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Made a new model. It’s rough and still need lots of work. I modeled it off a life drawing from Fridays class. It’s not exactly like the drawing - I let my imagination take over towards the end. I atttempted a walk cycled. I messed it up. It’s certainly something I need to pratice more.

For the lighting I used emited lights. These

Friday went well. Russel was the model again. I wasn’t happy with the works I drew on Monday - just wasn’t in a good space. Friday was much better!

My surface to work on was large. I turned a fold up table on its side and used it as a backing board! I had pre-cut most of the paper so the size isn’t larger that I’m working on - though I was able to fit more figures along the page. Wish I had taken photos! I’m planning on doing it again (maybe even on Monday if there is room) so will be able to upload photos of the setup. People were impressed!

Here’s the drawings from the day. All completed with 4b pencil and colored pencils:

Gestural, warm ups. I’ve been exploring turning the figure into shapes in order to capture the complete model quickly. Enjoyable. The pencil has been nice to use - I spent so much time with colored pencil, the detail and feel of pencil is different… strange really.

This was a final pose of the day. I had asked if we could do a series of poses. Each pose was two minutes - and I’d get the model to spin around on the spot - holding the same pose. This allows me to capture the front, side and back. Russel misunderstood this and choose a new ‘action’ pose each spin. I really love this one though - maybe I’ll have to ask other models to redo this pose. Bringing a gun (toy of course) to class could work well. The word for this pose was dance. Again - I could see this working well for a spinning pose. All it really needs is better lighting so I can capture the lights and darks quickly. Flat lighting is hard.  

With this Russel held the same pose in each turn. Can totally tell that he’s turning around. I’ll take this into Blender/3d and model it out. Wish it had color! 

Gestural works. Lots of experimenting with scale. I think I spent an hour working on the same paper so build up a large amount of figures on the same page. I’d like to work with more of those two min poses - collecting a large amount of model rotation poses. All on the same page would be impressive. 

Color. Different. Using green as a line 

Longer poses. I wasn’t happy with this pose - back poses like this always give me very little to work with. I had a go with my white charcoal - something I havn’t used since the beginning of last term

Another longer pose. I’m not sure if this is working - it seems broken and incomplete. Another turning model pose. Again I’ll take this into Blender and model it out. I had time to capture some light in the pose but would like to have a better lighting setup so I didn’t struggle so much. 

I quite like how this came out. Exploring perspective with both feet - especially the one that’s close! Dan talked about the negative spare - mentioning how some of the lines are working and some seem off. 

This is tidyer. I like tidy. Even though my bedroom is a total mess. I like clarity in my life drawing. The left foot is working well - got positive comments from Megan and Dan about this. The middle portrait is my favorite portrait of the day. Dan mentioned - It’s very Russel. The shading technique - straight lines is new for me and I’ll explore it further. An exercise Dan got some of the class to do was straight lines. I was impressed by several works in the class. Including Megans - who was using promarkers to draw. I’ve used promarkers once for life drawing and struggled. It could be good for me to give them ago again - pencil dominates so much of my work. It was good I used oil pastel for Christenas block class at the end of

An last - the final of gestural works. These are mostly done with my right hand (I’m normally left handed). These other hand works are working better then normal. So simple but creates a effective line. Maybe I’ll work like this further. COLOR. RAWR,

Just leaving IOGraph to do its thing. Some impressive and interesting works. Need to experiment with it in GIMP - colors… layers… would like to take these further into 3d…. textures.

Once the sun is out I’ll take photos of life drawing from Friday and write a post. Plenty to say. More life drawing Monday… then for the rest of the week I’ll work on creating models and textures within Blender. Should do some Java as well.

This week I’ve spent learning Java. It’s been fun and I feel I’ve made real progress with it. Aimed for at least 6 hours of it every day. I got to a point where I needed a break. I needed to do something creative. Not that Java isn’t creative, just need to get my visual art fix in.

I decided to get stuck back into Blender. I havn’t done anything in Blender for about 2 weeks and it was wonderful to get back into it.

Started a new project in it (I feel bad constintly starting new projects on it. But it’s all just a learning experience.

I want to take my life drawings into Blender and model and texture them. 

I took this into blender - splitting it into two image files and using it as reference on two planes.

This is the setup I used. Reference is very important - otherwise I just sit in Blender mucking around - and not get anything done. Using my own life drawings means I’m creating truly original models as well - no stock photos!

This is what I modeled. I tried to apply two legs to the figure but it just wasn’t looking correct - so kept with just a single leg. Guess the character can HOP along! Quick skeleton is applied as well - I feel more confident completing these models now.

To mix things up and learn something new I decied to not use lights but instead light with these three cubes. This tuturial was helpful to learn this technique:

I’d like to experiment with these effect further - maybe creating a texture on a surface then turn it into a light - could give some interesting effects. YEAH, LIGHT!

I’m not going to bother with a video for this - I’ve only rendered four seconds of animation. I’ll work on this further and upload when I have closer to thirty seconds of footage.

It had been a week since I’d been into TLC. Today was Dans life drawing class. The model was Russel. The class wasn’t partially full, a decent amount of people but still enough room to move about without bumping shoulders.

