Final Post

My Portfolio
This is my last post for the class, as it is the end of the semester.  This was not the class I was expecting, that's for sure.  I was expecting an easy class just drawing nude models and then discussing them.  Making muscles on a skeleton and drawing shells were definitely not in the class description.  The shell added a nice piece to the course but I don't know if I ever got the cross-contours down as well as some people.  The Manniken, well it was a pain in the ass but it did help somewhat.  It was really difficult but it did give me a better understanding of the body for sure.
I found I had a lot of trouble actually sitting and drawing for the long drawings.  I get restless pretty easily and it probably didn't help that we drew the same person for the whole semester.  K must have made bank this semester though.  It's like the highest paid student job on campus I think.  Anyways, it ended up being a much harder class than I anticipated.  I don't know if I would ever take Life Drawing 2 or not.  The body and the skeleton interest me, but I feel like i didn't understand it quite as well as some of the others in class.
Overall, I am just glad that the semester is over, I am definitely ready for a break.  The class was a success, I may not get the grade I want but I think I will get the grade I deserve, I feel like I didn't not necessarily give it my all, but I guess there's not much I can do about it now.  Have a good break! I know I will!

Here's just a picture that makes me happy, since you have a link to all my other artwork up there and I need at least one image.

Danger Will Robinson!

50 muscles loom ahead of me, and the days keep creeping along, slipping between my fingers.  Honestly, I don't know where all my time goes.  Possibly to my current binge of watching every season and every episode of the Gilmore Girls (currently on season 4 c'mon Luke and Loralai, get it together!!!).  Anyways, that's beside the point, the point is, I am feeling extremely overwhelmed and don't even want to start on the muscles, even though I know I should.  It's just such a daunting task and something that won't be finished in one sitting.  That's a little frustrating for a girl who likes instantaneous results.  Also frusterating (i can't for the life of me spell that word right.  I see the little red line but let me just keep the extra r, you're ruining my typing flow).  See, I'm just all over the place!  I guess I finished my ink drawing, it's better than I expected but I know I can and will do better for the final.  I'm glad we get to do two of them since this ended up being more of an experimentation for me at least.  Can't wait to see all the colors on Tuesday too, no more blacks and browns!  Looking forward for the semester to be over, along with the sexual tension on the Gilmore Girls. Also, still puttering away in the pedantic language of good 'ol Leo, I'll let you know how that goes.  Finally made it to part two, Kitty has fallen ill, but is it for real or is it simply heartache for her wrong choice in suitor.  How can there be like six more parts and 600 more pages of this book.  Grr, I will get this book under my belt if it kills me, and then move onto someone easier, like Steinbeck or Hemmingway.  I'll take crazy underlying symbolism of Hemmingway to Tolstoy any day at this point.

Field Trip

So I had to get home for something on Tuesday and was not able to attend the field trip.  I probably should have gone but I needed to be home and was worried we wouldn't be back in time.  However, I visit the Walker quite frequently so  I at least know of one piece that was of interest to me.  The one that I always like seeing is the Chuck Close one.  It always entrances me and to be honest the first time I went there it was the only piece I recognized.  From where, I don't know.  Anyways, to me, this piece is just interesting and I really like that it is centered in the frame, simply because that's what artist's tell you never to do, centering is like the worst thing you could do, but in this instance, it works.  Haven't started working on my shell yet, try and do that tomorrow.  I'm a little nervous for the ink but hopefully it turns out.

Tolstoy instead of Drawing

This week we had a day off on Tuesday which was nice because I had a major headache and wasn’t looking forward to a three hour class.  Thursday was alright and it was very informative but I’ve got to be honest, not looking forward to using the ink.  I don’t know, I haven’t had too much experience with it but from what I have used of it, it’s not my favorite and I feel like I am going to put it on too dark and ruin my shell contour drawing, maybe not, I guess time will tell.

What I did do this week was start reading Anna Karenina by Tolstoy and so far I am thoroughly enjoying it.  I have only made it about 30 pages but for Tolstoy that’s like a long ways.  He is not very succinct but I am really enjoying the descriptions of Russian culture.  So far, a skating scene and the overall town of Moscow have been discussed and it really seems like a different world, one that hasn’t exactly been on my radar.  I guess it’s a love story, according to the synopsis on Wikipedia, as I said, haven’t gotten that far.  It’s just been something I have always wanted to read.  This really has not much to do with art except for the function and existence of art and fancy architecture in the high society world the character’s live in.

