Wednesday, July 26, 2006

FIGURE DRAWING WEEK 5

Last night was the 5th week of the open figure lab at DCAD and it was a packed house, maybe a dozen or more folks sketching away along with Echo and me, many former students of mine along with the Dean as well.

I was trying to be a bit looser, just loosen up, but I was only 1/5 successful I think. I like bits and pieces of these yet I am mostly still frustrated but the only way to get where I want though is to go every week.






10 comments:

Kelly said...

I don't quite understand what you mean by "loosen up". The way DCAD has been teaching the fine arts students to draw is to do it as though they are painting or "to draw like a painter". I guess that's why I like the figure drawings that you, Echo, Jamar and your friend Scott do. To me, those are loose and not nearly as uptight as what I've been taught to do. You have a far better understanding of the figure itself, whereas I mostly see shapes of light and dark and space. There's a lot of freedom and motion to what you guys do. You'll have to explain to me sometime just what it is you're striving for here.

Mike Manley said...

Hmm, well the phrase "draw like a painter" is really about as broad and open to interpitatation as can be. Which painter? Rembrant, Michaelangelo? Hobine? Van gogh? I mean that is so broad as to be worthless to me, and for a student i would think confucing. All good painting of the figure is grounded in solid knowledge and darftsmanship, which most first and second year students lack, especially anatomy. Are we talking implied edges instead of conture line drawings? Even an edge in tone is an 'implied line", a pretty hard concept for most beginning students I know. they struggle to just get the figure all on the paper

Drawing is drawing, painting is painting, the whole process is different, especially for the beginner. I guess I am striving to just be better overall and more consistent, really develope myself away from the context of my commercial work.

Andy J Smith illustration said...

Rock on! This may actually motivate me to do more figure drawing! Remembering to post it is a whole 'nother story! Anyway, great stuff again! Cool to see variety of paper and mediums too!

Kelly said...

Yeah, the term does seem a bit ambiguous, but I understood it as meaning that I should approach a drawing in the same manner which I approach a painting--DCAD style, anyway. One instructor didn't like any kind of sketching in before laying down paint and the other did (I'm okay with both). Most of the drawing instructors didn't like lines (or rather, contour lines) showing--mostly shapes of light and dark, negative shapes, a sense of depth, etc, that when put together make a whole. Can't be much of a draftsman without lines though, can ya. I'm finding this all very interesting. We'll have to talk in depth about it sometime. Perhaps I'll stumble across some solutions to some of the problems I've been having. :)

Mike Manley said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Echo Shi Volla said...

...Can I say something? I'm going to bed, good night:)

Mike Manley said...

Kelly, I am well aware of that theory, that approach, and it is good for the more experienced or talented artist, but I think it leads to bad sloppy habits, and shitty art where "feelings" that place over skill, real knowledge. I see it on the walls, in the work. It either works or it doesn't.

I think it sets up most people to fail more and to instill fakery, and weakness over hard earned, learned skill. it takes hundreds and hundreds of drawings to get good...the principles you noted can best be employed if the artist knows HOW and WHY they are using them. like practicing the cords on a guitar, learn them then you can play jazz.

I'd be all odschool with the shit at first, then when the weights come off people can fly. You can see that in the difference between what the animators did and the illustrators did last semester. For the first severeal years I think it's drill, drill, drill, then you can be all "jazzy". All the best artist went through this process, you just can't escape it.

I'd love to talk more about what you are going through, your process and where you'd like to be. I could really see you progressing last year! For me it boils down to confidence, or confidence in ones skills and knowledge so that even when i am faced with a problem artistically, a question, I can have confidence when facing the blank canvas or page that while I may not see the answer appear, I CAN find it. I want to tackle it straight on, not try and hide it, shy away from it.

I still remember that kid sitting for weeks in the hallway last semester for his drawing assignment in fine art and not drawing or unable to draw anything--BULLSHIT! That is weak-assed science sister! :-)

Kelly said...

Ah, sounds like a rebellion is in the works! I hate to beat a dead horse here, but....
I get what you're saying. We've discussed much of this before and I couldn't agree with you more. Now if we can only get them to stop having us draw huge piles of crap for the sake of drawing huge piles of crap, I'd be able to survive another drawing class. "Stuff" I can draw. Given enough time, I can even get it to photorealism, but where's the good in that? Drawing classes that are devoted to ONLY the figure and ONLY landscapes and such for the fine arts majors--now there's a thought! All of the crazy skipping around from one thing to another, without any consideration for a long term kind of process or goal is mind numbing. It's just, "Draw this" then, "Draw that" and "Here's a new tool to use for drawing vast a pile of shit". There were some true gems in there--really great tips--but without a process, they just get left behind when the next out-of-sync subject comes up. It got so bad, that for the last class I had, I was so frustrated by the sheer boredom by what I was doing (three weeks of drawing one of those vast piles of shit), that I wanted to scream--truly SCREAM--or just bolt out of the room crying hysterically. I got to the point where you couldn't have made me hate drawing any more if you'd tried. Sad thing is, I still love the smell of a fresh box of pencils.

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