The final blog, my oh my! I can't believe this semester is over, it went by so fast. Over the course of the semester, I feel I have grown and gotten better at life drawing. In my midterm blog post I wrote about how I think my greatest strength is my willingness to learn, I still believe that is true. I think I have learned a lot during this last half of the semester. I feel that with every drawing, it becomes easier to understand the human form and it doesn't take as long from me to draw the body either. I think my shell drawings show the greatest improvement. If you compare my first shell drawing to my last, there is a big difference. I wanted to have more fun with this last shell drawing, to step back more and really observe what I was drawing. The difference in my shells shows that I have to ability to grow, take what I have learned and then apply it, it just takes some time.
I have learned so much more about the human body since mid-semester but especially on how to draw parts of the body such as the hands, feet and skull. I think learning those details helped make the body seem more complete and helped me look at the body as a whole. I think that has been one of my problems, I've seen all of my work in life drawing as incomplete but now that I somewhat understand how to draw the hands, feet and head everything seems to be more complete.
I will use this information next semester when I student teach and later in life when I'm an art teacher myself. Knowing how to draw people and the anatomy of the body will be helpful; everything and anything I know will only help me and make me a more confident teacher. Being able to explain how the human body is drawn and using correct terminology will be very beneficial. It will help the students respect me because I have knowledge and the information that they will need to learn to become artists.
Below is a link to the images for our final:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44068237@N04/sets/72157623015364842/
Peace and Blessings!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Loooong Pose
This Tuesday, was our last class period and my last class EVER as an undergraduate!! I am very excited to be done with classes and I am ready to start student teaching! So, during class, we did a drawing that was roughly 2 1/2 hours. In some aspects it felt super long but in other ways it didn't seem long enough. When I started drawing I had every intention of covering as much of the paper as possible but my drawing kept getting smaller and smaller. It was hard to get the details of the feet, hands and the face. I think it is easier for me to understand the form of the body but I still make small mistakes that add up. I still have trouble figuring out how to foreshorten the rib cage, that is something tricky.
I have started my final shell drawing and I must say I am trying harder this time and working on it more. I think I wasn't as successful on my other shells because I over thought the idea of cross contour and just thought of it as a grid. I think that's where I went wrong. With this shell drawing I am slowing down and stopping drawing when I get annoyed; I want to enjoy drawing the shell and I think I would just power through not liking what I was creating. I am also treating the cross contour more as a guideline and trying to think of the lines as cross hatching as well. Stepping back every few minutes help too; I would stare at the paper for too long too close.
Below is the final drawing from our long pose on Tuesday.
I have started my final shell drawing and I must say I am trying harder this time and working on it more. I think I wasn't as successful on my other shells because I over thought the idea of cross contour and just thought of it as a grid. I think that's where I went wrong. With this shell drawing I am slowing down and stopping drawing when I get annoyed; I want to enjoy drawing the shell and I think I would just power through not liking what I was creating. I am also treating the cross contour more as a guideline and trying to think of the lines as cross hatching as well. Stepping back every few minutes help too; I would stare at the paper for too long too close.
Below is the final drawing from our long pose on Tuesday.
Those Forgotten Feet
I forgot to blog about when we drew feet a few weeks back so I thought I would take some time and write about the experience of feet.
We first started out by learning some of the bones of the feet. For me i seemed to know or remember the bones of the feet/hand better. Maybe because of the anatomy class I took in high school we went over the tarsals and carpals quite a few times. I am one of those people that remembers either useless facts or something that has been told to me over and over again.
The feet were interesting to draw to say the least. I had a tricky time making the feet not look like one fat, flat object. There seems to be some trouble when trying to draw the bottom of the feet as well as trying to draw the top, to separate the two. Trying to make feet look like there is a roundness to them is a puzzle to me. I had to draw and redraw them over and over.
Below are some of the drawings that I did in class of feet. Exciting, I know!
Also, on a side note, here are some images from my senior show! Hope you enjoy!
This next photo is my friends helping me take down my show and we decided to have a photo shoot!
We first started out by learning some of the bones of the feet. For me i seemed to know or remember the bones of the feet/hand better. Maybe because of the anatomy class I took in high school we went over the tarsals and carpals quite a few times. I am one of those people that remembers either useless facts or something that has been told to me over and over again.
The feet were interesting to draw to say the least. I had a tricky time making the feet not look like one fat, flat object. There seems to be some trouble when trying to draw the bottom of the feet as well as trying to draw the top, to separate the two. Trying to make feet look like there is a roundness to them is a puzzle to me. I had to draw and redraw them over and over.
