Community College Student Art Dump - updated below

[Jane Radstrom]

I think it's time I posted these, since I have been lurking around and doing DSG for a few weeks. These are a few drawings from a "drawing 2" class at community college. It's life drawing but also drawing natural objects (bones and casts mostly) I suspect because they are too cheap to pay for a model all the time. The teacher is exceptional, we've spent the first 8 weeks on line and block simplifications. Now we are working with shading for light and plane changes. Many of these are really not the most interesting drawings - but here they are. All are in charcoal, the 20 minute studies are on 24"x36" paper, it's a damn problem carrying that pad around! It's half as tall as me and twice as wide. The rest are 18"x24".

I apologize for the quality of the photos - I ment to take better ones but doubt I'll ever get to it.


Start it off with two 5 minute gesture drawings:
http://www.velondra.com/draw/gesture1.jpg
http://www.velondra.com/draw/gesture2.jpg

A bone simplified into blocks ~20 minutes:
http://www.velondra.com/draw/boneblocks.jpg

20 minute contour of a rib cage - alot of the lightest lines were lost:
http://www.velondra.com/draw/contourskele.jpg

Another 20 minute contour of a sacrum (tail bone):
http://www.velondra.com/draw/sachralcontour.jpg

20 minute sort of contour drawings from a model:
http://www.velondra.com/draw/contouronknee.jpg
http://www.velondra.com/draw/contourstanding.jpg
http://www.velondra.com/draw/sittingcontour.jpg

20 minute cross contour of a bone:
http://www.velondra.com/draw/bonecrosscontour.jpg

Homework assignment that almost drove me nuts, completeled cross contour of a shell - about 5 hours:
http://www.velondra.com/draw/shellcrosscontour.jpg
http://www.velondra.com/draw/shellcrossclose.jpg

20 minute cross contours from models:
http://www.velondra.com/draw/standingcrosscontour2.jpg
http://www.velondra.com/draw/standingcrosscontour.jpg
http://www.velondra.com/draw/muddycrosscontour.jpg
http://www.velondra.com/draw/crosscontourblocks.jpg
The last one is a cross contour done over a simple block drawing.

And here are some 20 minute block and plane simplifications from models:
http://www.velondra.com/draw/sittingblocks.jpg
http://www.velondra.com/draw/favoriteblocks.jpg
http://www.velondra.com/draw/layingblocks.jpg

And finally... something with shading, a free hand copy of an old master drawing, about 2 hours:

http://www.velondra.com/draw/mastercopy.jpg


I'd be happy to hear any critiques or comments. In a few weeks I'll post some shaded things, which will probably be more interesting.

:)

[geoffd]

wow these are pretty nice, i especially like the cross contour ones of the models. you're life drawings are very stylish. one thing and i could be wrong, is the proportions seem a little off. A+
now post more.

oh and that master copy is fantastic!

[mos667]

Wow! Some great studies here, love them all! Especially the shell one. Amazing! 5 hours well spent ;).
You have a very lively feel on all contour drawings, very impressive.
There isn't much to critique on, these are some great studies and truly show some effort. Very good job.

I look forward to more of your stuff ;)

mos.

[Jane Radstrom]

Thanks Mos and Capt Harlock! Your responses prompted me to scan in the shaded studies I've done in the last 2 weeks. These are 2 hours each, on 18x24 paper. And in order from the one I did today to the first shaded study we did in class.


http://www.velondra.com/draw/womanstool.jpg
I like her chest area, but I should have stepped back more - the head is way too big!

http://www.velondra.com/draw/venusshaded.jpg
From a horrible copy of the Venus statue, and yes.. the breasts of the statue are that bad.

http://www.velondra.com/draw/skullshade.jpg
http://www.velondra.com/draw/mansitting.jpg
Another over-large head..

http://www.velondra.com/draw/womanshaded.jpg
You can see in this one how rusty my shading was, I'm getting more used to it now.

Next week: portrait and facial studies, and for homework another master copy.

