything about art D':

[rida12]

your paintings are overall good but what you have made in your first painting

[Cyprinus]

@Nowio

Thanks! I'm just a freak and obsess frequently about clean pencil lines...
You're totally right about the rushing thing, but I'm so slow with every thing, there's no way I can rush even if I wanted to XD I'm actually not using a grid in my perspective things, the only thing I use are those vanishing points and horizon line in clip studio paint, other than that I'm doing it line by line pretty much. Or did you mean something else? I mean I need to add at least some reference lines to figure out certain stuff. Or do you mean just doing a study without even horizon line and vanishing points, by just trying to get the angles right by heart?

@rida12

Thank you, I'm not sure what you mean about my "first painting" though?

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I'm working on a rather big commission now and the general business from December somehow doesn't really help productivity concerning studies. I still kind of want to try posting more, even if it's just a few pictures.

The other day during lunch I watched a documentary about a zoological garden and they had baby chameleons. I thought they were some of the cutest things I'd ever seen, so I did some chameleon studies the other day and made a sketch for a possible illustration right after.





Right now it's still on a watercolour postcard pad, but I guess I'm going to redo it, possibly on bigger format. I guess an illustration like that would be a nice change from the usual things I do, so I'd very much like to finish it. I'm thinking about making the head of the chameleon bigger and I need to rethink the saddle (like leaving out the loop for the foot). There are a hell of unfortunate lines as well which are almost tangents....
So, C&C is very much welcome on this!

[Bookend]

Hey! I actually have some ideas for your current project.

Have you considered looking at animations to get a sense of character and understanding the dynamics of your subject?

A really good example of an animated chameleon for study isn't too far away: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbc17cN9l50

Just a way to see how it can be drawn, and how you'll adapt your own style to the idea.

Hope that helps!

[Samszym]

Yo Cyp! the drawing looks nice and clean. Couple suggestions I think could work, making the chameleon larger could give you more room, I think the kid could read easier if he was very different in size from the chameleon
I also think it could be fun if the kid and chameleon were interacting. The kid seems really hyperactive, maybe if the chameleon were really slow and grumpy so they have a fun attitude contrast. Chameleons have those eyes that can look different directions, he could be looking at the bow with one eye and forward with the other like he's paying half attention?

I did a few thumbnail sketches, hope you don't mind the suggestions :/


good luck, stuff's looking cool!!!

[EduardoGaray]

Hey there! your drawings are still awesome, that hasnt changed since my last visit, but now i see those watercolors... too cool. Some of them even remind me of the stuff Takehiko Inoue does, makes me want to grab some watercolors tomorrow haha.
About your latest project, i am with Samszyn, making the chameleon look grumpy or tired to contrast with the energetic kid would be a good idea.

[mindwrack]

Really nice stuff here! Your work is really delicate which works especially well with your watercolours, love your characters too, they are so convincing. look forward to seeing more!

[pnate]

Lovely drawings Cyprinus! I'm really enjoying your style :) As a crit for the chameleon piece, I would suggest maybe playing with the position of the tail. Right now, the overall silhouette reads as very rectangular, as evidenced by how well it fits within the rectangle you cropped it at. I think if you angled the tail out more or curved it so it broke that rectangle it might add some more visual interest, possibly. Keep up the awesome work!

[Jaik]

Man, the water colours D: so good! One day I will invest the time to learn a traditional skill... Until then PHOTOSHOP!!

For your lil Chameleon dude, study the shit out of Tangled's Pascal I think his name is? You will get some really nice characterization from the creature which really opens up some more possibilities for the story.

Keep up the good work and thankyou for stopping by my sketchbook :)

[Suira]

Dayum!! That lineart is getting good as fuck man! Great job , I always liked your drawings but this stuff, if a lot better.

I am specially impressed with the ballpoint life drawings and the watercolor stuff, just fucking mindblowing quality my friend, a lot of security and elegance (smooth mother fucker xD).

