Projects in this class are aimed at effective study, rather than producing finished portfolio pieces. Each chapter in the class presents unique and complete material for separate projects, so let's break things down by chapter.

Chapter 1 Project - Gesture:

Using photo reference from any source (models online, movies, animation, etc.) try to capture the poses you're seeing in drawings that take no longer than, say, three minutes.

- There should be no attempt at final lines in these drawings, and virtually no attempt at final shapes.
- It's encouraged that you be searching for the gesture with your pencil or stylus making marks on the page (using lots of sweeping lines) - looking for rhythms, movement, placement, landmarks, etc.
- These drawings can be done quite small, in fact I encourage that, as drawing small (say, 4-5" tall) helps with speed and efficiency.
Fill at least 5 sketchbook pages, or digital equivalent! If you need inspiration, you can watch me do such studies in Chapter 5.

Chapter 2 Project - Form:

The goal of this project is to produce various studies of 3D form, both simple geometric forms, and forms that make up the structure of a figure.

1) Horizon study: Place a horizon line, and plot a vanishing point on it. Draw boxes both above the horizon line (to various degrees) and below the horizon line (to various degrees.) The goal here is to get used how much of the top or bottom plane that you're seeing, as related to the distance from the horizon line.

2) Cylinder/Ellipse study: Draw a cylinder running horizontally or vertically across the page. Now break that cylinder up into cross-sections (or 'cross contours') of ellipses at various places throughout the span of the cylinder. Try to track an accurate progression of ellipses, as their width scales along with the perspective.

3) 3D 'Formscape': Fill a page with simple 3D forms - boxes, cylinders, spheres, etc. of different sizes, different rotations, and positions. You may use vanishing points to plot these out, or you may try to simply begin with one form, and visually relate subsequent forms to it, trying to make them "live" in the same cohesive space. Try leaning one form on top of another, and hide forms behind other forms. This will help with the immersion and illusion of dimension and depth.

4) 3D Forms in the Figure: Pick a drawing or illustration of a character that you like. Try to now construct the underlying 3D forms of that figure, using all the information in Chapter 2. Do plenty of cross-contours to ensure that the forms are "tracking" in 3D space. Remember to plot out midlines as well, which is especially helpful to relate the orientation of one part of the body to another.

Chapter 3 Project - Shape Design:

1) Find another example of a character design you like (it can be the same one used above), and instead of trying to recreate it completely, study by recreating its individual shapes, out of context. Select, say, a leg - or even just the upper leg - and draw its shape (its final outline). Be prepared to spot things like offset symmetry, and C-curves/S-curves/Straights, to compose the shape as accurately and interestingly as possible. Try to be exact here, as the way you draw shapes will quickly form habits ... and we want them to be good habits!

2) A very quick project: find art you like, and simply color in the negative shapes. After doing this, re-draw those shapes on a separate paper/canvas individually, without their surrounding context. This will help garner an appreciation for shapes in general, as well as an awareness of how all-encompassing shape design is in art.

3) Study silhouette design by again taking a drawing that you like, and this time instead of drawing it yourself, try tracing the silhouette. When you do this, focus on how simply the silhouette is drawn, and how it feels to be drawing these lines yourself. When you are done, re-draw the negative shapes, off to the side. This will help you hone in on the abstract quality of good shapes.

Chapter 4 Project - Perspective:

1) Find photos that exhibit 1-point, 2-point, and 3-point perspective. On a new layer (or a sheet of vellum or tracing paper), locate the horizon line and vanishing point(s), using the techniques shown in Chapter 4. Finally, plot the perspective grid over the photograph and see how well it matches up. (Tip: Begin with 1-point perspective first, as it will be the easiest to complete.)

2) Using one of your photos from above, start a new drawing by plotting out the horizon line and vanishing point(s), and completing a drawing of the subject, being as faithful to the photograph as possible. Test your work by inserting a photo or drawing of a character into the scene (using techniques shown in Chapter 4), to see if the 3D space looks believable.

3) Complete any one of your drawings with 'simple shading' - as shown throughout the class. Imagine your forms as simple boxes; pick one (or two) sides of those boxes, and shade them all in with a single tone. Done right, this should increase the illusion of depth!

Chapter 5 Project - Heads:
Note that most of Chapter 5 is me showing you how to go about studying, so please refer to this chapter when attempting any of the above projects! There is one section of novel information in this chapter, though - the 'Head Primer' segment.

1) Find a drawing of a character's head that you like - in 3/4 view - and using a transparent layer or tracing paper, find the cross contours and center-line of the head (remember: the center line is just another cross contour that happens to be in the middle of the form). Then trace the far outline of the head and see how that line relates to the cross-contours.

2) Try to re-create the above reference drawing by freehand, using the information you've acquired from your above study. (Tip: remember to landmark proportions first, and even gesture if the head is cartoony in its design!)

Leanne Creedon

Aspiring Artist

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