New Sketch: Bride

I'm taking my first Digital Painting class at AAU.  We got to choose the theme of Project 1 so, I decided to do a reiteration of The Bride of Frankenstein since I will be doing Conceptual Storytelling next quarter and for the love of classic horror movies.  So, here is my initial sketch.  Unfortunately, this is not the approved thumbnail I sent in as my instructor is extremely slow at critiquing thumbnails and we have to complete 10 color comps of the approved sketch.  I'll be pissed off if she lets it go another day.  Anyway, here are my thumbnail sketches and a color comp (not to be confused with a speed painting):

 I wanted her to appear that she is suspended by the very feeding tubes and wires that are supporting her life. 

At a certain point I'll get the speed painting thing down.  This took a couple hours....unfortunately.

ILL612 Sustained Figure Concepts Week 5 Revision

I had to complete a revision for my Week 5 homework.  Here is the side-by-side:

ILL612 Sustained Figure Concepts Final

Hopefully my instructor will like the improvements I made to my drawing.  She gave me a B+ and told me I did a good job, BUT my value structure was off and that I made it monochromatic (even though "it works").  So, I modified the sucker for 1.5 hours until I hit gold.  I hope she feels the same.  At this point, its about pleasing my instructor.  I want my A or A-.

ILL612 Week 12

I did these with a huge allergy/sinus attack yesterday. It almost didn't get done and today I'm wiped out.

ILL612 Week 11

Its been a few weeks since my last posting. I've been crazy busy but here is my latest homework assignment from this past week.

Assignment 6.2

I'm tired. These were done much faster than last week's. I didn't spend as much time on the details as I usually do but now it's done. I'm already working on Project 2 - Head Drawing and it's halfway completed. My problem is I generally take Monday's off to recuperate but I've learned the past couple of weeks this slows down my performance and puts my schedule upside down if I don't do my homework everyday.

Project 1

Here is Project 1 that marks the end of the 5th week of class. No, that's not dirt on her ass....it's the paper showing through as I didn't make good enough coverage with the pastel.

Week 3 & 4 Homework Done!!!

Here are my Weeks 3 and 4 Homework assignments. The first set are Week 3 which are preliminary sketches that were 50% completed and then Week 4 are the finishes to 3 of them. I'm glad we had 2 weeks to do them because it really shows what I can do given enough time to live with them for a bit.

On a side note, I'm going to do what I can to keep my blog updated as my Mom has been following my progress. It came as a surprise to me when she told me a couple of weeks ago.

How much anatomy is necessary to draw representational figures? Does this information interfere with the creative expression of the artist?

In representational figures it's highly important to know as much as possible about the surface anatomy (skeletal and musculature system that affects the surfaces of the skin. For instance in my Sustained Figure Concepts class, Week 3's lecture talks about the flexors and extensors of the forearm that are generally grouped together for all intents and purposes of drawing. With that said knowing each individual muscle of each group is not necessary.

I believe the creative expression of the artist in drawing representational figures is contingent on the gesture of the pose....since it is the embraced as the story or the essence of the pose and movement of the pose. Without solid knowledge of the anatomy (proportions and muscular/skeletal structure, male and female differences) I would find it difficult to exaggerate the pose or create something more dynamic than what is presented by the model.

In each drawing we had to do the past 2 weeks everyone in my class drew specific areas of tendons whether they knew it or not. In some models and poses tendons are even more pronounce and if the artist has limited knowledge of the anatomy this can give their drawing a funny appearance (I know this from experience):

The entire top of the hands and feet are a system of tendons from the extensors and the knee joint itself is a system of tendons all the way around.

I've spent many years learning about the anatomy of the figure and will most likely spend the rest of my life doing just that.

Reconsidering Week 2 Drawings

I'm reconsidering liking these drawings. When you live with some drawings in close proximity for a short amount of time you tend to be disappointed in how you interpret it. I'm beginning to like them more and more each day. I even had a dream about them and in the dream they were worse then they really are. So, I woke up this morning, took another look and realized they aren't as bad as I thought but I'm looking really forward to next week's drawings. We are drawing a fairly dark model. It's going to be a great challenge and I'm going to begin tonight. Whew! What a week!