Confusion!

On my "dashboard" it says that I have 14 posts, but, on my profile it says that there are only 13! So, I may or may not need another post. But, I don't mind writing another one, so, here it goes.

Our final was today. Looking at all of the shell drawings, it is obvious that we have all learned a lot! After taking a break from looking at my drawing and then looking at it again, I realized that I am really happy with it. I may be getting the hang of this ink thing! (right at the end of course...) But, it is progress! Which is exciting. While doing the ink this time I did some things very differently than in my first ink drawing. First off, I tried not to be afraid of getting dark.  This made that top/back corner look MUCH better! I also left more of the paper as white for the highlights.  I found ways to better control the ink, like, using a smaller brush for the ink and then using a bigger brush with just water on it to smooth it out.  Also, I kept napkins handy to dab off any parts that got darker than I intended or where ink that I didn't want to move started dripping. I admit that I am a bit of a control freak, so, this was really helpful for me! It made me much more confident in putting on the ink because I knew how to change and fix it. During the critique it was noted that the color choices were good ones and I definitely agree. The warmness of the brown and the coolness of the blue give a very "ocean-like", organic feel. They suggested that if I liked that color palette I should see if I can find some blue charcoal. Amy says that there is something called "Russian sauce?" that could work. We all giggled when she said that and she agreed that it is a strange name.  Other random moments from the final today included the constant pounding/ drumming on the ceiling and all of us looking like hell from all of the work that we've had to do in the last few weeks. I think we were all tired and a little out of it, but, that's ok, now we can rest!

This is a doodle from before this was over.  I was tired, and I had had enough, and I also had this Motion City Soundtrack song stuck in my head!

Final Post!

Would it sound awful if I said "WOOOO HOOOOO!" ?

It's not that I didn't enjoy life drawing, but, I am SO relieved that it is over! This past week has been very stressful with all of the things that we needed to finish.

I have learned a lot this semester, about the human body, about drawing, and about myself. I think that the most rewarding part of the class was learning about how to use line most effectively. When comparing drawings from the beginning of the semester and the end of the semester I see a distinct difference in the way that I use lines and the type of line. Another important thing that I learned this semester that has benefited me and will continue to benefit me is learning how to observe something so carefully. With each contour drawing we did I sound myself noticing and being able to depict smaller and smaller details.

I look at people from a completely different perspective now. At the beginning of the semester I rather hated the human form. I'm not sure why, but I did. Now, I find the body intriguing. There is always something new to learn and strive towards.

This is my final shell drawing that I think went very well; not perfect, but, decent.  More importantly, I enjoyed doing it.

During our last class period we talked about our manikens, about the final, and did some fun drawings. The model put clothes on as we were doing the gesture drawings making a nice narrative. I absolutely loved it! I love the idea of there being a narrative. It gives a meaning to the drawings. Unfortunately I left my gesture drawings on the floor because I was disoriented having been drawing on the opposite side of the room. As soon as I realized it, I was really upset! Those drawings were decent! ugh. I went back to find them but they weren't there anymore. That's ok though. We also did a long pose. Near the end I started getting anxious. Anxious about everything: finals, classes, homework, drawings, blogs, tests, papers, essays, and a whole slew of other things.  That is mostly irrelevant, but, in my state of anxiousness I decided to try to make myself more comfortable by adding doodling embellishments to the drawing. It didn't turn out the greatest, but, it was fun, and a good way to end the class. She must be in some alternate reality. I'm not entirely sure. 

I've also learned that I kind of like blogging! Shhh. Don't tell anyone!

And the link to my flickr page again: Portfolio

Developments in Life and Art

I need to get some more posts up because I have missed some. I still want them to have meaning, substance, and relevance.

In recent times I have begun taking creative journaling more seriously.  While this does not directly relate to life drawing, it most certainly relates to my life and my drawing. Learning to not be afraid of making mistakes and expressing myself without restraint are both things that my journal has helped me with immensely.

This drawing or doodle looks like it could have come from a human, or some type of life. The interconnectedness of the objects is similar to that of the body's muscles and cells.

While this image is extremely anatomically incorrect, I still used some of my life drawing knowledge to construct it. Check out those collar bones! (Yes, I know they shouldn't be straight; they curve around to the back. Let's pretend that they do in this drawing.) There is also no nose. I am not entirely sure why I decided not to include the nose, but, it is completely irrelevant to this blog.

