Life Drawing I: Week Fourteen: Final Portfolio

PHOTOBUCKET ALBUM:
Term 2

FINAL REFLECTION
Wow, I just cant believe the semester is done already! It absolutely flew by! I learned a ton this semester in Lifedrawing. Coming into life drawing Im sure a lot of us thought, yea Im not the greatest at drawing the human figure, but I can do it fairly successfully. I being one of them, definitely got a bit of a shock when I was set in front of a nude model and asked to draw her/him. I learned very quickly the areas that I needed to improve upon and what I was doing incorrectly with my human form.

On the last day of class we had a model come in and we were able to two final long drawings. I was really excited to be able to finally put all my knowledge together and draw the entire human form without questioning areas of the body. I unfortunately found out very quickly that I was very out of practice with the entirety of the body. Since we had been concentrating more recently on the hands, feet, and facial features, along with missing a couple days of class, we really hadnt done a whole lot of model drawing. This really showed me that especially with the human body, practice and constant drawing is essential for me to be able to retain and successfully draw various portions of the body.

Overall I really enjoyed doing the head and facial features especially the eyes! I have always attempted to draw the human eyes, but they just never seemed to turn out right or look real. By listening to Amy's lectures and by closely analyzing the more specific areas and planes of the eyes I feel that I am much more able to draw a realistic human eye.

As far as my final shell goes, I was actually surprised with how happy I am with it. Throughout the semester my contour drawings seem to go on a roller coaster ride, one being good and the next being super flat. I feel that with this last shell drawing I was able to capture a lot of angles and pretty successfully got it to look both 3D and organic. With my last large shell drawing the biggest thing that I felt I needed to work on was making my shell look organic. By paying attention to closer details and by drawing more slowly I was able to capture more of my shells bumps, and grooves. I was nervous about going in with the wash on my shell. I have never worked with an ink wash before, but overall for my first time I am pretty happy with how it turned out!

Life Drawing I: Week Thirteen: Reflection

MOUTH, EARS, HAIR, PARTNER DRAWINGS, AND HANDS
Today Amy went over the mouth, ears, and hair during lecture. Over Thanksgiving we were assigned to draw 5 eyes and 5 noses. Overall I thought that my drawings of those went pretty well.

After the lecture Amy asked us to partner up so that we could draw each others head and facial features. I was a bit nervous going into it but for my first portrait drawing I felt that it went fairly well. My biggest question was that I didn't really know where to start. After the 1/2 hour was up, I felt that my drawing was alright, but I felt like it didnt really look a whole lot like my partner.

As for the second half of the week, Amy had originally told us that we would be drawing off of on of our models. She decided to change her plans and have us partner up again so we were able to get a closer look at what we would be drawing. Our concentration for the day was mainly hands, with an ear or some other part of the head late in the period if we wished. I was able to get a hand, some fingers, and I attempted to tackle an ear as well.

With my first hand the biggest problem that I came across was where I should start. I decided to start with a ball shape and branch off some flanges from there. It worked alright. I seemed to have a lot of difficulty with this hand I think because there was a lot of fore-shortening of the fingers. Due to this my fingers look a bit like hot dogs!

My second hand I was much more successful! I decided to start with the pinkie finger and work my way around the hand that way. I feel that this hand turned out much better, and I was able to pay attention to smaller details which really helped!

For my last drawing I decided I wanted to tackle an ear. I felt that my ear's proportions and overall shape turned out pretty nicely. However, I also had a hard time making the ear look 3D and differentiating from the parts of the ear that were coming forward from the ones that were going back in space. I asked Amy to help me out and she gave me some great pointers on where to exaggerate planes a bit to give the ear a more 3D effect!

Life Drawing I: Week Twelve: Reflection

No Class Held This Week.

Life Drawing I: Week Eleven: Reflection

FIRST LARGE SHELL CRITIQUE, EYES, AND NOSES
For this blog entry Amy wanted us to touch upon two questions and our critiques. The first question she wanted us to address was how this drawing compared to our last shell drawing. I feel that this shell drawing from my last one has improved. On my last shell drawing I attempted this view multiple times and just couldn't seen to get it to work. Coming into this drawing I knew that I wanted to draw my shell from this view showing the various planes and steps as my shell twisted into form. Due to the amount of time Amy gave us for these larger shells, I was really able to slow down and take my time as I figured out how my shell moved and curved around.

