Cafe Sketch Classwork of Kirsten Zirngibl

Bonus Sketches

2010-12-07T06:41:00.000-08:00

I counted my post and I've already posted enough (I think), but I feel bad about the bird homework and wanted to post some bonus sketches that I did one Saturday earlier on, at around Halloween. I figure it can't hurt!

Drawing some models and a student during Tardino's "Art Explorer Post"

This was one of the decorations on the food table at the halloween party the high school kids had.

Yikes, the birds!

2010-12-07T06:29:00.000-08:00

Man, I can't stand when something slips my mind like that, sorry for having these a little late.

Here are the videos used:
Golden Eagle
Birds collide
Slow motion hummingbird
Starling Takeoff
Cock Fight

I found this cool video of birds accidentally colliding over a piece of food. That's what the two top and the bottom left one are from. The lower middle and right ones are from a slow motion hummingbird. I found this very interesting, as the wings appear to twist as they flap, in the way that bees do. It's part of the secret of how they generate enough lift with the size of their wings.

Here are some starlings taking off (great video), though the lower right corner one is an eagle-- I had no idea their legs were THAT long!

The two on the left of this image are two roosters fighting (no this isn't one of those illegal mediated fights, they just did it on their own. Obnoxious video though.) The one on the right is another eagle.

The book!

2010-12-04T21:16:00.001-08:00

Here's a link to the book I made from my sketches. Hope it arrives on time!

&

Observational Sketching: Fall 2010 by Kirsten Zirngibl | Make Your Own Book

Day 24: Franklin Park Conservatory

2010-12-02T03:50:00.000-08:00

Big thanks for setting this up! I don't have a whole lot of experience sketching foliage, but I do enjoy it. It was also nice to do something a little more illustration-esque (see the little figure down in the lower right?).

There's something kind of "old" looking about it though, but I know that's not a "bad" thing...

Day 23: In Class

2010-11-30T02:55:00.000-08:00

Lots of music! I tried change around the musician character.

First here's a classic "strong man act". Haha

Tried to make these more gestural and make the style of the cello match that of the player...

Had to make a student into an old lady, hehe. Always fun...

Day 22: OSU Student Union

2010-11-23T09:52:00.000-08:00

What a building! I loved the interior of this place as soon as I walked in, so I decided to do an environment.
I didn't have a ruler or anything, and I found that using the side of a charcoal pencil is a lot "messier" and less exact than a colored pencil. I also didn't plan out the composition beforehand, but started with that window and worked my way outward, which led to problems that I thought I could erase, but the charcoal didn't erase as well as I thought it would.
Let's just say if I did it again I'm pretty sure I could do it better...

Day 21: North Market

2010-11-17T20:49:00.000-08:00

Yay, I always love our trips here!

I tried charcoal pencil out for the first time this class. I actually liked it more than I was expecting, in some ways more than black colored pencil. I felt that the added friction aided in more sharp and precise lines. I'll definitely keep one with me in the future.

Had fun with the flowers. I realized it'd been a long time since I'd drawn any "foliage". All about positive and negative shapes.

Day 20: Beck Tavern

2010-11-16T00:20:00.000-08:00

I'd always thought bars had strong, direct above lighting, so one would be perfect for this day's prompt.

I usually never go into bars and I was actually pretty dissapointed by how diffuse the light really was. There was a bunch of color differences but not a lot of value. (For example, faces lit by red on one side and green on the other, but kind of medium in tone all the way through).
I found I had to do some fudging and I'm afraid they came out a little vague. But the light above the pool tables was pretty good.

It was fun to draw people playing pool too, as they tend to freeze for a couple of seconds while aiming.

(And by the way, I had chili and lemonade, so no violation of our rule...)

Day 19: Return to BalletMet!

2010-11-10T16:23:00.000-08:00

This was a good drawing experience overall, though I had a hard time concentrating starting out.

I really aimed for difficult poses, like mid-air or one-foot ones, as well as ones with foreshortening. I found out I had a lot of holes in my knowledge of anatomy when I tried to reconstruct some of the poses from my head!

Day 18: Sick Day

2010-11-09T01:16:00.000-08:00

Hi,

Today I was really sick and tried to sleep it off around the time of class, waking up at night to find that not only do I feel worse, but there aren't a lot of good places to draw people at night even if I was to feel like leaving.

