Advanced Life Drawing - The Art Institute of Las Vegas: Winter 2007

Advanced Lifedrawing

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• Syllabus

Week 10: Final Week
Congratulations on making it to the last day. You all have done an awesome job. When we meet this week, you will be taking an anatomy test. Don't worry, this is easy, you don't have to be a doctor to know this, , its just common names that can be found anywhere. We also will be engaging in a few long poses. The drawing you complete on this day, will take the place of a low or missing score in your assignments.

HOMEWORK: Anatomy
Study for your Anatomy Final. You will be tested on the main muscles and bones of the body. Knowing this information will help you in two ways: 1) The more you know about how the human form, the more you can construct. It gives your drawings form, volume and it brings to the viewer a level of believability. This not only applies to drawing realistically, but to drawing characters too and 2) it will help you with exaggeration so you can get more emotion in your pieces and 3) when you jump on 3D software, your joints and muscles will look better too because they will be based off of reality. 3d rigs for animation and game design are given these common names too.

Your anatomy final will be 50% of your final grade. Study up, you can do it. The time you invest is worthwhile.

You will be tested on the following muscles and bones.

Front View
• Sternocleidomastoid
• Pectoralis Major
• Deltoids
• Biceps
• Brachioradialis
• Abdominals
• External Obliques
• Quadraceps

Common Bones
• Skull
• Clavicle (Collar Bone)
• Spine
• Ribcage
• Humerus (Upper Arm)
• Ulna / Radialis (Lower Arm Bones)
• Iliac
• Femur (Upper Leg)
• Tibia / Fibula (Lower Leg)
•

Back View
• Occipital
• Trapezius (The Diamond Muscle)
• Latissimus Dorsi (The Butterfly)
• Triceps (Large muscle of the upper arm)
• Gluteus Maximus (The Bumm)
• Hamstrings
• Gastrocnemeus (Calf Muscle)
• Soleus

Week 9: Creating a Portfolio Piece II

HOMEWORK: Think of your portfolio. Illustrate a piece utilizing the figure and title it "Costume & Exaggeration". The medium is open. This assigment puts together everything you have learned thus far. Use your ability to manipulate gesture, incorporate your knowledge of anatomy and rendering, and above all, use your greatest asset...your imagination. I will be grading you on clarity of line, value, composition and your interpretation of the assignment. Sorry, no abstract works - take a seat this week Matisse and Picasso. Below is an image by the illustrator "Brom" who has fulfilled this assignment beautifully. Have fun and create something stunning.

Week 8: Creating a Portfolio Piece
This week we focused on long poses. We will be doing this until the end of the quarter. The goal is to create a portfolio piece that will help fill the pages of portfolio or website. Consider composition, clarity in linework, value, form and anatormy.

HOMEWORK:
Hands are important for expressing emotion in your character. Draw 5 hands and 5 feet. See my examples below. Have fun. This page, if done correctly and if enough time is spent on it, can be a portfolio piece. Follow the same procedure we've been studying in class. Lightly do a gesture, describe the form using simple shapes, describe the anatomy using C and S curves.

Week 7: President's Day Holiday
Hokusai is one of my favorite draftsman. His linework was simple, was a master of anatomy and with very few lines, could describe form. His compositions and designs were also very strong. Consider composition and design in your portfolio pieces.

Week 6: Working from Imagination
This week you experienced the inbetween gesture exercise. This exercise helps you in many ways and calls upon all of your skills. It makes you think in sequence, it makes you draw and capture form faster and it makes you visualize the movement of the form within the model. Great work today.

Topics covered this week:
• Basic Anatomy - Familiarize yourself with this as you will be tested on it.
• The Long Pose - We will engage ourselves in the study of long pose. Please bring good paper and materials for your use.

HOMEWORK:
• Take two of the photographs handed out in class, one male and one female and create two drawings descrbed below:

1) Place a tracing paper over the model and draw the skeleton within the figure. Use your handouts to get the basic shape of the bones. If you choose, you may also draw this freehand.

