Another Week Past

    Once again we've been pretty busy this week and here's a bigger post. Hopefully we can get back into the swing of everything next week again. I have some new Illustration work in progress and finished that I'll try to photograph this weekend. I have trouble in my house getting quality photos of my work.

    First here is my first portrait for Painting class out of the two. They're not as developed as I'd like because I'm splitting my time between two models, but I'm pretty satisfied with this one. I had a lot of trouble getting her strong cheekbone and jawline to resemble hers. It was a defining factor in capturing her likeness and I think I missed it, but that's okay. I've never painted anyone like this before so I'm struggling with the face. It's my weakest point.

[Cody's portrait painting]

    In drawing we were doing more charcoal last week, though with white on a "toned" or colored surface. I had two, but my second one was not good at all. I tried to do a whole value drawing with charcoal pencils and it just didn't work the way I had intended. This one works well though, it looks a lot more like the model than my painting does to that model.

[Cody's charcoal/chalk portrait]

    As I mentioned I finished my second assignment for Illustration I, which was an ink/ink wash piece that I ended up really liking. I'll share more about it when I've got pictures... I feel like I had more work to share from last week, but I guess minus a drawing and a painting in progress and that's it for now.

    Tomorrow after Drawing Allison, my brother Clinton and I are going to see Emily Kinney of The Walking Dead sing/perform at the casino near here. Hopefully we can get into line early enough to meet her and get something signed. I have no idea what to expect, it should be fun either way though.

-Cody

    It's been a while ! It's been non-stop work for me. Between my independent drawings and drawing classes I've been producing a lot of work. I will post a section soon of all of the work. We had a hard time posting this week so we decided to create a huge post. 

       

     The first two are white charcoal pieces of a model. They both look like different models, but like the model... The brown piece was my second one and the blue was the first. I'm trying harder to measure where the features are. So I think the second one was more successful.

[Allison's charcoal/chalk portrait]


[Allison's charcoal/chalk portrait]

    Below is a drawing from my pastels class. Which I've had three times now, out of 7weeks. This image looks too vibrant. It's not so vibrant with the crazy bright colors. It loses its blend of color that way. 

[Allison's chalk pastel still-life]

    I've got great ideas for pieces, but they only seem great until I execute them. My Independent Drawing Projects class has a lot of abstract artists. So the feedback I recieve is more abstract based, which is unfortunate. 

-Allison 

"Any picture that needs a caption is a weak picture." -Harvey Dunn

A Bit of Backup

    I've got some homework for Drawing to finish up so I won't type very much, but I've got some work to share.

    In Special Topics in Illustration we've been assigned to illustrate a Tarot card of our choice. I chose the Wheel of Fortune for something different, and I'm taking it in a science fantasy direction. I did my sketches in photoshop, but the final will be some sort of mixed traditional media piece.

[wheel of fortune tarot card sketches]

    I'll probably mess around with watercolors to get the nice textured space/galaxy that I'll want. I'm leaning towards one of the two on the left... with the one on the right in 3rd.

    For Painting I we're doing portraits from live models, because of my split schedule I'll be doing two paintings with half the time for each. So we'll see how they go. I think I'll be alright.

[portrait painting in progress]

[portrait painting in progress]

    I've got another piece that I've been working on for Illustration I that I'm liking a lot, but I don't have any photos yet. Maybe tomorrow.

-Cody

Something to Share

     I can't think of anything interesting to start off with, but I do have some work to share. Today in drawing we had our first in class model. We worked on charcoal portraits all day, I ended up with one I think came out pretty well and the other started off poorly. I ended up not finishing it up.

    I tried to spend a lot of time looking at the way his face was truly shaped and in the end I actually captured a pretty good likeness. He was looking a bit like Keith David when I was about halfway in, but I pulled it back to the model.

[Cody's charcoal portrait]

    Yesterday was our last day in painting for our most recent still life, I still think parts of it work alright and others don't. The skull is something I may come back to, most of it is painted in an entirely different manner than anything else.

[Cody's vanitas still life]

    Tomorrow I've got Perspective and I guess we're starting a new painting. I better see what size canvas I'm going to need...

-Cody

    This was the first time we've done a figure in drawing class. I've done them before at TRCC, but I'm still rusty with portraits. I believe it came out better than I expected. I ran into a bad spot though and had to re-size the whole head. Which I was relieved to have done so easily. When things are messed up in my drawings I usually have to do so much to make it correct because I forget to measure things properly. This was an easy fix and I'm glad I made the decision to.  My work isn't as smooth as I'd like it to be. But I also am satisfied with how painterly it looks and how my hand applies the marks.

[Allison's charcoal portrait]

-Allison

"Were it so easy" -The Arbiter[Keith David]

For the Longest Time

    We've gotten a lot of work for school done lately, the downside being we haven't had time to share anything.

    Tonight though, we do.

