Shoulders

Well Spring Break is officially over and we are back to hard work at school.

This week we have been learning about the shoulders and collar bone. I’m not going to lie I had a really hard time finding the collarbone when I was drawing. Some people and angles make it really hard to see.

On Tuesday we had a lecture and then were able draw, which was nice to get more practice in. On Thursday we didn’t have scheduled class, but we did have a lot of muscles to do. I think for this week we had a total of 17 muscles to add to our manikins. I am hoping that my manikin isn’t too messed up because I really wasn’t sure where a lot of the muscles were supposed to go. Hopefully they are proportioned and in the right place.

On a side note I still find the feet very interesting and I never knew that the big toe and the next two are connected to your anklebone and the last two toes are connected to the heel. That is why you have an arch in your foot. I couldn’t believe I never knew that.

I think I am still having a hard time with my thickness and weight control. Showing in my drawing, which muscles come out in front and which ones go off in the distance, is hard for me. Part of me just doesn’t understand how to figure out which lines to darken and which ones not to. And how do you thicken lines without ruining your form. I guess the answer would be to do it in a subtle way, but easier said than done.

I would love any feedback on my gesture drawing because short poses are hard for me to capture the movement and overall pose of the model.

Spring Break!

This week felt so long because Spring Break is about to start! I am very excited because I am actually going somewhere this time and normally I don't. So it has been hard to focus this past week, but luckily I made it and leaving tomorrow for Florida!

This week we worked on our clay models during class on Tuesday. I am glad we had a lot of time to work because I was able to fix a bunch of things. I believe we are now done with the legs and feet muscles on our model.

Today we drew all day and focused on the feet. They are so hard to draw!! I don't really like drawing feet. I seemed to do well with the toes, but the ankle is the tricky part for me. Either way I was very fascinated by the way the bones are in the foot. It makes so much more sense why we have an arch on the top of or foot and the way our toes work. 

The main comments from my midterm review to work on were line weight and control.

Have a great spring break everyone!

Midterm Post

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60175990@N06/sets/

We are about half way done with Life Drawing class and so far I have learned so much. I have always loved drawing people and now I have the tools to really get the proportions and accuracy down.

I would say that I am definitely a hands on person, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the lecture part of the class too. It has been so interesting for me to learn about human form with the different bones and muscles. Every week we have to build more muscles out of clay and put them on a plastic model. As much as I have learned from it, I would still say it is my least favorite part. The clay muscles get to small or it is confusing because you don’t know which muscles sit next to or over lap others.

I have enjoyed all the drawing we have gotten to do and I would say my favorite ones are the longer poses. I don’t do very well with 30-second drawings. I get all flustered and feel like I need to draw the whole body instead of main points and then the whole thing gets out of control.

So far we have mainly learned how to draw the spine, pelvis, and legs. We are working on the leg muscles on our clay model and just had a lecture on knees. I love the shortcuts we have learned, like drawing an egg for the ribs, it really has helped with proportions and you will notice on all the drawings. Knowing how large things are, like the sacrum is one-third the width of the pelvis. You will see that in drawing 7 and drawing 1. Such good information I would have never known.

I would say my biggest struggles are foreshortening, proportion, and if the body is twisting. I know more practice would help, but I just cannot figure out how to really get the pose on paper.

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.