various figures

I took a figure painting class this semester, so I only went to, like, one figure drawing co-op. I kind of suck at painting but whatever, man. I have no time to do anything. Here's some stuff.

this is my fave figure from the semester, even tho her head and body are totally disproportionate 

classroom portraits

I like to draw in class when I have my sketchbook and a drawing utensil with me. Too often I will be missing one or the other, but I recently bought a small sketchbook and started carrying around a hard pencil case. So it's been good.

I've been really inspired by the work of Linnea Sterte, whose pencil and digital illustrations are confident, colorful, and extremely striking. I decided to digitally color some sketchbook stuff with her work in mind.

These were all drawn during a visiting artist lecture by Lauren McCarthy, whose work is incredible and very, very smart.

This is taken from a photo of Lauren McCarthy!

sketchbook stuff

Middle-aged Muslim women in hijabs on the bus are perfect drawing subjects, because they are still and elegant and the roundness of their faces is emphasized by the encapsulating, undulating cloth that billows around them like a royal cape.

This drawing of a building on the UMN campus took me about an hour and a half, and I listened to Vampire Weekend's MVOTC one and a half times. I'm not terribly pleased with the drawing, save the very bottom and the very top. It was so cold outside that I didn't even realize I was cold, and only once I stepped inside and crawled into a nice, warm bed did I realize my thighs were stiff as stones and my abdomen was shuddering uncontrollably. Worth it, tho.

a portrait i did on reddit

because i am the procrastination kween

two portraits

If the Angel Moroni held a gun to my head and told me to paint a decent portrait in oil lest the golden plates be forever hidden away in the ground, I would take the gun from his hands and do the deed myself. Because I can't. Paint. Oil. Portraits. I don't think I can paint ANYTHING in oil, actually. 

Anyway. I've been feeling quite dejected about this and wondered if perhaps I was just shit at portraits in general. But I was determined to prove myself wrong. So here are two random portrait doodles of classmates that I did on a tablet:

Not terrible, right?? Goddammit. I need to learn how to use oil paint properly because I SUCK right now.

Grandmas

My first real attempt at character design. We had to design two characters in conflict—we're still working on the animation for it.

So here it is! Two grandmas.

Muriel and Patty

figures from 9/27

I'm getting worse? (shitty iPhone photos in dim light are shitty...iPhone photos in dim light.)

orange + pink figures (and awful portraiture)

The figure drawing co-op finally started this year. I went on Sunday for like....three hours. But we only had the model for two—he was an hour late. And his poses were very strange so I left early.

There was an older white man sitting next to me and his work was so fucking good. I think that I will know I have "made it" in terms of art when I look at something I've created and think to myself, "Yup, that sure looks like a painter grandfather made that." But a girl can only dream.

Since he was late I took some time to draw some strangers. I think the woman above noticed I was drawing her, and she sort of furtively smiled at me throughout the rest of the class. I was a little uncomfortable.

30 seconds

This was the only gesture drawing I did that I liked. His hand is all fucked up, but I like how I simplified the rest of the form. Also, yes, those are testicles.

1 min.

This was the first figure I did that day that I actually liked. I quite like how I rendered his butt.

5 min.

10 min.

It's strange—when figure drawing, I am usually most excited by drawing cloth, or other objects that give context to the model. I don't know. And they always end up nice, even when the figure looks completely wrong. Anyway, I'm pretty proud of how this one turned out, though I regret adding in those black lines :-(

10 min.

10 or 15 min?

I'll go again next week. Markers are so fun, but I'm not too sure how to draw the figure nicely without creating a mess of scribbles underneath. It's hard to slow down, and my initial series of gestures often look like potato after potato after sprouting, moldy potato. I think next time I'll just go straight to the markers and forget about the lines—I seem to be more of a painter than a drawer, anyway.

Figs(ure)

My first time experimenting with color and figure drawing. I used crayola markers and micron pens. Some are better than others and I still have the feeling that I have no idea what I'm doing.