Week 5

In life drawing this week we have been working on our clay model. For Thursday we needed to do the adductor muscles, which are on the inside of your leg. And for next Tuesday we need to build the hamstrings, which are on the back of your leg. So far they seem pretty easy to make, most of them are just long strands. It is starting to get hard because of all the clay overlapping. Needless to say we were focused on the legs this week.

During the lectures we were taught how the legs are attached to the body and how to start drawing them. So that is what we did, we drew. We had a lot of practice this week with drawing and were focused on drawing the centerline and then the rib cage by drawing the egg shape. Then you want to draw the pelvis bone with the sacrum. The sacrum should be a third of the width, which is in between the pelvis bone. Then you start adding the legs.

I was amazed to see now that we are adding more parts how proportioned everything seems to look. It was always hard for me get things proportioned and now it seems so easy.

Also this week we had our first “long-drawing.” It was an hour and that was my favorite part of the week. I seem to draw slowly so the thirty-second poses are always hard for me. I loved being able to draw one pose for an extended period of time because we really haven’t had long poses in that class yet.

I am posting my “long-drawing” and I would love to get feedback. Amy didn’t get a chance to come around and look at mine, so it would be nice to get some critiques. Anything and everything would be helpful. 

Class or No class...

Wow! This week has been gorgeous! February and it’s over 50 degrees. That is unheard of. I love it! I am not a winter person; I love warm weather so much more!

Besides the weather being so weird, so was school. I only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays and this week all my Tuesday classes were cancelled. On Thursday I only had 45 minutes of Life Drawing and my other class was cancelled. Talk about a weird week for classes. Although I didn’t mind, I was able to get ahead in some homework and breathe for two seconds.

Since we only had one hour of class instead of six this week, we didn’t get a lot of time to draw and practice. Today was a little rushed but we did get some drawings in.

We are working this weekend on the quad muscles and putting them on our clay models. When I worked on the model, the muscles were pretty easy to make. Mainly long strips of clay. Unless I completely did it wrong, it didn’t take too much time.

We learned briefly how to draw under the ribs. For me it seemed confusing because I couldn’t really see or understand what we were drawing, but I’m sure more practice will help.

This week I have noticed that I look at people differently now. I can look at someone and sort of map out the best way to draw them. I look at their form and the angle and it seems like I have a new pair of eyes. I never really noticed how people were standing or walking before. I guess I shouldn’t say that, I have noticed peoples posture before, but I couldn’t tell you the best way to draw it, or why things were angled the way they were. 

Week 3

Week 3 of Life Drawing class is coming to an end. I am starting to get back into the groove of drawing for a long period of time and drawing from real life instead of a picture. This week has been my favorite so far with drawing and I am so excited about all the tricks we are learning for proportioning the body.

Last week we looked at the spine and back muscles and this week we are looking at the front. We are learning about the ribcage and the sternum. Again, the lectures have been very interesting for me. I love learning about how everything is placed…bones and muscles.

Apparently when you are drawing the human form the main thing that helps proportion everything is the rib cage. First you want to draw a line down the center of the person…from the neck to the belly button. Where your neck meets your body down to the bottom of the rib cage is the next place you want to look. There you will draw an egg shaped form, the small top part of the egg is where the neck is. This helps your human form come out to be way more accurate.

Again, we are working on our clay models. It has been hard to get the clay small enough to be accurate. I have found out on multiple occasions that it is easy to make the clay to bulky and then the body just looks totally off balanced. But the small pieces of the clay are hard to maneuver and stick to the model without messing up other muscles already attached to the model. We have the back muscles, abdominal muscles, and gluteus muscles done.

Attached is my favorite drawing from this week. Any thoughts on things I should work on is much appreciated. 

Assignment 1

This week in class we have been learning mostly about the spine. The lectures in the class are ironically so far my favorite part of class. I find it very interesting to learn about the human body and the different bones and muscles since it has been so long.  

Also this week we got our clay models and received our first homework assignment. The picture I am uploading with this blog is my progression. I am worried I am very off with my positioning and sizing of the clay that represent the muscles in the body. The pictures in the book have been really hard to tell where they relate with the other muscles and it is hard to tell how large or small to really make them. Either way I plan to bring it to class on Tuesday and hopefully get some good feedback.

Besides the lectures and the clay model we have been practicing drawing in class, like any drawing class would. It has been awhile for me, so these first few weeks have been interesting. I am not used to drawing for such long periods of time and I when I do draw it tends to be more from pictures. So getting used to drawing forms in front of me will be challenging. I have found it difficult to find the muscles and bones on our model. I feel like I don’t really know what I’m looking for. I’m sure with more practice I will be able to see the muscles better, especially when this clay model will be staring me in the face. I think it will be hard not to know the muscles.

Either way I am excited for class on Tuesday and look forward to learning more. If anyone has feedback on my clay model, please let me know.