XssVe's sketchbook

[Remy_James]

Well in my case I stopped drawing in the middle of HIgh school and now that I'm in college i'm trying to regain that talent tnat take it back. Maybe when I get back up to par I'll do some drawings...

 

[xssve]

Well in my case I stopped drawing in the middle of HIgh school and now that I'm in college i'm trying to regain that talent tnat take it back. Maybe when I get back up to par I'll do some drawings...

I stopped drawing in high school too, and didn't take it up again till about 5 years ago - thought I could take up where I left off - 5 years later, I'm just starting to get some chops back, I pretty much had to start over from scratch.

I should post some older stuff, I had a lot more imagination when I was younger for one thing.

Buy a sketch diary and just doodle a little every day - I used to by those 5x7 blank correspondence pads and sketch with a ballpoint pen or whatever.

Here, checkit, these are all from high school. , these are just a few I have scanned in - you might detect a bit of a Rodger Dean influence:





Anyway, not trying to scold you or anything, I'm just saying you have to do it to get any better - hell fuck getting better, just do it for kicks, you never really know all the shit that's in your head till it comes out the end of a bic.

 

[xssve]

Hah, here's another oldie, your basic stoner doodle:


My old scanner, total piece of shit.

And here's that digital painting I did, I think about '02, took me like, I dunno, an ungody number of hours with Ulead photo impact of all things.



Really messed up her delts, oh well.

I didn't even scan in any the really aweful stuff I churned out for the first year or two, I really wish I'd kept it up instead of serving Belial and ending up with bupkiss, maybe I wouldn't be such a hack now.

Heh, dramatic, huh? Straighten up there young 'un, don't forget you always work for yourself.

 

[xssve]

Enough old stuff, I do go through it now and again to jog my memory about ideas I've since forgotten.

Anyway, as I have nothing new, didn't draw all weekend, here's a sketchpage I did this morning, for those of you interested in process.

It's just a page of anatomy, hand, face, pose, and perspective studies, etc. - it's the same page, but I turned it upside down at one point, so I've included upside down and rightside up scans.



If I do nothing else I try to do a couple pages of these day.

Eventually, I think I'd like to start a proper sketch diary, just to explore ideas.

 

[AllardChardon]

XssVe,

I checked out the older stuff. It was cool. And today's sctech pad is very interesting. Doodling with a purpose. I like it. The girl's face you are working on is very pretty.

Allard

 

[xssve]

Thanks Allard, those are ideas I hope to expand on someday. I'm sort of a closet goth - there was no such thing when I was a teenager.

Here's a couple more stringy lesbians making out on the couch, sorry, I'm working on some more voluptuous ones, I swear, it's just easier to visualize the musculo-skeletal structure on skinny people.



Enjoy.

 

[cantdog]

I find it easier to convey a body in space if I think about its weight. Its presence, as it were, as a collection of masses. Deformations of the soft flesh against hard structures exterior and interior. If the figure is weighty, it must also balance, or be moving.

These are fierce, man. Thanks a lot for sharing 'em.

 

[AllardChardon]

This one is pretty close to being there. I think if you soften the reciever's stomach muscles and ribcage a bit, it will be even closer. That's just my opinion, of course.

 

[cantdog]

Jason Chan, with veins

 

[xssve]

Heh, yeah her belly is all messed up, huH? Should fix that, maybe later.

Good advice dog, I usually do pay more attention to gravity, but right now I'm concentrating on getting those anatomical details, particularly the pelvic and clavic girdles, and haven't really been paying attention to composition like I ought - most of these poses are chosen for a particular angle on the pelvis, but yeah, gravity - these people look like they're floating.

Sketched all day, just studies, then jammed this multiple figure study out in a half hour before the sun went down:



Left a few things unfinished, I was more interested in seeing if I could get everybody on the same scale more or less.

Enjoy.

 

[AllardChardon]

XssVe,

Now that is what I call an orgy scene. Very nice. You can tell the girls from the guys at a glance. Keep it up.

Allard

 

[xssve]

11/18/09 New scanner, all new stuff.

