Here’s my final project submission for my favorite class last semester, Drawing from the Imagination.

The assignment was to illustrate an excerpt of “Snow White” … of course, I forgot to save the text… but to paraphrase, Snow White & the dwarves (none of them higher than Snow’s waist) have just finished cleaning all day. After a good supper, they all celebrate with dancing and fiddle music. Nobody notices the evil old witch, staring in the window from outside.

This was another three-week assignment, with the first week focusing on thumbnails and layout, the second week cleaning up the perspective and figures, and then the third week plotting all shadows and adding value. We had to incorporate all aspects of the semester’s work – correct perspective, shadow plotting, reflections and figure drawing. I learned so much in the class – I only wish there was a follow-up course to delve more deeply into the subject matter!

line drawing from week 2

thumbnail from week 1

alternate thumbnail in 2-pt vertical perspective

We recently had an assignment for Drawing from the Imagination that required reflection plotting – so complex! The theme was Snow White’s evil stepmother; the process was challenging and counterintuitive.

In order to make sure that the drawing included the both the queen and her reflection, we were instructed to draw the queen & her reflection first, then fit the frame of the mirror accordingly.  This allowed for a view where we could see the queen and she could see her own reflection – much more complicated than you’d think! But next time you are near a mirror and another person, test it out – there are so many angles where you can’t see the reflection, or where you can see the reflection but the other person can’t view him/herself!

Anyway, I am pretty happy with what I was able to accomplish in one week. The style ended up being sort of an art deco/steampunk – her dress sort of reminds me of the layers in a beetle’s body – it evolved as I was drawing it. I had so much fun collecting photo references – you can see many of them on my props pinboard.

There are some more fixes my instructor pointed out – the window seat in the reflection goes down too far; the queen’s left shoe is at a weird angle & should be foreshortened more. The apple sits kind of weirdly against the mirror and anyway I was trying to make it look like a glass apple perfume bottle – I think color would help clarify that. I was hoping to add a burning cigarette in a long, elegant holder, as well as more perfume bottles everywhere, but alas, time is fleeting.