Here is the link to my Final Flickr Portfolio:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/60230915@N05/sets/
Well another semester has come and gone, and I had some pretty great times along the way. I really feel like I accomplished a lot this semester, whether it was learning programs, getting a math class out of the way, or improving my skills with charcoal. Although I didn't come out of the semester with many huge projects that I'll be able to use in a portfolio, I think my skills improved dramatically across the board.
This class was a great example of that, and I feel like I have improved so much more than I thought I would at the beginning of the semester. When I came into the Life Drawing room the first day, my skills were extremely rusty, and I pretty much had to teach myself how to draw with charcoal all over again. It had been over a year since I had picked up any charcoal, sadly, but I was able to become fairly comfortable with it by the end of the semester.
When I look at my drawings from the beginning of the semester or previous classes, my drawings lack variation in line weight and look extremely flat. I think I have been able to improve on those skills, and I am now constantly conscious of how every line is going to affect the drawing. It definitely took a long time for me to grasp the challenge of gesture drawing, but once it clicked it got so much easier to incorporate gesture drawings into my longer poses. I struggled trying to find full-body gestures that I was completely happy with, but I really like some of the gestures I included that only focus on part of the body. They seem much more loose and I think I just need to keep practicing to get my full-body gestures to that point. I also included a gesture at the end of my gesture portfolio to show how much I had improved, which hopefully you will agree was quite a bit.
I have always been better when I have more time to work, so my long poses have always looked better to me than my gestures, but I still had a lot of improving to do on those when I started as well. Overall, I think my drawings got much more dimensional and feel more intelligent due to the way I have learned to use lines to show form rather than just resorting to shading. At first I wasn't excited about trying to draw without shading, but in the end it forced me to improve and evolve so much faster than I would have.
I had a great semester and can't wait to take Life Drawing 2 next semester!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Alright, we're winding down.....
So I finally gathered all my photos of my drawings over the entire semester, and I was extremely pleased with how many I was able to replace from my mid-term portfolio. It's always nice to see improvement, and before I looked at these pictures, I wasn't quite convinced as to just how much I had improved since September. I still struggled finding enough gesture drawings that I liked, so I had to pull some from the first half of the semester that don't include the entire figure, but there's still something about the partial body drawings that I really enjoy. It helps me view the figure as an object rather than a person if I don't think about drawing each individual piece of the body.
I'm also glad that we are able to include some of our skull, foot and hand drawings in our final portfolio, since those ended up being some of my favorite long poses. It was nice to be able to spend the extra time on one specific part of the body rather than the entire body. I think I was able to come out of those with some really nice, polished drawings to put in my portfolio. That's one reason I'm really looking forward to Life Drawing 2 next fall, since it focuses mainly on the head for most of the class. It will be very useful to learn how all the muscles and bones of the head work together to form different expressions and faces.
I'm also pretty pleased with how my maniken turned out at the end of the semester. There were many times during the year that I thought to myself that the muscles would never end, but alas our muscle men are complete. It was a nice change of pace to be able to switch gears and think more in three-dimensions rather than working with charcoal again. I definitely enjoyed the project, and it helped me visualize the body as a whole, as well as helped me place individual muscles into my drawings.
Here's a couple pic's of my final maniken!
I'm also glad that we are able to include some of our skull, foot and hand drawings in our final portfolio, since those ended up being some of my favorite long poses. It was nice to be able to spend the extra time on one specific part of the body rather than the entire body. I think I was able to come out of those with some really nice, polished drawings to put in my portfolio. That's one reason I'm really looking forward to Life Drawing 2 next fall, since it focuses mainly on the head for most of the class. It will be very useful to learn how all the muscles and bones of the head work together to form different expressions and faces.
I'm also pretty pleased with how my maniken turned out at the end of the semester. There were many times during the year that I thought to myself that the muscles would never end, but alas our muscle men are complete. It was a nice change of pace to be able to switch gears and think more in three-dimensions rather than working with charcoal again. I definitely enjoyed the project, and it helped me visualize the body as a whole, as well as helped me place individual muscles into my drawings.
Here's a couple pic's of my final maniken!
