Ever since graduating high school and my decision to not attend art school, I’ve felt like I was trapped in an artistic desert. I kept going to networking events, and even hosting my own, in hopes of meeting an artist that I could truly connect with.

It wasn’t until I finally let go of my need to collaborate, and I instead focused on my own growth–on making myself a person skilled enough so that I’d become a desirable collaboration partner-that the door was finally opened for me to meet such a person.

Meeting Brandon was like coming home. After meeting at a figure drawing session, we talked for hours at a cafe. It was nice connecting with somebody that was so open to my alternative viewpoints and had the same creative lens through which he viewed the world. His obsession with bears is charming.

It’s interesting how the most valuable people in your life seem to present themselves when you least expect it.

For the list of challenges see part one.

Using see-through tracing paper for back-to-back fast gesture poses was educational in terms of movement. I’m glad with this one in particular because I did well sculpting the model out of the page with the aid of surface lines and I can feel her continued movement. It’s not static.

Caricature

Here’s a combination of caricature and relocation from my challenge list.

Once I got the model’s basic form down, I couldn’t shake the feeling how aristocratic the pose felt.

For the list of challenges see part one.

This particular model has had experience modeling for Disney animators. He’s such a professional when it comes to expressive and dynamic poses. The gestures were a lot of fun.

As an Animal

I thought of drawing him as an animal at the last minute, so unfortunately, I didn’t get to ask for his favorite one.

Already having taken 20 minutes to draw his pose, I thought it would be fun to transfer that into the anatomy of an animal, and a giraffe seemed challenging enough. My sketchbook already had giraffe sketches from a recent sketching trip at the zoo, and they served as a handy reference.

For the list of challenges see part one.

Anatomy

When I’m in a more logical mood, I’ll take the long-pose opportunity to deconstruct the model’s pose to the muscular level. I look up anatomical reference images on my phone, and recreate the model to the best of my ability. I challenge myself to see all of these fibers in a three dimensional and animated way. I ask myself:

• Where do these muscle fibers connect?
• How do they twist around the form—the bones and other muscles?
• When this muscle contracts, what exactly does it move?

With my animation goals in mind, I do my best to visualize this marionette movement in my head and internalize it.

For the list of challenges see part one.

Ambidexterity

Developing the ability to draw with both of my hands was first on my challenge list because it allows me to be even more of a Leonardo Da Vinci fan girl. Da Vinci could draw forward with one hand while writing backwards with the other—talk about talent!

I dove in, taking a 20 minute figure drawing session to draw solely with my non-dominant left hand. As to be expected, drawing with my left hand is a slow and clumsy process, but what I didn’t expect was how good it felt.