Sketch of Shawn Hammonds Stronghold BJJ Seminar

by | Nov 7, 2017 | art

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Shawn Hammonds BJJ Seminar at Stronghold Athletics: Sketch Student Resource by Theo Howard

I went to Stronghold Athletics to sketch Shawn Hammonds BJJ seminar. A couple of weeks ago I had sketched Luiz Claudio Augusto’s seminar at Rise Up Martial Arts, and got a lot out of it artistically, took good notes with sketches, had fun, and learned a lot of great jiu jitsu principles. I had a couple of nagging injuries, and had to leave early to draw caricatures, so I thought drawing the jiu jitsu seminar would be a fantastic warmup. I got a lot out of this and am really excited to do it more! I should be drawing people doing jiu jitsu demonstrations at least weekly.

Jiu jitsu notes from the seminar

Besides the actual techniques shown, Shawn Hammonds emphasized repetition of various lines and having a submission to back up another submission. I felt this was very chess-like, knowing what wrong moves occur in a chess opening can be exploited when an opponent makes a wrong move in an opening line. Shawn Hammonds said that micro-transitions should be exploited: when an opponent adjusts to prevent a submission, take advantage with a large movement in the other direction. He demonstrated this when an opponent avoids a clock choke to take the back. He also showed how to follow your opponent’s rolling escape to finish the clock choke from another position. Finally, Shawn Hammonds showed how to collapse an opponent on their knees if they try to wizzer your underhook.


What I learned about making jiu jitsu art

It is difficult to draw a single still body at a time, it is immensely more difficult to draw two bodies tangled together and in motion, but if I practice it I think I can be the best at it! I Experimented with including portraits of the high-ranking belts in attendance, as well as a portrait of Shawn Hammonds that came out more like a Capcom street-fighter than I had intended, but what the heck, right? Still cool. It was really exciting to capture the movement and positions, and take notes that can help people down the road. It was a really fun gift to give to Shawn Hammonds, and I hope it reflects well on all of us in Wisconsin, and gets more people to come visit us up here! It is a major trade-off to draw rather than participate, kind of a bummer in that regard, but I feel like it was priceless to capture the moments and have a record. I experimented on this one with arrows, illustrative tools, speech-bubbles to capture the event in a different way than the Luiz Seminar, I’m a little split on whether it was successful, but It is worth experimenting in the future with it!

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