Whenever life starts to feel out of control, drawing can give me back that control. Also, referring back to the end of my last post where I mentioned the importance of truth, art is an important vehicle for displaying truth.  Drawing can express things that there is no other way to express. When thinking about this, I think about how in a drawing of the figure, it is possible to capture the movement of a pose in a way that no photograph or written explanation could.  Through a drawing of a figure, the viewer has the ability to feel the pose that the model was in; feel the tension or relaxation of the muscles.

C.S. Lewis wrote children's books because he believed that it was the only way to present the material that he wanted to present. I draw (or use clay) because I believe that it is the best and only way to portray what I want to portray; the truth.

Snooooooowwwwwwww and finals.

Quite honestly I completely forgot about the blog this week. The snow was more distracting than a person would think. It took me 45 minutes and 3 people to get my car out of the unplowed parking lot. The campus looks so much different than it did a week ago!

Last week in life drawing we got to do my favorite activity of the whole semester! We drew the skull! I have always been much better at drawing bones than actual human flesh. I found it interesting to pay attention to how complicated the skull is.  Even though the skull does not have many parts (in an adult), it is extremely complex.

We drew each other's hands on Tuesday which was a different experience. I must admit that I find people studying and staring at me, even if it is just my hand, unsettling.  It also gave me a taste of what the model feels having to remain still for a period of time.  By the end of the half hour that I was posing my hand, my hand was begging to move.  I don't know how the models do it! I had some difficulty drawing the hand as well but near the end of the class period got a better idea of how to approach it.

 It was also nice to get a chance to interact with classmates and discuss how our semesters are going.  Some very interesting topics came up.  A few of them were relative to the art world, about our favorite media to work in and why, and some of them were not so related. I have been known to bring up awkward subjects when I get uncomfortable.  Two people staring at, studying, and drawing my hand made me uncomfortable.  Discussion about diarrhea among other awkward subjects sprang up. I have come to a place in my life however, where I feel that no conversation is too awkward if it contains truth. Truth is the most important thing in this world. If all of this was fake, what would be the point?

Keep Pushing Forward

This week life drawing was very overwhelming.  The end of the semester is approaching very quickly and we have a lot left to finish. Building 50 muscles on the manikin in the next week, while I know will be rewarding, also strikes me with anxiety.

In class we discussed, observed, and drew the shoulder girdle.  It was surprising to me how complex such a small area of the body can be. I found the collar bone to be particularly intriguing and challenging with its spiraling shape. It the sketches and doodles that I do for my own enjoyment everyday, I work with a lot of organic spiraling forms.

Recently in class, I have found myself drawing differently, more freely.  I believe this is because I have finally been doing a lot more artwork and sketching for my own enjoyment.  It has helped me to loosen up in my drawing and understand the best way to move the pencil across the page. My drawings seem to be improving.  They are no where near perfect, and I am certainly not satisfied with them, but, I believe that if we become satisfied with our work we stop growing and improving.  I will continue to strive to become better.

Also this week, we did our third shell drawings.  When doing the cross-contour drawing this time, I could tell that I was getting better at accurately following the lines of the shape. I was surprised by how well it turned out.  Then when I started adding the ink, I got worried, because I thought I was ruining it.  I ended up being relatively happy with the end result though.  I started out with just using the sepia ink that I had. Then, I wasn't thrilled about how it looked, so I decided to add some blue ink into the shadows and it looks so much better! I just needed some contrast to accentuate the shadows and highlights of the form.

The holiday season has begun...

Unfortunately I was unable to go on the field trip because I had to work in Eau Claire at 3 and was uncomfortable with the idea of driving for over 3 hours on rather icy roads. I'm disappointed, but, hopefully I can make up for it somehow. 

While working at a portrait studio has almost nothing to do with life drawing, I have gotten the chance to observe the way that people of different ages move differently. Taking a picture of a baby under 3 months has a significantly different procedure and strategy than a teenager. Having learned about adult proportions, it is very interesting trying to get the framing right on a baby.  The proportions are so different! 

Also this week I have been working on the third shell drawing. I'm excessively scared to start using the ink on it, so, I haven't gotten that far yet. 

My newest internet addiction is the Behance Network. It is an artist website that allows you to make a profile out of your portfolio, post your work, and look at work from other artists.  Through this website I have found several interesting things relating to life drawing. The first interesting find was this:

I chose to include this drawing in my blog because the line quality stuck out to me.  It's not necessarily the best type of line in my opinion, but, it is very different than the way that I create lines. These lines are quickly drawn and ragged. My favorite part of this drawing is the shadow under the chin. While these lines up close, don't read as a shadow, farther away, it is very effective. 

