Week 1
Portrait Speed Drawing
Drawing each other was a good way to get acquainted with one another. Even as I did my best to get a good likeness of fellow students and Stephen, I noticed my style did some interesting things. While retaining the features, my drawings also communicated different characteristics. Gemma looks contemplative while Stephen looks aged and Will seems studious. Stephen somewhat looked like the Leader, a villain in Marvel's The Incredible Hulk. Becky's hair kind of reminded me of a pixie cut.
Week 1 Homework Self-Portrait
To properly get my own likeness, I started with strong lining for the facial shape, chin and other features before moving on to shading. People I showed it to agreed that it looks like just me. I have been told that without knowing it, my likeness sometimes ends up being carried into other characters I have drawn. It probably was a reflex or quirk in my drawing skills.
Week 2
First life drawing
I was a little apprehensive in our first life drawing session, but Stephen left us a margin for error because mistakes taught us more than perfection did. Five to ten second drawings and blind drawings were to flex our artistic muscles and get us thinking. Soon we started to loosen up and get more comfortable with drawing a live model.
Week 2 homework
Household objects in Negative Space
Starting off with the negative space of these objects and finishing with the tones and other detailing presented me with some surprising results. The candle's residue wax and the watch's shape were the best parts of this week to me.
Week 3
Proportion
Proportion was a way to map out anatomy and measure the shapes that made the human body. Placing a smaller image of Mel in the corner of the first image and lines along the side of the double image helped to build up a consistent anatomical study. Lying down made for a creative composition because I had to master proportion by understanding how the shapes of the body related to each other. Correcting each other's drawing helped us know what was missing from our linework and fleshed them out a bit.
Week 3 Homework
Still Life Self Portrait
In black and white, I had to differentiate the tones between the red and the black areas and balance lighting with dark areas.
I started off with the outlines, then went over with pen and colouring pencils. I varied the tones for the lighting effects. The numbering and logos were drawn in coloured pencil.
This was my attempt to draw the model without taking my pencil off the paper and under timed conditions. I did not feel so content.
In black and white tonal drawing, I had to differentiate the tones between the red and the black areas and balance lighting with dark areas.
I started off with the outlines, then went over with pen and colouring pencils. I varied the tones for the lighting effects. Apparently colouring and detail has been my strongest suit. With more creative freedom and autonomy, I could build my future projects around techniques I have exercised with in my coloured train drawing.
Week 4
Foreshortening
This was where it was up to us to draw from a perspective where the model would not be drawn from the side. While parts of the arms and legs would be shortened, it was up to us to draw the joints at work. The trick behind that was to draw everything exactly from my perspective. It helped to keep errors on the page instead of rubbing them out. One can be found on the lying down drawing where I noticed the hand was too far away from the head and had to be repositioned. I think I managed to progress with the right drawing where I used mass and perspective to establish what angle I was drawing from.
Week 4 Homework
Handheld objects
The teapot presented an interesting challenge in which there was a relationship between the hand, the pot and the mug. All three have been drawn in descending order of height. The bulb on the pot's lid had to be drawn between the surface of the lid and the space around the top. Shading was applied for the pot's metallic texture.
Mum liked everything about this drawing, but noted me that there needed to be emphasis on the muscle joining the thumb to the palm so all I had to do was add a faint crease starting where the thumb knuckle was. The very tip of the thumb nail might not have been as pronounced as intended.
Drawing the fingers could get a bit fiddly and it could be easy to make mistakes. The trick was to look at the relationship between each finger and the cup's handle.
The teapot presented an interesting challenge in which there was a relationship between the hand, the pot and the mug. All three have been drawn in descending order of height.
Mum liked everything about this drawing, but noted me that there needed to be emphasis on the muscle joining the thumb to the palm so all I had to do was add a faint crease starting where the thumb knuckle was. Drawing the fingers around the mug's handle and the remote could get a bit fiddly and it could be easy to make mistakes. The trick was to look at the relationship between each finger and the cup's handle. Shading came in handy for the variation between the wine bottle and the glass.
