Anyway, now that I'm devoting myself to art full time, I decided that I needed to work on some basic skills - especially drawing. So I joined a local atelier program. It's really an "accelerated" atelier program which will last 2 years and progress from cast drawing through figure drawing, followed by monochrome painting and finally full color. I didn't attend art school and thus have never really studied the basics in an organized, logical way.
Since I don't have any paintings to post, here are some cast drawings (in pencil) from the first few weeks of the class. The nose was drawn first, and I found it very difficult because there really weren't many well-defined features. The hand was done second, and the head last. The idea with these wasn't to be "perfect", but to focus on the steps of the drawing process: (1) get used to the idea of starting with the big envelope shape, and gradually work down to the details, and (2) break down the drawing into the shadow and lit areas before working on the detailed halftones.
I'm enjoying the process, and have developed a new level of respect for those who do figure work in pencil. I never realized how difficult it was to get nice, consistent shading with pencil!
