SMS Life Drawing

The drawings on this post were created during the induction week. I attended all of the classes but due to doing my foundation year at Farnham there was a lot of things that i lucky already knew. Therefore i took it among myself to keep myself occupied and draw the people i saw.

I started off in the library, i wanted to draw a perspective drawing  so i thought the best idea would be to draw other students studying hard in the library - in the end i had to tell the students i was drawings them as i think my stare was putting them off of their work and they were looking rather concerned. Therefore i tried to be as quick as i could hence why there is minimal detail. I could go over the drawing with more detail but if i did,  i would be working from memory rather then studying from life. I like the way that the head get smaller, the reason why the females head is much smaller then the rest was because there was a space between the middle male and the female. Next time i would maybe do a bit more detail to their clothing to make it look more three-dimensional as it is quite a flat drawing. It could make a really good animation idea. I can imagion animating the three different characters working hard, typing away, and the benefit of doing something like this is there would be a lot to animate, maybe the eyes flicking up and down looking to the screen and keyboard; maybe a purse of the lips and change of cheek shape. (from studying the models i noticed that this was a common occurrence ) If i wanted to do it properly i could do a scratch of the head, and maybe a character would lean out of the  screen and back in. Actually thinking about it, there would be a lot of possibilities to animate. But i could do the characters in layers so the only student in focus would be the character closest to the camera.

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 My next adventure was to a coffee shop called 'Starbucks' in the high street. Thankfully the sun was shining so i got to sit outside and watch the world walk by and other people sitting with their coffee. The drawing on the left hand side i really enjoyed, on the table in front of me was a older couple, and thankfully the gentleman was facing my way. Again i'm sure he was aware i was drawing him (i do not think i'm a discrete person) I feel like i captured his face really well, he was facing into the run, hence the squint and im really pleased with the wrinkles on his face. I think it would be a fabulous drawing if i added some tonal range and really concentrated on making his face look three dimensional, all the markings on his face would have been challenging to draw but rewarding. When i think about how i could turn this into a animation idea it makes me think of the incredible feature animation film 'UP' - one of my favourite animations. The model reminds me of the main character 'Carl Fredricksen' its the stare that he kept giving me. I believe that botox kills memories, each line represents a story, the wrinkles by your eyes represent every time a person had smiled or cried, the wrinkles across the forehead represent the memories of being shocked, dissapointment etc.. I could do a whole animation based on the idea of going back into the memories of a older person and show why they have left a mark on the face. e.g. happiness of a first baby, the long sleepless nights,  the stress of work, the happiness of another baby, a promotion, children moving out, grandchildren, the worry of cancer or a long illness etc. It could be really interesting.

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The image below i also drew in the same time as the other people above. I must admit i did take a photograph of the gentleman as he was wearing a shiny black suit and i wanted to really concentrate how the sun changed the colour of his suit.  So it was not really life drawing it was more of a challenge. I wanted to concentrate on how  the angles the sun was hitting the man and how the way he was standing and posing also contributed into the change in colour of his suit. It was quite time consuming to draw but im really pleased with the outcome. If i was to draw this again i would do the drawing bigger to take up the whole A4 page and i would not draw another drawing on the top left had side of the page. Overall i really rate going and sitting down in a coffee shop for a hour or two and doing some drawing, you can really get  some great drawings  and sketches down on paper and they can really fuel some ideas for some great story line ideas!

Sketch Book Work. 28/9/12

 Since we have been back at Farnham i have been keeping a sketch book on me so i can draw where ever i am, no matter what time it is and lucky enough for me, a family friend child was having a birthday party do it was a excellent time to get my pencils and sketch book out and draw some faces and children's faces are so expressive and their emotions so frantic. For those reasons i find children hard to observe and draw, but they can also be really rewarding to draw. I am really pleased with the quick drawing about of the little boy blowing some bubbles - it was actually my idea to bring bubbles.. i thought the children would be so excited they would keep and keep blowing the bubbles, so i would get slightly longer to draw the children in the same pose. I can imagine it being a sweet little animation. A boy trying again and again to blow a bubble, and when he does a little boy over his shoulder pops it. The frustration on his face and then i can contrast it with the excitement of succeeding with blowing a huge bubble at the end. Simple narrative, but it means that i can concentrate on visual communication.

