17th April 2022 to Present (Continuation)

This post now has a BEFORE and PRESENT section instead of ALL my gestures. Thought this might be an easier way to compare my progression as well as condense my post. You can find my daily gesture drawings here on Pinterest instead.

30s Figure Drawing/Gesture Drawing

Using Marc's tips for figure drawing quickly (30 seconds).

1. Head
2. Line of action - One stroke if possible (two strokes if legs have an interesting pose)
3. Draw the limbs closer to the camera first, then do the ones behind after.
4. Feet for a strong base
5. Face direction (line for eyes) so we know which way the model is
   facing

I found 30s really fast, but hopefully I'll get quicker at spotting the main gestures. The main trouble I had was not knowing what else to highlight when I had spare time. I put the extra time in the hair, but I don't think that's important? I think I'll try highlight the curves next time like the shoulders and butt - If you have any suggestions on what I should highlight instead please let me know.

BEFORE (18th April 2022 - First Gesture Drawing)

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17th April 2022 - Figure Drawing 30s.jpg5000x3600 504 KB

PRESENT SKETCHES/GESTURES (1st August 2022)

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20th April 2022

Perspective 1

These are my notes from the first 43mins of the Term 1 - Perspective 1 video. (I'll be adding to/continuing this post as I go through it)

• Horizon line is the most important point of reference.
• Horizon line is where the sky meets the sea.
• Eye level is when you look straight ahead.
• The closer things get to the horizon line the smaller they become. As you get further away from the horizon line things appear bigger.
• The visible horizon line isn't the real horizon line, it's always at sea level (much lower)
• The horizon line is always at sea level.
• If you look straight, the horizon line will roughly be close to the middle. (relative to you POV)
• If you're short and closer to the ground, and look straight it's not as interesting compared to looking up at things. Vice versa if you're taller, you'll look above/over everything.
• Convergence Lines - They're lines that converge into one single point. And the point where they all connect is the vanishing point. (always at least one horizon point).
• Single Vanishing Point is a One Point Perspective

And this is my assignment for the first exercise of finding the convergence lines, vanishing points and the horizon line (and I did the vertical parallel lines too, but note to self that there's also horizontal parallel lines).

Perspective 1 - Assignment 1

Perspective 1- Assignment - Exercise 01 - Practicing Convergence - Vanishing Point - Horizon.jpg5000x3600 1.24 MB

21st April 2022

Perspective 1 - Assignment 2

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Note: My observation from 1-Point Perspective/2-Point Perspective was that you never see more than 3 sides. And you'll never see the top and the bottom of an object or the right and the left of it at the same time (Which makes sense) - Not unless there's a mirror to reveal it haha.

2-Point Perspective

This is the continuation of the video from the 44min mark and my notes:

• 2-point perspective uses two vanishing points
• 2-point perspective makes for a more dynamic image and makes it feel less flat.
• You don't want the vanishing points to be too close to each other because the image can look very distorted/warped. General rule of thumb: Avoid going smaller than 90 degrees where they touch on the bottom. (It's like squeezing the objects)
• Have the convergence lines go towards each other not away.
• You can have it converge off-screen but it'll just make it harder to work with.
• Marc likes to start the height on the middle corner.
• You want the convergence lines to touch the corners so you can form the height/edges.
• Tips for working with shapes - Use simple shapes like cubes first, then you can chisel pieces off to form the desired complicated shape.

Perspective 1 - Assignment 2

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Creating Projects

• 3840 pixels x 2160 pixels (4K resolution)

Any time Charlie! You truly deserve it. I always look forward to seeing your progression and detailed illustrated notes as well.

22nd April 2022

1-Point Perspective - Drawing A Room

Perspective 1 - Assignment 3 - Drawing A Room Using 1-Point Perspecive

Notes taken from the Perspective 1 Video on drawing a room (@ 59mins in):

1. Create project > 3840 pixels x 2160 pixels (4K resolution).
2. Place your horizon and vanishing point. (For the assignment the horizon is placed within the canvas to keep it simple.).
3. Create a new layer > Name it 'Guides' (This is the layer with the horizon) > Choose a colour and draw a line for the horizon close to the upper third of the canvas (PC Shortcut: Hold 'Shift' then click & drag horizontally to create a straight horizontal line - this shortcut helps lock the lines drawn in place).
4. Draw a dot around the centre of the canvas on the horizontal line created to mark the vanishing point .
5. Create the boundaries of the room - To do this, draw lines to each corner of the canvas from the vanishing point. With this we can now draw the back wall of the room.
6. Create a new layer to draw the room. (You can use a different colour pencil)
7. Create a rectangle that connects with the convergence lines of each corner. (This is the back wall)
8. Design the room using simple shapes like cubes/rectangular prisms learnt from previous assignment.

