Art Skool Fiasco. (updated 20061211)

[Wade Felt]

Hi there! Welcome to my sketchbook thingie.

I recently went back to school and am currently studying graphic design at the local community college. However, I kinda feel like I really need to develop my drawing skills more than anything. So next semester, I'm taking some life drawing and rendering classes and doing bargue drawing as a special project.

Seeing as how I've learned so much from this site, I thought it might be a good idea to share my progress with you all and hopefully get some good feedback and advice. Right now my goals are to develop my draftsmanship skills and learn how to draw the human figure.

Here a bunch of stuff I've done at school, just to give you all some idea of where I'm coming from. I know it's kinda hard to crit stuff that's pretty much "done" but if you see something I should really focus on, or if something really sucks, let me know.

These first three are from my Intro to Illustration class last year. Prismacolor. Photo reference for all.

http://wadefelt.com/ca/20060811/01.prismaBust.jpg http://wadefelt.com/ca/20060811/02.prismaStillLife.jpg http://wadefelt.com/ca/20060811/03.prismaMontage.jpg

These next two are from my Graphic Design class last year. Acrylics on illustration board. The LAX poster had to be touched up in photoshop. The original wasn't scanner friendly.

http://wadefelt.com/ca/20060811/04.rollerElephant.jpg http://wadefelt.com/ca/20060811/05.travelPoster.jpg

These two are from my Drawing and Design class last semester. The flowers were from life. The portrait from photo ref. I swore after finishing that portrait, I would never use a blending stump ever again. Urgh.

http://wadefelt.com/ca/20060811/06.gestureFlowers.jpg http://wadefelt.com/ca/20060811/08.portraitProject.jpg

These three are also from that Drawing and Design class. Pencils for the cat and penguins. Oil pastels for the landscape. All are from photo reference.

http://wadefelt.com/ca/20060811/09.C_isForCat.jpg http://wadefelt.com/ca/20060811/12.P_isForPenguins.jpg http://wadefelt.com/ca/20060811/13.oilPastelLandscape.jpg

And finally, these last three are from an airbrushing class I took over the summer. The landscape is watercolors on bristol board from reference. The fish is dye on bristol board. And the girl is acrylic on illustration board. The lines on the girl are from a book of Sailor Jerry tattoo flash.

http://wadefelt.com/ca/20060811/15.airBrushLandscape.jpg http://wadefelt.com/ca/20060811/16.koi.jpg http://wadefelt.com/ca/20060811/17.joyWasHerName.jpg

And that's pretty much all I have right now. Hopefully, it wasn't too awful. (or too much?) I just started some anatomy stuff, so I'll prolly scan and post some of that in a few days.

Thanks for stopping by,

.wade

[sabe2003]

Hey welcome. I like your stuff so far. I love the fish!

[Wade Felt]

sabe2003 - Once again, thanks for stopping by. Glad you liked the fish.

X X X

Just some figure building sketches from the last few days. Working on learning landmarks and proportions and such. Yeah, they're pretty rough, but I just thought I'd share.

15623
15624 15625
15626 15627

Have a good one,
.wade

[Wade Felt]

Skool started this week. I always forget how horrible parking is at the beginning of each semester ...

While most of the week was spent going over supply lists, and course descriptions, we did do some starter stuff in Life Drawing and Head Drawing.

These are from Head Drawing. The first two are blind contours of the person sitting next to us. (michelle - so sorry...) The next two were supposed to be contours, but mine came out a wee bit too scratchy. Kinda like the parking, I forget how much I am teh suck when it comes to contour drawing. Guess we'll add line confidence to the list of things to work on this semester.

15632 15633 15634 15635

These are from Life Drawing. We get the models next week, so here we were working from photocopies of various life drawings by different artists. The first two are supposed to be Hogarths and the last one I wanna say was Jacob Epstein. Burne, Jacob - all apologies.

15636 15637 15638

Next week, we get models. Also my copy of Bargue's Drawing Course arrived in the mail, so next week I'll be starting on the plates. And then for my Rendering class, I'm going to be working on some graphite portrait kinda stuff. This weekend I'm looking for reference/ideas and starting some comps. That should be interesting.

Questions, comments, concerns?

