Back at Art at Joe's!

Well, been a while. I've been kinda stressing and not getting much of anything done between work and the convention, but I want to reassess things and get back into some figure drawing. Painting classes have been keeping me going steady as far as doing things outside of work (and I need to upload some of my latest still!), but I need to pick up the pace some. For those of you that don't know, I was at the Anime Convention in Atlanta this past weekend, and although it smelled, and was hot, and loud, I managed to get into drawing stuff that I actually enjoyed and didn't consider 'work.' I had forgotten what it was like to sit down and draw just to have fun and not try to meet certain goals and timelines. It also allowed me to really see what I need to improve. So, here is to me getting back into art for the fun of it!

I got to draw from a male model tonight for the first time in almost two years… I think. Anyway, it's been a while and it was kind of refreshing. This is from the final pose of the night and probably my best. Still trying to figure out the best way to sketch with a pencil. My years of cartoon drawing make me rely heavily on outlines, but I think my painting experience is getting me away from that and allowing me to focus on form and value a little better.

On a side note, I am in the process of revamping my website (for real this time). I'm ditching pure html for a template website that also does hosting, but it is very customizable and I feel it will allow me to update more often and allow for easy changes/editions. My blog will also be moving from blogger to my new website. I'm real excited and can't wait to get it up and running! Hope everyone is doing well. Feel free to comment and let me know what you're up to!

Massive Update

Soooo… yeah. I've taken WAY too long to update this thing. Things at work have been moving incredibly fast and I feel like I am just now starting to get my footing back. Thank god for painting class. Anyway, here is some stuff I've done over the past few months just to prove that I've gotten a few things done… mostly through class :-/

Sorry for the bad pics. I need to get better at photographing paintings

EDIT: So I just realized that I had ALOT more paintings that I haven't posted. I just put the semi-good ones on. I also rearranged them so the oldest was last and the newest was first…I think. Anyway, I guess I should explain some of them a bit better. I've been working on my figures alot and have been trying to get the colors right. Skin-tones have always been hard and will probably be hard for the rest of my life. I've noticed that my shadows are way too dark in my earlier paintings and have been trying to fix that in my later ones without adding white paint. They look a little better. Still have a ways to go, but i'm seeing improvement :-)

Painting Class 2.2.10

Happy February! So I guess this really is the month of love because we finally got to paint a model tonight in my painting class! Charles has been a big help. Here is my latest in progress.

Things to remember:
1) Skin is luminous: add a little bit of white in shadows to really make it glow. Rules are made to be broken.
2) As the shoulders go further back into the distance, add some of the background color to show atmosphere.
3) Paint the basic shapes first, and if something is mostly in shadow, paint it all in shadow and add the highlights later.
4) Don't paint highlights too yellow. Add some blue. We are using a cool light, so highlights must be cool.
5) DON'T GET CAUGHT UP IN THE DETAILS. Treat it like you would a vase or a pot. People recognize overall shapes, values and tones first.
6) Don't paint shadows brown. Add some cadmium red, ultramarine blue and/or alizarine crimson to get some saturation going.

Figure Drawing Mom and Daughter

Had a pretty good figure drawing class tonight. I feel like I've loosened up alot when it comes to drawing people, but still not where I want to be yet. Alot of catching up to do. Tonight we had the privilege of drawing one of the models that has come back after having her baby girl. She even managed to keep the baby from crying the entire time! Came close though.

Things to Remember:

Babys' eyes are not located in the center of the head like adults or children. The eyebrows are in the center  and the nose is at the bottom fourth.  The bottom of the eyes are halfway between the bottom of the nose and the brow.

Quest for perfection

Ugh! The pain. So I sat down tonight to do some drawing for fun. Started on some faces (all from imagination) and moved on to the body. This is probably the only thing worth posting. I've realized something. I've realized I'm starting to remember how to draw. It's slowly coming back to me. Unfortunately, I'm also remembering all the things that I have been meaning to work on. Things that I was wanting to work on a year and a half ago. Ugh. So much time lost. I've been mindlessly copying figure contours at figure drawing instead of trying to learn REAL anatomy from them. Damn women hips. Why are you so hard to draw!? You're round, but you're flat, but you're round. And hands… don't get me started on hands… So much to learn. I was about to start learning folds and fabric a year and a half ago too.

SO, time to figure out how to do this. With me, I tend to grind experience (forgive the WoW reference), then do the big battle. But I need to get some actual work done instead of constant studies. I need to figure out this balancing act. I can't be constantly studying and not doing anything with substance.

Painting Class 1.20.10

Did a study of the planes of the face today. Getting ready for the model we are painting next week. The reason this looks kind of weird is because the right side of the face is an older person and the left is a younger. Had a good class today and I think all of the sketching has been helping. Each painting is a little better than the last. If anyone want's to buy one of these models, you can get them at www.planesofthehead.com.

Things to remember:

1) Even though the skull is round, it's good to imagine the top as kind of flat. It's not a perfect ball.

2) Adding a little background color to the receding forehead mimics atmosphere and shows depth as the head goes back in space.

Anatomy study

Something about the face that I just can't get. I see it in other drawings and even in the mirror,  but I just can't seem to mimic it. Annoying as hell. I've been trying to get better at faces and the body in general over the past week. Pulled out the ole Loomis book and been studying it while looking at myself in the webcam to try and make sense of facial anatomy. I just want a decent looking generic face. They all seem to look the same with the same flaws. Anyway, the second one is the one with loomis and a webcam. Took me a while cause I was mostly just trying to figure it all out instead of making a good picture. So much to learn, so little time…

Painting Class 1.12.10

Tired as hell, but glad I had my class today. Now it's time for:

Things to remember:
1) There should be no white in backgrounds or shadows. This rule can be bent if atmosphere is involved or if there is a small amount in reflected light. This is probably why I was having so much trouble at work today painting a mummy! Got to get better at painting white things.

2) Shadows and highlights have value ranges that are independent from one another. There should not be a value in the shadow that matches one in the highlight.

3) A local color has a shadow that is comprised of a a single value. All changes in value are due to reflected light.

4) Highlights have values that change depending on how light hits a surface. The more light, the lighter the value. Value will decrease until in shadow. No value should be darker than any value in the shadow.

5) Edges in shadow should not be sharp

Painters to research:

Academic
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Rembrandt

Neoclassical
Anne-Louis Girodet De Roussy-Trioson
Jacques-Louis David

Pre-Raphaelite

John William Waterhouse

Dr. Sketchy's 1.11.10

So I went to Dr. Sketchy's tonight and got some much needed drawing in. I feel like it's been forever since I've done real pencil drawing and i'm kind of mad at myself about it. Sketching is key! So i'm a little rusty. Most of my drawings were kind of timid and I didn't do the amazing model we had any justice at all. No great pencil strokes! Kind of a bummer. So I went home and did another timid drawing with no great strokes, but it looks pretty good anyway. I think painting is killing my line-work a bit. I need to focus on drawing as well as painting. Tomorrow is another day.

Painting Class 1/5

Happy New Year! Here is my first painting of the year. Getting better! I'll try to finish it next week.
2 hours.