Figure Quick Sketch: Week 6 of Vilppu’s Drawing Class
March 8, 2010
This class we explored a useful method of proportion when drawing the figure and also drawing using tilts, angles, and measurement (similar to academic sight-size method of drawing).
Above are 3 minute warm-up sketches.
These are 10 minute drawings using straight lines and ‘drawing by seeing flat’. Up until this point, Vilppu’s class has always stressed the importance of thinking 3 dimensionally. Today the focus was on drawing negative shapes, considering the angles of lines, and measuring using head widths instead of head lengths.
This was the last pose of the day, an hour and a half long. Our model was Mike Lynch. These drawings were all done with ball-point pen on paper.
Above and below are some old master drawings using head width as a measuring device for proportions when drawing the figure.
Nepalese Landscape Painting: Golden Fields
March 4, 2010
Golden Fields
8″ x 10″
oil and tempera on panel
I happened upon this place near a village just outside of Kathmandu. This woman was walking through these vast, golden fields with the Himalayan foothills in the distance.
Old Master Copy: Raphael Drawing
February 23, 2010
Raphael is one of my favorite old master draughtsmen. His drawings have a dynamic delicacy that is alluring. Below is my copy of one of Raphael’s male nude studies.
After Raphael
8″ x 5″
ball-point pen on paper
Figure Quick Sketch: Week 5 of Vilppu’s Drawing Class
February 19, 2010
This week we focused on the use of cylinders in figure drawing. It is essential to be able to draw a cylinder in perspective from all angles. Then one can easily use the cylinder to quickly place arms, legs, and the neck in space.
These drawings were done with a ball-point pen and a watercolor wash. If you have problems drawing the figure from imagination, Vilppu suggests taking the pose yourself. That way you can feel which areas are carrying the weight, any twists, and sides that are being squashed or stretched.
Vilppu also suggests to constantly practice drawing the figure from imagination. Using your figure drawings as a reference point, draw either another view of the same pose, or the next action that the model would take in a series of movements.
Urban Sketching: Downtown L.A. and the L.A. Arboretum
February 16, 2010
Here are a few sketches from this weekend. I used a ball-point pen and watercolors.
This first one is an old house from the 1800’s next to this little pond at the L.A. Arboretum.
3″ x 4″
The next one was done across the street from the central library downtown. There is a long stairway with a waterfall running down the middle and this tree they were cutting down with chainsaws.
8″ x 5″
This last sketch was done from our apartment window downtown. We have a nice view of the skyline. Here you can see the newly built Ritz-Carlton, the Sheraton building, the One Wilshire building, and in the foreground the Biltmore Hotel.
4″ x 3″
Oil Painting Portrait Color Study: Timothy
February 13, 2010
Timothy
8″ x 10″
oil on panel
Here is a quick 2 hour color study done at an uninstructed workshop in Hollywood. I’ve toned the panel a dark grey and used the Zorn palette of cadmium red light, yellow ochre and ivory black. I’m quite fond of this limited palette and it is the one I use most often when painting portraits.
Figure Quick Sketch: Week 4 of Vilppu’s Drawing Class
February 11, 2010
This week in Vilppu’s class, we employed the sphere and box to shorthand the ribcage and pelvis forms. This is useful in figure drawing since the ribcage is fairly spherical and the pelvis is box-like in its landmarks. With our particular model, who was quite stout and rectangular with broad shoulders, I think drawing the box form for his entire torso could also be used in making sense of the forms.
Nude Female Figure Drawing at Studio D
February 8, 2010
Liz Mohr
14″ x 11″
graphite on paper
I drew this during a five-hour pose at the weekly drawing group at Studio D. I particularly like how there are triangular shapes repeated throughout the pose.
Figure Quick Sketch: Week 3 of Vilppu’s Drawing Class
February 7, 2010
Drawing box forms for the parts of the figure was the focus of this week’s class with Vilppu at the American Animation Institute. Old masters such as Luca Cambiaso used the box forms in beginning stages while planning his compositions. I’ve found this useful in clarifying the front, back, and side planes of any part of the body drawn.
This image above is an amazingly dynamic composition by Luca Cambiaso. Below are my sketches, which are mostly 10 minute poses.
NYC Subway Sketches: Drawing Faces
February 3, 2010
Here are more urban sketches of people’s faces on the subway in NYC. They are from my most recent visit there, and I’ve just gotten around to posting them. Drawing on the subway was a nice way for me to feel ‘connected’ to fellow passengers, and a productive way to while away the hours on my commute to and from Grand Central Academy of Art. I used a variety of Micron, Faber Castell, and Prismacolor permanent ink pens. I especially like the super fine point styles which allow for more detail on tiny 1″ head drawings.
