Monsters and Mayhem

Sometimes its really hard to use a medium you have not used in a couple days. When I got to the pastels, it felt a little weird. Not to mention, I had to go from doing 2 hour+ drawings to 15 minute ones. Things like that take some adjusting. While I'm not completely satisfied with the results, I'm very happy to see the amount of improvement I got. I think even after this class is over, I will still do a bit of pastel studies because they are fun to do. It just sucks when using certain colors (some are really smooth easy to use, other are hard and you have to really draw with more force).

This current assignment was indiciation. So I had little time to add some details to one area allowing the viewer to be able to guess on the rest. Details and focal point... still much improvement needed there.  However, a good point my teacher made was that I am becoming more confident in my strokes. This is something I've been trying to work towards since the beginning. Its still hard when I have proportions to worry about, but this is definitely one step up.

15 minutes, i only have so much time.

Split decisions need to be made

Confident strokes create a powerful image thats easier to read.

My sketchbook assignment was really fun. I got to create creatures based on the "world" I created in the previous assignment. The only problem is that I thought my first ideas were the best, when I probably should have thumbnailed a bit to get the best results. For those probably unaware, thumbnails are just quick sketches that you can toss out in an instant. This gives the artist time to really go wild and explore ideas he/she may have not. 

But this was a cool assignment never the less. Definitely something I will do again and again to improve my concepting ability.

Granite Snapping Spider is a rock like creature that springs at its enemy from hiding

and injects venom.

Long Hair Faun is a killing machine in this rocky area, while the Night Pecker

is adapt in both day and night thanks to its large ears.

Ellipses are sure tough to do but I can see the more I draw them the better I get. Thats just a rule in life, but its fun to know while you are doing it. These were kind of tough and I don't quite grasp drawing longitude and latitude. Luckily, that's what we are covering in class. I'm just happy to see me learning all of this because it allows for me to draw so many cooler stuff from my imagination!

Looking closer

No figure drawings today because of midterms this week. Instead here are some simplified forms of the body. Its harder than it looks. You really have to pay attention to where things are going, what side is facing you and how they all work together. I will be working on some anatomy studies this weekend. If I get a chance, i might upload some.

One step at a time.

My newest sketchbook assignment is a cool assignment but a tough one. I need to look for a mini ecosystem and draw it. Thats cool, but there is just so much detail sometimes that I kind of get lost in my drawing. I will have to try harder and its definitely good practice. Oh the other thing that needs practice is how I can render with a pencil because I feel it will be a lot easier to correct values later on.

Next, I will create a creature to inhabit my eco-system. One is a rusty, moldy, rocky industrial area (under a bridge). The other is dirty mushrooms with leafs. 

This was tough, I'm not a fan of bugs up close.

Its funny how I overlooked these all the time.

Linear perspective class has me creating random objects from imagination. I'm happy to see that all of this practice is showing results. I think I can push myself further then this but for now I was so worried about getting the ellipses correct. 

Getting better the more I try

Sketchbook assignment was pretty cool since I tried using markers. Its a whole lot easier to control my values then to play half the time with the pencil. I might try ink washes next or colored pencil. I don't know if its me or the graphite pencil, but it was hard to work with.

Some of the good things that came out of this is how i arrange within the picture plane. I must start putting boxes over my stuff because it really shows how this would read as a bigger piece. The bad was not experimenting enough with putting the still life objects in different angle and ALL THE TANGENTS that just were not obvious when I was doing it.

Quick thumbs: tripod, ps1 controller, candle holder

Linear perspective and its ellipses. They are making a bit more sense but still its hard. I barely EVER do this kind of stuff. It just shows  how much I must work in this class. I did get the book Creative Perspective which has nice examples that work with the class. I will try to do stuff from that book as well. So not much to say for now, maybe later though i'll be drawing some awesome stuff.

Figure drawing was all about long drawings. It feel like I was able to get the general idea of the drawing in about 25 to 35 minutes minus a few proportion details. While the later time was all about pushing and pulling the form. I enjoyed these a lot. You can see because I only needed one.

I need to work on pushing the figure from the background and not let the model blend in. It would create a more striking silhouette versus a muddy mess. I also need to clarify detail in the focal and blur out the detail in the non focal.

However, I am happy to see my improvement most of all. I'm having a lot more fun doing stuff I want to and less time fighting over certain aspects like the medium or proportions.

2 hours

1 hour

30 minute

4 hours

Birthday, Contest, Masters, Figures and circles

Its my birthday this weekend. That means I get some money to invest in my art :) I think this time around I will be buying some reference books because I got a basic understanding of drawing. What I need to work on is finding images to work from.

Also I entered a contest a while back creating a superhero about a year ago (about 200 entered). Only recently did I get the grandprize. They are pretty awesome, two figures and a limited edition dvd. I definitely want to use the figures for reference. Also I have the hero I created on reserve for whenever I want to make a cool comic.

From the anime Tiger and Bunny, I need to really watch this.

Master copies in figure drawing dealing with edges. Each took about 80 minutes long. This was really interesting because I was finished with the basic idea quickly but the actual rendering was very hard. I think I will do more of these master copies, at least 1 more this weekend. The next assignment is a long pose. This in general feels weird like after a certain point in time a different switch flips on. I like it and feel like its a muscle i do not flex often...

