Today I finally took the time to throw, sheet by sheet, a large stack of my (almost) daily drawings on the scanner. There they are now, so I thought, why not, too, make one of these sketchbooks I keep stumbling across and enjoying to browse at BA, and feed them in here sheet by sheet, instead of leaving them to rot, digitally and paper-wise, sheet by sheet.
I do them almost exclusively for the fun of it, to keep my drawing skills alive, and because it feels good to accomplish something without endless, finicky fine tuning of technical stuff. Because a finished scribble feels just as good as some complex 3D stuff that took ages to finish. At least if it’s a scribble that doesn’t send you in a fit of rage because you messed it up …
Ballpen (or other permanent drawing tool) & A4 plain printing paper, no reference, no particular goal, except getting some quick, arbitrary drawings done.
We had lots of wasps this summer, the last few weeks I suppose it was a whole people waiting for us every morning, to have breakfast on our balcony. I liked them, I suppose we’re part of a pretty small minority, even serving them their own little plate of honey, strawberry jam or alike. One of them was different from all others, a calm and relaxed flyer, larger, long, dangling legs … she came every day …
Today I (re)discovered several stacks of sketches originating from the last couple of years. Means: more scanning, and probably a time warp within this thread, before I get back to this year’s stuff …
Well, one stack scanned, a couple more to do. Unfortunately I didn’t tag the stacks, so I don’t know which year’s haul. Only thing I know: it must be past 2016, because the last batch of scans I did dates from that year … time passes … fast.
I don’t think it makes sense to post everything I find, otherwise the thread will explode.
Nevertheless, these are #1, #2 and #3 in the order they were scanned and stacked in that new (old) batch, neither the ones I like best, nor the ones that suck the worst.
Yesterday I scanned another batch, again, unfortunately no idea which year.
Anyway, it is interesting to see how my drawings’ quality meander over the years, and also within one and the same year. I clearly prefer nice, warm summer days, so usually I do more and get better during summer, and lose some of my skill while it’s dark and cold.
At the moment I feel I’ve actually been developing backwards for some time, the last 1,2,3 years probably. Suppose related to the simple fact that I did a lot more in that regard some years ago, nowadays it’s more of “keeping it alive”.
Also, I’m growing older, my vision deteriorates, and being constantly distracted by worries to keep that cursed business alive doesn’t exactly create the sort of relaxed, flowing mood that’s best for drawing (imo).
Doing that sort of scribbles, it is a bit like sports after all.
Anyway, here’s some stuff from that latest batch.
I had no idea where I’d end up with this one, just started with some leaves in the upper right, and went on downwards, to that fern, and expanded from there. Some mushrooms grew, and to the left a gnarly tree trunk started to present itself.
It became clear that there were small creatures living among the mushrooms, mosses and ferns, creatures with a dubious, somewhat malevolent character.
And there was a fairy, who had ended up there who-knows-how, and who of course had no idea whatsoever of the little creatures.
Particular challenge: place the fairy aftereverythingelseisdone, and don’t mess it up now. There’s no eraser.
Wasn’t super happy with that one, for some reason I’m having trouble drawing cartooney facial expressions at the moment … strangely it sometimes feels much easier to draw realisti faces, I feel cartoony exaggeration requires more emotional involvement to get it right, all fluid and expressive (or just a lot of practice,to get it all down to muscle memory).
Today’s.
At first I liked it, right now I’m not quite sure whether I still do. Anyway. At the moment I at least manage to keep up to a do-my-daily-drawing schedule.
Btw, every ten or twenty drawings or so there’s some nudity, sometimes NSFW nudity. Want it included, at the expense of a NSFW tag added to the thread? Or should I keep it sfw only?
I don’t mind nudity, nor do most people who hang out in the Sketchbook section IME. The only issue with that tag is that it hides your topic from everybody else who doesn’t allow that. Which is a majority of viewers of the site, since you have to explicitly allow non-blurred content of this type in your profile, and a lot of people never dig that deep.
I don’t think this trick would work for explicit photographed nudity, because there we are dealing with Google’s image scanners, but illustrated stuff doesn’t usually trip the scanners, and it still gives people a warning and a choice, so it works
My dog is very naked, so he felt like a good example of hidden nudity
Reminded me - and sent me into a frantic file search, panicking I could have lost it … but there it is:
more explicit poses
Meet Cloudy, she was our first 4-legged friend, a “refugee”, stray from Romania, had gone through hell before she came to us (the animal shelter she had been in had been burned down, most of the animals been killed, many burnt alive). She carried a lot of fears, hated men, particularly men in uniforms wearing stick-like things. I was very proud to be the exception to that rule, and be honored by her unconditional love, and I returned it.
One day she came around the corner and did this for the first time. She had arrived.
It was a very happy moment. Will never forget …
She left a devastating void when she left, I sometimes still feel that bleakness, even after more a decade has passed …
Oh my, getting carried away …
PS: Nokha, the wolf in that animation I posted recently, is reminiscent of her, I wrote that character’s role in her memory. Nokha, Anukhai for “Cloudy Sky”.
Draakhrider. I think she’s too small to require a spoiler, right …?
Should have gone for the long neck & slim head, looks pretty stupid … but done is done.
