Dynamic Sketching Wrap-Up

 Our final project for Dynamic Sketching class was to make a book or compilation of our best sketches from the class.

I'm gonna go ahead and give the overall class experience an A+. I learned so much and feel like I grew as an artist. The teacher, Peter, and the TA, Patrick, were absolutely amazing. And my classmates were great too.

In the last class we all shared our end-of-term compilations with each other. It was very cool to see the work everyone had done for the past 3 months. Just so you guys can see what I was up against (although of course it's not a competition...), I'd like to post some of the others' compilations that I thought were really fantastic. I took pictures because I'd like to keep them as references for myself, to remind myself how much farther I have to go.

Isabella (www.koel-art.nl) - obviously an amazing artist. She's actually already working as a concept artist in the Netherlands. I am sure she will go on to do amazing things. I think one of her biggest strengths was being able to set a focal point on each of her drawings - that was a part of the class I really struggled with, I always had a hard time not rendering the whole thing. She also has a great eye for design - even in these two pages, you can see how they're well laid-out, with certain drawings attracting your eye first, and then your eye wanders to explore all the little details of the less-refined thumbnail drawings. You can see her process at a glance.

Jose (jpdelteso.blogspot.com) - Jose's drawings were always some of my favorites because he had such clean lines. I remember from the first day the teacher complimented him on his very neat lines and ellipses. And yet his drawings aren't just technical - they are full of life and charm.

Lilienne, for whom I have no website - Lilienne's drawings are obviously great - but I wish she had included some of her redesigns. I was always incredibly impressed with hers - she would first write down a few pages just of NOTES on what she was going to make and how it functioned, and then she would have pages and pages of ideation before she reached a final design. Really awesome.

There were actually many more portfolios that I wish I had gotten a chance to take pictures of, but after the beginning of class things got busy and I put away my phone - but one thing I also thought was interesting was how we were all drawing the same things with the same instruction, but you can see just by glancing at each of these portfolios how each of us already has a slightly different style and way of approaching each subject. Every artist is different!

Finally, Peter (http://designandconcepts.blogspot.com/) and Patrick (http://patrickballesteros.blogspot.com/) did their last two demos (where they draw a subject in front of you so you can watch their approach). These were holiday themed.

They are both amazing artists.

As they drew they encouraged us to ask them any final questions that we had. I asked Peter what rookie mistakes he saw in aspiring concept artists' portfolios, and he said "No process. Young concept artists think we only want to see beautifully rendered, totally finished pieces, and the opposite is true. We want to see how you got there." I want to remember that.

And I was so glad that someone else had the courage to ask a question I wanted to ask - they said to Patrick: "I see you have a wedding ring... how does your relationship work with your job?" And Patrick said, "I have a very patient, understanding wife." It's something I've been realizing this past year, that for many artists, their art is their life and it extends way past working hours. I've always been the kind of person who wants to relax after work... but I've realized that if you really want to do something you're passionate about, you have to put in the work on your own time. That actually ties into something else I want to talk about... but this post is long enough now so I'll save it for next time, and let you savor the wonderfulness of my class's drawings. :)

PS: Merry (early) Christmas! Hopefully I'll be getting some holiday drawings in over the next couple of days...