Learning – Ken Crocker Artist

What I’m Learning

After my last post about Steve Huston's New Masters Academy videos, I thought I'd better post some of my drawings showing what I've gotten out of practicing along with Steve. This is a sheet of 5–10 minute drawings (on the video they're 1–2 minute poses, but I still have to slow down the playback to… Continue reading What I’m Learning

Steve Huston Quicksketch Videos

Steve Huston and the New Masters Academy have a lot of really useful videos on Youtube. This is a screen shot of two videos placed side-by-side. On the left is a video of Steve doing a 5-minute sketch of a pose shown in the video on the right, which is a sequence of timed poses.… Continue reading Steve Huston Quicksketch Videos

Struggles with ipad quick sketch

A little more than a month of weekly quick sketch sessions plus practice at home has yielded the top sketch, a half-hour one, and bottom, a more typical 5-minute sketch. I'm using a Procreate brush that changes width with speed so I can get a nice fine line if I use quick strokes, but the… Continue reading Struggles with ipad quick sketch

iPad Quicksketch

I'm stubbornly continuing to use my ipad for quick sketch sessions with a model. Mainly because it keeps me focused on gesture and doesn't let me start finished some small part of the drawing before getting the whole thing down–something I'm way too likely to do. Most of my time on this sketch was spent… Continue reading iPad Quicksketch

Ipad Gesture Drawing

All of these drawings are done on my Ipad using Procreate. The first two drawings are five-minute quick sketches. The third one is a 25-minute heightened drawing. Using an Ipad forces me to not draw “cute.” That is, it forces me to concentrate on the gesture of a pose and avoid getting caught up in… Continue reading Ipad Gesture Drawing

The Plan

Here’s a plan for the typical three-hour quick sketch session: First half-hour—One- and three-minute poses. Follow the example of Michael Hampton’s Figure Drawing: Design and Invention, p. 38, and focus on the placement of landmarks. Second half-hour—Five-minute poses. Start with the same landmarks, but add more volume and contour. … Continue reading The Plan

Three Teachers, One Drawing

I owe this 25-minute quick sketch at last night P&C open studio to lessons taught to me by three teachers: for being able to set up a overall layout on a page, Max Ranft; for how to use Prismacolor pencil, Bob Schultz; and for how to construct a convincing human form in space, Michael… Continue reading Three Teachers, One Drawing

A Good Start and a Dump Truck

This is the fifteen-minute start of a 25 minute drawing. The model had trouble with her leg (half sitting on a metal stool cut off her circulation), so I couldn't go any further. But I liked how “raw” it looks, with lots of rhythm lines and basic shapes. To be honest, many times from here… Continue reading A Good Start and a Dump Truck

Gesture and Structure

I guess you could say this 25-minute drawing from last night's open studio is neither a gesture or structure drawing. But it is the result of thinking a lot about these two aspects of figure drawing. I'm trying to use gesture to draw the whole connected figure instead of doing it part-by-part, and I'm trying… Continue reading Gesture and Structure

Constructive Figure Drawing

This 25-minute drawing was done with the specific intent of practicing figure construction. Since I love quick-sketching the figure, I look for any way to improve my technique (I'd also like to better understand why an artist draws the figure, but that's a whole other topic). One significant way to improve I've found, is to,… Continue reading Constructive Figure Drawing