shading [04/14/11]

2 min

Need model today. Similar female build as other models we had in the past. She was a little skinnier, but I didn't feel inspired since I spent most of the day waiting in jury duty. This is the first time I just wanted to leave early.















20 min
Shading was discussed. The darkest part of the object is lighter than the lightest part of the dark area (background).

I didn't have my charcoal supplies today, so I used pencil and paper, which I can see now it doesn't give much depth and perception as charcoal does.

Medium: 2B pencil

Light and Dark Pattern: 3 Tones [04/07/11]

2 min
[insert here]

We covered our paper with charcoal powder in preparation for our exercise. It was dark and dust was going everywhere!

For this technique, we started with a dark background, which was considered to be our mid-tones. We would erase different parts to get our highlights and then we would darken other areas with a softer charcoal to get our darkest value. Hence we get our 3 different tones.

20 minute

Gordon suggested we start with a contour drawing before doing any adding or subtracting. This technique took more time than other techniques, so we extended our original 10 minute drawing to 20 and we went straight into the long pose afterwards. I didn't have time to stay for the full long pose, so I just had another 20 minute drawing.

Light and Dark Pattern [04/05/11]

2 min

I don't think we are getting any new models since we are repeating the same models. Bonnie is the older Asian woman we had last time. Andrei laughed and pointed out that she was slowly moving little by little in her 2 minute poses. It was the same story last time, but she's still here.

10 minute

I was extremely annoyed that we aren't getting any new models with different body variations. I just wanted to walk out of class, but since Andrei came all the way from SF, I decided to stay and put up with class.

I didn't feel like drawing and the new technique taught didn't feel like it was doing much since there was more dark than light.

Today was an uninspired day.


20 minute

long pose - took 50 minutes

The darker the color, the better contrast it has with the white. I'm pretty pleased with the longer drawings.

Maybe for the next few 2 minute drawings, I'll use the light/dark pattern and see how those turn out. Crayons maybe?

Modeling: Mass [03/29/11]

1 minute


This model was the one from the very first few class sessions. Why is she back with her sameness? We did 20 one minute poses, which went by real quick and concentrated more on getting the structure as quick as possible using gesture drawings.

2 minute

Today was the first day to the introduction of modeling.

We learned about mass, which gives weight to drawings, so we darkened the figure to come up with more 3D shapes since lighting can flatten a drawing.







10 minute

Our first exercise allowed us to use our charcoal sticks to draw the parts furthest away from us the darkest and slowly lighten our way towards the center until we find another edge.

I kept on thinking that mine looked like a cheetah or some sort of cat. Andrei said it looked like reptile skin.



20 minute


This turned out pretty good since I could feel the 3D roundness coming about.










Supposed to be 1 hour, but did two twenties instead

Critique Day [03/24/11]

We had critique today, so we were to bring 3 drawings that we did from this class to have Gordon critique and comment on.

I decided to bring these three out of all of them. It wasn't that hard to choose. I wanted to bring Tyler since he was the best male drawing and I chose Julie because that was my first long pose and it was pretty good overall. The third one was a last minute decision because I didn't want all of them to look finished and this one had pretty good composition with foreshortening and contour lines.

He called my drawings "accomplished", which felt good to hear since that was the first thing that came out of his mouth. Most of the things he said were positive, re-emphasizing the lessons we learned and mentioning future lessons to come.

This was a very good first critique, because I got to experience something different and took lots of mental notes on everyone's critique as well. We have a lot to learn from this critiques.

Critique Week [03/22/11]

2 minute

Today was a review. This model was one we had before. I wonder if we are going through a second round of the same models. Like I mentioned before, there isn't much diversity in the models for this class compared to what Andrei told me about his past classes. Very disappointing to me. I'm bored.

20 minute

I wasn't too pleased with my drawings for the 20 minute drawings.

Too fat, too small. I don't know what was going on with me this class period.








50 minute

I tried something new, which was to shade the background my way.

That dark charcoal is really dark and stains my fingers so easily.

Review [03/17/11]

2 minute

For the second day this week (only two class periods in a week, so all days this week), a model was a no show and another model had to be contacted after class has started and had to wait for that one to show.

I only had time to do the ten 2 minute drawings and left just as she was starting the 20 minute. I hope from now on, we'll have models who will show up.

I know things come up, but please be professional about it, like call if you are not going to show. We waited for the first one, thinking that she was late, but ended up calling someone else assuming she was a no show. It turns out she was a no-show.

This person modeled for us before. Second time for this one.

Review [03/15/11]

2 minute



The model was late and ended up not showing up today, so a student took on a role after 30 minutes into class. Several people left, which is somewhat good since the class was packed.

Andrei planned to drop in to class today and it was an interesting day for him to come. The model didn't show [1st time this semester] and the class was unexpectedly full. I talked more today than all the classes attended combined so far. We drew a skeleton before the student, who was also a professional model, decided to become the model.

20 minute

She was very easy to draw since her body seemed to be proportional and it made sense. It was like the ideal body with no flaws. Those types of bodies are easy to draw compared to others that are out of proportion.

Those are the ones that are challenging, because it questions the mind about the proportions that we really see and the ones that we drew.







50 minute
I didn't need the full hour to do this drawing. When I think the drawing is done, its done. I pretty much finished within the first 20 minutes and the second 20 minutes were the finishing touches, which made the drawing more realistic. For the last ten minutes, I was just making things darker and stopped at the last ten minutes to look around at other people's drawings.


Medium: Charcoal Pencil - 4B

Anatomy [03/10/11]

2 minute

This is another female model but this time with big thighs and smaller mid section. I don't understand why Gordon isn't picking models with different variations in size, gender and race, but rather similar features. I'd like to draw different types of people and not another Caucasian woman. I'm feeling less guilty about not tipping as time goes on especially since the variations seems very limiting.

5 minute

Someone suggested that we do 5 minute poses, which seemed like a bad idea at first, but I realized that if I can't finish the whole body, then I would have to emphasis different segments of the body and then add detail to them.

I find people rushing to draw the whole body, but I just took my time on one or two parts of the body, which reduced the pressure and increased my concentration. It turned out to be a good idea since we are learning about anatomy. Gordon showed my work to the class! This is the 3rd time? or 4th? I'm thinking back and it seems like its the 4th. Yes, 4.



20 minute

Her thighs were huge at my angle and it looked awkward, but it looks okay now online.

Afternoon

Anatomy [03/08/11]

2 minute



20 minute

This class was one hour lecture with the last two hours drawing the model.

The lecture was about anatomy and it was very helpful, although I did feel extremely sleepy during the first part of the lecture. Gordon introduced the bones, then the muscles that control the bones and movement in each part of the body.

Something that I learned was that muscles are attached to opposite sides of different bones. Obviously, if muscles are attached to the same bone, it wouldn't do anything.

This model was a guy, our second one of the semester. He is much younger than the first male model, but just as tall and Caucasian.

40 minute

Half way through the 40 minute session, Gordon asked if he could show my work to everyone. [Second time!! But nobody is counting.] Of course I was more than happy to! But I didn't show it as enthusiastic on the outside as I was inside. The lady, who said that I should stay home since I had a really bad cold, said that she really liked mine and it was really good. As soon as Gordon came back around to return my board, they were talking amongst each other saying how they really liked it...

Another classmate came to me and told me personally that she thought it was good and I said thank you. It really means a lot to me for people to comment nicely on it. Thank you.

My quietness in class shouldn't prevent me from voicing my opinions about other people's work.