- This topic has 246 replies, 23 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 2 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Nice work. I like the the symmetry of these three particular poses together. The line quality looks very good on these. Keep it up.
Bryan.
Day 10 of 100. I didn’t get so much done today, but here is my progress. I’ll add to this tomorrow.Deborah
Looks great. You are getting very good at capturing movement. Do you use a ruler for those construction lines?
Day 12 of 100: Two more figures added to this composition. I’m adding one more below and that will complete this page.Hi Bryan. Yes, I am ruling the vertical and horizontal lines. All of the drawing is freehand. I’m putting the vertical line where I feel the centre of balance is. I’ll freehand them one day, but at the moment I need the props 😆!
Deborah
The lines are working for you with a ruler, so I would keep going. I don’t think there is any need to do freehand construction lines. I was asking because I might try them out. I need a little more focus on symmetry, balance, and measurement. Keep up the good work🙂
Thanks Bryan 🙂. It helps me, so I hope you find it useful as well. I know Iliya teaches using knitting needles to transfer angles – one for a vertical or horizontal and one to capture the angle he wants. I’m only using my pencil for measurements and angles, but taking time to check angles and lengths has helped my accuracy enormously. A lot of the assignments use timed poses. I’m not doing timed poses at the moment – I find that once I’m under a time deadline, my observation goes out the window. Speed will come. Steve Huston said that regardless of the length of the pose, he works at the same speed, he can just take a drawing further in a longer time frame. I don’t have that surety yet, so am not putting myself under the pressure. It’s enough just to get what I want down!
Day 13 of 100. I was a little scrappy with my internal gesture lines today. I post this figure with questions circling in my mind. There’s a lot of emphasis on quick, loose gesture on this forum and in the teaching I’ve been watching, and I’m not working like that. Is there one ‘right’ way? Am I doing it ‘wrong’ because I’m not working loose? Is that something that comes with practice or something that has to be done from the outset? I’ve enjoyed spending time creating this page of figures and would prefer to keep practicing in this more carefully constructed approach – it’s more consistent with my personality; but am a little unsure of how to proceed. Thanks.Deborah
Hello Deborah. You ask great questions. This might be a good one to post on the drawing forum and see if you get a response. Sorry I can’t give you expert advice on this. My thoughts on this question (after watching the videos and doing figure drawings for a month) are that all of the materials, techniques, and methods are just means to an end. I think it is important to think about the big picture of what you are trying to accomplish and think of all the methods and techniques as a way to get you there. I think this is why Steve Huston talks so much about “art as an idea.” If you don’t have a firm grasp on the idea of what you are trying to do, then none of the details will matter. I’m trying to learn drawing so I can learn painting. I’m trying to learn painting so I can make beautiful works of art. I have an idea of what I want my art to look like, and I’m trying to develop the skills to get me there.
To use an analogy, a used to play guitar in a small town rock band. The big picture of playing guitar is obviously to learn to play songs and hopefully make music that people want to listen too. I never lost sight of that, but I knew some guys who got so focused on learning a particular guitar solo or getting certain pedals and equipment that they forgot. When I talked to those guys, I’d say something like, “Man that guitar solo sounds awesome, but can you play the chords to the song we are covering tonight? The guitar solo is only one minute of the entire song” I think a similar concept applies to the visual arts from what I have observed so far.The other thought I have is what exactly is the emphasis on speed and looseness trying to accomplish? I don’t know for sure, but it seems to me that one goal is to produce a bunch of artwork at a fast pace. That will be more beneficial to artists in certain careers, such as animation, that have tight deadlines. It seems less important if you want to be a fine artist . I was watching “Tom Keating on the Painters” show on YouTube yesterday (which is great), and one of the things I learned from it is that some artists, such as Cézanne, worked incredibly slow, and others incredibly fast. The other goal of the speed and looseness seems to be to make the drawing fluid and rhythmic and make sure the whole drawing has the same energy. In my opinion, it seems that your drawings have that energy, rhythm, and consistency despite your method.
So, in my opinion, I would just keep going with your method if you are pleased with the results you are getting, and only switch it up if you hit a creative roadblock. Hope this helps. 🙂
Bryan.
Hi Bryan, thank you for your insights. I play piano, so I understand your guitar analogy. It’s so true. I will post my work to the other forum for critique, but yes, there are skills and there is is also the idea we as artists want to convey. Ultimately I want to be able to convey emotion and beauty – very esoteric and therefore difficult to pin down to specifics. I think for me, it’s going to be a journey where I really won’t see the destination, only the next step forwards. Like life. I am drawn to Vilpuu and Huston because the emotion lies in the gesture, the movement. If my figures are showing some signs of that, I’m glad and am happier moving forwards in a slower way of working. I’m dipping my toes into Mirochnik’s teaching too though, because his way of working suits my personality better. The important thing is we’re practicing. I heard a guy recount a study where art students were divided into two groups. One was told that they would be marked on quantity, the other quality of their art. The end result was that the group who were marked on quantity produced better work in the end than those marked on quality. This challenge has definitely got me drawing more consistently, so that’s a good thing 🙂
CONNECT
New Masters Academy
16182 Gothard St
Huntington Beach, CA 92647
Contact US