Welcome to Life Drawing I!This week we'll be getting acquainted with the drawing studio and the tools and supplies typically used for this course. Please bring AT LEAST a pencil and a sketchbook (minimum 9x12 inches) for the first class. We will discuss the textbooks and the goals of the course.In total there are Eight Assignments worth 10% each, and a Final Project worth 20%. The assignments are:
Week 1: Assignment 1: Hands Week 2: Assignment 2: Human Skull Week 3: Assignment 3: The Foot Week 4: No assignment: Homework: Two contour drawings at home. Week 5: Assignment 4: The human skeleton Week 6: Assignment 5: Muscle Group Week 7: Assignment 6: Three layer Limb Week 8: No assignment Week 9: Assignment 7a: Muscle Progression or 7b: Drawing from Life Week 10: Assignment 8: Faces Week 11: Final Project Due Week 12 Week 12: Hand in Final Project
Some great reference images for drawing hands: Taken From Bridgman's Complete Guide to Life Drawing:
This week we begin drawing from a live model and will focus primarily on short gesture poses, 30sec-1 min. For homework, the assignment is to draw a human skull as realistically as possible from the front view, using a photograph as a reference. Here are some I found on a google search. The first is a drawing, so it's not the best place to start as a reference, but the drawing is very well executed.
This week we'll go over some methods of improving our proportions of the figure, including measuring, looking for angles and half-way points, and our homework will be a study of the anatomy of the foot.
Reading: Art of Drawing Anatomy pp102-103 Drawing Human Anatomy pp 68-77
A drawing of the bones of the foot by DaVinci.
The next few are taken from Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing From Life
Note how he has analysed the basic shapes and used them to build very solid drawings.
These two images are from Atlas of Human Anatomy for the Artist (S. R. Peck), and should help with completing this week's homework assignment. Good luck!
This week we'll be doing some contour drawing. A contour is the line which defines a form or edge - an outline. When doing a contour drawing, you place your pencil on the paper, look at the subject, then move the pencil as if you were drawing on the surface of the subject. Try not to look at the paper until you come to a point where you need to re-orient your position. The drawings will look strange to you, but they are a great way to improve 'seeing' your subject. Here are a few images I pulled off of a google search.
We'll also go through some demos on tackling longer poses, measuring, looking for anatomy landmarks, and getting the drawing mapped out before we start adding details.
This week we'll be referring to the skeleton for reference while we are drawing. We'll start by blocking in our pose with a gesture drawing, and then look for anatomy landmarks to construct a simple skeleton beneath the pose. Examine the images below.
For homework, you'll be drawing a FULL FRONTAL VIEW of a skeleton, ideally from a photographic reference of a REAL skeleton. It's best to refer to both an actual photograph and then see how artists have handles drawing the skeleton. Try not to simply copy the artist's drawing.
I dug up some good references for handling the rendering of form, light and shadow etc from a variety of sources. Hopefully this will help you when you tackle longer poses this week. Remember to try and see the shapes of the forms and shadows, work lightly at first, to block in those shapes and gradually build up the tone to render the form. Good Luck!
In this class we'll be doing a very brief overview of the major muscle groups, without going into too much detail. When looking through anatomy books, don't be overwhelmed by all the muscles and their names, try to focus on groups of shapes and landmarks that will help construct a more convincing drawing. Knowing anatomy in great detail can' hurt, but it's not as important as making good observations from your subject while drawing.
You'll be doing a homework assignment where you will be drawing muscles based on the style in your "Art of Drawing Anatomy" (see pg 47). Please bring that text to class so you can follow along. For additional reading, pp63-87 give an overview of the musculature of the arms and legs. The images in these pages will be used for completing your assignment.
In addition PLEASE BRING CONTE with you to class, either pencils or sticks. We'll be experimenting with conte as a new medium for life drawing, for both short and long poses. Conte is not as easy to work with as charcoal, it has a more 'clay' based content but it can be blended and erased. The trick is to use a very light touch and build up your drawing in layers, and use the side of your pencil to block in the shading.
This week we'll be doing an exercise to improve our shading. The exercise is called 'shadow mapping' and works like a very high contrast image. We assess our figure and look for areas of shadow and map out the shapes of the shadow. The only parts of the figure that we will draw, are the shadow shapes, no mid tones or highlights. This exercise will help you to relate shapes together, and this will help your proportion. It helps to squint when you look a the model, and only focus on the large shadow shapes, and not get too lost in detail starting out. Exercise 2: Drawing with marker
To participate, please bring in a marker, so you can experiment with it as a drawing medium for both short poses, longer poses and for shading. Many concept artists will rough out their designs with marker to get the overall shape, then use pencil or pen to tighten the forms and details, then go back with a marker to do a shading/rendering pass to give the forms volume and shape. Please bring an ALCOHOL based marker, otherwise we'll all die from the fumes. NO 'Sharpie' markers, they are non-alcohol based and the fumes are nasty. If you have any old markers that are about to die, bring those in, they are great for laying in a very light and loose gesture, then you can use more fresh markers to finish up the drawing.
This week, we'll be devoting some time to exploring charcoal for both short and longer poses. I'd recommend bringing in as many different kinds of charcoal as you can: vine charcoal, compressed charcoal and charcoal pencils. Below are some examples of charcoal rendering for short and longer poses, as well as longer, more refined studies.
For shorter poses, the image below demonstrates the process of blocking in your gesture and building upon it, using the side of your charcoal to carve large chunks of tone and build up your drawing. The most critical elements are a solid gesture foundation, and then blocking in your darkest values and building them up as you work.
The next two images demonstrate how charcoal can be used for longer studies, say 15-30 minutes. Notice that there is still a solid geometric construction, that all parts of the figure have been well analyzed so that modeling the form with tone is easier to execute, You can still see the rough, loose lines from the gesture. Using a light touch at the initial drawing stage will help keep your image from getting to dark too quickly.
This next image is a very polished, beautiful rendered copy of a sculpture cast. Drawings like these take many hours of careful study and planning. The goal is to replicate the sculpture you are drawing as accurately as possible, relating forms and shapes into a balance tonal image.
This last image demonstrates a refined drawing from life. Again, pay close attention to the mapping of tones and how they help to create the illusion of form.
This video clip demonstrates how to sharpen your pencils for life drawing. Enjoy!
This week we'll re-visit the construction of the figure as simple shapes. These images are from the Glenn Vilppu Drawing Manual, an excellent reference for anyone serious about figure drawing. A solid geometric construction is fundamental to solving problems of proportion, perspective, foreshortening and rendering.
This week's assignment involves drawing the human face from photographic reference, 2 male and 2 female. I encourage you to draw a variety of ages and ethnicity if possible. Below are some useful construction demos from the concept art forum website, another fantastic resource for the aspiring artist.
