Sketch Trip: Train Station + Sketching: Week 5 + Comic & Illust Exhibit.

Last weekend, I and some of my classmates decided to spend one night at the train station to do our sketch homework. Why at night, you ask? Well, that's because people who travel at night, tend to nod off while waiting for their ride -- ideal, when you're trying to sketch them. 8O















It was really cold, and I, for one, kept getting sleepy while trying to sketch, but, it was fun! I'm glad I didn't miss the experience.

As for sketching from life in itself, well... In order to do that properly, you'd have to pay attention to all the technical elements of drawing, as well as make the execution as natural as possible. Apparently, there's no better way to do so than by making models of random people doing random things.

There's a difference between a model who is trying to maintain a pose long enough for you to draw it, than one who is not. Sure, at our level, our models would have moved several times before we finish our sketches. Then again, this is called 'speed drafting' for a reason -- we have to learn to memorize poses at a glance.

One way to do that is: first, familiarize yourself with the structure of your model -- know where the light falls and shadows are cast, why one part is lighter / darker than the other, etc. Second, learn to pinpoint the center of gravity -- make pose look natural, and not forced.

Lastly, develop a sketching technique that you find comes naturally to you, and practice it. Don't think that you have to draw in a certain way. The sky's the limit with art, and, the more unique, the better! Also, don't stick with a technique that you're uncomfortable with! Masochist. X ))

Here are some of the speed drafts by Chinese master artisans that Gu laoshi showed us. Confident strokes, confident dabs -- there are no words.





Also, there's this one artist whose style I've personally fallen in love with! His name is 顾生岳 (Gu Shengyue), and you can find some of his speed drafts here.

Sketch class: week 5. We're still doing speed drafting, with two quiet male models this time.







Gu laoshi also took us to see selected pieces created by 'pure FA' students -- that is, students who are taking up sketching / painting courses. You'll notice how their works look and feel 'complete' compared to ours. ^x^

These are their speed drafts, ...













paintings, ...









and, sketch portraits.











Here are some of the selected works exhibited by Comic -- not [Japanese] manga -- & Illustration sophomores and juniors. There were only a handful of digital works there, and these that I took photos of, are all traditional. Impressive!













Some departments in the School of Media and Animation also recently updated the contents of their showcase.











Whenever I see vectors and typography, I remember ADMU -- so sue me. : ))



Anyway, a hell of a lot has happened since I last updated, so I think I'll be blogging again real soon. Till the next post! *3*/

Yue Opera + Clover Leaves.

It was my first time watching a Chinese opera performance live at our campus' mini-theater last Friday. There were five skits; I couldn't understand every word, but at least I knew what was going on. : )

Skit 1: a scene from the Butterfly Lovers.





Skit 2: a scene from The Peony Pavilion.



This actress is a first-level opera performer and opera professor / researcher. *A*



Skit 3. I don't know the title of this play. In this scene, a poor but honest farmer brings an unwilling bride, who he bought with his savings, to his home. The problem is, the bride has no idea of the sale, and thought that the man has kidnapped her. They settle the misunderstanding and decide to live as husband and wife.

My relatives often mention during reunions how my mom used to play the role of the woman in this play. My mom, she was quite pretty when she was young. ; O



Skit 4. I loved this skit -- it was comedy. <333 It's about this merchant looking for a third bride, and this humble vendor's clever daughter is just what he's looking for. Their dialogue was very interesting!





Skit 5. It was about this scholar who just topped the national exams, but could not win back the heart of his love, even with a beautiful crown as a gift. His mother played matchmaker, and advised him to just admit his mistake and apologize. It was a happy ending.





The cast. It's interesting how most of the roles -- even those of male characters -- are performed by actresses, while in the past, men used to run the show.



Yujiao brought me some four-leaf clovers -- 'for happiness'! -- when she came over last weekend. <333

Sketching Class: Week 2 + Doodles.

Sketching: week 2. For this week, we had to draw four bust portraits of two middle-aged models from different angles: mug shots, and bird's worm's eye view.



PSP. I now see why a lot of my classmates are always bored while sketching, cos I now more or less share their sentiments. XD





Zhang Xiaolong is amazing at this.



Liu Hao, too.





Bird's eye view.





