GD213 :: Advanced Life Drawing

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• Syllabus


Week 8:
Lecture: "Portraits"
Remember the information on the handout I gave you in drawing the face and practice it so that the information is second nature, doing so will pay off in more ways that you know. Let me know if you have any queestions.

Due this week was a drawing of the anatomy and that you list the body parts that I provided on the sheet. I created this to help you with your anatomy test on the last day. Only two completed the assignment. Remember that you are responsible for completing all work that is assigned. You have one week to turn it in and will be subjected to a 20% penalty, but it is still better than a zero. Get it in.

Due next week: An "Old Skool" drawing / rendering. Show the industry that you can do "Old Skool", and present it as such. With this assignment, I am pretending to be the Art Director of an animation company and I'm requesting to see an example of your formal life drawing skills. Be sure that the work is mounted, that there is a tracing paper cover, and that it has a black cover to protect the entire work.

Sketchbook: A sketchbook of 140 drawings will be due on the final day. They will only count if they represent the process. Good examples of how to do them can be found below in Week 7. This will be 25% of your grade, DO NOT WAIT until the last minute.

What do I mean by "Old Skool"? Draw the form. Draw what's in front of you and compose it on the page. Below is a flyer to a series of classes that teaches it. The drawing is by Anthony Ryder.

Week 7:
Lecture: "Drawing on Location"
Welcome to the club. Drawing on location with your sketchbook is where you actually begin to learn life drawing and is perhaps the most fun. It is with this discipline that you become better. It is the culmination of your skills. When drawing someone at a coffee shop like we did today, the person will inevitably move, which will then force you to draw from your visual memory. This is an important skill in itself and its what will make you a better animator.

Keep those sketchbooks close.

HOMEWORK:
1) Anatomy Review Sheet. Take the anatomy terms and place them on your own anatomy drawing.

2) Turn in your sketchbooks with 90 drawings in them, in the way I showed you today. They only count if they are from life and if they show form and "the turn" in both the torso and head.

3) Another OLD SKOOL Drawing is due in two weeks as we have discussed. HINT: Start one in class during one of the long poses on toned paper. This will insure that you understand what an Old Skool drawing is. Again, show the industry that you understand what OLD SKOOL Master drawing is.



on location sketches by Glenn Vilpuu


Week 6:
Lecture: Master the OLD SKOOL.

HOMEWORK:
1) Portfolio piece due the week after president's day holiday. Show me and the industry that you understand how to draw the figure. Show form by utilizing full value and line. Compose and design it on the page. Mount the work, and include a piece of tracing paper and cover paper to protect it.

2) 20 pen gesture drawings in the way I've showed. I'm looking for the process that we practice in class. You should have 60 at this point.

NO School next week. Bring a sketchbook the following week, we will be drawing on location. Meet in class first.

TIPS 4 YOU:
 Your portfolio piece could be done on toned paper, dark and white charcoal. Build it up slow and imagine that it is a piece of fine jewelry. It is valuable. So much can be learned from one drawing.

The piece below is by Prudhon. A french artist from the OLD SKOOL. Your portfolio piece should look something like this, a command of value and the figure, pure and simple. Leave the expressionist art for later. We are studying how to draw the figure in the classical sense. Please let me know if you have any questions, hang in there, you can do it.

Week 5:
Please refine your presentations. I will show you an example of what I mean in class.

HOMEWORK:
1) Portfolio piece due the week after president's day holiday.

2) 20 pen gesture drawings in the way I've showed. I'm looking for the process that we practice in class. I'm looking to see if you can identify "The turn" in all of these drawings. By the end of this week, you should have 50. I will be checking these drawings the week after president's day, so please do not wait until the last minute.


Week 4: Dates To Be Aware Of ::
I'm glad that all of you are up to the challenge. Keep your eye on the prize and stay hungry.

In looking at your pieces from this afternoon, please strive for reality in your drawings. No cartoony, japanese anime in the class. Do that later, when you get a job in animating in Japan. Get gesture and form down first and then apply that knowledge to your drawings. Some of you, when the long assignment to draw the Conan pose was given, you strayed from the process. Memorize the process and apply it.

The Glenn Vilppu drawings below are from his sketchbook. They are done in pen and it takes him only a few seconds to draw. Notice how his lines are used to describe form, movement and proportion. This is what I want you to see. You can do it, it just takes practice and knowledge of anatomy. You will get that later.



