Welcome to Drawing from the Imagination!

Deep breath, and we're off, double-time, into the worlds of perspective, shadow plotting, figure proportions and a few other disciplines. All to make sure that will make sure you leave the Academy actually knowing how to draw, really draw.

Here's a screencap I made from Ghost in the Shell 2 this morning. This background nicely illustrates three of the major areas we'll be getting into this semester: perspective, shadow plotting and reflection. While you won't need to finish your work to this degree, this is otherwise a nice example of an artist making a somewhat fanciful, futuristic scene look believable and impressive.

Ask yourself, would you know how to draw the shadows on the floor of this room? By the time you've completed this course, you'll know. (You might even be able to say why the horizon is not in the right place and why the shoulders are incorrectly oriented in the standing woman's shadow. Even now you may rightly wonder how a curving structural element could cast a straight shadow!)

My background is in comic books. To be really good, a comic book artist must be able to convince the reader he or she knows how to draw almost everything. The same can be said, probably even more truly, of illustrators like yourselves. So I'll be teaching you all how to construct heads that look dimensional and attractive, to form and pose bodies that look graceful and convincing. We'll learn how to draw the folds in clothing too.

This is a tough course for most, but I think it ends up being enjoyable for a lot of people. Check in here often--I'll often post the assignment details and helpful illustrations here.

Pencils ready!

JH