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.