Week 5
Subtractive tone
Rubbing into a layer of charcoal was a dirty but astonishing way of capturing the human form to me. I had to be careful with shading to keep the tones consistent. Gently tracing my finger over the dark areas to soften shadowing evened it out. The rubber was a good way of establishing the lighter areas of the body.
Week 5 Homework
Subtractive Self portaits
If I was to do some self portraits, I felt that they should define me as a person and my characteristics. I have a love for arms and armour so I included some helmets in the full body subtractive drawings. The one with the knight's helmet must be where I struggled to get the hang of subtractive charcoal, based on how flat it looks. My Oriental mask charcoal and onward was where I think I pulled through. My snapshots are the stages of shaving myself. I had to apply a lot of rubbing out to light up my face and show where the lamp was shining above my head. Charcoal was worth the struggle to me in the end.
Week 6
Tone and Wet and Dry Media
Tonal drawings were a way of defining light from dark. Watercolours have been my favourite paints to use, while oil pastels made for an interesting experiment. I did come to realise that it was best to apply watercolours before pastels, as the tan and red drawing demonstrates. Painting over the pastels that made the hair grew hard on the brush and made the watercolour a tough dirty. The blue, red and yellow made me think of how Vincent Van Gogh carried out his lighting and form, so this session was quite worthwhile.
Week 6 Homework
Cafe drawings
Although I unfortunately missed the Bristol Zoo trip, my backup plan was to draw the people around me during train journeys and time at the cafeteria. My clean-cut drawing style got the attention of people I sat by and they had a lot of complements. The young girl in the 6th image in particular asked me to show her once I had drawn her. This was where we became friends and chatted while the train headed for Worcester Foregate Street. So the cafe drawings were a good way for me to get socially active with the people around me.
Tuesday life drawing
When an email from Natasha East invited us to a bonus life-drawing session on Tuesday evening, I had a chance to increase my portfolio. I was left free to express my own artistic style, in which I channelled my inner Bruce Timm with clean-cut lining and bold feminine characteristics. The models rather liked the style I drew them in.
Week 7
Working in Layers
Watercolours have been my old faithful since school and 6th Form art lessons. Constructing the body from colour and lighting reminded me of the paintings by Vincent Van Gogh with the vibrant yellos and moody blues. I intended to evoke Midas and gold with the reclining painting, though Stephen was reminded of someone sitting on the beach.
Museum Drawings
At the museum, I chose some natural and man made elements to add to my sketchbook. The crocodile had a lot of character and 19th century weaponry let me embrace my fascination for military history. The tin train had some story in it where a prisoner of war during World War II constructed it in the camp he was being held. The arched museum windows were grand and daylight shone through the glass, as I was attracted enough to record the colour and pattern the panes formed. Of course I did not get to complete the train and army uniform in time. I only wish I could.
ANIM1003 A Reflection
Drawing for Animators and Illustrators has so far been an arduous yet instructive module for my first days at University. The sessions involve a lot of concentration and experimentation which all promise a bright future for my drawing skills. A wide range of mediums and methods have been tried out and yielded some interesting outcomes. I intend to reflect my drawing experience and how my work has turned out.
The module was started with an introduction where we drew each other in a game sort of like musical chairs. As we drew one another, we were able to get acquainted with our fellow students and members of staff. It also let me show off my own drawing skills and give dimension to the people I sketched.
Self-portrait was another chance at expressing myself in my realistic, but stylish visual voice. My facial structure is quite distinctive so lining had to be strong enough to capture my likeness.
Shading was especially useful for the watch, jug and the beer bottle. These were items I found in our holiday home at Cornwall that I felt looked better to draw than the odd fruit from other still life art. Negative space was important mainly for the drips along the candle and the watchstraps.
My use of contour lining can be attested to my knowledge of the Renaissance painter and printmaker Albrecht Durer. His line drawings possess very pronounced shapes and attention paid to texture and shading. While I have leaned towards Durer’s distinctive drawing style, I retain my own crisp style in the hopes of keeping it original and unique.
For an object that represented me the most, I chose a Hornby model train from my collection. The small six-wheeled engine would save a bit of effort when drawing. Continuous line drawing really put me to the test because trains have a lot of structure to them and I had to keep my pencil on the paper. This drawing was timed so I did not feel all that into it.
