"Hurley Begins"

[Justin.]

Welcome to the world of pain!

This thread will test your art dedication limits, and will require your own preserverance and effort, which I have determined you are ready and willing to accept. This is more than just an "activity", this is a responsibility, and as such I expect it to be treated like one. I will be giving grades and (try to learn excel so I can) keep gradesheets, along with critique and general lecture assignments.



I want you to do 3 Self portraits. Read the following, and DO THEM IN ORDER!!
Self-Portrait#1: Shadows GRADE: A
For this exercise, I want you to sit in a dark room with 1 lightsource, make sure you are not near any walls or light colored objects that will reflect onto your skin. It doesn't matter how you place the light. Once you have it in a secure position, I want you to draw only the lines between shadow and light. You can do construction lines, but don't draw the outline of the head dark or boldly.

The point of this exercise is for you to observe the form of your face. The dips and bumps and curves. It isn't about knowing YOUR FACE, it's about being able to read form well. Unless you feel like drawing sharpie lines down your face, this is a pretty good way to practice seeing form. Do not shade the areas in shadow, I want only a line drawing.

Self-Portrait#2: Blind Contour GRADE: A*
If you have ever had an art class, chances are you know what this is. However, read on. Most art teachers have learned the technique itself from their teachers or other good or accomplished artists. HERE IS THE PROBLEM: So often, the purpose behind this exercise is implied that you want to draw your face as accurately as possible without looking at the paper. THIS IS FALSE! It does VERY little to help you get better at ANYTHING art related. In fact it doesn't even help hand-eye coordination as much as you think.
The REAL purpose of this activity is to help you concentrate and focus on seeing form and planes and their movement. Do NOT FOCUS ON YOUR HAND! That is not the point. ALL of your energy should be put toward your eyes; just keep your hand on the paper. You can do this in any lighting situation;
Here is the catch: I want you to MOVE YOUR HEAD slowly while drawing. Remember, it ISN'T ABOUT YOUR HAND, it ISN'T ABOUT HOW THE DRAWING LOOKS! This is a practice for your BRAIN, not your eyes!!! Remember, focus on FORM! Break the face into imaginary planes and draw along the creases of those planes. If you did it properly, you should end up with a large mass of lines, and that's it. Also, DO NOT PICK UP YOUR HAND WHILE DOING THIS EXERCISE!!

Self-Portrait#3: Rendered GRADE:B
This one is going to be tricky; It's a basic self portrait. However, I want you to do this; Spend ONE HOUR drawing ONLY the lines, and make sure they are accurate. SPEND 1 HOUR, there is always something to correct. Do not say "good enough!" Spend an HOUR! After that First hour, I want you to scan it and post it up. The next 20-30 minutes, I want you to draw the lines of where the most shadow and the most light meet, alot like #1. Remember to follow the forms! Then, after that, I want you to draw lines between the mid-shadows and the dark shadows, and the mid-lights and the highlights. Draw these lines lightly. THEN, I want you to shade each area FLATLY! When you are done, you should have 4 Very even values. Dark, Medium Dark, Mid-gray, and light gray. Do not leave the eyes out either! I want them rendered as well. This will get you started on value.

BONUS ASSIGNMENT:COMPLETE
Go get The Complete guide to Drawing from Life, by George Bridgeman. The paper back costs 17 bucks and it's a HUGE book and will serve you for years to come. Post in this thread once you get the book.

BONUS ASSIGNMENT 2:COMPLETE
Complete 3 pages of the bridgman book to go along with assignment number 3!!

__________________________________________________ _____________

[Hurley]

Hey Justin :) Thanks again for taking me on, very excited about the whole project.

I completed assignment #1 and #2 today, and of course you know I have the Bonus Assignment completed.

Number one, I felt was very different, I have never done something like this before. Looking back now, I may have done it wrong, as I lined in halftones also.

Number two, well, I have never actualy tryed a contour, so here is my first attempt!

As for the introduction, I accept that this will require work and effort, and I greatly appreciate your time, and if there is anything that you call upon me I am definatly willing to help you out :)
As for Excel, I have the basics for the program and would be happy to draw up a sheet of grades, and if your other student(s) need any I'l gladly do them for them.

Thanks,

[Justin.]