Below are some of the drawings that I did in class of feet. Exciting, I know!
Also, on a side note, here are some images from my senior show! Hope you enjoy!
This next photo is my friends helping me take down my show and we decided to have a photo shoot!
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Attempting Hands and Shells
Before this last week it had been a while since I had drawn anything. I had missed the Tuesday before Thanksgiving because of a painting field trip so it's been about 2 weeks so I was feeling a little rusty.
In class on Tuesday, we started out discussing the face. We talked about the definitions for parts of the face. It was also interesting to learn about the different planes the face has and how to draw them successfully. It was hard to think of the nose having a top, bottom and side planes but it makes sense now that I think about it but I found it difficult to draw; to create space and structure for the nose as well as other facial parts was a challenge. When drawing faces, I thought it was hard to get the eyes to sit back and not seen like they were floating in front of the head. Another thing that was difficult to do was being drawn. It was weird to have someone drawing you and just having to sit and wait.
We also had a critique about our shells since some of us missed the critique on Tuesday, November 24 because of the painting field trip. I still am struggling with the cross contour shell drawing. I think I am getting better though. I think my problem is that I am over thinking things and not enjoying drawing the shell. This last time that we draw the shell, I am going to try just drawing the shell and not over analyzing it.
In class on Thursday, we started drawing hands, using the same information that we got from the feet lecture. I think that drawing the hands was easier than drawing the face but again problems arouse. I think that problem was being able to get the hand drawings to look like they had mass. It was hard to draw the poses of the hands when they were foreshortening or bent.
Below are some images of some hands and then my last shell drawing.
In class on Tuesday, we started out discussing the face. We talked about the definitions for parts of the face. It was also interesting to learn about the different planes the face has and how to draw them successfully. It was hard to think of the nose having a top, bottom and side planes but it makes sense now that I think about it but I found it difficult to draw; to create space and structure for the nose as well as other facial parts was a challenge. When drawing faces, I thought it was hard to get the eyes to sit back and not seen like they were floating in front of the head. Another thing that was difficult to do was being drawn. It was weird to have someone drawing you and just having to sit and wait.
We also had a critique about our shells since some of us missed the critique on Tuesday, November 24 because of the painting field trip. I still am struggling with the cross contour shell drawing. I think I am getting better though. I think my problem is that I am over thinking things and not enjoying drawing the shell. This last time that we draw the shell, I am going to try just drawing the shell and not over analyzing it.
In class on Thursday, we started drawing hands, using the same information that we got from the feet lecture. I think that drawing the hands was easier than drawing the face but again problems arouse. I think that problem was being able to get the hand drawings to look like they had mass. It was hard to draw the poses of the hands when they were foreshortening or bent.
Below are some images of some hands and then my last shell drawing.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
field trips and skulls, my two favorite things
This past Tuesday we went on our field trip to the bodies exhibit and the MIA. I had never been to anything like the bodies exhibit so it was really interesting to see. I had envisioned what it would look like but there was so much more. Everything had so much detail and there was an abundance of information, the information was almost overwhelming at times. I thought the section with the nerves was really intense, to think that we have that many nerves is unreal. I also thought the nerves looked very beautiful, especially the ones that contained the red and blue nerves together, visually very appealing. The section that i remember the most was the part with the fetuses, it freaks me out to think of something growing inside of a person. I liked the part where they showed the size the fetus would be at certain weeks. It amazes me how much the fetus grows in such a short time.
At the MIA, i love going up to the third floor to check out the Chuck Close and the other contemporary artists. Another piece that i had never seen was the Kehinde Wiley, on the second floor. The Wiley piece is placed with all the traditional paintings which is extremely interesting and fit quite well with the traditional artists. I loved his painting of the figure, his ability to foreshorten the figure is amazing and is beautifully done. There was also a new exhibition by Michael Kareken, which looked extremely interesting. They were still putting up the exhibition but what they had looked promising.
On Thursday, we started drawing the skull. I was interested in learning how to draw the skull. I think it went pretty good, i am still struggling with cross contours. I am starting to understand the structure of the skull, at least it seemed to be going better. We drew the skull twice, each for an hour and 15 minutes. I think it helped to draw the skull for a longer time period so I could concentrate and not feel rushed.
Below are the two drawings of the skull.
