Dec 13 - Dec 20 (Final)

It's so strange to be writing my last blog entry for this class. I still feel like I don't know where to begin; you'd think that I'd get the gist of it after doing how many of these??
We got to do something a bit out of the ordinary in class this week (our last life drawing I class). Due to the freezing weather we actually did our quick gesture warm ups with the model putting on one more article of clothing in each pose. It was pretty difficult but the pictures that I came up with were fun! We then did a longer drawing. Again, the model was dressed. It was rather difficult drawing a body and making it seem like they aren't clothed. We also have had our final shell to work on. I managed to get mine done early, thankfully!

 

This class went really well. I wasn't sure what to think when I entered Life Drawing I. Of course, it started out a bit rough, especially after not seriously drawing for a few years. It was also difficult to get used to this new "style" of drawing; a more gestural line drawing. After shading and coloring and being so extremely picky, I found this new way of drawing to be such a big change. With that said, I do feel like I got so much out of this class. I found a new appreciation for the human body, muscles, skeleton, everything. We definitely learned so much more about the body than I thought we would; stuff that just drawing wouldn't have taught us. 

Drawing the shells was also pretty rewarding. Although the shell got pretty old after the second and third drawing, I can see why we had to do it 4 times to truly get the hang of it. The manikin (I still have yet to figure out the proper way to spell that) was also quite the workload for this class. I wish we would have started adding muscles right away at the beginning of the semester just so we wouldn't have had such a hefty load towards the end.

I think this was a great class to take and would recommend it to anyone. 

You can see my "Final Portfolio" HERE.

Dec 6 - Dec 10

This week has been pretty busy in class. On Tuesday the 3rd shell was due (with ink), and it was really cool to see everyone's. As overwhelming as it was to ink the shells, they all turned out really great! I knew before class what I was going to need to work on with my next inked shell but seeing everyone elses shells gave me some good insight for my next (and FINAL) shell. I'm pretty happy with this one, but I feel that I got a bit heavy in the ink. I would have rather had a more light color. I also need to add some black to my "red-orange" (though it appears more pink than anything) to tone down the vibrancy. Luckily where I struggled the most, the hole in the shell, won't be in my next view. I will definitely have enough to worry about with the next view, so not having to deal with that should help my ink ability.

After the quick feedback on the shells we started working on the hands. They were pretty difficult for me and my first drawing, which I didn't post, was more "realistic" and round, but I think my attempt at doing a boxy approach was more successful. Not too sure how I feel about my drawing over all though. It was definitely a struggle.

Thursday we got to do skulls! I was pretty pumped about this because I had wanted to focus on the face for a while. I actually really enjoyed drawing the skull a lot; class was really relaxed and that helped. This drawing was pretty good for me, I don't have anything to complain about. Hopefully we get to do another skull drawing for our next/final class!

Nov 29 - Dec 3

This week has gone so incredibly fast (as I'm sure the next few will). Tuesday was a quick lecture about the remaining muscles we need to add to our manikin....alllllll 50 of them. Needless to say, I left the class a bit discouraged.
We didn't draw on Tuesday or for the week prior, so getting into drawing today (Thursday) was pretty difficult, but nice. The quick poses that we usually do were pretty difficult for me, especially since we started to add the collar bones and shoulder blades. Below is one of my better of today's 2 min drawings.

While I think all the information is there and a viewer can understand the body, the craftsmanship is definitely not. I was excited but not at all ready to do another long pose. I was relieved to find out that we would be focusing on the upper body, while the rest was just optional. I did from the top of the head to about down the the ankles. The hands were my main struggle (especially the fist), but I really had wanted to attempt them.

I can't believe class is coming to an end. I can't help but feel overwhelmed and a bit disappointed. I know that there isn't hardly any time left but I had truly looked forward to learning to draw the face. It's been quite a redundant semester; same model all year, and the same shell drawing 4 times. And although my drawings have gotten so much better I feel that a change somewhere along the way would have been nice and helpful. The face would have been so nice to understand and I'm sad that we are missing out on that.

In the mean time it's adding muscles and drawing the last view of the shell.

