Friday, July 25, 2008

Three Times A Lady


My well of anecdotes is gathering a bit of dust as my energy is currently being expended towards the completion of my final projects. Henceforth, the images here are the latest drawings completed during my figure studio class, in which we focus our attention on one drawing of a live model over the span of roughly six hours. With the drawing, the main objective is to construct adequate proportions and analyze the effects of light and shadow on the form. The dimensions of all my drawings for this class are 18"x24." I believe I've explained this process before, but a guy's gotta cut loose every now and then, right?

These are my favorite ones so far, as all of the techniques I have learned and struggled with during this term are finally beginning to harmonize. The one above was completed during wednesday's session, while the last two are from friday. Everyone in the class, along with myself, seems to get better with every homework drawing, master copy, and in-class session, which promotes "good energy" from which we all gain inspiration.


Sunday, July 20, 2008

The Name's Gym, Diamond Gym


The Academy of Art University's Super Summer Slam(as I prefer to call it), in which contestants are relentlessly pummeled by in-class lecture beatings, gut-busting homework blows and the occasional left hook from the street dreg asking for "spare change," is moving along like the express train. I have yet to experience any personal psychotic bouts of hysteria that involve me sprinting down the street with arms flailing, bloodshot eyes, a five o'clock shadow from five weeks ago, in soiled underwear and tube socks, with a charcoal-smeared body, a half eaten peanut butter and A1 Steaksauce sandwich on organic oat-nut bread in one hand, and an extra large cup of damp Starbucks coffee grounds in the other, repeatedly screaming "It's all about proportions!!" So far so good. The last few weeks of the semester are creeping up like gym-shorts and final projects have been assigned.

Pictured this time are two life drawings and a Rembrandt copy from my studio class, as well as some shots from the top of Mason street, which I chose as my alternate route to the train last week in an attempt to find new sights. I say the TOP, because I might as well have climbed the Rockies looking at street signs the whole way, though the view was worth it...and my calves have never looked better. I also found some time to kick it old school by doing some pinstriping on one of my class notebooks.








Tuesday, July 15, 2008

A Socialist Excursion


Below are pictures from my recent mission which took place behind enemy lines at the Art Institute, a competitor of my school the Academy of Art. I was in pursuit of a large mural by the Mexican, Communist party member Diego Rivera-a Depression-era artist who was married to painter Frida Kahlo. The details are classified and I do not wish to seal my own fate by disclosing too much sensitive material; however, for the sake of entertainment and an attempt to maintain a minimum level of interest in this blog, I present pictures of the mural itself, titled "Building of San Francisco," along with views of the Art Institute courtyard and the surrounding area. From the top of this building, located just up the street from my studio class and with the uphill advantage I might add, you can get a good glimpse of Alcatraz, the small island in the last image.






Friday, July 11, 2008

Jack-In-The-Glass



After my professor's feedback and words of wisdom, big Jack was deemed fit to enter the "The Case." The cases are mounted in the lobby of the fine arts building, to which only students and faculty have access. For the most part, no public person will see it, although its still an honor to be displayed with the best. I made a lot of subtle changes to the drawing, most of which may be unnoticeable under the glare of the glass. Of course, in the midst of my joyful glee at my professor's words "Let's hang it up," I neglected to take a decent shot of it finished.

When looking at the broad view of the lobby showing both cases, the one on the right contains works from other students in my class, all three of which are great. I have to say I think they out-shined me quite a bit with their rendering, though I think two of the subjects are bit old fashioned.



Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Mayhem!...Not Really

I guess midterms can lend themselves to bit of mayhem and insanity, but when the chicken feeds the switchblade to the phone booth after a well dressed square dance, there's only so many bedpans a flea can walk through...right? I'm serious, they can't catch me if I run fast enough.



The picture above is my rendering of...? You guessed it, Martin Luther King. We had to pick a high quality photograph to reproduce for my studio class as a means of studying proportion and chiaroscuro (strong light and dark). And since Jack Nicholson possesses one of the most bad-ass facial expressions of all time, I found this shot from a Few Good Men and gave it my gosh darn best, which I must say wasn't good enough. I'll post a better shot of it after I get the OK from the 'teach. The picture of me with the drawing is merely a depiction of the extremely sexy *ahem* scale of the picture, accompanied by some shots of my room, post mortem. And as usual, we top the night off with a couple more sketchbook entries. I thought of posting the papers I had to write on two key philosophers and how they contributed to the movement of Modernism in the early twentieth century as exemplified by specific works of art from the Fauvist and Surrealist art movements, but I really didn't want to contribute to growing epidemic of dissention from progressive thought and analytical observation. Henceforth, the pretty pictures. What's that? The Truth? You can't HANDLE the truth!





Wednesday, July 2, 2008

A Day At The Office


Being mid-term season, I somehow managed to uncross my eyes long enough to take some photos of my studio class, the fine arts building itself, and some of the surrounding area, called North Beach. My figure class consists of drawing from a live model, emphasizing proportion first, value second. Since it is a summer semester, the class meets twice a week, and we typically start the day with quick, two-minute gesture drawings, as pictured in the previous post. This is followed by notes and a demonstration from our professor, then five hours of osbervation, drawing, do-overs, profanity, back pain, double vision, envy, hatred, lunch, determination, more drawing, more profanity(silent of course), progress, sigh of relief, a class critique, and crushed egos. One musn't forget the numerous vacations to the latrines sprinkled througout the session. And the reward for this battle hardening day in the trench, you ask? Why, 'tis the half hour walk to the train...uphill.