Blogging

Blogging is something completely new to me. I have never had a blog, or even looked at one before. I definitely like the idea of being able to put my work online. It makes it much easier than carrying our huge pieces of paper around to turn in at the end of the semester. Commenting on every one's blog is something I have been slacking to do, and I think most people have because I don't have many comments on my posts either. I'm not sure how I feel about having to comment on everyone else's work. I think that having the commenting as an assignment often feels forced, and we are just searching for something to say since we have to comment on something. I like the idea of having the commenting as an option, but if we are told we have to comment, I'm not sure how effective the comments will really be in the end. For me personally, it is difficult to comment on other people's work when I am struggling with my own work at the same time. It is difficult to have to worry about my own work, and then on top of it worry about critiquing other classmates' work as well. I do enjoy being able to look at everyone else's work in the class, it helps give us as students a suggestion of where we are in the class compared to everyone else.

maniken

Here are some photos of my maniken so far. The maniken has been a big struggle for me personally. The drawing I can learn and accomplish for the most part, but the modeling of the clay muscles has been a huge challenge. It is hard enough for me to model anything out of clay, but then for the objects I have to model are muscles of the human body, something that I have never had to look at this closely before makes it even more difficult. I still can't say that I enjoy doing the clay work, but I have learned a lot from doing it. It still baffles me how many muscles we have in our legs, and how perfectly intertwined they are. I specifically like the look of the adductor maagnus muscles, and how they give a great wrapping around effect. Looking further ahead, I need to work on making my muscles look smoother and more connected.

One of the most difficult aspects of the clay modeling for me is to figure out the different masses of each muscle. When I was creating my neck muscles, I made them too bulky, and the different thicknesses to each leg and thigh muscles seem to vary quite a bit, and it is hard decipher that at times.

long poses

These are my three favorite long poses that I have drawn. The image focused on the back really puts together how we learned to draw the figure, and the skeleton, and then combining the two. The ribcage and spinal column are very prominent in this picture. The line weights in all three is probably my favorite element in each. The shading and use of hard and light pressure with the charcoal really give the figures life and depth. I liked drawing the longer poses better than the short one minute sketches. Doing the long drawings gives me the opportunity to really learn the body, and become more and more familiar with each curve and line. The picture where the body is lying stretched out really puts the emphasis on the elogation of the body. the way the muscles are drawn gives the effect that the body is being stretched, which is main emphasis of the pose.

I felt it was important to include a photo of one of my skeleton drawings, because we have focused a lot on that type of drawing as well as drawing the figure. In this drawing I specifically like the harsh lines of the ribcage juxtaposed against the softness of the hip bones. I was exploring the different ways of executing the surfaces of bone in different ways.

gesture drawings

Image One




Image Two






























Image Three





Image Four

Image Five

Image Six

The images four through six are from the beginning of the semester, while the first three are taken from around the halfway point of the semester. In the beginning, I had a lot of trouble with getting the whole figure to fit on the page. As you can see, I didn't even give my figures a head or feet in the beginning, which obviously is not proper completion. I also concentrated on creating the outline of the figure above all else, which was my hardest habit to try and fix this semester. As the semester progressed, I learned to draw the long axis lines, as you can see in images one through three, and also comfortably drew in some contour lines throughout the figures. Line weight was also a big thing I knew I had to work on. Images four through six all have one common weight, showing no variety. If you look at image two, there is an obvious line weight variety, which really gives the figure depth and more interesting to look at. It has been very difficult for me to try and think outside of outlines, but I am slowly getting the hang of it. If anything, I have definitely learned to comfortable draw the figure very quickly and have it show enough detail and depict the important information.