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.

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.

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)

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!