Thanks for stopping by,
.wade

[Wade Felt]

Life drawing Day Three, Male Model:

The Instructor briefly goes over the basics of gesture drawing from life. It's something like rhythm line, line line, dot dot dot, line, line, cylinder cylinder, shade shade shade, scribble scribble, line. Ta-da! At this point I'm thinking: A.) I need more coffee and B.) I am in waaaaaaay over my head.

We start drawing. I have no idea what I'm doing. Much flailing ensues.

18326 18327 18328 18329

At some point here, I had that moment we've all had where your drawing starts to crash and burn right as the Instructor happens to be walking by. And then they move in, start drawing all over everything, and pretty much all you can do is just stand there and go, "DOH!" Yeah, that moment. Now I'm just kinda trying to make it to the end of class.

18330 18331

Life Drawing Day Four, Female Model:

Something has gone horribly wrong with the air conditioning unit. It's like a meat locker in the classroom and the model is refusing to disrobe 'cause her skin has frozen or something. We draw her clothed until Buildings and Grounds showed up to reprogram the thermostat.

I think it's the whole rhythm line thing that's throwing me. Most of the stuff I've done up until now has either been still life or from photo reference. You know, things that don't move. I'm kinda okay once I get to a certain point, but getting to that point is arrrrrgh! I feel like a pilot who's okay once he's in the air, but kinda has trouble with that whole takeoff thing.

Read through Mentler's GRAVITY posts (http://conceptart.org/forums/showpost.php?p=481589&postcount=363). Trying to focus on the G(ravity) and the R(hythm) in today's class.

18332 18333 18334 18335 18336

This one is my favorite 'cause it's the one where everything just went horribly wrong: I got off to a bad start, there's the foreshortening going on, the model's sliding down the block she's leaning against, and the Instructor happens to walk by. Total trainwreck.

18337

Later on I was looking through Loomis's Figure Drawing... and just kinda tracing over his drawings trying to find the rhythm. I think this weekend I'm just gonna sit down with that book and some tracing paper and just keep trying to draw out the movement in his figures.

Oh, and here's the Bargue I'm working on. Plate 1. 'Bout 3 hours in. Yee haw!

18338

Have a good one,
.wade

[Wade Felt]

Life Drawing:

Monday was a holiday, so we only had one Life Drawing class this week. Did some longer, 20-25 minute poses this week. We're learning how to see the masses of the body as simple shapes. To do this, we're using the live model to get the rhythm and structure of the pose (images 1 and 2) and then using one of those wooden artists mannequins to start the form (image 3). Then if there's still some time left at the end of the pose, we start working the contours for detail (images 4,5,6).

Feeling a little more confident about finding the rhythm of the poses, but still feel like I'm rushing it on the shorter poses. Making the effort to take the time to look on the short poses has helped.


21396 21397 21398 21399 21400 21401


Head Drawing:

This week we're learning how features fit on the skull. The first part of this assignment is to draw front and profile views of the skull (image 1) from a handout. The second part of the assignment is then make line drawings of the front and profile views of ourselves on another sheet of paper (image 2). Then we're supposed to mount our self-portrait line drawings over the skull drawing to show how our features do or do not line up with classical proportions. (Urgh, is that what I really look like ...)


21402 21403


Bargue Fun:

Still working the eyes plate. About six hours in. Incredibly tedious and boring and I really want to start one of the larger pieces, but I have to finish this one first. The running joke now is that this semester I'm taking classes in patience and humility (see life drawing above). But it really is kinda cool because I feel like I'm getting better at seeing proportions and triangulating measurements. And I think I can feel that improvement carrying over to my life drawing class. Or that could just be all the crack I'm smoking. Who knows.


21404


Rendering:

And here's a rough linework comp for my rendering piece. The woman's pulled from some fashion magazine and the skull/rose in the back is more Sailor Jerry linework. I've got to do some tinkering with the woman's face and helmet for my final comp and I also have to rework some of the tattoo linework so it flows better. I'm also trying to think of some better text, but that's pretty low on the priority scale.


21405


The background part (the skull/rose) is going to be finished in airbrushed acrylic for a soft, blurry kinda feel. And then the woman's going to be rendered in graphite. (why do I keep doing this to myself?)

Oh and here's a really rough flat grayscale version so you can kinda see the shapes better.


