Drawing in Public 3

There were a lot of people out today, almost too many. I had a hard time concentrating on what I was drawing, every time I started a sketch I would see another person more interesting to draw. A small group sat in front of me half way through, and one of the guys had a big funny mustache which I had to draw. These sketches were inspired by them.

One of the main things I have noticed is that I struggle with my approach to life drawing. I can't decide whether I should concentrate on capturing a good likeness or capturing a good pose. Ideally I would like to do both, but I find that I am usually able to do one better then the other, depending on what is more appealing to me at the time. In this case, capturing likeness was more of a concern, although for all you know, they may look nothing like the people.

I had a good amount of time to study my unknowing drawing subjects which always seems to make my drawings boring. I start drawing whats in front of me, as if I were back in school in a formal life drawing class. In these cases I feel time is the enemy and spontaneity is key for what I want to accomplish. I want to concentrate more on capturing mood and personality through the pose. I will work on these points and try to apply them next time.

Creatures

I was just drawing the first things that came to my head. I ended up with these funny creatures. When I'm drawing characters I try to think of interesting shapes and proportions that contrast each other. I could push these a lot further, right now they are all the same size. I could also exaggerate proportions and size to make the relationships more dynamic. If I ever come back to these characters I will keep all that in mind. For now I just image what kind of conversation they are having.

Lights Out!

I wanted to post some scans of the progress of the new forever freshman comic, but the power went out at work so I couldn't use the oversized scanner. Here are some drawings I did while waiting to see if power would return. Fortunately it did not and I was able to leave a little early. I'm gonna pencil a few more pages this weekend and I'll scan them next week.

Drawing in Public 2

So, I'm gonna call my little life sketching sessions Drawing in Public. This is session 2. I'm thinking more about the overall pose before I begin drawing, which makes for more interesting drawings. Still mostly drawing from memory and trying not to creep people out by staring too long at them. I think sitting further away from people makes it easier to capture their personality. I find when I am super close I focus on details too much. That's 2 this week! I have no set schedule for these, it's pretty much whenever I get the chance.

The Fighter

Worked through lunch today had to draw at the computer. This is the angry drawing that came out. Could have exaggerated the pose more. I'll keep that in mind for next time.

Lunchtime Sketches

I have decided to take back my blog which was being used as the Forever Freshman website. You can go to www.foreverfreshman.com to see the new set up. Thanks

Did some life drawing during lunch. It's always a challenge to capture the gesture in such a small amount of time. I'd like to do more of these, I'm gonna try for once a week. I left in my under drawings to show the struggle I have finding the pose. Usually I only get a glimpse of the person walking by and have to work from memory. I hope to get better at capturing quick gestures and then concentrating on other details.