a little bit about school

now that i'm making stuff, and it's kind of amusing, i thought i'd share while sharing a little about my instructors.

i've talked a little about lisa berrett's sparkling joyfulness. i've had her class three (now more like 5) times and i'm continuing

to improve with my clothed figure drawing.

for homework, she gave us the flour sack assignment, putting flour sacks in motion in order to study their folds, etc.

she has a blog, check it out if you have a minute.

on wednesdays i have 'visual elements of the story' with nicholas villarreal. his blog is worth checking out. i feel so lucky to have such wonderful and talented instructors. he had us do the very helpful assignment of drawing homer simpson in all these poses that we had to invent. we had guides on his body's proportions, etc, but we were pretty much on our own for drawing homer. here's how the best ones of mine turned out:

drawing homer was actually quite challenging. he's so simple, but so exactly proportioned and so recognizable and familiar. if anything is just a little bit off, it blows the whole thing.

we're also developing characters that we will develop through the entire semester. here's how far THEY'VE come (i'm doing 'jack and the beanstalk' all twisted, dark and awesome):

the development of 'mother':

not quite as black widowy as she ends up (above) but a little more accurate in hair. the definitive drawing of 'mother' has yet to be made.

jack, my newest love. it was a little touch and go in the beginning, but now, i love her.

the turn around.

face development:

some jack thumbnails, giant studies and a value study for a scene with the giant cyclops:

the giant cyclops, looking like the dandy he is. i have a full body pose, but it didn't photograph well.

my last class is the infinitely stressful and intimidating 'drawing from imagination'. it sounds whimsical, but it's really a challenging and sometimes horrifying exercise in precision. we started with drawing in one point perspective, a street scene. then we added precise shadows to our scene. all with rulers and t-squares and triangles with different angles. this is very hard for me, but very important for me to learn. now we're doing a 2 point perspective interior and lighting IT. that one is turning out better, which isn't saying a lot. by the time i'm ready to post this it'll be done and i'll include pictures. my instructor is stephen player and his website is interesting as well as unnerving.

my one-point perspective street scene, based on old town longmont (loosely). the shadowed version is at school. in my locker. oops.

mother's sitting room. in two-point perspective. the shadowed version of THIS isn't completed and also at school.

our homework for monday in drawing from imagination is two robots in 3 point and 2 point vertical perspectives. our cast of characters in 'visual elements' is to include a side kick as well as a heroine, villain, and guy/girl. the side kick of jack is a crow called 'corva'. she's kind of a cyborg, but i haven't succeeded in developing her fully. i think i'll use the robot assignment to make a robot crow and steal some of the elements for corva.

next time, i'll include pictures from 'clothed figure drawing' of some of the model drawings i've done. they are also, currently in my locker at school.

stay tuned...