21406


Okay, back to work. Thanks for stopping by,
.wade

[Wade Felt]

Life Drawing:

Bad week. Felt like I couldn't draw to save my life. Urgh.


24567 24568 24569


This guy ... I don't know what was wrong with me, but I just kept jacking up his proportions left and right. I think I'm focusing too much and forgetting to step back every once in a while and just take a look and see if the picture's making any sense. Maybe next week I'll try working at an easel.


24570 24572 24573 24574


Finally, we had homework this weekend. Had to take our final drawing from Wednesday and redraw it so it's part figure, part artist's mannequin. So you can see the basic shapes involved. Or something like that. Ugh.


24578


Head Drawing:

Finished the self-portrait project. Still don't think it looks anything like me.


24577


Started drawing skulls on Thursday. Was seriously considering looking into truck driving schools at this point.


24575


Bargue Project:

Still working the eyes plate. It's kinda slow going 'cause right now I'm only working on it in class.

Rendering:

My rendering project has kinda crashed and burned. The background's not working out the way I wanted so .... right now I'm kinda scrambling to salvage it somehow. Wheeeee!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

.wade

[Wade Felt]

Life Drawing:

Moved to an easel this week. Feels much more comfortable and I'm remembering to step back and compare the big picture. Still getting kinda lost in the details, though. And when I do that, I forget to look. Next week, need to work on seeing more and seeing harder. (also need to start working on my line quality. I think it really kinda sucks.)

No model on Monday. We critiqued our homework from the weekend. As soon as I put mine up, I realised I'd jacked up the values on the shadow side. Got nailed for it. Otherwise, the crit went okay.

These are from Wednesday. For the short poses, tried to be a little more gestural rather than building the figure. The 20 minute poses we were working on planes. (2 @ 1 min, 1 @ 5 mins, 2 @ 10 mins, 2 @ 20 mins):


27340 27341 27342 27343 27344 27345 27346


Saturday, I went to an open model session downtown. One, I need the practice. Two, I have to draw some heads as homework for Head Drawing on Tuesday. Oddly enough, it was the same model I was drawing Wednesday. Small world. Again, tried to be looser and was trying some combination of construction and contour. (2 @ 1 min, 4 @ 5 mins, 2 @ 10 mins, 1 @ 20 mins, and 1 @ 10 mins):


27350 27351 27352 27353 27354 27355 27356 27357 27360 27361


Head Drawing:

Tuesday we worked on the planes of the face. It was kind of a trainwreck.

Thursday we had a live model. Working on simple values. (3 @ about 20 mins):


27347 27348 27349


And here are the two from Saturday. Blargh. About 20 minutes each:


27358 27359


Bargue Project:

Have two eyes to go and then I'm finished with the first plate. Hope to get them done over the weekend and then start a new plate in class on Monday. Haven't decided if I'm gonna do another of the "facial parts" plates or move on to a hand or a foot.

Rendering:

So last week, my rendering project kinda ran off the road and into a ditch. I had started airbrushing the background and it just wasn't working - it didn't look right, it wasn't feeling right, blah blah blah. So I spent all weekend re-cutting frisket, laying in a new board and starting to fill the background in charcoal. So the plan now is to do the background in charcoal and render the foreground in graphite. My instructor was okay with the switch, but I think he's a little concerned 'cause I'm so far behind.

Here's the project with background at a mid-tone, and the frisket pulled from the rose graphic:


27362


Now I have to start filling values on the rose graphic and then go back to the base and adjust that to get the contrast right. Sounds like a plan, right? We'll see ...

That's all folks! Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

.wade

[Jens]

i can hardly believe you can work 6 hours to draw 6 eyes!! damn you are patient!!

nice studies, you're getting better at it throughout this thread. Only thing that's missing is some color!

[Wade Felt]

Jens: Thanks for the kind words. The Bargue plate took about thirty hours total. They're enough of a challange that it doesn't get boring. Keeps you engaged, you know. I'm holding off on color right now, 'cause I really want to get a good grasp on value and get my drawing skills up to par. That's enough of a challenge for now, without having to worry 'bout my suckage at color. Though I think we do have a couple of color projects in Head Drawing so that should be interesting.

