Week 14 & Final Reflection

So here it is the final week, and the final post! I enjoyed this class very much and I know that I learned a lot. I think I learned more in this studio class than I have in any other studio class while here at Stout. I had some experience with painting, drawing, ceramics, and design before I came to college. However, I had no experience with life drawing. I came into this class with little to no prior knowledge to fall back on. Of course I knew what the human form looked like, I knew about human proportions, but I had very little experience in drawing them, and no experience drawing them from life. I am happy that I took this class, because I think it is something all people who are entering the artworld should have at least some knowledge about.

I am also happy with the progress I’ve made since the beginning of the semester, and even since midterm. I cringe a little bit while looking back on the first gesture drawings and the early poses. While my current drawings are not perfect, they have improved tremendously. My knowledge of the human form have improved, my knowledge of the internal structures, and I think most importantly, my knowledge of the way the human body moves and carries itself has improved, all of which comes through in my drawings.

I really enjoyed the gesture drawings. Drawing quickly is my strength, and the gesture drawings allow me to do what I feel I do best. I have also come to appreciate the long poses, however. They have taught me how to slow down and be patient, as well as how to understand my own ways of creating. However, I struggled immensely with the mannequin assignment. I spent more time on that aspect of this course than any other, sad to say, and I think it looks worse than anything else I have produced in this class. That is certainly discouraging. 

In my midterm reflection, I said that I hoped to improve as much in the last half of the semester as I did in the first half. I can say without a doubt that I have achieved that goal. To see my improvements through my final portfolio, click here. 

And Happy Holidays, everybody :) 

Week 13

 This week, our third shell contour drawing was due. This drawing also included an ink wash, which I was nervous about at first, but wound up really enjoying the ink. I had never worked with ink before, but have always enjoyed the way it looked and the mood it conveyed. The object of the assignment was to define the form of the shell with the contours in a way that somebody who had no knowledge of what a shell looked like would be able to define it. I’m not sure if my lines were successful in that sense, but I do think it was the best contour drawing I have done to date. The ink was supposed to suggest water and represent the waves of the ocean. The ink and the lines were supposed to relate to each other, almost as though the waves formed the shell. Again, I’m not sure if my ink relates overly well to the form of the shell, but I do find it successful from a visual standpoint.

We also spent time on the hand this week. We didn’t spend a lot of time on the hand, because they are very similar to the feet, which we spent a good amount of time on already. It was good to learn about the planes of the hand, because whenever I drew thumbs, they turned out looking strange and almost disconnected from the rest of the hand. Amy explained that this is because the thumb is located on the side plane of the hand, while the rest of the fingers are on the top plane. Good to know!

 We also went over the skull this week. I was excited for this, because the face is one of my favorite subjects to draw. It was interesting to learn about the internal structure of the skull and the cranium and how that related to the face the facial features. Amy explained that the eye sockets were one of the most important features to convey, which is contrary to what many people think. I am pleased with the way my drawings turned out this week, because I can see that I am making progress, which is always encouraging! 

Week 12

This week was spent learning about the shoulder blades. I was glad we spent some time on this, because when I did gesture drawings my figure's arms always looked detached, or somehow disconnected from the torso. The shoulder blades helped me to bridge that gap and my drawings look more successful because of it. We spent some time doing gesture drawings which included the shoulder blades. This was good, because after having a week off for Thanksgiving, I needed some time to practice and get back in the swing of drawing again. It's amazing how much you forget after what seems like such a short time. I do think my gesture drawings are improving and are more accurate formally. 

 


For the second half of class, we worked on a long pose. I am actually pretty excited because I think it is by far the most successful long pose I have done as of yet. The form and proportion are accurate and the figure has depth, which is what has been a difficult concept for me to create in my life drawings. It has been much easier for me to draw and create depth while drawing from a 2-D image, because it is easier for my brain to translate something 2-D into a 2-D drawing than it is to translate a 3-D form into a 2-D drawing. I am glad that I am understanding this concept better, because it is something I have felt a little self-conscious about in my art classes.

I hope I will be able to apply my better understanding of the shoulder blades to creating the muscles on my Maniken. I have been dreading doing that assignment, to be honest, because while I understand that it important and useful, the Maniken has been a very frustrating, exasperating experience for me. 