ASSIGNMENT 1: GRADE: A

This is great! You really were looking at the forms. There are tons of miniscule bumps in your lines where you were observing dips and bulges, you really nailed this exercise.

ASSIGNMENT 2: GRADE: B

I shouldn't really give you a 'B', it's a great first effort- however, I am giving you the chance to push it up to an A if you do another one. Loosen up! Make sure your pencil keeps moving. There are very few lines in this, like you tried to only draw something once. Don't be afraid to make a mark going ALL the way across the face! I can see the good parts; the nostril covers, the ear and neck, and the forehead all read really well, which is how it should be. Just go totally wild with your hand, don't restrict it. Just wherever your eyes go, make the pencil go. This isn't a clean exercise, your drawing is a scribble, so drawing all the way across it can't hurt. I think this is also a good exercise in confidence.

Don't let your hand stand still!!

For the next update, when you post Assignment 3, I also want to see 3 pages out of the bridgman book, preferrably from the beginning. Make sure you read it as well as draw from it! This will be Bonus Assignment 2!! Hop to it!!!

[Hurley]

Hey,

Assignment #1, great !

Assignment #2, thanks for giving me another shot! I'l definatly put your comments into practise, and loosen up.

Assignment #3: Here is the line drawing for 1 hour that I am to post up. I'l tackle the rest of the assignment.
Also, I'l complete the bonus assignment. In my sketchbook you can see about 12 pages of bridgman starting from the start, but of course I can do them again.

I will be away for the weekend, so I will take the assignments and hopefully have them scanned up on Sunday night.

Edit: Assignment #2 is attached.

[Justin.]

Take a look at this;

flipped horizontally, it's easier to see that the jaw area is a bit skewed. It should be a very easy fix! Also, your eyes are crossed :D

Do 3 more pages of it then! =)

Can't wait for the next update!

The new Assignment 2 is wonderful. A

[Hurley]

Hello!

Ok, heres assignment #3 completed. I read your comment before shading in the line drawing, and I realy thought I had that jaw fixed! But, after scanning the final in I realised it wasnt... I actualy spotted the mistake in the line drawing, but decided I wouldn't go ahead and fix it in PS as that would be cheating! So here I have attached the final and one that I transformed abit.
I didn't actualy spot the crossed eyes, so I hope thats fixed.

I'l also download ArtRage now as you asked :)

Thanks,

Hurley

[Justin.]

Alrighty, the main reason for these exercises was as a diagnostic, so I could see about where you were. The grade on the most recent one is B. I know giving A's is encouraging and all, and it isn't about effort, but I want to see how absolutely magnificently far you will push yourself to get that A. The reason I gave it a B was because it lacks the same quality of forms as shown in your Shadow SP. using flat values doesn't mean a flat form... see the examples below. Using Photoshops CutOut filter, you can simplify areas of value. Using very simple edges, and only a few values, you can still see all the forms and lines in his face. Alot of the areas you chose for the darkest shadow don't seem, judging by the lighting, that they would be the darkest shadow. Using values effectively is all about relativity. A great painting can have no absolute blacks and no absolute whites- Once can use values together to make middle-grays seem like super-dark grays, and light grays to be super-bright. Once color comes into play, the world just gets that much bigger. But we won't get into that now.

If you haven't already, read all of this;
http://www.itchstudios.com/psg/art_tut.htm





Contour Training 1:
For the next assignment, I want at least 5 contour drawings from life, 1 still life object that has at least 2 hours minimum spent on it, and 10 contour drawings of your hand pointing directly at your face, maybe with one finger, 2 fingers or some kind of symbol- but at least 2 fingers need to aimed right at your eye so that they are hard to draw. You can do fists or wide open hands or whatever, so long as it's pointing at your face (you can also do this exercise with a mirror). I also want you to include as much of the arm connected to it as you can. Drawing the wrist attached to the hand helps immensely. Learn the extremes of your hand, so you know how far it bends in each direction etc.

[Hurley]

Hi,

Don't worry about giving me anything lower than a A man, I was thinking myself that I would much prefer for you to be as critical as possible. I understand now why I didn't get the A, which is the important thing. I can see in the cut-out filtered picture what you mean, yes. Thanks for explaining.

Heres bonus assignment #2, 3 pages of Bridgman. The last is the very start of Bridgmans guide on heads, which I will continue along with the figure.

As for the contour trainting, great :) I'l get started on the still life also.

