One down, 22 to go

Yul Brynner portrait

I forgot to post this back in the day. This was my final project for my Analysis of Form class – we had to reproduce an 8.5×11 photo at 18×24 inch size. It took me a while to decide on the image. I dithered between this one of Yul Brynner and one of Sendhil Ramamurthy for a while, before deciding I’d be too distracted by Sendhil’s prettiness to focus properly on the assignment. 🙂

I took frequent photos during the process while checking for accuracy, and made an animation out of them:

Art supply still life

18″x24″. Charcoal. 50+ hours.

Forgot to post this one before. In the progression of Analysis of Form class assignments, it comes after the torso and before the perspective work. We were responsible for selection and composition of the objects this time, it took lots of combing through my stuff to find the right collection of interesting but not too complex things to draw. I changed the lighting halfway through the drawing on my instructor’s direction. It gave me much better form shadows to work with, but eliminated one of my favorite details: in the earlier version the shadow of the little wooden guy holding the silhouetted paintbrush was cast directly behind him,  looking somehow like the Steadfast Tin Soldier.

Analysis of Form midterm progress

I’m halfway through my first semester at Academy of Art University. The drawings above are the two most recent assignments for my Analysis of Form class. I’ve taken a similar class before and so had a headstart on some of the concepts, but we’re quickly moving into new territory for me. I’m enjoying it – it’s making me stretch without being overly frustrating. I’m happy we’re starting to get into more interesting subjects too. Drawing cubes and spheres is certainly useful, but kind of boring to look at.

I wasn’t entirely sure about art school before I enrolled.  I debated with myself about it for an entire year before actually applying to AAU. It’s too expensive! It’ll take forever! I can learn just fine on my own! I’m glad I went ahead with it. I find the enforced habit of drawing several days a week and sticking with each drawing through completion even more valuable than the actual lessons at times. I have a bad habit of getting partway through a drawing or painting and then stopping, either through fear of messing it up or my attention drifting to something new. Having someone else tell me what to draw and when to draw it is exactly what I need right now.