These drawings have a very different lined qualities than the last drawing I discussed. These lines are smooth, slowly done for the most part, and precise. My line quality is certainly not anywhere near this good, but, this gives me something to strive towards. 

Dead-line

While looking at various artists' websites today, I came upon this illustration by Bruna Gonzalez.  It seemed fitting because so many deadlines are coming up for projects, papers, and tests.  This past week especially, I have found myself feeling rather like a dead line.

Life drawing class was cancelled this week on Tuesday.  On thursday in class, we experimented with using ink.  We started out by drawing a small contour drawing of our shell. Then we discussed what the goals of the shell drawings are and how the ink would be used. Applying the ink was almost scary to me. Ink doesn't erase!  That for me is intimidating. It's difficult to experiment and discover if you are afraid of making mistakes, so, I was glad that we practiced on a small drawing that we didn't spend much time on. I was still nervous about it and I think it shows in my drawing. I will definitely be practicing more before I do the bigger version so that I am more comfortable taking risks with the ink. I think that after I understand more about how the ink works, I will really enjoy working with it. I love the way that it shows movement and how it can be used to enhance an organic shape.  This is what I came up with in class:

Also this week, I worked more on my manikin. I redid the abs and the  maximus/minimus.  I think that I am starting to get a little bit more used to the way that the clay works. I still need to redo the thigh muscles and the spinal erectors, but, I think it is starting to look a lot better.  It is still very frustrating trying to get the muscles to look right together when its difficult to visualize, but, I'm getting better at it.

Week Reflection

Due to mid-program review we only had one class period this week, which, to be honest was a big relief! It is the time of the semester again when classes get more intense and full of expectations. For several reasons, I have found it difficult to focus and find myself falling behind rather than improving. I have noticed that when I am drawing the figure now, I get so caught up in trying to remember all of the things that we have covered in class, like legs and feet, that I completely forget to draw the rib cage. In the longer drawings it is easier to go through the drawing and figure out what is missing, but in the gesture drawings I run out of time and sometimes miss really important things. I feel like I need to go back to the ideas that we talked about at the beginning of the semester to make sure that I at least get the whole figure on the page.

We also had a shell drawing due this week. When working on this shell drawing, I realized that I am still improving and that I am getting better at seeing contour lines, which I really struggled with at the beginning of the semester. We critiqued the shell drawings in small groups. My group noted that I used the page well and had a good long axis. They also said that I had good line variation but needed to add more contour lines. I plan on re-working parts of the drawing to make it work better as a drawing.

I am continuing to struggle with the manikin. I enjoy learning about the different muscles, where they are and what their jobs are.  I find the manikin work interesting, but very frustrating. It seems that the more I work to fix the muscles, the more likely it is to fall apart or be shaped completely wrong. There are several parts that I need to redo and other parts that need to be refined.

I spent a while today looking at figure drawings done by other people and specifically looked at the use of line. It is fascinating to observe how very different looking lines can be used to describe the same thing effectively. These are two examples that I found:

In the first drawing the lines are dark and thick while in the second drawing they are thin and mostly lighter and much crisper.  These are very different approaches to the use of line, but we still read these both as figure drawings.

Midterm Reflection

It's hard to believe that over half of the semester is over already! I have learned a lot so far and am surprised by the progress that I have made.  Life drawing has certainly challenged me in ways that I've never been challenged before. One of the hardest things for me to get used to was drawing quickly and focusing on the general form instead of details.  In all of my previous art work I have focused more on small details rather than getting the gesture down.  At the beginning of the semester I struggled to even make a decision about where to make my first line in 30 seconds, but now I can get down most of the figure in 30 seconds.  One of my unexpected, ongoing struggles is with the maniken. When I started working on it, I thought that I would be great at it because I love working in three dimensions and working with details.  It seems that the more I work on it, the more frustrating it gets and the more difficult it is for me to create the muscles accurately.  My favorite part of this semester so far was working on the shell drawing for homework. While I found the process frustrating, I enjoyed looking at the shell and taking in all of the details.  I think that in trying to capture the form of the shell using only line really helped me to understand how to capture the figure only using line.  

In the second half of the semester, I am hoping to continue to improve my figure drawing skills. Things that I really need to work on include better understanding how foreshortening affects the way that the figure looks and also continue to learn how to focus more on the form as a whole instead of detail and shadowing.  

Here is a link to my Flickr page: Midterm Portfolio

Life Drawing Week 4

This week in life drawing we focused mainly on the rib cage and chest. Learning to draw the "egg" before drawing the rest of the figure (besides the long axis) really helped me to place the figure correctly on the page. It also helped me to see the model as a living, breathing human-being rather that a still life that I was required to draw. 

