Sunday, April 17, 2011

HANDS!


Drawing of hand based off the Skelton

Unfortunately I had a short week this week. I was not feeling well on Tuesday so I did not attend class. From what I heard though class was interesting that day as Amy taught the class how we should be drawing. Apparently we need to focus more on using our whole arm to draw versus our wrists. So this makes me think of how I was taught to paint. However, I think it will be something I need to get use to as I have been so use to drawing my way for as long as i can remember. 

On Thursday I was thrilled because we finally learned how to draw the hands. I must say I find that the hand are really difficult. Drawing from the skeleton was ok because I basically got to draw what I saw but things changed once I got to the actual model. Part of the problem with my model drawing was I would realize once it was too late that the pose was constantly changing on me. I think it was difficult for my model to keep their hand in the chosen position because their hand was falling asleep and there was nothing to indicate where their hand was. So, I would love to attempt to draw from an actual model again. I feel like if I got a better pose I might be able to focus on the hand drawing more then fixing the fingers that kept moving. I do think that i like drawing the hands though. I like being able to take time to focus on them just like when we did the feet. I do need lots of work on them yet though. 

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Oh those arms

This week was another short week. We had advisement day on Tuesday so we didn’t get to nearly as much as we have in other weeks. What I did discover this week is that I still have a lot of improvement I would like to see in myself. I feel like the end of the semester is creeping up on us and I would like to accomplish so much in that time.

This week we continued working on the arms only now we a started working on the lower arms. I discovered that there is a lot of change that can occur just by the changing position which you see the arm. For instance the when you see your arm facing palms up (Supine) versus palms down (Prone) this can completely change how you view the bone structure. Its also interesting to not all of the muscles which we have started building. We started adding some of the extensors and its amazing how some of these muscles as tiny as they are can do so much as help us to move our fingers.

Long pose of the week. 
As I said I want to accomplish a lot. Since I have realized im starting to get the time factor down in gesture drawings I also discovered I need to be adding more things to my gesture drawings such as some of the different muscles we see. So this will slow me down again but I really do need to have a better understanding of where some of the muscles are so it’s going to be a good slow down. Even in the longer poses I am finding some of the muscles to be a challenge for me. I think I need to have a “date” with Eduardo to just observe his muscles again because I think I need to spend more time studying them outside of class. Im really hoping that I can get so much of what I want to do accomplished by the end of the semester. Its seems crazy that there is really just a little more then a moth left and we are done. 


Sunday, April 3, 2011

Getting antsy to learn more!


Hi again,

Life drawing this week was focused greatly on the drawing portion of class. Over the past couple weeks we have not gotten to draw as much due to different conflicts that had come in the way so it was nice to be able to take a lot of time to focus on that portion of the class.
1 minute gesture drawings
Personally I was grateful for this time because I started to notice that I think I am getting quicker with my gesture drawings.  I find that I am not fussing with little things slowing me down as much anymore. So, I think I was most proud about that accomplishment this week because I really have been trying to quicken my pace.  I also am glad that we got to do several longer poses as well. On Thursday we even did our longest pose yet as we drew for almost 2 hours! I liked doing longest poses best but I am not as proud of this drawing as I have been with others. I think that my legs start looking a little awkward in the drawing, but I think part of it is the angle I was at too. So hopefully I will feel better about my next long pose. I do think I did a decent job with the muscles in his arm. The pose really allowed me to see the muscles along the underside of his arms so it was a little bit easier to represent then some of the other more hidden muscles.

2 hour pose
I can’t wait to learn more in the upcoming weeks. I’m getting particularly excited to learn about drawing the hands. It seems like in every pose I have I just stop at the wrists because when I attempt drawing that hands they don’t look right at all. In general though I can’t wait to see complete figure in my drawings, so i guess you could say i'm getting a little antsy. 

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Time for the Shoulders


This week’s lesson focused on adding the shoulders to our drawings. I discovered that adding the shoulders was rather difficult at first in our gesture drawings. I found myself struggling just to get to the shoulders in our quicker sketches.  Which makes me realize I still need to quicken my pace in my gesture drawings. If I can do this maybe I can actually get my shoulder blades in more easily before in less then two minutes. I do think things are getting better with my gesture drawings though. I noticed that I wasn’t getting stumped on some of the things I was before spring break. Which is a good sign.