Tonal drawings of the train were when I felt I was very much in my element, particularly when colouring the livery of the model and using the light to master the shading. Mum and Dad really liked them, with Dad pointing out that the tonal drawing I did in pencil was best because of the angle. I guess my composition could do with more dynamism as I did the train in colour from a straight angle unlike the shaded one.
Proportion required some focus and faith in my drawing abilities because I was working with Mel as a live model. With distinctive lining and gentle shading, I did my best to record anatomy and the shading. I think the anatomical side is where I channelled more of Durer with my lining and 3-dimensional style.
When we did layered drawings/paintings of Mel with colouring pencils, oil pastels and watercolour paints, watercolour was my most specialised skill aside from acrylics. The idea was to create the human form with colours of our choice. I think my earthy tones and vibrant shapes are not unlike the works of Pablo Picasso. Picasso would define the male and female physique through distinctive Proto-Cubist shapes and eye-catching tones that reflected unbridled emotion. The main difference would be that Picasso parted from realism for the more emotional aspect of painting, evidenced by his 2-dimensional, stylised shapes. In comparison, my layering combines my distinctive drawing style with attention to the model’s anatomy.
Tonal drawings were where we explored light and dark, so I used red oil pastels for the light and blue for dark. These two colours constructed the model’s form similarly to charcoal and proved quite educational in the use of lighting. Squinting made it easier to differentiate where the light and the shade were around the body. At the end of the session, my blue, yellow and red pastel drawing particularly reminded me of Vincent Van Gogh’s use of colours. Van Gogh broke the mould of 19th century art with his Post Impressionist influence. Rather than staying true to reality in form, Van Gogh used symbolism in colour and shapes to express emotion similarly to Picasso. Van Gogh’s brushstrokes define light from dark as demonstrated by his night-time painting where the moon blazes against the blues of the sky. Picasso’s Cubist art on the other hand uses more rigid and angular shapes, although it was he who inspired Van Gogh’s revolutionary voice in painting.
When I was invited to an extra life drawing session one Tuesday night, I had the opportunity to express my own artistic freedom. No tutors were there to tell us exactly what to do, so we all drew autonomously. Unlike in Friday sessions, the models were two young women so it was important to differentiate age. After a few sketches, I capped it off with a drawing lined with ink from a Berol pen and coloured with pencils. Tan pencil shading were used for a warm skin tone that I felt would help visual presentation. Needless to say, the two girls modelling for us liked my drawings. In terms of artistic inspiration, I would cite animator, cartoonist and DC Comics contributor Bruce Timm. Bruce Timm’s style has a very clean-cut lining and expressive characteristics. In addition, his art tends to be fun-loving and adventurous, traits I relate to most when drawing. With his old school comic-book influence, he pays particular attention to male and female form while letting personalities shine through.
Location drawing at the museum was a chance to understand the natural and the manmade. Architecture of the location gave me a chance to explore Gothic designs, as I have a fascination for castles and cathedrals. My meticulous lining helped construct the designs of the museum. The stuffed animals let me get down a variety of characteristics and forms and was liberating for my lining and colouring skills.
This module has presented me with much in the way of techniques on an educational and social basis. Sessions required utmost concentration, but they were worth it as they let us flex our drawing muscles and gather our focus. I think that one thing I had an issue with was the time limit I had when drawing things like museum items and continuous lining. Some of them have either been left uncompleted or colourless. Perhaps with more planning ahead, my drawings might be more completed. There is some room for improvement, but I think this module has been a promising start to my university term. Here’s hoping next year is a step up.
Wendy Beckett - Patricia Wright - Little Brown Canada – 1994
http://comicvine.gamespot.com/bruce-timm/4040-7365/
Independent study
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Arranging time to draw these drawings was tough, but I think I got myself a nice balance between clerestory and modern Spartan architecture. In my haste to start the assignment, I ended up drawing Virginia House for over an hour. For the rest, I did a minimum of 10 minutes and a maximum of 30. I think I rushed the uncoloured ones. Luckily my lining was strong enough to master the architectural differences between old and modern. Trying to draw out in the middle of the city was tough but with any hope, it was rewarding.
