Progress

Im on Thanksgiving break now and trying to get work done at home when all my stuff is back in San Francisco. I'm trying to do as much as I can but it's a little worrisome to not be able to make much progress on my finals so I'll have to buckle down when I get back.

bristol, pencil

Last week in Chiaroscuro we did another life drawing of the head. This time I was determined to learn how to do the kind of cross hatching technique my teacher does. Since I've been trying to learn it on my own since the beginning of the semester and have so far been unsuccessful I pestered him every break we had during class to teach me. After a few attempts he finally did and I must say I am in love with the way this turned out. It is nowhere near perfect but it looks a million times better (to me at least) than what I had been doing before. Hopefully it will translate well into my still life final!

Sketches

One of the things that can always be found in my book is my sketchbook. Here are some of the more recent doodles I have put in there (most of them are done since I moved to San Francisco). Enjoy!

Renaissance Model

This week I got my ultimate model visually. Her face was very round shaped, very classically beautiful and reminded me a lot of women in renaissance paintings. And when she came to our class she brought the BEST wardrobe with her! If I had her body type I would have run away with all her clothes.

newsprint, charcoal

This is what Im most likely turning in for my homework this week. The substitute workshop instructor dressed her in this weird prom dress material dress that poofed out at the bottom and a similar material shawl. Last minute she handed her the giant cartoony skull prop she is holding. I ADORED this pose she put her in. It felt like a creepy kind of red riding hood. But I had some difficulty drawing the material and shape of the dress as well as her pose. We'll see how well it fairs.

Now since I am extremely comfortable with the 20 minutes I have more time. I like to put some emphasis in the face if I have time, and on this pose I really wanted to do that.

newsprint, charcoal

I think mu trouble with the fabric shows more here. I wish I had more time to try and figure it out but we only did it for the two poses.

newsprint, charcoal

Next she was in a long velvety dress with an equally velvety shawl. I think I did ok on trying to capture the material but the I feel like the emotion and pose are lacking.

newsprint, charcoal

When she came to our class she had a variety of coats and dresses and some of those creepy flat faced fur scarf things she snagged from the other building's prop closet. By this time I almost always have alot of time left over after I finish my shading and darkening my lines. So I began playing with adding details and darkening areas with a kind of cross hatching and line build ups.

I really like how the lines and cross hatching add a kind of texture to it as well as the feeling they give the overall piece.

newsprint, charcoal

some more detail shots of the new cross hatching treatment.

newsprint, charcoal

Hola Seniora Terminator

newsprint, charcoal

This week lady terminator model payed a visit to our class. Although she didn't have the advantage of the prop and costume closet she did come terminator costume in tow, along with a couple flamenco skirts, scarfs, fans and bolero jackets. I absolutely loved experimenting with how to draw the ruffles. There were so many but my conte technique still worked pretty well for making the structure of them. But I tended to get lost in making them.

newsprint, charcoal

newsprint, charcoal

I had some trouble drawing her in her jacket from the front because it puffed her up but it hid her rather busty chest at the same time. So I had a difficult time trying to balance and make sense of the clothing.

newsprint, charcoal

newsprint, charcoal

The ruffles of this skirt made me so happy!

newsprint, charcoal

This wound up being my favorite piece of the day. The texture of the skirt and the frills in the jacket really fascinated me. And for whatever reason I seem to favor my from behind drawings. Which works out fine since I have a curse where I seem to always sit where the model doesn't feel like turning, haha.

newsprint, charcoal

This is actually from the next week, and it was the basket model returned. I had the same trouble drawing her since she had another very loose fitting outfit on her very small body and again asked to have a fan on her which made all sorts of chaos with this outfit. But I was a lot more comfortable dealing with it this time than I was the last time I had her.

