SEPT-DEC TERM:WK4 (16TH OCT 2010) MORE FIGURE DRAWING

I guess I was pushing you all a bit tonight with this one, so here's a recap.

Below are the three thumbnail sketches I produced for discussion.

You will get to decide which route to take for your final piece.

The pose is a difficult one to pull off so maybe breaking it down into shapes will be helpful.

The pose is soft and alluring pose and almost side on with the back and shoulders rounded forward and the head tilted back.

Don't be too concerned with drawing the snakes for now. Concentrate on the pose.

Remember the head drawing session in week 2 and the sessions we do every term? The head is basically broken down into a circle and a cube. Try to keep this in mind when drawing the dead at different angles.

Some of your were having difficulty with the mouth. Keep it simple. Don't over complicate it. Sometimes less is more when  getting to grips with drawing something you are having difficulty with.

Check out some of David Finch's youtube turoials. 

You may find them helpful.

Here's a breakdown of the hand. Remember what was shown in class about how the hand can be broken down onto cylinders and  blocks.

PICK OF THE WEEK

Because I have fallen behind with regards to posting  choice pieces of student art I have decided to do a 'pick' instead of 'pic' of the week .

Here's a collection of work I was impressed with during last term and the  past three weeks of the  current term.

A collection of art drawn by Dave. 

The first pic is a work in progress. I liked the developments  so far and decided to post it.

 A collection of art drawn by Eric.

A collection of art drawn by Richard.

A collection of art drawn by Orazio

 A collection of art drawn by Vanessa

SEPT-DEC TERM:WK3 (9TH OCT 2010) MORE FIGURE DRAWING AND SHADING

Good effort tonight everyone. Harvinder, Paul, Eric, good progression, keep it coming.

Remember to keep you eye on the goals you have set yourselves. Some of you have a definite idea of the style and standard you would like to achieve . This will only come with regular practice and focus. Also, try to be consistent with your technique and you will refine the rough edges , resulting in your own identity as an artist.

Here is a recap of tonight's exercise.

When practising figure drawing keep the  initial pencil work /foundations light and loose. You will find that this also helps  capture movement and action.

When defining the muscles , refer back to the diagram on last weeks post.

I often advise to keep to simple flowing shapes when learning to draw hair. Once you develop an eye for what works and what doesn't, you can move on to more complex  variations with success.

SHADING

The main thing to remember when adding shading to your figure is that the body is made up of all kinds of contours that will be affected by the position of the light source.

When playing around with lighting  with rough sketches I usually produce a handful of small sketches and blast single stroke slabs of light grey using an broad nib of a  marker.  It's quick and immediate and gives you a foundation on which to base your layers of shading round.

I strongly recommend  this magazine (my thanks to Eric for bringing it into class tonight), available in shops now.

It covers a lot of material covered in the last few weeks and  past few terms.

It's part of the Imagine FX series. £14.99 you should be able to pick it up from W H Smiths or Waterstones

http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/index.php?cl=details&anid=ab72d2d8e141272beea60011615c7a1b&action=addedtobasket&#

http://www.facebook.com/imaginefx

CONCEPT DESIGN: HYUNDAI PUPPETS

I had Rebekah Caputo in mind  when writing this post but I think you all should watch it as there are  some cool designs.  About one minute into the clip you'll  see one of the designers sat at his drawing board producing rough concept sketches. I will post some related concept art I produced for Auto Trader end of this blog.

I also though this was pretty cool too.

AUTO TRADER CONCEPT ART.

Back in 2010 I produced some concept art for a character for an Auto Trader TV ad. You may have seen it.

Here are some of the concept sketches I produced.

Here  some  other random concept sketches from other jobs

SEPT-DEC TERM:WK 1-2 (25TH SEPT & 2ND OCT 2010

Welcome to the first blog of this new term. Sorry it's taken 2 weeks for me to get started on this. This will be something of a bumper post so I will post links to previous blog posts to save on space.

Ok, to kick off, I will post a couple of links to previous blog posts and some links that may also prove useful.

MATERIALS

Here are some links to the  art stores I use. Artifolk and Cult Pens are amazing  and my first port of call when restocking on materials

http://www.artifolk.co.uk

Artifolk is a great online store and almost unbeatable in price and quality of products

and here

http://www.cultpens.com/

I get most of my pens from Cult Pens. Because they specialise in pens they tend to stck more types of pen and marker than Artifolk. 

There are other online art stores but these two are my favourites. 