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Trying to find buildings with corresponding characteristics was tricky when choosing locations. Fortunately I had a steady supply of photos I had taken Gothic and historical architecture which I felt would harken back to Douglas Huebler's buildings of choice. The ruins of Corfe Castle had an interesting silhouette against grey cloudy sky. I took creative liberties with the colours. I learned how exotic Spain was in the times when Moors coexisted with Christians so I felt Moorish arches had some sense of erotica about their Eastern design. For an over-the-top feel, I think the Dutch tower was opulent and showy enough to represent Amsterdam's fevered traits. I had wanted something innocuous for a passive building, and now I think there must have been something that could fit the bill slightly better than the white terraced Spanish arched corridors. On the other hand, the stone bridge photographed at Ronda I felt was awe-inspiring enough to represent transcendence. Spanish architecture has always amazed me, so the colossal structure of the bridge seemed to show how far Spain was willing to take itself. Ludlow castle looked quite lifeless and empty when buried under snow. To me, the snow muffled the castle's ancient majesty. I think the blue shade under the white works well against the black stone of the castle.
I only wish I could have coloured in the buildings with other mediums besides colouring pencils but the weight of other projects got in the way. Fortunately I think my lining has been well-defined enough to have captured the architecture and complement it with my choice of colour palette.
Semester 2
Week 1 - Tableaux
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Our second semester kick-started with different scenarios. For a drawing where detail had to be sacrificed, I think I did my best to move out of the drawing style I'm most used to. I realise one or more of the characters' legs are missing. It got more interesting when I drew the next two for ten minutes. Rather than rigidly sticking to my style, using minimalist detail and free-flowing line seems to have lent itself well to timing and visual narrative. The poses and expressions yielded some interesting interpretations to the other students and Stephen Fowler.
Week 2 - Expressive hands and faces
Expressive portraits and hands got me a little frustrated at first because I wasn't entirely focussing on lighting. Capturing the silhouettes of Mel with negative and positive space took some careful accuracy to make a shape in the charcoal. I found it intense but would not give up.
The first close up of Mel's face was not quite what I had hoped for. The nose was too long and the charcoal shading was too faint. But I found that with graphite contours, I had a more accurate representation of the light and shadow around the face. It got much better when I did Mel's thin hands and her sitting position.
That was where I took to heart the idea of drawing what is in front of me, not what is on the paper. I think that my strengths lay in directing the shadow to bring out light areas, capturing forms in lining like I did with the veins and fingers and the pose. I have noticed that Mel's left eye looks uneven with the right, but hopefully the mistakes are outweighed by the strengths. This session is where I think graphite proved quite promising, being more flexible to use than charcoal.
Portraits
Portraits based on Elizabeth Peyton’s art were a nice way to exercise drawing and colours. The swimsuit model from the Boden magazine was where I remembered to control the direction of the light as evidenced by the shading of her skin. It might work for pinups and female characters. Lighting may have slipped my mind when drawing Jess from Illustration Year 2 and Broadway singer Idina Menzel. When colouring Custer, I think the black and blue highlights of the jacket have some realistic shading. A lot of people could tell it was Custer and Andy from the Digital Arts Centre said he was a bit of a git and narcissist, which I can agree on. To me, Custer was an interesting historical figure as controversy stems from his alleged heroics and his active part in harming Native Americans. An arrogant figure like him gets responses and evokes the darker side of America’s past.
Week 3 - Skeletons, Anatomy and the Gothic
This week was where things got more interesting. Recording what we saw onto paper with wax candlesticks yielded surprising results. The third skeleton I did on candle wax was where I used pencil to map out my skeleton.
That way, I think I got the hang of the medium. The style I drew the wax in looks potential for a ghostly Gothic illustration.
Establishing the composition with Mel and the skeleton sitting in front of one another, I had not paid much attention to the spatial relationship between their legs. By starting from the top, I had descended down the paper until the legs ended up too closely knit. Perhaps I should have used shapes to map out the body parts like I did with my last wax drawing. At least in the drawing, Mel and the skeleton are equal in height. But this week proved rather fruitful and eventful for this semester.