Week 11

We only had one day of class this week due to Thanksgiving Break. The day was spent at the Walker and the Bell Museum. I had just been to the Walker a few weeks prior, but it was nice to go back and look at things I had missed on the previous trip. One piece that I really enjoyed was a piece of what looked like thin tinfoil that moved and hovered above the ground. It was captivating in its slow, subtle movements and the way the light caught the foil as it moved. It sparked a sort of child-like fascination in me, as it seemed almost magical in the way it moved, visually independent from any force. After the Walker, we went to the Bell museum of Natural History. I really enjoyed this museum as well. It was interesting to see the animals in what would be their natural habitats. Many of the animals were very familiar to me, however some were not. I have always thought it was cool to see the fake water they use to place the ducks and other aquatic animals in. I enjoy seeing the surface above the water as well as the surface below. It is something that I would not be able to see in typical, everyday life, which is what I enjoy in art. While we were at the Bell, we were asked to do a drawing of one of the animals. I chose the crane, because I enjoyed its legs and feet and found something slightly human about them. I am fairly satisfied with how my drawing turned out, I only wish there had been more time to do another drawing of something more "skeletal" or something that could relate to class more. Overall, I think it was a positive experience.

Week 10

Class was cancelled on Tuesday, but Thursday was spent practicing and learning how to apply ink to our shell drawings. I think I finally got the drawing the cross contour shell, which made me nervous to dump ink all over it. I spent a lot of time observing the form and creating the lines so they moved across the form and defined the shape, rather than making the form look striped and flat. I used a brown and yellow pigment which had some shimmer in the ink. I wasn’t sure if the shimmer would be a problem, but I found it to be very subtle and it wasn’t as distracting as I thought it might be. I started very quietly with the ink, afraid of wrecking the drawing, but I soon discovered that I needed to be less afraid and use the ink intentionally and definitely. It was good thing to practice, as it helped me to be less nervous about the ink. I found the shell I did for practice to be too washy and the ink didn’t help define the form. That is something I will have to work out for the final drawing. 

Week 9

There was only one day of class this week due to mid-program reviews, so there was less production this week. The “part two” of our cross contour shell drawings were due this week. I personally feel like I took a step backward in my drawing. I tried so hard to incorporate the comments and suggestions I was given from my first drawing that I paid more attention to things like line weight and diagonal axis than I did to the actual form of the shell. You would think that my line weight and diagonal axis would be an improvement from the first since I spent so much time concentrating on those elements, however that is not the case. The whole composition was a disastrous regression. As disappointed as I am about that fact, it seems to be the general consensus amongst many of my classmates as well. As discussed in my group for critique, we hope to take the best of the first and what we attempted to do in the second and create a successful third piece.

We will be applying ink to our third and fourth drawings, so I am looking forward to that. I have never worked much with ink and my few attempts with watercolor were years ago. This will be an interesting experience for me. I have always enjoyed the surrealism that can be achieved through successful ink washes and I hope to achieve some of that in my attempts. We will be practicing with ink next week in class, which I am excited about. I am interested in how the ink and brush might relate to painting, which is my concentration. I would like to incorporate some of my painterly style into my ink work, but don’t know how the medium will react to my hand. We will just have to wait and see!

We also spent a significant time in class working with the feet. This is an intimidating matter for me, as the hands and feet have always been the most difficult for me. There is little room for error due to their very specific shape and bony nature. I think they will take practice to really get down, but the lecture about bone structure was very helpful. The differences in my drawings from before the lectures and after the lectures are always drastic. It seems I need to understand the internal nature of something before I can successfully capture the external nature. 

Week 8

This week in class we concentrated on the leg and knee. I worked with the thigh muscles on my Maniken and will most definitely be re-doing them. I am a little frustrated with this process because it seems that no matter how long I spend or how closely I observe, they look pretty awful! However, I know it is a valuable exercise and in the end will help me understand the human form better. I have redone my Maniken once now, some muscle sets I have done three or four times and I am at least relieved to say that every time I redo it, the better I get, so that is encouraging.

We spent quite a bit of time this week on long poses, which I had really struggled with in the beginning of the semester. I had trouble slowing down and being patient with myself and my work. I usually work very fast, and to some degree thrive off of instant gratification in my work. It has been a great learning experience for me to be forced to slow down and observe the forms more carefully. I have noticed a great improvement in my long poses since the beginning of the semester. My understanding of the internal structure of the body has expanded, which in turn has allowed the external form to come more naturally. I am still convinced, however, that the human form is the most difficult thing to draw or replicate! If one line, shape or proportion is off, even by just a little bit, the whole form looks very, very wrong. It is certainly not a forgiving subject matter, which puts me as the artist in a great position to learn. I feel like life drawing is a combination of art and science, and therefore exercises a different part of the brain than most art classes. While this aspect has been one of the most difficult for me, I also find it to be the most exciting!