It's awesome to leave for a month or two ( cuz life) and come back to see everybody kicking ass and making awesome progress, I'm baffled with everybody! :D

Oh! Yeah, the crit!:

Midtones, values, hues, saturation and a lot of that shit, I feel needs work, being more specific I would recomend you to just take up the tablet for a couple of months ( every now and then) and try to do a still life or simple studies, but painted, like focusing on just painting, and getting that shit completely figured out, I feel that if you can get that to speed with your line quality for example, you can do some awesome crazy shit. Keep up the good work buddy! :D

[Cyprinus]

Hi Everybody!!!

I'm still around! I actually didn't mean to neglect the daggers for so long, it's just that real life happened. I hadn't been feeling to well at the start of the year to begin with and in March my grandpa passed away. He had been hospitalized in February and ever since then it had been a difficult time with a lot of bad news coming in. I practically grew up at my grandparents and I have a very close relationship with them, so everything has been a bit slow since then. I didn't do a lot of studies, I didn't draw or paint a lot in general the last weeks. In between I sat down and tried to finish at least some stuff for the conventions, because at the moment I could use the extra income and my family convinced me that my grandpa wouldn't have wanted me to sit at home and miss all the opportunities.

I'm already beginning to feel better now though and I need to get back into gear for real. First of, the replies!

Also good things happened, because I met Lyraina at one of the events! Thanks again for saying hello I was so pleasantly suprised <3

I kind of totally forgot about the illustration with the chameleon orz

@bookend: Thank you for your advice!!! I didn't think of that little guy but it's really a good idea! I'll take it into account when I pick up the illustration again.

@Samszym: Sam, I'm so sorry you even took the effort to make some thumbnails with suggestions for me and then I never replied ): Of course I don't mind, it's the contrary!!! Thank you so much for these. I'm sure I will pick up the subject again and then I'll try to work in your suggestions, they are pretty helpful! <3

@Eduardo: Thank you so much. You don't know what it means to me if you say it reminds you of Inoue-Sensei, because he's like my hero. Thanks for stopping by and your suggestions!!

@mindwrack: Thanks to you too! I'm glad you like my stuff so far, I hope I can update more often again x)

@pnate: Thanks so much for stopping by here again and your kind words! Thanks for your suggestions for the chameleon piece, I will consider them when I pick it up again!

@Jaik: Thanks so much for your nice words and suggestions!! And no problem, I hope I can have a look at everyones sketchbooks again soon (:

@Suira: Man, thank you so much for your compliments, I'm glad you like this stuff! It means a lot hearing it from somebody so skilled as you!!!! And you're totally right about the crit. I feel very weak when it comes to painting, and that's probably the reason I avoid it most of the time orz I must go past my fear and do a lot more studies.

So what I'm posting now is some study stuff. In an effort to get back into things I made a tumblr for my studies only and wanted to post something every day. Of course I was too ambitious and failed the first weekend I had to work out of town, where I didn't really find the time for studies or drawing in general. I'm still trying to keep this as regular as possible, because so far it really helps. Some are really rough because I didn't have much time, but it's better than nothing probably.





And here's some imagination/personal stuff done....I have done some other sketching I just didn't scan anything, really...







I'd really appreciate some help with the last one and the chair, maybe a redline? When I did this thing I realized I don't know anything about perspective. I didn't use reference for the pose itself but I had a look at people sitting on chairs, still I totally managed to mess it up, despite establishing a vanishing point @___@ idk

I hate to write those long posts orz I hope that I can get back into a better rhythm, post more often and have a look at everybody's sketchbooks soon!!!

[Lyraina]

I'm sorry to hear about your loss… hope you are feeling better by now. *sending strength your way*

About studies, you're right - rough studies are definitely better than none at all. Don't forget that studies aren't about making something pretty, but what happens in your brain, the drawing part is just to understand and memorize it better :)

The pleasure is all mine, was great to meet you! Thanks for chatting with me a bit! :)

The chair looks fine to me - lines going back in perspective to somewhere below the shoulder, so that should be fine… what are you struggling with?