hey hey its been pretty busy but  here is an update one some studies and work  have been doing at TAD.  head painting in there is still the pick out technique.  my first attempt at doing color with the "zorn" pallete will be attempted tomorrow.  The Zorn pallete is named after Anders Zorn and is predominantly used for portraits bc the pallete includes just the basic earthy colors;  which are: yellow ochre, cadmium red medium, ivory black, and white.  i am still struggling hardcore just making those transition with the oil paints to show where light and form is hitting.  also threw in the head and neck studies that i am still doing.  all the figures are taken from reference photos except for the last one (which was done from life).  i also did some compositional studies as my value transitions need alotttt of work; as well the use of the use of my wacom (which i am still very new to and still trying to learn to use :/)  all in due time, all in due time.  i have to say though all these figure construction inside the body is really helping me out.  We are now focused on the front side of the torso and actually looking at the muscles on the inside.  so from chest down just to the pelvis.  

anyways thanks for stopping by as always; im trying to update a least once a week but its so much more busy this semester.This update includes the last 2 weeks of studies that i have been working on inside and outside of TAD.  

Birthday week woot woot and i have to say best birthday evarr

lol at the composition layout :/

first attempt

second attempt

3rd attempt.... id try more but my fruits have basically completely changed color now lol

the next figures are all from one pose but me moving around.... this week we had 9 hour pose so i chose to focus on the figure from different views and really try to see whats going on the inside.

then i really wanted to emphasize and push my limit and focus on what we were studying this week in TAD in our figure construction class (the head and neck)

same pose but one part focused on the head and the whole figure.

same pose as previous but on the other side of her.

this was 5 - value study for cast class that helps us look at things simpler.. remember move from simple to complicate... simple to complicate..... i still forget that i bet you will as well.... simple tooooo complicateee

hey hey guys this past week was my birthday and like anyone else on their birthday, i always come up with new resolution; but my  resolution was the same as it was in december when i moved to AUstin to join TAD in december 2010; i had decided that i want to learn how to be an artist and my resolution is still the same as to i want to get better as an artist / and it is the most important thing in my life right now; so i felt that i should keep it the same..

lot of painting this week was done on a still life.  struggled  with color and composition and the gradation of the shadows.  mainly my eyes are just not used to being able to see color and translating what my eyes are seeing onto a canvas (and my color theory is crap).  its very very difficult concept for me to begin to understand and i really need to practice doing this.  i had 3 attempts on one of them because it went back and forth between me and my instructors for that class (mainly giving me feedback on what i should do and trying best to help me out)  had a tonn of help on that painting this past week from lot of students in the POD as well.  and i posted all 3 bc it really changed lot and i learned alot just from this one painting.  just have to do the milegae, thats all there is to it; the more that will be done; each time will bet better as your muscle gets used to doing it; which is y i chose to upload those 3 of the same images bc i felt each time i took their feedback and tried my best to put it into the still life. remember that these paintings are done with oils on thin canvas board (which was a surprise when i told my instructor that, bc he was like this is oil?; i definitely am doing something wrong with the oil paints!!)

also that figure construction is definitely helping me out and has definitely allowed me to look at figure drawing a completely different way.  i really just dont follow the contours any more like i did the first semester... i am searching for what it is going on in the inside and this is really helping my figure drawing a whole lot ( remembering the names of the muscles / bones is a different story).  i cant wait to learn more for this semester bc right now we are attacking it a body part at a time; right now we learned about the neck and head these past 2 weeks.  i really tried to see the rhythms of the face (Riley rhythmatic lines) which would usually act as an under drawing.  this technique would usually be used to help solve a drawing if you are having issues and want to figure out a way to solve it so the drawing comes together and the figure doesn't look wonky( remember this is just another way of attacking the figure when u are having issues; just like in first semester we learned to use shape and value to attack the figure; this semester we are learning why those shapes and values are like that.)  definitely moving outside my comfort zone which is very hard to do; but its definitely good for you bc it will only help you.  

also the last image is from our cast drawing class and Jon Hardesty (freaking love that guy he is an awesome teacher and always happy!!!)  he is teaching us to limit the values we see to 5: to make things simple... simple; think simple... thats how everything starts if it is simple it will make sense at the end.  so those were the values i picked based on an image he gave us and this one was one of the more successful ones that he really liked and we both felt i understood the assignment.  now to get this right during my cast!!! (which by the way im doing a skull thanks to my fellow TAD student Denton)

have to say was pretty happy birthday because this is what i like to call level up for me and has allowed me to get one step closer to my dream....