Second of three catch-ups!
Here we go again, this time I think I'm going to focus on gesture drawings, since I added a pic of an early-semester gesture that I did, and I will be adding a more recent one on the end of this post.
I definitely think gesture drawings have been the most bittersweet thing for me in this class over the semester. I think I have improved so much on them over the course of the entire semester, but when I'm actually doing them, I hate them so much, haha. I always feel like an idiot for the first chunk of the drawings, just because I'm trying to remember every single little hint and tip we've learned up to that point. I really do think I improved over the semester though, mostly due to the sheer number of gestures that we did.
I realized pretty quickly that I would have to abandon my normally uptight drawing style while in the Life Drawing classroom, and that was extremely difficult for me to do at first. I have always been the type of artist that takes every line very carefully and precisely, trying not to make any mistakes, but now I see that there's really no point in doing that; the mistakes actually add together to make the picture unique and interesting. Once I understood that fact, I was able to start loosening up and being more fluid with my strokes, making for better overall drawings in the end.
The gesture at the bottom of this page is from a few weeks ago, after Amy showed us a little tutorial on how our gestures should be looking at that point. I think I definitely improved, mostly in my use of line weight and the fluidity of my stokes. I also broke away from trying to draw every single line, and instead focused on the overall flow of each limb, using one or two lines to show the majority of the contours of the legs and arms. Hopefully you guys agree!
I definitely think gesture drawings have been the most bittersweet thing for me in this class over the semester. I think I have improved so much on them over the course of the entire semester, but when I'm actually doing them, I hate them so much, haha. I always feel like an idiot for the first chunk of the drawings, just because I'm trying to remember every single little hint and tip we've learned up to that point. I really do think I improved over the semester though, mostly due to the sheer number of gestures that we did.
I realized pretty quickly that I would have to abandon my normally uptight drawing style while in the Life Drawing classroom, and that was extremely difficult for me to do at first. I have always been the type of artist that takes every line very carefully and precisely, trying not to make any mistakes, but now I see that there's really no point in doing that; the mistakes actually add together to make the picture unique and interesting. Once I understood that fact, I was able to start loosening up and being more fluid with my strokes, making for better overall drawings in the end.
The gesture at the bottom of this page is from a few weeks ago, after Amy showed us a little tutorial on how our gestures should be looking at that point. I think I definitely improved, mostly in my use of line weight and the fluidity of my stokes. I also broke away from trying to draw every single line, and instead focused on the overall flow of each limb, using one or two lines to show the majority of the contours of the legs and arms. Hopefully you guys agree!
First of three catch-up posts tonight!
Hello again blog world, it's been far too long since I have been on here, but I will be getting completely caught up tonight before my last, FINAL post on Tuesday!!
I think in this post I will focus on the sheer fact that we are almost done! I can't believe how fast this semester went. I literally feel like we just started, and now we have 2 days until this class will be officially completed. I have had my frustrations during the semester, as I'm sure we all have, but I am extremely glad that I had the chance to take Life Drawing.
I'm not sure if anybody else feels this way, but I feel like I forget how to draw with charcoal, even if it's only been a week since the last time we drew. It takes me almost the entire class period sometimes before I start feeling somewhat competent with the gesture drawings, and I always feel like I'm still forgetting some critical piece of information. One minute I'm trying to make sure I'm getting the rib cage the right proportions, then when I'm just starting to look at the arms and head, Amy's timer goes off and it's time to start a new pose. So frustrating. But I guess that just goes to show how much practice really goes into this stuff, and I'm hoping to continue practicing over the summer in order to get even quicker and more fluid in my drawing style.
I really think I'm going to try to focus on keeping my drawings extremely light at the beginning, and not worrying so much about getting the lines right the first time. I used to be so up-tight about my drawings, but now after taking this class I really think that the more history that is seen in drawings, the more interesting they are. This is definitely something I need to start thinking more about when I draw in my free time (which I will hopefully have at least some of this summer)
Well, here's a gesture drawing from earlier in the semester, and in my next post I'll add a pic of a drawing from later in the semester, hopefully showing a bit of improvement!