The second question Amy wanted us to address was how we felt about going from our newsprint sketch books to such a large piece of paper. It was a bit difficult for me to jump to such a large drawing. For my drawing I decided to work on a table looking down on my drawing...lets just say this was a mistake on my part. Going into the drawing I felt I was able to get the overall shape much more easily, but I feel some of my contour lines lost their direction working so big. After seeing my shell up on a wall, straight on instead of on a table, I can really see where I should have put a lot more lines. I also feel that my shell lost a lot of its organic feel. To me my shell, looks 3D, but it would have been much more beneficial to me to work on a wall rather then a table top.

Overall my critiques went pretty well. I was able to tell the people that I worked with what I felt I needed to improve upon and we went from there. My group members thought I used up the page nicely, and that my overall shape was really nicely done. They did agree that my shell wasn't as organic as is could have been and began to look a little to precisely done. For our next shell my main goal is to create a shell with a lot more organic form and to add more contour lines to better define the shells feel.

After our critiques were done Amy went over the eyes and nose. Overall the lecture went pretty well I and believe I have a pretty good understanding of the basic shapes of these facials features. Amy assigned us 5 eyes and nose drawings for the weekend so we'll see how they go!

Life Drawing I: Week Ten: Reflection

BODIES EXHIBIT, MIA, SKULLS
This week was our field trip to the Bodies Exhibit and the Minneapolis Institute of Art! Coming into last week I was excited about the field trip to the Bodies exhibit but didn't really know what it was about. Then, after telling one of my professors that I was heading there for a field trip, their eyes kind of widened, and asked me if I knew what exactly what it was. After learning that the bodies I would be seeing were real human bodies, I was even more excited for the exhibit!!

After walking through the nine exhibit rooms I decided my two favorite were the circulatory room, and the fetal room. Walking into the circulatory room just blew my mind thinking that what I was looking at is actually in my body. All through science/biology classes we learn about how complex the human body is, but being able to really see it, in 3D, right in front of my face, instead of from a book, really put everything into perspective. The 3D circulatory system's beauty and complexity just blew me away. It looked like I could put my hand on it and crush it into a million pieces.

The fetal room also really grabbed my attention. One of the things that grabbed my attention the most was how they had the fetus' in 2 week stages beginning from conception on. It was amazing to be able to see the growth patterns in just 14 day increments. As well as how quickly the body is formed and you can tell it is a baby. It was also interesting to be able to see three babies that would have been born with disabilities.

After the Bodies Exhibit we headed off to the MIA. Not that I wasn't excited for it, but I have already been there 3 times this semester, so I wasn't as pumped as for the Bodies. One thing that I did take advantage of this time around was the Louvre Exhibit. Unfortunately I was a bit disappointed with it. I guess I was just expecting to know more of the pieces/artists that were shown. It was nice to be able to see artwork from the Louvre don't get me wrong, but I guess I was just expecting more. Ill just have to travel to Paris someday to see it on my own!!

On to class. Thursday we tackled the skulls. Amy let us have the period to draw the side and 3/4 front view on our own before she lectured. My skulls went alright. I did the side drawing first. After some adjusting I was pretty happy with how it turn out, although it was a bit flat. Moving onto the 3/4 view was a bit difficult. I wasn't sure where to start, but once I got going it worked out alright. I'm hoping Amy gives us some proportion tips in her lecture next time!

Life Drawing I: Week Nine: Reflection

SHELL AND FEET
So over the weekend we were assigned a contour drawing with our new and improved shells! I was hoping that my contour drawing would go smoothly with no major problems. Well I was wrong. My shell looks kind of like a smoothed out conch shell, so I decided initially to start with the end with all of the arms closest to me and work my way down the shell. I figured the easiest way to get started would be to sketch the basic form of the shell and proceed from there.

Lets just say for some reason I just couldn't even seem to get a basic form down. I tried and erased about 5 different shells before I decided to completely switch my point of view. I ended up drawing my shell from a pretty basic point of view that allowed me to do just the overall shape of the shell without having to worry about the troublesome arms that come off of it. I was a bit more successful with my contour lines and feel that overall, my shell turn out alright. It definitely doesn't pop as much as I would have liked it to, but at least its not completely flat!

