A Cadmus comparison

Well, when it comes to actually bringing old artwork out of the bins, I have to say that there are times where I wonder "why would I ever keep some of these things?"

But when you look back at what you've done and why and how you did it, you start to appreciate just how much you can grow as not just an artist, but as a person. Experiences are necessary and should be treasured as they as, to me, a sign of reassuring that you are, indeed, still learning and growing.

There's a particular pair of drawings that really makes me feel awesome about what I've accomplished, even if it is a good 2 years old. SInce then I've improved drastically, but I do want to discuss it a little bit.

Copyright © WaddleArt; drawing, 2013

"Skeleton Study" was a piece that I did when I was attending Northern Michigan University. While I was only there a semester, I did learn a lot from the students and professors there. Namely, it takes a ton of time, energy, passion and commitment like none other to really progress and advance yourself, in more ways than one, of course.

This piece is especially pleasing to me not just because drawing the bone structure and beginning to understand it is necessary for an artist, but also because the amount of information that you learn from doing it is something that I would probably have never obtained anywhere else.

Copyright © WaddleArt; drawing, 2013

I have to admit that I haven't had a lot of figure drawing experience, but I'm trying to change that as much as possible, each time I sit down to draw. I have anatomy books for artists that fully explain the different parts of the human body, what the names of bones are, how they move and work together in their joinery and so on. Then, there's the actual body of the human, and a ton more information is able to be absorbed.

If I am able to remember right, these combined took a good 10 hours of work to get done, but at the end of it, I was very proud and the professor who graded it was very impressed with the detail that went into it and how much care and thought went into the strokes. While it isn't an exact duplicate of the original (Paul Cadmus credit) it is a very close study, and is beautifully remade.

Studies are generally one of the harder things for me to do, only because I am a perfectionist at heart and when they don't turn out almost entirely as I see it fit, then there's a bit of an issue, hah! I'll want to wrinkle it up, toss it into my recycle bin and start over, which, amazingly, doesn't happen as often as one may think. But, the result of an overlay of these two (they were a bit hard to line up, so I did it as best as I could) shows me that it was pretty darn close in terms of the placement of the bones and the actual position of his figure.

Copyright ©Waddle Art; drawing 2014; combined Jan. 2015

There's a great feeling of pride one can take in themselves for being able to look at these two images combined and say to themselves 'wow, that looks pretty darn impressive!' And even though it may not line up entirely, there's still a great amount of care, at least to me, that went into the individual drawing of these that was able to result in combining them and having them look so pristine. I'm rather proud to be able to draw something this beautiful.