Figure Drawing - 1.16.2015

I thought that drawing a model in costume wouldn't be too much trouble since I usually go to cafes to get my life drawing fixes. I was wrong this time around, I found myself constantly struggling to get the model's skirt drawn correctly on paper. 

I did my best to make sure to understand the position of her legs and how they affected the shape of the skirt. Anytime I moved into drawing more details in the fluffy skirt, I just got lost and found myself not being able to communicate the skirt clearly on paper. 

I wasn't having fun. Without having fun, I was just churning out terrible drawings after terrible drawings. Towards the end was when I started to relax by exploring more with ink and the two tone pencils. I did some skirt studies in pen since the last pose was over 30 minutes, which started to make me realize what mistakes I was making earlier. I was just making every tier of the skirt the same size and shape, or drawing them on a linear plane. Unfortunately the session ended and none of the drawings I made reflected what I learned last minute, so some drapery studies are due this week!

Next week will be a nude long pose, I'm debating on if I want to try watercolor or if I can bring some kind of digital set up. 

Figure Drawing - 1.9.2015

I am very excited to get back into figure drawing! I don't think I attended any figure drawing sessions last year, mostly have resorted to getting my life drawing fix at cafes. Definitely need to change that!

I learned A LOT in those three hours, mostly spent fumbling around and making mistakes. 

I learned that I've become really impatient and lazy with sketching, so the first short poses were in ballpoint and are just unreadable. It wasn't until I switched to pencil that I started to slow myself down and really begin to get wrapped up in observational drawing. Towards the end I started to have fun with my materials which made me much more relaxed.

Next week is going to be a costumed model! 

Sketchy Saturday: Mo' Monsters

Ahh, I'm still addicted to sketching out monster heads. I'm going to start taking some of these guys further, both 2D and 3D mediums!

Here's the start of a collaboration between myself and Juan "Amaakir" Alvarado! 

 Already started sketching out body designs. Juan will 3D model one of these guys and I'll texture him. The other two I'll save for when I get better at 3D modeling!

 In the meantime, here are some life drawing sketches I did at the airport or on the airplane last week.

Sketchy Saturday: Breakthroughs

I somehow slipped into an impromptu hiatus, quite possibly to mentally recharge for some upcoming challenges. Regardless of the reason or excuse, I am back to drawing!

I finally cracked open Michael Hampton's Figure Drawing: Design and Invention last night to read the first chapter on gestures. How can something so simple such as only using curved lines instead of straight never occur to me, I do not know. Today ended up being the happiest with life drawing I have been in a while because of something so simple!

I'm quite excited to see what other aspects from his book I will pick up. What's great about drawing is that regardless of who you study with or what books you read, the mixture of the multiple sources combine along with your own individual taste to create something fantastic - something yours.

FFD: Day 2

Welp, my Thursday nights just got a hell of a lot more lame now. My good friend Paul Richard's is moving up to Seattle this week, thus tonight was the last of the Sketch Squats. I don't want to write a farewell to Paul as I'll be seeing him tomorrow, but don't be surprised if tomorrow's post ends up being a kiss ass post to Paul, hah. 

Regardless, here's the sketch I completed tonight! More of my tough women. I grew up with a lot of women in my family outliving their husbands, so I have such a high respect for elderly women. Not so much of the smoking variety but I based the design of the older woman from a gal I saw at work. 

The little girl was a challenge to draw! I haven't drawn children as much before, so thank you to Daniel and Mathias coaching me along the way! :D 

30 Day Challenge: Day 7

My apologies for missing yesterday. It seems my mental health likes to go down the drain on Mondays and all I want to do is read art blogs, hehe.

Well, it looks like all that reading paid off! I did some character sketches tonight and I'm still in utter disbelief that I created these...
One of my favorite subjects to draw are "tough barbarian girls" and I'm going to start trying to incorporate some contrast between them. Here I tried "Poor vs Rich" and instead I feel like I crossed time periods. Oh well, so long as I'm having fun, that's all that matters.

I hope you guys don't mind all the blog posting, because there will be more! I just learned of SatelliteSoda's Daily Draw February. I'll adjust the name of the subjects from here on out, just to be sure I'm being honest about what day I am drawing. :)

30 Day Challenge: Day 6

Somewhat lazy day, I hope you don't mind if I post the studies I did this past week. :D

I have a small notebook that I call my "studybook" so I don't clog my sketchbook too much. The paper is nice for water color as well! Here are some entries:

Top left: "Precision" drawings from life (pencil)
Top right: Gestures from photos (ballpoint)
Bottom left: Value gestures from photos (pencil)
Bottom right: Color face studies (watercolor)

Row 1: Perspective study from life
Row 2: Perspective study from life and value study from life
Row 3: Perspective practice from imagination

30 Day Challenge: Day 5

Dear reader, you will have to forgive me on two accounts. The first is the fact that I've been hiding my life drawing sketches because I've just been unsatisfied with them this month. The second is the lull of the next couple posts, as I have to rest my wrist for the time being. 

