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!

Recap on First Half of Semester

This first half of the semester has flown by. I wasn't sure what to expect with this class; Life Drawing seemed a bit out of my league and something that I thought would be a major challenge. The class however, has been totally enlightening and rewarding. My only struggle is with the manikin (see picture on Flickr link). I still struggle with my quick 30 second sketches of the model as well. I can't seem to capture the whole model in that quick amount of time, and what I do capture looks more like  a skeleton at this point. Again, I'm not quite sure what is expected of us for those warm up drawings. I know the whole figure is supposed to be included, but are we supposed to be doing more of an outline, a skeleton, or something in between? All of my selected gesture drawings are quite different from each other. The shell we did was also a good exercise and something quite rewarding to look at! I am not totally looking forward to doing 3 more, but I know from previous drawing classes that drawing the same thing repeatedly truly helps.

My expectations for the rest of the semester aren't far from what we are already doing. I can't believe we are already up to 2 hour drawings with added cross contour lines. I think that having a male model would really change things up, and since we've been drawing the same model for so long, I'm not sure how well I would react to that change skill wise (but, it is something we all would benefit from). As stated before, I'm sure my shell drawings will totally improve, especially after getting the one on one feedback on them. Knowing what I exactly need to change on the shell is really helpful. I know I need to work on my manikin's muscles, especially the legs, so I hope to be on the route to improvement with that.

Click here to see my account on Flickr!!

Oct 18 - Oct 22

Our classes this week seemed pretty intense: catching up on what we miss out on last week, adding more of a structured pelvic bone to our sketches and discussing our shell drawings that we had as homework. We  got a quick look at everyone's shell drawing on Tuesday which was actually really helpful considering this was a first for most, if not all, of us. It was so interesting to see how everyone drew their shells. I didn't see any two drawings that were totally alike- something to think about for next time. I know that I personally need to make more use of the whole page (for this one I seemed to have an awkward 6 inches on the left side of my page), as well as work on eliminating the "outline" look my shell began to have towards the front. I was also told that while my contour lines going the length of the shell were good, they really don't need to be there. Overall I was actually really happy with the way mine turned out, but I know that there are definitely some things I can improve on for next time.

We also did some longer drawings in class this week; about four 25-30 minute drawings in all. I actually enjoy doing these a lot more than I do the quick 30 second drawings. Although I seem to always be at an awkward angle from the model I try to make the best of it. The room just doesn't seem big enough. Finally, yesterday I got a better view to her and it was a nice change. Actually it was almost a challenge! I had been working so much on getting the foreshortening right that when it came down to just drawing her from a normal view I actually struggled. 

Oct 11 - Oct 14

This week we didn't do much in class. Monday we just got together and talked about adding more muscles to the skeleton. It's hard to believe that all of those muscles exist in each and every one of us- all in different forms. We left early and didn't to any in class drawings. Wednesday class was canceled. This week though I've been working on my shell drawing and finishing it up. While it was a daunting task, I feel that I did really well; better than I had planned anyway. My only struggle was to get the shell to fit on the whole page. As of now I have an awkward 6 inches of extra paper on the left hand side. Definitely something to work on. And seeing as we will have to do 3 more of them, I'm sure I'll get the hang of it!
Pictures to come next week!

Oct 4 - Oct 8

This week was pretty uneventful in class until our Thursday session. Tuesday consisted of notes/lecture and an introduction to our homework: a 5-6 hour continued contour line drawing of our shells.

Thursday we drew all session. The first 45 min or so was really rough for me; it seems to take me a while to warm up. We then worked on how we were drawing. By attaching two drawing utensils together and being no closer to the page than an arms-length away we were able to practice drawing with our shoulders. This was totally new to me (something that teachers had talked about, but never pushed), and SO difficult. After we worked on drawing as light as possible. I half thought about not drawing at all and saying that it was just really light, but I knew that wasn't going to fly. I had a bit of trouble drawing really lightly, especially doing so after 30 min. We did some 3 min quick sketches using our new techniques and then some 4 min sketches. We then did two 30 min sketches drawing very lightly and then going back and doing some measuring and quick line drawings over, showing the precise angle of the parts of the body. By this point I was completely warmed up and getting more used to the new drawing technique! 