XXX

Life Drawing:

Only one day of life drawing this week. I think I've hit a wall. Urgh. (2 @ 1 and 2 mins, 2 @ 5 mins, 2 @ 10 mins, 1 @ 40 mins, 1 @ 30 mins)


31067 31068 31069 31070 31071 31072 31073 31074


Our homework for the weekend was to take one of the above poses and fix it so it showed the angles of the figure, geometrical 3d shapes, knowledge of planes and how they describe the form, and how direct light can further define form. I think I may have done one of those things.


31076


Didn't make it to the downtown life drawing session. Kinda bummed 'cause I won't have another chance to go 'till the end of the month.

Head Drawing:

A couple from a bust of David. Thirty ... forty minutes maybe. I know it doesn't look like I spent that much time on them.


31065 31066


And this, this was teh suck. Spent like an hour on it. So not a good day for drawing.


31075


Bargue Project:

Finished my first Bargue plate! Not as perfect as it should be, but I wanted to keep moving and apply what I was learning from each eye on the next one, rather than getting stalled out and frustrated on the first on and never finishing.


31078


They're kinda cool, 'cause they're like little puzzles. First you figure out how to set the lines. Then you figure out placing the angles, then you start working the curves. It's really kinda cool how they work together like that.

When I finished, it was like, "Yeah!" and then right on into the next plate.

Rendering:

Just some process on the rendering project:


31079 31080


Finished roughing in the tones on the background. Pulled the frisket from the foreground. Made some pencil marks just to get started.


31081


Started working the shadows. Need to go darker. Just not sure how dark.

And that's it for this week. Thanks for stopping by and have a good one,

.wade

[vitaliyvladimirov]

Way to go you! I remember going through my first life drawing class and it was all quite similar to you, so I can definately relate. Just hang in there, and take it day by day, and do not give up. You don't want to drive trucks for a living. Really.

So far so good on the life drawings. Once you begin to learn the placement of the muscles and bones, you will be amazed as to just how much your drawing skills improve. Honestly, it's beyond words.

The aviator girl is amazing. I love love LOVE the line quality in the sketch, so maybe you can do something digital with that, where the lines come through, and put it on shirt and ship it over my way, although the painting is really awesome too.

The elephant is really cute, with great colors, but i question the placement of the baloon. The LAX thing is really nice too, and between the two it's obvious you have some natural graphic design inclinations that are really nice.

>.< so yeah. Good work, keep it up. Hope to see more from you. :)

[oma]

http://wadefelt.com/ca/20060811/01.prismaBust.jpg ---> wow. great start.

Hope to see more of you soon.

[rorke]

Nice work... I love the life drawings.... although my only crit is focus your smudger better... your smudging and value study is getting away from you.

[morningbloom915]

Your last set of life drawings are a bit messier than the previous. Some of them look a little off balance, and unsure. I can really see progress from the first to the last. Keep it up, and dont get discouraged. Try and place your lines with cleanly, and with confidence (something I'm really working on right now too).

The rendering and the bargue look great. And this, I think is the most successful of your most recent batch of life drawings: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=31074&d=1159833963
Just a little something funny about her left shoulder. Awesome improvement from your first day of class!

[Wade Felt]

Everyone: Many many thanks for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment. I really appreciate the support and feedback.

vitaliyvladimirov: You're right -- showing up really is the key. Eventually things are gonna click into place. And even if, at the end of the class, it turns out that I'm never gonna be that good at live figure drawing, it's still good practice and it's a lot of bad drawings I've gotten out of the way. Glad you liked the aviator girl and the elephant. Hadn't thought about putting her on a shirt ....

oma: I'll keep posting. It's the "soon" part I need to work on.

rorke: I am teh suck at teh values. Especially in my life drawing and head drawing class. For some reason, I've been really slamming in the black, making it a two value affair. Then it wouldn't look right, so I'd go and try and fix it, but really just making it look like slop.

There was one longer pose from this week, were I was more deliberate about my values and built into the black. I think what I need to do is remember to use this same approach on the shorter poses, rather than trying to work the other way. Thanks for pointing this out, gives me a chance to figure out how to fix it.

morningbloom915: Yeah, I don't know what the hell happened there. I think I was trying something new which obviously didn't work. This week, I tried to be more economical with my lines, but wound up blowing the form. I think what's happening is I'm trying to consolidate steps in building the figure and I just need to go back to doing each step in order.