I think in this post I will focus on the sheer fact that we are almost done! I can't believe how fast this semester went. I literally feel like we just started, and now we have 2 days until this class will be officially completed. I have had my frustrations during the semester, as I'm sure we all have, but I am extremely glad that I had the chance to take Life Drawing.
I'm not sure if anybody else feels this way, but I feel like I forget how to draw with charcoal, even if it's only been a week since the last time we drew. It takes me almost the entire class period sometimes before I start feeling somewhat competent with the gesture drawings, and I always feel like I'm still forgetting some critical piece of information. One minute I'm trying to make sure I'm getting the rib cage the right proportions, then when I'm just starting to look at the arms and head, Amy's timer goes off and it's time to start a new pose. So frustrating. But I guess that just goes to show how much practice really goes into this stuff, and I'm hoping to continue practicing over the summer in order to get even quicker and more fluid in my drawing style.
I really think I'm going to try to focus on keeping my drawings extremely light at the beginning, and not worrying so much about getting the lines right the first time. I used to be so up-tight about my drawings, but now after taking this class I really think that the more history that is seen in drawings, the more interesting they are. This is definitely something I need to start thinking more about when I draw in my free time (which I will hopefully have at least some of this summer)
Well, here's a gesture drawing from earlier in the semester, and in my next post I'll add a pic of a drawing from later in the semester, hopefully showing a bit of improvement!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Finally Caught Up!
so i think i'm finally caught up on these blogs, so hopefully whoever is grading these notices and takes note of that (hint, hint) haha
but anyways, i'm definitely happy that we've moved onto the skull and hands, which means we're winding down the semester and going to be able to put together some final drawings that look good all over, not just the abdomen. i already like a couple of the long drawings that we've done with the skull and hands, and i'll probably be using them for the final portfolio, which is coming up fast!
speaking of the end of the semester, i have a project in my digital content class that will be alot of work over the next few weeks. i'm doing a hand-drawn animation, telling the story of a penguin that wants to fly. i made storyboards for the same story last year using adobe illustrator, so that makes the project a little easier, since i know where i'm going already. another thing that's going to help me is how comfortable i've gotten with drawing thanks to life drawing. i'm going to be drawing alot of frames, and if i don't want it to take forever, i'll have to draw somewhat quickly. thanks to life drawing though, i think i'll be able to pump out those drawings pretty quick now.
can't wait to see everybody's drawings now that we're winding down! here's the frames from the storyboards for my animation......
but anyways, i'm definitely happy that we've moved onto the skull and hands, which means we're winding down the semester and going to be able to put together some final drawings that look good all over, not just the abdomen. i already like a couple of the long drawings that we've done with the skull and hands, and i'll probably be using them for the final portfolio, which is coming up fast!
speaking of the end of the semester, i have a project in my digital content class that will be alot of work over the next few weeks. i'm doing a hand-drawn animation, telling the story of a penguin that wants to fly. i made storyboards for the same story last year using adobe illustrator, so that makes the project a little easier, since i know where i'm going already. another thing that's going to help me is how comfortable i've gotten with drawing thanks to life drawing. i'm going to be drawing alot of frames, and if i don't want it to take forever, i'll have to draw somewhat quickly. thanks to life drawing though, i think i'll be able to pump out those drawings pretty quick now.
can't wait to see everybody's drawings now that we're winding down! here's the frames from the storyboards for my animation......
Monday, April 11, 2011
Musclessssss
I've really been pleased with how my maniken has been turning out so far, and I think I'll be able to put some finishing touches on it after I finish the forearm muscles tonight, with hands and face to come soon. I definitely have to go back tonight and fix my tricep and bicep muscles that I made last week, because I definitely didn't make them big enough after looking at the example. That should be an easy fix though, hopefully, ha.
I plan on heading to the art building tonight to work on the forearm muscles, so I'll be able to add some pictures of my progress after I wrap those up, probably in my next post. I could definitely tell in our last pose that I struggled most with the hands and forearms, the only parts of the body we have yet to really cover, so that makes me feel very optimistic that I'm learning what I need to and that by the end of the semester I won't have much trouble with any part of the body. Hands always seem to be difficult to me though, so we'll see if I can improve enough on those to feel like I'm halfway decent at them. Fingers crossed.