  

Sept 27 - Oct 1

Our first day this week (Tuesday) began with going over our manikins. Despite us all following out of the same book and the same pictures, each of us had a completely different look to the muscles we were assigned to add to the body. I personally struggled with understanding the different views of each muscle and ended up spending a ton of time on the assignment. Overall I was pretty pleased with mine, and with a few minor adjustments I believe I’ll be ready to move on to the abdominal muscles. It was nice to see everyone’s and get feedback.

After going over those we moved on to some fast 15 second sketches, and then some one minute ones, where we focused again on drawing the center line in relation to the rest of the body. Each time we do these fast exercises I go through a bit of a rut and then seem to get back in the swing of things. I can’t wait for the day where that rut isn’t so time consuming! The image below is just one page of a few of those one minute drawings (some a bit better than others).

We then moved on to something completely new for me: contour line drawing of the torso. I struggled at first, and ended up completely started over. Having 30 minutes seemed like a long time, but it went pretty fast once I got started on my second drawing. The angle I was at was difficult for me, but I tried to keep the perspective correct while drawing line after line. 

Today we did faster passed drawings but added the “egg” ribcage. I had a really really hard time with this at first, but towards the end I started to grasp the concept. I definitely need work on showing the twisting movement of the body. I also seem to have a hard time showing if I’m looking at the front or back of the model. We did another 30 minute drawing of the torso (again, contour line), and I was excited; I felt like I needed to redeem myself. This time the drawing went much smoother for me, but perhaps that was because the model was laying on her stomach this time, or maybe because I moved to a spot with a better view. Either way- I was pleased. My first one was good with line weight but the perspective was off, so I did another quick one (10 min) to redo the perspective. 

Sept 20 - Sept 24

This week was pretty exciting in Life Drawing. Getting a real model was way more laid back and professional than I had imagined. So Tuesday was all about drawing the model. We began with quick 30-second sketches of her, doing about 15 in all. We then switched it up, gradually making the times longer and longer. The 30-second sketches were way harder than I thought they would have been. At first it seemed like I would get two lines down and we would already be on to our next sketch. Fortunately, the more we did the quick sketches, the better I got. We learned about drawing the center linear line of a ligament, rather than the typical outside, thus creating a more 3D look to simple line drawings. It’s still a difficult concept for me to grasp, but I’m getting there. The first picture below is just one of my pages of the quick 30-second drawings, and one of my better pages (which might not say much, but believe me, there is improvement).

After doing 30-second and one-minute drawings and so on, we went on to do a 30-minute drawing. The 30-minutes seemed to go so slow compared to the 30-seconds that we had done over and over again. After I completed one drawing (or what I felt was complete), I went on to tackle it again, in the last 5-minutes or so.  I feel that my first drawing is better with line weight and detail (which makes sense because I spent the most time on it), while my second drawing makes better use of space i.e. the perspective seems better and you can see the total stretch of her body. 

Today, Thursday, we got our mannequins, and this weekend we have to begin adding muscles to that. I’m sure, this too, will be something that gets better with practice.

Sept 13 - Sept 17

This first week of Life Drawing went really well. After not being in a drawing class in about 3 years, it was good to get back in the swing of things. Needless to say, I’m a bit rusty. Our first drawing exercises were with seashells, taking careful note of all the curves, dips, and crevasses. The 10 minute continuous line drawing of the shells was much easier for me than the blind line drawings. But with that said, I definitely needed to think more carefully about line weight. My shell looks flat and made out of distinct shapes, rather than appearing as a 3D object. 

We got to start on the skeletons in the second day of class and that was something totally new for me (as is all the content of this class). Beginning with a quick intro on the human skeleton, we learned about the major landmarks and the spinal column, made up of the 34 vertebra called the cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacral, and coccyx.

Drawing the primary curves of the spine along with the pelvis and rib cage was a great exercise. After drawing the skeleton 4 or 5 times, each in a different angle in 10 minute 

increments, the drawings and perspective came much easier. My skeleton drawings, much like the shell, need work. The variation in line weight just isn’t there yet.

The critiques, even on these quick drawings, are going to help me get the level of my drawings where they need to be.

Introduction

Hi, I'm Nora Langer, a senior at UW Stout working towards a BFA with a concentration in Graphic Design as well as a minor in Applied Photography. I really love traveling and being outdoors. Sewing is also something that I'm inclined to do once in a while. While I may be a decent drawer, the human form is definitely my week point. I look forward to this class and hope to take as much away from it as I can.