Some more warm-ups between 1 minute and a half hour. If you look real close, I have a male figure in there!? I've been looking at these drawings.

Also, over this past weekend, my father graduated with his Associate degree in the applied biomedical field. When the Detroit auto industry collapsed he made up his mind to enroll in a local college. His last time spent in school was 40 years prior as a high school student. After 3 intense years of study he graduated with top honors in his class. The field requires regular computer use, and he had never turned on a computer before his classes. He also was given the highest grade his internship instructor has ever given. This internship requires 20 hours a week - he gives 40. Anything I've accomplished is a result of the inspiration I get from watching my dad give 110% to everything he does. You know those people that scream and yell at graduations? Yeah, that was my mom and I the whole ceremony. Congrats dad!!!

take care,
-fv

PS. It's about that time of the year. The summer Illustration Academy program begins May 31st and ends June 25. For the first time, it is being split into 2 locations: Kansas City, MO and Richmond, VA. I'm honored and excited to be helping out this year! I will be in Kansas City for the last half of the program, offering any knowledge I can. Again, it's a terrific program and one of the best investments you can make towards your development as an artist. Hope to see some folks there!

Also, TAD recently held an online course "The Art of the Feminine Form" this past weekend. The whole presentation has been recorded and is now available to purchase for a very reasonable price "on demand". It's a great course, with some killer conversations and artwork. Now that classes are over for many students, it's a great way to keep the juices flowing over the summer!

21 comments:

Erin McGuire said...

That's awesome, what a hard working and dedicated family :) Congratulations to him!

Carly said...

What a great story! Congrats to your dad!

Eric Braddock said...

Grats to your dad, man! The figures look fantastic. :)

Erin Schwaner said...

U must be proud :) congradulations

Tartarian wolf eagle said...

Hey mate,
Been following you on twitter for a while, just wanted to say thanks for sharing all the amazing links of art, never short of inspiration!
Also keep up the awesome art.
Your dad is also very inspirational, thanks for sharing his story and all the best!

Kendra Melton said...

Big congrats to your pops. What an achievement I couldn't imagine having to go through that at his age, he had to start completely over, what an inspiration.

hehe there's those splits! :P
Very nice collection you're accruing sir!

Doodle.nl said...

Very nice and dynamic sketches Francis. And yeah, you have every reason to be proud.

Kyle T. Webster said...

I wonder what what happen if you collected all of these figure studies into a little book? It might sell quite well at comic conventions! These are so much fun to look at. I love them all.

DJ Zutkovic said...

Man, wicked figure drawings! Love the poses! Congrats to your dad!

Boldheadstudio said...

haha, gratulations.
and the sketches are wonderful as always. that Francis guy definitely got skillz ;)

Tanya Lam said...

Those are beautiful sketches, and such a beautiful story. Your father is a very inspiring man, and judging from how hard you work on your drawings, you take after him quite a bit!

Congratulations to your father.

francisvallejo said...

thank you for the kinds words, especially for my dad!

Kyle: I'm thinking a collection may be in order.

Tiffany prothero said...

Beautiful studies! and Congrats to your dad!!!also thanks for posting Vitold Smukrovich drawings, inspiring!

Naveen said...

Congrats to your father. Sounds like he really earned it! Now I know where you get your work ethic :)

Frank Zweegers said...

Very nice "Art of the feminine form"!

Mark Harchar said...

Francis, can you tell me what implements you are using for these quick sketches? Are you simply using, for example, an HB lead wooden pencil on standard sketch pad paper or something other?
Thank you sir! Awesome work. It truly inpsires me.

francisvallejo said...

thanks everyone!

Mark: I do a very quick gesture drawing with a light blue color erase pencil that looks like a scribble, but it establishes the fluidity of the gesture and pose. Then I draw on top of it with a normal B pencil. They're all done on regular 8.5 x 11 sheets of computer paper.

Unknown said...

great figure drawings!

Ben Hatke said...

These are great figure drawings. Nice capturing of gesture and all.

Nicholas said...

Great news about your dad, and about the Ill Academy... and congratulations on both parts man!

Taylor Krahenbuhl said...

Beautiful figure sketches, they look fantastic!