I'll try to make it up sometime- this past day just wasn't a drawing type of day. Sorry!

Day 17: In class- Narrative poses with light source

2010-11-04T02:15:00.000-07:00

Another in-class session. Lots of fun coming up with scenarios with the likes of brooms and baseball bats. Almost all of them were 3 minutes. I've kinda surprised myself with how much I could get done in 3 minutes...

Alas, poor Yorick!

Old man and miner woman.

Angry mob guy. I decided to make him into the classic farmer. And made my teacher look like Abe Lincoln...

Old mountain man pointing something out to his grandson/daughter. Either a shooting star or a yeti.

Wizard guy! Fun with lighting and hair. I like how this one came out despite the "broken" fingers, haha. It makes me think "Disney" for some reason.

"Posidusa" - Started out drawing Poseidon but made them into Medusa with a seaweed dress. And the 2nd drawing is pretty self-explanatory.

Guy on top left is supposed to be cold. I repositioned the legs to suggest knocking knees but I think he just has to go to the bathroom now. Top right is a ventriloquist. And the bottom is supposed to be a vampire in a snowstorm. Should've drawn snow... I forgot :-(

Musket fun!

Top left is a drug dealer. I ran out of time to draw a customer though...

And bottom right is a tranny on a cell phone. Well, I started out drawing a man but decided to make it female midway through. Instant shemale.

Zombie and torch guy. Fun fun!

Quicker poses. 30 seconds I think.

Day 16: Hands

2010-11-01T23:49:00.000-07:00

Hey, some of these are actually from Mr. Tardino's saturday art program for highschoolers. What's cool is that he has costumed models pose. I drew there to because... a.) I like costumed model drawing, and b.) I wanted to get ahead in this class because I'm going to be very busy for the next week and a half.

Luckily my medium and focus lined up well with the guidelines.

Sorry I don't have too much in the way of background. (I only just saw your last comment.) I'll try to make up for it next round.

Day 15: Bus Stop and Chipotle

2010-10-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

Note: I apologize for not making it to the OSU area. I had every intention of doing so, but took a nap an hour before class and set the alarm wrong, so by the time I woke up it was 5:20 and it wouldn't have been worth it to drive up. So I thought I'd just make up the work with my own venture.

Warming up. I like how the guy holding the basketball has the whole Shakespear skull thing going on. Should've given him a word bubble "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him well."

Drawing some more, trying to work on filling in blanks with my imagination.

Below is an interesting page. The bottom is a collaboration between me and a homeless woman I got to talking with at the bus stop. I think we talked for a least a half hour, mainly about a construction project of converting a semi truck trailer into a livable home. It was a really fun conversation, where I drew a diagram of my conception of her idea (didn't show up well in the scan) and she drew over it to explain other concepts.

I though about asking to draw her, but a police officer came then asking about a suspicious backpack reported in the area. He danced around the phrase "bomb threat" so I thought it would be wise to head somewhere else to draw...

Below is when I went to Chipotle. There was this very unpleasant-seeming woman there. Big jewelry and leather coat, with hair teased out in this perm I associate with bossy upper-middle class women and a rather sour expression/fake smile. She seemed to be putting down her husband(?) a lot, so I tried to bring that out that unpleasantness in the drawing.

Just messing around here with exaggerations...

Day 14: Guest Speaker, Library, and Hospital Cafeteria

2010-10-25T23:23:00.000-07:00

I kind of spread out my "free day" to a few locations (though together they added up to a day's worth, or more). I started out drawing audience members during a CCAD guest lecture (can you guess who the faculty member is on the first one?)

I later went to the library courtyard. I realize that the these subjects seem "head on", but one guy was laying very low on the bench (his body was at an angle coming towards me), and the other guy had his head down in an odd way, showing his neck above his head. I guess that counted as foreshortening in my book.

I then crossed the street to visit my favorite sketch hangout-- the hospital cafeteria! I drew the lady on the upper left (with the chair) to make sure I had a good token foreshortening one, hehehe... Then I sat down with my cheap sushi to draw people.

I had fun with the exaggerated ones. For some reason, I enjoy making people look weirder and less flattering than they really are...

Finally, I snuck in a developed drawing that's entirely from my head. Can you spot which one it is?