[geoffd]

that skull is amazing!!! good work! when you do these, do you just jump right into the drawing aspect or do you try to box in the intial shape of the model? it seems like you want to go straight into the rendering part of this and it looks like you aren't quite hitting the proportions (like you said, the heads are too big on a couple)if you haven't already, look into getting anthony ryders anatomy book, it was published in 2000 and it is just fantastic! i love the style you have going on, much so more than your actual finished art i've seen you do. these drawings have character, something about that first woman in the latest post speaks to me. great job, keep posting!

[sic1]

I don't see many community college students posting here, but it just shows that if you don't go to ACCD or Ringling, you can still work hard to be at the level you want to be at :)

These drawings are great, I especially love the shell, even though you're partially insane because of it now :)

The life drawings are improving greatly.

Great work, keep it up! :D

[Jane Radstrom]

I do a quick gesture and use loose blocks if there are any connections or angles I'm not sure of. I think the biggest problem is not stepping back - I didn't notice the proportional errors at all when I was drawing them, and not even when I was taking the pictures later. But shrinking them down to this tiny size makes it very, very obvious. I'm going to start getting far away to check the proportions, not just stepping a few feet back. I hope that will help. :)

Sic, I think I'm lucky to have found a really, really good teacher at Community College. I wish he had a website I could link, he is very old school. Nothing about "drawing what you feel" or using one side of your brain, just technique and practice, practice, practice. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to take any more life drawing with him, the price becomes 3x as much if you take it more than twice. :(

As for the stuff on my site, it actually started because I was trying to learn a more cartoon/comic style. Ironically, these are some drawings from last time I took this life drawing class about 2 years ago:

http://www.velondra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22

Notice how long it was taking me to do that! And since then all I have done is digital cartoon-ish stuff totally from imagination. I am really suprised about how much I've improved in life drawing when that's all I've done! So it wasn't really a waste of time, even though I agree with you Capt. that it is not the same level as these things. But hey, the commissions are nice. :)

[Main Loop]

yes, you are very lucky to have found a good teacher in a community college.. that part of schooling is full of that "draw what you feel" mumbo-jumbo.. seems like not much more than a way to earn a few easy ccredits.. well it shows.. i espec like the cross contouring.. you have a great line quality also.. here's a tip for proportion... get a reducing glass.. its the opposite of a magnifying glass.. i nedd to get one myself actually

[Jeff Gran]

wow really awesome stuff. I've never seen cross-contour drawings like that before, they're amazing to look (esp. the full figures) at and I'm sure they improved your sense of volume tremendously. Any tips on how to start doing those?

[Jane Radstrom]

Yeah, sure! There's lots of things to take into consideration so this explanation might be a little lengthy.

The basic idea is that you are laying your lines down as though it were a string wrapping directly around the object, showing (even exaggerating) every contour.

Before you start, either draw or imagine every form as a block and figure out where it changes from front to side (or bottom to side, etc). Usually start with a quick gesture, then one long vertical line from the head to toe or head to hip (depending on the position of the legs, if the pose is sitting or standing). The vertical lines should never be outlines, you don't want to define your proportions like that. As you are drawing your cross contour lines, make sure to change their direction close to the plane change of your imaginary blocks. So the lines look like they are going around the form and show direction in space (form is moving towards or away from the viewer). You can see the line change/plane change really clearly on the bone cross contour, because the bone was a blockier object. If you look at some of the bent legs of the figures you can see where I reversed the "wrap" of the lines to show how the upper part moved away from me and the lower part towards me.

The idea isn't to make a grid, it's to show all the necessary details with your lines. So there should be more lines where bones come to the surface or where appendages connect to the body, and less lines where the object is just staying the same (like down the shaft of a bone or between the shoulder and elbow). Build them up gradually - run one line down the figure, one line around. A line down the leg, then a line around the foot and one through the knee and so on. You don't have to do all (and shouldn't do) all the vertical or horizontal lines in an area at once. You can do a few lines to show you what's going on in the area, then move on to another section. You can kind of see in the standing cross-contour over a block drawing the areas I always try to define first (just personal thing, not right or wrong) then I get more detailed like the two slightly shaded ones.

Ok and finally... the last thing you should do, which I'm not a good example of, vary the line weight alot as you run each line around the form - darker as the form recedes and lighter as it comes towards you. This makes a really, really big difference in the drawings, like shading without actually shading. I wish I had some of my teacher's - they blow mine out of the water!

