Validation

So I have to return to my school in about two weeks. While I am super excited to start my new classes all I can think about is how much I've come to love this sleep-whenever-I-want schedule, how much I despise airports and what a pain in the ass it is going to be to unpack my dorm again (for winter break our dorms make us pack up everything, put it on our bed and then clean. GIANT PAIN). Here are some pictures of what my dorm looked like before I had to take it all down.

On the good side maybe this will give me a chance to organize a little more and get rid of some of the clutter that was starting to happen. PS- I LOVE MY CLAW FOOT TUB! And I will be super sad when the time comes that we are separated. Otherwise I won't miss my dorm or my insanely loud neighbor with the barking laugh.

I am ridiculously excited to start my digital painting class. I've always fumbled my way through trying to figure out how to do it on my own, but I've never found a solid routine way that works for me. So every time I pretty much have to relearn a way to paint which really slows things down. I've already taken some workshops with the teacher and he is unbelievably awesome so I can't wait to learn from him. As for character design I am of course excited since it is what I am at this school to learn. I'm currently doing it for a group animation project which is fun but it would be nice to know all of the terms and techniques that I currently just kind of float my way through doing. Head drawing I know will be my most difficult class (mostly because I don't really enjoy drawing realistically and I already know the teacher doesn't give above a B) but I need to learn a lot about portraiture.

It's semesters like this that make me truly realize I just picked the wrong school for my undergrad. I graduated feeling like I wasted all this time and money for a degree that meant nothing for me and not having learned anything that would help me in my desired career. I knew I wanted to be able to draw for a living but I didn't know how that was possible. I spent all 4 years figuring it out and once I realized in my last semester that it was character design I wanted to do there weren't really any courses for me to take that I could learn from. I made places for myself in classes such as the animation classes and on my school magazine as their first illustrator but no one was really able to teach me about illustration there. Now in grad school I really feel challenged artistically and can already in the first semester see my growth. I feel comforted that even though I'm not starting my career as fast as my peers I know I made the right decision.

And now a little taste of my holiday.

We didn't really get any family pictures unfortunately, but the animals are always happy to pose and be cute.

Hope everyone had an amazing holiday!

Break

Hello! Sorry I haven't updated in a while. Finals and dorm related stuff got crazy and now I'm home for my 6 week winter break, which I'm now about half way through. Since my art supplies are heavy, bulky and messy and so most are still packed up in my dorm, not much more than pencil sketches for my animation project I'm working on and random doodles have been done. While I'm loving being at home and not particularly wanting to return to my dorm, I'm super excited about my classes I have this semester; character design, digital painting and head drawing! So hopefully I will produce some fun stuff to post here soon. But for now, happy holidays and enjoy any time you have off!

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.