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!