This week I really enjoyed doing the hour long pose. We have done short drawings all semester long so when it was time to do a longer pose at first I was feeling a little intimidated. An hour seems so long compared to what we normally do in class. Once I started drawing it ended up going by very fast however. It was nice to not feel rushed to draw the body parts as fast as I could. I feel more comfertable when I have time to really get every line right, or at least attempt to. It was also nice to have time to make mistakes and correct them by erasing. I felt like this drawing really helped me figure out a few things I have been geting worng. Like the space between the rib cage and the pelvick bone. I have been making it alot longer then it truly is in real life. I picture it being a long area but really there is not a big gap there. Also it was helpful to work on contoure lines a bit more. I have had a hard time figuring out conture lines. It seems as though they switch there direction on a givin body part.
 I also feel like my skeletal model is starting to come along now. I keep making my muscles a little too small, but bringing the models into class and having them checked over gives me a chance to fix my mistakes. Its tough to mentally see a three dimensional view of the muscles from looking at the book. I do think I am improving slowly though.

Hour Drawing

Hour Drawing

This week was a short lived and weird one for life drawing, and classes in general. I was disapointed we did not have class on tuesday, it kind of threw me off. On thursday we did not have much class time. My drawings turned out ok, but it was not enough time to really get into it enough. As I become a better artist I hope that I develop a faster hand. I feel like it takes me a bit longer to map out my drawings. I want to have a more fluid approach to the human form and an over all knowledge of the body to make it easier to move faster and with more confidence. In time.

I wanted to take more pictures of the drawings I ended up with but I am snowed in at home and do not have my camera here with me. I will have to post them along with next week. 

I found a site about life drawing with good tips that I would like to share:

1. Look at the Figure
2. Plan your Composition
3. Quickly sketch in the entire figure
4. Draw fast
5. Practice good line economy
6. Don’t erase
7. Add shadows and highlights
8. Draw the whole pose
9. Ground your figure
10. Date your Drawing 

These are the two I found the most useful to me:

1. Look at the figure. Take just a few seconds to mentally take notice of a few things.

Is the figure taller, or wider? The figure on the right looks wider at first glance, but is actually taller. The reclining pose of the figure, horizontal lines, the cropping of the photo, and even the format of your monitor all lend to this illusion.
How is the figure supporting its own weight? This is important to consider to prevent your figures from leaning over.
Hold your pencil up to the figure and visualize three lines, one each through the shoulders, hips and knees (see image above). Keeping in mind the relationship between these lines while you draw will help with your proportions and placement. Even taking 2-3 seconds with this step will help the layout of your drawing and save you precious time later.

5. Practice good line economy.

Practice with some one-line drawings. A one-line drawing is done without picking up your drawing instrument from the paper.

• don’t use chicken scratches. Try to be fluid and efficient.
• draw inside the figure, not just an outline. Study the subtleties within the figure, and your line in turn will become more sensitive.
• try to vary your line width and weight if you are using a charcoal pencil or Conte .
• don’t draw everything. This is a great exercise for learning how to edit. Be selective in both what you draw and what you leave out.

I also Included a few pictures here that I enjoy, some dealing with life drawing, some more for fun!

One of my favorite artists, his style reminds me of contour line drawing

This is such a good example of what we are learning, and a good drawing too!

My life drawing

I am sure this guy has in interesting anatomy =)

   Any one else hating winter, darkness, and all things that involve small mid-west towns? Sorry if you love snow and Menominee's enduring (?) quality's (?)... but I think I personally might be losing my mind.
Got to love it though. =D
    We are getting further into the semester now and I feel like I am getting more of a feel for life drawing. Understanding the body is an amazing thing. I admit I have a hard time slowing down with our drawings, but I think I am improving. I try to get a good look at the model before I  replicate what there body is doing. I feel more comfertable painting then drawing, some thing about it feels more free, more forgiving maybe. I could even go so far as to say soothing =). On the other hand drawing is a very intense thought process and it feels very unforgiving at times. I think I will get more and more comfertable with it as time goes on. To be good at anything takes a lot of practice, and I  have not put enough time into drawing to be able to say that I am a well accomplished and comfortable drawer. Not yet anyway.
   My skeletal model is finally looking better. I redid a lot of the back. It took me some time to finish the abs and glut muscles. I was avoiding it and finally had to just turn on some tunes and concentrate on it. There are always oh so many distractions! I feel like it looks fairly convincing and am happy with it for now. 

Here are a bunch of photos I needed to catch up on:

Here are a few more of my model:

     Its time for my 2nd post! Its late Sunday night and it has been along day of homework. I feel like the day ended as soon as it began. I started my first assignment for our skeletal models with out realizing how time consuming it would end up to be. I find the study of the body very interesting and was hoping that sculpting it out would not be overly challenging. That did not seem to be the case for me once I tried to start this assignment. I looked and looked at the examples in the book but I just could not quit rape my head around where each muscle is attaching and how they look from every angle. This is going to be a challenge for me! I decided it was a good idea to go ahead and pay the 17.50 (I think it was) for visible body.com. I took a peek at it yesterday just to get a feel for what it was. I think it will end up being very helpful for me sense the book was not quit doing it for me. I like that you can hide different muscles to isolate exactly which ones you want to focus on. It took me more time to look in the book and on the site than it did to carve out my clay muscles and unfortunately I think it shows. I have an idea of what it should look like and I think what I ended up with is not quite there. I guess I need work on visualizing the body! My muscles ended up looking very flat and not very realistic. I also think I needed to rap the muscles around each other more by the neck. I might have to make another go at the back area. I think this is really going to be a challenge for me, but hopefully I will come out with better skills and a better understanding of anatomy. 

Here is what I came up with -.-