Things to think about when designing things for a room:

• Use simple shapes as guides to make it easier for yourself - you can add details to it later.
• Try to have the correct sizes for objects to make it believable, especially for things that people use like beds, chairs etc, other objects like storage cupboards etc don't matter as much.
• Rooms are typically 2.5 metres tall. (8-9ft tall).
• If you split the height of the room into thirds, an average person's height will be close to the upper third line.
• A person is on average 8 heads tall

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24th April 2022 (Continued)

Perspective 1 - Assignment 3 - Drawing A Room Using 1-Point Perspecive

This is a simplified version of my apartment living room.

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Drawing a Circle in Perspective

1. Draw a square box (The circle will be drawn inside of this)
2. Find the centre of the square - You can do this by drawing diagonals to each corner to form an X.
3. Divide the square into four quadrants or a plus sign (+).
4. Divide the entire square again but into a grid of 8 by 8. The grid will make it easier to mark the edges of the circle.
5. Make a mark at the centre of each side of the square (North, East, South, West) - these will be the circles edges and are the first 4 points to help guide you.
6. This part is hard to explain without an image reference, but when you draw the circle you want to pretend there's a small triangle in each quadrant, those triangles will be the other 4 points of reference (So 8 points altogether). (Refer to the image down below)
7. Then you want to draw a curved line from one dot to the next to form the circle.

Note: Although my drawing down below is facing straight-on, the same steps can be applied if it was on the floor following the perspective lines/convergence lines. You just have to remember that when you do the small triangles and the curve of the circle, that the triangle/lines drawn closer to the horizon line should be smaller.

This is the circle I drew following Marc Brunet's guide:

Drawing a circle.jpg3840x2160 324 KB

25th April 2022

How To Think About Line Weight (To be continued)

These are notes I took from a great video that was linked by @luke.buersgens on @charlieodow 's page. Scott Robertson goes into detail about how line weight can be used in drawings to makes things look more realistic and more 3-dimensional/pop out. This is the link to the original source video. And this is the post where @luke.buersgens listed his awesome resources on line weight that I definitely recommend checking out.

• Thicker lines in the foreground and lighter lines the further back the objects are (background)
• Things that are far away are lower in contrast (not as bright and not
  as dark) and the things closer are brighter and darker.
• This is due to 'atmospheric perspective' - here's a googled definition:

'Atmospheric perspective refers to the effect the atmosphere has on the appearance of objects when you look at them from a distance. You see objects further back into the distance less clearly and their color changes in value, saturation and hue.'

• For figure drawings, the lines in front get the dominant line
  (thicker/darker)

• Scott tends to give thicker lines to larger elements/dominant shapes to create a strong silhouette.

• He also tends to shade the underside of shapes a little bit more than the ones across the top.

• Thick lines to faded lines can also lead the eyes around an object (it's like highlighting or giving the spotlight to an object)

• Scott tapers his lines so that it goes from thick to thin. (Looks like the corner of his objects usually have the dark edges that taper off (like a 'U' or 'V' where the bottom is the thickest and the edges go thinner - 'snaps away' as he would say)

• There are also times you may not want to emphasise the lines of something that's in front - this could be because you want to emphasise something else like the edges of it instead so that the shape looks bigger (It mostly depends on what you want to emphasise)

• Scott writes notes on the details the object will have and how it works (the configuration) e.g. for his aircraft he wrote down cargo pods, search lights, fuslage hoop etc. and how the wings come down etc.

TL;DR: Emphasise overlaps/Atmospheric Perspective

This is a gesture drawing I did playing with line weight (the far right gesture is where I applied thicker and darker lines to try emphasise her action and to show which limbs are in the foreground)

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27th April 2022

If You Can Learn to Doodle You Can Learn to Draw

My friend Lachlan showed me this neat drawing technique on Tiktok where an artist named Mark Liam Smith teaches you how to transform a doodle into a drawing (In this video he draws a hand) - Link To Video.

These are the notes I took from the video:

• Draw light scribbles of lines and circles that form a rough shape of what you're trying to draw
• When you find a line you like, darken it.
• Once you have your lines set, you can start shading the scribbles.
• Make sure the direction of light is consistent (This will help
  give your shape more form/3 dimension)
• He recommends not erasing the scribbles as it can give it a looser free look/style.

This is what I drew trying this technique - I felt like it opened another part of my brain by trying to connect things together and I think it's the repetition of moving lines that helps a lot. I felt this technique was harder for me for when I drew the model compared to drawing the fist. It might've been because there were so many small details in the model which made it hard to see the small faint scribbles I had.

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28th April 2022

Perspective 1 - Assignment 4 - Drawing Street Corner Using 2-Point Perspective

For this assignment I struggled with overlapping buildings as it got quite complicated with all the convergence lines. I had lots of mixed feelings while working on this haha - it was fun yet frustrating...I think I started over like bajillion times. When I have more time I'll come back to re-do this assignment - next time I'll have more details too, but for the time being I just wanted to keep it simple just to get the feel for it. A bit disappointed with the end result to be honest, but onwards!

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