Baskets Guns and Groovy Beats

By now I was about half way through the semester and I'd pretty much found a way of drawing that working for me and that I was comfortable with. 20 minutes was now not even an issue and I often had extra time leftover to add extra shadows and details. By this time I was in a pretty happy spot with figure drawing.

newsprint, charcoal

This workshop was probably my most difficult workshop. It was one of the two workshops I went to to try and get a drawing for my midterm and I had a lot of difficulty with such heavily draped clothing on such a teeny tiny frame. Plus the model got hot so we placed a fan on her which made the darned fabric fly all about her legs and chest where it was loose. I got a couple drawings from this session but definitely nothing I wanted to use for my midterm.

newsprint, charcoal

In order to get people to focus on the figure more my workshop instructor had the model hold these two giant distracting baskets and made us draw the figure first with no baskets. Then once we had that down we could add the baskets in. Although it was very frustrating being pulled out of my now regular routine I appreciated the exercise. Especially since we have many models in the workshop draped in props, which can sometimes become so distracting you screw up the figure trying to bend it to the props.

newsprint, charcoal

Men and guns are pretty high on my difficult things to draw list and on my second workshop to get a midterm drawing in walked this guy completely decked out in guns and military gear. It turned out WAY better than I expected but it was another very difficult session at a stressful time. The previous week's lesson on seeing the figure without distractions was very helpful this week.

newsprint, charcoal

This wound up being the drawing I handed in for the midterm. I was critiqued for maybe making the legs a little too long and although my instructor liked the affect of leaving the foot in the background looser and less defined he wished it had a little bit more line and detail to it. But I still received an A- which was a huge relief since I thought my teacher was the type to never give out A's due to a speech he gave earlier in the semester.

newsprint, charcoal

I was pretty proud of the gun shape here. I know it's not perfect but for me it is really good. My workshop instructor told me I was imagining things and that I needed to step back from my drawing more but I thought the arms looked too long. I still don't like to get up and look at my drawing from farther away very often (I get too focused on just drawing it) but I still think his arms are too long...

newsprint, charcoal

newsprint, charcoal

This is our only model in our class to bring music to play while we drew. It was on some radio station that played old Michael Jackson and other old groovy tunes but he kept falling asleep during every pose. But I found his face and belly shape interesting to draw.

newsprint, charcoal

newsprint, charcoal

Finally he wound up taking a nap for about 30 minutes till we made enough noise trying to politely get his attention and he woke up. A little extra practice for us I guess.

grandmothers and knights

There is obviously a little skip in my clothed figure drawing timeline, but these are about 5 weeks in. By this time I had realized by watching another student who does amazing work that I could quickly lay down some values by using a conte pressed charcoal on its side. So I began exploring what I could do with that and how I could shade with that as well.

newsprint, charcoal

This class was one of my favorite classes because it was one of the first times a model had brought their own costume and props. Plus the model was just plain adorable! She made very themed poses that went along with her props. Some were very challenging and some were fairly straight forward but all of them were interesting. These are my earliest attempts at using the conte pressed charcoal.

newsprint, charcoal

newsprint, charcoal

newsprint, charcoal

newsprint, charcoal

In my next workshop we had this biker looking guy come in and put on a very makeshift knight outfit with a crocheted "chainmail" hat that stood off the top of his head... Even with it's strangeness it was still very fun. I didn't realize until my instructor pointed it out but I was quite lazy with the crosses. Darn angular patterns!

newsprint, charcoal

newsprint, charcoal

This is what I wound up turning in for my homework that week. My instructor loved it except for the guy's beer gut... By these drawings I had started a method of taking time to draw the face first and once satisfied with that getting the body down. For some reason that is what usually helps me keep the proportions right. My instructor doesn't like this method though. When he notices me doing it he critiques me for taking too long on the face. Oh well...

newsprint, charcoal

I still hadn't gotten the idea down here that I needed to push the difference in values. I tried to make the pants slightly darker but it didn't show. On the other hand I was getting used to using the conte shading method and growing quite fond of it. And I was alot more comfortable with the 20 minute time period by now than I was originally.