The Safehouse Atelier

Student Work: Cast Drawing & Still Life

2011-06-23T12:26:00.000-07:00

Here at the Safehouse, Cast Drawing starts bright and early in the horrible San Francisco dawn, and continues until all of us--students and slavedri-, uh teachers alike--are driven outside by the hellish greenhouse heat of the afternoon studio. It is meditative and exacting, and nothing teaches you the details of rendering form more effectively.

Students at Safehouse start out drawing and rendering simple casts (David's eye or ear), progress to more complex ones (such as Nefertiti and Homer), and eventually proceed to painting the casts in oil.

The still lives at the end of this post are from Christian MacNevin's former digital painting class.

Space 9-11

2011-05-27T18:30:00.000-07:00

"This time, they'll finish the job"

"Pioneered by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic spacecraft and his New Mexico spaceport, low-orbit space travel is now how the fast-paced population of the future travels from Tokyo to New York in under 60 minutes.

In dishonor of the 30th year anniversary of 9-11 2001, space terrorists from Afghakistan in the year 2031 launch a massive hijacking of the Virgin fleet."

The purpose of the project was to provide a platform for students to concept a realistic--yet hilarious--dystopia of 50 years in the future. Part of the exercise was taking a hard look at what trends and cultural objects endure the test of time, vs. what new awesome shit the future may hold: Tradition vs. Innovation.

Artem Mirskov

Marco Sano

Artem Mirskov

Carmen Cianelli

Marco Sano

Keith Liu

McLean Kendree

Marco Sano

Alex Lan

Dawn Carlos

Dennis Bolsner

Dawn Carlos

Vencenza Surprise

McLean Kendree

EG Gauger

Artem Mirskov

Dennis Bolsner

Here I Go Again

2011-05-27T14:58:00.000-07:00

It's Friday, and as I'm typing this, Carl Dobsky is probably in his studio blasting Slayer and painting while a dozen students fight with their cast drawings, block-ins, and figure drawings. Why? Because at Safehouse Atelier, every Friday is Slayer Friday.

This is where I begin describing a “normal” day at the Safehouse Atelier and how wonderful it is. I could talk about the furry art in the bathroom or the self portrait of McLean Kendree that stares at you while you pee. Or the time we looped A Glorious Dawn on Youtube for three days. Or the Carl Dobsky designer t-shirt line.

The simple fact is that there's no such thing as a "normal" day. Take a dozen students with the desire to become the best in the entertainment industry, add in a classical art foundation, and top it off with an internship and project review at a top notch concept art studio, and what you get is something rare and unique. Take that school and put it on top of rented studios filled with local painters and concept artists?

The result is way more than a school; it's a way of life.

Last week I left that place, and I've been looping Michael McDonald and crying into my pillow for days. I made a playlist of Safehouse classics to get myself through these tragic times. What's saddest of all is that you probably think that's a joke.

The Atelier has a way of taking over your life so that when you leave, it feels like resurfacing into the outside world. You wake up on Monday and you panic because it's 8:45 and someone is going to throw a coffee pot at your face if you're late. Oh, right.

You're out of school, but the memories of El Coro and Kemp Remillard singing R. Kelly are still fresh in your memory.

The full-time program itself is fluid, and differs from student to student. Classes have changed based on student feedback, and projects will change as students learn and progress. It's designed to keep pushing a student. When they've fully grasped a concept and feel comfortable, there's a new challenge waiting to make them want to bash their face into their drawing board all over again.

What Safehouse teaches is more than technical skill or design. There's a work ethic that is shared by all of the students. It's a nose-to-the-grindstone approach to pursuing knowledge, and it leaves little room for people who aren't prepared to give it their all. Once it's there, you can't get rid of it. Even though I no longer have Carl coming in to check on my progress or Coro telling me that my illustration is killing him, that nagging need to draw remains. Like a drug addict getting the shakes, guilt sets in within a day of not working. As does the constant fear of failure that keeps me moving forward.

For me, that was the true value of Safehouse and the time I spent there. Understanding the amount of work it takes to become a great illustrator or concept artist is daunting. I can see how much farther I have to go, but I can also see how far I've come, and I owe that to Safehouse and the amazing artists of Massive Black. Particularly to Mr. Dobsky and his countless hours of teaching me to just shut the hell up and stop arguing with someone who has a decade of experience on me.

He would be appalled to know I am saying nice things about him.

To top it all off, Safehouse knows that not everyone has the ability to attend a full-time program. Which is why a few nights a week, Carl teaches night classes in figure drawing and painting. If you're interested, drop a line at thesafehouseatelier@gmail.com.