At the MIA, i love going up to the third floor to check out the Chuck Close and the other contemporary artists. Another piece that i had never seen was the Kehinde Wiley, on the second floor. The Wiley piece is placed with all the traditional paintings which is extremely interesting and fit quite well with the traditional artists. I loved his painting of the figure, his ability to foreshorten the figure is amazing and is beautifully done. There was also a new exhibition by Michael Kareken, which looked extremely interesting. They were still putting up the exhibition but what they had looked promising.
On Thursday, we started drawing the skull. I was interested in learning how to draw the skull. I think it went pretty good, i am still struggling with cross contours. I am starting to understand the structure of the skull, at least it seemed to be going better. We drew the skull twice, each for an hour and 15 minutes. I think it helped to draw the skull for a longer time period so I could concentrate and not feel rushed.
Below are the two drawings of the skull.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
body language
This is my first post since midterm. I have been horribly neglecting my blogging responsibilities, hopefully I will remind myself to do this weekly. Honestly, and this is not excuse, but with my senior show right around the corner I have been ignoring all of my classes and just concentrating on painting. I have been trying to balance all my classes better for the second half of the semester. Below I have added the image of the postcard for my senior show! I am doing my show with two fellow art educators: Tracy Considine and Lance Schott. Our show is up from November 30 to December 4. Woot!
The last couple of weeks we have been working on the drawing the body and redoing the muscles. I have been really trying hard to get the muscles right but I think my problem was i was only looking at a few of the pictures in the book, not all of the images, which show how much muscle should be showing and the thickness of the muscles. It helped me immensely when i would google the names of the muscles and then look at the muscle and the surrounding ones, then I could see how the muscles worked together. I must admit, even though I think I am understanding how to create the muscles better, I still am not the greatest at it.
In class we have begun working on the feet, looking at the bone structure and the muscles on the foot. I think the foot is really hard to draw, it is a task to make the foot look 3-Dimensional, not just flat and fat. Doing the cross contour helps create the idea of arches that the foot has but cross contour is hard too.
Maybe I should just say that EVERYTHING about Life Drawing is hard and I struggle a lot in the class. There I said it. Let's put it behind us and work through it.
Speaking of using cross contour on the foot, we had another assignment to draw a shell using cross contour. This time drawing the shell went smoother but I still don't think I am using cross contours correctly. I need to be more organic when drawing the contours and less mechanical. Being more fluid with my lines will help my drawings be more effective and will help with making the shell look more 3-D.
So below are two images. The first is my shell and the second is a one hour drawing the I did in class.
The last couple of weeks we have been working on the drawing the body and redoing the muscles. I have been really trying hard to get the muscles right but I think my problem was i was only looking at a few of the pictures in the book, not all of the images, which show how much muscle should be showing and the thickness of the muscles. It helped me immensely when i would google the names of the muscles and then look at the muscle and the surrounding ones, then I could see how the muscles worked together. I must admit, even though I think I am understanding how to create the muscles better, I still am not the greatest at it.
In class we have begun working on the feet, looking at the bone structure and the muscles on the foot. I think the foot is really hard to draw, it is a task to make the foot look 3-Dimensional, not just flat and fat. Doing the cross contour helps create the idea of arches that the foot has but cross contour is hard too.
Maybe I should just say that EVERYTHING about Life Drawing is hard and I struggle a lot in the class. There I said it. Let's put it behind us and work through it.
Speaking of using cross contour on the foot, we had another assignment to draw a shell using cross contour. This time drawing the shell went smoother but I still don't think I am using cross contours correctly. I need to be more organic when drawing the contours and less mechanical. Being more fluid with my lines will help my drawings be more effective and will help with making the shell look more 3-D.
So below are two images. The first is my shell and the second is a one hour drawing the I did in class.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Midterm Portfolio
Since the beginning of Life Drawing, I feel as if I have learned so much. At the beginning I knew nothing about drawing the human body and about the muscles and bones of the body. Now I know so much more, though I feel that there is much, much more to learn and not enough time to do it. Knowing the basics have helped me with drawing and in my other art classes.
One of my strengths is that I am willing to learn, grow and absorb as much information as possible. Another strengths is my gesture drawings, I think I struggled in the beginning but have learned how to create an effective gesture drawing.
One of my weaknesses is that I am not a fast learner, so learning all of the names of the muscles is really tricky, even learning what lateral and posterior were was hard. I also think one of my weaknesses is getting the body to look like it has weight and isn't flat.
Something that I would like learn more about is being able to look at the human body and see the muscles and then draw them correctly. I think knowing where the muscles are will help improve my drawings and make me a better artist. Also, I would like to learn how to give the body shape, not seem as flat so it looks like it has weight to it. The third thing that I would like to learn is how to foreshorten the body correctly. I have always had problems drawing things that need to be foreshortened, so I think it would be extremely beneficial if I understood how to do this, for myself and my future students.
