This week, we began a series of portraits of other students in class. We will make three portraits altogether: a 3/4 frontal view, 3/4 rear view, and one "other" view (3/4 top, bottom, or the like). I began with the 3/4 back view, pictured below.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
LD2 Week 7 - Portraits
10/25/10
This week, we began a series of portraits of other students in class. We will make three portraits altogether: a 3/4 frontal view, 3/4 rear view, and one "other" view (3/4 top, bottom, or the like). I began with the 3/4 back view, pictured below.
This week, we began a series of portraits of other students in class. We will make three portraits altogether: a 3/4 frontal view, 3/4 rear view, and one "other" view (3/4 top, bottom, or the like). I began with the 3/4 back view, pictured below.
Friday, October 29, 2010
LD2 Week 6 - Goodbye skulls, hello heads!
10/18/10 and 10/20/10
This week marked the transition from drawing skulls to drawing heads and features. We spent some time practicing drawing the facial features that we learned about in Life Drawing I (some of my work pictured below), and we learned/reviewed about the neck.
Drawing the features wasn't too bad (besides elongating the nose a bit, as seen in the picture). I remembered most of what I learned in LD1, and I don't think I've taken too many steps backward since then. As I recall, I missed the lecture on drawing the mouth and ear. Those may be a bit more challenging than the eyes and nose, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. So far, it's a nice change of pace to be doing something other than skulls. I'm eager to find out how much the knowledge of the "deeper" structure (i.e. the skull) will help me in drawing the head and features.
This week marked the transition from drawing skulls to drawing heads and features. We spent some time practicing drawing the facial features that we learned about in Life Drawing I (some of my work pictured below), and we learned/reviewed about the neck.
Drawing the features wasn't too bad (besides elongating the nose a bit, as seen in the picture). I remembered most of what I learned in LD1, and I don't think I've taken too many steps backward since then. As I recall, I missed the lecture on drawing the mouth and ear. Those may be a bit more challenging than the eyes and nose, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. So far, it's a nice change of pace to be doing something other than skulls. I'm eager to find out how much the knowledge of the "deeper" structure (i.e. the skull) will help me in drawing the head and features.
Monday, October 25, 2010
LD2 Week 5 - Skulls from memory
10/11/10 and 10/13/10
We began this week by drawing skulls from memory. This was my first time drawing without a reference, and I was eager (as well as a bit anxious) to start. After we completed our memory drawings, we looked at a skull and made corrections to our memory drawings. My memory drawing was done in charcoal, and I made corrections using a conte pencil, which are the dark orange marks on the drawing. I am pleased with how it turned out. I was able to remember the basic shapes and planes of the skull, although some of the finer details slipped my mind. A few proportions and angles were a bit off, but not too bad. Overall, I think I have a decent grasp on the skull and pulled off the memory drawing pretty well.
On Wednesday, we drew skulls from new angles. My first drawing is closest to an anterolaterocranial view (3/4 frontal view, seen from the top). The second drawing is from an anterolaterocaudal view (3/4 frontal view, seen from the bottom).
It was harder than I had anticipated to draw the skulls from these angles. I'm becoming more comfortable drawing the skull from the angles that I've done numerous times (anterior, posterior, 3/4), but the change in perspective did a good job of throwing me off. At least they look like skulls; I'm happy about that! Changing the proportions to match the perspective was the most difficult part. My difficulty is best demonstrated through the wide jaw in the drawing from the top view and the wide cranium in the bottom-view drawing. Although challenging, I feel that I'll be able to do a lot better with a bit more practice.
We began this week by drawing skulls from memory. This was my first time drawing without a reference, and I was eager (as well as a bit anxious) to start. After we completed our memory drawings, we looked at a skull and made corrections to our memory drawings. My memory drawing was done in charcoal, and I made corrections using a conte pencil, which are the dark orange marks on the drawing. I am pleased with how it turned out. I was able to remember the basic shapes and planes of the skull, although some of the finer details slipped my mind. A few proportions and angles were a bit off, but not too bad. Overall, I think I have a decent grasp on the skull and pulled off the memory drawing pretty well.