With all of that said, if you're on the fence about Safehouse, get off of it. Find your big girl panties, suit up, and drop in a portfolio. It's worth it.

-Carmen

[by Carmen Cianelli]

Safehouse Student Work!

2011-03-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday afternoons, Safehouse students head down to Massive Black for concept art review. Every few months a different project is assigned, with settings varying from high fantasy to sci-fi. Our current project is set fifty years in the future, and students have been designing characters and tech set in the year 2051.

Below is the design process for an airport loader assistant from Safehouse student Artem Mirskov, from his initial concept sketches to the final design. Done under the guidance of project leaders Kemp Remillard and El Coro, Artem's work shows the design process from start to finish, with adjustments made to improve both functionality and visual appeal.

For those interested in attending, we will have a couple of spots opening up in May! Please send applications or questions to thesafehouseatelier@gmail.com

FINAL:

INITIAL STEPS:

Block-Ins

2010-11-07T13:26:00.000-08:00

Block-ins are the second step of the morning program. During this step, students train their eyes to accurately see and reproduce the shapes that make up an object. This image done by one of the Safehouse students shows the steps of a block-in done over one morning session (~three hours) with progress photos taken every twenty minutes, along with a photograph of the actual skull being drawn for reference.

Many students consider block-ins to be one of the most important steps of the program, as it trains an artist to be able to draw shapes as they are rather than as we think they are. Most students see immediate improvement in their sketching, figure drawing, and still life studies after beginning block-ins. For a more in-depth explanation of the block-in process, you can pick up a copy of Anthony Ryder's “The Artist's Complete Guide to Figure Drawing” .

James Gurney's Color and Light

2010-10-08T14:17:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we had a visit from James Gurney!!!! He has been in town visiting schools and studios giving lectures and talks. We were lucky that he took time out of his busy schedule to stop by and check out the studio.
I'm sure you've all checked out his blog and if you haven't you really should. His tenacity and curiosity regarding all things pictorial is insane and it definitely shows in his last book Imaginative Realism and he's gone and done it again in his new book that will be out soon called Color and Light. He was gracious enough to let us have a sneak peek at it while he was here and I have to say it looks awesome. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

Thanks Mr. Gurney for dropping by!

Selecting the Pose

2010-10-06T23:11:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of the long pose for the morning class. Before a pose is decided upon we've found that doing a session of gesture drawing is a great way to both get warmed up and to explore different ideas and see what happens. After our think tank of experts makes a decision on which of the poses they'd like to draw, we'll set it up and get started on the long haul to make some drawings that are more refined. When we finish those we'll post them up so you can see where all this finally wound up. Here are some of the drawings done by various students during the session.

Studio Photos

2010-09-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

Just thought we'd share some photos of what's been going on for the last little while. It's been busy around here lately and all is falling into place. Thanks to everyone who has pitched in and helped out.

Jeremy Mann heads up construction of easels and drawing horses.

Here's the new studio on day one. It's probably the last time the floor will ever be that clean again.

We've rigged up a system of curtains so that different parts of the room can work in either natural light or artificial light depending on the current project.

Here's a photo of Lindsey Kustusch who put in some serious hours sewing all that cloth and fashioning it into those curtains. Thanks, Lindsey!!!! You rock.

Coro shows his McGiver ingenuity when he forgot his palette and uses a trash can lid as a substitute.

Mike Bierek explains the importance of thumbnails and how to work out compositions from the imagination.

When is it ever finished?

2010-08-30T16:44:00.000-07:00

This is a common question that many of us have and the answer is somewhat elusive because each of us has our own particular goals for our work. To make it even more complicated an artist may have different purposes for different works so the answer can change depending on the immediate goal. Ultimately, the painting is done whenever it has expressed the message in the way the artist intended it to be understood. It may even mean that a piece will need to be done more than once before you get it right.

Ilya Repin is a shining example of someone who had the diligence to see his vision to it's conclusion. Here are a couple of images of the same theme.

It's interesting to see that even though the first is masterfully done he decided to take up a new canvas and try it again. All the additions and alterations really ad up to something much more amazing that is filled with psychological tension.

Seeing things like this are a reminder to not give up on an idea the first time around. If you really believe in it you should keep going until you've found the solution you are truly looking for.

Optical Illusions and Proportion

2010-08-16T10:49:00.000-07:00

Working in a representational manner has always been to some degree about trying to trick the eye. The artist perceives the three dimensional world around them and has to represent this on a two dimensional plane. Most of us refer to this as "realistic" or "representational" art but it has also gone by another term. That term is "illusionism" or "illusionsistic" art. I think this term is appropriate for this topic in more ways than one especially when we consider what can happen in the way we perceive things.

