Creating Worlds & Drawing Children: Overlap!

Hello hello!

Well last week's batch of homework was an overlap between both classes! This was a grea time saver AND it allowed me to really focus on what I was drawing. Our assignment was to create a child character for one class, and a character with its environment in the other class.

So here's what I came up with. :)

yes! this is from my new sketchbook :)

Image Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011

Image Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011

Image Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011

I'm not going to say too much about the little backstory on these characters and where they live, because I feel a real story brewing here and I would like to pursue it. I'll let you use your imagination for now!

Gotta run, so I'll post ya later! :D

Creating Worlds, Week 4: Motif

Hi there, and Happy Valentine's Day!

I didn't do anything creatively cute in honor of today, but I've got last week's Creating Worlds homework assignment to share with you. The only requirement was to create a world using a specific motif, or theme. As in "nature" or "technology" or "fill-in-the-blank."

Now a good way to understand what motif means, is to picture a fence. Based on its appearance, we can tell these things: What kind of fence is it? Where is this fence sitting? What is the fence used for? What time period or location is this fence from? Is there a decoration or embellishment on this fence that gives more meaning to it?

Depending on the kind of fence you pictured, you may have thought of a lot of other imagery that goes along with said fence. A chainlink could mean a prison or an animal shelter; a picket could mean a country lane; a rustic, splintery one could have come straight from an old Western movie. And there you have it, motif. Motifs are loaded with meaning and connections. And artists use them to further illustrate and convey what we want to our audience. We use these little clues to help us!

We were allowed to combine motifs to make our own, which is what I chose to do with my drawing. I originally wanted to do this super techy Steampunk motif mixed with an Asian motif- but that's not me. I couldn't even invent such a thing in my mind! Instead I went with my usual subject: a tree. But I mixed in Japanese and Chinese motifs with it, and came up with this sketch:

Image Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011

And because it was so pretty, I wished it to be a painting, so I transferred it to cold-press watercolor paper and started washing in some color.

Image Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011

And that is it so far! I'd like to finish the piece, but it's tough keeping up with two classes worth of homework, and trying to get them all to look like finished pieces, while working full-time (and doing an occasional load of laundry). I'm not making excuses; actually I've learned a lot from this particular instructor that "it is what it is. The art doesn't tell us you had a sick day. It's just itself."

So for now, I will leave it at that. :)

Creating Worlds, Weeks 2&3: Shape Psychology & Line

Hullo!

Been a bit busy, so here I'm catching up...

In Week Two we talked about shape psychology, and how shapes affect or moods and feelings. It can be best described in Molly Bang's book: "Picture This: How Pictures Work" Our assignment was to draw two compositions, one that gives off negative feelings and one that gives off positive feelings, all based upon the shapes and lines that we use.

Image Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011

Image Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011

Image Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011

The drawings aren't in a finished form- I'd rather paint them and add some neat characters before I consider them finished. But the assignment was complete in essence, so I will be working on them again in the near future.

Week Three was all about line, and the ways we use value and line choice to draw the viewer in or out. Texture is also a part of it. Good examples are found in Andrew Loomis' drawing books, and Maurice Sendak was one of the artists mentioned as well.

Image Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011

Image Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011

Once again, not one hundred percent finished! But I would like to paint this one as well, for my portfolio.

This coming week we are drawing a world that contains a specific motif, or theme. I'll post that one when it's finished in a few days! Well, off to draw some kiddos, see you soon! :)

Creating Worlds, Week 1: Kryptonite

So I'm taking this course called "Creating Worlds," and it teaches just that- how to make your worlds and spaces more real, as imaginery as they might be. And when I say real, it means not only visually, but emotionally speaking as well. You can feel the space, be in that space, and really believe that space exists.

We started with a basic perspective overview, because if your picture isn't making spatial sense, then it is harder for the viewer to believe in it. This is up to a certain point, however. Not every piece of art is perspectively perfect. But one must know the rules by heart, and truly understand them, in order to break them effectively. (You can brush up on yours with these books: "Basic Perspective Drawing" by John Montegue, "Perspective Made Easy" by Ernest Norling, and there is a section in "Creative Illustration" by Andrew Loomis too.)

So our first week's homework was to make two drawings of spaces that exist in our inner world, one in One Point perspective, and one in Two (or three) Point perspective. Over the years, I've had quite a bit of experience doing perspective drawings. I've never particularly enjoyed doing them, but have found them easy enough, and so did them without complaint. So I thought our homework would be a piece of cake! Haha! Ha! Ha. Heh...

Audience, it is now time for you to meet my new friend, my Artistic Kryptonite: Perspective in a Made Up World.

Don't get me wrong now- I can still draw perspective in a real world situation, with real things that actually exist. But when it comes to having a particular composition in my head, and putting that down on paper, then asking me where my vanishing points are, and if this table would look better at that angle...

It was hard! I drew, re-drew, traced, cut and pasted. And I got super frustrated with myself. After all these years, (well I'm still young, but I thought the years I spent in college must have accounted for something at least...) how could I still be struggling with silly perspective?!?!

But then I realized that it doesn't matter if I can pull the information I needed out from my brain. I can use that brain to construct something to use as a reference! Drawing from life is never cheating, it is a very useful (and lifesaving) tool.

Things got a lot easier after that! I wasn't able to come up with fully complete drawings because I ran out of time. But I know I will finish them, if not by the end of this course, but definitely in the future, because each composition is one I will be using in three of my stories! Sneaky, huh?

The original composition in my mind's eye.

This is how it would REALLY look. Yes, the sheep lost both his ears.
(We don't like to talk about it.)

 

Ahh, a nice messy graphite drawing!

Except I can't stand smudgey graphite, so onto the blue pencil.
I'm going to clean this up and then go over it in pencil.

Bungee Bunny's house.

This scene will happen in the story.
There goes my pics going sideways again. *sigh*

Our instructor helps me get a better idea what I'm doing by drawing some ovals.

I'm trying to get a better idea of the space my characters are in.

This is where I start getting super frustrated. It isn't the view I want to see!

but THIS is!

SO much better! Should have done that first...

The actual composition I was looking for, with correct perspective!
Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011.

I'm not posting the third image because it is nothing but a scrubby little thumbnail, times three. But you'll get to see it eventually.

The most encouraging thing we learned was that our instructor had struggled in just the same way each of us did for this project, and he promised us the more we practice, the easier it gets. So there is hope for me yet!

Next Week: Emotional Design, and shape psychology! Read "Picture This" by Molly Bang.