Zen & sketchy day at Artis ; Amsterdam’s Zoo
on September 13th, 2009, by Deevad
I took my saturday freetime to visit Artis , the big Zoo of Amsterdam ; more precisely to enjoy a sketch session in the zoo , and spend time with animals. I worked on my sketchpad ( around 21cmx15cm , A5 bristol paper , I don’t advice it to beginner cause it will block you to have a “too precious” paper – prefer a paper that you can “waste” without any trouble … btw, I can waste bristol without any trouble ). My pencil is a large 2B and dark sketching pencil from Derwent, but any “soft” black marking pencil are good for this. I use too a soft kneaded eraser , cause sometime I miss a Ctrl+Z feature to my sketching workflow 🙂
I have some advices if you want to start sketching from life :
- For beginners , prefer to draw simple things, target simple goal at first.
- Take your time. If your model move ; start another sketch ( or finish it by memory )
- Find the main lines of the “essence” of your model. Draw them thick & strong.
- Don’t focus on details at first. Add them at the end. Draw them thin & light
- Understand your model (muscle, light, volume, material, expression)
- Gray shade (when it’s necessary) at the end, do it softly.
Of course , that’s more easy to say , than to do ; here are my zoo sketches :
– David
PS: I found a cool gang of tux in the zoo , and some zen gnu .
September 13th, 2009 at 2:22 am
Nice! =). How long did it take to do the sketches?
September 13th, 2009 at 3:11 am
Thank you so much for sharing with us. This with the other work you have shown is truely inspiring. Please keep them comming!
September 13th, 2009 at 3:27 am
It is good to be able to go somewhere where you can get a lot of visual stimulation for your projects. And by observing nature to sketch, fauna, flora etc. you are can truly feel the beauty of the artist who created it.
I guess you will be using various elements you studied from the iguanas, lizards, crocodiles etc for the Dragon right? I recently got some good photographs and samples from the local zoo here, just out of personal interest and it is amazing the textures of the skin of some of these fellows. I would dread to have a 30 foot version of one of them looking down on me.
BTW, I hate not having ctrl+z on my sketch pad too.
Nice to hear from you, your have real skill there. “Of course” I can hear everyone say!
Have a great day to you and the rest of the readers on this blog. From sunny Japan.
Grafixsuz
September 13th, 2009 at 3:36 am
I just saw this 10 minutes after registering to a drawing class… pure motivation, merci!
September 13th, 2009 at 5:32 am
+1 on using low grade paper- you spend less time worrying about wasting paper and more time on being loose and letting things happen. Nice drawings, looks like a fun day!
September 13th, 2009 at 8:13 am
Very nice… Nature is our pivotal reference..
September 13th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Great sketches, you capture expressions really well.
1500 pre-orders and rising!
September 13th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
David…thnks for your great pointers and visual examples of sketching. Nice and simple to follow with inspiring results!
September 13th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Nice, good sketch. May be added to make it more catchy style and not just a realist 🙂
September 13th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
this is helping me alot , as i am a 3d modeler striving to learn some drawing skillz, you guys should post more of this!
September 13th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Nice sketches! 🙂
September 13th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
I have a couple of those animals living wild near me (<50km radius) 🙂
September 14th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Cool sketches, btw 😉 😛
September 14th, 2009 at 12:02 am
So,what will be the style on this anime?
Heroïc fantasy? Final Fantasy (it’s a style on its own 🙂 )?
September 14th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
truly a nice example of Natura Artis Magistra
September 14th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Great work David. It’s really a good idea to get out and draw animals at the Zoo or in the wild.
Maybe for those who are not living near a Zoo or any other place to watch wild animals is maybe this site worth checking out.
http://www.earth-touch.com
It’s more a site containing documentaries but it got HD quality video footage which is nice as reference.
September 14th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
I dunno why but i find it funny that you scanned your sketchbook and and pencil and eraser! ha, nice sketches too, thinking about making a trip to amsterdam in october, unfortunately it has to be right after the blender conference, but seeing all the things you guys are getting up to is making my list of things to see bigger 🙂
September 14th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
hey guys, the next time you present a 3d-character here, i would appreciate such a presentation like in this posting:
http://againstanother.com/index.php/3d-tree
🙂
September 15th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
haha someone who like what we do 😀
October 24th, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Wow! what an arty idea ! What a concept ! Beautiful .. Amazing
March 4th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
I went to amsterdam for 5 days for the cannabis cup. I stayed at the Quentin Arrive On this street i cant pernounce right now something like harrleeemstrat. (amsterdam.info is the best site to get info!). Go there 2 grea coffe shops i loved barkneys n if u walk donw alot mre tere r other greet ones like grey area and greenSeed. I went to the Anne Frank house. visited alot fo coffe shops and museums and also went to the heineken factory. The experience was closed so that sucked…. Otherwise no matter were you were everyone was so nice and respectful….Traffic is fucking crazy with bikes and trains n cars in different lanes and lights but you get used to it. It was just a great experience the ngiht life is rediculous but you already no… I wishi was there right now…I want to go back and own property later on in my life…..GO TO AMSTERDAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!