Edit: Also, artrage is downloaded, and I read the link you sent me. I have seen it before but never read it all, great read.

Edit 2: I also have a quick question. When I'm scanning pencils should I scan in colour ( on the 48 setting? ) or black and white or grayscale? Because these studies scanned awfully.

[Justin.]

My recommendation about scanning is to go with black and white. Either way I don't think will matter, it's just the effect of having direct light on the paper. You see more tooth and less value.

I can tell you are getting a feel for the bridgman drawings; Make sure as you draw, you are looking at each line and understanding what it is representative of, and why it describes the form so well. one important part of drawing is understanding why you are doing something. You can draw a bump because it's there, but if you don't KNOW that it's the ribcage sticking out, then you won't know to draw it there later! right?

Can't wait to see those contours!

[Hurley]

Hello :)

I'm very sorry for the inactivity, so much work at the moment between musicals/shows and what not.

I understand what you mean with the studies, which I think I do need to pay more attention to definatly, as whenever I try to draw a figure from imagination I realy can't at the moment.

I have some of the contours done, but I havn't them scanned.
Here is the still life. I realy should have picked a more interesting thing to draw, and this is only an hour and a half, at the time I realy couldnt think of how to push it further. The values are a small bit better on the pear also in the real version.

-Thanks,

Edit: Looking at it now the values are actualy alot better, theres definatly not this much contrast..
Slán

[Justin.]

Do not worry about how active you are or not. It is unfair to demand a strict schedule. As long as you do the assignments and report back within a reasonable amount of time, I am proud. Where some of the other classes had to be shut down due to inactivity, it makes me happy that you are dedicated to this, and it's a positive feedback loop. The more often you respond, the more often I will give feedback and set up new assignments!

Also; any subject- ANY SUBJECT can be boring or exciting- the difference is the lighting. Try to find a dark room and use a lamp. just a corner of a desk or anything will work. This way you know exactly where the light hits directly, and what exactly it is bouncing off of. Using windows as light sources is slightly more advanced as there is tons of light flying everywhere all over the picture. Eventually, as an artist grows, they learn to make every lighting format interesting, from overcast sky to flash photography, no matter how flat they will learn to see the form by knowing how light is working on it. You and I will get there one day, all in good time. When it rains, make sure you are looking outside to see how the shadows are set up. In fact, you should be constantly, no matter if you are driving, pooping, getting shot at, you should be constantly observing things such as form and light. Pure observation is a great supplement to drawing, as it requires less effort but will on occasion, yield great results. Just make mental notes; the light here bounces really strongly off of this and effects this. Like, in parking lot at night, you will sometimes see a headlight on the street, but the real lightsource is behind a van. You can judge approx where the car is using that. In fact, I've saved myself from accidents using tricks like these. Observing light is helpful whether you are an artist or not!!

Alrighty; the fun part =)

Would you say that where there is white on your image, from life that spot is perfect white? even if there is just the SLIGHTEST eeny weeny tint to it, it is in fact a step down in value, even just a little, from white. These are VERY good starters, you are definitely heading the right direction. You are thinking about the forms, though hatching across them could use some work.
Here is another

BONUS ASSIGNMENT!!!!:
I want you to draw 4 progressively complex objects, a suggested path would go "Egg" to "Cereal Bowl" to "Mouse" to "Plant" or something else complex. They should be from life. I want you to draw their outline, and then using clearly visible marks, show the rounded form. This is not shading, I simply want you to draw a "wire frame" on each object. The point is to help you observe not only the 3d surface you are seeing, but it's directional flow. You are beginning to see it yourself as your fruit study shows, but there are ways of super-simplifying it, allowing for a faster read, a simpler process, and an overall "cleaner" feel.

I have decided there is a 2nd part to this assignment. You are to fill up 1 sketchbook page completely, that is completely rendered. For examples, check out Wes Burt's stuff, or Daniel C's stuff. You can have different lightsources and unrelated objects, there is no consistent theme necessary, as long as everything is rendered according to a lighting situation. You can use reference if you wish, but it is not required. In fact, doing figures or creatures or scenes from your head is quite encouraged. If you do use reference, I want to see it somehow altered. Either costume or hair or scars or emotion- but do not just do a straight ref drawing! =) GOOD LUCK!

If you need further explanation please feel free to ask!!