http://www.flickr.com/people/elizabethlifedrawing/

MidTerm Reflection

This semester is passing by quite rapidly and I find it impossible to believe we are already in our 8th week of classes. I suppose it is about that time to take a step back and reflect over the last few months. From the beginning, this class has been one of my most enjoyable classes this semester and it has managed to maintain its appeal. I find myself learning something new every week and notice myself growing stronger and more confident in my drawing abilities. I get excited about training my eyes and hands to recreate what I see in a logical, yet expressive way.

I suppose I could say that what I’ve learned so far this semester ranges from how to draw lines to understanding the constructs of a human body. I’ve learned to draw lighter, quicker and less continuous by breaking up my lines. I’ve also been fighting an outlining habit for weeks now, but can tell I am finally starting to build up a resistance. I won’t claim to be an expert on all the technical classifications and medical terminology of the human body yet, but I do feel I have a better grasp on how muscles and skeletal structures work.

I find my strengths come out during the longer drawings where I have time to rethink things and really analyze what I see. Once I draw the basic underlying skeleton, I like to be able to really zoom in and focus on just a few elements. I don’t really notice the time going by and don’t find these lengthy drawings dull or exhausting.

My weaknesses probably would include quick gesture drawings and the rib cage/pelvis proportion relationship. I tend to have a more difficult time seeing these structures on the models sometimes and really want to take the extra time and fill in the other features for the drawing to make more sense. I always feel like they are unfinished and messy. I suppose the point of a gesture drawing is to capture the first impression and I really shouldn’t be so critical, but my first impression always leads me to ask more questions and I become unsatisfied when I have to move on.

I would love to learn how to draw faces and expressions from a live model. I have done many portraits before, mainly from photographs, but love how you can capture a personality. I have observed how expressive the human body can be and I think understanding facial expressions and structures could be very interesting.

I would like to continue to improve my gesture drawings and the overall proportions. I think the more practice I get, the quicker and easier these drawings will become.

If you want to see some pictures of my work so far… here is the link to my flickrpage!
http://www.flickr.com/people/elizabethlifedrawing/

The Pelvis

This week we concentrated on constructing the pelvis. We watched this older movie with a famous anatomy professor as the instructor. He had numerous tricks and insights into creating an accurate drawing of the pelvis in relation to the rib cage. He broke everything down into sections and boxes to help students relate. This really helped my own understanding of proportions. I had been drawing the rib cage much larger in relationship to the pelvis and it took a while to get used to drawing the pelvis wider in this new scale. My gesture drawings, like before, suffered in the beginning of class but I noticed they eventually started improving once I warmed up a little. In class we continued timed gesture drawings that focused on the rib cage and pelvis. We did one more contour drawing and a few longer drawings near the end of class. I am beginning to recognize what to look for when I draw from a model. I find my drawings becoming a little stronger as the weeks roll by. I will include some in class sketches and an updated mannequin as soon as I finish my homework.

Rib Cages and Abs

We started some intense lectures this week in life drawing about the importance of the rib cage. The rib cage is the center, the core and arguably the most important structure in the human body. It protects our precious organs and plays a huge role in defining our frame. So many visible landmarks exist because of the rib cage’s characteristics and it is important to understand what to look for when you are drawing. A full day of lecture on Tuesday enriched our understanding of the relationship between the spine and the rib cage. Many comparison of the rib cage to an egg were made that day, which really helped me visualize what I was drawing. I never really thought too intensely about the rib cage in previous drawings. I was always more concerned about identifying the collarbone, shoulders and the hip bones and never really looked deeper to analyze the rib’s structure. This lecture only increased my desire to start sketching. Fortunately, that desire was fulfilled on Thursday when we spend the entire class time drawing the model. I struggled most with my gesture drawings at the beginning of class. I had a difficult time resisting the urge to outline my figure and draw muscles and details. I kept seeing the model instead of the skeleton underneath. Eventually things became easier as the class went on and I was able to recognize and analyze the plane shifts. I still feel I have some practicing to do and I hope to continue improving. Here are some of my longer in class drawings and my model with more muscles added.