Final post for LDII

 Gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/akibaboy65/sets/72157625644576106/

As I reflect on the whole semester of Life Drawing II, I think about how much I've grown over the course of drawing dozens of skulls and faces for these months. Focusing on the drawing of the head was really interesting because I had previously developed a very rigid style on my own on how to draw the head. It was mostly based on cartoons and expression, namely what was easiest to convey. When you give character large mouths and eyes and very dynamic facial bone structure, it's easy to convey ideas better. For example, a villain character's face will almost always have large eyebrow bones that jut out above his eyes sharply to give him a strong, disapproving appearance at all times. These are the kinds of things that become habit when drawing faces and heads. I've had to learn how to pay attention to the actual correct form of the skull and the relationship between the face's features etc.

When drawing my classmates, Dan, Brandon, and Jordan, I noticed how drawing a lifelike face requires a lot of subtlety. If I drew my lines to heavy, or didn't follow the form of their face completely perfect, I was accidentally making the figure look older, or angrier than they really were. With Jordan's drawing being the last of the 3, I learned to use light repetitious strokes in order to create layers of form that could be played around with. Brandon's face drawing on the other hand features a lack of foresight on my part, and the hard lines I used to draw his eyes make him look a little pissed. This was another important thing I realized that I needed to practice, the way in which my lines spoke.

Our final skeleton I think was my most challenging drawing yet. While its large scale constantly required monitoring of the overall perspective, I also had to realize effective time management. My favorite part of the drawing was the feet, because there was so much texture and hidden shape within the bones that it became a huge challenge to express them on flat paper, with theoretical lighting.

Overall I had a great time this semester, and am inspired to keep practicing Life Drawing because I realize how pivotal it is in the work I do.

Our last project is all about making a full scale drawing of the skeleton. It's really crazy to take on a project like this and still keep things in perspective. On one hand I would like to just pick individual sections and finish them completely, but on the other hand it's important to always be able to go back and respond to oversights within the work. For example, I constantly have to make corrections to the size of the rib cage and the pelvis. It wasn't until I felt comfortable with their sizes that I could really get to work on the details. Furthermore, the sizes of the hands and limbs are important, as that is one element that cartoon skeletons usually mess up.

While it seemed like 3 weeks would have been plenty of time to work this piece over, it is actually kind of a challenge to not want to rush certain elements of it. I was originally planning a sketch layer, which would be worked over later in charcoal to imbue it with more personality, but I quickly realized that the sketch layer would have to be worked through into the final layer, as time became an issue.

This week we are planning on creating a room of our drawings for the senior show, so I hope this drawing turns out well as a solid representation of everything I've practiced and learned from this semester. I can definitely already see some of this class showing through in my own work.

On monday of this last week, we had our critiques of the human face drawings. I was apparently the most interesting model for my classmates to draw, since Amy thought their drawings of me were their most successful ones. The position I sat in was pretty dang interesting. I obviously had a different situation since I couldn't draw myself. The drawings that were shown on Mon. are the same as the ones from my last 3 blog posts, featuring Dan, Brandon, and Jordan. Apparently my drawing of Brandon was the most interesting due to the emotion of the face, whether accidental or intentional, I can't really remember. I personally felt like my drawing of Jordan was the best one because I managed to infuse it with my own personal style and technique, while still having it (in my opinion) look completely like him. Features are exaggerated and celebrated moreso than life, but I felt like that made it more interesting and three dimensional. Several process marks and draft lines were left in the drawing to suggest the form more fully. Also, the angle of which I draw Jordan's face seems to express a lot more to me, especially in the shape and curvature shown in the neck/shoulder muscles.

The drawing above is of another project for my painting independent study. I felt like I posted this already but I guess I hadn't. I wanted to show a town that is torn between utopia and ruin. It was a Haven for those escaping from the ravages of the world portrayed, which was nearing an end. It was a really fun opportunity to get to play with vibrant colors the wouldn't normally be seen in the natural world, but it was also a challenge. Using such a palette also invokes the imagery of bright and flashy cartoons so I had to spend extra time trying to pay attention to aspects of realism. While not completely successful in this front, it was a learning experience and I definitely want to play around with it again.