On Wednesday, we drew skulls from new angles. My first drawing is closest to an anterolaterocranial view (3/4 frontal view, seen from the top). The second drawing is from an anterolaterocaudal view (3/4 frontal view, seen from the bottom).
It was harder than I had anticipated to draw the skulls from these angles. I'm becoming more comfortable drawing the skull from the angles that I've done numerous times (anterior, posterior, 3/4), but the change in perspective did a good job of throwing me off. At least they look like skulls; I'm happy about that! Changing the proportions to match the perspective was the most difficult part. My difficulty is best demonstrated through the wide jaw in the drawing from the top view and the wide cranium in the bottom-view drawing. Although challenging, I feel that I'll be able to do a lot better with a bit more practice.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
LD2 Week 4 - Skulls and critique 2
This week, we continued working on the five drawings for our second drawing project, and we then critiqued said project. Below are my five drawings. The views are: 10-minute top (Cross-Contour and Long-Axis lines only), 3/4 front (only CC and LA), 3/4 back (CC, LA, as well as value on the side plane), profile (all value) and back (all value).
Overall, I think I'm making good progress. I'm very happy with my value drawings, and I think that they show an obvious improvement from previous drawings. I'm happy with how I used shading and value to create the bone under the cranium in the back drawing, and think it has a certain quality of realism and beauty. I could have exaggerated the shapes of the form to really portray a sense of it, but I'm happy with the subtle shading I used to depict the depth of the planes.
The cross-contour drawings are getting better, but have a bit more room to grow than the value drawings. The front 3/4 skull looks like a helmet (which I gather is a good thing), so that's a plus. I understand the form and plane changes of the whole skull better now than I did in the past, and I think that it's starting to show in the drawings. One key critique I received is to work on the spacing of the contour lines so it doesn't create the checkerboard-style pattern than is apparent on the side plane of the front 3/4 drawing. Once I start to work on that, I think my drawings will develop a new sense of life and movement.
Overall, I think I'm making good progress. I'm very happy with my value drawings, and I think that they show an obvious improvement from previous drawings. I'm happy with how I used shading and value to create the bone under the cranium in the back drawing, and think it has a certain quality of realism and beauty. I could have exaggerated the shapes of the form to really portray a sense of it, but I'm happy with the subtle shading I used to depict the depth of the planes.
The cross-contour drawings are getting better, but have a bit more room to grow than the value drawings. The front 3/4 skull looks like a helmet (which I gather is a good thing), so that's a plus. I understand the form and plane changes of the whole skull better now than I did in the past, and I think that it's starting to show in the drawings. One key critique I received is to work on the spacing of the contour lines so it doesn't create the checkerboard-style pattern than is apparent on the side plane of the front 3/4 drawing. Once I start to work on that, I think my drawings will develop a new sense of life and movement.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
LD2 Week 3 - More skulls! And the back of the cranium
This week, we began our next drawing project. For this one, we are to create 4 drawings of the skull: profile, straight-on back, 3/4 front, and 3/4 back. The focus of these drawings is the back of the cranium (we aren't including the face in our drawings). This is in order to develop a greater appreciation of the entire skull. Most people spend a majority of time drawing the face, overlooking the rest. It's easy to assume that the back of the cranium is just a rounded oval, but there is much more to it than that. Attention to the subtle plane changes and overall movement around it greatly affects the success of a piece overall, making this a vital aspect to understand.
A number of students didn't spend much time in class on Monday because of a design presentation, so I didn't start drawing until Wednesday. I'm close to finishing my first drawing (3/4 back view). Images after completion!
A number of students didn't spend much time in class on Monday because of a design presentation, so I didn't start drawing until Wednesday. I'm close to finishing my first drawing (3/4 back view). Images after completion!
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