Below is the link to images of my mannequin, shell, gesture and thirty minute drawings.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44068237@N04/sets/72157622554545567/
One of my strengths is that I am willing to learn, grow and absorb as much information as possible. Another strengths is my gesture drawings, I think I struggled in the beginning but have learned how to create an effective gesture drawing.
One of my weaknesses is that I am not a fast learner, so learning all of the names of the muscles is really tricky, even learning what lateral and posterior were was hard. I also think one of my weaknesses is getting the body to look like it has weight and isn't flat.
Something that I would like learn more about is being able to look at the human body and see the muscles and then draw them correctly. I think knowing where the muscles are will help improve my drawings and make me a better artist. Also, I would like to learn how to give the body shape, not seem as flat so it looks like it has weight to it. The third thing that I would like to learn is how to foreshorten the body correctly. I have always had problems drawing things that need to be foreshortened, so I think it would be extremely beneficial if I understood how to do this, for myself and my future students.
Below is the link to images of my mannequin, shell, gesture and thirty minute drawings.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44068237@N04/sets/72157622554545567/
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Oh, you know...life drawing
On Tuesday for the first part of the class period we watched a video about the pelvis. Too be quite honest, it was hard for me to pay attention to the video because it was difficult to see what the man was drawing and whoever the cameraman was should be punished by watching his own unsteady camera moves. The man seemed to know a lot about the human body and I liked the part when he talked about the human body having landmarks so it is easier to draw, you just figure out the landmarks and connect the dots.
After the video, we spent some time learning about our assignment, muscles for the booty area. And then we saw a couple of peoples blogs and then spent the last half hour drawing. It's amazing how quickly that last half hour passed when you're drawing. You want more time so you can create a better form of the human body so the time passes faster.
On Sunday, I started the muscles assignment. Even though it was only 4 muscles, it was kind of tricky. I was doing okay until I came across making the IT Band. I was having trouble figuring out which one it was and if I was putting it in the correct spot. Other than that it seemed to go pretty well.
After the video, we spent some time learning about our assignment, muscles for the booty area. And then we saw a couple of peoples blogs and then spent the last half hour drawing. It's amazing how quickly that last half hour passed when you're drawing. You want more time so you can create a better form of the human body so the time passes faster.
On Sunday, I started the muscles assignment. Even though it was only 4 muscles, it was kind of tricky. I was doing okay until I came across making the IT Band. I was having trouble figuring out which one it was and if I was putting it in the correct spot. Other than that it seemed to go pretty well.
Friday, October 9, 2009
more muscles and drawing
On Tuesday in life drawing we went over the ribcage, trying to understand how the ribs look, how to think of the ribcage as an egg and that the ribs sit higher in the back than in the front. After learning a crap ton about the ribs we spent the rest of the class period building muscles on the ribcage. Even thought there was only a couple of muscles we had to make it still took a long time. I think that the bigger and longer a muscle is the harder it is to make. It is hard to get the right size and the right placement of the muscle. Even though building muscles is hard, I enjoy doing it and I think, if this wasn't my last semester of classes and didn't feel extremely rushed in life in general, I would like doing this more.
On Thursday, we spent the class time drawing the body. Missing that week of classes really seemed to have affected my drawing skills. Also, it didn't help that I forgot a lot of what I learned and had to dig deep within my brain to remember the tips and tricks of the human body. The 25 minute drawings were tough. The first where the model was standing was easier because it was straight on and there wasn't any foreshortening to deal with. The next two 25 minute poses were EXTREMELY difficult because the model was lying down and I had to foreshorten the body which is really hard when I barely know how to draw the body standing up facing me. Also, foreshortening the ribcage was really hard and I would draw the ribcage over and over and over again, not seeming to get any closer to the correct position. Bah!
There are two pictures below: one is of my mannequin and the other is drawings done in class
On Thursday, we spent the class time drawing the body. Missing that week of classes really seemed to have affected my drawing skills. Also, it didn't help that I forgot a lot of what I learned and had to dig deep within my brain to remember the tips and tricks of the human body. The 25 minute drawings were tough. The first where the model was standing was easier because it was straight on and there wasn't any foreshortening to deal with. The next two 25 minute poses were EXTREMELY difficult because the model was lying down and I had to foreshorten the body which is really hard when I barely know how to draw the body standing up facing me. Also, foreshortening the ribcage was really hard and I would draw the ribcage over and over and over again, not seeming to get any closer to the correct position. Bah!
