Thursday, July 7, 2011

Life Drawing Session 10 - The Moving Hold


Another visit to La Grande Chaumière, and another awesome session!
Firstly, this was an evening session, and so when the sunlight started to die down, on came the stage lights and BAM, high contrasting shadows appeared over the model's forms - I find it so much easier to 'see' when there are big variations in tone...it encourages me to use the tone to create the forms in my drawings, as opposed to using line, which is what so often happens when the lighting's really flat...


Secondly, the model brought her own interpretation of the 'moving hold' :)
At the start of each pose, she would slowly start moving - arms gracefully extending out, then around and back... head tilting one way, then the other..... hips rotating....
It was if she was 'discovering' the pose, waiting for that moment for something to 'click', like a burglar breaking into a safe.
Everyone had their medium's poised over their papers, sweat beads slowly traveling down their brows, anticipating the first mark. When she appeared to have stopped, pencils touched down..But...oh wait... she hasn't found it yet! lol



The poses themselves were great (when they eventually established themselves), and the degree of difficulty in holding them was pretty high, which actually meant that they never finished exactly how they started ;)
I had no objections to this - being used to drawing people out and about on the street where nobody stands still for even a second, her movement seemed non-existent.
For one disgruntled fellow next to us it was too much however. Even with my headphones on, I heard him slam is sketchbook shut, pack up his belongings as noisily as possible, huffing and puffing.... and he stormed out with maybe 45min left, "Elle bouge tout le temps!"
I would much rather have an interesting pose that moves slightly, than draw a perfectly held, bog-standard seated or standing pose...

And the last thing; I ran out of my usual paper, so I took along a load of 15 field animation paper. Jokingly before the session started, we said how I could animate the model, "ho ho"... 0_0
Maybe next time, I'll take my peg bar! :P



And some Place Des Vosges Sketches thrown in for good measure :) Keep checking Adrian Maganza's blog to see if he puts up his sketches from our little sketch sesh - they were AWESOME! (No pressure Dude! :P)

'Till the Next
L

Minutes: 20, then 5s

20 comments:

DSM said...

I always like your class experiences; 'least she was sane....

Saw your and T.Cat's 'F' film; heart wrenching and beautiful. The Greeks thought the soul departed the mouth as a butterfly.

Nice new little self-portrait, too.

"TORI CAT" said...

Oooo la la laaa!!!

Im loving these mr Rossi!!!
The little dash of red in the hair for the flower is a nice touch!!!
Great volume and the shadows and lighting really help enhance the anatomy!
I can really see the movement in your drawings.... That would be AMAZING to go into a life class and actually animate the model!! Kinda like my short film idea "Croquis" ;) hee hee!!! You could animate the first scene for me in your next life drawing class!! :P

Cool, new, buffed up Avatar... i recognise your profile description ;P

"TORI CAT" said...

*DSM- Thanks for watching our film. Its nice to hear that all these years later people are still enjoying it.
:D

James Woods said...

Awsome 'lifes' again. The simplicity of the facial features against the faint shadows of the planes of the face work really well! Man, I'm missing life classes lol

"TORI CAT" said...

Awww, i forgot to add..... Im really diggin your observational sketch of the park and trees etc over two pages. The orange works really nicely.... reminds me of autumn. It sets a scene to a cute little story. :P

Kristian said...

Wonderful and exuberant! the vibrancy in the fast poses are really amazing. What stood out for me is the body emeging from the paper.http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mNUWrCdra5g/ThYB--GH_6I/AAAAAAAACAg/dhKUORrAkT0/s1600/001_001957blog.jpg
I really love that drawing.

Anonymous said...

ooh the life drawing is amazing, can't believe I missed that one!
Thanks for the link :), I scanned the drawings into my computer, that's a BIG step forward :P
Seeing those sketches makes me want to go for another session!

Anonymous said...

Kristian is so right about that drawing!

L Rossi said...

