Radio Runner Curriculum Term 4 Round up
Let’s take a look what What I did for RR Term 4. Term 4 focuses on composition, anatomy of the torso, perspective part 5, an introduction to values, and design.
Composition & Storytelling II
This was another follow along with the play list and then take 10 images, or screenshots from movies/videos that inspire you and analyze them, then try to recreate them. I’m appalled at what I did, but clearly I wasn’t “feeling” this lesson so I kind of half-assed it. Doing compositions and large scenes has never been my strong suit.
Looking back, I wish I’d taken the unit more seriously. I might have picked up some of the basics, but I didn’t really learn much because I wasn’t doing the work. To be fair, it looks like at the time I was doing a lot of figure drawing and that’s something I really enjoy doing.
Anatomy II — The Torso
Another unit based on following along with Proko’s videos. The homework was a lot of tracing over photos, and then taking screenshots from the skelly app (which btw is a great skeleton reference app for artists) and then drawing muscles over the screenshots.
Looking back at these assignments, I think I’ve forgotten a lot of the anatomy already, which as I’ve mentioned before, you always need to go back and study anatomy to keep it fresh.
Perspective V
I really enjoyed this Unit. Perspective 5 focuses on doing a lot of studies of mechanical stuff and vehicles and then drawing them in perspective. After doing a lot of mechanical studies, following along with the videos.
After that, the assignment is to do 10 mech studies, then 9 car studies (3 old timey, 3 modern, 3 futuristic).
As I said, drawing these were a lot of fun. For coloring, I went with a cell-shaded look and I’m still pretty happy with how a lot of the vehicles came out.
Color & Light II — Intro to Values
In contrast (har har) to the unit on composition above, I spent a lot more time on this unit. The assignment was to do value studies of 10 figures, 10 portraits, and 10 movie scenes. I picked a lot of dynamically lit poses and portraits, then some favorite scenes from movies and tv shows and spent several hours on each piece, carefully rendering the values.
I think rendering the scenes out was my favorite, even though it was incredibly tedious and took the longest.
What I learned from this was to quickly block out shapes with the lasso fill tool, then slowly work from big shapes to small shapes while painting in details. You can move around the painting if you get stuck in one area. I did that a lot to keep my eyes fresh. Taking a 1 or 2 day break then coming back helps a lot too. I want to get good at painting, so it’s nice to look back and see that I’ve learned some things.
Design I
The last unit of Term 4 is Design I: Anatomy of Style. The assignment was to create a goal folder, a folder of images that inspire you and styles you want to emulate some day. Then pick 5 favorites and takes notes and then do detailed studies of them. I picked some characters created by AndrewCockroach, and a painting by Ariabba who has a tutorial on her painting style. Since Ariabba’s tutorial was in procreate, this allowed me to switch apps for a bit (since I draw on the ipad) and learn Procreate.
I struggled quite a bit to use Procreate, which even though it has a nicer and easier to use interface on the iPad, I feel that it’s much harder to draw in than CSP is.
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Because I struggled so much, and I got really annoyed with Procreate, I decided to look for some courses on it and I abandoned the rest of the assignment to try to learn Procreate. The first course was kind of the usual techniques, just done in Procreate which was good for my sake because I didn’t really know how to do clipping masks and flatting in Procreate at all. The second course was much more in-depth on designing and create a scene. I really liked the second course and it gave me a lot of ideas on how to approach my own art in the future. The instructor Deb JJ Lee is also a really amazing teacher. They are both very good teachers though and I’d feel comfortable recommending them.
Conclusions
Anyway, that’s my time on Term 4. I stuck a lot closer to the course work than previous terms and got done a lot faster. I’m starting to feel a lot more focuses and I’m getting impatient. So I’ve spent more time focusing on each unit and less time getting lost on other topics than before. I’m currently in Term 5 trying to finish that up. I might start posting Unit by Unit since I’m caught up now. Well that’s it for now, I guess now is also the time to ask if you have any questions about the curriculum or what I’m doing. I’d be happy to answer.