Some of the things I found difficult about the shoulders in even the longer poses were seeing such things as the shoulder blades. If the light didn’t hit them just right or the arm was in a position that didn’t make them stick out they were actually rather difficult to find. So in my longer pose I kind of struggled with that but Amy helped me find where they should be. So I think that helped me visualize what I should be looking for. Hopefully with time I will be able to just know where they should be even if I can’t see them very good.

So for this week I decided I would post picture of images I found online dealing with the shoulder. I think by seeing more of these images it will help me when I return to class on Tuesday. 

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Foot Week & Spring Break!



Hi again!

Wow, I cannot believe that we are already done with spring break! I think I was certainly at that point of the semester where I needed a little time off from school. It was also nice to be home for more then a few days so that I could spend sometime with my family. I also enjoyed the beautiful weather and found myself completely inspired by surrounding so I took MANY pictures.

As for class before spring break we started learning to draw the foot. I found the foot to be challenging but at the same time I really enjoy drawing feet. I oddly I found that drawing the toes and the bottom side of the foot were my favorite. I guess when it comes to drawing the foot I think it really has its own character. For instance no toe is the same. Some toes are bent while others are straight and some are even hiding behind other toes. I think its is also interesting to think of all the bones and muscles that are in such a small area that together create what we see as the foot. I also think that learning about these bones and muscles really helped me to visualize what I needed to be looking for as I started drawing the foot on this first day. 

Until Next Week, 
Ashley


Friday, March 4, 2011

Mid Semester ALREADY!!!!

Hey Everyone,

Look at the link here to see my Mid semester Portfolio

I find It is so hard to believe that we are already at the mid point in the semester. In this time though i can tell that i have a learned a lot and continue to do so. There is a HUGE difference between my first drawings in this class and the ones from this week.

Anterior View of Eduardo
This weeks 1 Hour Pose
This class has taught me to think about how to draw in new ways. Instead of focusing on contrast, line, and shadow this class is teaching me to represent things with just lines and also using lines to form a 3 dimensional space, as we do in our contour drawings. I also find myself discovering that our mannequins help us to learn how to draw the body as well. The mannequins help me to visualize the certain muscles that can be seen on the outside of the body. I find that every week is a wonderful challenge as there is a new form to learn and represent as we make our way around the body.

Last weeks 1 hour pose
Over the last couple of weeks i have discovered that i find myself most comfortable taking on the longer poses. I have always been one that is patient with my work so i find that the short gesture drawing are a challenge to me. However i see how important the gesture drawings are in order to become more aware and precise at drawing the land marks we are looking for such as the pelvic points. So even though i am most comfortable with taking my time i think the short poses really help as i work my way farther along in drawing the body.



I am truly excited to learn how to properly draw the rest of the body. I also can't wait to be able to look at the progress at the end of the semester. Its amazing the change that i have already seen!

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Week 5 time to recap and move forward

Note of the
Frontal view of Pelvis
As a result of a short week last week this week started off recapping some of the things we learned. Which was really good in my case as i couldn't exactly remember how to draw some of the angles of the pelvis. Fortunately i think i'm starting to get it now. The area i was having most difficulty with was understanding how to draw the front view of the pelvis. However now i understand which points i need to look for and things are looking considerable better.
Side View
This week we also worked on adding the femur to our drawings. For my gesture drawings i thing i need to learn to quicken my pace as i sometimes fail to get to this part of the drawing. However we also worked on a longer pose this week. We had an hour long pose and which i really like having the opportunity to do so because it really allowed me to study the things that i don't really get the opportunity to do so in my gesture drawings. One thing that i found difficult with the hour long pose was that after break the some of the things shifted in my picture so i found myself attempting to fix these things longer then i probably should have.
Well, hopefully next week progression will only continue and i can learn to quicken my pace in the gesture drawings. 
Back view