Day 13: North Market and Nationwide

2010-10-21T00:44:00.000-07:00

Another fun North Market excursion. I'm trying to get better at using the side of my pencil.

The lady on top was working for the La Viet Market. The guy on the bottom right was working at the meat place in the back (kind of a weird bending/foreshortening pose).

I had fun with the woman on the top right, all done with the side of the lead. The guy on the bottom was awesome- like mad scientist/professor. I played it up a little but not much!

Yeah, this one's kinda bad in the anatomy department, but I sorta like the weirdness of it...

The top figure is Bert buying oysters.

Some people at the nationwide arena. I was sitting on the ground and got this cool underside view of someone looking at the map above me.

Homework: Musical Gestures

2010-10-20T05:50:00.000-07:00

OK, here they are! I spread them out to 4 pages because I didn't have room to comfortably fit them, but it's still the right number of drawings so I'm hoping it's OK? Anyhow, I used black colored pencil for all of these and focused on using the side of the lead to my advantage.

The first image features Vanessa Mae. I'm a fan of the way she interprets classical music from the likes of Bach and Vivaldi, fusing it with modern beats, and injects energy into it both with performance style and the music itself. The first image and the top drawing of the second are her.

Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNc278W45ck

The pianist at the bottom of this second image and top of the third is Glenn Gould, a famous pianist. I chose him partially because he has a very odd posture, sitting low and close to the piano. His music style is very technical and staccato, well-suited to Bach. I tried to capture the staccato by using lots of "points" emphasized on the line in strategic points. Though I'm afraid I got caught up in the line more than the gesture perhaps?

Here is the Gould video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB76jxBq_gQ

The bottom two drawings are of a harpist interpreting "Fireflies" by Owl City. I really like how it flows, and hands of harpists are awesome to watch.

Here's the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eBnlAfvbqE

Finally, I wanted something with a lot of rhythm so I went after some African drumming/dancing. The following are from two videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3D5Kt2nTEk (Kind of a long one-- she's near the beginning)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re9gkLLvxbA&feature=related

I'm rather happy with how I did the line on the top woman especially.

Day 12: Micky-D's

2010-10-18T23:29:00.000-07:00

I decided to go down to the Grant Street McDonalds for the free day. I had originally planned for the High/Broad bus hub, but the rain made that an issue.

It was a cozy experience. Cold rain outside, and many people slowly sipping hot coffee. And luckily it contained some characters. I used black colored pencil for all of them.

This guy never once looked at me. But he got up and moved behind me after awhile. Guess he didn't want to be drawn then? Anyway, he was fun because he seemed deep in thought. And he was slightly cross-eyed, which was hard to try to capture right.

This guy on top was funny. He was deeply involved in some paper work. His small round eyes and stretched mouth were fun. I regret not exaggerating more.

Guy doing his homework from the looks of it. He seemed to really be enjoying it, grinning and such. Fun to watch. I don't like the way I drew him though. Maybe because I made up most of it from my head. (Why do they always leave as soon as you start drawing them? :-\)

Professor guy: This man appeared to be meeting with a favorite student to discuss cutting edge and controversial modern philosophy. (I don't know what he was really talking about though-- too far away.) I really worked on capturing his expression, which was one of the weirdest expressions I've ever tried to draw. He seemed to be excited (but skeptical), deep in thought, receptive but a little haughty at the same time. He was furrowing his brows almost in anger, but he certainly wasn't angry.

Yeah, I know both hands are wonky. I spent most of my time on the face...

Day 12: Classroom session

2010-10-14T20:53:00.001-07:00

We had sort of a "regroup" meeting in class where we did very quick sketches and learned about what mistakes we were making (hands/line quality, etc...) Eventful day! Though I can't say I'm too happy with how any of these came out... guess it was an off day.

Drawing the hands of classmates. The top two are Bert's.

Here are some hands I drew from imagination. I tackled what I view to be my weakness, which is "hands holding large round things" like cups.

Top: 15-second conception of a vampire (half bat) and bottom is guy straining against wind.

Left: Rene Magritte tribute guy, left: My vampire with posed student (2 mins?)

Bass player! I had a hard time trying to "extend" the lines from the drawing to make it look more lyrical. I suspect I overdid it...

