drawing checklist

remember how i'm teaching figure drawing for animation at byu this semester? i'm so glad i am, because man...it's a blast.

the main reason for this post is because it's sort of an appendage to the post that i wrote a while back. and honestly, i just don't feel like making a powerpoint for my students (powerpoints...gross). so all of you get to peek at what we're learning about today. it's basically pulling together what we've talked about in the class so far. yeah, process! 

construction // 

i start every drawing the same way, whether it be a 30 second drawing or a 3-hour drawing. literally. it goes sort of like this --

some famous artist said it first and more elegantly, but i let the pose determine how i begin drawing. sometimes it's an amazing gesture. sometimes it's the midline. sometimes it's a sweet shape. sometimes it's the emotion. whatever it is, i find that and start there. then this is a reeeeeally rough process of what comes next:

1 -"ghost in" the figure -- lightly compose it on the paper with broad, general marks (usually the widest side of the conté or drawing medium)
2 -gesture first: exaggerate the pose and essence of the model in its entirety. meaning, at least imply the main parts of everything: torso, head, arms, legs, hands, feet. you can loosly incorporate the shadows if you'd like, to help explain the shapes. or, you might want to put in lines for proportion, ie where the feet, knees, pelvis and shoulders are if it's a standing pose, getting the dynamic angles in there. 

3 -build on top of the gesture with basic shapes (often, i start with the torso, because that explains the rest of the pose as everything else is an appendage to that. but again, let the pose decide the way to begin)
4 -commit a few areas, meaning, make some areas clear with firm, decided marks to say "this is where this line is", and then let all the other marks you put down subsequently relate to that area.

hmm, these numbers don't exactly match up with the list but you get the idea, yeah?

now i'll let you in on a secret -- this is what constantly goes through my head as i continue into a more extended pose, whether it be 10 minutes or 3 hours.  

mental checklist //

-keep the gesture alive

-construction: is the structure still there? 

-constantly draw through the figure (or at least think through it, literally)

-establish darks and lights

-light is for detail, dark is for form

-establish a focal point

-SIMPLIFY: choose to see less

-keep eye and hand moving

-think in terms of explaining and interpreting

-merge dark shapes

-pay attention to negative space

-always think: big to small, general to specific. from the tool in hand to the shapes on the page 

-when applicable, grid and relate points to each other

-commit lines and points

-strengthen and clarify. always! 

-when time permits, walk away and come back with a fresh view

SO. if i start to "lose" my drawing (meaning it's going well then something happens and it starts to look weak or not as good), go back to the top of my mental check list and figure out where i "lost" it.

i have the top 5 of these (the ones that are most important to me, or the ones i forget most often) written on my drawing board, to help me remember. construction is always on there, because you just can't really move on from a poorly constructed form. that has to be in place first. before value, before cool swooshy energy lines, before anything else. another famous artist said this: "you must build the house before decorating it." 

sooo...capisce?

drawing principles // 

keep these things in mind as you draw as well, after you get a good grasp on structure and construction and the essentials. 

-general to specific

-make sure to get the whole figure on the page. don't sacrifice this! 

-straight vs. curve 

-push the design: our mind always tends to straighten things out when they're on paper. we have to compensate for this in our designs. if the model looks slightly bent, draw them more than slightly bent and our brain will interpret it correctly when it sees it on paper. 

* * *

thoughts on value //  value refers to the lightness vs the darkness in a drawing. this is often where students get excited, but ironically where their drawings go downhill.

as far as value goes, this is one of the best tips i can think of. i'll even let go of my stylistic writing choices and capitalize my letters for you like a big kid just for clarification's sake:

Light is for modeling (it’s where the information and rendering should be) and shadows should be flat. Thus, leave detail out of the dark. Instead, make the dark shapes pretty flat. This will also help you to think in shapes and planes. Again: Light = texture, detail, rendering, modeling, color (if applicable). Dark = shape-making, flat, low hues (color). Now, some artists have reversed the two. This is just the approach I've found to be most successful. Either way, pick one to have the most information: light or dark, and go with that.

The next part is super helpful, so tighten your thinking caps one just one time:

The separation of light and dark is important. The lightest areas of the shadow still shouldn’t be lighter than the darkest areas of the light. I know...it sounds confusing, but it’s honestly one of the best concepts to grasp with value. If it’s not like this, it’ll look over-modeled, which is no good.

a quiver of tools // 

now let me be clear: the implementation of value does NOT make a good figure drawing. there are absolutely gorgeous figure drawings made solely of line! however, if you can learn to use value properly, it's another tool to add to your toolbox and you can pull it out when needed. there are times you might not even want to use value.

think about it: if your model is 90% in shadow (you likely came late to class and got the shadow side of the room), you might opt to just do a really great line drawing. but it will need excellent construction and a knowledge of anatomy. but to make it look superb, that's where the line quality tool comes in. that's why everything is built on top of everything else. you need to know the basics to understand what you're doing (and no artist can skip these, no matter how good he is), but the quality of the drawing is shown by incorporating the awesomes.

b a s i c s :

gesture

proportion

construction

shape making

a w e s o m e s :

line quality

value

force

exaggeration

composition

Our drawing surface will likely remain our best and most objective teacher.

~Ted Seth Jacobs

until next time, young padawans.....also, questions? leave a comment!

interview in city weekly!

just wanted to say that a couple weeks ago, i got interviewed by gavin sheehan of salt lake magazine's city weekly! please go read the article on his blog -- it's probably the most thorough thing i've ever written about my art. it talks about everything from my early influences to my career choice and everything in between, with a bit of advice sprinkled in the end and a few other local artists to check out! give it some lovin'!

check it here: http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/blog-70-10376-kristin-gulledge.html

here's my excuse

you know how sometimes i take long hiatuses from updating this blog because i randomly up and move to mexico to teach kids english for 3 months?