For me, the most helpful drawings that we did this week were the drawings that used relational measurements. This greatly improved my ability to see proportions. I was much happier with my last drawings using this method than any of my previous attempts without this method.



One of the most challenging things for me this week was to learn to stand farther back from the easel and not grip my charcoal pencil near the tip. I always felt that if I had my hands closer to the tip, I would have more control over what I was drawing. It turns out that gripping the pencil farther back can actually be very rewarding.

This is a drawing done by Alex Kalser. While it does not have the proper proportions or anything close, this depiction of the body is intriguing. I especially enjoyed looking at all of his conscientious line work. The contrast between the thick and thin lines creates a fantastic result.

Life Drawing Week 3

During the 3rd week of life drawing class I found myself feeling overwhelmed, yet fascinated, by all that I did not know about the human body. At first I was skeptical about how much modeling clay and a plastic skeleton could help me draw, but, as I am progressing through this I realize just how detailed our body structure is.  By building these details, it is easier to see them on the model. I plan on redoing some of these muscles so that they fit together more accurately.

I really struggled through the cross-contour drawings that we did of the model because I wasn't exactly sure how I should be going about it, but, I've learned a lot about looking through the process. It also helped me to see the specific curves of the body and how they interact with each other. In the future I know that when doing a cross-contour drawing, I need to learn to use more variation in my line to create movement and believability.

Life Drawing Week 2

The second week of Life Drawing was very intimidating for me. I had never drawn from a model before. That in itself was a great challenge.  To add to this, I am not very good at drawing quickly as I tend to be more detail-oriented.

At the beginning of doing this I was more focused on getting the outline of the figure, because that is the only way that I knew how to draw. After learning about the long axis and about the spine, I found my drawings and the time it took to do them, improving. I learned a lot about the weigh that a single line can create space through the use of varying weight and thickness. Some of the concepts that we discussed like, varying the point-of-veiw to get a more three-dimensional drawing, are still difficult for me to grasp. I believe that this semester is going to be one with a lot of new challenges and one with many failures, but also one with many improvements. I have already learned a lot.

Week 1!

This week in life drawing we studied shells and did two different types of drawings of them. The first drawing we did was a blind contour drawing in which we could not look at the drawing while creating it. This drawing was particularly challenging for me because I was very tempted to look at the drawing and correct the mistakes. My group members said that my lines had varying weight and had a good use of thickness and thinness. They also said that the use of layers was beneficial and mentioned that while some lines were carefully considered, some needed to be slowed down.

The other shell drawing that we did was the continuous contour drawing in which we could not lift the pencil off of the page.  With this drawing it was a relief to be able to look at the paper, however it was also challenging because I constantly had the urge to lift my conte pencil off of the paper. Not being able to do this produced an interesting result. It was also difficult because I was unable to erase an mistakes that I made. 

My favorite part about these activities was looking at and discovering different things about my shell. Every time I looked at my shell I noticed something new. I enjoyed paying attention to the slightest details in color and texture. 

The class period on Thursday was very informative and interesting for me. I learned a lot about the spinal column and the different section in it. I also learned how to quickly draw the most important parts of a subject. 

Introductory Blog Post

I am a junior in the Studio Art program at UW-Stout.  I first decided to major in art at the end of high school after having great experiences in my art classes. I am getting a concentration in ceramics along with minors in psychology and math. My work that I am most proud of is my 3-dimensional works, including ceramics. Currently one of my favorite pieces, "Cancer" is in the Furlong Gallery.  

As time has passed I have found that I love complex surfaces. Another one of my favorite projects was the cardboard animal project in 3-D design. I made a porcupine, which was particularly intriguing to me because of the complex texture of the quills. Though making the thousands of quills was redundant and exhausting, the result was impressive. 

My favorite course so far at UW-Stout has been Ceramics 1, closely followed by 3-dimensional design. These courses were favorites because I like working in 3 dimensions and the projects assigned left room for me to put my own spin on them. When I graduate I hope to go on to graduate school for art therapy and pursue a career as an art therapist. 

My favorite materials include my camera and clay. When I work with clay, I am reminded that as humans we are shaped and molded by our environment and everyone in our lives.  I enjoy using my camera’s viewfinder as a way to extract beauty or emotion from a scene.

                              When people see my work, I want them to in a sense lose some of their naivety about the world.  I want them to be able to see the truth rather than the lies that we are fed every day. I usually begin a piece, that is not photography, by looking through photos that I have taken in the past or going for a walk outside for inspiration.