Hapy new year!

I'll see you all in a couple days.

Animation: Oscar 1.0

Here's an update on my charater model. nothing fancy, but in the future I plan to actually animate him doing something...

Drawing: Self Portraits

Welcome back everybody. Today I have some more drawings to share with you, specifically self portraits. Now I don't consider myself to be very self obsessed, but I noticed at the end of my first semester of art classes I had already drawn three self portraits. In my defense two of them were assigned by teachers. I'm a bit hesitant to paste my face all over the internet, but I don't have to worry about that from these images. The self portraits I have drawn so far look more like distant relatives, than they do myself. The first is a, not so flattering, pen drawing that I drew at the beginning of my first semester.

The second one was part of my final project for my basic drawing class (a surrealism piece), it looks a bit better than the first, but it's still not so great. The biggest problem I identified after having finished it was how small the range of value was. Meaning, most of the drawing is a middle gray tone, and there aren't much light or dark mass tones. The third self portrait was digital, and sadly my computer recently crashed, wiping out all of the projects I had stored on my computer. However I did create another self portrait much more recently (which is fairly obvious) that resembles me more than the previous two.

When you are drawing a portrait there are many things you need to be aware of; the lighting, background space, and direction the person faces, all factor into how much the portrait will resemble the subject. A straight on portrait can capture someone's face nicely, and profile can be just as successful, but the most flattering portrait is usually a three-quarter view. Most faces are asymmetrical, and a three-quarter view can emphasize their “good ” side, and also have a stronger sense of depth than a straight on, or side view. One major thing to keep in mind if you're ever commissioned to draw someones portrait is to make it flattering. Someone might have a large, crooked nose, it might not be a feature they want you to emphasize.

Practice makes perfect, and the one model you can always practice drawing is yourself. Take care everybody, have a good day, night, or whatever part of the day you are reading this.

Sincerely, Ian Berget

Drawing: Blind Contour

Hi everybody, today I'd like to show you where my pursuit of art originated.

I drew this in the first week of my art classes. Now you might be wondering what this chicken scratch has to do with art, but let me explain. These are blind contour drawing, meaning they are line drawings made from observation (of a still life in this case) without ever looking at the paper. They were also done in pen, so there was no erasing and correcting afterward; which wouldn't surprise anyone I'm sure... They might have a slither of artistic appeal visually, but their real purpose is to train the artist to see. You might think that anyone drawing would already know how to see, but that is far from true. If you were to show two people an image of a tree, one artist, and one average schmuck (no offense meant to all the non-artists out there), and ask them what they saw, the average person would probably say it was a tree; but the artist would say that it is actually a group of shapes, lines, tones, and colors all intertwined, making the illusion of a tree. Here is another example:

Translation: This is not a pipe.

It is a painting of a pipe, and if we forget that we may still look, but we won't see.

To get back on topic, the blind contour drawings are a great way to train yourself to see little details. Once you get going you hit a state were you're almost hypnotized, and all your focus is on what's in front of you. If you can resist the urge to peek, the results are much the same as doing a Karate Kata with your eyes closed: you'll be disoriented, and wonder how you finished in a completely different place then where you started. If you think you can recognize any objects in these drawings leave a comment. I'd be glad to hear of what terrifying apparitions lurk within. Maybe some day I'll be as adept and at drawing as Burne Hogarth, and won't need to look at the paper to create a masterpiece, until then I can always try a blind contour exercise to have some “interesting” results. I hope you are all having a great day, and that you strive to accomplish all of your goals.

Sincerely yours, Ian Berget

PS: You may have noticed that Oscar (the 3d mannequin), has changed since you last saw him, and that is likely to continue happening, pretty soon he might look like a character you'd find in one of the latest Pixar films.

Introductions

                           Hello world!

And welcome, to my first blog post!

This little guy here, is my newly formed digital mannequin. He is completely animatable, and entirely original.

I call him Oscar. 

 

 

In the blog posts to come we will be sharing with you some of the art pieces I have created, and the process that went into developing each one. I am by no means a great artist, but maybe someone can learn from what knowledge I have to offer. However, lets not make it a one way street; please post any questions, comments, or critiques you may have and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Have a good day everyone, stop by any time.