My little contribution

Hey all! I finally got some pictures of my work, I had to take them with my cellphone so I apologize in advance for the poor quality. But here's some stuff out of my sketchbook:





I really enjoy working with watercolor. I like the unpredictability of it. I'm usually so anal about detail and stuff so this is a nice break from that.

Anyway, for an 'intelligent question'... I was just curious how you all felt about music and artwork. Do you feel that there's more of a connection when you've got music to listen to? If so, what is it that you prefer to hear when drawing (or painting)? Do you think its more of a distraction?

I personally prefer music. I tend to listen to a lot of things that are loud and dramatic, probably stuff that most would find distracting. However, when I listen to certain bands or songs I find that it gives me a 'rhythm' to follow. It helps me get into my own little world and block out visual distraction so I can focus on what I'm working on. It doesn't necessarily affect what the drawing looks like, but more the way I see things and feel when I'm working, I guess in a way I found that it makes me feel more passionate about my work. I'd like to hear other peoples' responses. I think it'd be interesting considering our recent 'musical conflicts' with the stereo in class, which I find quite amusing more than anything else. :)

A Few of my favorites.

Here I have two pages from my sketchbook rendered in ink/pen of the model's many poses I particularly like the ones with the volume and curvature in them.

Watercolor drawings!!

I finally got to scanning 3 pages from my journal. My first couple watercolor studies were not very successful since I was concerned more with getting every detail in the figure rather than big masses and shapes like in these ones where i try to show the contrast between lights and darks more.
As for the question of the importance of figure in illustration...
I think that without knowing the human body, anatomy, movement, the whole figure in general you can't really go into other illustrations cause figure drawing is the base for everything else. Even when the figures are not realistic they are based on a concept that is known to everyone and that is the human body, which is used for references and such. I've had such a hard time learning how to draw the figure from the inside out cause all my life I have been doing it the other way, but I'm satisfied with what I have seen so far because I can start to see the results of putting things I learn to use, and I just want to keep learning and improving.

Something more intellegent (hopefully)

I had to really stretch my thinking cap to get some rationale I fully agree with. Everybody's got a different body. Right down to every teensy weensy angle, curve, and joint. This helps you to really see and look at what you're drawingand make a habit of that thinking even outside figure class and naked people. I'd have to check Webster's official stance on the matter but I'd say its the difference between seeing and percieving. Viewing stuff like that helps oodles with drawing but not so much behind the wheel.

Independent studies!!

hey guys! good to see everyone posting! figured id drop off a couple of links to a few sites i visit when im resting my mind from projects and decide to do a little doodling in my sketchbook!

Character Designs
TONS of high res, clothed and nude figure reference photo shoots - great source of lighting studies too!

Exactitudes !!!
content, content and more CONTENT!! theres so many variations in people to draw here, all clothed ranging from all kinds of ethnicity, shape and age - great place for reference

keep your pencils sharp,
sincerely
t.

Rodriguez Gerada

Hi all. haven't had a chance to scan my work but I thought I'd share this link with you guys
http://www.artjammer.com/index.htm
If you go to projects and Identity series you can see a series of large-scale portraits that the artist , Jorge Rodriguez Gerarda, has done in Barcelona, Spain
I thought they were mind blowing so check them out ;)

More to scan soon.

I had these two already on my computer so I decided to post them (especially since I did these during class).

I really liked doing the watercolor gestures. I loved it actually. I'm really into color and I find that my work gets better if color is involved. I want to experiment with colored conte sometime soon if it is permitted in class... or do a longer watercolor pose. 

I have a hard time with just black & white charcoal, conte, etc... but I'm hoping (and trying!) to get better. 

-Ashley Busch

zach's pretty pictures

Hey! Look at me mom I'm on the web!
I have no idea what I'm doing. I hope this works.

Oh hey yall!

what's going on!!

figured i'd get this train moving - i think i'll dive right in and post a few drawings i'm happy with and talk a little about my process!

starting off with cante;



i've been structuring my figures off in value first - rarely will i ever start out linear - and if i do it's usually an outline to remind myself where to erase back for a highlight. i then set out to see what shapes the body makes to put down a rough half-dark shape for a shadow. . . at this point i usually bring out a terry cloth towel and push all the cante into the page - i found the towel works best just in case you have some unwanted grease from your hand that ends up laying ontop of your drawing after smudging like a mad man. from here its a quick and easy step to what you see above - refining the shadow shapes, not touching the half light areas until the very end and erasing the highlighted portions of the body - fun stuff!

next up is a graphite / charcoal wash;



this is one of my favorite and most simple techniques! same core idea as the previous above drawings - only this time i started with a tight linear sketch and used that as the base of the drawing. i did a lot of rubbing and erasing back in this one - it got pretty violent! i do that to push the values into the paper more and more to create a subtle layer of tone, then continued to use my magicrub to take out the highlights and go back in with another layer. after i got to a point where i was happy with the shadow shapes / highlights, i took some charcoal and broke it up into a fine pigment, then dumped it into a cup of water. once it was mixed to where i wanted it, i did a quick wash over all the areas except the highlights to try and unify the values.

last but not least - watercolor




this is probably the most simple and quickest traditional medium i've used to capture tone! with these, i started off with a super loosey-goosey sketch of the figure - once i was happy with where i was at i started to bring out the paint. i didn't really do these with what i had been taught in media class, i tried to use a absolute minimal amount of water here.


i was going for the simplistic look because that's what i think this medium is meant for - like i said, i didn't use a lot of water here, just enough to get a simple tone down - and i did that without lifting my brush as much as possible for each layer of wash (these were only 2 washes)




figure drawing to me is rediculously crucial to us all illustrators in my opinion - its the most dynamic way of impacting each and every one of your drawing skills directly, the amount of knowledge you gain by just observing the figure is priceless! it is afterall the core skill we rely on the most. . . i'm constantly trying to improve myself by looking at people who make me cry myself asleep;


Henry Yan



Zhaoming Wu



Nicolai Fechin



Aaron Coberly



Jeremy Lipking (the man!!)



ok so maybe i cheated on the last one, but hes still an amazing figure painter and worthy of taking the time to see!

BUT! what i want to know is who are you all looking at for inspiration? whose style have you been trying to rip off / steal / borrow to get you where you want to be as an artist at this point in time?

i think it's always important to be looking around - i just got over my infatuation with alex ross . . . well kinda, heh - but he uses figure reference for everything he does! people in full costume come and pose for his comic paintings and he uses it directly for his illustrations! amazing artist

so lets hear it! more importantly - lets see some work!


p.s.
im going to be resurrecting my sketchbook ( monumental occasion ) and plan to be doing a lot of life drawing at barnes&noble, starbucks, the new chipotle - basically where a lot of people are gathered - on the weekends to keep my eye sharp just for an hour or two. . . anyone is welcome and consider this an open invitation!

cheers,
tyler