Bathroom Baby Dangers-Final Assignment, 3 Figures, full value and volume

Finished it last night and will be turning it in this Wednesday, 6/16, last day of class this semester!

I like the story and the warning this picture implies.

Final Portfolio-Final Project

For part of our final we had to create a portfolio-book from scratch. These are the images to be used in the portfolio-book. With all the swimsuit and au natural models I wanted to create a location where they would feel at home. So I choose the Mandalay Bay's adult "European style" swimming experience in Las Vegas. My wife and I visited Las Vegas for our 2nd anniversary and Mandalay Bay was my favorite location. I loved the Shark Reef! It was the highlight of the trip for me. I remembered their 'open' pool and thought it would be the perfect setting for the class models. After all, after a hard semester of working I thought they could use a vacation!
What I liked was that my sweetheart Donna said they looked like statues. If you've ever been to Vegas that is just the sort of thing you might see there, too. :-)












Kerry Keith Murdock's Art Disclaimer
I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE LOCATIONS, LOGOS, OR FACILITIES PORTRAYED IN THE ABOVE, LISTED ART.

Distracted-Assignment 3, The Figure, full value & volume

It's not an obvious story so I hope it makes sense. I wanted to add that she was squinting but I thought it would detract from her distract.

Seeing Athena-Assignment 2, Line Drawing

I felt bad that I wanted to soften up the background on this one but ran out of time. Often times my homework takes me past the midnight hours and I then have to choose between the perfection I'm looking for or staying awake at work.
I'm grateful for Photoshop. I was able to go back in and soften up the background a few nights ago like I wanted to originally.

Morning Stretch-Assignment 1, Line Drawing

Last semester I wanted to play with pen and ink. Our instructor said we could but I never got a chance to. I decided to present this line drawing assignment in ink. I was grateful that the instructor allowed me to get away with it.

Final Value Drawings

I was severely humbled after completing these full volume and value projects compared to my beginning line drawings. Wow... I obviously had a lot to learn. I'm just glad I did - the quality of my work has skyrocketed! The old Masters were right, there really is so much to be learned from drawing from live, au naturral subjects. I'm excited to start applying these new techniques to my characters and projects.
With how these turned out and how much I've learned I can tell that I've had some very important spiritual help! Thank you, Heavenly Father, for allowing me to learn these great techniques!
If there is one thing I've learned - is that if it is important to us then it's important to Him. That's how much He loves us! And these pictures are proof that He wants us to succeed.

Model photos taken from www.deviantart.com/

Sketchbook Homework 2

Then we started to add value and volume to our homework. I had run out of dancers and started looking towards other subjects. I love the wrestlers and gymnastics.
I'm especially proud of the girl jumping for the uneven bars - because there was no model. The entire picture came from my imagination! I saw an image of her in my mind while I was working at my second, night-time job at the arcade. She turned out exactly the way I imagined her. So, I know I had help! ;-)

Sketchbook Homework 1

By the time my homework pieces were dark enough to be scanned I was tired of drawing skimpy models in falling bathing suits and Pac-Man sized smiles. I wanted to draw action and since my wife loves to dance we found these models fantastic. I loved drawing the action, grace, poise, dignity, movement, and power!
Even these simple line drawings hold a large contrast to my first drawings.

Step 5: Value and Volume

Value: Giving the figure the feeling of depth, a 3D-like quality that makes them 'pop-out'.
Volume: Light and dark gradual shading. This step really helps to give our figure that 3D-like quality and feeling of depth.

This could be the last step to completing our figure. This step includes both shading and texture with the intent to give the figure that 'rounded' 3D-type quality and making the picture 'pop out' of the page.

We used charcoal pencils in class in varying hardness. I now prefer a 4B for just about everything. I soften it up with my shammie if it gets too dark and blend with my paper-rolled blending stump. I use a smaller blending stump for details.
For practice in class we use newsprint paper. It really absorbs the charcoal from the paper, making it hard to bring out some serious shadows but it is relatively inexpensive and therefore good for practice.
Take a look at my final figure drawings for a comparison between the two paper types.

Don't forget the core shadow below the figure so that it doesn't seem like it is floating.

Barbie

Jim




Dani

Step 4: Fleshing

We learned about major bone and muscle groups to give the realistic quality to our figures. In this semester we only focused on the muscle groups in the torso.
A perfect place to practice our 'T's'!
You can still see the basic shapes underlying the figure. They are our guide as to where we should place the muscles and protruding bone structures.

Bones:
Front

Back
Spine (neck and back)
Scapula (shoulder blades)

Front
Sternmastoid (neck)
Pectoralis Major (Pectorals-chest)
Rectus Abdominis (abs-stomach)
Obliques (love handles)
Serratus Anterior (sides over rib cage, under the arms)

Back
Trapezius (neck)
Latissimus Dorsi (shoulder blades, opposite of chest)
Gluteus Maximus and Medius

This allows us to draw muscles and bones on top of our 'basic shapes skeleton.' It also provides guidelines and direction for our value and volume.

Kimberly



Jim







Dani