Life drawing has always been a favorite of mine, as some of my drawings reveal. There was a two week break for the holidays and ever since returning, I feel as though I haven't been up to par to what I've been drawing before. Especially when having a male model in what feels like months, I could just feel myself struggle and slow down greatly when at life drawing. I could feel my frustration but have not been able to target the source. 

After today's session, I discussed my predicament with Daniel and the only reasonable (and optimistic) solution is the fact that now that I study regularly, I'm starting to see more and more of my mistakes and bad habits. Plus, anytime an art block or anytime life gets difficult overall, it just means I'm leveling up. 

So for Day 5, I present this month's life drawing sketches. There are some small victories, but still a long way to go to being pleased with them like before. 

1/7/12

1/14/12

1/28/12

30 Day Challenge: Day 1

Hello and happy new year!

A few friends of mine have been doing a 30 Day posting challenge, and I thought I would join the fun! I need to get the ball rolling for this year. I'm aiming to complete a mini-piece each day, with or without a time limit.

Today's piece is a bit dark, as I've been under the weather lately. I had the idea of "vicious cycle" in my head and decided to draw it out. I did some thumbnails first, playing around with composition. 

Originally I was aiming to complete this piece in an hour, but only got this far into the hour. I kept going to my closet door mirror to model for myself, wanting to get the hands just right.

I decided to take a second hour to finish up the piece. 

"Vicious Cycle" - 4.5" x 6.5"
pencil on bristol board

Sketchy Saturday: Marathon

I once heard an interview where Anthony Jones compared drawing to running. One could run daily and be considered a runner, but to be an Olympian - one must train and run for hours on end. He applied that same concept to drawing - one could draw all day and be considered a drawer, but to be a master artist, one must train and study for hours on end.

If this concept were to be applied to Paul Richards, I'm sure he would have ran to and from the moon at least eight times now. For those who don't know Paul, 87.67% of his time is spent drawing. I tried my best to keep up with him today. Even after I was tuckered out and exhausted, Paul was still drawing. What an Olympian.

Today's life drawing session went great. The model was beautiful but had a super skinny waist yet thick thighs. I'm trying my best to draw accurately, but sometimes I could see myself slipping in some extra fat for her. Also below are some sketchbook pages from today.

Sketchy Saturday: Relearning

One thing I am starting to do when studying from life is having something to focus on, it helps me from feeling too overwhelmed (especially since the last time I went to life drawing was over a month ago). My focuses today was line and proportion, something I continually struggle with in my own works. Both can only be accomplished with a lot of patience and understanding.

While in pursuit of these goals, I've started to uncover some of the things I've already learned, yet forgotten. The torso is a key foundation and once that's drawn perfectly, everything else should be compared to it. Note where overlapping happens, don't just guess. Compare the torso to the legs and arms (I have a bad habit of drawing both of them too long). And always, always, always block in the head. 

Other notes I've made are in regards to the model herself. Most figure models have either a slender look to them or some extra weight. This model had a little bit of both: her back, arms, and legs were slender, but her abdomen was quite round. Plus, she did something I haven't seen a model do before, she would do the same pose but just change the direction she was facing. I've always wanted this and was excited when she started to do this. But after a while, it just became rather redundant. 

Overall, I felt it was a somewhat successful session today.

As a bonus, here's one of my favorite sketchbook pages as of late.

Sketchy Saturday: Two in a Row

We only have challenges in life so we may overcome them. At least, according to very tired and optimistic me.

Sketchy Saturday: Better Late Than Never

Keep missing my Saturday updates... But as the proverb goes: Better late than never!

I'm enjoying doing still lives with pencil lately. Mostly to build up my patience but learning how to work the pencil again has been lovely.

Sketchbook liter, characters characters characters...

Fiddling around with sketches in Photoshop. 

Thanks for your time. :)

Sketchy Sunday: Spectrum

This one is for you, Matt!

It's been nice to have some old characters filling up my pages again. 

Attempting to rebuild my relationship with gouache. It's getting there... 

 

Life drawing from two weeks ago. I will never grow tired of drawing women!