Quotable Quotes: Poem Edition

My teacher gave us all a Nobel Prize-winning poem, stating that he reads it whenever he doesn't feel like drawing. I thought I'd share it here:

You’re the Result of Yourself

Don’t blame anyone, never complain of anyone or anything

because fundamentally you have built up your life.

Accept the responsibility of edifying yourself and the courage to accuse you in

your own failure to start over again, correcting yourself.

The triumph of the true man arises from the ashes of his mistakes.

Don’t complain about your surroundings or the people around you,

There are those who succeeded in the same place.

The circumstances are good or bad

depending on the strength of your heart.

Never complain of your poverty, loneliness or your luck.

Face it with courage and accept it, they are the result of your acts and

the proof that you will win.

Don’t feel frustrated with your own failures, neither unload them on someone else.

Accept yourself now or you will go on justifying yourself like a child,

remember that any time is good to start,

and none is so terrible to give in.

Stop lying to yourself, you are the result of yourself,

of your necessity, your pain, your failure.

If you have been the ignorant, the irresponsible one,

You only You, no one could have done it for you.

Don’t forget that the cause of your present is your past,

as the cause of your future is your present.

Learn from the brave, the strong, copy the violent, the energetic ones

the winners, those who don’t accept situations, those who succeeded despite of

everything.

Think less in your problems and more in your work, and without feeding them,

your problems will die.

Learn to arise from your pain, and to be greater that is the greatest of your

Obstacles.

Look at the mirror of yourself.

Start to be sincere with yourself, recognizing you for your courage,

for your will and for your weaknesses to keep justifying yourself.

Remember that inside you there is a force that can do everything,

recognizing you, freer and stronger, and you will stop being a puppet of

the circumstances.

You are your destiny, and no one can replace you in its foundation.

Wake up and look at the mountains and breathe the sun of dawn.

You are part of the force of life,

And don’t you ever think of luck, for luck is the excuse of the failures.

Pablo Neruda

(1904-1973)

Nobel Prize in Literature 1971

Clothed Figure Drawing: The Final Day

Alrighty, so I'm finally back to school in San Francisco after a six week break in Atlanta. As promised, here are the stragglers from last semester's drawings. First is the drawing I did on the last day of my Clothed Figure Drawing class:

And then there's the drawing I did for the final project from that class along with the original photograph reference:

The Best of 2009: Clothed Figure Drawing

Last but certainly not least is what ended up being my favorite and most successful class, Clothed Figure Drawing. This class was a six-hour Illustration class, where we had three hours of 20-minute poses and another three hours for a long pose. Perhaps due mostly to the vast quantity of work that I produced in this class, it is here where I can see my most progress as an artist. Below are what I consider to be my best pieces, which is why they're what I put into my portfolio:

Still room for growth, of course. On a side-note, I forgot to photograph the final drawing for this class, so I'll have to make a separate post later.

The Best of 2009: Head Drawing

Next up is my Head Drawing class, which was a Fine Arts class. I definitely had a solid progression of talent and skill in this class...that is, I did until we switched from charcoal drawing to oil painting. Let's just say that none of those oil paintings will be found posted here. The class was six hours, and we drew one portrait per class; below are the last three weeks of drawing with charcoal:

We also had homework, including this replication of a Rembrandt painting. This was also done in charcoal. For the final, we had to produce the same illustration in oil paint, but again, no oil paintings will be posted here.

The Best of 2009: Drawing From the Imagination

Mostly due to laziness, I didn't end up posting all my drawings after each week's classes as I intended to do. Therefore, I've assembled the best drawings I created over my Fall 2009 Semester at the Academy of Art University and will be posting them by class.

First up, Drawing From the Imagination. This class was an Illustration class, largely about proper use of perspective and anatomy when drawing your own creations from your imagination (hence the name). I can truly say that I learned a lot from this class, but I don't think any of my artwork was that great. Lots of flaws and just a general lack of passion. So, the only think I'll be posting from that class is the final project. We had to illustrate a scene from Beauty and the Beast (the scene where Beast asks Beauty if she could ever love a hideous beast) and show all the things we learned from the class (perspective, reflection, plotted lighting, etc.). My initial concept art, I feel, turned out much better than the final piece. As I get older, I find myself drawn to more organic and fluid art than the tight, precise art that used to be my trademark...but maybe I'm just getting worse at what I do. Either way, here's the final piece:

Quotable Quote 5

"It is a curious thing that the more the world shrinks because of electronic communications, the more limitless becomes the province of the storytelling entertainer."

-Walt Disney

How the West was Fun!

For the past three weeks, my homework in my "Head Drawing" class has been to copy an old black & white photograph onto 18x24" paper using charcoal. The teacher generously let me borrow a page from his book (literally) and below is the result:

It's John Wayne. Again, I get horrible lighting in my student housing apartment, so I had to do some adjustments in Photoshop and I think the quality is lost. You get the idea, though.

The Clothed Figure Drawing Head Drawing

So lately, with the last half of my Clothed Figure Drawing class, the teacher has been having us drawing the human head. Which is weird, because I'm pretty sure I'm also taking a class called "Head Drawing." Even weirder? I'm also drawing heads in my "Drawing from Imagination" class. Anywho, here's the head I drew tonight. I think it turned out pretty good (unfortunately, the photo is not the best quality, so there is some detail lost):

Don't Turn Your Back on Taylor Swift

So, I was working on some homework where I had to draw five clothed, full-figure females. Naturally, I gathered my Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift photo collection and started drawing. These were done on 18 x 24" newsprint with compressed charcoal:

I know...this page is right from my dreams. I thought the Taylor drawing (right) turned out rather well, so I decided to color it in using Photoshop:
That was sure fun, but now I have to get back to my "actual" schoolwork. *sigh.*

Clothed Figure Drawing - Week 2

Week 2 of my Clothed Figure Drawing class. I switched back to what may be my favorite figure drawing medium: conte. Used both black and the brown/umber color. Really cool model this week with a western theme. Good week, I think...