A quiet day

Only a few people showed up to class last night, on account of the Thanksgiving Holiday. It was kind of nice though, and Karl was particularly casual and funny. He went on a rant about Ferguson, ( we were all mourning the verdict) and then another rant about how people post a lot of stupid crap on the internet. It was really low key, and I kind of wish the class sizes were always that small. Trying to think like a sculptor when I draw, and carve out the forms in volume and not just two-dimensional shapes.

 

Trace and Friends

Trace is a challenge to draw because his hair is always obscuring part of his face. That and its so wild. But where I remember really struggling to capture him before, I think it got a bit easier this time around. We also drew our friends, which was a fun challenge, like switching gears from drawing Trace.

Welp, that's Fair...

The people in my class always seem to ask really interesting questions. Someone brought up sculpting and we had a rather interesting & lengthy discussion. In the end, I believe drawing informs sculpting , and sculpting informs drawing. Someone else mentioned they were on their way to Italy in a few weeks, and Karl happily rattled off a serious list of all the piazzas, museums and sculptures worth seeing. That should be the test for your teachers. To hold the bar very, VERY high. If they cant rattle off a list of all the art worth seeing in Italy, then you're off to a dubious start...

In other news, Sue informed us that there were a group of people (men predominantly ) who would walk around at burning man with a shirt on but no pants. Apparently these people were scorned even in the independently thinking, free spirited, bohemian environment of burning man. Their name, you ask? Shirt-cocks. Yup. That is a thing...Thanks Sue!

In still other news, remind me to sign up for sculpting next term. Its time. Seriously...Oh and the third drawing down made Karl stop and say "Hunh! (long pause) fair enough!" and walk away. *happydance*

At what point in your career...?

It was mostly a feety day, but we did get some heads in there. I noticed that drawing feet doesnt seem to hold my attention that much. No surprises there...but still, I kept drawing. I mean, its not like I've mastered this stuff. And not everything you get asked to draw is that cool/entertaining/appealing...

Anyhow, I must not be the only one bored by feet, because in the middle of when the model was posing, amidst the dead silence, someone raised their hand and asked  "Karl, at what point in your career did you feel like you could say no to projects?" Karl told her to keep drawing and that this was a talk for later. LOL. but  People were laughing, and Sue, our resident witty comic and coffee provider blurted out, "After you learn to draw feet.."

What an funny question. Anyone want to chime in, or take a stab at it? I know how I feel but its more fun to hear other people's opinions.

 

Structure, Structure, Structure ( I know this is getting boring..)

Karl said these drawings were "strong" ::happydance:: but that I need to focus on simplifying and working on tone. He also told me to make sure I draw the side plane of the nose. For some reason I never draw that, which is bizarre..

Was being lazy and ran out of paper...

So I started drawing on some old copy paper I had lying around. I'm not sure if I like the results. We'll see if this motivates me to get off my lazy arse and head over to blicks...Anyhow, we drew the model AND our friends today. I always wondered why no other head drawing classes made us do this. IMHO The more variations of people you're forced to draw the better you become. Some folks only like to draw "idealized" portraits and people who are models. I think drawing everyday people is important, if not more important. I feel like models can be boring because their facial proportions are sometimes so normal/boring. I like people who have interesting faces.

This is me focusing on Structure

Well, I hate to say it, but the class is actually called head, HANDS and feet, so last night was mostly about hands. Last night seemed like such a clusterf*ck for Karl. People kept interrupting him or the drawing session to ask questions about hands. I'll admit hands are intimidating, but in some sense I feel like no amount of talking makes it any easier, at least for me. I think just like anything else you have to throw yourself into it and just do it, and the more hands you draw, the easier it will be... I realized hands are just like bodies in that they  have a gesture to them. They're just like heads in that they have an underlying structure. In my humble opinion, if you can combine those two things while you're drawing, its a bit easier to wrap your head around it.

We had Keith last night. He's great.

More head drawings from Karl's Class

So apparently structure is the biggest thing people miss when drawing the head. Its the difference between a successful drawing, and a not so successful one..