Now, babies are a different kettle of fish. This gorgeous little girl was 6 months old and was extremely well behaved so she made my life extremely easy. I had to say i did struggle getting the shape of her face right, mainly around her cheeks. I did not want to make her face look too slim because it would make her look older and too round made her look like she had swollen cheeks. I am particularly pleased with her eyes, i feel like the facial expression in the drawing makes her look slightly concerned, lost or worried. At this time her mother had stepped away so I could concentrate on the drawing. Also, i think the way that she is sucking on her fingers creates a sense of being confused. If i was to go back to improve the drawing i would maybe do some more tonal work to the little floral top the little girl was wearing. On the other hand, i quite like the simplisity of the fine line drawing and i wouldn't want to do much more to it. Although i would like to do some more drawings of her, due to babies not being like a adult life drawing model, it challenges me to work quickly and challenges my ability to work accurately getting the main features down on a limited timed basis.

The next drawings are quick 5 minute drawings of other children at the party. They vary in positioning as i tried to do the drawings from different views and angles to try and challenge me. Again, as i said before toddlers and young children are not the easiest to draw live, but i think you can get some great spontaneous action poses from children and i think that if you can get their expressions right, you can come up with some great drawings which can fuel some great ideas for animation stories or characters.


BELOW:  more images of work from the party and close-ups.

Summer Project work. 27/9/12

Over the summer we were given a range of excersizes to complete for when we start our first year. This post will contain the drawing that i most enjoyed completing and explanations of why i enjoyed the tasks, and what i would do to different. 

The first task was to complete a 20 minute drawing of out non drawing hand in a interesting position. I decided before i got stuck into the large 20minute drawing i would do some quick 5 minute studies of the hand in different positions to get a feel for proportions and the angles that the hand can make. I enjoyed this the most out of all the summer tasks probably because they were quick short drawings, with a contrast of positions which meant that it was consistently visually appealing. I learnt that there are a multitude of angles that your hands and fingers can make, and it was really interesting to see how the skin creases and moves in relation to slight finger movement. The aim of  these four drawings to the right as i said was to get a feel for the hand i was drawing, but next time i do something like this i would maybe spend more time on getting the detail of the skin marking and the way that the skin creases and folds. I would also experiment with tonal range more, but i think at this point in time it is more important to concentrate on the proportions and trying to gain accurate angles etc. During our first class back we were told to leave our sketch books behind so our tutors could look at our work and our tutors would pick out the pieces that stood out to them the most and they would stick them up on the back wall.  When we came back from lunch one of my pieces was up on the wall which is the large hand drawing that i drew for 10 minutes. I was pretty daunted by the talent of other students work which was on the wall, and i must add i do not know why this piece was on the wall. I enjoyed drawing the fingernails the most in this drawing, they were all at odd angles and it was a little tricky to try and get right, especially trying to get the fingers to look like the join to the finger tips as the thumb breaks up the fingers. Overall though i am very please with the out come of the hand task. It is a topic that would be brilliant for an animation as hands can be so expressive. After all, you can speak a whole unique language with your hands.

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The next task was to draw an interesting pair of shoes that we have - all my shoes are rather boring, boots and plimsolls so i had to borrow my brothers 'high top' Nike trainers. I went for a different approach with this task to the previous task, i tried to be more precise and neat with the line work so the stitch work could be easy illustrated and seen by the eye. I spent around 5 minutes observing the shoe, all the curves and lines of the shoes, how the pattern pieces join together and the way that the laces over lap and sit on the shoe lip. I actually really enjoyed this task more then i thought i would as i prefer to concentrate on peoples figures and faces, but on the whole i would argue that there is more detail on the trainers then there is on a young persons face, which actually made it quite a stimulating topic to draw as i had to really look at where everything fitted together. I have learnt to be more open with the things i study, anything can be interesting to draw if you make it fun to draw.