I turned the big-skull costume into a Mexican "Day of the Dead" celebrator.

Guitar player. Wish I would've made the style more musical...

Homework: Foreshortening

2010-10-13T04:25:00.000-07:00

This was the foreshortening homework. With the exception of the skeleton (who I did at the Halloween shop) all of them were done from the 2nd floor overhang at the Crane Center (the "deck" thing). I happened to be out there on "National Coming Out Day" (this past Monday) where they had a table set up below me, though I drew some of the people walking down the sidewalk as well.

I hope I was able to get enough of the foreshortening effect... looking at these again, I'm a little worried it's not pushed enough... ?

Skeleton from the Halloween store:

Day 11: Easton Town Center (Halloween Store)

2010-10-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I know I didn't show up at the MoJoe lounge but honestly I couldn't find it. I'd never been to Easton Town Center and had no idea it was SO huge, and divided. I kept driving around the different "sections" but when it started to feel like a waste of time I found the halloween store. I thought it would be an awesome place to draw the decorations and try to capture their gesture.

Yes, I know it wasn't technically drawing from "life", but at the same time it didn't feel like I was drawing a still lfie either... I was still trying to draw "characters".

I think the floor manager didn't like my presence there (got kicked out of one spot for blocking a shelf right as I was finishing the first drawing). But I made sure to avoid blocking merchandise on the other ones so she left me alone.

I used black colored pencil. I think it worked out for the subject matter.

Day 10: Grant Hospital Cafeteria

2010-10-06T22:46:00.000-07:00

So I'm back to the hospital! Once again, I took advantage of people watching the TV in the cafeteria. I found that if I sat in the front where the TV was I could get a better vantage, while they were too distracted by the news to notice me drawing them.

Once again with the brush pen... I think I've been making some progress and really want to get better at it. I also want to keep pushing facial/body features, slowly but surely.

Day 9: MoJoe Lounge

2010-10-05T06:58:00.000-07:00

I busted out the brushpen again. It's good fun!

Day 8: Library (and first day with pencil!)

2010-09-30T21:27:00.000-07:00

Finally cracked out the pencil (no eraser yet though). I was kind of frustrated with the line quality though. At first I thought it was the way I was holding my sketchbook, then I realized that the source of my dissatisfaction may have been because I was holding my pencil like how I'd write with it, when I could be more expressive holding it on its side. The last 3 images are a result of doing that.

Anyway, the library trip gave me a good opportunity to go to the children's section and watch and draw little kids in the play area, to try to get a better sense of their balance and anatomy. (Nobody minded- not being male and creepy-looking has its advantages.)

Homework: States of Action

2010-09-29T12:05:00.000-07:00

Here are 3 different actions I decided to study: Leaping ballerina, leaping skateboarder, and wrestling takedown. I studied YouTube for the first two, though I made up a couple poses that were left out of the beginning and end. The wrestling one was adapted from "the Human Figure in Motion" book.

Day 7: Free day (Bus Stop and Library)

2010-09-27T23:23:00.000-07:00

I went to the bus stop, and found out it's a good place to draw professional-looking business people, as I was there around the 4-6 time. I used the brush pen for all of this, trying to make more dynamic and stylized drawing. It later started to get too rainy, so I finished up drawing people at the Metropolitan library.

Warmup.

This was fun. I enjoyed "pushing it " a little.

I enjoyed these too.

The guy on the lower left is the first I attempted to stylize more. I was trying to capture his mannerisms.

Lots of messenger bags. Apparently briefcases are "out".

Guy sitting in library.

Librarian

Day 6: Columbus State, North Market, and class

2010-09-26T12:58:00.000-07:00

So we went down to Columbus State Community College to draw students hanging out at the first day of the semester. I had to leave early though, so I made up for the lost time by providing some drawings done at North Market.

The head drawing below was a professor walking by, wondering what I was doing. He jokingly asked me to draw him, so I asked him to stand there for a couple minutes. He actually obliged!

Woman at her laptop in North Market:

People sitting at North market, except the girl below left was drawn in class.

More students at class.

Cup o' Joe cafe sketch

2010-09-21T04:10:00.000-07:00

OK, now this is an OFFICIAL cafe sketch, haha!
So, because this was the last day using the ballpoint pen, I decided to do a tighter rendering. I now wish I hadn't spent so much time getting some of the proportions right, so that I would've been able to get a little more done in the "quantity" department...