We also found out at the end of class that we are to buy sheets of paper that are 38"x50" for our next three shell contour drawings!! I'm kind of excited to really tackle my shell on a much larger scale and plan to take it a few hours at a time so that I can do a good job on it. Amy showed us what we will eventually be doing with our shells and the images that she showed us in class were really descriptive and fun to look at.

We also had lecture on the foot this week. I was absent from class on Tuesday due to illness so I wasnt in class for the actual lecture. I was able to take down notes from the sheet on the wall as well as from a classmate so I at least got some out of the lecture notes. My very first drawing of the foot was absolutely horrible!! I think Amy noticed pretty quickly that I needed to be filled in on a couple of proportion things so she sat down and showed me a few things to take into consideration. After she showed me just a could of planer shapes of the foot my next few drawings were much more successful!

Life Drawing I: Week Eight: Reflection

MANIKINS, MUSCLES, AND CONTOURS

So after presenting our mid-term portfolios Amy decided we all needed some significant work on our manikin’s legs. So the beginning of this week was spent tearing apart our muscles that we had put on our manikins and re-vamping our quads. At first when Amy told us we would be ripping the muscles off I was a bit disappointed. Since my manikin isn’t my favorite thing to do I was kind of dreading the fact that we had to do the same part over again.

After Amy went over a few things in class with the overhead projector and pointed out the problems a lot of us were having, I was able to have a much better grasp on my muscles and what needed to be improved. Once again I had made my muscles much too thin and needed to improve upon the volume of more then one of them. From Amy pointing out specific things that we should be looking for re-doing my muscles was a ton easier and much more enjoyable as well!

This week we also did a couple of longer poses and a contour drawing. For some reason the whole contour drawing thing is still something that I need to work on. I’ve noticed that one week my contour drawing will go really well, and the next week my drawing will turn out super flat. Hopefully this begins to go better.

At the end of the week we were also given new shells. Our shells are a ton bigger then our last ones and definitely a lot more interesting!! We were assigned a contour drawing for the weekend so hopefully I can get my contour drawings down pat.

Life Drawing I: Week Seven: Midterm Portfolio

PHOTOBUCKET ALBUM:
Term 1

WHAT I'VE LEARNED
So far I can definitely say that Ive improved and learned a lot from the beginning of the semester. I've enjoyed learning about the human skeleton and the muscles that line each bone and allow our bodies to move. I've noticed that as the semester continues, each lecture and additional information we are given is really helping my human form come together. By being able to watch Amy draw and sketch during the lectures, it allows me some insight about how my arm and hand should be moving with each individual part of the body. I have also truly come to appreciate the skeletons hanging around the classroom. I have quite frequently noticed myself looking at them to be able to get my proportions correct or the underlying shape of the bones correct.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
My manikin is definitely a weakness of mine. Normally pretty patient, I have noticed that I tend to get frustrated very quickly when I work with my skeleton. I feel like our skeletons are very different from those in the book and at times its really hard to interpret where exactly each muscle should be connecting and ending on each bone in accordance to other muscles. I would have to say that a strength of my manikin more recently is that I have been trying harder to focus on pushing the muscles together so that they seem to morph together as the muscles on the human body do. At the beginning of our muscles assignment I wasn't giving my muscles nearly as much volume as they should have had so I have also been working to give my muscles more volume and structure so that they lay correctly on my skeleton.

As far as my drawings are concerned, I feel that my weakness is definitely that I need to have more confidence in each line that I'm making. At times I feel as though I'm relying on my eraser way more then I should be. I would also like to improve upon my line weight. Ive noticed that in a drawing if I start to become confident in my line it tends to get super dark and heavy. I would like to keep my line weight on the lighter side of things even when I am gaining confidence in my form. I feel that a strength of my drawing is my waistline. Initially I was having difficultly understanding where the waist should lie between the rib cage and the pelvis. As I am continuing to draw I feel that I have gotten a better grasp on where this thin part of the waist lies.

FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS
As far as my improvements go for the rest of the semester, the biggest thing I hope to accomplish and nail down is more confidence in my strokes when I put them down and when doing this, to also keep my line weight light. I also hope to improve upon my patience with my manikin. In addition I would like to improve upon my relation between my drawings and the model. I feel that at times I tend to look too much at my drawing and little at the model. I hope that by studying the model more and really focusing on each curve of the body as I draw I will be able to create more successful proportions and overall drawings.