@DSM
lol Her sanity was also in question, but for different reasons :P
Thank you! I'm still very proud of what we were able to achieve, but at the same time, looking at it now makes me cringe :S A good sign that we've progressed since then :D

@Tori
Thanks TC! Ah yes, Croquis! Man, you've got a million ideas you still have to get crackin' on :D
I will definitely take a peg bar and pray it's her again - It was so funny. Even when the guy said, "Changez", it took her a few moments to gather herself and begin moving :D

@James
Cheers Dude :)
So you're back home for the summer hols huh? Hope your first year was a blast - you're a third of the way through! Not long and you'll be graduated! :P

@Kristian
Thank you sir :)

@Adrian
Merci!
lol One small step for Adrian, one giant leap for blogging kind! :P

Unknown said...

Great Stuff, Luca!

Dana said...

Beautiful work, especially that first one. I keep staring at that torso/belly of hers, there's just so much flesh and volume on it.
One of the teachers at my school actually makes his students animate a model. She'll hold key poses for 15-20 seconds then they have to do inbetweens while she's moving to the next pose. I sat in on it a few times, it's nuts.

L Rossi said...

@Claudio
Thank you!! I will pass the compliments onto Luca(!) :)
(L=Laurent :D)

@Dana
Thanks Dana!
Awesome - that sounds soo cool!! I remember we did something similar once back in college....
I think it's great when you have a Life Drawing sesh geared towards a specific type of art...
The ones I go to are for anyone and everyone, so I'm pretty sure 90% of people (like Mr. Grumpy in this post!) would haaaate it! lol

Dana said...

I'm usually the one walking out on the hour long poses of someone falling asleep in their chair while my illustration friends are still complaining about the 7 minute poses. It's funny how you can almost tell what someone is majoring in from their reaction to the pose time.

L Rossi said...

@Dana
Too true! :)
I'm a bit of a mixed bag though - I like the 5-10 best (with some 1-5 thrown in!), but every now and then I do like the long ones!

Frankie Swan said...

master Rossi
you truly have outdone yourself in these recent posts, they are unbelievable you work so hard!i must learn from this.
thanks for your comment you have been a great inspiration over my year of animation and i really owe you for taking the time to help me. i just hope that i can get close to your level before i retire.
oh yeh a chap from Gobelins called Eric Riewer came to visit our studio not so long ago. i had a good chat with him and spoke about you and your work, he said he will look out for you when you start. he's in the group photo from my last post, hes the man with the grey hair and badass mustache.
i like your new avatar, you look like you've been hitting the gym big time since your last one.
ill try get my film up soon. i intended to work on it more but i really dont have time to any more as i start a new project today!

L Rossi said...

@Frankie
lol You're already breathing down my neck in terms of level! All you young guns coming up!
HA! I saw the photo and I was like, that looks like Eric Riewer(!) - yeah, mustache ahoy! :{
(Oh, and it's my avatar that has been hitting the gym, not me :P)
Good luck with the new project!

tiffannysketchbook said...

your figure drawings are amazing!

libra bear said...

Hey man, your next session, bring that peg bar......I'm serious :)

On another note, once again you smashing it. Your going to slip in comfortably and Gobelins. Its been an absolute pleasure watching you grow, How's Gouken going?

L Rossi said...

@Tiffany
You're too kind! :D Thanks though!

@Wes
You're too kind too! :D
I haven't really worked on Gouken for the last couple of weeks - but Matt has been working like a trooper and has just finished the effects animation, leaving just the clean up. Once that's done, I'll get back on it! :)
When do we find out the results of the E4 stings?

messytimbo said...

Wow man! some killar drawings going on here! please make a 2d film in your 3rd year!!!! hahaha We can't loose talent like this to the darkside.

The bottom one of the park is my favorite.

We don't hear a resualt about the
'E4 Man' till 4th or 5th of august.
I'll keep you posted on how we do ;)