    Last week I had continued working on my still life in painting, I've got a lot of the skull painted in now. I'm happy with parts of it and not satisfied with others, tomorrow hopefully I can finish it strongly. Some of the sharper planes look good, I know the darker planes don't read as well.

[vanitas still life]

    In Special Topics in Illustration we were tasked with redesigning the cover of a book and I chose to do the Covenant of Primus. Essentially it's the Transformers bible in their universe. In ours it was a book released that tells the story of the creation of Cybertron and the original 13 Primes.

    Right when I started my sketches I knew that I wanted the cover to be metal, 3D, blocky and weathered. I decided to use the ancient Autobot logo split in half on the cover Which is still iconic, yet not blaringly Transformersey. 

[the Covenant of Primus]

    Making the whole thing out of metal looks great, but I struggled to weather/beat it up in the manner I had intended. Overall I think it turned out pretty successfully, I am going to work on it a little more on my own.

[the Covenant of Primus]

    The Cybertronian text could be more integrated into the metal and I think the weathering would have helped. I may also play with burning/indenting the text into the cover.

[the Covenant of Primus "print cover"]

    We also had to present a cover that would be printed on the mass retail version of the book as well. I need to retake the photo and add the "real world" title/author once I work on it further. This is how the book was turned in/critiqued today though. I'm fairly proud with how it turned out, but holding in it hand and looking at it all around really makes it feel successful.

    I also completed my self-portrait for Illustration I and got the half tone on it, it looks pretty cool in person.

[halftone self-portrait]

    The digital version just doesn't do it justice. I'm working on sketching/planning out my next assignment for Illustration today I'll share that when I've got more set in stone. Tuesdays are my favorite days right now, spending all day working on assignments and critiquing work much more aligned with what I want to do is very motivating.

-Cody

    Today I worked on my piece Independent Drawing Projects, which is going to be two collages. Mixed with another form of medium. I did a lot of cleaning today, I don't have class on Tuesdays. I'm also thinking about applying to be the RA so I made a resume today with a cover letter. I hope I get the job. But I also know there is a lot of responsibility and you have to be available all the time. I'm working on a lot of homework this week. I'm overloaded and I've been working on stuff for hours today. 

    I'll take photos soon. But here is a poor quality photo for now of my latest project.

[self-portrait collage in progress]

-Allison 

I'm Working On It

    I'm not going to write too much today, I've got some of my own work I want to get done/started for Friday, but I do have work to share. Yesterday I had Illustration I and Special Topics in Illustration. In the former we're working on self-portraits in either stippling of halftone styles. Stippling being tiny repetitive dots bunched together to create value and halftone to emulate an old style of printing, like a comic book.

    If you didn't know, up here in Connecticut we've gotten a good amount of snow on the ground, and we've missed about a week of class over the last two from snow days. So instead of reproducing the whole drawing in ink, I'm doing a more "finished" drawing in pencil and adding a halftone filter in photoshop for the final. I'll present both, and it was suggested by my instructor as an option.

[pencil self-portrait]

    I'm pretty happy with how my self-portrait is coming out, I don't do them often/at all so I was struggling at first. I'm going to push the value a little bit more along the side of my neck and in my hoodie and shirt. I think the visible directional lines work in my favor, so I'm happy with that.

[vanitas still life]

    My painting is coming along as well, I worked on it all morning in class and I'm trying to pay attention to how I place/mix all of my colors. I'm happy with where it's at for now, I'll have Friday afternoon and next week to finish it up as well.

    We may be getting another few days of snowfall here this weekend, hopefully it's not too much. I'm tired of shoveling and not getting to go sledding in any of it yet. Hopefully Allison will have something to share late tonight after her Mythology class, or tomorrow after we have drawing.

-Cody


   I had my critique today for Independent Drawing Projects, I will post photos of my pieces later. They are not completely finished yet. A lot has been going on and I'm so swamped with projects and assignments. I love seeing what Cody is doing in the classes I'm not in with him, his self portrait has come along way since the last time I saw it. It looks more like him now. I really like it, and I wish he would draw more people including himself. I also need to do more self portraits.

   Yesterday I went to a gallery showing in New York at the New York Academy. I will post pictures when I get them from my friend's camera. It was alright, the show was nice, but the trip was dreadful. We were gone from 3:30 pm to midnight and we were only at the show for around 40 minutes. 

   I'm brainstorming for my next two pieces for IDP(independent drawing projects) with some old cards I have from an abandoned building. I want to go back and get more... But the weather is keeping me from getting in there. Snow leaves tracks and tracks are a no-go. You can't sneak with footprints following you everywhere. 

    I recently made a cast out of a mold of a figure the process was terrible. Everything went wrong, leaks and bad plaster mixing with a side of poor molds made from a broken sculpture. We recently made relief carvings with a pear of pears. I really love working in relief, it's a great three dimensional aspect to drawing. 

    Also I just found out my myth teacher doesn't like cats. 200 points to him. 

-Allison

"May The Force be with you, always." -Obi-Wan Kenobi