Quarantimes Sketch Archive Vol 2: Planes

"phenotyp" (phenotyp) 03/31/2020 at 12:55 • Filed to: sketch, planelopnik

10

28

More crate-digging today. Here’s a bunch of sketches, mostly from 2003-04, except the one above, which was 2009. I guess I’ve always had a thing for VTOLs, engines that rotate, forward-swept wings, and gliders.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > phenotyp 03/31/2020 at 13:01

2

Neat. Really shows tremendous talent. I also have an affinity for drawing vehicles but my talent is currently confined to paper.

phenotyp > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 03/31/2020 at 13:12

0

Well, a couple of those are just pen on paper, scanned (back when I still had a real scanner). That’s a nice painting! Watercolor? Acrylic?

Also, while I won’t call you out on the use of the word “talent,” I will say that I have... problems with it.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > phenotyp 03/31/2020 at 13:18

0

Very cool!

Your aircraft work reminds me A LOT of the aircraft from the Dream Pod 9 game Heavy Gear. It was a table top roleplaying game back that had it’s Hey Day back in the 90's and early 2000's. It was Dungeons & Dragons  but in a Sci Fi setting with combat robots (the titular Gears), hover tanks, land battleships, and crazy aircraft. I loved that game and always thought the vehicles looked so cool, so consider my comparison a big compliment. 

KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time > phenotyp 03/31/2020 at 13:20

0

I hope you’ve been putting this awesome talent to good use

phenotyp > Snuze: Needs another Swede 03/31/2020 at 13:26

0

I was deeply into Robotech as a kid. I also really like birds like albatrosses and frigate birds, and sort of translated that kind of body- wing relationship into things with engines that rotate for VTOL or just stopping in place.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > phenotyp 03/31/2020 at 13:29

0

You are right, it is more of an acquired skill learned from drawing the cars in the parking lot out the window while being bored by school. Almost all of my artistic skill is self taught too. That particular painting is acrylics on masonite because it was supposed to be mixed media at first.

I’m impressed with the pen on paper ones in particular, since that medium has always proved difficult to me.

phenotyp > KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time 03/31/2020 at 13:33

1

I haven’t really been able to sketch for work since about 2006; it’s all just CAD now. I only get to sketch when I get the rare couple hours, and it’s mostly just for fun.

Though once in a while someone asks me to sketch, and that’s super fun, even though I’m super rusty.

phenotyp > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 03/31/2020 at 13:46

2

At my first internship, all you were allowed was a black Bic. Not even the blue Pentel RSVPs (my favorite ballpoint, I brought a bunch with me). For a couple years I used Pilot Precise rollerballs (which is what those sketches were done with) and tiny Sharpies, but those fuckers would leak when I flew, so I didn’t sketch with them as much.

Thing about drawing skill— it’s all self-taught. The only way to learn is by doing. Classes just make you do. The learning is all on you.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > phenotyp 03/31/2020 at 13:54

0

Yes, exactly! Sometimes instructor critique can help you pinpoint what is off but chances are you already know. Just caring enough to try to improve is what separates the good from the just OK. 

Snuze: Needs another Swede > phenotyp 03/31/2020 at 13:56

0

I was a Robotech fan as well. But I eventually latched on to Heavy Gear because it appealed to the (nascent) engineer in me. I t had a similar aesthetic, and used a lot of the same concepts, but put a more practical, real world spin on things . I think as an industrial engineer you’d love it. 

phenotyp > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 03/31/2020 at 14:07

1

Yep. And when you’re in a class of 15 for three years, several of whom literally wrote the books for design programs before they came to that one, you look around and say “ FUCK , I gotta compete with THAT !?”

So you buckle down, and get to fucking work.

A couple days ago I posted some pics of one of my sketch heroes, Christian Felske. He interned at the same place that I did, about 4-5 years before me.

Dude was AMAZING . Every (A1-sized) page was perfect.

phenotyp > Snuze: Needs another Swede 03/31/2020 at 14:14

1

Never got into Heavy Gear, but I spent a few years playing Battletech. I was probably more interested in painting the miniatures than the actual game, but really, anything with mecha, and/or ships flying out of bigger ships was my jam.

This was like my bible when I was in 8th grade.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > phenotyp 03/31/2020 at 14:32

0

You should be illustrating sci-fi anime.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > phenotyp 03/31/2020 at 14:34

0

Battletech was fun! I played with some friends, I was never much into painting miniatures, though. I was more into RPGs for the lore. I got into Warhammer 40k for a while and found the same thing; I painted one Space Marine squad and lost interest. But I still read the books on occasion because I love the lore. 

Chariotoflove > phenotyp 03/31/2020 at 14:36

0

Tablet sketching seems to have come a long way. A lot of artists like it more now that pressure sensitive styluses are a thing. I like the idea as a rank novice because the undo function of a digital sketching medium makes it a lot less intimidating and helps my learning process.

