From Start to Finish: Drawing Children, Final Project

Hello :)

So you probably have realized that I've got a LOT of catching up to do, blog-wise anyhow. I haven't posted the past few weeks' worth of in-class drawings and homework for the Drawing Children course, and yet tonight we just had our very last class!

It was a great little journey, going from babies and hands to every size and shape of children we could draw. I highly recommend those who are considering a career in children's books to take a class similar to this one, or to read through some of Andrew Loomis' books, and to DRAW SOME CHILDREN. It certainly helped me a great deal!

But anyhow, I'm jumping ahead to our last project, because I'm super excited about it. After six weeks of child-drawing, and six weeks of learning more on how to make a world look more convincing, I'm pretty pleased with the quality of my work. Things just work better, now that I have a better idea of what I'm doing! And I will be backposting the previous weeks worth of work over the next few days.

So this is how I created the latest finished piece:


My original sketch, from our model in class.
© Melanie Linden Chan 2011



The girl needs a world to live in!
© Melanie Linden Chan 2011

Transferred onto Arches Hot Press watercolor paper.
© Melanie Linden Chan 2011

Windsor Blue watercolor wash.
© Melanie Linden Chan 2011

Base layer of color.
© Melanie Linden Chan 2011

More color, along with Caran d'Ache crayons.
© Melanie Linden Chan 2011

Added some Prismacolor pencilwork.
© Melanie Linden Chan 2011

I came up with a little poem to go along with the art, so I can submit to Spider Magazine! We'll see if I make it in (and I'll keep ya updated), but here's the final product:

© Melanie Linden Chan 2011

And since I will be taking the Spring and Summer off from CE classes, I will have time to work/finish my book dummy, submit it, prepare for the NESCBWI Spring Conference, and work on SuperSecretProject #2! All because I want to. Isn't that nice???

I think so! :D

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

Drawing Children: Sketchbook

Here's the start of my sketchbook. Huh, did it sooner than I thought I would! Feeling pretty grateful that Facebook has an endless supply of baby photos. These are all of my two nieces, when they were a tad bit younger.

All images are Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011.

Drawing Children: Adult & Child

For homework we were asked to draw some images of a child with an adult. It must be the same adult and child in different poses and situations, so we get a handle of how the two interact.

I did my best (after perusing my sister-in-law's Picasa site), considering I don't draw people. But if I'm going to illustrate children's books, I should definitely be drawing people!

ALL images are Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011.

I'm also starting a sketchbook. I think I've mentioned before that sketchbooks and I are not really on the same page (hehe), because I like to draw on scrappy paper and such. However, it is indeed time for me to give it a serious effort, and so I shall. I'll post my drawings as they come along!

Drawing Children: More Gestures and Poses

We drew a very tall first-grader in class last night! He was such a cute little gentleman, and the BEST model (he stood quite still) we've ever had. Our instructor reminded us to stay loose and free, and to capture the body's movement and overall proportions before getting into details; "structure before likeness." Then we moved onto longer poses so we could have the chance at putting down some solid lines. It was a great lesson!

I have NO idea why these pictures keep loading sideways like this. Blogger can be a little weird at times... (I swear it isn't me! I'm not a wizard but I know what I'm doing!) Our next assignment is to draw three pictures of a child with an adult. I guess we'll see what I come up with. :)

Drawing Children: Baby Faces

For homework we were asked to draw twelve baby faces and six baby bodies. Some are made up, based upon the proportions found in Andrew Loomis' books, and some are drawn from reference photos.

The faces I made up on my own are much too cartoony, and I might try to draw some more because I really need practice! But I've got other homework to do first, so these will have to do for now:

ALL images are Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011

ALL images are Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011

ALL images are Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011

ALL images are Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011

ALL images are Copyright Melanie Linden Chan, 2011

That's all for now! :)

Drawing Children

This week I started the six-week Drawing Children class!

The class focuses on drawing from a live model each night, and working on proportions and some good 'ol homework for more practice. Which is great, because I'm quite terrible at drawing the little ones. They tend to look robotic and generally weird if I don't have a reference photo in front of me.

We did a lot of guesture drawings and sketches the first night. This one was a wiggler, so it was hard to get her poses down fast enough. But it was good practice! Here's what I did:

ps. ALL images are copyright Melanie Linden Chan! but you knew that already...

As you can see from the last image, our homework is to sketch out 12 baby heads, and also 6 whole babies. I'll post those when I'm finished with them as well.

I've also just realized my blog will be 1 year old (!) in four days. What should I do for my blogoversary?? How do you give your blog a present?

Shuffle

I'm moving around some stuff on my blog, so these images here are being re-posted for that reason. Plus, it will fit in nicely with my new Drawing Children class. :)

In all my years of drawing, I've never had the opportunity to draw children from life, at least not in a classroom environment. So it has been a great challenge for me, and a good learning experience, when children come into our classes and pose for us. If you haven't done it before, then you should give it a try. It is a LOT harder than it would seem! Kids don't like to keep still...