Nov 23

Our one day of class this week (due to Thanksgiving break) was spent in the Minnesota area. Our first stop was the Walker Art Museum. I had never been there so I wasn't sure what to think, but I was pleasantly surprised by the art! Most of it was very very intriguing and vivid. One of the first floors we went on (I believe 7) had this piece of moving tin foil that sort of hovered across the floor, and I really enjoyed that. One other piece that truly stood out in my mind was a piece titled "White Field" by Gunther Uecker. It was simply (and not so simply) a board with nails hammered in it. The nails appeared to be bent and leaning in some areas; much like a grass field would do in the wind. That feeling was really great, and was captured really well.
After the Walker, we made our way to the Bell Museum of Natural History. Here our assignment was to explore and then pick an animal to draw. Me and a few other students sat on the home-made "bog" and drew the stuffed caribou in the opposite case. I am not so happy with the way my drawing turned out and I think if I would've focused on one part of the animal I would have been more satisfied. I believe the proportions are right on and believable, but I feel like it's lacking detail and depth. If I were to do it again I would either choose a different animal, or focus on the face of the caribou.

Nov 15 - Nov 19

This week in life drawing was pretty short. Class was canceled on Tuesday (or so I was told), I wasn't going to go anyway due to sleep deprivation. This week in general has been one of my busiest and most stressful, so having a break from Life Drawing was really nice.
Thursday was all about learning how to add ink to our shells. We were each told to bring in black ink plus another ink of our choice; I chose a burnt orange color. I was not looking forward to having to add ink to our shells, I mean they took this long to get the contour line drawings down so I was scared to ruin it with ink. And, after looking at past examples of shells, I became nervous that mine wouldn't turn out as beautiful. I was scared to even begin painting on my practice shell (here it is)....

BUT it was actually a ton of fun. My thoughts and concerns have changed completely!  I started out really carefully, only using the minimal amount of ink, but I soon realized that you kind of just have to go for it. I feel like I did okay for just a quick 25 minute paint job, and even the mistakes are beautiful. I am glad we got to do this in class because now I know what needs to be done and how the ink, paper, and brush react to each other. I wasn't too fond of how my burnt orange ink turned into a pink at first, but now I don't think it's so bad after all. I am not looking forward to drawing another shell, but adding the ink to it will be fun!

Nov 8 - Nov 12

This week in Life Drawing was pretty interesting. We only had class once and we spent the majority of the time listening to a lecture about the legs/foot muscles, going over our second shell drawing and doing a long drawing of the feet.
My second shell turned out pretty well, definitely a lot fast than the first. I tried new techniques with this shell (the things I was told to work on with the last one). I used less lines and only 3 lines going on the long axis of the shell. We were told we didn't totally need them, and that if they were added they would have to have enough movement and depth as the other lines. I like having both, so I'm happy with the way my shell turned out in that sense. I also did not have any sort of outline on my shell this time. However, I was still told that I need to work on curving my lines around more to make the edge more implied {I do not know what I'm doing wrong here- so any suggestions or examples would be nice}. After the feed back from both, it will be interesting to see what the next shell turns out to look like.

I've always struggled with drawing the feet so it was nice to get a few hours to JUST focus on them during class. I got two completely different angles with each foot so it was good practice. The first foot was completely straight on, while the second was completely in profile. I struggled a bit with both, especially the foot that was straight on. It was difficult to capture the whole foot while avoiding any distortion. The foreshortening of the toes was also a struggle. Overall, though, I was pretty satisfied. I'm looking forward more drawings of the feet and to an attempt at hands in the future!

 

 We also had assignments to begin adding muscles to feet and rest of the leg.

Nov 1 - Nov 5

I can't believe how fast this week went. The first day of class (tuesday) was spent doing gesture drawings and then a long pose. I'm enjoying seeing the progress I'm making, especially after doing the Flickr account! It's interesting to see where I was and now where I am. My gesture drawings seem to be getting the most improvement, which a relief, but even now they still can be a struggle.

As our long drawings get longer I find myself sort of zoning out near the end; running out of steam you could say. That's something I need to work on. It seems like so long ago, with Drawing II, could I sit for 3 hours and draw and maybe take one break. I do, however, find that as the poses get more difficult I'm able to draw them better. Learning about foreshortening has definitely helped with that struggle. Even from day one we were all dealing with foreshortening, and now it's reassuring to know the "rules" on that.
The horizontal drawing is from Tuesday and the arm has foreshortening (even more so than on the models pose for me today).



The pose we had today (Thursday) was very similar to one that I had already done. The nice part about that was that I could compare and contrast the two, and noticing the difference really helped! It was good to see that my torso was actually the right height this time (not so elongated), and the legs were pretty accurate as well!