“O h, that was not how it looked in my head, let’s take that back...[undo]...[retry]... okay, that’s much better...”

phenotyp > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 03/31/2020 at 14:37

0

Get me the connections, I’d be all over it.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > phenotyp 03/31/2020 at 14:39

0

DANG! You had to compete with that? There is always that one guy (I used to be him real early on) but eventually everyone has time to catch up. I really can’t even pretend to know enough to critique the drawings of either of you, but I can still be impressed. Good work.

phenotyp > Snuze: Needs another Swede 03/31/2020 at 14:43

1

Same with WH40K— I painted so many miniatures. Did all sorts of mods and sculpting and shit. Never actually played it. But I read all of it at the time. I bought the shit out of White Dwarf magazine for a couple years.

WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI > phenotyp 03/31/2020 at 14:48

0

These are so badass. You sir, have a talent.

phenotyp > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 03/31/2020 at 15:06

1

The trick with design (at the time— now it’s all CAD, unfortunately), is that the sketch has to be unimpeachable and transcend language, so you can actually critique the concept.

Visual communication (VisCom) is a fundamental part of doing ID. I actually got to teach some early digital viscom classes, my senior year in school. I was earlier than most to jump onto digital sketching, thanks to a good friend, and just an insane desire to see it really work. I loved that you could draw with light, instead of dark.

I still get people asking me if a sketch is digital or markers, because I draw the same way. The medium isn’t as important as the idea that’s being communicated. It’s just moving a pen/pencil/brush/chalk, except you don’t have to switch the tool in your hand.

(early digital, October 2001)

Pencil, pen, and marker, also Oct/Nov 2001. This was for the PNGV project, though the ballpoint sketches were things I was doodling at my internship in Austria, hence the VW logo on the key sketch.

Those are all from late 2001.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > phenotyp 03/31/2020 at 15:21

0

Those are very technically impressive aside from the obvious creativity shown. 

The detail of the mirrors mounted at the top of the windshield pillar brings up a question you might find interesting. Why do cars with electronic mirror s have the camera mounted where the mirror traditionally goes?

Fender mirrors look cooler and the camera would be more functional further aft of the cabin.

Something like this, but more pedestrian friendly. The cars that have it would stand out as being modern and cool with their prominent fancy technology.

phenotyp > Chariotoflove 03/31/2020 at 15:21

1

I’ve been using tablets since the early Wacom serial-port versions, about 20 years. I still draw the same as if I were working on vellum— layers of lines, layers of gradients, layers of marker reflections. The nice thing is that you can use light over dark.

Still get people asking me if my sketches are markers or digital. I tell them that it doesn’t matter. But I am pretty fucking picky about tools.

This was my first sketch with Photoshop (instead of StudioPaint or Painter), in 2002, for the Ford Cobra (Daisy) project.

phenotyp > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 03/31/2020 at 15:41

1

Good question. I used mirrors as like exclamation points on my models, back then.

They completed the proportion, same way the roof rails did.

I’ve always been a big fan of Japanese-style fender mirrors; I think that a small, wide-angle camera mounted right behind the front wheels would do the trick really well.

Chariotoflove > phenotyp 03/31/2020 at 15:43

0

I always thought about getting a Wacom tablet back in the 90s, but never pulled the trigger. I couldn’t justify the expense.  But I am considering an iPad Pro because it can do so many things but will let me indulge myself in drawing and writing as well.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > phenotyp 03/31/2020 at 15:45

1

I noticed you got creative with the mirror placement. While digital mirrors are new, this is the chance for cars that possess the technology to really flaunt what they got. Make them promin e nt, maybe even with contrasting colors. They should show everyone that you can afford the latest technology, and look good while doing it.

Those last renders (?) are pretty cool too. I like the wheel design; it looks like a sand dollar, giving it an organic feel matching the rest of the design.

phenotyp > Chariotoflove 03/31/2020 at 15:48

1

Since Wacom went off the deep end, I used my Motion Computing tablet for about 8 years (Wacom pen and screen), then switched to MS Surface Pro 3, and for the last 2 years I’ve been using my SurfaceBook 2 (15") pretty much exclusively. It’s kind of my dream tablet. I always wanted an HD, 15" screen to draw on. The stylus is as good as the software and my hand can do, and it’s just the right size. I just wish that software updates between MS and Adobe were better-coordinated, because when things suddenly stop working, I get really pissed off .

phenotyp > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 03/31/2020 at 15:53

2

The last ones aren’t renders, they’re photos of my thesis model in 2003. The only clay model shown at the Detroit Auto Show in 2004. I sculpted that. No one understood it until I painted it. Worked my ass off to get the surfaces right. The reflections were perfect. I was also the only one doing multi-color and matte paint. You have 24 hours from base coat to clearcoat. It was a marathon.

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > phenotyp 03/31/2020 at 16:17

0

The effort shows. Tremendous effort, to get that level of realism in the light, reflections, and sun glare. Very impressive.