If your Catholic and your in an art program where you gotta draw artistic nudes then?

[sidetrack]

Thank you everyone for your advice.I think that once the time comes I’ll do it.As for those of you asking for my circumstances;I’m 21 years old,in a software support (think something like info systems/programming light) program which has been the second community college program I’ve been in.-_- Lord knows how horrendously stubborn I’ve been my whole life with following my heart and being happy.

I know it might cheese some of you off but for a long time (let me just concisely say it was b/c of the mainstream mentality of picking a program more for it’s utilitarianism and job possibilities then your liking) I even made fun of those in humanity related programs…-_- yeah I know that was pretty flippin stupid,hypocritical etc of me since I like it so much which is so often I feel like this when I think about my personal history of education–>:banghead::imsorry:<–.It would be like if I had made fun of those who like anime and manga even though I clearly love the stuff as well.

The reason I can’t switch out again is (well besides the obvious added shame and emotional stress of switching out yet again -_-) is b/c the big government agency so many students rely on (.O.S.A.P./Ontario student assistance program) cuts off my funding for a whole year and for reasons related to my mental health I can’t really hold a typical blue-collar student job too well.

Hopefully I’ll be rewarded after 2.5 more years of this at the age of 24 with yet another 2 year-ish program but one I actually like this time .Just like how some ppl bootstrap themselves through a generic university science program for something in med school they hopefully like,right ?.

 

[GEddie]

Not necessarily. You can learn human anatomy from anatomy books (those without photos). No need to change your career.

Peace,
Ed

How are drawings of dead bodies and parts thereof going to teach someone how light interacts with living human form and skin?

ICXC NIKA

 

[Paddy_Walker]

Not necessarily. You can learn human anatomy from anatomy books (those without photos). No need to change your career.

Peace,
Ed

you can learn anatomy that way and i think you should anyway if you’re serious about it. but you need to see a life model to understand and learn about muscles and bone in three-dimensions. books illustrations, like photos, are flattened.
some people draw cadavers in their local morgues but again the body has lost its blood pressure and the muscles are not the same as in life.
evening classes and short courses over holidays and to go work with an artist are other ways to progress in art without giving up your current job. art college, i think, is more for teachers in art or for technical [computer aided] subjects, graphics etc.

 

[edwest2]

How are drawings of dead bodies and parts thereof going to teach someone how light interacts with living human form and skin?

ICXC NIKA

I had the opportunity to sit down with a small group of artists and an artist whose work had been exhibited at the Louvre. When asked how he drew hands hands so beautifully, he told that person to make a fist and hold it up to his face. “That,” he said, “is how you learn.”

The critical thing to know for any artist - and by that I mean someone who does not spend his days throwing paint against a canvas - is that multiple light sources are no good for the beginner. Only a single light source will do the job. A small wooden mannequin, commonly available, and a small desk lamp than can swivel are all you need. For skin tone, you have your own.

The head and hands, and for too many, the feet, present the most difficulty. The professional illustrator can invent light sources, but his true challenges are facial expression and body language to convey attitudes. This is followed by learning how to create correct folds in clothing.

Who said anything about dead bodies? A good anatomy book shows the model as in life.

Peace,
Ed

 

[edwest2]

you can learn anatomy that way and i think you should anyway if you’re serious about it. but you need to see a life model to understand and learn about muscles and bone in three-dimensions. books illustrations, like photos, are flattened.
some people draw cadavers in their local morgues but again the body has lost its blood pressure and the muscles are not the same as in life.
evening classes and short courses over holidays and to go work with an artist are other ways to progress in art without giving up your current job. art college, i think, is more for teachers in art or for technical [computer aided] subjects, graphics etc.

Too many art schools will not teach you how to draw. The computer is a waste until you know how to draw with pencil and paper. Art teachers - too often - are propagandists. You would do much better taking an industrial design class. That way, you will have to understand how real light and shadow work. My company recently received an unsolicited set of samples from an artist and it was obvious he didn’t understand perspective drawing at all. Something else industrial design - now relabeled ‘product design’ - will teach you.

There is more to drawing the human form than just rendering a good likeness. Everything associated with the drawing - hair, clothing, shoes, pose, expression - will be required. As an assistant art director and when I visited a commercial art studio (back when they still existed) during work hours and after, I could quickly spot good and bad work and identify the problems. Composition is another issue, which even professional cover artists we work with still have problems. That’s why we require four pencil drawings, of which one is chosen, and then a a small color rendering, and when that is okayed or returned for changes and that is okayed, the artist can do the final painting, which can be digital or physical.

Peace,
Ed

 

[GEddie]

I had the opportunity to sit down with a small group of artists and an artist whose work had been exhibited at the Louvre. When asked how he drew hands hands so beautifully, he told that person to make a fist and hold it up to his face. “That,” he said, “is how you learn.”