Life Drawing I: Week Six: Reflection

GENERAL BLOG
So due to Advisement day on Tuesday of this week, and missing class due to illness on Thursday of this week, I'm not going to have much of a blog.

I forgot last week to talk about my skeleton. I've decided to name him Francis. Overall, I'm not very keen on my skeleton. I feel like I have run into a lot more problems then I had anticipated. The one thing that I am having the most difficulty with is making the muscles with enough volume. After our very first muscles assignment I ended up taking off everything that I had made and re-doing it. I also feel like I am having some trouble with making the muscles look some what realistic. Since I wasn't able to make it to class this week I am hoping to get in this weekend sometime to work on a few drawings.

This semester has definitely been a pretty stressful one for me and this cold has really come at a bad time. Between classes and work, at times I feel like I haven't been able to sit down in days! But that's the life of a college student right? Recently I have been preparing to register for my last semester of classes, get my student teaching squared out, and preparing for Senior Show. I can definitely say that I am getting to the point where I'm ready to get into the schools and apply what I have been learning over the past five years.

Life Drawing I: Week Five: Reflection

THE PELVIS
This week we learned about the pelvis. Due to Amy having a cold, instead of listening and taking notes on her lecture we got to watch a video on the pelvis. Needless to say the video was a bit outdated and hard to watch. I feel like it was much harder for me to both retain and understand the pelvis by watching the video. During Amy's lectures I feel like she is really able to give us information and examples that we will be able to relate to and incorporate into our drawings. With the video breaking the body down into squares did seem to be helpful in my drawings as well though.

By breaking the body into squares it made me more aware of placement of the ribcage verses the pelvis. I quickly noticed that I had been putting the pelvis way to far away from the bottom of the rib cage. After I had adjusted my pelvis distance from the rib cage, at first it looked really awkward. After a few quick drawings though I was really able to see that my body proportions looked much better.

Another thing that I have been having difficulty with is the shape of the pelvis when viewing the body from the side. I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on how the lower back moves into the gluts, but since Amy would like us to draw in our pelvis bones first I've been struggling to get them to look right from the side view.

Overall I'm getting excited to learn more of the body and how the legs and arms will hang and extend from the torso. The torso is such a key part of the body and I know that it is key to have it down before we even try to add any appendages on, but its exciting to think that soon we will be able to proportionally draw the entire human body.

Life Drawing I: Week Four: Reflection

THE RIB CAGE AND THE ABDOMINALS
So this week in Life Drawing we took notes on the rib cage, the abdomen muscles, and the various ways that the body can be visually interpreted as we're drawing. It helped a ton to be able to learn the various angles and how everything looks from these angles. One of the biggest things that I had noticed I was having difficulty with was transitioning my drawing and how they should be looking from the front, back, and side views.

I have noticed that the single most effective thought with the rib cage is that it is shaped like an egg. An egg is a shape that just about everyone knows and because it is spherical no matter what the angle you are looking at the body from, it basically stays the same.

By creating an egg shape for the beginning of my body, I can pretty easily construct the rest of the abdominal area. Since where the rib cage ends is considered the narrowest part of the body, making the transition from stomach to waist to hips has been relatively smooth sailing. The biggest hang up I have noticed as I am drawing the rest of the body core is the placement of the pelvis. On some of my drawings I feel like the body looks pretty well proportioned while other times my body looks way too long.

During class, I have noticed that our initial quick 30 second- one minute gesture drawings are very beneficial to me. Being able to do quick full arm length drawings like that really give me the opportunity to loosen and warm up. I feel like this part of class benefits me by allowing me to make more fluent lines in my longer drawings towards the end of the period.

Life Drawing I: Week Three: Reflection

No Class Held This Week.

Life Drawing I: Week Two: Reflection

SPINE, SHELL, AND MANNEQUIN
So I cant exactly say that my shell was a total disaster, but I definitely cant call it a masterpiece either. When we initially got assigned our shell assignment I knew that it wasnt going to be an easy assignment, but I also wasn't expecting it to be nearly as frusturaing for me as it was. When starting the cross contour of the body of my shell, the hardest part was deciding what direction to do my lines in. My shell had some natural lines that curved up and around the shell on more on a vertical axis versus a horizontal axis. So I decided to do my best to ignore those lines and do my cross contour that way.