It'll be nice to finally have a full week this week, and not have to miss any more Life Drawing classes for anything, at least that I know of. It's been tough to get back into the swing of things after taking 4 or 5 days off, and hopefully the extra practice this week will keep my skills sharp and carry me into the end of the semester.
Hope all our forearms look like these!
I plan on heading to the art building tonight to work on the forearm muscles, so I'll be able to add some pictures of my progress after I wrap those up, probably in my next post. I could definitely tell in our last pose that I struggled most with the hands and forearms, the only parts of the body we have yet to really cover, so that makes me feel very optimistic that I'm learning what I need to and that by the end of the semester I won't have much trouble with any part of the body. Hands always seem to be difficult to me though, so we'll see if I can improve enough on those to feel like I'm halfway decent at them. Fingers crossed.
It'll be nice to finally have a full week this week, and not have to miss any more Life Drawing classes for anything, at least that I know of. It's been tough to get back into the swing of things after taking 4 or 5 days off, and hopefully the extra practice this week will keep my skills sharp and carry me into the end of the semester.
Hope all our forearms look like these!
Sorry for the wait....here we go.
Hey guys! Sorry I got set back a few weeks here, got completely bogged down with some of my other classes, and although that's not really an excuse for missing a couple weeks, that's all I've got, haha.
Anyways, I've really been enjoying the long poses we've been doing lately. Now that we are finally winding down on learning all the muscles, it's become so much easier to make strong finished drawings over the course of an hour or hour and a half. It feels so much better to be able to actually feel like I know what I'm doing now, instead of sitting there looking at the model feeling like I'm trying to learn rocket science. I also really have been enjoying being able to switch between both the male and female models fairly often. It creates such a nice change of pace, and really changes the way you have to draw the form.
I'm hoping I can keep finding a way to create some decent drawings in those long poses so that I can make my final portfolio as strong as I can. I've already improved much more than I expected to this semester, but I definitely know now that I have even more room to grow. Hopefully I can make that happen in the next few weeks, and hopefully I'll be able to put everything together at the very end of the semester to create a few great drawings after we finally learn all the muscles of the body.
Keep up the good work guys! I'll have a couple more posts coming up either tonight or tomorrow to get fully caught up!
Anyways, I've really been enjoying the long poses we've been doing lately. Now that we are finally winding down on learning all the muscles, it's become so much easier to make strong finished drawings over the course of an hour or hour and a half. It feels so much better to be able to actually feel like I know what I'm doing now, instead of sitting there looking at the model feeling like I'm trying to learn rocket science. I also really have been enjoying being able to switch between both the male and female models fairly often. It creates such a nice change of pace, and really changes the way you have to draw the form.
I'm hoping I can keep finding a way to create some decent drawings in those long poses so that I can make my final portfolio as strong as I can. I've already improved much more than I expected to this semester, but I definitely know now that I have even more room to grow. Hopefully I can make that happen in the next few weeks, and hopefully I'll be able to put everything together at the very end of the semester to create a few great drawings after we finally learn all the muscles of the body.
Keep up the good work guys! I'll have a couple more posts coming up either tonight or tomorrow to get fully caught up!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Back at it
Well, time to get back to work.
I definitely had a very relaxing Spring Break.....maybe too relaxing though, because now I just can't seem to get back into the swing of things. I had a great time going to Las Vegas for 4 days to start out my break last weekend, and then just relaxed the rest of the week. I did start one painting at home, that I will hopefully be able to finish in my spare time before the end of the year. I also made a much needed trip to Buffalo Wild Wings.....the best. Overall, definitely a very refreshing break, and now I'm ready to get back to work.
I definitely am ready to start learning more about the foot and how to incorporate them into my drawings. Just by adding the feet in an anatomically correct manner will add so many more levels of believability to my drawings that I have been lacking up to this point. I still have to practice quite a bit, since I left early last Thursday. Hopefully I can catch on quickly.
