Last Week of Draped Figure

Here are some drawings from Wednesday and Thursday at Karl Gnass's class

Karl Gnass - Wednesday/Thursday

This is a mix of drawings between Wednesday and Thursday night with Karl. My MTV movie was over and I actually was able to be in class the full amount of time.

I struggled a lot with this hat and the collar of this dress.

Getting the shape of this umbrella was something I struggled with.

I enjoyed this pose. Here I used prismacolor pencil. I am trying to use a lot of different media in the class.

Here a added the dog and the brown box a sort of hommage to Mark McDonnell.

The proportions are wrong oon this drawing but I still like it for some reason.

I feel like there is good movement in this drawing and the white and black seem to be working on the brown paper.

This was my favorite pose of the week I think it would make a great painting.

Drawing the Draped Figure - Wednesday

I feel like I've lost a few steps with my drawing. I have been so tired by the time I get to this Draped Figure Class I don't even know what I really have inside of me. But maybe it will change this week when I don't have to work on the MTV movie anymore. Sometimes I wonder why I bother learning how to draw the figure. I feel like maybe I should just do feel good more abstract works.
I know I'm adding more faces which I think is an improvement. I know I have to work on shoes they just confuse the hell out of me.

I like the movement in this drawing although the head seems to small and the right breast is not right.

I think this drawing is somewhat successful.

This is one of my better drawings of the evening. I need to work on the feet/shoes and I also wish the coat lying over her leg and more weight to it.

This one I'm basically happy with although the bottom of the left leg is off. The front should be a straight to play against the curve of the calf.

Draped Figure - Class 4

On Wednesday I got to class an hour and a half late and I missed the lesson about the suit. I never felt comfortable drawing. I also missed Thursday because of the SDSA meeting. I'm not getting to this draped figure class as much as I thought I would. I never thought I would be working right now that's why I signed up for it. I did hear Karl say "give up some characteristics of the folds for the sense of character . . . the garment should speak clearly and be part of the story."

Draped Figure - Class 3

I liked how the drawings came out last Thursday night. I missed Wednesday because I had to work. It's so hard to balance art and work. I'm on a MTV movie and I have to be on set a lot.
I was imaging the model as the eagle woman character in the Hymn of the Pearl.

I spilled my ink here but I still like the drawing.

This one a imagined the model as coming home from a really bad date. I used Mark McDonald's vignette trick.

I was thinking here how Mark always said but the ground plane in. These are all 8 minute poses.

Draped Figure - Class 1

These are the drawings I like from the first draped figure class. I am having a hard time getting things up on the blog in a timely fashion.
I realize I really still have no ideas how to make believable shoes. I think I've gotten better at hats.

I have forgotten a lot about legs and knees - I need to go back to my notes from Kevin's class.

Sometimes I'm losing my proportions.

Drawing the Draped Figure - Class 2

Gladiator Workshop - Karl Gnass - "Try Something that Turns Your Fork into Chopsticks"

Linda and I went to Karl Gnass's Gladiator workshop again this year. I can't believe a whole year has passed. I felt like he talked about different things this year the last year. I will have to check my notes maybe I just didn't remember what he said last year.

This is a work sheet he handed out in class. He really stressed drawing the two figures as one. Not doing them as cookies on a sheet.


Here are my notes:

Drawing 2 figures doesn't mean they are separate. You need to think about them as if they are one. Don't Figure one figure out and then the next - they need to integrate. Integratre lines of action. Integrate lone lines of expression. You need to draw energy. You need to figure out what the story is.

Relationship! Feeling! Synergy! Think about the point counterpoint. Ask yourself what the story is. Axis. Revolving. Ask yourself what is going on.

What is your point of view? What is the mood? What is the style?

We don't want decals. What are these gladiators telling me? What do they want to express?

Don't get lost in the buckles and rivets. If you start figure out the buckles and rivets too soon you are lost. Indicate the story elements. Because without the story we miss the boat. You need a good concise story. Try not to be subtroverted too fast. Think about composition. Break apart you habitual procedures. Try something that turns your fork into chopsticks!

Think : up-down, left-right, forward-back. If one head is tipped toward maybe the other is tipped away. Remember to create out of your head and not to rely totally on the model. Open up your imagination. Need to know the two figures are responding to each others' moves. You are not obliged to repeat what you see.

Remember a battle is more about strategy than swords clanking.

Remember to take care of the ground plane and really decide where the legs are going to be.

Don't get lost in swords and rivets - but remember hands and feet can be very important. Draw what they are wearing as it relates on figure to another.

Simple Shapes. Simple ideas. Rendering is not the story. Grapple with long lines and how they relate to each other.

Think of Cezanne as he considered the whole picture. He did not just place objects.

Everything is related to the frame. A cookie sheet is more interesting if one cookie has a bite taken out of it.

In Western Art we enter the frame from the lower left. Large against small is another strategy. One is responsible for every square inch in a picture not just the subject.

There is music in the visual experience. Nothing is accidental. Every mark has a reason. Finally, it is about orchestrating a whole movement. Once you put your figures in a frame every quadrant is important. Good design is important - but good design doesn't necessarily tell a story. Good design strikes the eye. Good design doesn't mean there is a pay off.

A picture wants a graphic sense and a pay off. The impressionists did that.

In a picture with borders every quadrant is important so every shape is important. Shape, Color and Intensity all play a role in pcitures. Shapes have angle of force. Every mark you put down effects in some way.

Every mark is a player.