Because life drawing is a thing we do... sometimes

Woohoo. Claire and I finally made it to another Life Drawing session. I know. Shock, horror. It actually happened.

Life Drawing Part II

And here's all the missing weeks in between :P

Life Drawing

Yup more chicks again. We had a dancer to mix it up a bit. Keen for some different body shapes sometime though.

And a random foot... First time I've ever slightly enjoyed drawing one. Turns out they have some strange fun lines to them.

Life Drawing

So, I used to hate drawing humans. But boy have times changed!

They're also getting a LOT easier to draw, guys included though I seem not to draw them as much. Hence, here's some dudes from the past few weeks at Life Drawing.

Character design is going to fun after all this practice.

 

Life Drawing in a Nutshell...

First all you worry about is anatomy and getting everything in proportion. And not making awkward eye contact.

Then you start noticing things like lines and light and style fun stuff that you can actually start to concentrate on now that you know where all the bits and bobs of humans line up (somewhat).

Next, (and I'll get there eventually...) you MAKE ART out of it. It's about an idea, and you have the means and the practice to know how to communicate it. It's not effortless. But gee it sure looks pretty damn awesome.

Huzzah! And that's life.

Onwards, Upwards and Life Drawing

Prepare for a post-athon, the drought has ended ;) ...

Life drawing session #5

It was great to get back into the swing after so many weeks -I actually haven't picked up a pencil or done any non-Tafe drawing in a good long while. It shows a little in my drawings, but I can already feel the mind-set returning after a good few weeks of holiday hiatus and the end-of term rush.

I also discovered an artist who is my new idol -I love her line work, which reminds me very much of Mucha/Art Nouveau, and also her her wild, strong characters. She has a darker edge to some of her pieces, and also a large nature influence, here is a link and my 3 favourites so far.

I really love her concept sketches -in fact probably more than the finished piece its self.

[Jawcooper's Blog]

And here are my scans from recent life drawing. Obviously I have some work to do, but at least I have a goal to work to, and it is great to find inspiration for a style that hits home. Even over just 5 sessions there's so much of a difference in how I see and draw humans. 

Obviously I've edited out the less fortunate pieces, and condensed it down to this lot ;) ...

A few warm up sketches.

The one on the right is actually from a few weeks ago, which I hadn't uploaded (all of them were pretty shoddy, -I was rather tired and distracted- but I felt this one aught to go up)

My favourite piece. You can feel the muscles present a lot more, and i started working in more tone and context in the actual delivery

This week it is back-into-the-swing week, a fresh start with a new term so over the next few posts I'll be very excitedly developing my short story (story boarding and character design) and a few of my finished pieces from last term will be appearing.

Life Drawing: Session 4

My fourth session at UWA life drawing.


I picked up a very interesting book "Force; Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators" and I feel it has the style and approach to life drawing that I've been looking for. It focuses on telling a story through your drawing: picking on idea and exaggeration the pose

"Copying leads to lying. You have more chance to capture reality as an exaggeration of ideas than a dead representation of life"

It is instead about "humanity" as the author says. "Your experience with the life model is your drawing"

He also states to make sure you aren't drawing from assumption; what you think you know or "guessing". Your awareness of the forces acting on the model is what will sell the pose, not what you think you see.

This is a very aggressive approach to drawing (key word: FORCE). I think it matches my heavy line style, with minimal shading. I have experimented the past few weeks with different techniques and will keep doing so, but I think the ideas here have hit home somewhere -I can definitely see a difference in this week's drawings!

^this one is probably my least favourite.

 I concentrated too much on the details first.

 

^My favourite piece. It was lots of fun to work with cloth, 

something I don't usually do.

Other thing I've learnt (But will yet learn to apply)

Strong, confident strokes, not repetitive scratches. "Air brush" the page first before making the mark if you are unsure. Then apply the line steadily with varying pressure.

If you are going to add shadow/shading, always follow the contour of the body, it describes the 3d form much better than straight lines in one direction!

Force/energy creates life. Be aware of life and therefore force in the figure

Think of the big idea, don't get stuck on detail. Think of the pyramid hierarchy: 1st comes the main idea you want to communicate, then comes blocking  torso/pelvis/part of the body that most communicates this force. Lastly comes the fingernails/detail if you have time.

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Anthony's suggestions Updated 21/3/13

Faces should have the same detail as the rest of the piece.  Try blurring your eyes and focusing on the areas of contrast: the eye brow, the shadow under the lid. They are gestural like the rest of the body.

Do lots of 30 sec poses for gestural work, theses teach us an artist's "shorthand" for communicating quickly an idea. 3 min for next step this is about proportions and the actual body. Then the 10 minute ones should focus more on treatment and more detail. Working fast to capture detail will help you learn to create detail faster in your own pieces.

Also perhaps we should try moving around the model. Changing the perspective, standing close/far/high angle/low. Sit for the longer/detailed pieces. Find an arm band/lackey band and stick three pencils in this so you can move about and draw and switch easy.

Do about 10 sessions learning the ins and outs and then try a lot of experimenting for the treatment and mediums. You will progress with practice from chicken scratching, to  looping to knowing how to find the right line/swoop first go.

There are two styles of drawing: anatomical "life study" which is important too. If you are doing this,  focus on one particular part of the body and ghost the rest. Siilarly for 10 min poses, pick three points of detail/a tri of what communicates the pose to focus on most.

Force seems a good base concept, but also to think about what holds things and props thins up, about weight and in particular about the "gritty" bits in between that give the pose and person its character (wrinkles/fat etc.). Note which places the bone hits the skin and which it is only fat we see.

Lastly use larger paper of a fair quality. Try coffee  as a painting medium. Use 2/4B as I am now :)

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Life Drawing

I started life drawing classes a fortnight ago, and there's certainly some interesting things to be learnt here. I've spent so long drawing on the computer I feel i've lost thouch with pencil and paper. I've also always had a very heavy line, cartoony style so rendering 3D has sometimes been a challenge.

My sister(studying visual art) tells me lighter lines, and to use more shading/tone instead of line. I think i might try some charcoal and also some better quality paper next week. Also a scanner instead of these silly camera shots.

Its interesting thinking of anatomy in terms of animation as well. After drawing so many fluffy creatures I've had to pick up my skills on humans quite a lots in the last 12 months. Some experimentation with style alongside that.

 I'm a lot more comfortable with using humans and the concept of using them in an animation now that i actually know a bit more about how to visually describe them :)

 

^ Apparently my best shot at foreshortening

 

^One of my favorite poses

 

^a more linear stylistic approach 

 

Obviously I've edited out the more shoddy ones, hopefully some improvement will show in weeks to come :)