Surf's Up

El Matador State Beach, Malibu, CA

El Matador State Beach, Malibu, CA

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending a workshop with Dreamworks Animation artist Mike Hernandez. He lectured extensively on lighting and color theory. I hope some of what I've learned from his talk is manifesting in these studies. Both were done in under an hour and on site.

Sara

Twenty-five minutes for the first two sketches, fifty minutes for the second. I decided to start drawing in ink in a tiny Moleskine for a while to keep things fresh and to get more sketches in with the time I have at workshops. I've also been inspired lately with the pen-and-ink drawings of Charles Dana Gibson and wanted to try something in his style. In addition, I also realized that pretty much all my favorite fantasy illustrators do amazing ink renderings, and since I'd like to try to break into that field someday, I figure I might as well get good at it too.

Ink is really frightening since you're walking a tightrope without a net - make one false move and your drawing is trash. But for some reason, that's exactly why I like it - knowing it's permanent frees me from noodling too much and forces me to make big decisions.

Lunchtime

Three minute sketches? I like to draw people on my lunch break whenever I can to get some practice in during the day. It's pretty amazing how variable the human head can be.

Paul

Ten minute quick sketches focusing on drapery as well as light and shadow patterns.

Brant

Two and ten minutes. I'm trying to break free of old habits and styles, so I'm taking a couple of classes with Glenn Vilppu, who teaches a very different method of drawing the figure than I'm used to. His approach is more classical; akin to the master draftsmen of the Renaissance. These doodles were done in his quick sketch class, which encourages us to experiment with different types of media. The first two pages are two-minute continuous contour drawings - meaning, we use line to feel around the forms we're looking at, and do our best to never lift the pen off the page as we draw. The last two pages of ten minute poses were done with a combination of a felt tip pen and a Pentel brush pen. I admit to have a particular soft spot for brush pens - it was the medium that got me drawing again after a decade, all thanks to Craig Thompson's gorgeous autobiographical graphic novel Blankets, a moving coming-of-age romance and a poignant reflection on his loss of faith. Pick it up if you haven't read it yet; wonderful stuff.

Murphy Batman & Saladang Sketches

A couple of pages from my mini moleskine. I'm limiting myself to ballpoint pen sketches because they make me commit to my marks and force me to discover new ways of indicating features and forms with just line. I'm more of a painter than a draftsman (meaning, I have an easier time seeing in terms of tone), so this is my way of attacking that particular weakness of mine. As you can tell, I am making a ton of mistakes, but at least I am learning and can laugh at myself about them.

The adorable dog is James Paick's. He's really hyper (the pup, not my instructor)!

Pocket Monsters & Letecia

I attended a draftsmanship seminar with Marshall Vandruff over the Thanksgiving break and I have to say it was such a breath of fresh air. For some reason or another, I've always been timid about drawing from my imagination - maybe because deep down inside I'm afraid I'm not as competent as I think I might be. Hearing him give his lecture on how easy it can be to draw anything out of your head really instilled in me the confidence to just go for the gusto and give it a shot. I've got to be training that side of myself as an artist anyway, because in order to do concept work I have to make up stuff that doesn't even exist - and I can't always rely on models as crutches to help get the job done.

I often draw monsters or creatures in my sketchbooks, especially if I'm having a particularly stressful day at the office. I can't explain why, but drawing ugly creatures soothes the nerves immensely. I colored the grumpy orc face in Photoshop just to give myself a little bit of painting practice before I head off to bed.

The second image is a pen sketch of my classmate Letecia. Kirk repeated his lecture on the muscles of the leg from last week, so I used that time instead to draw the other students in the room (sorry Kirk). I'm hoping to get faster and more efficient at doing these quick doodles.