Week 6 Figure Drawing & Silhouettes

First figure drawing session ever!  Came to class really nervous and not knowing what was going to happen.  I admit it was awkward at first but everyone in the class was so professional and mature, it made me step up my game!  Actually, being in a room with students probably just as scared as me made it a little more comfortable for me.

I think I had problems with proportions (still do) but I got a little better after drawing more figures.  The thirty second poses were really overwhelming but they were good warm-ups.  I guess as time passed I got more confident in making mistakes.  At the beginning, I spent a long time just figuring out if the line I was about to draw would be right.  Later on, I just went "what the heck" and drew from instincts, and even if it was wrong, so what?  It was actually good that I visually drew my mistakes so that the next drawing I learn from the mistakes!!

My friends are such silly models.  Haha.  Had a lot of fun forcing my friends to pose.  Seriously though, you probably don't want to be doing this at 1am though...you'll realize your friends have alter egos HAHA!

I still have issues with proportions though I'm getting better!  At first, actually the majority of the figures, I spent too much time thinking about details!  When I finally realized this,  I started focusing on my poses and gestures more.  Still have to work on my proportions!  Oh, and sometimes I don't know how to draw poses where you can't see all parts of the arm (For example, zombie pose).  They never come out looking right! 

For the silhouettes, I have similar problem with proportions.  Sometimes, I make the arms so long (lol) they are longer than the person's legs ahaha.  I also have a hard time with the curves of limbs and sometimes feet.  The details on my silhouettes are also not superb.  However, on the bright side, I work a lot faster on these than I did last week! :D

On another note, while doing midterm drawings, I totally ruined two of my Copic markers.  Don't ever, I repeat DON'T EVER color your markers over the white color pencil.  You will regret it.  The wax of the color pencils will clog the tips of your beautiful markers!  Yes, your contrast comes out a lot smoother, but it's not worth it if you have to replace your markers every 6 weeks!  Just don't do it!  

Week 5 Class Exercises & Hw

In class (LOL)

I was a deer in headlights.  I am not kidding.  Look, I even spelled "eating" and "squatting" wrong.  I didn't know what I was doing LOL.  Now looking at some of the figures, the torsos are really short...  

Hw: 20 Ball Figures & 20 Silhouettes 

Let's just say stick figures are not as easy as they look...In fact, I think this was the most frustrating drawing assignment for me!
I have the really bad tendency to shorten people's torsos and limbs!  I have always been aware of this but when I draw, especially the ball figures, they look correct to me.  It wasn't until I did my silhouettes that I realized everyone turned out short and stubby!  For the second silhouette page, I made sure to elongate the torsos and limbs and the silhouettes came out a bit better.

Week 4 Work

20 Action/Adventure Drawings, 5 pages of visual development, & Final Character Design.

I'm still struggling with lighting/shading/shadow.  It feels like it should be common sense where light would hit and where there'd be shadow, but really sometimes it's just confusing.  I get the concept more on simple objects, where else something like octopus tentacles...I must have corrected my shading at least six, seven times and it still doesn't look right.

I guess the other issue I had regarded the time and amount of drawings we were assigned. If my other professors didn't assign homework, I probably would have spent a lot more time on my drawings.  However, that's how life is (Long live Golden Triangle!).  I'll just have to manage my time accordingly. 

I desperately wanted my character to be as original as it can be.  However, the whole time, all I could think of was Little Mermaid's Ariel and Ursula.  I guess it'd good to run into this problem now rather than later  so next time I can learn to "purge" prior knowledge of similar character and "start with a blank mind".  

Lastly, the genre action/adventure is very vague.  Previous genres we worked on like fantasy and sci-fi had "rules".  Fantasy - orcs, renaissance, mages, etc.  Sci-fi - repetitiveness/parts/sections, robots, aliens, etc.  Even when I researched on places like Gamestop, action/adventure was more of a subgenre than an actual genre (eg. Historic action/adventure. Fantasy action/adventure.)

Special discovery: If you are clumsy like me, you most likely dropped your Prisma color pencils many, many times.  When you sharpen, the tip will break and break and break...Well I found a solution!  I microwaved my pencil for 5 seconds and the lead inside melted back together.  Now if only I knew of this before, my box of Prisma color pencils would have lasted a lot longer!  I do have to warn you, there is a small burnt scent...maybe try microwaving for 3 seconds or something...

Edited/added some contrast before class last Thursday. not an actual complete redo! (sorry about the ink on one of the pages, it's from an exercise during class...I should have scanned them in before class T^T!)

Week 3 Work

20 Random Objects, 40 Heads, 40 Fantasy Drawings.

This assignment was probably my favorite so far.  It was really fun drawing different head shapes and seeing how minuscule differences made the character really different.  I struggled with values/lighting though as I have never actually shaded heads before.
The random objects was a lot easier to do this week than the week before.  I guess practice may not make perfection, but it sure makes improvement.
Fantasy is also my favorite genre!  I had the funnest time drawing the objects.  I always have trouble drawing thumbnails though because I look at items I draw and I always want to add details and so I add more and more and eventually the image is not a thumbnail anymore.  I seriously need to practice getting my idea down with the least amount of lines as possible.

Week 2 Work

Week 1 Master P decided to be nice and we did not have homework or in class work, thus the story of my Character Visualization begins on week 2 of Fall 2011 :D.

Random objects we did in class during week 2.

20 Random Objects & 20 Sci-Fi Drawings.  

I'm not gonna lie, I felt extremely intimidated this week (and I sometimes still do).  It's probably something I have to progressively change about myself.  Anyways, this was the first week we used our pens, markers, and   learned about value/lighting, etc.  I struggled with just adjusting to drawing so much (I do doodle a lot, but assignments are different from randomly drawing when you feel like it).  You can see that I have some really harsh lines dividing my different values (especially the ones I did in class).  

Also, girls must have an easier time with the brush pen because they wear liquid eyeliner (Hahaha!).  Sadly, I never had the habit of wearing make up.  Let me tell you...those few times I have used liquid eyeliner were very depressing because I have the most unsteady hands ever!  Perhaps now's the time I get to have an excuse to buy myself some eyeliner and practice! Hahaha!

Okay, went on a tangent...The sci-fi objects were funner to draw than I had expected.  I'm really unfamiliar with the genre.  However, in class we went over the "rules" of sci-fi (robots, parts, sections, aliens, ray guns) & it just "clicked" when I went home and started drawing!

Hi!

Hi, I should be sleeping now because I've been staying up until 4am everyday doing homework :( but here I am posting this post.  Sigh.

Anyways, this blog is here to share my progress with the rest of the world :D!