I'm considering dropping some value into this in Photoshop, in order to better separate the foreground from the background... but only if you think it needs it.

BalletMet Dance Rehearsal

2010-09-17T05:26:00.000-07:00

Last class, we went to the BalletMet to sit in on a dance rehearsal, the class being "modern dance". It seemed to combine a lot of the moves of ballet, but with a lot more contrast between "graceful" and "aggressive". The music was kind of modern and dissonant, very interesting.

Anyway, this was definitely tricky, but I'm fairly happy with some of the results. Most of this was reliant upon memory of pose and knowledge of anatomy. After all, when the pose disappears in half a second, how else are you supposed to draw?

I wan't the only one to find this hard. Most of us in the class are more comfortable with the "look, draw, look, draw, look, draw" approach as opposed to the "look, draaaaaaaaaaaaaaw" one.

Day 3: Grant Hospital

2010-09-13T21:11:00.000-07:00

Grant Hospital's a great place to draw people! I found a couple good spots to do it. One is outside the emergency room entrance, where all the patients (as well as nurses) go to smoke. This means I get a chance to draw wheelchairs, crutches, casts, and those long polls that carry fluid that people wheel around with themselves! The other's the cafeteria.

There are also a good amount of fun characters to draw, such as spirited old people, those who look like they're maybe there from drug rehab or something, and the oddballs you don't always get to see when confined to campus. (I hope it doesn't seem like I'm insensitively exploiting those in the hospital, I wish them all the best in their recoveries...)

Finally, I would like to note that I spent some extra time there, which accounts for the fact that I got more done this time than other classes. So please don't set this as the par for me, at least not yet! 0_o

Yeah, this guy's eyes are weird, I was trying to exaggerate and it failed. I enjoyed drawing the woman. She reminded me of a large bird sitting on a nest or something because she couldn't fly.

Those 2 guys at the bottom were really funny, especially the guy with the cock-eyed glasses. He kept looking around all dazed like a mad scientist after an explosion or something. I hope I succeeded in making just his glasses askew, not his entire face.

Onto the cafeteria!

Darn! I forgot to draw that guy's feet. I think they were behind a chair or something and I moved on before coming back...

Anyway, the woman in the upper left was hard to draw, as she was always laughing! I hope I captured her "laugh potential".

I actually did the basketball player completely from my head, after looking at someone similar to him walk by in the cafeteria. I'm pretty proud of that, I didn't think I'd be able to make convincing pose/gesture. I hope that's a sign I'm getting better...

The guy on the right was fun, since he hardly moved.

And the doctor guy on the bottom really did have that weird expression. He was chewing his food and turning his eyes up to watch TV without actually raising his head. I'm afraid I made him look like a weird child though, since I tried to make his cheeks "chewing"

These were fun! I hope go after more spontaneity and elegance like this.

Back outside the waiting room with the smokers. All 3 of the people were interesting. I didn't really have time to draw the pregnant woman though. I saw her stand for a couple seconds then get into a car at the pull-around. I think my lack of good reference shows in her...

The guy in the upper left looked somehow old, despite his youth and brilliant red hair. I made up a back-story for him that he was in rehab from heroin. The guy on the bottom was fun, his stiff gown especially.

Nurse texting during a smoke break. Probably my worst one, especially where the face is concerned. If I mess up a facial proportion, I try to correct it with more line, which ends up making it worse usually...

Trip to North Market

2010-09-09T19:22:00.000-07:00

2nd sketch day!

We went to North Market to draw. This was a great place for it, because I could get some neat views from above and have some fun with foreshortening. It was also an illustrator's heaven because so many people were busy doing things, like cutting meat and making lasagna. I especially liked bringing some background into these.

First day!

2010-09-02T20:33:00.000-07:00

Hi, this is a new blog I'm keeping for Cafe Sketch. These sketches were all done from life around the CCAD quad on Wednesday, Sept. 1st. Most of the first ones were done in ballpoint pen, and later a couple in felt tip, with the last being brush pen.

I decided to put them all up, but may take some of the weaker ones down later if I find out I'm 100% not allowed to put all of them up. I'm just used to kind of "dumping" a lot at once... just easier for me I guess.