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.