Today in Sketching: Art for Art's Sake

So today was an odd day in sketching to say the least. I drew this on the back of my receipt at Panera's while having lunch with some of my class chums from animation class. The girl who took my order is a bit of an odd ball yet awkwardly pleasant. She is always overly eager to take your order and she leans her body (lead by her head) toward you when she asks questions. She did remember me though--she tagged me "the artist"--and after a briefly confusing conversation (which was purposefully confusing on my behalf) she comp'd me one free drink.

Then I have been drawing these creepy ogre-looking things (*note the green mistake in the last post). The one on the right was actually drawn fairly large on bigger paper. Why? I don't know...

Then it was off to life drawing for animation class!
It was another model-less day. So my instructor did some quick poses for us. Because the class needed the practice in drawing cargo-pants... Okay, joking aside, I give the man credit for really putting an effort out there to give us something to draw (I had an instructor once who made us take turns in modeling on the stand).

My instructor does get pretty inventive though. He ran out and grabbed a plastic tiger mask and a plastic pink flamingo (probably a lawn ornament--btw how were those ever popular???). Instead of drawing a man in a mask, I decided to transform him into an actual cat:
These were fun and I wished we did more of them, but all of a sudden, things took a turn for the weird.....

When we first walked into class, we were told to fill a page with random marks. Later were told to return to that page and were verbally handed a laundry list of things to do to it. It was like 20 minutes of creating abstract expressionism in a LIFE DRAWING class for ANIMATION! I mean who forces contemporary art onto people? WHO? Sometimes my instructor's fine arts background rears its head in class and just likes to ruin my day. There is a time and a place for that kind of stuff--really, I don't hate it--but seriously not when I am trying to work on my draftsmanship.

Then again, I wouldn't have made this masterpiece:
This is the image of my brain checking out.
We went back to gesturing right after. For our last drawing, he wanted us to create tension in the pose and gave us about 15 to 20 minutes with it:
I didn't even bother to get a clean paper and gave it about a minute of my time. I spent the rest of the class time making caricatures of some of my classmates (they were pretty mean exaggerations and didn't have much likeness of their respective subjects). The class had to turn our drawings around for everyone to see, as we occasionally do, and I clearly didn't spend as much time on it then the rest of the class. Hah!

I was having such a good day too! I was in bright spirits. Having a modest amount of social interaction with my peers. Cracking some jokes. But I felt the life just get sucked out of me in that class. Days without models are the longest.

Thursday we don't have a model. So we will be field-tripping to PetsMart for some cafe sketching. Except last time we went, it was one of the most stressful cafe skecthing I have ever experienced. I hope I don't get placed in front of the gold fish this time...

*FACEPALM*

Water Color Skecthing

So I picked up a water color kit for my on-the-go coloring needs (specifically for my little Elephant Sketchbook). And I am actually having TONS of fun with it. I'm not very good, but it is really nice to just do something in color--something as relaxing as cafe sketching, where the drawings are just quick inconsequential studies.Today, however, was some of the most stressful cafe sketching I have ever experienced. Brandon decided to take the life drawing class to PetsMart since there wasn't a model for us. He kept shuffling us around so we didn't over crowd any one area--them was the rules, I guess.

That class is so random.

The Mini Elephant Sketchbook

Having not posted in a while, I wish I had more to share, but sadly I haven't been working too hard; I don't want to turn this into an exposition on my Life Drawing. With the furlough week upon me, maybe I'll be able to catch up--then I'll have some story boards to show (and maybe even some animation!) But for now, how about some Cafe Sketches!
So I started drawing in this small sketchbook for a number of reasons:
-Fits in my back pocket (note its size in relation to the pen)
-I'll never be with out it if it's in my pocket
-James Gurney (among several other artists I've overheard) recommend it
-It was free! (my boss got it as a gift, who then gave it to my coworker, who then gave it to me)
-It is filled with great paper (like a cream watercolor paper)
-Doesn't take long to fill a page (good for the self esteem)
-I need to learn to draw smaller (my work is running off the page few too many times)
On a casual night at the driving range with my buddy, I thought it would be a good time to take the hand-held for a test drive. I carried a pencil in my pocket, as usual, but also had a brush pen and self loaded water brush--none of these tools seem to take to the paper very well as you can see....

I wasn't liking what I was creating with the brush, but I did notice that the paper to great to water when I attempted to cover up my poor drawings with some tone. I think I may try out some watercolors with it in the near future.
Later, while I dined alone at one of the local Thai Restaurants (I did invite some friends, but didn't get any takers--and I was in the mood for spicy soup, so cut a guy some slack!), I got this page done. I decided to use a pen. Took better to the paper and wont run if I decide to add color to anything.The animals were from my post Thai cuisine adventures. I'm a little intimidated with the ink. It's just so unforgiving. Once I put the line there, it's there for good. Then what happens? I overworked the dog and underworked the bird. Maybe some day I'll find that happy medium.

And the final page was while I was again dining alone at an Asian restaurant. I wonder if there may be a pattern here...