When we begin drawing, most of us start by trying to get down the proportion and shape of what we are trying to represent. As anyone knows who's tried to do this, it can be quite difficult at times.Unfortunately, we can't seem to always be able to directly translate what our eyes are seeing onto the paper and instead things get turned around and muddled in our mind and the drawing starts to look completely wonky. The legs look too short, the head looks too big, basically the proportions are off. But in what way are they off is the real question. Sometimes things that we assume to be right or wrong turn out to be different than what we think they are.

Psychologists have been studying how we perceive visual information for some time now and their findings have turned up some interesting things. Some of these are optical illusions. There are quite a few of these that deal specifically with how we view scale or proportion. One of these is known as the Ebbinghaus Illusion.

In this illusion, two circles of the same size are perceived to be different sizes because of the size of the surrounding objects. This can happen to us while we are drawing. For example, we can think we have drawn a head that is too big compared to the subject when in fact we have drawn the neck, shoulders, or chest too small.

Another example is the Muller-Lyer Illusion where line segments of the same size appear to be of different lengths based on the shapes that are placed at the ends.

It can be extremely useful to remember that these sort of illusions occur and that just because we think we see something doesn't mean that it is so. It's something that should give us pause so that we really stop to try and consider what the actual nature of the problem is. We need to thoroughly check all parts of the drawing before we change or erase something to be sure we are not being fooled by the very illusion we are trying to create.

Process Work

2010-08-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

Getting all the elements of a composition to work together is difficult when working completely from life. This is compounded to a much greater degree when you are working on a scene that you cannot necessarily see or find in the world. It is extremely useful in these situations to do various preliminary studies to ensure that the image will come out the way you would like it to.
Here are some of the working drawings and studies done for a painting I did that was recently featured in American Arts Quarterly ( Spring 2010 edition) and can be seen at the John Pence Gallery in San Francisco.
The drawing of the figure was done from life and is graphite on paper. In it I was focusing on the proportions of the figure, the play of light on the forms, and trying to give it the right mood or expression. The perspective study was then done to both invent the environment and understand how the figure would exist in that space. After that, came the oil sketch which was executed from imagination using the drawing and the perspective studies to come up with an image. Then the final image was painted from these studies with the still-life elements set-up in the studio and painted from life into the environment.

The title is “The Lotos Eater” and is 24”X60” oil on linen.

--Dobsky

Instructor Work

2010-08-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a few images from some of the artists involved in teaching here.

Get your Learn on!!!

2010-07-28T19:56:00.000-07:00

The Safehouse Atelier provides a specialized program of study that is heavily based in accurately understanding and representing the visual world and to take the knowledge gained from this study and apply it to work done from the imagination. Classical drawing is learned in tandem with concept design. Classes are taught in a workshop environment where students learn actual studio practices in a hands-on manner directly from instructors who work along with students to demonstrate how the ideas and concepts being learned are put to practical use.

To develop solid draftsmanship, classical methods of drawing and painting are studied on a daily basis. Time honored atelier methods are employed with the students beginning with cast drawing and working their way through cast painting and still-life and then moving on to life drawing, and finally life painting. Other subjects that are addressed on a weekly basis are alla prima painting, gesture drawing, and landscape painting.

On the imaginative side, working methods taken from production studios are used as a basis to teach students how to invent designs for characters, monsters, vehicles, and environments. Illustration and personal work of an inventive nature are also addressed. Real world design problems are used as spring boards for developing work and the process of how to work from the initial concept phase on to the final is heavily examined.

When students are accepted, their current level of experience is taken into account. If a student can demonstrate their command of a subject then they will be advanced to more challenging situations. Since all progress is based on personal achievement, all instruction is tailored specifically to an individual. Because of this the class subjects fluctuate depending on the student.

All instructors are working professionals in their given field. This ensures that working methods have been gained through real world experience so that students may learn practical applications and approaches that may be put into use to immediately further their careers whether it be in galleries or in a design studio.

Classes are held from 9am-4pm Monday through Friday.
Tuition is $600 per month.
Enrollment is ongoing.
We are located in San Francisco, CA.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions or portfolio submissions at
thesafehouseatelier@gmail.com

CONTINUING EDUCATION AND WORKSHOPS
Long-Pose Figure Drawing/Painting:
We will also be offering evening classes in Figure Drawing and Figure Painting. This class will be geared towards students at an intermediate to an advanced level. Poses will extend for two to three weeks. Plans are to start this program up in September. If you are interested please contact us for more info.