Model Drawing 2, Week 10

Ten 2-minute Gesture Drawings for warm-ups.

We began working with casual, sporty, "slouchy" poses for our active-wear.  The look for females is clean and fresh, with hair tied  back into a tight ponytail.

FOUR 7-minute figure studies:
Student work:

Followed by THREE 7-minute figure studies:

 We ended the first 3 hour set with ONE 5-minute head study, and ONE 5-minute feet study.
Student work:

I then demonstrated drawing a coat and trousers on a slouching/casual figure.  Note the difference in the direction of the ribcage.

Also note how I've edited the folds, and how the stripes in the trousers wrap along all of the undulations in the fabric.

TWO 10-minute studies, coat and trousers.  Casual poses.
Student work:

Next I demonstrated Activewear, the styling being inspired by 70's/80's Adidas, Nikes, Speedo, Y-3, Yohji Yamamoto.  The demo was in pastel, though I prefer colored pencil for cleanliness.  Both are acceptable.

Again, note the casual pose of the figure.  It's youthful, and full of attitude/mood.

THREE 20-minute fully rendered figures in activewear.

Student work:

My last 20-minute figure:

WEEK 7, MIDTERM, WEEK 9

Model Drawing 2, Week 9

 

TEN 2-MINUTE poses to warm up.

 We continued to warm up with TWO 2-MINUTE BLIND CONTOURS (the study to the far left), TWO 2-MINUTE SIGHTED CONTOURS (middle study), and THREE 3-MINUTE GESTURES, (which will be revisited in the next exercise).

I then demonstrated the topic for today:  coats, both fitted and large or oversized.  The important things to note here: silhouette, shape, contour line/line weight, ease, folds, shadow shapes, and textures.

Fitted coat demo:

The idea is that you still want to feel the figure's gesture and anatomy beneath the clothing.  In the above demo, I pointed out the ease, as well as the negative space between the legs, and the space between the legs and the coat, since this particular coat had a flaring skirt.  It is also important to edit the amount of folds, and to closely observe the undulation of the bottom hem.  It's not a straight line, but it would be easier to lay in the hem with the correct perspective with a straight line, then draw the undulations over said straight line.  I always begin with a "gesture drawing" of the coat over the figure, so I can plan it out before I dive in with finished line work.

We then completed THREE 7-MINUTE poses with a fitted coat, both closed as well as open.  This was done over the previous THREE 3-MINUTE gestures.

Student work:

Next I demonstrated an over-sized coat:

Again, the key here is to lay in the figure first, then the gesture of the coat, focusing on the silhouette.  Note how much more ease there is versus the fitted coat.  Another thing Miguel pointed out later is to draw the coat much bigger than it actually is towards the bottom, in essence flaring it out a bit, and increasing the ease towards the thighs.  We'll go over that again next class.

Note how much more ease Miguel has placed between the left thigh and the coat, he's flared it out much more than what was really there, driving home the idea of a LARGE COAT.

We then completed the same exercise as before, but with a Large coat.  So:  THREE 3-MINUTE GESTURES, WITH THREE 7-MINUTE COAT STUDIES OVER THEM.

Next, we went over the three primary textures of the day:  Herringbone, Hounds-tooth, and Tweed.

Note the grid patterns to we lay in for both the Hounds-tooth and Herringbone.  This grid will follow the contours of the body/coat.  Tweed is kind of a tough cookie to get right, since it's mostly a tactile texture, meaning you can feel it moreso than see it.  However the texture we figured out as a class is to the right, next to the Herringbone.  It's got a smudge-y type of feel to it, with a few highlights laid in and wiped out with white pastel.

Above demos are for Herringbone, Tweed, and Hounds-tooth.  Note that the Herringbone and Tweed textures are half and half on the coat.   The coat is not really half and half, we used the model's coat that did not have any such texture, and we applied the textures ourselves.

 TWO 20-MINUTE studies, focusing on light rendering and textures.  Render both the figure and the coat, then lay in Hounds-tooth on one coat, and half-and-half Herringbone and Tweed on the other.

Student work:

This last study was a quick 10-MINUTE study of a miscellaneous texture.