For those of you who prefer to visit a local store, I can recommend  Hobbicraft at Crown Point Center, Leeds,  http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/Pages/Stores/Store.aspx?storeid=31  and there is a new shop opened in the Merrion Cenre in Leeds, http://www.craftwiseonline.co.uk/

If you can manage the track to Ilkley, The Art Shop, is another good store to visit. It's situated near the main car park by the main shopping area.

They also have a website

http://www.theartshops.co.uk/

 Here is a link to an earlier post  on materials, detailing the materials discussed in class.

http://fantasyartclass.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/termapril-june-2012-weeks-12-and-3.html

BE  INSPIRED

Studying other artist's work can often  inspire you to push yourself further and help develop your style and technique of drawing. We will be discussing examples of artist's work that I  have found to be inspirational and  that I believe  offer  sound examples of figure  drawing, composition and lighting. Feel free to bring in  books  or examples of art that have and continue inspire you.

DEFINE YOUR STYLE

Most of the exercises carried out during this course will  be of a similar style, that being my style. I encourage you to find develop your own style and not faithfully copy my style. Finding your style or technique is important  when trying to define your identity as an artist.

The  images below display various interpretations of  Conan   by five different artists.

Maybe some you will like and some you will  not be too keen on. That's ok.  Art is subjective and  not all art will inspire you. Notice how each artist uses their own unique style to create their own vision of Conan. It's all the same character and attitude   given five unique visual treatments.

Conan by Frank Frazetta

Conan by Barry Windsor Smith

Conan by Becky Cloonan

Conan by Michael Oeming

Conan by Bruce Timm

 FIGURE DRAWING

Before you can go on to draw all this cool stuff, you will need to familiarise yourself with the human form and  how it moves, and so, a basic grasp of anatomy is  required.

You don't have to learn all the names of each individual bone but  an understanding of the skeletal frame and the  main joints will come in very handy.

A basic grasp of the major muscle groups is also essential.

Frazetta's work (shown below) clearly shows that he was very knowledgeable regarding human antomy and muscle groups and this added to the power of his work.

Jack Kirby , on the other hand, probably did have an good understanding of anatomy but his style and technique did not rely on an accurate visualisation of muscle placement and proportion, yet it did not detract from the power of his work.  

Kirby's figure work is in proportion and  is well ballanced, so even though his muscle definition is slightly inaccurate, it still gives the appearance of being correct. What Kirby's work lacked in accuracy, it more than made up for in shear power, dynamics and layout.

Thor by Jack Kirby

 and the same could also be said of Mike Mignola's work. Both artists have a strong unique style and are giants in the comic book industry (For those who are new to Kirby's work, Jack Kirby died in 1994).

Conan by Mike Mignola

FIRST STEPS IN FIGURE DRAWING
When setting out on your first steps to develop you skills at figure drawing, I recommend  documenting your progression in a sketch book.  Any size will do, A4, A3 or square. Use it to chart your development. Your first sketches are important to document even if you are not happy with them or even embarrassed by them, they will help to show how far  you have progressed every time you make a new breakthrough.

Try to capture the energy and  flow  of action. Keep the sketches loose and light to start with. Try to feel the action as you put it down on paper

Keep the figures simply and not too detailed. Go for shape and proportion.

Experiment with different shapes and sizes

Here are some more links to earlier posts on figure drawing

http://fantasyartclass.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/additional-notes-on-anatomy.html

http://fantasyartclass.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/jan-march-2012-week-2-figure-drawing.html
 Also check out  David finch drawing heads

David Finch's channel
http://www.youtube.com/channel/HCURmM3Ht7Bo0

Joe Kubert (September 18, 1926 – August 12, 2012)

I just read a post by  Bill Sienkiewicz on face book this morning about the passing of Joe Kubert. 

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=40404

Joe Kubert's art featured heavily in my reading material as a kid. I'm still learning from studying his work today .

If you are unfamiliar  with his work then I suggest you get acquainted now.

WEEK 10 -3RD JULY 2012

I'll probably post a more detailed  review of this final class of term exercise later but I just want to give you guys a chance to do your own thing drawing on all the stuff we've covered the past 10 weeks.

Ok, so this is as much as I'm giving you on this piece for at least two weeks . If you are producing a black and white ink drawing, consider what we have discussed about negative space. Think about the use of solids to define a shape and  the use of white to  create depth and prevent the image form  looking flat or becoming lost.

If you are producing a colour drawing, remember what was discussed about the use of a cool pallet for night time and a full moon and a warm pallet for daytime and a warm yellow sun.

Ok, have fun and post you work on facebook and deviant art . I will try to blog as much as I can (workload permitting) over the summer holiday period so keep checking back to see what's new.