In one of my other classes, Digital Narrative 2, we've been designing characters. Learning the anatomy of the human body helped me tremendously when trying to draw my character from different angles and in different poses. Now, we are attempting to animate these characters. Although its a ton of work, it's really rewarding to see my character start to walk and talk (even though its still pretty rough at this point). I really believe that Life Drawing has made this project so much easier for me, just by being able to imagine my character walking and moving in real life.
Well, hopefully you guys all had a great Spring Break as well, and I'll see you Tuesday to draw some feet! haha.
I definitely had a very relaxing Spring Break.....maybe too relaxing though, because now I just can't seem to get back into the swing of things. I had a great time going to Las Vegas for 4 days to start out my break last weekend, and then just relaxed the rest of the week. I did start one painting at home, that I will hopefully be able to finish in my spare time before the end of the year. I also made a much needed trip to Buffalo Wild Wings.....the best. Overall, definitely a very refreshing break, and now I'm ready to get back to work.
I definitely am ready to start learning more about the foot and how to incorporate them into my drawings. Just by adding the feet in an anatomically correct manner will add so many more levels of believability to my drawings that I have been lacking up to this point. I still have to practice quite a bit, since I left early last Thursday. Hopefully I can catch on quickly.
In one of my other classes, Digital Narrative 2, we've been designing characters. Learning the anatomy of the human body helped me tremendously when trying to draw my character from different angles and in different poses. Now, we are attempting to animate these characters. Although its a ton of work, it's really rewarding to see my character start to walk and talk (even though its still pretty rough at this point). I really believe that Life Drawing has made this project so much easier for me, just by being able to imagine my character walking and moving in real life.
Here's a pic of my character, with a background of storm clouds behind him (evil)
Well, hopefully you guys all had a great Spring Break as well, and I'll see you Tuesday to draw some feet! haha.
Friday, March 11, 2011
i'm going to vegas
vegas, here I come
I leave this afternoon to head to las vegas, and I can't wait. I just turned 21 last week, so I'm definitely looking forward to having a great weekend with a couple of my best buds.
I think I'm gonna be just fine taking a week long break from school and homework, and just focus on relaxing and getting things done for myself.
I do need to do a painting for my girlfriend's brother still, but that should be easy enough and a nice change of pace from the classes I have now.
Can't wait to get back to class, and start learning about the foot! I think it will definitely make for some better drawings when I can include even more detail in the extremities of the body.
hope you guys have a great spring break!!!!
here's a great drawing of a foot to get us motivated! (i didn't draw it, haha)
I leave this afternoon to head to las vegas, and I can't wait. I just turned 21 last week, so I'm definitely looking forward to having a great weekend with a couple of my best buds.
I think I'm gonna be just fine taking a week long break from school and homework, and just focus on relaxing and getting things done for myself.
I do need to do a painting for my girlfriend's brother still, but that should be easy enough and a nice change of pace from the classes I have now.
Can't wait to get back to class, and start learning about the foot! I think it will definitely make for some better drawings when I can include even more detail in the extremities of the body.
hope you guys have a great spring break!!!!
here's a great drawing of a foot to get us motivated! (i didn't draw it, haha)
Friday, March 4, 2011
Midterm Already??
First off, here is the link to my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/60230915@N05/
Alright, now to the post.
I definitely can't believe how fast this semester has been going, but I don't think I'd have it any other way. It would be one thing if I didn't feel like I was learning anything, however I think this has already been one my most productive semesters so far here at Stout. I've really been enjoying Life Drawing, as well as my 3D animation and Digital Narrative classes. I even like my Sociology class, although that is mostly due to the awesome teacher, haha. I definitely have learned a ton already thus far.
Specifically in Life Drawing, I've seen my skills progress far quicker than I first anticipated. I've always been a decent drawer, but have always struggled with charcoal, making this class quite intimidating at first. However, through sheer repetition I have slowly started to gain some confidence with charcoal, and I'm even starting to enjoy using it. It really has made me focus on line weight and how that affects the subject matter of the drawings. You can really see an improvement from some of my earlier sketches (Drawings 2 and 6 on my Flickr page) where my line weight was pretty similar and thick throughout, whereas some of my more recent drawings I've been able to strengthen my variety of line (Drawings 3 and 7). I'm definitely happy with my improvements overall so far, and hope to continue this trend in the second half of the semester.
