Week 1 at Weltec.
Unfortunately when I arrived at Weltec on Monday, I found that the animation course had been cancelled due to lack of enrollments! This was very disappointing, but after a chat with the helpful staff I decided to enroll in the drawing class instead which will still be a great help.
Current Assignments:
1) Planes, volume, and mask-making – We spent Monday afternoon drawing the planes of the face of another student. Our next task is to create a mask out of cardboard using our drawings as a reference in order to show how the light falls on different planes of the face. I am halfway through my mask and it is due on Monday!
2) Character Design – Design a bi-pedal humanoid creature using bird, reptile, or fish elements. Need to have character ready for rendering by Tuesday. So far I have done the research for the character’s look, and have decided that my chosen animal will be a parrot. My parrot is going to be a pirate so I have had fun researching pirate clothing and 18th century weaponry. A few 17th century details may creep in here and there. The design is almost there, I just need to do one last drawing of my Pirate Parrot character and make adjustments to his shoulders so that he looks more beefy.
References:
Beast from Beauty and the Beast
95th Rifles (Sharpe)
3) Encaustic Transfer
I am quite excited about this project, as I will have a finished piece of art to hang on the wall at the end of the course! “This drawing process is a mixed media one that has elements of drawing, photomontage, painting and conceptual art.”
Basically, we are going to melt several layers of coloured wax onto a board and then lay an acrylic skin over the top. We are going to paint layers of acrylic gel medium over the collage and let it dry. The image of the collage we made earlier is transferred to the acylic skin during the drying process. Then we will soak the skin in water and brush the pulpy paper off the back of the skin with a stuff brush. If all goes well, the ink from the collaged magazines and drawing will remain in the acrylic skin. I hope!
Next Week:
Life Drawing
Finishing the Encaustic Transfer
Rendering Our Character Designs
You can see my character design progress here, and I will hopefully get to upload some shots of my collages I made for the encaustic transfer tomorrow! Also coming soon: shots of the mask in progress and finished.