Fall Drawing Day #59, #60, #61, & #62

Another busy week, been a bit preoccupied with a bunch of other assignments and such to keep me from drawing on my own...
Monday I ended up with three animation projects to work on, which kept me from going to figure drawing that day...
Tuesday was my catch up day, I had work on 3D animation projects along with studying for the art history exam the next day. In between, I worked in my anatomy book (which seems to sadly be the only thing I have time to draw on my own), this is a copy of a master with anatomy done over it with Netter's Anatomy as reference:

Wednesday I had my exam and animation critique, I only did a few gesture tracings.... though those can only take me so far.
Today I got to meet up with some friends to practice gesture drawing for a bit, though I'm really not happy with any of my gestures. The rest of the day I started working on my art history term essay, along with a little 3D animation work. My dad stopped by in the evening, so we had dinner together and walked for a bit.
I know I've said this thousands of times, but I'm still questioning my choices in whether I want to do this as a career or not... I know no matter what I choose, I'm going to facing lots of stress and anxiety, so why am I even questioning this?

Fall Drawing #56, #57, & #58

Still working on my figure drawing, right now I'm trying to master gesture...

I'm also working weight and balance, which I know is probably off on a lot of figures...

Friday was another rough day in Anatomy class, basically for everyone, including the professor. It's times like these I question why I'm trying for this; I even thought about changing to another major. But after some thinking and talking to some friends and family, I figured this is just a phase everyone goes through, no matter what major or career one chooses, and I'm just going to have to deal with it... Even if I don't make it, at least I can say I gained good experience from it as an artist. 

Saturday I had to do studying for another art history exam Wednesday (which can sadly be time-consuming). I also did gesture traces, I hope to put more action into my figures. Other than that, I went to one of my friend's birthday party (probably a bad idea, but a good way to catch a little break).

Today was more studying, along with a leg anatomy study; this I did copying a figure from my textbook and using Netter's anatomy cards to understand the leg muscles:

I used colored pencil on the muscle to make it fancy, though I'm still unsure if the proportions are correct. Later I went to do a drapery study (I usually do it with other art students, but today it was just me):

I kind of like how the left side turned out, I really tried to work in contrast. I'm not too sure about the right side, I had some hard times with shading due to the poor lighting work I did with the drapery. 

This week I hope to get more of a positive attitude and just draw for fun, which may hopefully bring a little more confidence in my work. 

Fall Drawing Day #51, #52 & #53

First off, I'd like to thank all the people who left critiques and advice for my last blog, I found it really helpful in matters of figure drawing. Still, I question whether I have what it takes to make it to the big leagues... Maybe it's just because of a portfolio review requirement for the A/I program at my university; some say it is not as bad as one may think, but there seems to be something that the professors are looking for in a students work that many fear they are missing.
I still remember one of my professors telling me not to give up my dream, yet I wonder: what is my dream? I think the main reason I wanted to go into illustration/animation was because I wanted to do a job that involved something I enjoyed doing, though I did had a slight idea that it was going to be a tough career path to take. Honestly I've thought many times whether I should try for something else or not.... but the one thing that's keeping me here are my A/I friends. If it weren't for them, making me and everyone around feeling like a big happy family, I probably would not still be around. So I owe a big thanks to everyone in the A/I for keeping me here. Even if I don't make it, I won't give up, at least without a fight.
Anyway, enough of my boring speech. Sunday, I had to work a little on my animation, along with some gesture tracing. I did get to do a drapery study, which I spent around 3 hours on:

I'm still working on gradation and value, though I still find it hard to make things "click."
Afterwards, I worked a little in my anatomy book, I worked on the back, this is a copy from my textbook:

I kind of like the turn out, though that's just me...
Monday was my busy day, I did go to figure drawing and asked for critiques here and there. I got a couple of helpful advice, so I hope to apply to my future figure drawings, if I can take it all in and whatnot.
Today I bought some anatomy flash cards, Netter's Anatomy (much cheaper than the actual book). I had to work a little with my 3D animation, but I did get a chance to draw out the skull, both front and lateral view:

 These were done in colored pencil, I tried adding a little value to match the cards a bit. Sometime, I hope to take some of my figure drawings and apply some anatomy to it, using anatomy cards as reference. First, however, I have to master the fundamentals... this I find ironic (how I still need to work on animating the human figure when I'm working on anatomy).

Fall Drawing Day #46, #49, & #50

I haven't really been feeling too good about my drawing skills, which is bad because when one thinks he/she can't draw, they literally can't....
I kind of need some feedback and critique for my figure drawings, so here's some I did Monday and Friday:

I know they're incomplete, with bad anatomy and construction, along with poor line quality, but I need to know what I should do to fix them... so I can improve the future figure drawings I plan to do.
This whole week has been kind of busy for me, so I didn't get too many chances to draw on my own... Thursday I got a chance to work a little in my anatomy book, though I'm not really too sure about it now...