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The next task was to spend 40 minutes concentrating on drawing a building from a three quarter view. I knew the house that i wanted to draw straight away when i read the brief  This house is a friends house which is a original building dating from the 1800's so it has some really quirky features (and a extra house which is to the right of the drawing - that is brand new). I must admit, i am not a big fan of drawing or painting buildings, it envy anyone that can draw buildings easily and confidently. I  spent ten minutes studying the house all of the angles and the lines of when the top of the building reaches the sky line. In the first ten minutes i sent the first five just observing and getting a feel for all the detail, i spent the last five minutes drawing some vague lines and a basic map for me to follow when drawing the building. I spent the next 30minutes drawing out the main structure, the roof, doors, windows, chimney, piping and other brick work. Buildings are something that i would like to improve on and practice makes perfect. I will probably go back and finish the drawing to a standard that i am happy with. However, i left it like this to show the tutor what i can achieve in 40minutes.

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We also had to draw a bicycle and a self portrait but i'm not a big fan of them and i will be improving them when i have some time and i will blog them when i'm finished.

Overall, i think that the summer project was a great way to get us warmed up and ready to dive back into the world of university work and animation, the tasks were fun and all completely different so they did not drag. (Drawing never drags - but some people may dissagree) I'm looking forward to other drawing tasks to come.

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24/9/12 Life Drawing

Today i attended my first Drawing, Drama and Design class. We were told in advance that we would be participating in 2 and a half hours of life drawing which i was really excited about, its different then drawing people on the train or in a cafe, probably because the model doesn't complain that i'm staring at her.

When we sat down we were told that we would do a range of exercises, the first couple of drawings would be quick 3 -5minute drawings, no shading, just line work. I felt it was a great warming up task, they were quick change poses which were high in contrast which meant that i got to get a feel for the models shape. From doing life drawing classes in my Foundation year, i find these first drawings to be really important, they get my brain warmed up for a good session. I wasn't particulary pleased with any of the work on the two pages above, nothing stands out or grabs my attention but it aim wasn't to create a masterpiece it was to warm up.

The next task was to do some larger more detailed drawings of the model, concentrating on her body shape and the proportions. We were told not to concentrate on the facial features as you can spend hours concentrating on a models face. We had 15 minutes to complete both of these drawings, i found these to be more enjoyable then the first task as we had more time to concentrate on what we were drawing. It also allowed Ron to see how we draw, our techniques and styles. Now i look back at the images i think i could have done better, the drawing to the right, the left arm on the model is too short and the elbow should come down slightly further, but maybe if there was some shading around the shoulders it would look more in proportion as the model had hunched shoulders, also i drew the models head slightly too small?

Once we finished the drawings we had a chat with Ron and he pointed out that we all spend too much time looking at what we are drawing rather then studying the model and using out eyes to draw. Therefore the next task was to spend 20 minutes drawing very slowly with out looking at the page (non-looking line drawing). The aim of the task was to make us understand the difference between drawing with out eyes and drawing with our brain, what we think should be drawing, and i actually really enjoyed the task. I have a photographic memory which makes it easier then other people to see things and remember angles which i feel works in my favour. I did look at my drawing but only when i had taken my pencil off of the page to see where i was. I tried to make it a one line drawing, apart from when i was looking at the drawing. I feel that when your not looking at the drawing its better to do it as a one line drawing as it helps you to navigate around the page, you can get a feel for when you had your markings etc. I am fairly pleased with the outcome, i would have preferred the drawing to have been a bit more erratic, but i'm quite a neat person and i drew very slowly making it difficult to create a more frantic obscure look. I think on the whole it would benefit me hugely to do more none looking drawing and be really strict about it, even going as far as blind folding myself so i'm not tempted.

The last task that we did was a series of drawings of the model from different points of views, all the class were sitting in a semicircle so we all moved seats clockwise around the room. The drawings create a 3D effect which animators use when designing a character to show all the different points of view their character can be seen from and all the detail that needs to be included. Unfortunately, due to the lack of common sense i drew the first four drawings too big so i couldn't fit the rest of the drawings on the same page. It was interesting to see how some of the angles has really subtle changes and others were more noticeable. It would have been more interesting to draw if the model had been standing up as most of the drawing the a chair draped in fabric.. However it was still interesting. In my foundation year i did some of these drawings and i also did a 3D model of one of my 2D characters to make sure that the dimensions of the character would work on screen. When i was drawing these drawings i was trying not to look at the paper too much to go along with the drawing with your eyes task. We also had limited time to draw each position so they were quick, basic line drawings.

Overall, I really enjoyed my first life drawing class and i am really excited to do the next life drawing class and in the mean time i shall be updating my blog with more drawings i have done with the techniques i have learnt.