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!

Mid-Term Reflection

            During the first half of the semester in life drawing one, the thing that I have improved the most upon is my understanding of the body and the different parts that make up such a complicated form.  I have begun to look much closely at the human figure and have found that working on a long pose for 2 hours can easily be done, and I even find myself wishing I had more time. 

            At the beginning of the semester I remember how long a half hour drawing would be.  Long Drawing 3 (click here to view) was a drawing that I did in two hours.  I still feel like there was a lot more I could have done to this drawing to make it more successful, including some more measuring of angles.  I found this drawing to be difficult because the model was positioned above my eye level.  For shortening is something that I struggle with, but in Long Drawing 2, (above) I feel that I was able to capture the figure from the foreshortened angle pretty affectively.

            Gesture drawing is a successful was of refamilirizing myself with the figure each day at the beginning of class.  A short drawing that I try to put as much accurate information into.  In Gesture 3 (click here to view) I have included the spinal column, rib cage, and some of the pelvic bone structure. 

            During the next half of the semester I want to continue to work on improving my accuracy with drawing the figure.  I was to gain an understanding of all the major bone structures to help me better draw the whole figure.  I would also like to improve my gesture drawings as to include much more information then what I am currently including.  Also, my homework assignment (click here to view) definitely needs a second attempt as I feel that I did not portray my shell very well during my first attempt.

Here is a link to my flickr.

10-16-10

I know it has been a while since I have written, and I apologize for that.  Since I last wrote we have started to work on both the abdomens and the hips.  We have created both sets of muscles on our manikins.  For these muscles I used both my atlases from the resources center and the website Visible Body.  After working on our manikins we then focus on adding the specific set of muscles into our drawings of the model.  I am beginning to see how it is helpful to sculpt the muscles in clay before we begin to work on drawing that part of the body on the model.  I feel that I have a better understanding of what is going on with the body and this makes it more helpful when drawing. 

9-28-10

So after class today I felt much more comfortable about the clay muscles we're building.  It seems very manageable and I'm excited and ready to re-tackle the spinal muscles.  We also did some drawing from a model today for about an hour.  We started with drawing just the center line of the model and that was what each 15-second drawing consisted of, but we worked our way to a cross contour drawing.  During this Amy came and talked to me a little bit more about the directions of the lines, I am looking forward to doing more cross-contour drawings and am thinking I might bring out my shell and start practicing at home to get a better hang of it.  I did take some pictures with my phone of my current clay muscles (which I will be redoing) and a picture of the cross-contour drawing I did.  I don't have time to post them tonight but hopefully next time I post I will be able to include them.  I think that's about it for today!

9-23-10

In class on September 23rd we began work on our skeletons.  With these skeletons we will be building muscular structures.  After being introduced to the Altases in class I feel more confident about building these muscles.  Over the weekend I will be building the nine muscles that were assigned and I will let you know how I'm feeling about this project after i have more experience.  At this point though it seems pretty manageable and I hope I continue to feel this way.  That's all for now!

9-21-10

So I was very nervous about class today as it would be my first time drawing from a model.  We started drawing 30 second gesture drawing of different positions of the model.  We eventually moved into 1 minutes increments.  After doing these gesture drawings for a while we did one long 30 minute drawing.  I felt much more comfortable with the model at this point and it didn't even phase me.  Instead I found my self really intrigued with the lines of the body and trying to see the spinal column.  Drawing a contour drawing proved difficult for me as I just wanted to draw the outlines and a few of the major features; however, I feel that I improved a lot on this my the end of the class period.  After having a taste of drawing from the model I am kind of disappointed that we will not be working with a model again on Thursday, but instead we will be starting work with our clay models of the muscle structures.  At this point the clay muscles structure seems a bit overwhelming, but I try to remind myself that we are just working on it one muscle at a time and this begins to seem more manageable for me.  I think that about it.  I have also uploaded a couple photos of some of the drawings I did in class, it will be interesting to see how these drawing compare to what I will be doing at the end of the semester.