Atmospheric Environment
When trying to think of somewhere atmospheric enough for a Gothic location, my luck was in when I was invited by my younger sister Helen and her boyfriend Ed on a trip to York. These ruins had perfect angles to work from. The thinnest, finest artist pen in my Faber Castell packet was quick and lightweight enough for drawing on the go. I'd say it was a good way to execute the crumbling appearance of the ruins and the deadened trees. I also think the angles give the building a 3-dimensional appearance.
Week 4 - Life model and Animals
Collage with animals was similar to what we did in illustration, so I pretty much went to town with it. The different animals and birds fascinated me and I enjoyed capturing their feathers and fur with the pieces of textured paper. When I used the rest to do collages of our dog, I find that her lounging pose featured a lot more than when she was curled up into a ball. Dogs and horses in textured shapes reminded me a bit of children’s books like ones by Stephen Fowler, Rebecca Palmer or Piet Grobler. Still, I think my heart is more in drawing than collage.
Week 5 - 3 Dimensional form
Though I am accustomed to drawing objects with strong lining and angles, pastels and chalk really brought tone to life. In the right image, I can see a wide range of tones including the skin, the floor and the wall. I think my strengths with tone are the variations I apply. I only wish I could apply it a bit more neatly. Chalk and pastels tend to be a bit messy to handle.
Week 6 - Drawing movement
Drawing Movement
Drawing a person on the move was challenging, but reducing the stills to fit the page, definitely so. But if you look at the way Mel's poses are all put together, it sort of resembles animation frames. I could have reduced the poses to thumbnails so they would leave room for more, but I got as much of them as I could. The charcoal drawings were just an attempt to solve whatever I felt needed work on. The foreshortening worked but contrast between light and dark areas did not stand out, so I tried a second one. The contrast stood out more, but in terms of composition, Mel was too small for an A1 sheet. I could try mapping out the composition with a pencil before I start applying charcoal. Then perhaps my charcoal drawings with look more organised.
Week 6 - Drawing movement
For live observation, I chose one horse grazing and standing over a trough and another that was black. Drawing the first one was tricky when he was wandering behind a fence several paces away. It was easier to draw and colour in the black one because he trotted towards me, although he tried to eat my sketchbook. The thickest pen in my Faber Castell set brought out his shape and body movement very well. When recording a swordfight from the film ‘The Mask of Zorro’ and Alun Armstrong as Monsieur Thenardier from the musical ‘Les Miserables,’ I think I nicely sumed up character and movement in the clips. Character and movement should help my animation and illustration techniques in future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz0R9XJciO0&t=1s
Week 7 - Wild Woman
The Wild Woman was where we could truly let our imaginations run riot. Practical setups and the music helped the atmosphere. After some practise in drawing a jungle woman, I wanted to bring my own fantasy heroine named Esperanza to life. Stephen guessed I was doing the opposite of a savage jungle woman by bringing my character into medieval fantasy. Esperanza resembles Xena warrior princess, Wonder Woman and Cheetara from the 80s cartoon Thundercats. Fantasy and superhero cartoons, comics and video games have inspired me. My drawings of Esperanza earned some compliments from fellow students on things like her costume’s studs. I think that my inspirations in artists Bruce Timm and Cliff Chiang, who have drawn warrior women, have lent my character quite well. Better still, I think the pose evokes the fantasy art of Frank Frazetta. His paintings feature barbarian/warrior men and women in sensual, heroic poses and really pop out of the image. Drawing my character as an A1 coloured painting might be better than a black and white ink drawing. The coloured drawing should have been the biggest, so I could have started a fresh sheet once I had had my character inspiration.
Russ Thorne, 2014
http://fuckyeahbrucetimm.tumblr.com/
http://www.cliffchiang.com/wonder-woman/96k0czd8g7rwumxiebg73t4kbhnkw7
Brian Azzarello - Cliff Chiang - Tony Akins - DC Comics – 2012
Week 8 - River walk
Walking along the river was a refreshing change, but it took time for me to locate somewhere I liked. The time it took for me to draw might be because of my methodical, finicky approach. Using my smaller booklet for the last drawing saved up more time than using my A3 pad. While the other three contrasted nicely, a full view of the river was an interesting spin on my previous layouts. The contours and shading from my Faber Castell set was a good way to mix media and evoke Albrecht Durer or Arthur Rackham’s nature illustrations. The illustrations pop out with strong, diverse line work that brings out details like water ripples and the buildings.