I think I have several more cross contours that I didn't put in my portfolio, I'll try to dig 'em up and post them.
:)

[Morpheus03]

Hello Velondra, Im new here at least at posting, Ive been looking around for awhile though..anyway I love your work but I was wondering which community college youre attending the pictures are very similar to a class that I took and all the same styles I guess youd call them and in the same order with the same "mid term" project
Just curious I live in the SF bay area if youre wondering

[Jane Radstrom]

I'm in Florida, at St. Pete college. Must be a conincidence. :)

Here is an update, sorry for the bad photo quality again. From drawings done a month ago to a few days ago.


Parially done free-hand copy of "nude men fighting" by Raphael Sanzio
~2 hours
http://www.velondra.com/images/gallery/00santicopy.jpg

Drawing from casts of a nose and eye, with (oops) smudges:
~2 hours
http://www.velondra.com/images/gallery/00noseeye.jpg

Drawing from casts of an ear and mouth
~1h 30m ear ~20 minutes lips
http://www.velondra.com/images/gallery/00ear.jpg
http://www.velondra.com/images/gallery/00lips.jpg

Drawing from a weird bust of a roman man:
~2h 15m
http://www.velondra.com/images/gallery/00manbust.jpg

From a bust of a lady with HUGE hair and weird objects -leaves, organic looking balls stuck in it:
~2 1/2 hours
http://www.velondra.com/images/gallery/00ladybust.jpg

Self Portrait, I massively hate self portraits. It's very very off.
~3 hours
http://www.velondra.com/images/gallery/00selfportrait.jpg

Portrait from a live model (portraits of strangers are so much easier!)
~2h 30m
http://www.velondra.com/images/gallery/00manportrait.jpg

Drawing from a Turban Squash shaded from imagination for plane changes:
~1 hour 30 minutes
http://www.velondra.com/images/gallery/00squash.jpg

Drawing from a model, practice with foreshortening. He looks like an eunich, it's his pelvic bones sticking out obscuring his er, member.
2 hours 30 minutes
http://www.velondra.com/images/gallery/00manlaying.jpg

I think something clicked a week or so ago, when I started using softer charcoal. :) Comments and Crits appreciated!

[Rohan]

some good drawings here. I like the contour drawing of the sacrum and the skull study the best I think, form reads very well in that ear cast study too. I seemed to have missed your posts in the past, have to come back more often :)

on the crit side of things; in some of the drawings eg the bust studies, you don't seem to have faceted the form enough for it to read that well structurally, by that some of the curves and gradation in tone seem a little smooth in places, and in some of your life drawings the tones describing the contours of muscle and bone seem a little dark to accurately take account of ambient light, although it looks as if you were emphasizing the underlying structure a bit for anatomy purposes which is good, your master study is a much better example of understating these contours and is much more convincing as a result. hope this can help in some way, I like your stuff!

[Jane Radstrom]

Thanks for your comments. :) I see what you mean about the gradients, I've been struggling to find the right mix of contrast between the light, the core shadows and reflected light. I think I've gone a little overboard, though shrinking the pictures this much also makes the darks seem darker and more concentrated. I also know what you mean about the lack of structure. I tend to stylize and make smooth curves (especially on the casts), I'll have to pay special attention to that so I can correct it. :)

[Jane Radstrom]

My final set of drawings from this semester. All 2 1/3 hour 18x24 charcoal drawings on cheap paper. :)

http://www.velondra.com/draw/12ladysitting.jpg
The feet on this one are bad! I also didnt have many shadows in the figure itself.

http://www.velondra.com/draw/12shell.jpg
A homework project to draw a foreshortened natural object. Pretty straight forward, I only spent about an hour and a half.

http://www.velondra.com/draw/12larryportrait.jpg
This one is a milestone, I think. I took a different approach to the technique of laying down the charcoal for shade, which I think is alot more sucessful. I got alot less done for the time I spent, though.

http://www.velondra.com/draw/12womanback.jpg
More of the above shading, but getting faster..

http://www.velondra.com/draw/12final.jpg
Such improvement from the begining of class! My teachers main comment again and again on my final portfolio is to work on using more gradients of shade, and darker darks. I'm really happy with the improvement but I know I still have alot of work to do. Critique is appreciated!