left to rot

lifedrawing log - 08.27.11/08.28.11

I've noticed I tend to draw a lot of squinty, "neutral" expressions on people. *tsk*

You can tell how NOT INTO drawing shaved, naked men I was, and how the following was a welcome switch...

I'm not enabling comments for a while, as I've been getting ruthlessly spam-botted and don't care to do maintenance.  I blame The Internet.

End-of-day head study...

...'cause girls are cute 'n' stuff.

Gino's color bitch

My coworker/coffee pal Gino Whitehall drew a viking and challenged his Facebook friends to color it. I accepted!



The original...

...and it occurs to me now that the dangly, wiggly thing hanging from his groin is probably a knife, and should have been painted metallic. Oops!

Things...

The usual assortment of sketches I didn't want to take further ---->

Signed and customized sketchbook from Vinod Rams! Thanks, Vinod! ---->



Recycled and odorless paper made from elephant poo, courtesy of Pior Oberson. Thanks, Pior! ---->


test

Concept Shop

Here's a private workshop I'm doing with some friends in September. Intimate venue, no posturing or bullshit...just like I like it!

lifedrawing log - 08.10.11

Overheard this at a session tonight : "I don't buy into that gestural, 'spirit of the pose' stuff." That's like saying, "I love cake, but I don't really care for that 'flour and sugar' stuff."



Minor epiphany : When a model poses on/next to a stool, its structure helps establish the perspective you're dealing with, but you totally don't have to draw the stool. You can make it into a rock or an R2 unit or a pile of cabbages.  Not sure why it took me this long to figure that one out.

brush/color test

Trying to render ACROSS forms, like my man J.P.

*sigh*  Ever in training...

lifedrawing log - 07.31.11

Every time I do this, I try to have a "take."   In his book The Art Spirit, Robert Henri talks about studying for information. [pg. 25] "...what we can carry away with us -- is often a revelation of the very little understanding we had in the presence of the model."  That's pretty much it.  Even if I come in and bash out another 20 sheets of the same-old-same-old, there's usually one new nugget that sticks in my sieve of a head.  This week it was a shape the fleshy pad the foot makes on the outer side when it contacts the ground, and how it runs into the piggy toe.  That's mine now.



Side note 1 : I've listed "anatomy" and "light" at the very bottom of my lifedrawing agenda.  This is because I feel like I'm still struggling with the stuff closer to the top of my list, most of all "proportion."  I'm still, after all these years, misjudging the relative size of arms, legs, heads, torsos and, well, everything else.  When I feel like I'm consistently nailing gesture and proportion, I'll be able to let myself focus on those other, more cosmetic things.  

Side note 2 : If you moderate a lifedrawing session, leave the music up to the model.  Or at least make an attempt to differ it every week.  HUNDREDS of new tracks have come available in the brief time it took me to post this, and there's many free, streaming services that don't require much musical knowledge, let alone taste.

For that past, oh, six months, I've heard the same 30-or-so songs on perpetual loop at the session I attend.  It's maddening.  I even said something.  I could just suck it up and keep bringing my own listening device, but goddamn, people, NO ES DIFICIL.  

Lilith model

Thanks to Josh Manning for sharing his rendition of an early Lilith concept from Darksiders!

Beloved door.

OMG, another Quake door, this time by Swedish hard-surface wiz Disting!  Sweeeeet!

Tor Frick Strogg

Tor Frick did this badass model based on one of my old Strogg Grunt concepts.

Awesome texture job on this, too, Tor!