I guess I am just glad that we didn’t have too much work for Life Drawing or rather any of my classes because it gave me time to focus on another part of the arts, literature.  Hopefully, I can add this to my list of books I’ve read and I hope that it can help broaden my sense of the arts as a whole, not just bits and pieces here and there.

Day off!

This week was all about our shells and more muscles.  On Tuesday we discussed our shell drawings and how they improved or still could improve from our last attempts.  I think my shell this week was definitely better than my first attempt so I’ll focus on the positives first before tearing it apart.

First off, my shell was slightly bigger than my last one and it used less contour lines so it looked a lot cleaner.  Also, everyone liked the use of the red conte versus the regular black charcoal which was another plus.  They felt the lines were more descriptive than my last drawing and I could see why since I actually spent time on it this time instead of whipping it out in an hour which is what I did with my last attempt. 

The things that could change or get better is the atmospheric perspective, overall the shell was pretty much one color.  I tried to make the back lines lighter but I always start out drawing too dark and so by the time I got to the back I couldn’t make it any lighter.  I started to on one edge but I can make it more pronounced.  Another thing to work on is just adding a couple more lines going lengthwise on the shell, they said that would really help define the overall shape and it would be easier to see the form of the shell.  Finally, just something I want to work on is the line weight and changing between thick and thin, I tried doing it this time but I really want to focus on it in my next try. 

I am looking forward to discussing our Mannikens on Tuesday because I want to know what I can do to make it better.  I feel like the blue clay I chose is really hard to work with versus the regular brown.  It is harder to smooth out and look nice and maybe people have tips on how to make that happen.  It is definitely getting easier to make the muscles, I don’t know if they are exactly right but I think it’s looking pretty good.

Muscles and Shells

This week was actually a little better than previous weeks.  I found myself a little more motivated when it came to my homework assignments as well as in class.

Tuesday I felt like I didn’t have enough time for the long pose which is always a good thing.  However, I’m still struggling or having trouble with my gesture drawings.  I still don’t have the shapes of everything down.  I may get them in one drawing but in the next I get the pelvis wrong or something like that.  I still feel like the 30 seconds isn’t long enough to get everything in.  I want to try and work on that this week as well as drawing the figure using less lines.  I always draw pretty sketchy and I want to try to make definitive lines instead of hesitant messy marks.

Back to homework assignments,  I thought the  shell drawing number two was due on Thursday of this week so when I found out it was due next Tuesday, I was thoroughly grateful. It gave me a lot of time to spend on the drawing.  I definitely had better time management on this drawing then I did on my first attempt.  I am still not entirely happy with the size but I am getting the idea of cross-contour lines more and I am working on atmospheric perspective more as well. Overall, I see how coming back to a drawing over a period of days creates a better work than getting it all done in one day.

Finally, I want to talk about the muscles.  Thursday night I just redid all of my leg muscles and my hip muscles.  It was a hard task and my back was killing me from sitting on the floor and rolling out clay.  But surprisingly, it wasn’t as challenging or as frustrating as I thought it would be.  I think the muscles turned out well.  All it takes is a little time.

Semester Reflection

So far the semester has been good.  It’s been a lot harder than I would have expected.  The muscles are killing me so far.  I just don’t think they look as clean as they should and it’s bugging me.  No matter how hard I try to fix them, they keep getting worse, even when I start over and put them back on, there’s just no fixing them.  

Another thing I am having trouble with are the gesture drawings again.  Now that we added the ribs and the pelvis, it’s getting harder to make sure all the components are there.  You have to make sure you get the whole body and the tilt of the pelvis and the ribcage without forgetting the spinal curves.  It’s just too much for me to remember in such a short amount of time.  

Finally, I am still having troubles with the ribcage.  I feel like I do not understand which way it should tilt and what it should look like.  My eggs are always too long and I forget the pit of the neck.  I just need to practice drawing it over and over again I think, until it is second nature.  

For the second half of the semester, I just hope to improve on all my worries and struggles.  I am also excited to learn about the other parts of the body we haven’t discussed yet like the hands and feet, this is the part that most interests me.  Also the face would be a good thing to get down (proportion wise).  That’s another thing to work on for the semester, proportions.  I get all the proportions down in theory but then when I go to apply it, I always feel like I need someone watching over my shoulder to make sure I have it right.

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