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Talbot's Traditional Art Dump - NSFW

Hey guys,

In January I transferred to art school in LA. The basic structure of the 4 years is that the first year is all traditional art. After that you move into your major. Since I started in January, I needed to take classes this summer in order to catch up. In 2 weeks I will have finished my first year of classes.

When I started in January I was not great at drawing. I feel very confident in my skills now. I'm not some amazing drawing master... but I think you will agree that I have made a ton of progress. I would like to share this with you guys. Maybe this wil even motivate those of you who are hesitant about drawing, to just go out and by a sketchbook.

Lets start with my life drawing class in January. This was the first life drawing class I had ever been in. My previous knowledge of drawing people was just a really bad portrait of myself in my high school art class. Note though that the first day we were just doing gestures. That was my first attempt at a gesture. Then the drawing on the left was working more towards a long pose.

IMG_1089%20copy.jpg

Something to note is that my college does life drawing a little bit differently than anywhere else. They really want to drill in the structure of the body into the long poses. So the workflow is something like this:

Gesture > Skeletal Landmarks > Volume > Muscles > Outer Contours
(Throughout the entire process we are measuring and checking proportions.)

Here is one of my final drawings of the first semester.

finalfirst.jpg

During the first semester our long poses are done on a 18" x 24" piece of paper. At the start of the second semester, we start working larger. I don't know the exact dimensions but it is roughly like 36"x58"?? maybe. haha. But in the last two weeks another student and I have moved on to 6' tall drawings.

This is my first 6' tall drawing. 2 weeks ago.

IMG_3023.jpg

Now lets move away from life drawing and go to my Drawing and Composition class. For the first semester this class is just black and white. Then in the second semester we start using dry pastel for color. Since I don't want to overload this thread with pictures, I'm just going to post 2 drawings from this summer.

This first is a still life. Roughly 3' tall.

DSC_0418.jpg

Yesterday we went to Marina Del Rey and did a drawing there. We have been going to a lot of cool places the last couple weeks but this is my favorite by far.

marina.jpg

Note that the paper isn't flat. So there is some distortion.

Okay so that is about it for now. I may be adding more in the next two weeks but I don't know yet.

Thanks for viewing!

Replies

  • r_fletch_r
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    r_fletch_r polycounter lvl 9
    Life drawing looks nice, although it looks a like your 'Primitives' are taking over. You should probably spend more of your marks on observed detail rather than preconceived formulae. Spheres and cylinders may be ok for working out perspective but True observational drawing will always be better.

    I found laying down broad tonal blocks and observing negative shapes was a good way of ditching the drawing formulas and getting down to observation. Those formulas should be more in your mind than on the paper.

    Or at-least this is how I was taught :).
  • Talbot
    Yeah I completely understand what you are saying. I've gotten a lot better at gestures from that first day... we do them 3 hours every class but I'm going to start practicing outside of class.
  • Talbot
    So for my final drawing of the semester I decided to take that shot of marina del rey and redo it. This time in a panorama format. This clocks in at about 5' wide. Enjoy!

    DSC_0779small.jpg
  • Razgriz
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    Razgriz keyframe
    I came from a similar background. I started art school having not drawn a day in my life, determined to do 3d as a career - and it was frustrating, difficult, and challenging, but after a year I felt pretty confident in my traditional skills. And, you might have heard this from teachers, but being such a newbie at drawing means you don't bring any bad habits to the table.

    You've got some skill, a long way to come in a year - good job. Keep it up!
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