Cwtam - Nelchee's sketchblog

Fun with waterbrushes

My Pentel Aquash waterbrushes just arrived! I had to test them right away :) I used watercolor pencils on A5 sketchbook with watercolor paper.

This is the castle of Tarsatica, and a part of the mausoleum. I did the drawing from observation with fine-liner (non-waterproof, ugh) a few weeks ago, but the northern wind was hard I froze up there and decided to color it at home.

The waterbrushes are very interesting and I liked using them, although the flow of water will take some getting used to and I suppose I will still rely on regular brushes a lot for precise work.

And a bonus, one very old (2010?) ink sketch of my old apartment that was in the same sketchbook.

I was supposed to get a new scanner today, but the delivery guy came when I was still at work, so he'll bring it tomorrow. So hopefully these are the last photos of drawings I have to post, it got very annoying.

Nude sketches

I did some 1-minute gesture sketches using the Figure Drawing Training Tool, and another one that took maybe 5 minutes. The nude in grayscale was done some time ago but I forgot to post it here.

And these are some face sketches I did in a pub today after 3 beers, tee hee :P

Meet the sketchbooks

Hi, my name is Nela and I am a sketchbook addict :) It started when I began to draw during my electrical engineering classes. I got tired of drawing on math paper so I always carried a folder with a few A4 papers. But at some point in 2006. I bought a large notebook with clear sheets (for geometry class) to keep my ideas in one place (until then they were scattered everywhere), and that's how it started. This notebook wasn't very good, the paper was too thin for anything serious, but it's full of quick sketches and ideas. Next I bought a small spiral-bound sketchbook pictured below. Most of my "lectures are boring" sketches originated in it and it is still very dear to me.

After that I bought a fancy Winsor & Newton spiral-bound A5 watercolor sketchbook that to this date has 3 drawings in it. Because it's fancy n' shit.
I got a teNeues sketchbook to replace the small one and I currently use this one the most since I have it with me all the time.
Next I bought two Lega-lega notebooks, one regular A5 and an A6 with red pages. I considered the one with black pages, but I figured the red one will be more usable. I haven't used it much though as I rarely carry it. The regular one I use pretty often, I take it whenever I have room in my bag. You can see the scribbles I made on it here if you're interested.
I had more that I ditched because they weren't as good, so I won't address them here. You may have noticed that I don't use a Moleskine. Frankly, I just refuse to pay that much for a name, and the paper quality does not justify it imho.

Pictured above you can see a fragment of unfinished Tarsatica, contemplating on the In obscuro logo and some jewelry doodles in the red notebook, a spread of the used up small notebook (posted: random typography, Lectures are back), a glimpse of the teNeues spread (posted: Summer sketches), and in the Lega-lega you can see a quick sketch of Animus and another that I won't out yet, but it's a personal project I'm currently working on.

For now I've been mostly using ballpoint pen, mechanical pencil and fineliners, but I've started to use some color and watercolor pencils as well.

And as a bonus, here's a sketch from last night - Michelangelo's Bacchus.

So to wrap it up, get a sketchbook, or if you're a writer, a regular notebook :) You never know when inspiration may strike, so you better be ready!

Laetitia sketches

I haven't worked on the painting recently so here's a sketcbook page. I tried to draw my former Vampire: the Requiem LARP character Laetitia Cavendish, but apparently I'm not able to draw her the same way twice. The watercolor pencil portrait is closest to how I imagine her. Top right is looking like an old librarian, lower right is supposed to be her in the modern day with hair loose (but she doesn't do that often).

I'm currently looking for a new scanner, photographing is tedious and I don't have the perfect lighting conditions every day.

Yet another demon winged chick

Ink lineart of a new piece I'm working on... there are more details on the drawing but the pencils can't be seen because it's a poor quality photo.

This is a rework of a really old, crappy sketch I did in 2005 that you can see here. I changed the concept drastically, but at least she still has wings, heh..