I've really started to gain a strong understanding of the human body as well. It took me a while to get the hang of looking at the entire body rather than spending time on one specific part, but I'm so glad I've been able to break that habit. Drawing becomes so much easier when I'm able to see large shapes instead of getting stuck on details, which I would normally try to do too much of. Much of this understanding has come from both the gesture drawings we've done so many of, as well as from the Manikens. By actually sculpting the muscles, I have been able to truly feel how thick muscles might be, and how the work in large groups rather than separately. I definitely can't wait to see the Manikens when they're finished!
Finally, looking forward to the rest of the semester, I hope to mainly just get even more comfortable with charcoal and the human form. It might seem like those are pretty obvious skills to gain from Life Drawing, but I really have been benefitting in other classes because of how much my drawing have been improving. I definitely want to do more of the longer poses, because I have been really happy with those have been turning out for me recently, but the gestures definitely keep the mind working at a very rapid and exciting pace. Overall, I'm just pumped to keep drawing and keep improving!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/60230915@N05/
Alright, now to the post.
I definitely can't believe how fast this semester has been going, but I don't think I'd have it any other way. It would be one thing if I didn't feel like I was learning anything, however I think this has already been one my most productive semesters so far here at Stout. I've really been enjoying Life Drawing, as well as my 3D animation and Digital Narrative classes. I even like my Sociology class, although that is mostly due to the awesome teacher, haha. I definitely have learned a ton already thus far.
Specifically in Life Drawing, I've seen my skills progress far quicker than I first anticipated. I've always been a decent drawer, but have always struggled with charcoal, making this class quite intimidating at first. However, through sheer repetition I have slowly started to gain some confidence with charcoal, and I'm even starting to enjoy using it. It really has made me focus on line weight and how that affects the subject matter of the drawings. You can really see an improvement from some of my earlier sketches (Drawings 2 and 6 on my Flickr page) where my line weight was pretty similar and thick throughout, whereas some of my more recent drawings I've been able to strengthen my variety of line (Drawings 3 and 7). I'm definitely happy with my improvements overall so far, and hope to continue this trend in the second half of the semester.
I've really started to gain a strong understanding of the human body as well. It took me a while to get the hang of looking at the entire body rather than spending time on one specific part, but I'm so glad I've been able to break that habit. Drawing becomes so much easier when I'm able to see large shapes instead of getting stuck on details, which I would normally try to do too much of. Much of this understanding has come from both the gesture drawings we've done so many of, as well as from the Manikens. By actually sculpting the muscles, I have been able to truly feel how thick muscles might be, and how the work in large groups rather than separately. I definitely can't wait to see the Manikens when they're finished!
Finally, looking forward to the rest of the semester, I hope to mainly just get even more comfortable with charcoal and the human form. It might seem like those are pretty obvious skills to gain from Life Drawing, but I really have been benefitting in other classes because of how much my drawing have been improving. I definitely want to do more of the longer poses, because I have been really happy with those have been turning out for me recently, but the gestures definitely keep the mind working at a very rapid and exciting pace. Overall, I'm just pumped to keep drawing and keep improving!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
another week down
Can't believe its already mid-term time for life drawing! thankfully this semester has been going extremely well, and extremely fast...two things i'm very happy about. i keep waiting for things to get so overwhelming that i'll have to pick a class to let slip for a while, but that day hasn't quite hit me yet, knock on wood.
I do have to work a little bit of overtime the next couple days though in order to prepare for my birthday week, haha. My 21st birthday is on wednesday, so i have a feeling i need to get a little ahead in my classes before then to make up for the lack of homework i'll be doing for about the next 4 days after my birthday....oh, well. You only turn 21 once i suppose, gotta make it worth it!
I've been starting to feel a real improvement in my drawings the last week or so, which is nice, and i've been able to use those skills in my Digital Narrative class where we have to design characters. My knowledge of the human form has really helped me draw a believable character. He has really exaggerated proportions, but since i know what the muscles should actually look like, it makes it way easier to exaggerate them a bit and keep them looking pretty realistic.