There are two pictures below: one is of my mannequin and the other is drawings done in class
Monday, September 28, 2009
Muscles
So when we got our assignment on Thursday that we were going to start building muscles on our mannequin, I thought it would be relatively easy, just roll out some muscles and call it a day but,as it seems with most things lately, I was wrong. It took me about 3 hours to complete the muscles on the spine. I would begin by rolling out the clay the same way that brought me back to my childhood snake-making playdoh days, but then things go a little tougher when the clay had to go in a certain spot and be a certain size. Oh, how I love a challenge. My muscles never seemed to look right, they were too long or too thick. Who knows if even now, after all the work, if they are right. But I definitely can say I spent a lot of time on it.
In class, drawing the figure went better. I think the note taking session on how the spine works really helped. I feel better knowing the technical terms of the spine, it makes me feel smarter, which is a plus!
Below are two pictures. One is of my mannequin and the other is the drawing of a 15 minute pose.
In class, drawing the figure went better. I think the note taking session on how the spine works really helped. I feel better knowing the technical terms of the spine, it makes me feel smarter, which is a plus!
Below are two pictures. One is of my mannequin and the other is the drawing of a 15 minute pose.
Friday, September 18, 2009
hello life drawing
Being that I had never had any life drawing classes, I felt inexperienced from the start. Though I don't know what I am doing, I am still ready to learn and to grow.
The first day, I had no idea what to expect. When we first started doing the 30 second drawings, it reminded me of a keyboarding class I had taken in high school. In the keyboarding class, I felt anxiety, hoping to not make mistakes and to "keep up" with my peers. I felt the exact same in life drawing on Tuesday. I understand that it takes time to become good at something but at the same time I feel the need to be good at it right away. Hopefully, with time, I will be able to understand the human body and be able to draw the human body.
On Thursday, I thought "Okay, I can do this and maybe even be better at it than last time" but on the contrary, I felt as though I had gotten worse. Time seemed to be slipping away and there was nothing I could do to get better. I found some help when Josh did a demo of how to draw the human body. Drawing that way I felt that I was getting somewhere. When we did the half hour drawing using cross contours of the body, I had trouble doing it but I understood what to do, it was just hard getting it to look correct. It will really help when we start working on the mannequins.
For the homework over the weekend, drawing the shell using only cross contours, I had a lot of problems. I went over each line several times, erasing and redrawing quite a bit. After working on it for a couple of hours, I still felt like it was just alright, I still have a loooong way to go.
The first picture on the top is one I did in class after Josh gave us a demo. The second picture on the bottom is of the shell that was the assignment over the weekend.
The first day, I had no idea what to expect. When we first started doing the 30 second drawings, it reminded me of a keyboarding class I had taken in high school. In the keyboarding class, I felt anxiety, hoping to not make mistakes and to "keep up" with my peers. I felt the exact same in life drawing on Tuesday. I understand that it takes time to become good at something but at the same time I feel the need to be good at it right away. Hopefully, with time, I will be able to understand the human body and be able to draw the human body.
On Thursday, I thought "Okay, I can do this and maybe even be better at it than last time" but on the contrary, I felt as though I had gotten worse. Time seemed to be slipping away and there was nothing I could do to get better. I found some help when Josh did a demo of how to draw the human body. Drawing that way I felt that I was getting somewhere. When we did the half hour drawing using cross contours of the body, I had trouble doing it but I understood what to do, it was just hard getting it to look correct. It will really help when we start working on the mannequins.
For the homework over the weekend, drawing the shell using only cross contours, I had a lot of problems. I went over each line several times, erasing and redrawing quite a bit. After working on it for a couple of hours, I still felt like it was just alright, I still have a loooong way to go.
The first picture on the top is one I did in class after Josh gave us a demo. The second picture on the bottom is of the shell that was the assignment over the weekend.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Introduction Post
So, I chose to take life drawing because I thought it would be very interesting and helpful to understand how to draw the structure of the body. I have always struggled with drawing the human body so this class will give me the information and practice that I need to make my drawings successful. I really want to learn how to become a better artist and to become more confident in my endeavors in the art community. To look at structures of the body and see the muscles and lines and draw them successfully is what I would love to do. I love learning and want to become a well-rounded person, learning all aspects of art.
The two images below I painted in painting 2 class last fall. I enjoy painting still lives that have strong shadows and I love working with negative space in my compositions
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