Here’s this week’s self-portrait homework. When setting up the scene I obviously forgot to consider that I have no experience drawing glass or liquids. Fortunately my teacher seems to be obsessed with painting glass marbles, so she’ll surely have some pointers.

A collage of some more post-morning-run sketches.

Today I started messing around with a program called Mudbox (free if you’re a student)…I think I can argue that I count!). Although I ought to test my newfound patience on regular 3D software, I like this particular program because it offers more of an artistic approach to sculpting a model.

Anyway, back in the old days at Disney, there was a whole department dedicated to creating plaster character models for the animators’ reference. It occurred to me that I could do the same thing with a program like this. I definitely need help when it comes to noodling through what my characters look like at different angles.

Above and below are my first attempt at using Mudbox. It’s what I’ve decided is a “typical” Warner Bros’ style human head. While I modeled it, I referred to Private Snafu and a few incidental background characters.

Not only can I view this model in 360 degrees on my computer, but I found an iPhone app that will let me do the same. I could even find someone with a 3D printer and turn it into a physical model. Talk about coming full circle!

I debated: which would make for a less interesting post, the Bargue practice I’m doing, or a stylized photo of myself practicing?

Now the question is, did I choose to post the less interesting one, or the more interesting one? I just broke your brain.

I know, just what you wanted to see from me: scissors in a mug. Actually, weekdays on the ‘ol Sketchbook are about to get a little more boring, because I’ve now set aside certain days for exercises like this. I really want to ramp up my drawing/seeing ability in anticipation of the two-week painting workshop I’m taking in Florence, Italy this Summer. So there’ll be still life days and Bargue days, with fun stuff saved for the weekends. I’ll at least try to find funny objects to draw.

Oh, and hey, Kerkel surives another week. Vote if you wanna.