Figures and Faces

A quick note: I was hoping to update the blog every Sunday, but I had to go swing dancing this past weekend at Golden Gate Park, so things got delayed... it was a delightful afternoon in which I learned to dance the Charleston and then picnicked with my roommates, but now it's back to work!

The stuff I'm posting today is from my Figurative Concepts class. The concept of structure is so essential for everything else I'm doing here, and developing the skills to create the proper structure requires a lot of dedication and attention. I had a total art-geek moment doing perspective drawings yesterday. I realized the line of action, on which every figure's pose should be structured, it a lot like the perspective lines in environment drawing, where everything is constructed in relation to those pesky vanishing points... it's all connected!!! For me it was a big 'aha' moment, but I'll admit I am easily impressed by all the interconnections throughout art, life, and everything.

So above are some muscular anatomy charts I made, to help me focus on structure. And we're moving into head drawing next, so we had a homework assignment to draw faces from photographs with attention to cast shadows. I used photos of friends on facebook and then went through my own archives, so perhaps some folks will recognize people they know :)
Clicking on the images takes you to a larger view! That's it for today, but lots more is coming, like character designs from Visual Elements of Story, and a storyboard of my upcoming animation project from Principles and Pipelines! Check back soon!