XXX

Life Drawing:

Talked about forshortening this class. (3 gestures, 2 @ 5mins, 1 @ 1hour)


33453 33454 33455 33456 33457 33458


Talked about surface contour of the figure. Hence the topographical map-like red conte lines on the last four figures. Blew the near foot on the fourth picture (way too small) At the top of the fifth picture, you can see my teacher's version of the model's midsection. Dang! I hope one day I can draw a clean line like that. Got critiqued on my easel placement. I'm moving my head too much while drawing. Anyone got any tips on the best placement of an easel for figure drawing? Anyone?(2 gestures, 2 @ 20mins, 1 @ 40mins, 1 @ 20mins)


33460 33461 33462 33464 33465 33466


Head Drawing:

Two days of drawing a bust of Zeus. We're using conte on toned textured paper. The first day crashed and burned. I'm blaming the paper. Day two was slightly better. Meh.


33459 33467


Bargue Project:

Started plate two. Drew some lines, then decided they sucked and started over.

Rendering:

Just some more progress shots on my rendering project. Didn't have class on Thursday, so the first two pictures are progress from last weekend. The last two pictures are from class on Tuesday. Now I'm afraid to touch the thing 'cause I know I'm gonna just jack it up.


33468 33470 33471 33469


And that's that!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

.wade

[max xiantu]

The red contour curves on the life drawings are really cool.
Nice progress. Try to have as much patience with the life drawing as you did the Bargue plate. Breathe all those distracting thoughts out of your head.

Good stuff :.

[Wade Felt]

max: Thanks for dropping by.

I think I'm gonna write "BREATHE" in sharpie on the back of my drawing hand next week.

I feel like I'm at this point where things are kinda starting to make sense and it's just a matter of practicing and internalizing the process so it becomes second nature. But then there's the whole time limit of the pose hanging over me. So I just freak out and flail about with my pencil. Kinda like when you're learning to drive a car and you're starting to get the hang of it all and then you get on the highway for the first time ...

Yeah. Gotta remember to breathe.


XXX


Life Drawing:

What's that noise, you say?

Why ... that would be the sound of suckage.

(2 gestures, 1 @ 5mins, 1 @ 20mins, 1 @ 30mins)


36444 36445 36446 36447 36448


At the end of class, our teacher handed back the planes and form project from a couple of weeks ago. Most of the class bombed it. So many in fact, that he gave us the option of re-working it and handing it back in for a better grade. I did okay grade-wise, but according to his comments, didn't really grasp the concept of planes.

After spending the rest of the week looking stuff up and asking stupid questions, I'm still kinda confused about planes. Right now, I'm using them as a means of transitioning either from a simple 3d shape to a complex 3d form or (if working with masses of tone/value) from a simple tone/value shape to a more complex one by adding or subtracting planes of light or dark.

(and that above paragraph is prolly so horribly flawed, it's gonna get me banned from this site.)

I also realised after reading one of the old Kevin Chen threads, that there was another way to use simple shapes in building the figure. And that would be, erm ... just using simple shapes -- squares, circles, triangles. Yeah, I'm an idiot.

So right now the process I'm kinda stepping through as I build/draw the figure is as follows:

+ place the ground and find the weight/gravity of the pose.
+ rhythm lines.
+ simple shapes.
+ angles and anchors.
+ simple 3d shapes.
+ planes and contour lines to show the form.
+ contour to tighten.
+ establish light/shadow.
+ render.

Err ... yeah, right.

Here I was just working on capturing the simple shapes. The long poses ... both of them I restarted at some point 'cause I wasn't happy with how the lay-ins were going. (1 gesture, 2 @ 5mins, 1 @ 20 mins, 1 @ 40mins)


36450 36451 36452 36453 36454


Mid-term portfolios are due next Wednesday. Wish me luck.

Head Drawing:

Conte. Textured toned paper. Need I say more?

This was about 40 minutes in when it crashed and burned. The eyes and mouth weren't working and the paper wasn't taking the conte no more. I swear, conte + textured toned paper = my kryptonite.


36449


Bargue Project:

Set aside the plate I was working on 'cause I was starting to feel like, "If I have to draw one more nose..." Started one of the foot plates. Much happier now.

