My Final Blog Entry

This is my final blog post which is kind of sad yet very exciting at the same time.  Over the course of the semester in Life Drawing 1 I have learned a lot.  This was the first time that I had ever draw from life which proved to be challenging yet enjoyable.  I learned a lot about the figure, from drawing the figure, the lectures Amy gave in class, and building the manikin.

With this blog post I am also posting a picture of my last shell drawing that I completed.  For this shell drawing I found myself being more patient with the ink, and trying to leave some of the paper to reveal highlights in the shell.  I feel that I could have added more of the red ink into the drawing as it is a little bit lacking, but I think incorporated better then my previous shell drawing.  I worked on receding my shell into space on this drawing and feel I was much more successful in that then in previous drawings, although my horizontal horizon line does not help this. 

Overall I feel much more confident in cross-contour drawing as before this class I had worked very little with contours.  I now feel that I am able to see the contours within objects much more easily.  I feel that my gesture drawing have also improved a lot as I remember the first few times we did gesture drawing and not even being able to get half of the figure drawn before the time was up.  I have also worked on varying line weights, although I feel that I still need to work on this a bit, I am more aware of this and hopefully it will start to show in my drawings.  I feel that much of the knowledge that I gained throughout the semester will be applied in other classes and eventually be able to help me in my own classroom as a teacher one day. 

A collection of my course work can be found at the following link: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55288360@N02/sets/

Manikin Completed!

I finished my manikin!  This is really exciting as it has been an on-going project all semester.  I have included a few photos of the completed project, but more pictures can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/55288360@N02/sets/72157625292619872/.  On the last day of class we all brought in our manikins to have Amy look at them and give suggestions for improvement before she gave us a final grade for it.  Overall I only had a few minor things to fix on my manikin, which I did in a few hours before our final critique.  I am pretty please with the way that my manikin turned out.  I think the time and effort that I put into it definitely shows in the craft and accuracy of the muscles.  In the final muscles that we competed we had to cover the spinal column which proved emotionally difficult for me as I had worked very hard to make a wonderful spinal column and was sad that all my hard work got covered up. 

I believe that the manikin has really helped me in drawing the figure.  I know understand the muscle composition, which many times can be seen in the model.  I have also notice when I am working out or I have a muscles that becomes sore I think back to my manikin and try to imagine which muscle it may be that I am feeling. 

I also think that this project helped me as I think I work better in 3D sometimes.  I think that as a future Art teacher I need to remember to incorporate different types of learning like Amy has done in the figure drawing class.  Overall, I have nothing but good things to say about the long process of completing my manikin.

Shell Drawing #3 (INK!)

            Well I have completed my first shell that I included ink on.  This proved to be very challenging for me.   As you can see from the image, there is a not of things that I can improve upon.  I’m glad that this is only the third shell so I still have a chance to work more with ink and show great improvement (hopefully) with the next shell drawing. 

            For this shell drawing I first drew the shell in charcoal before going back in and putting ink on it was well.  There are some improvements that could be done in the drawing.  Although my shell was placed on the page nicely with a good diagonal and good size it did not recede back into space very well, this is something that I struggled with in my first drawing but did much better in the my second drawing.  I feel that I have taken a step back in this area. 

            This was my first time working with ink.  Although there are some strong points in the way I applied my ink there are also some definite areas for improvement.  As far as my application with the ink I got my paper very wet and tried to let the ink do the work by allowing it to spread and drip on the page.  Next time though I need to make sure to leave some areas with the white of the paper to allow for highlights.  I also need to try mixing my red and black ink together to get different shades.  This should help unify my shell and help so that there are not two separate areas on my shell, which I believe is kind of confusing visually. 

            I have started my next shell drawing.  In fact, I have the drawing part done and just have to apply ink now.  I feel that I did a much better job making sure the shell recedes in space, now I just need to improve with me ink application.  Hopefully I can make the ink work for me!

The Skull

            Although we will not have to do self-portraits for class this semester as there was not time.  But we still get to work on the skull.  For the skull Amy gave us a short lecture on some of the important features that we should include within the skull, after which we then got straight to work on drawing the skull.  I set up in the corner with my own kind of beat up skull (there was no bottom jaw on the particular skull I drew).  

            When drawing the skull we had to do three-quarters view and either a side view or a frontal view.  I am including both a three-quarters view that I drew and a side view.  I also started to draw a front view, but this proved to be extremely difficult for me and I gave up pretty fast and decided to call it a day. 