2) Copy the drawing exactly as you see it, but draw the figure with the skin removed. You will therefore be drawing the muscles of the figure. See my example below.

You will be graded on execution, craft and accuracy. This exercise should improve everyone's work. The more you know about the human form, the better your figures will become. Have fun and make this assignment sing. It could be a potential portfolio piece.

Remember that there is no school next week.

Week 5: Gesture, Form & Construction
Creating cross contours
This week, we continued our lifedrawing process. Try to achieve a portfolio piece during these long poses.

HOMEWORK:
• Take the six photographs passed out during class, create contour drawings of them (just like last week) but this time put cross contour lines to describe the form. Follow the photograph as close as possible and place as much detail as you can in the outline. The cross contour lines describes the form, thus giving your figures depth and volume. See example below.

Image from:
http://www.apollo13art.com/National/lifedrawing1/lectures/proportion/proportion.html

Week 4: Gesture, Form & Construction
Creating a detailed Contour
This week, we continued our lifedrawing process and we explored the pickout technique. We also learned about creating detailed contour. A tutorial for how its done can be found here.

HOMEWORK:
• Take the six photographs passed out during class and make contour drawings of them. Follow the photograph as close as possible and place as much detail as you can in the outline. You will be graded on accuracy and technique/execution. This exercise is important for shpae recognition as it relates to character and object design. In animation, sometimes its important to make animate the silhouette, if the silhouette is clear, its easier for the viewer to see the action. Refer to my examples below. Do you see how they relate?

Week 3: Portraits
Portraits are the hardest things to draw but also the most rewarding. Its a good test of your skill. This week, we learned about the basic proportions of the face.

In the drawing below, I've also marked the basic alignment we studied in class today. Use both a vertical and horizontal plum line to establish accuracy and placement of lines. Use your pencil to establish horizontal and vertical plum line. For example, if you place a vertical plum line under the edge of the eye, you will see that the edge of the nose and end of the mouth is aligned to this vertical line.

Remember, there is no guessing. Draw what you see and not what you know. Everythin you need to make a good drawing is in front of you. Go slow so you can see it and so that you can compare what you see to what is on your paper.

The drawing below is from Anthony Ryder. View his work on his site here:

HOMEWORK:
Create a life size self portrait of yourself looking into the mirror. You may use any medium. Remember no Hello Kitty sized drawings even though I like her, and no fish eyes. Apply your knowledge of how to draw eyes that I shared with you today. Good luck and have fun.

Week 2: Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday

Week 1: Welcome
Welcome to class everyone. Watch this page for a recap of what we covered in class and homework. I look forward to being your instructor this quarter and watching your skills improve. If you have any questions please let me know.

Unlike the beginning class, this will stress best practices, application of techniques to animation, presentation and working from imagination.

A good lifedrawing example is a requirement for your portfolio. Show the industries to which you want to be a part of, that you understand this requirement by showing off your understanding of form and composition.

TOPICS COVERED IN CLASS:
• Class Overview
• Process Overview
• Materials Overview
• Gesture / Form / Anatomy
• Gesture Process
• Syllabus Overview
• Homework

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• HOMEWORK
You have two assignments this week. At this level, realize that every piece that you do, can be a potential portfolio piece. Do your best.

1) 25 gesture drawings of people at a public place.

2) Create a still life drawing of your TV set. Be sure to breakdown your TV, stand and anything else in the picture into basic shapes and form. You will produce 2 drawings for this assignment (two is optional if you get it).

1) Do a simple shape breakdown of your still life, no shading or detail.
2) Do another drawing, this time using good drawing materials and draw the still life again, breaking it down into simple shapes first. This time, add detail and shading.

Turn in both drawings stapled together, with the first drawing on top.

Below is a drawing from J.D. Hillberry. The basic forms that can be seen in the the still are speres and cubes. Can you see them? Check out the still life drawings featured on his website. Click here to go to JD Hillberry's website.

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NEXT WEEK:
Continuation on Gesture

Have a great quarter everyone!