TAD has started up again and its been a month and a half since i last updated!

fellow class mate Neimeister shows me the importance of simplicity with boxes and cylinders on the right.

attempt to apply the simple forms of boxes to the pose

hey hey.  finally started painting this semester.  of course still continuing on with figure drawing during our sessions here at the studio.  but now with the constructive figure class; i will slowly begin to understand the figure and why those contour lines exist.  it will be a fun semester.  here you see my first still life painting(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBQJVr43YKpKKx_iaIw2gzY2ySMcnpEHwh5gu3Na_r-sBmco3uSUs_fIwpRgbKHvdBXL13A_0aVghntQsFfnRILxg11bf37O45wfK0_bi-HnxtK9d4xOrWiT70V7UDJHDbfMEaGru0dcSb/s320/first+still+life+painting+aug+22+2011.jpg) and my first head painting (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHTXTkblbFuGyVrFbnVmqfQtrbuBhWuRQS5XCib2ehnP8PMp11vyG1I1k9mZKfaHGHSwx0Hjb-ioqOsSYK1xGxxoykb_xFwsjQjCavH8QRdGw1Riqf1qQsgmJNmoV0bf37ZGN-BhLOBPaH/s320/sameer_khan_pickout1.jpg)  of the semester.  paintings will be done with oils.  the head painting is a technique used with burnt umber and paint thinner (turp or something similar that basically clean the paint).  the idea is to draw/paint like u normally would on a couched oily surface.( couching the surface with oil will allow the paint to move around very easily.  then using paint thinner u come back and start to "pick out" which will take away the paint.  so u can see we don't really worry about color; but just with value at this point.  and if you are very new to painting and color ( like me) then this is awesome way to ease your way into painting.  we are basically taking small steps in the head painting class and will eventually move into colors.  this same technique can be used as an under painting.  so you can do a "black and white" study of the painting where you just figure out value.  once that is done you can come over it with the colors and just worry about getting the color right at that point.  always tackle things one at a time!  for the still life i am literally going to try and keep it simple and just try to form the object i am painting (and do an under painting first, )... will definitely need to spend time on color mixing and color theory. 

with the figure now i began to literally just turn "auto mode on" and just draw what i was seeing and just go with it.  i never really talked to myself much... which is a huge thing especially when it comes to trying to understand whats on the inside or why a shadow is forming like that.   we started doing pillow shape and torso studies in figure construct and that alone is helping me see how the body feels.  I always had issues with too long of a torso and could never figure it out why.  this "pillow" has looked at another approach of helping me solve that problem.  we also have studied rib cages and pelvis's and try to draw them in very very simple forms to see 3D and how they are in the space.  (either box form, sphere form, or polygonal form).  doing this will allow us to see why the body twists and turns like that in certain poses. the figures you see here don't resemble this thought process(the drawings just basically are just me just literally drawing what i am seeing and just doing "whatever".  and it seems the my drawings are never complete at the end of the pose bc of this way of thinking and some things look "wonky".  i feel as if i am attacking to many things at once i don't understand them nor do they  look very complete (and i am very very very far from ever completing a drawing, so right now the focus needs to be on understand whats going on and how it functions.  so for now I am going to focus on literally trying to understand what is going on inside the body and showing that in the drawing.

lot of things learned and an exciting new semester is ahead... 

Canada Vacation

well sadly all vacations must come to an end... i miss my family like crazy :/.  here is some sketches i did in my free time while i was there.  i really pushed to sketch from life as much as i could wherever i was, because i have been avoiding sketching from life ever since starting to draw( but the only way to get better is to work out of your comfort zone)  so this trip i focused on sketching from life and making a picture from the environment  i was in to the best of my ability.  I also begin using pen so that i think about the lines I'm about to make and make sure I'm certain of it b4 i make a decision (was advised by many people to do this when sketching).    So i am posting every sketch i did regardless of how it turned out.  i also was able to do some digital composition and value studies while we would watch movies or not much was going on.  lot of sketches came from the homes i stayed / visited.  Things are getting back to normal and my second semester at TAD is about to start up again in august so i am very excited for that.  for now i will take it easy and sketch and still continue doing value and comp studies.  some were from shorpy.com and some from Craig Thompson's "Carnet De Voyage" ( a book Francis lent me to borrow).  its a book of his travels while he was in Europe and he sketched everywhere he go.  this is something i wish to achieve as an artist.  i want to be able to record what i was doing and where i was visually and do it well. 

anyways thank you for stopping by do look forward to more work as the semester begins to start up again.