Week 8 - Drawing at the Hive
Recording the Hive took a lot of time. Forgoing detail like the tableau and movement exercise helped exercise my skills in illustration and animation. My close-ups of old books and people could be useful for any comics or illustrations I do. Combining the relationship between people and architecture and movement gave me an idea on a scene’s setting and characters as if illustrating or animating a story. Folding an A1 sheet into a book was a good way to create my own book, which I might try in other modules.
ANIM1003 Semester 2 reflection
Semester 2 was somewhat more challenging than last, but possibly the more educational. Scenarios and subjects were thought provoking and there were obstacles to pass and mistakes to learn from.
Tableau drawing in week 1 was interactive and imaginative. An unintentionally broken mug added to the birthday party scenario. Though I had to sacrifice detail in drawings like the uninvited guest, I had to catch the drama. Timed conditions left me missing things like the legs. If I streamlined my drawing, I might nail the whole bodies rather than leaving out parts of them. The second drawing of the uninvited guest and the birthday party could help with storyboarding animations or plotting illustrations.
Expressive hands and faces hit a few speed bumps like distinguishing light from dark. Rubbing the charcoal on the model’s face did not emphasise the shadows or light. Trading charcoal for graphite on the other hand helped the face to pop out of the sheet. What fascinated me about graphite was how it could double as a lining and shading tool. Controlling the contours helped Mel’s facial proportions to take form similarly to Albrecht Durer’s portraits. Capturing the veins and shading around the skin of Mel’s hands and her posture suggested my strengths lay in expressive body language.
Anja Franziska Eichler, 1999
Portraits based on Elizabeth Peyton’s art were a nice way to exercise drawing and colours. The swimsuit model from the Boden magazine was where I remembered to control the direction of the light as evidenced by the shading of her skin. It might work for pinups and female characters. Lighting may have slipped my mind when drawing Jess from Illustration Year 2 and Broadway singer Idina Menzel. When colouring Custer, I think the black and blue highlights of the jacket have some realistic shading. A lot of people could tell it was Custer and Andy from the Digital Arts Centre said he was a bit of a git and narcissist, which I can agree on. To me, Custer was an interesting historical figure as controversy stems from his alleged heroics and his active part in harming Native Americans. An arrogant figure like him gets responses and evokes the darker side of America’s past.
After some warm ups, I grew confident with drawing skeletons with candle wax and ink, but they were a bit scribbly. Marking the bones in pencil helped me to guide the candle wax. The skeleton standing above Mel set the tone for a nicely Gothic scene. I slipped up in composition when drawing her and the skeleton facing each other because I ended up drawing their legs together. I should have mapped out the composition before diving in headlong.
When going on a trip to York, I had found nicely Gothic ruins with the perfect angles to draw. The thinnest, finest pen in my Faber Castell packet was quick and lightweight enough for drawing the crumbling ruins and the deadened trees on the go. I also think the wonky angles give the building a 3-dimensional appearance.
Collage with animals was similar to what we did in illustration, so I pretty much went to town with it. The different animals and birds fascinated me and I enjoyed capturing their feathers and fur with the pieces of textured paper. When I used the rest to do collages of our dog, I find that her lounging pose featured a lot more than when she was curled up into a ball. Dogs and horses in textured shapes reminded me a bit of children’s books like ones by Stephen Fowler, Rebecca Palmer or Piet Grobler. Still, I think my heart is more in drawing than collage.
http://www.pietgrobler.com/editorials.htm
http://beckypalmer.co.uk/paintings-and-collages/
Pastels and chalk really brought Mel and the plinths to life through their range of tones like the skin, the floor and the wall. I think my strengths of tone lie in the variation. I only wish I applied it a bit more neatly. Chalk and pastels tend to be a bit messy to handle.
