The first half of Life Drawing has been a series of highs and lows for me.  Some days I would feel fairly happy with my drawings and other days would be a complete disaster.  I struggled for the first couple of weeks getting the hang of how we are expected to draw.  I found it difficult, at first, to see the internal structure of the model and to build on that skeleton, many times I reverted back to drawing what I was seeing (like a still life).  I also struggled with keeping my lines light in the early stages of a drawing, I have the nasty habit of pressing to hard.  My first shell drawing is a good example of my tendency to press down too hard.

There is very little variation in the shade of my lines which makes the shell seem a little flat.  In honesty I thought I would enjoy working on the manekin more than I do, I've been finding it excessively difficult to understand the textbook images and I often refer to other visual sources to build the muscles.  I think that I am beginning to grasp the drawing style that we are expected to portray, but there's a lot of room for improvement.  I'm looking forward to moving into the shoulders the second half of the semester, that's one attachment that I've found to be a struggle for me to draw as well.  I'm certainly not the best in the class, but I feel like I'm improving, which says a lot for me, I've never been very excited about 2-dimensional media, and, as a result, I tend to avoid them.  I'm finding the structure of Life Drawing to be more relaxed than the foundational drawing courses, and that certainly helps me stay motivated to draw. My mid-term portfolio can be found here.

First Critique

This week in Life Drawing we had our first critique.  It was really nice to see a sample of everyone's work.  It was interesting to see the vast variance in how everyone handled the assignment.  I was happy with my group's critique of my shell drawing.  They thought the diagonal axis of my shell was strong and that the cross contour did a good job of giving the illusion of form.  One thing that was apparent seeing my piece alongside all the others was that I certainly need to work on varying my line weight and shade.  Most of my lines tend to be the same heavy black throughout the drawing.  I could see in a number of the other drawings that varying the weight of lines really helps giving the illusion of perspective, I think my work would be stronger if I worked on varying the weight of my lines.  I missed class on Thursday, but understood from what I was told from my classmates that we did a couple of long drawings and went over our drawings in groups. 

Look at That Booty

This week for life Drawing we had a rather uneventful week.  On Tuesday, due to the heat, we cut class short to work on our Mannekins.  We built the gluteus muscles.  I'm finding it very interesting building the muscles.
On Thursday class was canceled. 

I think this is relevant to our class.  It really demonstrates the vast

variety in shape and size of the muscle structure.

I think steroids played a key role in this example.

It Might Be Clickin' a Little

 After this week in Life Drawing, I'm certainly seeing an improvement in my skills.  I am still struggling with the shoulders of the figure, but I feel that I'm beginning to understand the proper proportions.
I'm finding it much easier to bear the multiple short drawings and I am getting much better at understanding the building block approach to drawing the human form. 
I've finished the abdominal muscles on my Mannekin.  I'm starting to feel more comfortable with translating the structures in the book to the Mannekin.   

This week in life drawing we worked on drawing from the model.  We paid particular attention to the spinal column as well as the position and feel of the ribcage.  By properly plotting the curves of the spinal column and position of the ribcage, it becomes much easier to fill in the rest of the form.  Our instructor, Amy, urged us to draw the spinal column to look as if it could move, expand and contract.  She also urged us to leave evidence of our movements when we draw.  We practiced drawing the ribcage to resemble an egg and how it tips out slightly from the spinal column at the bottom.  We also focused on the long axis line along the front of the figure, paying special attention to the pit of the neck and the pit of the ribcage.  These points serve as useful landmarks in the early stage of a drawing where building proportions is critical.  We also took an in depth look at the proportions of the different parts of the ribcage and how they attach, not only to each other, but to the spinal column.  We paid special attention to the sternum; it serves as an important landmark along the ventral long axis.  I’m beginning to understand the stepping stone approach to this class a little more now; I can understand that having anatomical knowledge that builds from the skeleton is important to building successful human forms on a two-dimensional plane.  Knowing where bones begin and end as well as their positions relative to other bones in the body provides helpful clues on proportions.  Again, I felt rather frustrated with the shorter drawing times, but can understand that we are doing so many in order to improve our efficiency.  I am still struggling with the concept of cross-contour line drawings, but I feel I’m getting, at least, a little better at it.