Rendering:

Just more progress on the nose and mouth. Someone asked me how long I'd been working on it. I'm thinking maybe 30 hours ...


36455


And that's that.

Thanks all for stopping by. Have a good one.

.wade

[Wade Felt]

Remembering to breathe...

Life Drawing:

Not much interesting here. Mid-term portfolios were due on Wednesday. These are from Monday which was kind of a "do what ever you need for your portfolio" kinda day. (2 warmups, 2 @ 5mins, 1 @ 10mins, legs done during break, 2 @ 30mins)


39029 39030 39031 39032 39033 39034 39035 39036


No model for today, rather we worked from an Asaro head and a skeleton. ('bout an hour each) Here we're learning how to tone our working surface and then do our drawing on top of that. Which wasn't really working for me, so I was playing around with starting with value shapes and then working the form out of that. Kinda fun, but really awkward 'cause it felt like a total 180 from how we were doing stuff on Monday.

I think next week, we're gonna be working this way with a model. Should be interesting.


39038 39039


Head Drawing:

These eyes are actually from a couple weeks back. Forgot to take a picture of them, 'fore turning them in.


39037


And here we're doing lips with pen and ink.


39040


Bargue Drawing:

No picture, 'cause I really think I'm doing something wrong here. I'm making progress, but it's not good progress. (if that makes any sense) I'm gonna try something different with it and maybe I'll have something to show for it next week. Urgh.

Rendering:

And finally, the obligatory rendering project process shot.


39041


And that's all for this week. Thanks for dropping by and have a good one!
.wade

[gigglepixie]

The renderings coming along nicely, and your anatomy's really progressing :)

[Wade Felt]

gigglepixie: Thanks for the kind words.

XXX

Life Drawing:

A friend was asking me about life drawing over the weekend and I was trying to explain to him all the stuff that goes through my head while trying to draw a pose.

After listening to my explanation, he says, "So it's kinda like in Rainman when Tom Cruise is running the bath and Dustin Hoffman freaks out and starts screaming Naaahahgahdhghahgghaghahghgahhahghhhgh!!!!!!!"

"It's exactly like that."

This week we were working on laying out a mid-tone on the paper with charcoal or conte and then picking out the highlights and building up the shadows. I think I kinda sacrificed the proportions on some of these so I'd have more time with the values.

(2 gestures, 3 @ 3-5 mins, 2 @ 20 mins, 1 @ 30 mins)


42341 42342 42343 42344 42345 42346 42347 42348


More of the same. Tried Max's (http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=75322) cool "box around the figure" technique. Notice how I am totally incapable of keeping the figure within the box. Also, I kept jacking up her lower legs. The last two are the same pose, just with a slight variation in the viewing angle.

(2 gestures, 2 @ 3 mins, 2 @ 20 mins?, 2 @ 30 mins)


42349 42350 42351 42352 42353 42354 42355 42356


Can you believe I'm actually thinking of taking this class again next semester?

Head Drawing:

Not much to share from the land of Head Drawing. We're working on a portrait done from reference, rendered in pen and ink. Kinda frustrated 'cause the practice ones I've done have been rather loose.


42357


But then everyone else seems to be going for a real tight render and unfortunately, I just don't have the mad pen and ink skills to pull something like that off.


42358


It's not due till Thursday at the earliest, so I've been spending some time figuring out how I'm gonna do the values and working on my pen skills.

Rendering:

Just another progress shot.


42359


And that's that. Happy Halloween, everyone!

Rock on,
.wade

[Wade Felt]

Life Drawing:

This week, we were working on toned paper. Started with our regular lay-in and then defined the shadows of the figure with dark conte or charcoal (if I remember right, the first set was charcoal pencil and the second set was conte). Then we used the value of the paper as the midtone and finally put in highlights with our white. Kinda cool. Different from the linear -> form way we have been using so far this semester. I think Monday, I'm gonna try and see how far I can get without using line.

Values are cool. Just wish I was better at seeing them. Maybe I can figure out a way to do tonal drawing as a special project next semester. Or take the tonal drawing class at Watts. We'll see...

Monday (2 gestures, 1 @ 5 mins, 1 @ 20 mins, 1 @ 50 mins).