The new scanner is compressing my images vertically, haven't quite figured out what to do about it yet, makes all my figures look shorter and heavier than I actually drew them.



Imagevenue has some new code, when the first image comes up, you can click on it to get to the next one.

The first one was for the "Pen" Contest, the second one is another idea I was developing for the same contest.

The second two are character/costume designs, initial forays into a Steampunk concept.

 

[kinkikittyn]

Hi XssVe,
I like what you're doing with the Steampunk!

and have been following, with great interest, the links you put up on the erotic steampunk thread. very useful.

 

[xssve]

Thanks Kinki - is was you drew the Milkmaid! Nice stuff, I like her eyes.

The second one above was my alternate for the Pen contest, didn't finish it, having trouble drawing the pelvis at that angle - I don't like his stumpy torso, his balls are off to one side and I didn't draw the ink splash money shot - basically I need to start the whole thing over from scratch, but you get the idea.

 

[THROBBS]

I dig that other solution too!
You SHOULD finish it!
post it here AND on the challenge thread...just to show the range of possibilities!

(oh.... I wonder about the compression... what scanner do you have? The interface probably has an aspect ratio setting.. if it thinks it is scanning the whole bed ....legal size? 8 1/2 x 14? ...or Tabloid bed 11 x 17 and target size letter 8 1/2 x 11...that could possibly be causing it)

 

[xssve]

No, I think it has to have something to do with the lens, I might have to exchange it.

Yeah, the idea crossed my mind for that one while I was brainstorming, but it kinda got lost in the shuffle - actually, I thought that one might be more up your alley, I don't really do a lot of surrealism at this point, but somebody else suggested it, so I did it for her.

It does seem very appropriate for Lit.

 

[xssve]

One last scan of the Steampunk costume designs.

 

[xssve]

Forced perspective study - his leg is probably too small in contrast to her hand.

 

[xssve]

Sorry I missed the deadline on the Key Challenge, here is what would have been my entry, were it not for the vagaries of UM's and the flu.



I didn't name it, call it "Keys to the Kingdom".

 

[sunandshadow]

Nice framing and concept/name. Facial features on the other hand... that's has seemed to be the weak spot of everyone participating in the contests actually, maybe we should do a group facial features workshop. Oh wait I forgot to read the first post and see if you are looking for critique or not. If not, please disregard that.

 

[xssve]

The compression doesn't help, gives her a bit more of a unibrow than the original, I might tweak this a bit yet, or better yet just do another one - the freehand circle is none too symmetrical, and I had intended to make the frame more elaborate, but my drafting tools are... elsewhere.

 

[THROBBS]

bummer that you did not get it in!

 

[sunandshadow]

Sometimes perfect geometric shapes can actually be a bad thing by looking too artificial. Real keyholes actually tend to have lots of little dents and scratches from the keys being jammed in. I do love geometric shapes and perfect curves, I went through a phase where I bought some stencils and was making animals completely out of stenciled shapes, but I decided after a while that they always looked dead, irregularity gives life to images.

 

[THROBBS]

Sometimes perfect geometric shapes can actually be a bad thing by looking too artificial. Real keyholes actually tend to have lots of little dents and scratches from the keys being jammed in. I do love geometric shapes and perfect curves, I went through a phase where I bought some stencils and was making animals completely out of stenciled shapes, but I decided after a while that they always looked dead, irregularity gives life to images.

good point. On the other hand....the contrast of a mandmade, machined thing (the keyhole) makes for some nice contrast.. especially if xssve had been able to "flehs out" (heh heh) the metal surround.

 

[sunandshadow]

If you're still having trouble with the scanner's aspect ration, that's pretty easy to fix in photoshop or gimp, and gimp is free, you can just download it if you don't have it. If you need help figuring out how to adjust it I can explain it.

Although, it's still a strange thing for the scanner to be doing; maybe you have the wrong driver for it. Some scanners have more dpi in one dimension than the other (I have no idea why) and that could result in scanned images looking strange if the driver was expecting the same amount of resolution in both directions.