Who knows what's on my mind

It’s really hard to explain social media to someone who has never used it. Flowtown have come up with a great cheat sheet that explains social media to potential clients.

Lately I’ve taken an interest in 1900 European style book illustration. My interest in comic illustration has peaked once again (it comes and goes depending on the decaded) and found a lot of comic artist are inspired by the past. I’ve come across a lot of great children book illustrators and thought it would be a good idea to record down who I’ve come across.

Edmund Dulac (1882 – 1953) is a french illustrator. He’s one of those unique individuals that study law, decided that it was boring and turned towards an illustration career. The most famous artworks he is known for include Arabian Nights, Sleeping Beauty and Stories from Hans Christian Andersen.

Oh dear! He shouldn’t give away secrets like these!

The last life drawing session was actually on the 15th of December but I haven’t got round to posting them till now!

We had 30 seconds poses to start off with and a new model I haven’t meet before. Nadia is a fan of difficult to draw poses and foreshortening. I didn’t mind a challenge but didn’t feel as successful as I have in previous sessions.

A lot of the shorter drawing times didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to. I guess that’s the nature of drawing, you’ve jumped one hurdle only to be confronted by 100′s of more.

Because the poses were so short, I found myself going back into old habits of avoiding faces and hands. I’ve found in these sessions that some models have positions they are comfortable in, which makes drawing faces and hands easier. Since Nadia was a new model and favoured different positions from other model I found myself falling back into old habits.

I decided instead of starting a new drawing every 20 minutes I stuck with the same drawing for the entire hour. It was a success in terms of portion but I found myself fussing. I need to concentrate on how to draw hair but I think I will continue this from now on.

I’ve also recently acquired a new book from Jack Hamm. I’m looking forward to learning more drawing techniques. I’ve also found a neat little website while life drawing sessions are on break which should come in handy!

Great little video explaining the fundamentals of graphic design.

I’m ashamed to say I haven’t been to a life drawing session in the last two weeks and next week’s session is the last one of the year! I had planned to go last week but felt lazy and decided not to leave the house, that will teach me! Where will I get my practice once it’s over for the year?

Some practice with Colour. I believe these were quick 30 second poses.

The proportions are a bit off on this one, the idea is the better you are the quicker you can map out the body. Unlike the previous weeks I chose not to map out the body, just to see where I was at. Obviously I still need a bit more practice. This was a 3 minute pose.

I’ve using blocks of black charcoal to show shadow. I know it’s not the most realistic way to show tone but so far I think it’s an effective technique. I’m still understanding how charcoal works. I’ve been a bit surprised by the difference between charcoal, pastel and pencil.

I actually had a go at drawing a face for once. Now to just work on hands and feet!.

The last drawing of the night. To be honest this was the most frustrating drawing of the night! I don’t know why but the longer I spend on a drawing the more I want to perfect it. My aim was to

Gosh I’m getting a bit lazy with the Life drawing updates! I’m trying to go every fortnight now, I find myself a bit exhausted with full time work if I go every week! I know it sounds strange but that’s how I feel at the moment.

As per usual here are my drawings from the last session:

Short 30 second – 1 minute drawings

3 minute drawings, I find mapping out the figure really helps.

5 minute drawings, slowly getting the hang of charcoal.

10 minutes

15 minutes

20 Minute sketches.
I really like the feel and use of charcoal. I feel like I’m slowly getting better at drawing. I’ve been following what Andrew Loomis has written in his book. My art director suggested I work on a bigger paper and with colour such as chalk pastels. I might give that a go.

I also need to work on drawing faces and hands, I’m avoiding them like the black plague. He suggested that I draw nothing but hands and faces in between sessions. I’ve brought a sketch book especially for hands, feet and faces. I’ll post my progess as I go along.

With the death of Flash on mobile, devices I think it’s a good time to remember what Steve Jobs thoughts were:

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

I didn’t go to life drawing last week, due to a sick chook needing attention but fortunately I had forgotten to put up the previous weeks drawings. That week’s model was a girl and quite athletic too. I found her much easier to draw than the previous weeks model.

This time I came prepared with charcoal and A3 paper. Charcoal is a much easier medium to draw with than pencil for first timers. Not all of these drawings I am proud of but I feel it’s important to document my process.

30 second drawings. In Andrew Loomis’s book he talks about blocking out the characters movements. I didn’t do it this time but I will for the next session.

1 minute drawings.

5 minute drawings

10 minute drawings, here I tried blocking in the figure before drawing in the outline.

Another 10 minute drawing this time I went back to pencil.

15 minute drawings

15 minute drawing. I tried blocking in shadows with charcoal, I may have to lessen the shadows next time.

20 minute drawings, she stayed in the same pose for an hour….ouch!

I found charcoal much easier to work with, and I still need a bit of work on depth and proportions, also hands. So maybe I’ll give hands a go while I’m at home.