1min drawing exersizes

these pictures are 1min drawing exercizes. the idea is not to look at the paper and not to lift your pen off the paper.

Amsterdam ZO daily life.

yesterday, I went out and drew people. I was a little worried people would take offence, but I got a lot of enthusiastic response and it was a lot of fun. So I mean to make it a regular thing. I concentrated on poses and surfaces.

well, I still miss life-drawing classes (cant seem to find a nice, affordable place. so if anyone knows one, let me know). but this was definitely worth it!

more again soon on drawcraft; where boldly draw where no man has drawn before!

or something like that ;)

Artis Zoo part2

Zoo day again. had a run around with my sketchbook. Jan tested the new camera -as you can see here. the camera is still faster them me, so the result was that I had to finish the sketches at home. not sure whether this is good or bad.
Lions are always a good thing. it was a sunny day, so they were particularly happy. Lions must have invented sunbathing! next up was one of my special favorites. the black jaguar. he's a little hard to draw. and hard to make picture of too b'c of the bars. but he's wonderful. usually sits real close to us, or struts around.

or, he rolls over his back and grabs a tire. he's a beauty. real broad shoulders and a sleek body. I want to do some more studies of this guy and do some water colors again. have done one or 2 of him in the past.
after that I ran past some hairy oxen, to the antelopes (I think)then, when I was ready to quit, we ran into a sunbathing hippo. he looked so blissfully happy I had to draw him.

and, when I'd unpack again anyway, a red-and black squirrel. it's 2 poses of the same one btw.

picture copy

I found some old drawings made from photo's on the web. I did them as a bit of a model exercise, but as I leaved through them I realized that I kind of liked the stylization. they're a little messy, but they kind of capture the pose and look.

well, I figured these might be usefull character studies so I made some more. a little more stylized; not quite caricatures. but I'm thinking of doing a few exaggerated ones too.

yesterday, I went to the zoo.

yesterday, I went to the zoo.
it's been a long time I've been there. But it was definitely worthwhile. I hope to make it a once a week visit. it was a bit crowded, and at the end, animals started going inside for the night.
still, it was a good trip.
first, I went to the elephants. was actually hoping on drawing a bear, but they were all hiding inside. since I'm looking at mass right now, polar bears seemed best, but the elephants throw their weight around too, so they were good models.
some sketches:

after that, it was feeding time, and the elephants went inside for a bit.



so I figured I'd move on to a favourite of mine, the African wild dogs, and whip up some ink & aquarel pieces. they moved, then went inside again as well, so I was left hanging on both poses here. still I was more paying around with the ink and paint mingling by then; you get the prettiest colors and runs (though, the jpg's don't really show then). I did try to keep the masses in, like the fist's hind receding, the square shoulders against the round tummy.
finally, the elephants came back for a little.
I doodled them in pen and ink too, tough they kept moving back inside. so it's more an impression then a life-drawing.

A bloggy start

And so, another ‘artblog’ is shot onto the net, without though nor worry for its consequences.
Is it safe? Probably not. Hell, it’s not meant to be safe. This is where I draw you into the occult. (yes, a pun, sew me)

This is where your live gets ruined; where, hopefully, you will get infected by ‘the bug’. Here I want to show the things I do, and talk about why and how. I will review my drawings and what they’re about; discuss what I am working on to improve. Your imput is, therefor, very much appreciated!

Updates planned a minimum of once a week. I am starting with my drawings since that has my focus right now, but I hope to post some animation stuff here in the future too.

You can find my portfolio and company site at: www.ashess.nl

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So enough of the banter, on with the drawings. I’ve been directed to Mark Kennedy’s blog a while back (http://sevencamels.blogspot.com/). This guy has put out some interesting thoughts, which to me all come from one central though. When he draws, he looks for differences: difference in the left and right side of a contour, differences in shapes, in line weight, in shade, etc.
Following this trail of though really gave me a thrill of excitement. Why? My usual way of drawing has always been calling subjects as I see them. I might overstress something that caught my attention, but I haven’t really actively looked for differences. Looking for differences really opens up new chances to state something about your subject.
Look at it this way: looking at a horse, you can say: it has 4 legs.
But, when you look for differences, you can say: a horse has 4 legs. 2 front, 2 back. The pairs are mirrored from each other. The front pair has a knee, while the back pair has an ‘ankle’.
Drawing to me is a visual way of describing something. The more ways you have to define a subject, the better. Looking for differences really gives you a tool to define matters.
Here is a drawing one of my cats.

so what differences caught my eye?
First, I though his pointy ear contrasted nicely with his shaggy fur. I exaggerated the point just a little.
Then, the flat inside of the ear against the round outside (right of it).
His square shoulder against his round back and, on the other side, his round head.
Also, the concave plain of his side compared to the roundness of his upper leg. (left side picture)
And, finally, the sharp square shape where his tail resides behind his body, compared to the round back and upper leg.

I am pretty happy with this one. though I forgot the background *again*, and I really should use better paper, so I can use more pressure variations.

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another one, this time both cats. I tried contrasing the shaggy left one with the rather neat one right. the left one recedes nicely, using the 3 plains of the shoulder, neck and head one behind the other. But now the right cat seems too small. funny thing, when I was drawing, I felt I was making the right one too big.
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here, my brother playing guiter hero. I put som,e empahsis on his concentrated expression and payed spacial mind to the hands, elbow, and the way his shirt fell over his pants. the last is pretty much the only attempt at depth here.