I would have to say the most frustrating part of my shell was the lip that curled around the shell. After doing my best to tackle the body of the shell, I had to add the lip that curled around the back side edge. I wasn't real sure how to successfully do the contour since it curved in a different way around the shell. The lip also had naturally formed lines on it and I again chose to go against those and go with more of a horizontal based cross contour line. I just couldn't seem to get it to look realistic.

As for the rest of the week I really enjoyed learning about the spine and the muscles. I didnt have a lot of time to really execute the movement and curving of the spine in any drawings due to my shell critique, but I feel that once I have a bit more time drawing the form I will really be able to apply those strategies to my drawings. I think that now that I have a better understanding of how the spine curves and moves I will be able to especially be more successful in the positions where the models are bent or curved over.

So after leaving class on Thursday after our lecture about the muscles, I truly thought that I had a good grasp and understanding of our skeletons and the muscles that we were to attach to it with clay. Lets just say when I got home and began working on it, this wasn't the case. Surprisingly I found our skeletons far more tricky then I had planned. The most difficult part about our skeletons was that they are far different then the ones that are shown in the book. In the book all of the bones in the neck and along the back and very clearly defined, while on ours they are just sort of blended into the plastic mold where our skeletons are cut in half.

Life Drawing I: Week One: Reflection

DRAWING
This first past week of Life Drawing I feel; went pretty well and was very refreshing. The aspect of this course that already I am enjoying the most is the structure of the class and how it is broken up. At times three hour courses can get to be a lot to handle by the last hour or so, with more then one set of eyes watching the clock. Because Amy has set up this course in intervals ranging from 30 seconds and up it really makes the time just fly by. In a good way of course. With these intervals I feel that my work is able to more easily change from drawing to drawing and I am able to look back even just five minutes before and see how I was able to change my drawings around and tweek them a bit for the better.

I also liked that Amy really has just let us go and do our best for the time being. I feel like its really been giving me the chance to shake off some rust and get back into the swing of things. By doing this I feel that once we begin to have more forward instruction that I will be able to look at and relate my current drawings to the new instruction and be able to more easily see where I need to, and how to improve.

I have also this week, gained a greater appreciation for the differences between the male and female forms. Our two models have very different builds simply because one is female and one is male. These differences can be seen not only in their physical builds, curves, etc., but also quite drastically in the poses they chose and how they hold and morph their bodies into these positions. By giving us the chance to view and draw two different models I feel that it will more greatly enhance my drawing skills.

As of current I feel like the thing that I am struggling the most with is my lack of knowledge about the human body and how to take proportions into correct consideration. I feel that the area of the body I am struggling with the most is the proportion of the shoulders and arms to the rest of the body. At times I've noticed my arms are way too long and at other times they're too short. That goes the same for the shoulders at times they seem to broad and at others they seem too narrow.

I tend to be much more of a visual learner then a verbal/auditory learner, so I greatly appreciated watching Amy drawing as well. I feel that I learn the most from watching other people do something, especially in drawing, rather then them telling me what or how to do it. From watching Amy draw I was able to grasp a better understanding of how the chest of the body lays in accordance with the rest of the body. As well as how light touches and sketches can really help you to find the line your looking for while trying to portray the human body.

Art Work

Drawing III: Australia
Cocaine Study

Drawing II
Fruit Study

2D Design
Principals of Design Book

Drawing II
Fabric Study

Life Drawing I: First Assignment: Introductory Post

Introductory Post
As an Art Education major, I am required to take a number of various studio courses, some are assigned, while others are left up to us to chose. I am taking this course because I feel like it would be a great addition to my drawing emphasis.

This semester I hope to gain a greater and deeper understanding of the human body, its movements, and the skills and techniques used to successfully interpret it in a drawing. I have never had any sort of drawing course dealing with the human body so I feel like this course will be a fun and exciting challenge for me to tackle.

For the semester I would like to grow in the understanding of how the human body moves to be able to gain the ability to accurately draw the contour of the human body's features and basic shape.