Saturday, July 17, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Hands Challenge (sort of) complete!
I'd say the hands challenge is complete, to the extent that June is done and I am about done drawing disembodied hands. But in actuality I have only drawn about 86 hands, and could easily draw 500 more before I gain any real knowledge about hands. I had hoped that with practice I would be able to successfully compose good-looking hands from my memory or imagination, and I'm not sure that's happening. However, the project was a success in that now when I look at a hand I have a much better idea of what I'm looking at.
Some of these are my own hands, but some are copied from Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy, which I referred to for its insights on hand construction. Burne Hogarth's books can be challenging to say the least - he uses formal language peppered with jargon and occasionally I have to re-read a sentence several times before I catch the meaning. His drawings can also be almost impenetrable: every muscle, tendon and joint is so fully articulated in even his least detailed drawings that, in my vain attempts to copy his sketches, I often lost track of what I was looking at.
That having been said, if you want any kind of a formula for drawing the figure Burne Hogarth is your go-to-guy. The Dynamic Anatomy book is full of minute measurements and recipes that, theoretically, would allow you to draw the figure without any reference if you knew them by heart. The text is so dense that I find every time I go back to Dynamic Anatomy I learn something I feel as though I have never seen before. The thumb joint begins at the mid-point of the palm! Each division of the finger is a third smaller than the one below it! When you close or open your hand, all other fingers follow your pinkie! Who knew, right?
So that concludes the 100 Hands Challenge. Don't stop sending me your hand resources and hand advice, I will need them for a long while yet!
Some of these are my own hands, but some are copied from Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy, which I referred to for its insights on hand construction. Burne Hogarth's books can be challenging to say the least - he uses formal language peppered with jargon and occasionally I have to re-read a sentence several times before I catch the meaning. His drawings can also be almost impenetrable: every muscle, tendon and joint is so fully articulated in even his least detailed drawings that, in my vain attempts to copy his sketches, I often lost track of what I was looking at.
That having been said, if you want any kind of a formula for drawing the figure Burne Hogarth is your go-to-guy. The Dynamic Anatomy book is full of minute measurements and recipes that, theoretically, would allow you to draw the figure without any reference if you knew them by heart. The text is so dense that I find every time I go back to Dynamic Anatomy I learn something I feel as though I have never seen before. The thumb joint begins at the mid-point of the palm! Each division of the finger is a third smaller than the one below it! When you close or open your hand, all other fingers follow your pinkie! Who knew, right?
So that concludes the 100 Hands Challenge. Don't stop sending me your hand resources and hand advice, I will need them for a long while yet!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
More hands on the way!
Hi there, blog enthusiasts. I've fallen a wee bit behind on the drawing and scanning for the 100 hands challenge due to a new job and working on other projects. Expect the underwhelming finale of the 100 Hands Challenge in the coming days!
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Preston Blair Hands
These are some hands I copied from one of the lessons from the Preston Blair book. I don't know the actual name of the book but if you are interested in cartooning you probably know the one I'm talking about. You can access the sheet I drew from and some words of wisdom from benevolent internet crank John K. here.
I don't know a tonne about the Preston Blair book, but it seems to deal mainly in teaching drawing for animation with standard cartoon character types as a guide. I've always kind of dismissed it for that reason, as I'm not interested in becoming an animator and I don't find the character types used in the book especially interesting. Likewise, I've passed by this hand page a few times and kind of assumed it wasn't for me as the hands have only 3 fingers and they're all gloved. However, I know that my drawings are sorely lacking construction and that this is a specialty of the Preston Blair course so I decided to take a whack at it.
These hands were deceptively hard! I tried to follow the instructions and copy the examples on the page by following the steps at the top, but even with such simple steps it was difficult. Blair's hands have such zip and a really pronounced directionality that's hard to copy. I did my best, over 30 of them, but I'm still not a very good copier and I found it hard to loosen up at all. I learned a lot though, more than I have copying hands from pictures. The Preston Blair hands really start the thumb at the wrist, which is something I had never thought of before, and all the lines really follow the underlying shape , which makes the action really easy to read. My copies totally suck but I'm definitely going to keep this in mind from now on.
For those of you keeping track, we're at around 60. This is going faster than expected! If you have any hand resources you love, or you want to share your experience with the Preston Blair hands, please do let me know!
I don't know a tonne about the Preston Blair book, but it seems to deal mainly in teaching drawing for animation with standard cartoon character types as a guide. I've always kind of dismissed it for that reason, as I'm not interested in becoming an animator and I don't find the character types used in the book especially interesting. Likewise, I've passed by this hand page a few times and kind of assumed it wasn't for me as the hands have only 3 fingers and they're all gloved. However, I know that my drawings are sorely lacking construction and that this is a specialty of the Preston Blair course so I decided to take a whack at it.
These hands were deceptively hard! I tried to follow the instructions and copy the examples on the page by following the steps at the top, but even with such simple steps it was difficult. Blair's hands have such zip and a really pronounced directionality that's hard to copy. I did my best, over 30 of them, but I'm still not a very good copier and I found it hard to loosen up at all. I learned a lot though, more than I have copying hands from pictures. The Preston Blair hands really start the thumb at the wrist, which is something I had never thought of before, and all the lines really follow the underlying shape , which makes the action really easy to read. My copies totally suck but I'm definitely going to keep this in mind from now on.
For those of you keeping track, we're at around 60. This is going faster than expected! If you have any hand resources you love, or you want to share your experience with the Preston Blair hands, please do let me know!
Friday, June 11, 2010
Keybo
Keybo might be the cutest robot ever. He loves to dance! Maybe I'll draw a little more of him sometime.
100 Hands Challenge
Somewhere along the way I got really sloppy at drawing hands. After a certain point I told myself that hands were something I "ought to know by now", so even though I lacked confidence in drawing them I just kind of carried on drawing them improperly rather than try to help myself improve.
With this in mind I've given myself a challenge for the month of June to draw 100 hands. Not 100 perfect hands, or 100 interesting hands, just 100 hands. My hands, other people's hands, hands from pictures, exercises on drawing hands, animal hands, Handy Snacks(tm), any kind of hands!
These are the first 29, with a few feet thrown in. Is there something you have been practicing, or a challenge you gave yourself? Would you like to start your own June challenge? Let's do it together! Send me a link or tell me all about it.
With this in mind I've given myself a challenge for the month of June to draw 100 hands. Not 100 perfect hands, or 100 interesting hands, just 100 hands. My hands, other people's hands, hands from pictures, exercises on drawing hands, animal hands, Handy Snacks(tm), any kind of hands!
These are the first 29, with a few feet thrown in. Is there something you have been practicing, or a challenge you gave yourself? Would you like to start your own June challenge? Let's do it together! Send me a link or tell me all about it.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Seven
Somebody turned seven! I have a feeling the colours didn't scan so great. Sorry if they are blinding!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Why is this post different from all other posts?
This is about a year old, but still as current as a comic about passover can reasonably be. If you have any information you'd like to share, particularly regarding the purpose of the sleepy-matzoh blanket or the mysterious burnt egg, please feel free!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
TV Party
Please feel free to weigh in with your own theories as to what is under Brett Michaels' various headscarf configurations.
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