Today I had to go to an art museum to study some works of art for my Art History class... which took quite a bit of time getting there and back... Plus my family came over to visit, so I got some chances to practice drawing out human figures from life, though I really don't like the turn out...
For next couple of days, depending on school work and what not, I plan to practice drawing out the human figure, with some little hope of improvement...

Fall Drawing Day #43, #44, & #45

Have you ever stopped for a moment and wondered why you do some certain things (hobbies, jobs, careers, etc)? I'm kind of in that position, again... I still question whether I want to continue drawing in matters of rendering and, hopefully, cartooning... Sometimes I wonder what I would do, if someone told me to just give this all up. It's actually quite heart breaking (for one to give up a passion or possible dream).
Friday I had my anatomy class of course, but it was a pretty rough day for me, so I didn't get in any good figure drawing... After class, the club had a movie night, we saw an animation screening from the club members, and an old black and white movie called Ball of Fire (a really good, funny movie, I recommend seeing it).
Saturday, I had volunteer work for Left Coast Live, mostly just arranging the signs and products for the attendees and band members. I had to work for only four hours, after that I had to go back and practice more figure drawing. Right now I plan to try to improve my human gestures and faces, so that will be what I'll try to focus on for now....
Today was a little more easy, I still spent quite a bit of tracing paper tracing over gestures and people. Since we were learning arms in anatomy, I did an arm drawing from Bammes' Artist's Guide to Human Anatomy:

Not really the best... though it kind of helped me get a good idea of the structure. I also did a skeletal drawing of an arm, but I do not really like the turn out.. 

The rest of the day I had to work a bit on my 3D animation project, but I did get a chance to do a drapery study:

It's not really finished yet, I plan to add in a few more shadows in a few areas. I kind of like the gesture established, though I'd like to add better values and contrast (our professor mentioned a bit about adding contrast to our drawings to help stand out).

I hope to come back sometime soon with some better stuff, hopefully something on faces and gestures (that's what I'm now striving for), though I still can't say with my busy schedule at the moment... have a good night and good week everyone.

Fall Drawing Day #35 through #42

It has felt like forever since I last updated... I can barely remember what happened the past couple of days, or even what I was stressing out about....
Thursday was my fun day, unfortunately I didn't do any drawings... I got to bake banana bread for fun and hung out with some friends. We played some games together and ended up seeing Brides Maids, a really funny, over the top movie, maybe one of the best chick flicks I've seen.
Friday I had my anatomy class, there we were learning the front torso, and a lot of animation techniques. Out of the few figure drawings I got to do, I found this one to be the best:

I'm pretty sure this was done in twenty minutes, I really like how the posture turned out, still not too sure about the anatomy...
Saturday was my school work and study day, I did go out and draw a few people, but none of them turned out too good. Plus I mostly just did torso tracing, to get a better idea of how to draw out the torso in matters of anatomy.
Sunday was a disaster... Sometime around 12:30, the fire alarm in my apartment went off, while I was drawing in my anatomy book, I just left thinking I'd be back in a few minutes, which ended up being six hours. What some say happened was that one of the residents on the 12th floor hung up his clothes on one of the sprinklers, which broke the pipe or something... causing a massive flooding all the way down to the ground floor (thankfully my room wasn't affected). I was with two of my suite-mates at the time, thinking we would be out all day, we went to my roommate's house to settle and study a bit. All I had then was my personal belongings and my sketchbook, so it was actually a good opportunity to practice visual drawing. I tried drawing my hand a few times, out the few, I think this turned out okay:

 The fingers still seem pretty off to me, hands are still a tough thing for me...
When we were finally allowed back into our apartment, I worked a bit more in my anatomy book, and ended up with this (this is a copy from Hale's Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters):

I personally like the turn out, when I get the chance, I might add in the leg muscles, and maybe work in a few more details.
Monday was my busy day of course, but I ended up getting really dizzy and sick after my last class... so I didn't do any figure drawing... I think it was probably due to stress and possibly exhaustion.
Tuesday was a little easier for me, but I had to spend the whole day working on my computer animation along with studying for an art history exam (maybe it's just me, but it's been getting harder and harder to find the time to settle and just draw).
Wednesday was another busy day, had quite a few things due for each of my classes, but got quite a bit of work off my chest.
Today was another easier day, though a little wet due to rain. However, instead of drawing, I did some research and studying for one of my GE classes. Later that day, I got to do some figure drawing after a club meeting. Tonight did not really seem like my night... but I think this one turned out okay:

This was done in twenty minutes (I seem to have issues in drawing figures a small amount of time).
That's pretty much it for now, sadly... I still have some other work to do this weekend, but I hope to get back into drawing daily again... however in times like these I can't really say...