Life Sketching

We enrolled Renee in an after school art class, which meets every Friday.  They do a variety of art projects, and this week I was glad to see that their teacher worked on drawing people.  Renee and her friends drew one another.  She did a better job starting her sketches with light lines and then using darker lines as her sketch evolved into a final product.  The body proportions came out pretty good too.

Dancing With Two - Second Edition

After a long hiatus, Renee and I finally completed our clay-mation dance video.  Renee showed a lot of creativity with the choreography.  With our primitive clay figures and stop motion app, I wasn't sure if animating a cartwheel was possible, but Renee figured it out!

Dancing With Two - First Edition

Today Renee and I, her dad, started a new animation video with clay figures she and I made especially for her video.  Renee's previous animations, such as Dancing with the Characters, used clay figures Renee already had from previous art projects.  So she could only move the characters across the table like chess pieces.  But now Renee and I can move our new clay figures' body parts for more interesting actions.

We chose to start a dance video with our new figures.  Renee showed a lot of creativity choreographing the dance moves.  The video is not finished yet, but here's the beginning sequence Renee came up with.  Stay tuned for more dance moves and of course a music sound track!

Sketching Breakthrough!

When Renee sketches, her first instinct is to approach sketching like writing numbers and letters in which she knows from the start exactly what the letters and numbers need to look like.  So it makes sense to press hard on the paper to write legible letters and numbers.  But you rarely know exactly what a sketch should look like from the start, so it  makes more sense to sketch lightly and then darken in the lines as the sketch evolves.

A good sketcher should actually not need to erase his or her lines and can use a pen to sketch.  This a real challenge for Renee, who is accustomed to sketching with a pencil and erasing her lines because she usually presses hard on her paper from the start.  So today I was very gratified to see this short series of sketches Renee did with pen!  You can clearly see she began with sketching light lines and then darkened in the final lines!

Cartoon Family Sketch

Here's Renee's new cartoon sketch of our family.  Again, she is doing a good job applying the cartoon sketch style from her cartoon sketch book, and I'm glad she did not draw me with a bowl haircut this time!  Next I want to encourage her to develop her own sketching style.

"Tug-a-War" sketch

Renee sketched this "tug-a-war" scene, and she did a nice job applying the cartoon character expressions she learned from her cartoon sketch books.

Cartoon Body Sketch Practice

This past Monday Renee studied her cartoon bodies sketch book, and she was on a roll cranking out these EIGHT pages of sketches.  She is a good student and gets very motivated with subjects she likes.  So I was glad to see Renee embrace the basic hand and arm sketching exercises.  Her book teaches to start sketching with simple lines and basic shapes like circles and ovals, which is a good way for Renee to improve her sketch technique.  I also want her pay attention to the body part proportions.  Renee finished her sketching with our cartoon family portrait.  I like the sketch except for my haircut.  I must remind Renee that Dad does NOT have a bowl haircut!