Steal Like an Artist – 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative is the title of a new book by Austin Kleon.
Kleon examines and shares inspiring advice on how to make (good) art. 140 pages long, it’s a quick and rewarding read.
In the spirit of this book I wish you a productive and inspired 2013.
As Jane Fonda once said, “you always regret what you didn’t do”. So, go ahead and do it, don’t let anything or anyone discourage you. Be inspired – discover and create.
HAPPY NEW YEAR !
Remember the post Gesture Sculpting from November 18th. I posted pictures of little wire sculptures. I made them to capture the gesture of the model in 3D. Now here is an additional way to work with them. Tack (use staple gun) the wire man down on a piece of wood so it can’t fall over and add clay around the wire. It’s an easy (you already have the gesture – which is a lot) and quick way (we had about an hour in class) to create a more defined sculpture.
Looking at it now, I’m fascinated with the contrast/combination of (the now rusted) wire and clay. I like the unfinished slightly unproportional look, the dried cracked clay – all of that gives it a raw almost surreal look. I named the sculpture “Warrior”, somehow it has that feel to me – well, you decide for yourself.
Warrior | Clay, Wire and Wood | November 2012
… you have to put your feet up. The long weekend ahead I hope everyone will find the time to do just that – count your blessings, say Thanks and enjoy.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING !
You remember the post before the last one where I was talking about gesture drawing, how to do it and why. The principle can be used in sculpting as well. All you need is wire.
You make little figures – we made them about 16 inches tall – and then you can “gesture sculpt”. At school we had a live model and every gesture took about 5 to 15 minutes. It takes a little longer than gesture drawing because you have to bend and shape using pliers. As always, with time and practice it becomes easier and the wire sculptures get more complex and expressive.
The added dimension (working in 3D) makes you think much more about the directions that the body parts go, the tilts and twists a body can show. Note in the following picture how the pelvis tilts to the left while the shoulders stay straight.
It’s fascinating how much information one can capture. Is it a relaxed or tense pose? Which way does he look?
When they stand on their own it means you really found the line of gravity that goes through the body – which sounds easier than it is, trying to be fast and accurate at the same time.
And here the whole gang.
I took a short sculpting class over the summer. I chose Intro to Figure Sculpture with Mike Magrath at Gage Academy. The pictures show my very first sculpture produced during the five week class (15 hours). It’s far from perfect but I’m really fascinated with sculpting. It’s a very complex and captivating process – and still so much to learn.
Women Sitting | Clay | 2012
Her face looks a little bit like a figure from Avatar 🙂 unintentional of course, it’s only roughed in. So are hands and feet, for lack of time/skill at the time. I was very busy just getting her posture right – as I said, it’s a very complex process.
I like her back the best.
Enjoying the view.
Gesture drawings are usually done very quickly. The exercises we did in class ranged from just 10 seconds to 5 minutes. It’s not about getting technically everything right, one does not necessarily aim for exact proportions and so on, it’s even in your way to think along that line. Gesture drawing is an exercise where it’s helpful to loosen up. It’s more about feeling “things” out, understanding what the subject or object is all about. The speed forces you to let go of thinking too much, decisions have to be made in a split second. However the more skilled you are at drawing – and of course, the more you practice gesture drawing itself – the better your gesture drawings will become. All the hard work will eventually show in those ten seconds. A gesture drawing can be done of pretty much anything, be it a person, a chair, a tree or a coffee cup. It’s all about capturing the essence of the subject/object, the expression frozen in the moment; you might even say it’s an attempt to capture an emotion. Here are a few gesture drawings of people (from class) and chickens (homework). The drawings of the chickens took less than 10 seconds per chicken, the gesture drawings of the models are 5 minute drawings.
During spring quarter 2012 at Gage I took a class called Artistic Anatomy. In this class you literally study anatomy as far as it applies to drawing (and consequently also to painting and sculpting). In other words you study the skeleton, muscles, etc. – even hair (direction of hair growth, beard) – you get the idea. However this class was an advanced class for students who already had taken part 1 and part 2 in fall and winter, so I got a little in over my head. It was expected that one already knows most of the anatomy and applies it to life drawing. Thankfully I was not the only one who misjudged the class content and the instructor adjusted his curriculum taking the time at the beginning of each session repeating the material in an abbreviated form and explaining once more the specific parts of the body before we started drawing from the life model.
It was quite a ride, I have to say. The upside is, I tend to work harder when I feel that I’m behind. Also, the instructor did not exactly cut me (or anyone else for that matter) any slack. He was not pleased that he had so many people in class that had not already studied the subject. He was very critical and, without any mercy, took every one of my drawings apart. Sometimes it was hard to take it all in but it helped me to get better. One certainly learns through failure. Towards the end of the quarter I even received an approving nod here or there. During the last session we worked completely independent on a drawing of a man. When the session was over I asked him to tell me what he thought was good or bad about it. He pointed to the knee area of one leg and said, “this area here, that’s actually not bad, well defined,” …and nodding his head in thought, said again, “not bad.” I know that doesn’t sound like much but coming from him (and considering where I had started 12 weeks earlier) it felt really good to hear 🙂
Here are a couple of my drawings/studies from that class: legs, knee, feet, female full body and a portrait.
Following a construction drawing/study of the knee (my knee in the mirror actually).
The next one is one of my favorites. I had a good session that day and although the arms are not that well defined (ran out of time) I was happy with the result.
And last but not least, a portrait.
As a follow-up to the blogs about “drawing and sculpting” (posted June and July) here is a portrait that I drew during the last class session of “Beginning Portrait – Drawing and Sculpting”. Remember the point of the class was to enhance your drawing skills through sculpting.
Pencil on Paper, May 2012
Now, in comparison look at the following portrait that I drew during my “Beginning Drawing” class during March 2012 (just a couple of months earlier). The nose and in particular the ear in this drawing are not as well developed as in the above drawing. Partly it was a lack of skill but also a lack of “seeing” things and being able to translate it into 2D. The sculpting truly helped to understand the form better and become better at drawing. 🙂
Charcoal on Paper, March 2012
“Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another.”
– Seth Godin –
On June 26th and 27th I posted sculptures of the nose and ear. Here comes the mouth.
As a reminder: the purpose of sculpting parts of the face (in this exercise) is to understand their shape better – the plane breaks, the volume, the relationships of the parts of the face to each other – consequently it helps to become better at drawing (the face). In addition one can practice drawing from the sculptures – drawing from a 3-D model – e.g. the following photos show how the shape of the mouth can create shadows on the face, it also shows the “hills” and “valleys” of this part of the face quite well. You could also draw the feature from different angles – e.g. practicing drawing a foreshortened view etc.
The following photo shows well that it’s really only a sculpture of the mouth. Neighboring features of the mouth are only developed as much as necessary to understand the relationship hence the nose in this sculpture is really a rather undefined lump of plasticine serving as the “boarder” to the north (casting a shadow) and showing that the philtrum groove of the mouth connects to the nose – although it doesn’t show the details of how exactly it connects to the nose as this information is not needed for drawing the mouth.
Here's To Express.. :)
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