NMA Homework: Week 2

I decided to enroll in the New Masters Academy once again. I dunno, I took advantage of a slightly lower subscription price, and I like the idea of being part of a spring cohort. I've tried completing courses in the past, but I wasn't consistent. So, because I'm motivated as part of being part of a "class," I will be sticking with it and trying to complete as much as I can before my subscription ends next year (if I can, I'll try to continue, but we'll see about my budget then).

Right now, I'm working through the first and core module, Drawing Foundations I, which is needed for pretty much all later courses in whatever track you choose. I'm looking at following the Illustration track, with some of the Comics track, which really only differ in a couple later module course options. The first week's homework is an introduction, so I won't share the pics I submitted for feedback. What I will share is one Week Two's homework: measured drawings. Despite how long I've been drawing, I've never gotten the hang of measuring while drawing. That's an important skill for my art to be proportional. And this was the assignment that I never really got past the last time I attempted the course. It's the littlest obstacles...

Below are the drawings I submitted for review. I haven't gotten feedback yet, but I hope they're good enough for me to pass and officially work on Week Three. The first three attempts are rough, full of errors. But I think I started to improve in the later half. Making good measured drawings takes time. I know I spent 70+ minutes on Drawing 5!

I'm including the full pages because I wanted to record how off my measurements and placement are. Drawings 1 and 3 either went off the page or butted just against the edge. I think the weakest attempt was the second; it is like the source object in that it's relatively egg-shaped.

Measured drawings 1 & 2

Measured drawing 4

Measured drawings 5 & 6

Measured drawing 3

I look forward to progressing to the next lesson and sharing how I'm doing.

Starting 2013

A new year has started, and here are some of the first images I've done for the year. About time, really.

I've done some gestures, but I wanted to share some drawings I did of a mug. A simple, white coffee mug. I did some timed "gestures" of a minute, then moved to a page of it one position at one minute, two minutes, and five minutes before I did a larger ten minutes sketch. See, I've always been pretty lousy at drawing form and value, and I want to work on that over the year. Consider these as my baseline for later comparisons.

 

What probably frustrates me the most is I can see the way the values change, especially on the rim of the cup, but I can't quite get that on paper. More experience and longer practices should help with that.

March 24 Cyclamen

Today's drawings were a bit of an experiment. I've only drawn on toned or colored paper maybe a couple times in the past, and that was a while back. Toned paper is very useful because you aren't tricked by the white of the paper when it comes to values, and you can actually use the paper's value as the midtone.

Of the two, I think the first was better in the execution. Part of it is the paper itself. The green paper was a bit too soft for the harder pencil I used (a B), and may have been to dark to start with. Live and learn. They were both done with graphite, and the first was done with a white charcoal pencil.

March 12, 18, and 19

The last week was a little crazy, so I have some catching up to do.

March 4, 6, and 7

The latest drawings. March is very much on track to be a still life month. That's not a bad thing. I need to do more drawings from life. But mostly, I'm learning where I'm a little short art-wise. I have a pretty good grasp on line or contour, and working on proportion. Not so great on value and form. 

Mar 2 & 3: Apple and Orchid

Hopefully, the last still life with an apple for a couple weeks. Apples are fine, but I need to move on to the other plants and plant related stuff around the house.

Or, I can go buy more plants, which I did do. You'll probably see this one and another plant a few times over the next month. I like it overall, but a little disappointed with the execution. You can sorta see how I had sketched in the boundaries for more than what I'd drawn. I'd intended to draw the whole orchid sprig/branch, but I sometimes draw with my drawing board in my lap and the subject on the board. I moved, it tipped, and I couldn't put it back into just the right set-up to resume. Yeah. Try not to do stuff like that again.

First March Drawing: Fruit

And now March has started. I have a feeling this month will be different from the last two months because of the nature of the theme. Just like the last two months, I'll focus on one general subject. While the last two months, men and women, were subjects I'm relatively comfortable with (although something that can constantly need improvement), this month will be something I don't think I've really tackled in a long time. This month is plants, and that's not something I've spent much time on. Remember, I went to college initially to be a zoologist. Yes, I had a couple of botany classes and enjoyed them, but I haven't focused on plants very much since then. Which is really a shame because plants are actually rather interesting. And they add so much to both scientific illustration and a creative pieces.

So, this one is going to diverge a lot from the previous ones in approach. The last two months were exercises in creativity more than anything else. This month will be more analytical and learning in nature. More observational than the previous months, be it from in person or from photos. I expect there will be a few imaginative pieces in the days ahead, but mostly from observation. And it will probably help my growth in other areas and subjects.

Still life, 1-10-11

Gestures from pixelovely.com's gesture generator, timed still lifes, and a still life that took about 25 minutes.

Still Life, sphere

Been rather quiet this month. Sorry.

Managed to get some time today to work on still life studies again, this time the sphere. Having an actual sphere helps grasp the whole form/value concept. While I may get it, I still can't quite draw it.

Oct. 19-20

Stuff from Oct. 19 and tonight. Mostly studies from photo reference or still life drawings.

For some reason, I opted to go with a Col-erase pencil for the timed studies; graphite for the quick and dirty still life.

Timed gestures of a My Little Mermaid figurine. Different figurine from before, but same set. I'll probably work my way through them all at some point. 1-3-5 minute gestures.

Still Life, rhino and mermaid

The last week has been really busy with grading and work, so not much time to draw like I'd intended. Here are a pair, one from before the workload and from tonight. I spend about an hour on the figurine.

Still Life, blocks II

Missed yesterday, but got some in today. About 25 minutes on this one.

Still Life, blocks

High time I got around to doing some still life drawings. A couple of pages drawn featuring a couple of wood blocks I had actually bought exactly for that purpose. I spent maybe 15 minutes on each drawing. The plan is to build up my patience as well as my skills.

Drawing with Crayons

Drawing with crayons makes for a challenging exercise if you're used to media like graphite, as I am. And by crayons, I'm not talking about Conte crayons or colored pencils. I mean your average Crayola or similar company crayons, the soft wax ones. Why crayons? They were available and I wanted to try something different.

In summary, this week I helped out at the zoo's summer camp. During some calm periods during the week, I did a little drawing of stuff around me. On this day, we were in the classroom where we have a variety of animal artifacts, including real and fake animal skulls and various kinds of shells. While I did have my usual collection of pencils, I was tired of them and had something of a block. To add something new, I used some of the crayons in the buckets on the table.

The items shown are part of a deer skull and a scorpion spider conch. It was rather fun to draw these with the crayons. The biggest challenge was their bluntness, and it was most apparent in the conch drawing and another shell not included here. Still, if you hold it right and apply the right pressure, you can achieve a pretty good variety of lines and strokes. If I had more patience, I could probably get a full value drawing of the shells. Drawing with crayons might make for a good exercise in the future, and a nice change from graphite.

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