Would you like to take a look at my sketchbook?

Sketches

Recently, I worked on some bird sketches. I started with the European robin, because it’s one of my favorite birds.

I’ve done some more or less realistic sketches, but my idea was to capture the chubby side of the robin as it puffs up its feathers. They do it to keep warm or to scare off a potential enemy. In my garden, I often saw them fighting with the tits. He’d go from being a thin bird to an angry little ball, it’s definitively so cute.

Color test

I did color tests with a thin robin and a chubby one. I haven’t yet decided which one I prefer. What do you think?

For quick color tests, I use my posca markers and colored pencils for details.

Sketchbook tour

I stuck stickers on my sketchbook and took the opportunity to make a video of the interior.

There are sketches in pencil, pen and colored pencil. This is my sketchbook of dry techniques and first sketch ideas, without any real color research. I have a second sketchbook in which I do color drawings in posca, colored pencil and acrylic gouache, two pages of which you can see here, for example.

The pages with the animals are made up of sketches done in 1 to 2 minutes, depending on the degree of detail. I like to do this kind of exercise because it allows me to concentrate on the main lines. It’s an initial simplification that will enable me to do more stylized illustrations later on.

I usually search for the name of an animal on Pinterest and find lots of photographs. Obviously, You have to be careful, though, because nowadays you can come across “photos” generated by artificial intelligence and depicting animals that don’t exist. Clearly, AI is going to pose a big problem for everything to do with finding documentation and iconographic references.

Enjoy!!

See you soon!