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!