45575 45576 45577 45579 45580


This one rocked 'cause just after I finished laying in the figure, the teacher came by and TOTALLY HIJACKED my drawing. But it was just so cool to watch him turn out a really nice drawing with so little effort. You know, like draw draw shade shade shade boom it's finished. No worries, 'cause it was one of those moments where you just stand there, thinking to yourself, "One day. One day, I'm gonna be able to do that."


45578


Wednesday (3 @ 1 to 3 mins, 1 @ 20 mins, 1 @ 30 mins).


45581 45582 45583 45585 45586


And this is what it looks like when a drawing crashes and burns. Where's mah shammy?


45584


In other news, I got my mid-term portfolio back. Did better than I thought I was going to. My teacher says I need to work on proportions and size relative to foreshortening, add light modeling to my gestures, and try to get away from relying so much of uniform solid lines around my forms.

That's do-able.

Head Drawing:

More study type stuff for this pen and ink portrait project I've been working on. The first one is just working out some sort of value plan for the picture. The second one is me trying to figure out how to pull off a tight render with a pen. And the last one is just me trying to figure out how to use the pen. Yay, go me.


45587 45588 45589


Rendering:

And yet another progress shot of my rendering project. I think there's now a pool going at school as to whether or not I finish this before the end of the semester...


45590


And that's that.

Thank you all for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

.wade

[Wade Felt]

Life Drawing:

three steps back...

Monday I was out sick so only one day of life drawing this week. Tried building the figure with tone to varying degrees of success. It's kinda cool, but really easy to jack up proportions. Especially in a foreshortened pose. Think I'll try the tone approach as much as possible next week. (3 warm-ups, 3 @ 10 mins)


48216 48217 48218 48219 48220 48221


Here's a couple of ten minute poses where my teacher stepped-in, trying to show me how to work the values.


48222 48223


Here's a 40 minute pose. At the end, I'd kinda jacked up the highlights on the back. The white shading and the black contour on the leg are my teacher saving this piece from complete and total suckage.


48226


And here's me getting schooled on how to construct a foreshortened ankle:


48225


Head Drawing:

On Tuesday, we had a model. Conte on newsprint and toned paper.


48213 48214 48215


Thursday, the pen portrait we've been working on was due. After the critique, our instructor gave us another week to work on them. I'm kinda on the fence between fixing some things on this piece or just doing another version from scratch.


48227 48228


Bargue Project:

Here's a progress shot of the bargue plate copy I'm working on:


48229


Prolly about four or five hours in. Feeling better about the process now. Originally, I got all hung up on plotting everything out dot by dot. But that didn't feel right / didn't make sense. Now I'm working much looser. Putting down what I see and then using the string to refine/tighten up the measurements.

Rendering:

And finally, the obligatory rendering project progress shot:


48230


And that's that!

Thanks everyone for stopping by and have a wonderful week,
.wade

[Wade Felt]

Life Drawing:

Hands. Actually was a lot of fun. Couldn't draw to save my life that day, but it was a lot of fun.


51926 51927 51928 51930


Pen and ink! Actually, this was a lot of fun too.


51931 51932 51933 51934 51935 51936


Head Drawing:

Self portrait from awhile back that I just got back. Conte on textured toned paper.


51937


Rendering:

And yes, once again, the obligatory rendering project progress shot. One day I will finish this. One day...


51938


And that's all, folks. Many thanks for stopping by.

Have a great week and for those of you who partake, have a good Thanksgiving,

.wade

[Wade Felt]

Kinda cranky and recovering from the holiday, so this'll be quick.

Life Drawing:

From Monday. More pen and ink and some hands from the other week that got turned in and got handed back. (doh!)

All short poses. Maybe ten minutes at the most.


54630 54631 54632 54633 54634 54635


From Wednesday. Day before Thanksgiving and only half the class showed up. Did some pen and ink warmups then it was long pose free for all.

The portrait is conte. The figure is charcoal. Both on toned newsprint.

Had a little help with the neck and some of the shadows on the figure drawing.

Yeah, I don't know what happened with that portrait.


54639 54640 54641


Bargue Project:

A couple of faces from Plate 2. 'Bout 3 hours each. Tried to scan them in with the originals, however I couldn't get it to work.