            When drawing these Amy came over to during help me, and she worked a little bit with really establishing the different plains that can be seen from the particular view I was working on.  This made a lot of sense and I tried to continue with what she had showed me and do the same thing on the next drawing.  The features that interest me the most in the skull are the nose and eyes.  I think the reason that I’m drawn to these features is because of the holes that are present.  This is something that interests me because they are not really present when in a model, or at least not to the extent they can be seen within the skull. 

            Overall, I found drawing the skulls to be very enjoyable.  One thing that I must remember is not to make the skull “round” but to try to add some corners to depict the different changes in the overall shape of the skull.  I hope you enjoy my drawings!

Hands

So recently we have been working on the hands.  These are more difficult then I originally thought, but the lecture that Amy gave I think helped although some of the fingers that I drew look a lot like sausages, even though I was really trying to avoid that and make sure to add "bumps" where the difference joint are in the fingers, but this proved to be very difficult for me.  I also hard a hard time drawing the thumb and getting to look realistic.  Amy mentioned during her lecture on the hands to connect the thumb down by the base of the palm, but again this proved to be difficult.  I guess I just figured that the hand would be easy to draw as we are so familiar with it and the bones seem much more easily seen within the hand then in other parts of the body. 

            When working on hands we also got to be our own models.  During class we paired up and took turns being the model and drawing the hands.  I now realize how hard it is to be a model.  My hand hot very cold pretty fast and extremely stiff.  I was very happy when it was my turn to draw and no longer and to hold my hand still. 

            I have included two drawings that I did during class time.  If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve the finger so they do not look so much like sausages that would be great.  Any suggestions on improving the connection of the thumbs to the hand would be great also.  But I’m thinking the most beneficial thing that I can do to improve my drawing of the hands would be to practice.  

Field Trip

On Tuesday (11/23) the Figure Drawing One class went to the cities to tour the Walker Art Museum and The Bell Museum of Natural History.  The day started off kind off bad as our bus was supposed leave at 9:30am but didn't show up and there for we didn't end up leaving until 11:00am.   Because of this our time in the Walker was cut short, luckily I had just been to the walker a few weeks ago so I had a chance to go back through and see a few things that I had missed the first time around. 

One thing at the Walker that I really enjoyed was Yves Klein's work.  Particularly the works the involved the blow torch.  There was a video of the process in which these pieces were made and after watching this art making process I had a greater appreciation for these works.  It became more about the process and the position of the bodies against the paper then about the actual outcome of the piece. 

At the Bell Museum of Natural History I quickly walked around and was drawn to the birds.  I found these animals fascinating and thought they could be fun to draw.  So I found  a spot on the floor in the hallway and began to draw.  This is what I spent the majority of my time at the Bell Museum doing, as you can see from the two photographs I
have of the drawing I completed.

Shell Drawing #2

            This week our second homework drawing of our shell was due.  We had a small group critique among our colleagues, and then Amy gave us individual comments on a sticky note attached to our drawings.  

            During the critique with my colleagues I pulled up a picture of my first shell drawing so they could see where I made improvements and what still needs to be worked on.  Everyone in my small group agreed that this second drawing of my shell had gotten a lot better.  I filled my page nicely and had a good diagonal with the shell receding back into space.  They also thought there was more weight to this shell then the first drawing and that there was better line variation.  Overall, the shell was more closely observed this time. 

            On the post-it note I received from Amy she gave me comments, which I completely agree with.  She thought that my scale was good but that the front of my shell was at two horizontal of an angle, the back of my shell shows a better diagonal.  The front of the shell also needs more clarity with the plane changes.  I totally agree with this and found that to be the most challenging part of my shell.  I have one more angle that will have the front of the shell and I am hoping to get the plane changes right on that one.  There are also a few dark spots on my shell that dominate the drawing, Amy suggests that I get rid of those for my next drawing as they are a bit distracting.

            I felt that there was a lot of improvement between this shell drawing and my previous one, however I know that there is still a lot more improvement that needs to happen.   As I continue to observe my shell I feel that I will be able to make improvements.  I am also quite excited to add in ink to the next shell drawing.  I hope that this will add to my shell, but I am also nervous about this component, as I have never used ink before.  It is always exciting to experiment with a new medium though!