Still noodling with the tones. I REALLLY need to start stepping back and judge the picture as a whole because some of the values are just far from off. This technique really is easier in photoshop where I can just quickly shrink the image to check all the values as a whole. Sadly though, my room doesn't have the biggest area. What I might do is rearrange for optimal drawing.

Linear perspective, more ellipses. Nothing really to say about this other than the fact that I need to work even MORE on them.

Also figures in space. Its one of my banes. I did one for sketchbook class and totally fudged it ALL up. This came out a bit better because its easier to get straighter lines on photoshop. HOWEVER. I need to work on this because photoshop shouldn't be a crutch. I will try redoing my sketchbook assignment and posting the bad one as well for comparison.

Photography assignment was before, during, after. This is a higher conceptual type of idea where I tried to keep toward the circle. However, it got dark at the bottom. Btw, they were delicious to eat.

Details: love/hate relation

My newest pastel drawings from fig1. These were tricky but still very fun to do. I feel like I'm improving well with this type of drawing. However, there is still a lot of work. Not only that but I stray away from details. I feel like that could bring these 15 minute drawings to a more finished quality. That would give it a better focal.

I just have to push myself and put me out of my comfort zone. One of the thing I did try to add was more than just 2 colors. It gives a less boring palette.

I have been using my sketchbook a LOT more. Its really refreshing and I hope to post some of the pages very soon. This past assignment however got me thinking in terms of composition. Its definitely something that feels a little weird. Kind of like doing thumbnails, I have to turn on a switch that is usually not used. Its awesome though, I really get to play with the overall picture and not worry about details. (which as you can tell... I stray away from in my figure drawing... sigh, I must figure out a good  way to not overwork details)

Ellipses, these things are tough. Not as easy as they may seem. I had trouble and I still don't think i completely understand them. Yet, I know the box theory but its hard to visualize the correct arc.

Starting a personal project. Its for a contest but this is mainly just so I can work on non-school work as well. Listened to a podcast that told me its a great idea to do just that. 

Rough sketch is rough. Hopefully will have it done by friday which is the due date but I don't care really.

Forms broken down and drawing with light

The best way to understand complexity is to break it down into simple shapes. However, it can be really hard to see the lines that really show the true form. I have some problems when it comes to that. But the more i practice with it, the better I am getting. Soon, I should try lighting some of these figures.

10 minute pencil, understanding form with wires and blocks

This was an optional assignment for photography that I really wanted to do.  They are long exposures using the night time photography mode on my camera. There is no light except the little flashlight that I took a part. By shining it on and off, I was able to get an interesting effect.

shinku...Hadouken

A blaze of light made by a small light.

And made by a shutter speed of 15 or 30 seconds.

I have gotten a lot better with cubes. Why all this for just a simple shape? Because many if not all things can just be broken down into this shape. It's also helping my see perspective. However, I still have a way to go. The more I do, the better I can see my early mistakes.

I will never see the end of cubes, never. 

Proportions outside and in

Figure drawing for the past has been getting harder and I do not want to fall behind in class. My previous assignments were much larger than expected. They did not look bad unless you put the image next to them. I think it was the distortion I got from drawing with the laptop next to my easel. This time though I printed out the images and paid special attention to it. They definitely came out better. 

Personal 25 min pastel, tried to keep proportions in check. Hands and

feet still give me trouble with this medium.

25 minute pastel.

Overlap studies, these were pretty tough.

More overlap, had fun with color experimentation.

18 minute, I'm getting better little at a time.

18 minute, Seated poses are less trouble. Still hard though.

Sketchbook class has been making me sketch outside a lot more than I ever have. Its really nice though when its on clear days, not so good on windy cold days. I did learn one thing and that was to clip my pages together so they don't fly everywhere. I should probably use that same principle when photographing my figure drawing.

Sketch, buildings seen outside at a park.

Linear perspective is still something I struggle with the most I think. I feel like if there is one thing I should focus on this week its that. Mainly because it affects things like my sketchbook class and anatomy class.

Cube contraption.

I'm starting to like these pastels

Recently, Mark English was in my Figure Drawing class critiquing our work. Sadly, I had a bunch of poor ones to show for. I wish he got to see these instead. haha, oh well~ However, he did like my master copy that I did from his work. One big issue was the contrast. I'll need to find that good palette some day. While another that everyone had was barely any of us used a cool color for the reflective light. I tried to experiment with that this time. I might have to look at the Mark English video again (oh for those who don't know, TAD students got to see the videos of Mark doing the image that we would copy later) It was very insightful and I think it opened my mind a little to this.

25 Min, Nu-Pastel

25 Min, Nu-Pastel

25 Min, Nu-Pastel

2 minute drawings, I learned going slower can achieve better results.

In linear perspective, we are learning about the distortion of a camera lens. It turns out the closer you get the wider angle you will achieve. However if you go far away (i went like 15 feet or more from the image below) and zoom in, you will see the objects vanishing points stretch. This is mainly due because the one on the right was zoomed in and cropped from a larger image while the one on the right is next to my face. 

This is no trickery my friend, BOTH are real. No photoshop used.

Image of my neighborhood, I like the colors.

Boxed Figures and Master Copy

The end of this last week has been pretty enlightening. Slowly but surely, I have been getting better at all my classes. They even have influenced how I do my sketches. I can only imagine what my art will be like by the end of this term, let alone 2 years from now.

Understanding form and bones with photos.

Took this pic far away and zoomed in to understand distortion.

Mark English master copy, I think I'm starting to understand this pastel stuff.