DATES TO REMEMBER:

• 2/6 Portfolio piece 2 is due.

• 2 /13 MIDTERM. Skull drawing from the front and the side and you will label the parts. I will post what you will be labeling. This begins as a self study.

• 2 /20 No School

• 2/27 Portfolio Piece 3 is due.

• 3/6 Portfolio piece 4 is due.

• 3/13 Turn in your sketchbook of 150 drawings. Look at the Vilppu examples I gave you during class to establish the bar. After this week, you should have thirty.

3/20 Portfolio piece 5 is due.*
FINAL - Muscle and Skeletal Drawing from memory with main groups labeled accordingly. You will also do a long drawing in which you be graded on form, value, design and composition. These last two will make up your final grade.


HOMEWORK WEEK 4:
You have two homework assignments.

1) A mounted portfolio piece is due. It has to include at least one figure.
You will be graded on:

• Craft (Good use of line and value to express form)
• Presentation (is it on board and does it have a cover paper)
• Design (Are you making use of the space compositionally. Is it nice to look at?)
• Meeting the deadline
• Overall excellence and aesthetics.

Please do your best. Poor scores or no score at all will be given to pieces that look rushed or unconsidered. As your standard, please refer to the large pencil drawings in the Admissions Office at the Student Gallery Show. If they are not of the quality present in that room or better, please don't turn it in. You are an Advanced Life Drawing Class, the best in the school so its my job to make you better than you are. Let me know if you have any questions.

2) Draw 20 gesture drawings in a hard bound sketch book.
If you don't have this yet, you probably should get started. At the end of the quarter, you will turn in this sketchbook and its should have 150 or more drawings. 150 is the minimum and they will only count if they display, fluidity, the action and correct proportions, just as we have discussed in class.

Use the Vilppu gesture drawings above the standard set for you.

You can do it! Firt it up! Below is an inspriational photo for you. Take now prisoners.





Week 3: Review of the PROCESS and a new Final Assignment Final.
Everyone, be paitient and be prepared to pick up the pace when we are in class. Everyone needs to know the process of Gesture, Form and Anatomy before we move further into longer poses.

HOMEWORK:
You have two homework assignments.

1) Every two weeks, you will submit a portfolio piece. This first piece is not due this week, but next The medium is open. It must be mounted and it must have a coer sheet. You will be given a point total of 20 points for each item listed. You will be graded on craft, presentation, design, meeting the deadline and overall excellence. Please do your best. Poor scores or no score at all will be given to pieces that look rushed or unconsidered. As your standard, please refer to the large pencil drawings in the Admissions Office at the Student Gallery Show. If they are not of the quality present in that room or better, please don't turn it in. You are an Advanced Life Drawing Class, the best in the school so its my job to make you better than you are. Let me know if you have any questions.

2) Draw 10 gesture drawings in sketch book. At the end of the quarter, you will turn in this sketchbook and its should have 150 or more drawings. 150 is the minimum and they will only count if they display, fluidity, the action and correct proportions, just as we have discussed in class.


Week 1: Welcome
The syllabus this quarter is long. After we go over it, we will be conducting our preinstruction tests in order to record your current skills. We will review the three step life drawing process of 1) gesture, 2) form, and 3) anatomy and we will review how to draw with a ball point pen in your sketchbook. I'm looking forward to an excellent quarter with you. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Who is the artist below? The beautiful drawing to the right was not originally created to be a freestanding work , but was a means to an end. Michaelangelo used the drawing to study anatomy, value and composition which inevitably sets up the final painting.

Drawing is the backbone of the visual arts, for some of you, it might not be a painting, but it might be an animation, storyboards or designs
.


Homework
Copy a master drawing. Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael, Tiepolo, Pontormo and similar master artists from the Renaissance period. Make this as professional as possible. Please include a copy of the master artists' piece with your drawing.

Parameters / Rules:
Do this on illustration board no larger than 11 x 17 and no smaller than 8 1/2" x 11".
You may also complete the assignment on paper, if done so, please mount this on board.
Be as accurate as possible in copying the work.
Include a cover sheet to protect your work.

You will be graded on:
1) How well you follow the parameters / requirements.
2) Execution / Craft - Does it show sensitivity in value and form.
3) Accuracy - Does it look like the original piece.