Easter Break

I don’t really know what to say about this last week. With only two classes we didn’t have a whole lot of drawing time or any lectures. I can’t decide if drawing the skull was really hard or really easy. Have a look at my drawings and tell me what you think I should improve. 

Without the lecture it was difficult to know where to start. Usually I’ll start with which ever shape she suggests such as an egg for the ribcage or use the landmarks to find the general shape. With this I didn’t know what to look for. That being said I think the drawings turned out ok. I just eyeballed them really. The hardest thing was to decide which planes were important and what to emphasize.

I had been looking forward to drawing the skull but I’m not sure if I like drawing it or not. There is just more judgment calls than in the rest of the body. With so many tiny details I suppose it’s inevitable.

I love drawing characters and I have improved so much from this class. I can quickly get a character’s personality down on paper when before it would have defeated me.

The other end  of the spectrum is less positive. As the semester draws to a close the pressure is building up and the focus issues that I had at the start of the semester are coming back. I have all these great ideas and enthusiasm but no willpower. I really want to be able to give it my all and finish the semester on a high but I seem to have lost the ability to focus. There are so many distractions.

I have enjoyed this class and learnt a lot. I WILL focus. (I think I can, I think I can ;)

Picking Myself Back Up

So, this week was much feared by almost everyone else but much anticipated by me. It was time to draw hands. I like drawing hands. I always have. Next to the face, they are the most expressive part of the body. Of course, with this comes the problem. They are almost the second most difficult part. This is because of the irregularity and complexity of the muscles and bones. They were a mystery to me up till now.

Hands have been my personal challenge for a while and many a lecture notebook of mine has them scribbled all down the margins. Drawing them for class was less complicated than I expected. Amy’s ‘mitten, then long axis, then major planes’ method is really effective. Before this I have always tried to make the volume clear and often failed miserably. My method was very hit and miss. I feel that most of the drawings I did in class were pretty good proportionally. One did come out a little funky and I’m at a loss as to why. It’s this one, any ideas guys?

The others could definitely use some improvement but I’m happy with them. It was nice to have a drawing experience that uplifted me. My drawing rut is long gone now.

The mannequins, on the other hand, seem to get worse and worse. The hand muscles are so small and fiddly. They lie over each other in ways that seem to make no sense. My mannequin is pretty averagely built but he has the forearms of a body builder. Or at least a body builder with deformities. I will have to get on to that.

Back to the drawings. In her comment on the midterm Amy said that I need to work on my line variation. And I’ve really been trying to focus on that. It’s hard because when I draw, I usually think about where things need to be first, and worry about the presentation of the work later, then go back and try to add line variations.  Maybe I should try to think about it as I go. I really worked on this with the skeleton hand. See.

All in all, a really good week for life drawing.

Breaking Free

With the end of the semester drawing near I find myself buried under huge workload. The bigger this pile gets the more I enjoy my clay time. This has become a little piece of downtime amongst loads of computer work. It’s a little sad that homework is now downtime, but you’ve got to take your luck where you find it I guess. My enjoyment in the mannequin is despite the fact that they are getting indisputably more difficult. The muscles in the forearm especially so. They are thin, fiddly and layered over one another.

The drawings, which were being difficult are easier than before. I seem to have broken out of my Spring break rut. About time too! Adding the upper arm and forearm was frustrating, both on Monday and Wednesday. Monday’s long drawing was dead on the front, not even close to a three quarter view. I fought for this one but it still ended up looking flat and non-dynamic. Wednesday’s work started much the same way. The new way of doing gestures turned out awkward and spagetti like figures, as though I had forgotten all the anatomy I have learnt. But, after lots and lots of struggling with angles and foreshortening and proportion I think I got a decent drawing. During the last ten minutes, I moved and drew as I usually would, quickly and fluidly and the arm turned out well. After finally churning out some good drawings I have realized that when I over-think a pose that it just turns out awkward.

I have been trying to work on what Amy said on my midterm sheet, which was that I should work on my line variation. I have never been very good at this, I just don’t know where to start. I was trying to make lines in shadowed areas darker and I am not sure how successful this has been.

Arm time

This week was loads of fun, but more intense than any other so far. So many things were due and sleep was definitely lacking.

On Monday we had the option to draw or work on clay. I worked on clay with a couple of people and took advantage of the opportunity to chat. I was a little loud and I think I annoyed some people.

We had to do the latissimus dorsi, the pecs, the trapezius, and the deltoid. These muscles were pretty straight forward.

Wednesday’s drawing was not so straight forward. I have not done a single drawing that I have been completely happy with since before spring break. I don’t know if this is because I have gotten worse or if I am just holding myself to higher standards now. Hopefully it’s the latter. My drawings just seem awkward. I was talking to some other people who seem to be having the same problem. Like me, they have trouble when the drawings are longer than 45 minutes. I tend to over think everything and second guess things that I already had right. This leaves me with a messed up drawing. It could also be because our drawings have over taken our mannequins. We are now drawing muscles that we have not yet built. If this is the reason it definitely shows the value of the clay project.

I especially had a problem drawing the arm. It was difficult to define the bones and therefore I had trouble placing the muscles on the arm. My result looked rubbery and unconvincing.

The arm muscles were tricky but I was expecting this. Still, I spent hours on them. I think they’re fairly accurate. A little chunky perhaps.We’ll see I guess. I also tried to address some of the comments I got from the midterm. I filled out the quads and smoothed some of the lumps but I didn’t change the other things. I’ll need to talk to Amy about them. May the new week bring my drawing skills back! I miss them.