Wow. Can’t believe I’m finally posting something for this assignment. This one was harder than I expected. My first few attempts at this were such a disaster and so discouraging, plus stress at work caused me to give up. 4 months later I’m trying again, thankfully with better results. The proportions were my biggest fail last time, which I’ve improved massively on. Line work started out okay, light and loose, however my attempts at building up the lines has made them look stiff and added emphasis to the contour, I think. I was hoping to to do all the poses, but some are still not working out for me, so I’ll submit what I can so I can finally move on with the course. I’ll keep practising on those harder poses.

Here’s my attempt for level 1. Short on time this week, so these are very quick sketches. Trying to keep my hand loose and relaxed. Proportions are clearly off on a couple, others I’m pretty happy with.

Made an initial attempt I ended up abandoning due to going a way too overboard with the measuring that just became too confusing. After taking a step back and reevaluating I decided a simpler approach was better. The horizontal and vertical plum lines were a big help, but instead of comparative measuring I found some carefully placed horizontal and vertical lines set at key points across the reference were more helpful in measuring out the proportions. I’m happy with how it turned out, just the edge of the hat on the left side needed to come out a little more.

This was way harder than it seems.

This was tough. One of the hardest parts was just trying to find someone to study, so I ended up picking from the shortlist, and went with David Malan. I like his style. This is just my interpretation, but I feel the variety in the types of lines he uses is subtle but expressive, and his hatching has a directional quality to it that draws the eye in. While some of his hatching/shading seems loose and relaxed, having tried to emulate it, I learned quickly the amount of control and skill in actually producing those lines. Mine involved a lot of erasing and redoing, getting trapped in my perfectionist mentality so the lines constantly felt stiff and awkward. I also struggled with some of the line weights. I used a 0.5mm mechanical pencil like he uses, but had to switch to a regular graphite pencil to get some of the lighter, softer lines.

My first attempts before the demo. I don’t have access to a printer right now so had to do these digitally which I find a little awkward. Would much prefer to stick with pencil and paper as that is the main medium I want to work with. Hopefully I can get printed copies soon to try attempt number 2.

I really enjoy the page skating. For the lines I tried a mix of different lengths and angles, and alternated the direction I moved my hand, moving right to left, left to right, etc to get used to different motions.

Trying to keep my lines loose and flowing, but they still end up looking scratchy in places. The hand was definitely a struggle, especially the two middle fingers. VR girl turned out the best, I think, but I drew her too big so there was no room left to fit in the hanging disc. My biggest struggle with the penguin was the feet. I got too focused on trying to match the details my lines ended up stiff and awkward. Need to loosen up more.

Second attempt after the demo. Definitely need a lot more practice to make more confident lines, but I feel happier with the line quality on the boots this time. Those laces are still a pain though.

My first attempt at level 1 before the demo. The boots definitely turned out a little messy, especially trying to do the laces, but overall it could have been worse.