Weekly sketchbook

So the posting has slowed down for a very particular, art-related reason. Last week I started two art classes at The Animation Guild in North Hollywood. I have a three-hour life drawing class on Thursday night and a 2-hour traditional animation basics class. Both are a lot of fun and extremely reasonably priced for art classes.

The animation class is very intensive, particularly since I've never taken an animation class before. I chose to take this class because while I am happy with my rendering/shading skills with the colored pencil, I feel that my final pieces are very still. Animation is all about movement, motion, twisting, stretching, and squashing. There is a lot of outside 'homework' for this class, which has slowed down posting my 15 minute sketches. Yet, I am sketching more then ever because homework includes lots and lots of sketches.

After the first week of reviewing my sketches, my animation teacher told me that I need to sketch faster, less refined/finished' and even more sketches. Furthermore, my life-drawing teacher doesn't like people drawing from photos unless they don't try to match perfectly and instead focus on building the volumes and structures are created in each face.

Some of this week's sketchbook drawings: