2D

For the past few weeks I have been very busy with the first 2D course. We have been working a lot on construction and building characters with boxes and cylinders. I have been working really hard, trying to challenge myself every week and that is probably why I have been doing so well.

Anyways I thought I should post what I have been doing for my home work these past few weeks so I will start with the first one. The assignment was to draw 20 thumbnails based on a concept - Clash of Heavens, a game where an ordinary person is thrown into a war between gods - they were supposed to be very quickly sketched and show a variety of different designs, (it did not have to be the main character). We were also supposed to show our three most dynamic sketches from our sketchbook, so here they are along with my thumbnails, I will also post the reflective assignment for this week at the end.

This week I have worked to focus on movement rather than drawing the model as I am used to. This was a challenge for me as I have always drawn to create a pretty picture and I realize that I must let go of that and do things completely different. That is one thing that caught me in Walt’s book, every drawing needs to have a purpose, I need to learn to try to tell a story when drawing instead of just wanting to create something that looks good. This is a knowledge that I have not been willing or able to accept until now and I am determined to get past it so that I can develop as an artist.

Although I have not been successful every time I have tried to convey personality and mood through posing instead of just having the person standing there doing nothing. I feel that what I have learnt this week, both in class and from reading, has really helped me create believable, expressive poses without having a model. This just by changing the way I think, or as Walt said, switching gears.

Another thing in Walt’s book that really struck me was what he said about lines, think about how and where to put them and not just do them because. Especially the part where he said “There are only four lines per cylinder and if it takes you twenty lines to make one – you need help!” It made me think that perhaps I need help, I feel my drawings at times get a bit messy and I found it a challenge trying to implement this, in particular remembering it while drawing. I really need to work on this and learning to know what line to put where and how it should look. It is very easy to copy a line, but not to create one that shows movement and life, I find that they easily become stiff and emotionless.

I have found it very difficult to keep all the new knowledge in mind when drawing, it is very easy to just fall back into the same old tracks and forget it all. I have to remind myself all the time as I realize from time to time that I am not thinking about what I am doing.