The critical thing to know for any artist - and by that I mean someone who does not spend his days throwing paint against a canvas - is that multiple light sources are no good for the beginner. Only a single light source will do the job. A small wooden mannequin, commonly available, and a small desk lamp than can swivel are all you need. For skin tone, you have your own.

The head and hands, and for too many, the feet, present the most difficulty. The professional illustrator can invent light sources, but his true challenges are facial expression and body language to convey attitudes. This is followed by learning how to create correct folds in clothing.

Who said anything about dead bodies? A good anatomy book shows the model as in life.

Peace,
Ed

Just curious: why do you say “too many” have difficulty with feet?

Anatomy was originally the study of the dead body, and certainly for anything under the skin, that remains the source.

Even if a live person were the source, a drawing will not show the action of the light; you need real light and a real body to do that.

ICXC NIKA

 

[edwest2]

Just curious: why do you say “too many” have difficulty with feet?

Anatomy was originally the study of the dead body, and certainly for anything under the skin, that remains the source.

Even if a live person were the source, a drawing will not show the action of the light; you need real light and a real body to do that.

ICXC NIKA

My Life Drawing instructor at University was a professional realistic painter whose subjects did not wear shoes. He took me into his office and asked what I thought about a recent work. My only complaint was that the feet did not look right. I cannot print his reply.

I have noticed that illustrators who need to invent figures for their work, as opposed to using photographs, tend to shy away from drawing feet, whether they are uncovered or have shoes or boots. The challenge of drawing the somewhat complex curvature of a human foot, and the desire to spend as little time as possible on their work so they can do more and make more money faster, has them hiding the feet in almost comical ways. Drawing feet in perspective - as in, in any position aside from flat on the floor - is challenging.

Peace,
Ed

 

[Paddy_Walker]

Too many art schools will not teach you how to draw. The computer is a waste until you know how to draw with pencil and paper. Art teachers - too often - are propagandists. You would do much better taking an industrial design class. That way, you will have to understand how real light and shadow work. My company recently received an unsolicited set of samples from an artist and it was obvious he didn’t understand perspective drawing at all. Something else industrial design - now relabeled ‘product design’ - will teach you.

There is more to drawing the human form than just rendering a good likeness. Everything associated with the drawing - hair, clothing, shoes, pose, expression - will be required. As an assistant art director and when I visited a commercial art studio (back when they still existed) during work hours and after, I could quickly spot good and bad work and identify the problems. Composition is another issue, which even professional cover artists we work with still have problems. That’s why we require four pencil drawings, of which one is chosen, and then a a small color rendering, and when that is okayed or returned for changes and that is okayed, the artist can do the final painting, which can be digital or physical.

Peace,
Ed

i agree about computers and learning to draw. you would be placing a world of technical buttons, sliders and god only knows what between yourself and the image making. far to difficult.
art is about love, talent and practice. pencil, paper and observation.
if an industrial designer wants to draw a car or a spoon she needs to see it in three dimensions as a start, to move it around or move around it.
you cannot afford to be squeamish or religiously scrupulous if you want to make good art, that is, art which pushes your own knowledge and creates something new and speaks in your own voice, so to speak.
it is impossible to sculpt or draw even a human arm properly without seeing an arm in the flesh. the musculature is too complex, even in just an arm, to work out from a flat image like a photograph, especially so for sculpture. this is why sculptors or those who excel in life-drawing will always be the best and most versatile figure artists. composition comes with practice, experience, imagination, inspiration and feeling, as well as thumbing through what has already been done before.

 

[edwest2]

i agree about computers and learning to draw. you would be placing a world of technical buttons, sliders and god only knows what between yourself and the image making. far to difficult.
art is about love, talent and practice. pencil, paper and observation.
if an industrial designer wants to draw a car or a spoon she needs to see it in three dimensions as a start, to move it around or move around it.
you cannot afford to be squeamish or religiously scrupulous if you want to make good art, that is, art which pushes your own knowledge and creates something new and speaks in your own voice, so to speak.
it is impossible to sculpt or draw even a human arm properly without seeing an arm in the flesh. the musculature is too complex, even in just an arm, to work out from a flat image like a photograph, especially so for sculpture. this is why sculptors or those who excel in life-drawing will always be the best and most versatile figure artists. composition comes with practice, experience, imagination, inspiration and feeling, as well as thumbing through what has already been done before.

To understand the musculature in an am, you have to look beneath the flesh. If you need an arm, get a desk mirror and examine your own.

Peace,
Ed

 

[GEddie]

I agree, we can learn a great deal about the visual human body by studying our own limbs; and by using mirrors, even neck, head, shoulders, etc.

But at some point the artist needs to examine the play of light over the surface of body; that can’t be done from medical drawings and it can’t be done by examining your own soma because the light will be in the wrong direction.

It still requires the human nude.

ICXC NIKA