More head practice. The first one was done straight into digital as a photoshop rendering exercise. The second, pencil drawn from a photo. Norman Schwarzkopf died today, so I guess I was thinking about tired, old white men.

Merry Christmas! I haven't been that lazy over the holiday break. (well, okay maybe just a little bit.) More terrible than lazy. I haven't been thinking in color for a semester, and it shows. Here's my current WIP.

Chiaroscuro Midterm + Final Projects

I got super busy with work and the holidays, and completely neglected updating this blog, so here is a jumbo update. (Please excuse the crappy iphone shots) In short, I am posting my midterm and final projects. :)

Here is my completed midterm (pencils previously posted):

Then I went home for Thanksgiving, started my finals, caught pneumonia and was out for 2 weeks. Despite the drug induced haze, I managed to finish my finals. Brandon rejected all of the awesome modern day Italian angelic naked lady poses I wanted to do, and suggested I do a master copy of Thomas Eakins' Masked Woman.

I told him initially that I found it kind of creepy and odd. But then he explained that back in the late 19th century America, the models would put on the hoods to maintain their anonymity in whatever small town they lived in. I could imagine how nervous this might make these women, and wondered why a conservative house wife with 5 kinds would choose to do such a thing. Maybe they wanted to be like the classical beauties of old. Perhaps they found it exciting. It became an appealing mystery to me, and I decided to stick with this piece.

For the second piece, we were given a choice to do another master copy or to take a photo ourselves of a figure and draw that. I was the only person in the class of about 26 people to do this, to my surprise. Funny that this small town, conservative housewife from the 1890's would have less modesty than these 21st century art students. So here is my piece and yes he is reading The Dark Knight Trilogy art book in his boxers on the couch. (I cooked him dinner for this one.)

Now school is out! I am still waiting for my grade. One of my new years resolutions is to keep on updating this blog regularly.

Happy Holidays y'all. :)

Chiaroscuro Class Week 5, APE and a Robot

Metal. And more drapery. And more fruit (unfinished). Gotta fix this one for the quarter final grade coming up. I've also been working on the homework due this coming Wednesday, trying to color in the lineart from last week. Busy busy busy...

On a different note, I went to the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco yesterday! It was really motivating and wonderful to see all sorts of people there, from seasoned pros to students fresh out of school. I even saw the girl there whose blog helped me decide to decide to go to the program that I'm currently enrolled in. (peep her blog at http://zealousceles.blogspot.com/ ) All in all, it was very motivating and I had the chance to meet some really nice people and buy some phenomenal sketchbooks.Yay!!!

I also got to work on my munny again this morning. This is probably terrible to say, but it's been nice being antisocial. :P Here's a sneak peak at the undercoat I've laid down. Megablaster and boots WIP.

Chiaroscuro Class, Week 4

This was my first time trying to do a realistic depiction of cloth. Really struggled with the different between form shadows and cast shadows. Also, the pot/grapes didn't come out to my liking. This studio assignment made me realize that the position of my paper and how I hold it across my lap could really skew my perspective. Also it made a big impact on me how much a well sharpened piece of charcoal matters.

 

The homework for this week was to set up a still life at home that we could work on for 3 weeks. We were tasked with getting a sharp, clean sketch down. I'm actually proud of how accurate my line art is here, especially on the wrench and the cranes. I stayed away from the vine charcoal this time, stuck to the hardest ones and did very little smudging, if at all. Much, much better...I'm really looking forward to getting back feedback and shading this one. :)

Chiaroscuro Class Assignment #03

Done during studio class, about 4 hours of total work. It's still unfinished, but marks today's progress: a lesson about glass. It was really great to see the wide variety of styles and different ways of interpreting the same thing. Even with the same medium, every student work was really distinctive. Talking to some of my classmates to get a sense of how they work, struggle and triumph with the process realizes the shared sense of camaraderie as well as helps grow technique.

I've been expecting to feel more behind since the majority of students there have an undergraduate degree in a related field, but I feel like I'm actually holding my own okay. Despite it being such a humbling experience, class is definitely the highlight of my weekdays.

Chiaroscuro Homework #01, part 2

Added backdrop and scattered light detailing on the apple and tried to even out the tones to hide my charcoal lines. I also worked really hard to try and clean things up and fill up the "white dots" from the paper texture that Brendon didn't like in my greyscale chart. Charcoal smudges sooooo easily. Making one wrong mark, one accidental swipe with my sleeve cuff or pressing down on the charcoal just a *tiny* bit too hard could be aggravatingly difficult to recover from. I have a hard time just not making a general mess of things.

I've been having a noticeably hard time keeping the mortar and pestle symmetrical, so I reversed the photo to see how far off I really was. I was horrified to find out the severity of my symmetry and perspective derp... I'll make one last attempt Tuesday night after work to correct it the best I can.

Chiaroscuro Homework #01, part 1 - Square One.

A week ago I began my MFA studies at the Academy of Art. First semester, first class. So why not record my progress? Maybe one day when I am a total badass I can look back upon the start of my journey and laugh. :P Anyway, everyone's gotta start somewhere, right? Here's to the start of my mileage.

Homework #01 was to set up a still life of 3 solid, non transparent or reflective surfaces at home with one point lighting. This is my progress halfway in. (please excuse the crappy cellphone pic) Charcoal is hard. Drawing symmetrical objects is really hard. Yikes. My hope in all of this was that I still found it thoroughly enjoyable.

Conclusion? I am easy to entertain, but difficult to please. Hopefully part 2 will go better.

Girl with Rhinoboar

I've been so busy with work and homework that I've ignored this blog, but I have been doing lots of painting and sketching. (Must learn how to paint in photoshop!)

Since posting regularly is a good habit that encourages regular practice, here goes again. Sketchdump, resurrected by Girl with Rhinoboar. This is my first pass, I need to figure out how to do backgrounds...

1st speedpaint of 2012

1.5hr, photoshop with reference