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.