Movement was challenging with timed conditions. I am generally not used to doing a subject that moves so it nudged me out of my comfort zone. Foregoing my meticulous style for simpler lining and figures got me as many poses as possible, but I should have reduced them to thumbnails. You can look at thumbnails consistently and my drawings took up too much space. Drawing under time constraints might have something to do with that. We finished the session by tackling medium we found the hardest, so I chose charcoal. Though faded shading did little to bring the out the first figure, contrasting light with the strong lining in the second try worked better. But the figure did not fill the sheet enough, so I will have to work on composition. Looking at the movement now, I may have got something close to Patricia Hannaway’s figures. Essentially I had to “draw what the model is doing, not what it looks like,” according to Patricia. In a way I find the poses combine into a sort of animation.
http://www.utdallas.edu/~melacy/pages/Drawing/Patricia-Hannaway.pdf
The Wild Woman was where we could truly let our imaginations run riot. Practical setups and the music helped the atmosphere. After some practise in drawing a jungle woman, I wanted to bring my own fantasy heroine named Esperanza to life. Stephen guessed I was doing the opposite of a savage jungle woman by bringing my character into medieval fantasy. Esperanza resembles Xena warrior princess, Wonder Woman and Cheetara from the 80s cartoon Thundercats. Fantasy and superhero cartoons, comics and video games have inspired me. My drawings of Esperanza earned some compliments from fellow students on things like her costume’s studs. I think that my inspirations in artists Bruce Timm and Cliff Chiang, who have drawn warrior women, have lent my character quite well. Better still, I think the pose evokes the fantasy art of Frank Frazetta. His paintings feature barbarian/warrior men and women in sensual, heroic poses and really pop out of the image. Drawing my character as an A1 coloured painting might be better than a black and white ink drawing. The coloured drawing should have been the biggest, so I could have started a fresh sheet once I had had my character inspiration.
Russ Thorne, 2014
http://fuckyeahbrucetimm.tumblr.com/
http://www.cliffchiang.com/wonder-woman/96k0czd8g7rwumxiebg73t4kbhnkw7
Brian Azzarello - Cliff Chiang - Tony Akins - DC Comics – 2012
For live observation, I chose one horse grazing and standing over a trough and another that was black. Drawing the first one was tricky when he was wandering behind a fence several paces away. It was easier to draw and colour in the black one because he trotted towards me, although he tried to eat my sketchbook. The thickest pen in my Faber Castell set brought out his shape and body movement very well. When recording a swordfight from the film ‘The Mask of Zorro’ and Alun Armstrong as Monsieur Thenardier from the musical ‘Les Miserables,’ I think I nicely sumed up character and movement in the clips. Character and movement should help my animation and illustration techniques in future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pz0R9XJciO0&t=1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTZYSzxZcvA
Walking along the river was a refreshing change, but it took time for me to locate somewhere I liked. The time it took for me to draw might be because of my methodical, finicky approach. Using my smaller booklet for the last drawing saved up more time than using my A3 pad. While the other three contrasted nicely, a full view of the river was an interesting spin on my previous layouts. The contours and shading from my Faber Castell set was a good way to mix media and evoke Albrecht Durer or Arthur Rackham’s nature illustrations. The illustrations pop out with strong, diverse line work that brings out details like water ripples and the buildings.
Recording the Hive took a lot of time. Forgoing detail like the tableau and movement exercise helped exercise my skills in illustration and animation. My close-ups of old books and people could be useful for any comics or illustrations I do. Combining the relationship between people and architecture and movement gave me an idea on a scene’s setting and characters as if illustrating or animating a story. Folding an A1 sheet into a book was a good way to create my own book, which I might try in other modules.
Scenarios and activities made this semester exciting. Creative freedom has let me bring out a bit of my skills and experimentation has taken me places I hardly expected. Some may think of my drawing style as my comfort zone, but I like to think that I have perfected a style flexible enough to stand somewhere between animation and illustration like Bruce Timm or Cliff Chiang. Like Frank Frazetta, I simply “maintain my freedom as an artist” as he did. If I do push towards realistic portraits, I should look closer at renaissance art or Frank Frazetta’s paintings or Durer’s lining. I hope my efforts were sufficient for this semester and my animation and illustration techniques helped.