Tuesday 30 October 2007

Back to Life....













Thanks everyone for your points of view on the last post. It’s really interesting to see how we all look at things. I think when we are criticized whether it is accurate or inaccurate we must take the time to find the truth in what’s being said. As long as we do that, the comment becomes irrelevant. The comment definitely sparked questions about who I am now, who I’m aiming to be, and how much am I doing to get there. I am in no way offended by Mr Annonomous, I’m thankful he got me thinking.

Anyway, it’s been a while since I posted anything inspired by life. (Tim your last post was food for thought) I’ve had some interesting conversations regarding life drawing and animation lately. It’s intriguing to see how we all go about reach our personal goals. The way I learnt to draw was through watching cartoons, and reading comics. Sometimes I would tape my favourite cartoons, and then watch it on video pausing at any image I like, and begin copying. Sometimes I would copy poses from comics, and as I got better, it became reference material, so if I couldn’t draw a hand for example, I would look at a comic or an animation with a similar pose and attach it to my own drawing. (Writing this I’m thinking duh, why didn’t I use my own hand??) I’ve come to realize I draw using elaborate symbols, shapes that are instantly recognisable. That’s why I find drawing from life hard. To draw what you see and not fill in the blanks by what you think you see is difficult. When I try to observe and draw what is there it feels like I’ve never drawn before, I forget what I know and as a result lose spontaneity. I never like the results but take each new drawing as a stepping stone. I’m battling to find myself or should I say my better self. On the one hand I want to draw what feels natural, to characterize, and take the essence of a pose and draw that. On the other, I want to improve and to have a more realistic approach, to actually try to draw what I see rather than what I think I see and have that become natural. The above drawings represent part of that struggle. Some were drawn from my memory, most were drawn from life. With a few I tried to challenge myself and have a realistic approach. With others I was being myself and just doing what came natural. Let me know what you think.

And Again….

Wes

PS: Following are some blogs with really cool life studies. Some take a realistic approach, some characterise and capture essence, some do both, all are beautiful and very inspiring….(this is for you Maarten)

Kristian Antonelli

Timothy “Timbo” McCourt (interesting read on his latest post entitled Inspiration from life)

James “The Iron scythe”Robertson

Chris Chua

Andrea Spada

Matt Jones

Cloudy Pool (A_A)

Willy “Willipino” Harber

Tim Moen

Antoine Antin (amazing animations aswell)

Bastien Vives (might have been drawn for memory)

If you guys know of any other great blogs let me know.

UPDATE: I forgot Alan Cook, He also has lots of info on whats new in animation.

UPDATE 2: This Guys life studies is Amazing, check it Stephane Kardos

FINAL UPDATE: Its about 5am. Couldn't sleep. Seen some amazing work lately. Had the urge to draw..anything. Did this sketch of my living room (from life) in about 5mins then coloured it in about 7mins. As you can see from the photo, proportions and all that Jazz are way off, didn't care it felt Good, going to sleep now (by the way Tim thanks for the Andre Barnwell link, forgot all about him, I don't know how)

24 comments:

maarten said...

You can add yourself to the list too, good stuff man, really inspires me. (Do you use fineliner? I think a lot of people life draw with fine liner, ima give it a try too)
Fun thing is, as you know I visit tim moens blog a lot, but before I started life drawing myself i never really lóoked at his life drawings. I was looking at his life drawings yesterday and they are incredibly good. Fun to see how everyone has his or her own style, even with life drawing.
Looked at kristian antonelis blog few times too, he is indeed really good at capturing life too.
Im gonna check out the other links man. I hope it will inspire my sketchings today (and after today).

Thanks for posting them man, really appreciated. (Everyone is so into life drawing lately lol, good thing)
Looking forward to more of your life drawings! Not something you post very often.

maarten said...

By the way, really love the 4(?) people sitting in a row. think its so cool to capture several people in 1 sketch.

maarten said...

OMFG 3rd post im sorry, I just noticed how often I used the word man in my first post hahahaha.

messytimbo said...

thanks for the shoutout buddy!
these are really nice, but do it more and more and more. i remember when we first started the course you did a lot of life sketches, good to see you started again. we need to link next week so we can go see tekkonkinkreet at the ica, and persepolis. i'll call you tonight about it

libra bear said...

Thanks guys,
Maarten, the 4 people in a row was done from memory and at different times, It's sooo much harder to do it from life, Kristian does it good.

Tim, I know what you mean. I actually really enjoy working from life, Just that I'm always at home these days. When I start working I'll draw from life a lot more.

messytimbo said...

looks like you got the new avatar working :)

maarten said...

It's still awesome. I really like life drawings with slight charactericture in. (you did that on some of this life drawings too right?)
And yeah I checked that out on kristian antonelis blog, seems like a super hard thing to do..

Cool avatar, and again, sorry for the 3 posts in a row.

Doctor Cerebro said...

wow i love the last two row of portraits, they are great! but you are not so realistic about yourself man, that new avatar looks like ten years younger than you! haha! and slimmer!! not fair!!

libra bear said...

What you tryin to say Dr C, I've got a fat head in real life?? LOL. Thanks for the comment Mate.

Cookedart said...

Thanks for the mention :)

Your stuff looks great!

Keep it up!

Doctor Cerebro said...

hahahaha! you know, actually it is me the one who is getting fat! too much time in front of the computer! i hate it!!!! next time you see me you won't recognize me.

RAWLS said...

Wonderful sketches man! Brings me back to my college days, sketchin all the people at the coffee shop. Great stuff.

messytimbo said...

here's some other good blogs with some great life sketches

http://andrebarnwell.blogspot.com/

http://lesmillesetunprofils.blogspot.com/

and i'm not sure how much is done direct from life, but his work is insanely good and in his backlog post there's some life drawing in the for sure.

http://albertomielgo.blogspot.com/

i think i need to update my links, not many of the those links are feature on my blog

libra bear said...

Thanks Tim, I'll take a look, I also found a few more as well, I updated my blog with one of them. I'll send you a list or somethng. I have to really update my links as well. I got so many in my bookmarks. I wanted to limit my links but I cant help it. Always see blogs with great work.

Brad Silby said...

Really nice stuff, I want to go out and draw now! I think I always get caught trying to capture too much detail, labouring it too much. I love the speed and clarity of your drawings.

Daniel M.C. Alvite said...

hey wes nice drawings,,,but what i liked most is your new avatar,,,man it really7 look like you....I can see your face there. great

messytimbo said...

i like the update of your living room, it's really nice. and i've have those moments when you been looking at all this great work and you can't sleep and you just have to go and drawing. the only with i can really explain it is, it's like eatting all this amazing food. your stuffing your self full of it. then later you get that feeling that you busting to have a poo.

nuff said

libra bear said...

Erm....interesting analogy Tim :)

messytimbo said...

sorry but i keep on finding good blogs

http://lesmillesetunprofils.blogspot.com/

amazing life studies

maarten said...

Whoah that guy has amazing life studies indeed. I wonder what material he uses.
Wes, could you share your scanner settings maybe? Im really bad with scanners and I want to find out what works best.
thanks dude

1 said...

great studies, its always nice to learn more.

Danny Hynes said...

There's some really beautiful stuff here man. Great work.

Javier Burgos "Javas" said...

ur stuff is killer brotha, gonna link ya!

M. Hassan said...

Awesome life studies I really like em !
nice to meet ya Louis.