Here's a few quick photoshop sketches of my character, Valkin. (works in progress, still need to make a couple faces)
I do have to work a little bit of overtime the next couple days though in order to prepare for my birthday week, haha. My 21st birthday is on wednesday, so i have a feeling i need to get a little ahead in my classes before then to make up for the lack of homework i'll be doing for about the next 4 days after my birthday....oh, well. You only turn 21 once i suppose, gotta make it worth it!
I've been starting to feel a real improvement in my drawings the last week or so, which is nice, and i've been able to use those skills in my Digital Narrative class where we have to design characters. My knowledge of the human form has really helped me draw a believable character. He has really exaggerated proportions, but since i know what the muscles should actually look like, it makes it way easier to exaggerate them a bit and keep them looking pretty realistic.
Here's a few quick photoshop sketches of my character, Valkin. (works in progress, still need to make a couple faces)
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Projects
Well, we haven't done much in the last week because of class being canceled on Tuesday and only having an hour of class on Thursday, so I don't have much to talk about in terms of classwork. However, I have been doing some sketches for other classes, and I really think that all the drawing we've been doing in class has really been helping my overall drawing skills. I would like to start coming up with some of my own drawing projects, but I just haven't been able to find the time to do my own artwork yet this semester.
I do have one project that I'm going to have to get done by the end of the semester though, and I definitely have to find time for it. My girlfriend's parents asked me to paint a picture of her brother, who's a state champ wrestler. I'm going to paint a picture of him getting his hand held up after his state championship match. I'll have to start soon, because they want me to get it done in time to give it to him for his high school graduation this spring.
I'm looking forward to doing the muscles of the leg; it will be nice to be able to understand more of the body so I can incorporate more of it in my quick sketches in class. It will really help my gesture sketches and give me a little more confidence so I don't have to use such sketchy lines. The more confidence I get with the overall shapes of the body, the more precise I can be with my lines.
I look forward to getting back into a more normal class schedule this week to get back in the swing of things, unless we have some snow days.....which would be okay too i suppose.
I do have one project that I'm going to have to get done by the end of the semester though, and I definitely have to find time for it. My girlfriend's parents asked me to paint a picture of her brother, who's a state champ wrestler. I'm going to paint a picture of him getting his hand held up after his state championship match. I'll have to start soon, because they want me to get it done in time to give it to him for his high school graduation this spring.
I'm looking forward to doing the muscles of the leg; it will be nice to be able to understand more of the body so I can incorporate more of it in my quick sketches in class. It will really help my gesture sketches and give me a little more confidence so I don't have to use such sketchy lines. The more confidence I get with the overall shapes of the body, the more precise I can be with my lines.
I look forward to getting back into a more normal class schedule this week to get back in the swing of things, unless we have some snow days.....which would be okay too i suppose.
Oh yeah, here's a sweet life drawing picture.
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Making Progress
Even though it's only been a few weeks, I think I've started to make some noticeable progress. It's been a couple years since I've really drawn with charcoal, so it's taken me a while to get back into the groove of drawing and sketching. I'm really glad that this class is forcing me to start drawing again, because I feel like I've lost a little bit of drawing skill over time.
The more drawings we do in class, the more comfortable I seem to get with charcoal in my hand. I'm still not anywhere near the point that I'd like to be, but I'm starting see a little light at the end of the tunnel. I've really started to enjoy learning about the body and how everything fits together; I have a feeling that I'm going to learn a ton about figure drawing over the semester.
This is a drawing I did last week, and I felt pretty good about it. It was a minute long sketch, and I tried to capture the entire body as quickly as I could. I always find myself getting too caught up in the details when I draw, so I concentrated on looking at the entire figure. I was really pleased with how the drawing turned out overall, and I hope I can continue to keep improving on my gesture drawing at the pace that I have been improving so far.
I also have been enjoying the clay modeling on the skeleton; its been helping me visualize the body parts that we have started drawing and learning about in class. Seeing the muscles separate from one another in three dimensions on the skeleton make it so much easier to visualize those same muscles on the models we draw from every class period. I think the skeleton and muscles will prove to be extremely useful tools this semester.