. . .

you don't? well. that's because this is the first time it happened.

so i will express my sincere apologize in two forms:

1. good news: i was recently hired to be a figure drawing instructor for BYU's animation department! i am thrilled. class started yesterday and it's a good group of people. i'm stoked to start figure drawing again as well because i used to all the time!

2. food and art: my art show at the slc library - sprague branch is up! the opening reception is THIS COMING TUESDAY from 6:30-8pm and you can check out the event here.

just a reminder....

a reminder that instagram likes to be gigantic when embedded into blogger. 

oh! and that my show is up through friday of this week. hours: 8am-5pm.

if you missed opening night, go take a picture of yourself with the art, and i'll include it in the opening night photos when i upload them to my art page on facebook. no one will know the difference. ;) email it to me at kgull.art@gmail.com. also, if you'd like to get updates right to your inbox, subscribe to my monthly(ish) newsletter by emailing me with "opt-in" for the subject line.

i'm traveling til the end of the month so all is quiet around here, but things will soon be in motion again.

meet the art! (parts of it)

this post is exciting because i will reward you for coming to my blog by showing you previews of my art that you haven't even seen before! none of these have ever even graced my facebook page OR my instagram! :-O put on your best surprised face because here we go:

look at this woodshop! i got the privilege of making some of the cradles for my art with that fine genleman on the left.

all the photos from this post are from my phone so i kind of cringe at the quality, but it was either this or nothing due to tonight's time constraints. so i figured this'll have to do. instagram lets you embed videos, neat! sorry it's huge though; i wasn't stoked to get my hands all muddy in the code to mess with how to make it smaller.....

  and onto previews of the art! again...cringing here because of the slight pixelation. but hopefully you'll come see them in real life where they aren't pixelated. :) i will document properly after the reception for those of you who are too far away to come to the show.  

1 // sleepyhead as a painting!  2 // ...with new words! i love these ones. they were a stream of consciousness one morning.  3 // this lovely lady was tied up in ropes the last time she appeared in one of my paintings so i figured it was time to free her. :)  4 // this painting came as a surprise to me in church on sunday. it really means a lot to me. she is the painting in the video up above. 5 // this is a study for the painting in #4.  6 // another detail of the painting #5 (wow that was confusing.....)  7 // close-up of enos. a very biographical piece as well.  8 // an interesting start to the sister piece for "godly sorrow"  9 // this piece has always had a life of its own. it just came out of my scriptures one day into my pen. then into my phone. and then onto wood. this is before i wood burned it. it looks awesome now.

i'm actually very excited about all the new work i've made for this show because they all have very unique stories. the above are just the seedlings. perhaps i'll do a post about each one. 
to close, you can watch twelve ginormous seconds (gosh instagram, why are you so huge??) of sleepyhead becoming blue. and heck, might as well follow me on instagram since it's sort of yelling at you....
 

meet the artists! (in pixel form)

hanging the show on saturday went surprisingly well. 

and now that the art is hung, i wanted to tell you a little about the artists.

obviously, normandie and i are -- very -- serious artists.

but there were lots of words in the last post, so check out this video that i made to introduce the fabulous normandie (plus sneak peeks of my art). note to self: next time, turn phone 90 degrees prior to filming....

the dear girl also said some pretty kind things about me too, and showed sneak peeks of her art, as well as some other events going on friday for you! we are clever, no?

isn't she adorable?! so if you didn't get enough of our lovable faces in 480p, you can see them in the flesh THIS friday! along with our art, which is arguably better or just as good as our faces. sort of a toss-up. 

surprise, i have a show in a week!

hello again, art world! (world, in general)

i spent the summer doing some photography gigs as well as lots of design stuff and traveling! i apologize it's been so scarce around here.

to make up for it, here are some exciting announcements:

1. i have an art show coming up with the lovely normandie luscher --

call me crazy; i've attempted to [start and] finish many of these...and more 

and it's been a mad house! i'm hanging the show saturday with many things still to get done! on to details--

location: the utah county health and justice building // 151 s. university ave, provo, ut

details: the reception will be from 6-9 pm complete with live music and food.

this is part of provo's first friday gallery stroll, where lots of the art galleries in downtown provo open up and each have the artists and new shows and food and music.

also, there is a free rooftop concert that night just a few blocks away which starts around 7:30.

so i basically planned your whole night for you, full of free art, music and food. YOU'RE WELCOME. ;)

oh, and there is a handy facebook event for our show if you'd like it to kindly remind you.

hopefully i'll stop by the blog with a few sneak peeks this week! (my main focus is actually finishing them in time...eesh....)

2. i was humbled and happy to hear so many people express excitement about my piece, head & heart. i'm pleased to announce that i've decided to make this into a series! i'll be taking commissions to make similar pieces and will customize each, as explained below:

many times we know something is true or right in our mind but for some reason, our hearts just doesn't feel it. it can be a difficult chasm to cross. sometimes it's pretty obvious when our heart gets the message. but other times, that transition comes subtly. this piece explores that concept. if you'd like one for your wall, you may choose whatever goes in her head: what things about yourself are you trying to believe? 

3. lastly, i will be starting to send monthly(ish) email newsletters. if you'd like to opt-in, email me at kgull.art@gmail.com. i promise i won't spam you and will do my best to keep them brief, informative and hopefully a tad entertaining. and they will get prettier as i learn the program i'm using, even though i'm pretty annoyed with the limited typographic options. ;)