birthday doodle :)

i did this super quick CG for my mom's birthday. The proportions are kind of funky (yes, i believe there can be funky proportions in chibis!). But ah well, it was a last-minute job and that's how it's going to be! i was also messing around with colours a bit, definitely out of my (very limited) comfort zone... And i actually used Photoshop CS2 instead of SAI 1.01 for this - i figured i'd better get used to the hotkeys, as it will be the program of choice in my field. :(




















tranquil
Photoshop CS2

Carbon dust update next...!

open life drawing

This past Thursday, i went for an open life drawing session at the Toronto School of Art with a bunch of people from my program. It was my first time at an open session, and i've never been in such a packed (and sweaty) life drawing environment before! Everyone was really focused and engaged in their work, and i just felt so pumped to do some drawing that wasn't for school. It felt GREAT to loosen up again!

i was pretty rusty, but here they are...
(i forgot to keep track of times, i think most of these are in the 10-15 min range, except for the first one which is likely a 1 min drawing.)








charcoal on newsprint, 18x24"


charcoal + conte, 18x24"

Here's a tandem drawing i did with Shelley (i.e. we took turns drawing on the same page), a second-year student in the Biomedical Communications program. While she is an amazing artist, she totally brings out the worse in me (it's rather obvious what body part we totally kept fixating on...)!


charcoal + conte, 18x24"

lungs and such

i'm currently in a human anatomy illustration course, and it's definitely a lot more challenging than i imagined! We have been drawing from specimens in Grant's Museum. At first i thought the observational sketching was going pretty smoothly, but there was a catch... We have to make the material look life-like, though we are drawing from cadaver material. i find this to be the most difficult aspect (so far). i've been consulting textbooks, professors, and harrassing medical students and colleagues. They've been of great help, but i still haven't found solutions to all of my problems...

But i did manage to solve one problem today! Since i am taking anatomy with the first year medical students, i also have the enormous privilege of having cadavers to learn from. i was struggling a lot with the lungs (see below), as the preserved material in Grant's Museum hasn't exactly aged well... Coincidentally, we did our lab on lungs today and i was able to reference from an actual lung in my hand. It was pretty amazing! Being able to see the lungs in real life was extremely helpful, and i think i've worked out how the lungs should look when pulled back to show the hili...

Here is the preliminary sketch i did in Grant's Museum (we weren't supposed to shade, but i cheated a little :D)

observational sketch
graphite on bond paper, 11x14"

The clean, line drawing with lots of anatomical errors! (i have a hand-labelled version, will scan that eventually)

clean lines
0.5B mechanical pencil on bond paper, 11x14"

Finally, this is my rough plan for my tonal rendering. i found it rather difficult to figure out where the light/shadows would be on all the vessels and such. There are still some anatomical errors i haven't quite figured out yet...

tonal test
SAI 1.01 + Photoshop CS2
Credit also needs to be given to a number of my friends who helped critique this (you know who you are 8D;;;)

i also have at least two other versions lying around, so not used to redrawing stuff so many times! But i guess i'd better get used to it. :P Now i have to render this using carbon dust... i will be attempting to do so tomorrow...

filler update! 8D

i just completed my second week of school (in Biomedical Communications) and it has been insanity! Despite spending waaaay too many hours in Grant's Museum drawing specimens, i'm really enjoying the program so far. Unfortunately, it doesn't leave much time for my personal art. i'm hoping to squeeze some things in here and there once i get into the rhythm of school.

So for now, i present to you some filler items...

This is what happens when i don't have anything to do on a Friday night...

... i permanently deface my new portfolio with an uglee fish... i totally didn't realize that white china markers are pretty much permanent on this surface. :'(

Here are a couple goodies i received recently in the mail!
My Ragnarok tee (available for purchase @ Cameesa) came out really nicely! But i feel strange - almost egotistic - wearing my own creation. i also received a copy of Mugeno, the artbook i participated in (purchase info here)!

i'm really hoping i can post some of my medical illustrations from school, so my blog isn't completely dead... will check with the professors. :)