Saturday, April 28, 2012

QUEST #2: Skulldiggeryduggery.

Tis' Now time Time for Quest Number TWO,
While I was drawing Hands for the challenge last week my friend Simon (a super skilled artist) mentioned that he'd had a former art teacher tell him, "If you can DRAW a HAND, you can DRAW ANYTHING.."

This comment got me thinking about one of my College professors (the talented Eugene Clark) saying to his students, "EVERY Artist really should understand how to draw the SKULL."


In that class We spent weeks working on how to draw the skull… I drew and redrew the thing from multiple vantage points trying to grasp the shape and structure. The goal was to draw skulls until I felt comfortable drawing them out of my head (I had a test on it) and could label its parts and notable features. We even went to the Natural History Museum in Ann Arbor to draw the Animals Skeletons that they had there. I miss doing stuff like that, My skeletal drawing studies are rusty. And I don't like the feeling.

SO,….Here's my challenge.
We're gonna draw some SKULLS!
Both human and animal. I suggest that we each select a small variety of other critters (mammals, birds, reptile, fish, etc.) along with a human skull. I think five or six individual creatures is a good number overall. But, feel free to branch out.
Then dig up some reference and STUDY IT! I mean really pick at it.
Do a handful of rough drawings and work at them until you'd feel comfortable rattling off the shapes and volumes out of your noggin'… Really focus on conveying mass and volume in your drawings, this might mean using shading or crosshatching and perhaps working on a toned surface to add in some kind of highlights… Digital rendering might work well also. Work on bringing a few of your studies to a more finished state. Try capturing the texture of the bones the presence of sutures from when the skull is formed, even the textural difference between teeth and other areas of bone..

In the end you'll hopefully have some pages that feel like wildlife anatomy studies. Moreover, your shooting to attain an better understanding of volumes in this important bone structure. Post um all up by next Friday and, do be sure to share your sketches as well. I'm Looking forward to seeing what you lads turn out.

Best of luck!
P

No comments:

Post a Comment