I used colored pencil for the majority of the day, with a small amount of 4b pencil in the afternoon.

Here’s the work

These are the warmups. All are around 20 seconds. I’m rather happy with these. It wasn’t my most successful life drawing day but I feel I started well and ended on a good note.

Fifteen minutes were spent working on these quick works - so able to get plenty of figures down. And If it’s not the best pose - Don’t have to wait long till it changes!

The left side of the page. Photo was taken close up in order to get a decent view of the art. Lots of line!

Series of three poses in the morning. These were 10 mins each I believe. The right is my favorite., it’s got the most going for it. Others commented about it as well including Dan, Leah, and Rachel.

Turning the model into ‘basic’ shapes. A new way I’m looking at the model - this will make it easy to take the figure into blender.

Afternoon scribble. 4b pencil was used. Some tone used in the arm and such - line has been a focus in my work.  Here I’m looking at the same pose from multipy angles in order to try to understand the 3d form better.

I said to Dan that I’ll like to paint on Friday. I havn’t painted for a long time, I strugged drawing for 6 hours today and I’d like to relax with paint for the day on Friday.

I’ll work on different angled figure poses in the Monday class and paint on Fridays.

I’ve been using a program called IOGraph. It runs in the background of the computer and records mouse movements - to create abstract artwork. I’m very interesting in this idea of letting the computer ‘create’ artwork and I’ve liked the several works made already.

Here they are. 

1.2 hours of mouse movement in the early hours of the morning.

3.3 hours. As you can see far more activity on the left side of the page. The black circles are clicks.

An hour. Guess whos using stumble upon lots?

I’d like to see this program developed to create color, and be affected by keyboard movements. Still, fun program. I’ll aim to keep it running and make regular updates of artwork created. Go download and have a go yourself!

The week of Vincents of life drawing is over. I won’t make it next week due to having plently of  life drawing classes at TLC to attend. My flatmate Kunal attended Vincents with me this week. It was the 2nd time he had done life drawing.

Had Lee for a model. I think it was the first time she had modeled for Vincents - her confidence levels seemed low compared to drawing her at TLC. But still, I enjoyed drawing her.

I worked from a sketch pad 16cm by 16cm. Sennellier. The paper had a slight texture and off white look. It holds pencil pigment nicely.

Two minute poses. These are all standing - many very similar. Fine though. I started color in one drawing, but two mintues isn’t long to capture much tone.

Leg studies. Focus like always is looking for those lights in darks in order to show the shape of the model. I quite like these. Decent for 5 min drawings.

A portrait. It’s always a good idea to work on a portrait regularly to keep those skills up :D

I’ve been enjoying this simple color scheme. Yellow for light, red for dark, and blue for negative space.

Normally on a Thursday Vincents has one forty minute pose. People wanted two twenty like Tuesdays - so it was decided. Two twentys.

I spent ten mins drawing the model in this and the rest of the time working with the background and such. Great to do when you lose interest in the pose.

Thanks Lee for the wonderful modeling. And Kunal for coming along

Drawings from Vincents. I went in with a a3 visual diary and pencil. And, colored pencils. Stuck with primary - yellow, red, and two blues. The yellow and red was used mostly on the model - yellow for light, red for darks. Blue for the negative space.

I hadn’t been since some point last term. It was great to see people - Phillip was there who I hadnt seen since some point last year. Freeman White also made it.

I had drawn the model before - can’t remember her name. She has a similar look to Helena Bonham Carter. Always enjoy drawing her.

These are five two minute poses. Kept with HB pencil and strong straight lines. Black colored pencil would of worked well and stood out better.

I feel I had a stronger knowledge of the 3d form after the time spent working with Blender.

The 5 min poses. Color added to the figure - yellow and red. Blue is used for negative areas. This allows for clear contrast. I started with drawing a nipple and working out from there. Helps with getting everything looking right. I guess that’s why I find drawing females easier - boobs are great reference for measuring, guys - the information isn’t there. Though guys do have some advantages - like facial hair!

All these were similar standing poses. Standing is one of my favourite as it gives me a great view of the overall model.

Onto 10 mins…

I switched colors. Gave Phillip several of my colored pencils to experiment with. He normally works just with pencil. I can’t do that - color is important for me. Especially in longer poses. Grey was used in several of these works.

In the middle pose the model posed by lying back on the chair. This causes an interesting shape - partially with creating a flat look in the breasts. Basically looking from beneath.

Final 20 mins. I’m especially happy with these and feel I’ve managed to capture the model well.

Has my life drawing improved during the break? I’d like to think so. I’ll likely make it to Vincents again tomorrow. Unlikely to attend next weeks as TLC has life drawing on Monday and Friday.

YAY life drawing.

Ok. So I went Vincents life drawing. It had been awhile. Successful night, This post isn’t about life drawing though, blender update.

I’ve been a bit less motivated these past days to produce much. Tired and feeling generally down doesn’t help. The life drawing at Vincents was a boost. I plan to transfer this energy to Mondays class next week.

I made a car thing in Maya. It isnt much but better then what I did with my time at UCOL. There are also several angles of a walk cycle.

I’d like to do more cell animation. A weekly walk cycle could be a good challenge. Planning and ideas is needed for future Blender projects.