Model Drawing 2, Midterm

The midterm itself is only 2 pages, but we completed multiple warm-ups.

We began with TEN 2-MINUTE gestures:

We followed these up with TWO 2-MINUTE BLIND CONTOURS, and TWO 3-MINUTE TWO HANDED SIGHTED CONTOURS (a pencil in each hand).

We then completed TWO 5-MINUTE GESTURE/CONTOUR DRAWINGS, and THREE 7-MINUTE studies of the figure in a bathing suit/leotard.

Immediately after these warm-ups we began the midterm:
The figure to the far right is an example of what I'm looking for.  TWO 20-MINUTE figures, with an additional 2-minute gesture drawing underneath.  The figures should be rendered.

We then cooled down before lunch with a two sets of 2-MINUTE GESTURES, 5-MINUTE LONG GESTURES, AND 7-MINUTE STUDIES.

The 2nd half of the midterm consists of the figure in a basic dress:

We warmed up with TWO 5-MINUTE figures, then dove right in with THREE 20-MINUTE FIGURES, WITH AN ADDITIONAL 2-MINUTES EACH FOR THE GESTURE.  Above is an example of what I'm looking for:  Lightly rendered figure, with editing in the cascades/folds, and logical rendering in the garment.  This means design your shadow shapes before you start shading.

That's the midterm.  Two pages, 5 figures total.

Model Drawing 2, Week 7: Midterm Practice

Gestures!  TWENTY 1-MINUTE gestures to warm-up.

We followed up the gestures with some GESTURE REVIEW, which is basically a refresher of proportion, balance, and movement.  I demonstrated a 3/4 front view, a profile view, and a back view.  The idea is that the gesture drawing should only take you a couple of seconds to 2 minutes, and not really much more than that.  It's meant to be your initial impression of the pose.

We then continued to warm-up with TWO 2-MINUTE BLIND CONTOURS, and TWO 2-MINUTE, 2 HANDED SIGHTED CONTOURS.

Student work:  2-handed sighted contours on the left hand side.

I then reviewed basic anatomical shape relationships.  This means:  I'm more concerned with shape design and the relationships between shapes in the body versus anatomical details.  If you draw anatomical details that's great, but make sure the basic figure looks good first!

Note:  I prefer if you lay in a straight support leg first, and then bring the "S" curves out of it through the musculature (or the basic shapes that the musculature makes).  I don't want to see bow-legged women, or support legs that structurally don't make any sense. 

Student work:  TWO 5-MINUTE FIGURES, focusing on the silhouette, contour line, and graphic bathing suit shapes.

I then demonstrated how to coax out the "S" curves from a straight leg.  Note that I flatten the knee first, then draw it back in when I draw the contour line.  I don't like knees that stick out too far because it causes the legs to look bent, which is a re-occurring problem in a lot of folks' drawings.  Also note that the "S" curve in a straight leg comes from the relationships of the shapes within the legs, and how your eye bounces down across those shapes.  The leg is not built from a literal "S".  The reason why I have not covered this concept until now is because it's a very abstract one, and I would rather you balance the figure before you worry about bringing the "S" rhythms out of the legs.  Now that balance is no longer an issue, I expect to see some serious rhythm exploration.

We then completed TWO 20-MINUTE RENDERED FIGURES IN SWIMSUITS.  I except:  GOOD HEAD, HANDS, FEET!!  Basic lighting!  Which means: good shadow shapes!

Student Work:

Note:  The two heads on the side were TWO 4-MINUTE HEAD STUDIES, a product of left-over time before lunch.  Not enough time for a figure, but enough time for two head studies!

Student Work:

I then demonstrated a quick gesture with dress study.  Yes, I used an obnoxiously orange marker for the gesture for the sake of visibility, but you should be using a lighter colored marker.  The dress should be completed in BLACK COLORED PENCIL.  ONE 7-MINUTE STUDY: 2-minutes for the gesture, 5-minutes for the dress.  Architecture of the dress and folds only, no shading.

Student work:

TWO 20-MINUTE FIGURES, BASIC WOVEN DRESS OR SKIRT, FIGURE AND GARMENT ARE BOTH RENDERED!

And that wraps up week 7.  Good luck on the midterm folks!