Concept Art

In my work for my other classes I often have to put myself at work drawing life/anatomy/bodies in motion.  The work that I'm doing in life drawing one is without a doubt affecting my approach in this.  Where I would regularly just sketch out some outlines and start delving into surface textures, I know feel comfortable applying cross contours and long axis lines across a surface to enrich the visual information in the design drawing. 

Even when the subject matter is something that isn't something I'm entirely familiar with, even completely outside of my intuitive anatomic knowledge (prehistoric reptiles?), the concepts we've been covering have proven valuable.  I'm getting better at trying to follow shapes with contour and axis lines, although I still find that a strong outline works well in certain areas, and this probably varies with medium and intention.  A lot of the work I've been doing has been on a drawing tablet (specifically a Bamboo Fun) which has been in interesting experience.  This is my first year using it, and it's been incredibly helpful in allowing me to be more free with what I draw in a digital space.  As opposed to drawing something out completely on paper, then scanning it, and spending the time necessary to manipulate it to a proper, workable quality in photoshop is all eliminated.  I can draw anything twice as quickly digitally with the magical ability to 'control-z' any ugly mistakes.  So far it's been a lot of animals for one my game design class, making concept art for different player characters/enemies that appear in the game.  Exploring their bodies volume, shape, and general contour has been a nice crossover, and I'm looking forward to using it more for directly human concept art in the future.  I've also seen examples of people using their tablets to do gesture life drawings right into a computer.  This is also something that I would like to try in the near future.

Shell Drawing #2

I feel that this second shell drawing was a bit more successful.  I tried to focus more on following the shell in one direction, using mostly cross contours.  This produced a better effect than the grid-work I had done in the previous attempt.  I enjoy that I was able to get more detail in the front of the shell and got some diversity in line separation and darkness.  I feel that I could definitely improve in diversity in line width, and still work on getting a perfect angle, as well as more fading as I get to the receding parts of the shell to get depth.  I tried some 's' lines to get some of the spiraling parts of the shell to stand out, as well as trying to get the lines to follow the natural ellipses of the form, but I feel that both of these could be improved upon in further drawings.


In other classwork we have been working on more gestural and long drawings with figures, still paying attention to the spine, ribs, and hips.  Some more attention has recently been put on the feet, and we have done some model studies completely centered around feet.  I feel that feet and hands are truly unique parts of human anatomy, as they are far more shaped by the bones than the muscles, which is different than the muscular structures of the arms, legs, and abdomen.  They have so many structures to them, each little bone making it's own concave or convex piece to a complicated organic puzzle.  Most people find the hands and feet intimidating, but I've always enjoyed the challenge.  I'm looking forward to paying specific attention to the hands later.  Below, another long drawing:

Midterm Post

Now that my life drawing class is half and I have a nicely sized collection of gesture drawings to look back on. Now that my life drawing class is half and I have a nicely sized collection of gesture drawings to look back on.  Paging through all of my thirty second gesture drawings I can see a fluid transition from sketchy looking outlines through drawings of ribcages and pelvises, and on to fleshed out gestural figures with various anatomical landmarks.  I can see where I learned how to use long axis lines and how to best apply cross contours without equidistant spacing.  I find some of my long term drawings to be very satisfying, with the very dark lines pulling out the closer surfaces and various curves feeling very lifelike, at least from my perspective.  With my last two long drawings I was able to achieve a lot of the qualities that I specifically set out to accomplish.

 

This is my long term drawing with the male model.  I definitely found the male model easier to draw, as I could draw a lot more knowledge from my own body when it came to how things feel and work.  I also found that various landmarks were very easy to identify as opposed to females.  Females tend to have very smooth and rounded forms, whereas the male seem to have more variation in surface texture and more visible tendons, muscles, bones, etc.  To me, it is far easier to define space and line here.

As far as the generals of my class go I’ve been generally satisfied.  I’ve definitely improved in drawing figures in the life-drawing fashion.  I’m still not entirely certain how life drawing is supposed to look, and I could definitely go with more examples.  At times I won’t feel qualified and won’t know if what I’m achieving with each drawing is in the right direction.  It’s hard to have a lot of one on one time in classes, but I might go out of my way to get some good discussion of my work in come next semester.   I’m actually exited to learn more about the muscles and bones in the arms and legs, as these are usually my favorite things to draw.  I’ll often find myself getting bored with the spine, ribs, and pelvis and applying myself in the limbs, especially the hands and feet.  Pulling off proper hands and feet can be challenging, and I find this process very rewarding.

 

-link to my midterm portfolio-

Shell Drawing

I struggled a bit with this drawing.

With this assignment we were supposed to take our shell and follow its cross contours across the page, making the shell as large as possible on the page along the long axis.  I feel that everything was positioned appropriately, although I could have had a higher view of the shell as it looks a bit like I was drawing the shell head on.  Obvious things to improve on would be varying line weight and position.  Everything is webbed with roughly similar lines.  There is some variation, with the best parts of the drawing representing this in the first row of outward spurs.  i couldn't seem to get any of the same feel of form in the upper half of the shell, which was done in a separate sitting than the first half of the shell.  There is a bit of fading in the upper half which is successful in that it was the further side.  This was intentional, but could have been more dramatic.  I outlined the shell, not with a simple outline but with various cross contours that come together to make up one outline.  In a future drawing I would like to try to break up the outline and create some implied line.  In addition I want to do the entire drawing in one sitting to avoid the disjointed pieces I have in this drawing: the bottom half being feeling full and alive with the top half feeling flat and dull.  All in all I think I learned from the experience and will be able to take what I learned and apply it to my next drawing.