The more drawings we do in class, the more comfortable I seem to get with charcoal in my hand. I'm still not anywhere near the point that I'd like to be, but I'm starting see a little light at the end of the tunnel. I've really started to enjoy learning about the body and how everything fits together; I have a feeling that I'm going to learn a ton about figure drawing over the semester.
This is a drawing I did last week, and I felt pretty good about it. It was a minute long sketch, and I tried to capture the entire body as quickly as I could. I always find myself getting too caught up in the details when I draw, so I concentrated on looking at the entire figure. I was really pleased with how the drawing turned out overall, and I hope I can continue to keep improving on my gesture drawing at the pace that I have been improving so far.
I also have been enjoying the clay modeling on the skeleton; its been helping me visualize the body parts that we have started drawing and learning about in class. Seeing the muscles separate from one another in three dimensions on the skeleton make it so much easier to visualize those same muscles on the models we draw from every class period. I think the skeleton and muscles will prove to be extremely useful tools this semester.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Inspiration Is Everywhere
No two drawing styles are the same, and I think this shows up even more in a class such as Life Drawing where everybody is drawing the exact same subject matter. Everybody's pictures somehow find a way to be unique and interesting in their own right, and this always amazes me. I love searching for and studying different drawing styles, trying to find bits and pieces that I want to incorporate into my own drawing skill set.
Lately, I have been trying hard to focus on using my entire arm to draw rather than just my wrist, but this has been extremely difficult for me because of how detail-oriented I am with my art. I've been trying to loosen up my style to get more of a freshness to my line, and I've been trying to shy away from using too many lines or having my picture look "scribbly".
I recently discovered a blog by an artist named Kevin Wueste, and I love all of his drawings. His lines are all so purposeful and crisp, something I have yet to accomplish as well as I'd like. It really shows in his work how much he has studied the human body, and I definitely respect how easy he makes something so difficult look. His skills are very portrait based, and I love how you can still feel the gesture drawings even in his paintings.
Lately, I have been trying hard to focus on using my entire arm to draw rather than just my wrist, but this has been extremely difficult for me because of how detail-oriented I am with my art. I've been trying to loosen up my style to get more of a freshness to my line, and I've been trying to shy away from using too many lines or having my picture look "scribbly".
I recently discovered a blog by an artist named Kevin Wueste, and I love all of his drawings. His lines are all so purposeful and crisp, something I have yet to accomplish as well as I'd like. It really shows in his work how much he has studied the human body, and I definitely respect how easy he makes something so difficult look. His skills are very portrait based, and I love how you can still feel the gesture drawings even in his paintings.
This was one of Kevin's drawings that I thought really related to the types of drawings we've been doing in class lately. He really knows how to use the fewest number of lines he possibly can, while still showing the pose extremely accurately. This skill is something that truly needs to be practiced if someone is to get this good at it, and I hope to do just that.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
What Is Sam Herder All About?
My name is Sam Herder, and I'm a Junior in the Multimedia Design major here at Stout. I grew up in Spencer, which is a small town right in the middle of Wisconsin. I have an older sister, Emily, and a younger brother, Danny. We've always gotten along extremely well, and they're two of my best friends.
There wasn't much of an art program there, so most of my art skills before college were self taught. The whole idea of being able to go to school to learn how to draw, paint and tell stories without the use of words still blows my mind, so I try not to take anything for granted when it comes to school. I have a feeling that I'm going to learn a ton about myself as an artist over the course of the semester in Life Drawing, and that is extremely exciting for me.
I have always loved to draw, mostly because of my uncle Andy Evansen, who is a professional watercolor painter as well as a Medical Illustrator. His watercolor website can be found at www.andyevansen.com. His watercolor paintings have a freshness about them that is so difficult to achieve with watercolors, and he really understands how to get enough detail without over-working the painting as a whole. Andy has always been my role model, and I hope to someday become as talented and well-rounded as he is.
I look forward to the semester, and I know it will be a great learning experience!
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