This is Jordan. I drew him. We're doing in class critiques tomorrow. I really honestly have no idea what to blog about at the moment. Just been a busy week.

Week 2 of faces. The model on Monday was Brandon, and despite my drawing, he was not angry in any way. One of the biggest struggles was my tendency to elongate all the features and the face as a whole. I think this comes from growing up drawing cartoon and anime characters who have thin heads with smaller, nondescript features. It was good to put in a skull sketch under the drawing though, it gave some good perspective lines to curve the face around. I think the angry look in the drawing comes from how many times I erased and redrew the eyes: the more I drew, the harder it became to make the marks subtle.

Wednesday I was the face model, and I got propped up on a chair that was on 2 stools that was on a model stand...and I fell asleep half the time. Sorry for that guys.

I also finished my scenery painting for my other class. Originally I was going to add some sort of fantasy elements like a dinosaur turtle in the water or floating energy crystals, but I decided to focus on the process and getting texture and color to pop. I think it was inspired a little bit by cliff diving in Hawaii, though it's probably a little more idealized in my head than in actuality.

 This last week we started a new project, drawing perspectives of the human face. I chose to start off my 3 drawings with the "unique angle" drawing challenge myself. I wanted to incorporate a lot of the skull knowledge into the drawing instead of just relying on only what I was seeing. There were several sketch layers in graphite that were erased in order to feel like I was moving in the right direction. I was a little restless doing so, because spending so much time and still not having the drawing look like a drawing of the actual subject makes it hard to see the process coming together.

Also, I made sure to focus on accentuating the subtle parts of the face. For instance, when drawing the nose and lips, I would exaggerate some of the features in a somewhat cartoon fashion, but when stepping back from the drawing, they seemed to compliment the overall figure and give it a non-flattened appearance...something I struggle with often. 

Wed. we had advisement day, which was a chance to sit down and talk with not only my adviser, but the professor grading my Digital Painting Independent Study. To wrap things up for the class, I was going to do a nature drawing, with fantasy overtones (which aren't implemented quite yet). I wanted this one to feel less controlled and more fluidly lifelike than any of my previous digital works, so I've spent a lot of time experimenting with brushes, rather than just working only with those that I know and love. Pictured is my kind of base layer that sets up the objects and colors roughly. I want to create the image of an oasis that is being threatened by some unnatural force, which is where the fantasy elements will come in. It'll be interesting to see what I can learn from this process.

In preparation for the 18th's "test" of our skull knowledge, we spent this week practicing drawing a skull without a model first, doing several short sketches. The interesting part is realizing how important the structure is to creating a skull from memory. For example, if I wasn't paying attention to the structure of my skull, things quickly got out of hand and the head looked incorrect. It's important to realize early when something wasn't working, so that I wasn't digging myself into a hole that I couldn't get out of.

Wed. we tried some different perspective drawing (pictured). While this perspective wouldn't be on the test per se, gaining a knowledge of how the pieces look for many different perspectives kind of enhances the three dimensional sense of the object and how it exists in your mind. It was tough not letting the different parts get flattened, but with some intervention, and a new look at the approach to cross contour I was able to get the skull to pop and take shape.

In a somewhat related manner, I also worked this week on a self-portrait piece for a Digital Painting independent study. The piece shows my skull and different bones kind of erupting out of my skin. This is kind of showing how I see myself and whatnot when it comes to my joint issues, bone disease because it's sometimes makes me feel broken or weak. I wanted this work to look like a mixture of calm and pain in one expression.

