Wistful Dreaming

Here’s the first copy.  It took 30 hours to get to this point.  You can see some notes the instructors made on my copy.  It doesn’t matter that it’s on the page because the transfer is where the final work will be done.  It’s important to be as accurate as possible in this first copy because it helps reduce the number of corrections in the final copy.

Here’s the transfer.  I scribbled on the back and then re-trace the lines on the front which will imprint a faint line on the paper below.  I’m told that the filling in will take around 30 hours to complete.

This week’s figure drawing class was missing model!  The instructor put up one of the casts and showed us one of the more advanced techniques of cast drawing which was to draw just the shadows as shapes…  This required a lot of squinting to blur all the details and figure out where the shadow starts from where it ends.  Anyway, it was an enlightening experience that I’m supposed to learn after the fourth Bargue copy.

The first Bargue drawing is mostly set up to learn the tools and the procedure.  It’s not difficult instructions but it requires a lot of repetition.  The first Bargue is supposed to take between 80 to 100 hours to copy.  Unfortunately, it almost feels like the “ah-ha!” moment comes after each step is complete and you have time to reflect on what you’ve accomplished.

Anyway, I downloaded the Al.chemy program and I was playing around with it.  It has some really cool features to just throw up a lot of random … stuff.  This resulted in some interesting patterns that could be a good background.  I then played around with some watercolour brushes and tried drawing a head using shapes only.

It’s definitely a different way to draw than the construction method.  I’ll probably regret posting this tomorrow when I see the image again with fresh eyes and spot some incorrect placements but so far I’m happy with this test.

It was a very very cold day when I took this one.  Usually, I’d take my time to compose the image but exposing my hands to the elements for longer than three seconds would’ve invited frost bite.  So, I quickly fired off five shots and luckily one of them was decent.

This looks like my last plate copy for 2009!  This took a lot longer than I expected.  I’ll either have to tone down the photocopy darkness or start applying charcoal if I’m going to achieve the same level of darks that the original has.  My graphite only goes so dark.

Happy New Year!!!

This comic isn’t that far from reality.  For the past several years I’ve had my own personal running joke of acting like I’m partially living in the video games I play.  In all those years, laughter was never the response.  Utter confusion is usually the reaction.  Silence is another common reaction.  Yet, I still continue!  I still find it hilarious even if I’m the only one laughing.

I am entertaining the idea of making several web comics out this concept.  We’ll see…