Drawing in the Digital Age: An Observational Method for Artists and Animators

225 Pages·2012·38.98 MB·English

by  Wei Xu

Drawing in the
Digital Age

Drawing in the
Digital Age
An ObservAtiOnAl MethOd fOr Artists And AniMAtOrs
Wei Xu, PhD
Acquisitions Editor: Mariann Barsolo
Development Editor: Gary Schwartz
Technical Editor: James Haldy
Production Editor: Eric Charbonneau
Copy Editor: Sharon Wilkey
Editorial Manager: Pete Gaughan
Production Manager: Tim Tate
Vice President and Executive Group Publisher: Richard Swadley
Vice President and Publisher: Neil Edde
Book Designer: Caryl Gorska
Compositor: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Proofreader: Kim Wimpsett
Indexer: Ted Laux
Project Coordinator, Cover: Katherine Crocker
Cover Designer: Ryan Sneed
Cover Images: Wei Xu, PhD
Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 978-1-118-17650-4 (pbk.)
ISBN: 978-1-118-22716-9 (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-118-23315-3 (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-118-26479-9 (ebk)
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dear Reader,
Thank you for choosing Drawing in the Digital Age: An Observational Method for
Artists and Animators. This book is part of a family of premium-quality Sybex books, all
of which are written by outstanding authors who combine practical experience with a gift
for teaching.
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To my parents
and family
Acknowledgments
First and foremost,
I would like to thank my parents for foster-
ing my artistic dreams when I was a little child. This book originated from those
small dreams.
I am grateful to my wife, Lin, for her continuous support for this book project.
Thanks also go to my lovely daughter, Alicia, and my clever son, Daniel, for
being the first users of the new method I describe in this book. Their initial learn-
ing success validated that my method is easy to learn, and even kids can pick it up
without difficulty.
I offer profound thanks to the wonderful team at Wiley, especially Mariann
Barsolo and Jenni Housh for establishing the book project and working on the
contract quickly, Gary Schwartz for polishing my scripts as well as turning my
“Chinenglish” into English, James Haldy for spotting and fixing technical issues,
Pete Gaughan for solving template issues, and Eric Charbonneau for making the
book ready for publication. Also contributing to the book you now hold were copy
editor Sharon Wilkey, proofreader Kim Wimpsett, and compositor Maureen Forys.
Thanks again to all for a job exceptionally well done.
This book is the product of years of research and art learning. I’d like to thank
members of the faculty and staff of the Art Institute of California at San Diego for
their assistance in my art education and writing about art, particularly the follow-
ing individuals (in alphabetical order): Jack Beduhn, Christian Bradley, Rebecca
Browning, Dr. Alicia Butters, Elizabeth Erickson, Harry Hamernik, Jason Katsoff,
Wattana Khommarath, Jack Madi, Dr. Mary McDermott, Dzu Nguyen, Lena Pham,
Grace Piano, Dr. Kim Varey, and Grady Williams.
I also want to thank the students at the Art Institute of California at San Diego
for attending my workshops and giving me positive feedback over the past two
years. Without their involvement, my method could still be in the research stage
instead of being a published book. Special thanks go to my students Alvin Revilas
and Blake Fox for their proofreading of my research articles related to this book.
Of course, I cannot forget to thank Susan Varnum, Dr. Edward Abeyta, and
Robin Wittman of the University of California San Diego Extension for their efforts
to set up a new art class to teach my method in the winter of 2012.
viii ■ Acknowledgments
I owe debts of gratitude to faculty, staff, and students at Zhejiang University, especially
Dr. Weidong Geng and Ms. Xiao Li for inviting me to lecture their multimedia students on
my drawing method in the summer of 2011.
I’d like to thank Alex Reed for her language assistance in preparing the first draft of this
book.
Finally, I want to thank you, the reader, for picking up this book and taking an exciting
drawing journey with me!
About the Author
Wei Xu, PhD,
is a computer scientist, mathema-
tician, and artist. Currently, he serves as faculty or adjunct/
visiting faculty at several universities including the Art Institute
of California at San Diego, the University of California San
Diego Extension, and Zhejiang University (China). He is also
the president and cofounder of Geomy Entertainment, a video
game consulting and mobile app development firm.
Being a computer scientist and video game veteran, Dr. Xu offers a wide range of video
game production classes for college students and technical training for game companies.
As an artist, he has been hosting drawing workshops at the Art Institute of California
at San Diego since 2009. Starting January 2012, he will officially offer drawing classes to
teach his new drawing system, the ABC method, at both the Art Institute of California at
San Diego and the University of California San Diego Extension.
Dr. Xu obtained his doctoral degree in computer graphics and applied mathemat-
ics from the University of Texas at Austin. He also holds an MS degree in applied math
and computer graphics from ZheJiang University, China, and a BS in computational
mathematics from Fudan University, China. He has served as the lead engineer for game
technology R&D at Sony Computer Entertainment America, San Diego. Prior to joining
Sony, he was a senior computer graphics software engineer at the Schlumberger Austin
Technology Center.