This week we wrapped up our study of the cranium. For me, I was practicing a lot of the same techniques and struggling with the same barriers, so I hope I don't sound terribly redundant. First I find that with my drawing style, I like to work in a lot of my mark making into a gradual feel of shading, almost like my hand is scratching around a form that exists in my mind. With the top 2 drawings shown, I feel like that approach was successful due to the fact that these were drawings that featured shading. We were instructed for one of our drawings to be cross contour, which is where I feel like I have some trouble. It's really difficult to find the contours in such small dips and curves, even when I walk up close to the skull. Therefor, that is one area I definitely need to practice or get some more advice on.

Wed. was critique day, but I didn't make it. I bought a new house and have been stretched in so many different directions lately, with work, school, moving, and running around back and forth between Eau Claire, Menominee, and Chippewa, that I over-exerted myself on Tuesday and screw my back up for a few days. I just wanted to get everything done in 1 night so I wouldn't have to think about it anymore, but I didn't pay attention to my physical limits etc.

I look forward to tomorrow and getting started on the skeleton.

Monday actually was consumed with the Professional Advisory board meeting, so a lot of us took a break from class. To be honest, the only presenter that really seemed special to me was the first one, a Graphic Design studio owner, which I think was named "Hatch" if I remember correctly. It was really interesting to see how he used his environment, the office space, the conceptual projects, the attitude he brought to his work, in order to sell him and his designers as something special. It wasn't just another space filled with cubicles, the location was inspiring in and of itself. A lot of the other designers seemed to just have a reel of their stuff, which didn't particularly tell any stories and inspire any thoughts to me other than "hey, that guy made that stuff".

Wednesday, we got into the meat of this week, which was focusing directly on the top half of the skull. Because it was tough to distinguish the high detailed nature of our previous work's cranial section with the same life that the face had, I really had to take a look at my approach and my technique. I decided I would focus on my layering a lot more, working subtle shape, texture, and shading into the page. This drawing seemed to be a bit more challenging, because it forces me to create and express further than a life drawing usually asks to. When you see lines, you can draw them to make it easy for the viewer to identify. Having the form of an object expressed clearly is a whole different ordeal.

I'll continue to work on it this week, and we'll see what happens.

We spent this week wrapping up our 3-skull perspectives project. Monday was just a workday, but still had a lot going on. Focused a lot on building shape into my skulls by using artificial shading and by using expressive mark making. I like the rugged, sketchy feel I draw with, but equally appreciate the careful, controlled looking appearance of Amy’s sketches too.

Wed. we critiqued everyone’s work in small groups. Having the “expert” with us was pretty great because some interesting feedback and concepts were thrown around. We also chatted a little bit about our majors and how our studies in Life Drawing have related to multimedia and whatnot.

Starting over with skulls

Reflecting back on this week, I’m thinking how powerful this class is, and how it forces you to rethink a lot of the habits we develop or pick up on our own.

Monday the 13^th we had a simple session of doing skull gesture drawings. My usual approach to a drawing a seen object quickly got me in trouble, because it becomes a simple job of tracing the imaginary lines I’m seeing when I look at the skull as a mental illustration. As I progressed through the day, I really had to step back and try and describe the three dimensional aspects of the head, and to abandon the idea of the lines that were composing it.

Part way through the day we stepped out to take a look at different illustration artists, and how they compose drawing of the head, skull, face, and everything in between. It was interesting to me, who has a hobby illustrating and designing graphic novel characters and settings, to see exactly how to approach it. Too often I get stuck in the usual traps of what I think the character’s head should look like, and there’s several traps and bad execution that comes with that.

Finally at the end of Monday’s class period, we did one last thirty minute drawing, and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. Granted it was more simplistic looking than my previous attempts, but getting rid of the need for it to look “good” made sure I spent more time getting my proportions right and all that. It was a good base that could be worked on more thoroughly in the future. I’ve also learned more and more to not be afraid to entirely erase a “completed” drawing and to start from scratch on top of the image.

I missed Wed. due to back problems.

First Post

Setting things up, more to come.