Second Week Reflection

This second week we have continued to gain experience with drawing live models. I feel that I’m gaining confidence in capturing forms, and given the amount of drawings I’ve carved out of my newsprint pad I would hope that I’m improving. We are continuing to practice series of short, thirty second poses so that we can begin to get a feel for how to flesh out the body in a given space, and develop some solid knowledge so that by the time we move on to more lengthy poses we might learn more out of them. I’m still getting used to drawing from live nudes, but so far it has been a new and rewarding experience. Usually I approach drawing figures with a rough idea of what the person looks like under the clothes, and then spend a lot of time trying to figure out what the clothes would look like on top of my nebulous human sketch. Getting to intimately know the human form and all of it’s common curves and landmarks is no doubt going to improve my ability to create believable figures, clothed or unclothed.

Aside from drawing, we have also been introduced to our skeletal models, which we will begin applying layers of clay muscle to over the next few weeks. I’m excited to learn more about the muscles and how they interact with the rest of the body, both for artistic and anatomical, scientific understanding. With human figures being one of the easiest things to relate with in a drawing or design, it is very important for me to digest this material. Specifically in terms of game design, if a game doesn’t have realistic, clearly humanoid forms to engage with, it won’t attract and engage with a general audience. We’re starting off with just the spinal erectors, because a believable back line is the keystone to a figure drawing, but will be moving on to other muscle groups shortly.

First Week Reflection

Already I've dove headfirst back into the world of drawing.  This time, however, I get to focus on life, mostly my shell and our model we had last Thursday.  It's a very different feel from my other classes, where I had developed skills in drawing in a very painterly way, pushing out large shapes with the fat end of my charcoal, and then pulling it in using the eraser as a drawing tool.  Instead here I find myself not even thinking about an eraser, instead I get to make lines exclusively with the charcoal sharpened to a fine point.  I can use some elements from my hatched figure drawings I enjoy doing in my sketchbook, but here I have to focus more on the lines and their diversity.  Learning just when to make a line quickly, or calculated, thin or fat, pale or bold--this is part of what I've been digesting in the first week drawing blind or continuous contour drawings of my shell.

Drawing with the model when differently than I had expected.  In my mind, I had thought that I would be rushing to create something rough, but representational.  I had anticipated creating a series of drawings that depicted half investigated necks, shoulders, backs, hips, etc.  Instead I had to accept that every drawing, whether 30 minutes or 30 seconds in duration, had to capture the entire form from head to toe.  It was then a matter of finding lines that seemed important, and scrawling them across the page until I had a gestural stick figure that may or may not have accurately captured the contour of the model's hip or shoulder or whatever seemed dominant.  Honestly, my hardest task was to draw the model in front of me, and not simply construct a figure out of what I already know.  Often times I would find that my drawings looked a little too masculine.  This was because I was tending to pull lines out of my head, preconceptions based more on my own body than the model's.  Like with the blind contour drawings we did with the shells earlier, I had to try to really look at the model, and hope that my hand could mimic the curves accurately.

About Me!

Hello!  I am Andy Bensen, a junior at UW Stout.  Being a Game Design & Development major with an art concentration, I'm very interested in the areas of digital art, concept art, and mastery of the human face and form.  I've been trying to get better at drawing for as long as I can remember.  Growing up I remember digging through what I could find of game manuals and comic books and trying my best to replicate the fantastic scenes I found inside.  At that point, it was all about trying to fit different muscle groups together like a jigsaw puzzle to form a human-like shape.  Fast forward to today and I'm doing pretty much the same thing...

 Above is my first experimentation with design markers.  While these markers can be used well for blending and shading, I was hoping that the rapid, stark streaks would create a more intriguing gestural approach.  Still, I feel that my actual sense of faces is too rooted in addressing certain objects and not in representing a three-dimensional form.  Below is an exercise in drawing female forms.  I've never been comfortable drawing the female form, as not living in one doesn't allow me the same intuitive sense I can use when drawing a male form.  These are both areas I'm looking forward to addressing in life drawing.

Below is another ink drawing, this time specifically trying to incorporate certain childhood influences of comic books and video games.  I have more fun trying to draw figures interacting in strange ways and unexpected positions, than simply drawing a standing or lying figure.  When engaging my sketchbook I'll always be excited to find a new way to draw figures, flipped upside down or contorted in some way, to create a composition that feels dynamic.  What I still have trouble addressing is rooting the figures in convincing dimensions, something that my presentation techniques class has helped me with greatly (one of my favorite classes so far). 

All in all, drawing human forms and faces is what I find the most rewarding, and this is reflected in the pages of my sketchbooks.  In the future I would like to pursue a career in the game industry, a place I can hopefully continue to draw things my inner child would be proud of, as well as engage in 3-dimensional digital art where a keen understanding of the human form is perhaps even more important. For these reasons, I am hoping to grow as much as possible in this upcoming life drawing class.