After the monitors cleaned up. : )







Not going to say much about how I've been doing, except that I don't really like what I've drawn so far... which is why I'm not posting mine here. Not to be emo, but I'd really just prefer not to immortalize it on my blog. =D=

For one thing, I find the size at which they normally draw head busts -- almost life-size -- overwhelming. I prefer to draw smaller, because I'm used to drawing manga. I strain to draw smaller heads, to fit more into each panel, to fit more panels into each page, not the other way around.

Another thing. My pencil sketches always come out gray and toneless, because in drawing manga, I'm used to sketching out each page carelessly and using the same pen pressure all throughout, cos pencils are erased after inking. It's not the same case with life sketching, where pencil technique and contant change in pen pressure matter.

I have to break these habits in order to get better!



I dislike doing something I'm not good at, so I tried to be good at sketching, but I just ended up tiring myself out again and again. So now, before I get neurosis, I'm putting all my sketching books back into the cabinet and taking a break from realism. I'll go back to work on my weekly sketches when it's close to grading time in early January, and post them up here when I'm done. Hopefully I can be less uptight about realism then. ^A^;

Here's a study I did on my own, of someone you'd think I'd like to draw...





Sakurai-san, I have failed you! OTL

Needless to say, this isn't halfway done. OTL I guess I just really have a short attention span, no matter how pretty the model! XD I didn't even get to the hair, and that's normally my favorite part, LOL. I'll redeem myself some other time.

This actually reminds me of when I first tried drawing manga, back when I was twelve. At that time, it was so frustrating, that after a few pages, I gave up and decided that I won't be a manga-ka when I grow up afterall.

Four years later, the art director of Otaku Mangazine contacted me for a manga gig. I declined, saying that it wasn't for me, but then he said, "Have you even tried it?" to which I thought, well, it's been a while, so maybe I will give it a shot. And, before I knew it, I was drawing manga! What's more, I no longer found it difficult, but fun and gratifying.

Anyway, here's to hoping that it will be the same for realism -- that the reason why I keep on running and getting nowhere, is cos of this masochistic overachieving attitude. >___>;

Here are Liu Man and Lu Chen doodling while taking a break from realism during class. Doodling or "fast drafting" is actually a part of our class, and they're actually doing homework. We have 20 pages due tomorrow.



Lu Chen asked me to pose for a doodle / caricature. Hehe, it's just 5 degrees and I'm already dressed very very warmly.



Yang Xuemeng, Cai Lu, and Mr. Skeleton.



Here are some shots of doodles that I took from the pages of two of my male classmates' sketchbooks. Everyone here is a varied artist! Absolutely amazing.





Roomies.





Self-portrait. Way cool!



Yang Yujiao, a PE classmate, came over to my room yesterday. She doodled me while I was sketching... realism. TTvTT; I made spaghetti for us last night, haha.



Zhang Xiaolong drew me in his anime-style. It doesn't look like me at all, except for the blank stare, haha! Too pretty.



For the first time in a handful of weeks, I tried to draw in anime-style yesterday. I found it shocking that my pencil wasn't as confident as it used to be! Before, when I want to draw a character, all I had to do was know that which character I wanted to draw, and that's exactly who would come out on the paper. The pencil strokes come out almost automatically.

But, this time, after deciding that I wanted to draw Hongfei, I put my pencil to paper as I normally would... but, while sketching, I was surprised to find myself worrying about technical things, such as camera angle, head structure and proportion, lighting... so much so that in paying attention to following these rules, and at the same time, trying to hold back cos I was not drawing realism afterall, Hongfei was starting not to look and feel like Hongfei!

And, let me tell you it was kind of horrifying, cos for a moment, I thought I somehow unlearned how to draw manga... O___O;



But, yeah, it turned out pretty okay afterall... Hongfei still looks like himself, but even Yujiao said that he appears to be more 'dimensional' here, not to mention more "man," LOL! I dunno, that was actually was traumatized me at first -- that he came out manlier than usual, haha. Not quite sure if the mediocre image quality captures that feel, though. ; ))

Our realism sessions are over and done with, but I still have to learn doodling techniques, and I still have a an obligatory contest entry, plus 12/20 pages of doodles due tomorrow! I miss my charas, and I miss drawing anime-style, but, I gotta learn how to deal, srsly.



Belated congratulations on bagging that student exchange program to Japan, Tif! <333