But, then again, that was at three this morning...


54637 54638


Rendering:

Hey look!

Still not finished.

(sigh)


54642


Yee haw!

Have a great one,
.wade

[Wade Felt]

Not much from this week. The semester's almost over and classes are kinda moving into final project zone. Kind of like the calm before the storm.

Life Drawing:

These are studies done from a handout a couple of weeks ago. Just got them back. The muscles are conte on brown wrapping paper and the skeleton is charcoal on toned newsprint. Afterwards, I was thinking they might have turned out better if I'd done the skeleton in conte and the muscles in charcoal. On the muscle study, you can see my instructors comments. Still having trouble with values (among other things.)


57732 57733


On Monday we had a demo on color and using nu-pastels. Then we watched an interesting video called Jim Dine: A Self-Portrait on Walls (http://www.berkeleymedia.com/catalog/berkeleymedia/films/arts_humanities/jim_dine_a_selfportrait_on_the_walls). The movie follows him as he spends eight days painting these massive charcoal drawings on the walls some gallery in Germany. Unfortunately, my teacher won't let me spend the rest of the semester working with a charcoal brick taped to the end of a broomstick. Shucky darn.

On Wednesday, our model called out sick so we wound up working in nu-pastel from a bust of David. This is what happens when art goes horribly horribly wrong:


57734


But you gotta start somewhere. In the end, it was a lot of fun and it's just one more bad drawing out of the way.

Head Drawing:

We're starting our final project which is to find a picture of someone recognizable and with a deadpan expression and then change it so they have a different expression. Don't really have anything to share, but that's what we're working on now.

Bargue Project:

Started another plate but it's all dots and lines at the moment. Not really worth sharing.

Rendering:

And the moment you've all been waiting for:

Yet another progress shot of the rendering project. Wheeee!


57735


And that's all for this week. Oh, I also got my final project for Life Drawing which is to take one of our drawing from the semester and develop a "super human" character. Basically, we can change up the figure any way we want to as long as it obviously began as a human figure. If I come up with anything interesting, I'll post it.

Anyhow, have a great week everyone and thanks for stopping by!
.wade

[Wade Felt]

These are from last week, which was the last regular week of the semester. Like I said above ... calm before the storm.

I'll post my final projects as I finish them.

Life Drawing:

From Monday:


61919 61920 61921 61922 61923


From Wednesday:


61924 61925 61928 61930 61931


Rendering:

And how could I leave you without a progress shot of my rendering project?


61932 61933


Thanks for visitin' and have a great week!
.wade

[Goog]

fantastic progress, really lovely figures. The pilot is turnin out real nice, Good work!

[Wade Felt]

Hey Goog, glad you like! Gotta try and finish that pilot for Thursday. Hopefully, I won't jack it up before then...

And now -- Life Drawing Final!!!

Our final project for Life Drawing was to take one of our drawings from the semester and use it as the basis for a super hero/super human/creature character or figure. We were allowed to do pretty much anything we wanted to the character as long as it was obviously built or designed using the human figure as its basis.


62038


It turned out ... okay. I know it ain't great. There are a lot of issues with it. Another day of working out the final line drawing would have helped greatly. But I am pretty happy with what I managed to accomplish with this piece. Especially after looking back at where I was at the beginning of the semester.

Didn't feel like that at the critique session this morning. Then it was like, "wow! that was a lot of work and it still sucks." But I'm better now. Really.

Here are kinda the shapes of some of the poses I was considering using when I started this project:


62039 62040


Here are some roughs. The first one - way too flat. Then I did a bunch of scratchy sketches. The middle two were ones I liked out of that bunch. And then there's a kinda mermaid model I was using to kind of figure out my proportions.


62041 62042 62043 62044


I picked this more upright pose to work 'cause it was pretty close to one of the class drawings. Spent a day working it and just couldn't get it to go. Wasn't liking the pose and I started overthinking the whole tail thing. So I called it a day.


62045


Next day, I started with the other pose. It worked a little better. Spent the day trying to get it right. Got it up to the line drawing stage and kinda ran out of prep time. Did the final in charcoal on toned drawing paper. Yee haw.


62046 62047 62048 62049


One final down. Three to go. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for stopping by,
.wade