More Lifedrawing? YOU KNOW IT! - entry 3

And one more from the Gouache Silhouette series:



Why I left the bottom left silhouette on a tilt I will never know. I was tired a lot in those days. :P A lot of stranger things happened.

The two silhouettes on the right were actually students posing fully clothed and not in the nude. There was never a requirement for the students to pose nude...Although, there was this one time that my classmate Aaron decided it would be a good idea to jump up on the platform, lift his shirt, yell "THIS ONE IS FOR YOU ANNE!" (Anne was our lifedrawing teacher, a very proper 50-something lady) and proceeded to tweak his tinny man nipples. Thankfully Anne thought this was very funny and proceeded to giggle like a school girl.

Now back to the silhouettes on the right. These two figures were the first attempts at seeing shadow. We didn't use a direct light source and were stuck with the diffused lighting already present in the room.

This was also one of the few times we actually dealt with drapery (referring to anything made out of fabric that folds). There just wasn't enough time in the two year animation program to go into depth with drapery.

I found that the animation course pretty much prepared us to draw anything rather than focus on drawing specifics of certain things. Obviously, this is a much more valuable skill than being able to focus on one or two things. The phrase "this is how you draw ________" was never used. Instead, a "use as much reference as you can" teaching technique was implemented. Google image search became your friend. There were some assignments where we had to submit our reference with the completed works. I still look up everything and use TONS of reference. If you are a starting out artist, or even an experienced artist that doesn't already do this, USE REFERENCE. Sit down and look at 30 or 40 images of what you are trying to draw. It will improve your mental catalog as well.