Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The last post? aka Final Portfolio!

I never thought this day would come! Our final blog post! Dare I say it, I'm a little bummed out.  However, I'll be in Amy's life drawing class again next semester, so I'm getting over it pretty fast. This semester went by so fast! As I worked through the class I never really felt like I was improving until the last couple of weeks. I've been reviewing my photos and progress and I admit that I'm a bit proud of myself.  I've never really been all that great at drawing the human form but I think I'm finally starting to get an understanding of it. Even my gesture drawings have improved, one of my best is "final gesture 5".  I feel that is easily conveys what position the model was in and clearly shows the collar bones/shoulder girdle. My shells also improved. After a couple attempts I feel that I know have a quasi relationship with my shell and am starting to understand it's shape and how to translate that onto paper. I really Enjoyed working with the ink and felt very comfortable with it.  Because of this I think that "final homework 3" and "final homework 4" are stronger than my first two homework assignments.  I really liked a lot of my long drawings, which made it difficult to choose just five (in fact, I think I may have added six).  My favorite was my drawing of the Turkey from out trip from the Bell Museum.  I thought that drawing outside of the classroom was a great experience that I don't get the chance to do very often. I also feel that although this drawing is just of a skeleton, there is a certain attitude to this Meleagris gallopavo.  I spent a lot of time in the detail of mapping out the neck and head because I felt that it was the most interesting part of the animal.  I also took the liberty to relax and take my time shading in the bones to make them as dimensional as I could.  Charlie (my manikin) also took form as I finished up the last of his muscles! he looks pretty good if I do say so myself.  While making the manikins was difficult, time consuming, and frustrating it really did help me understand how complex our bodies are.

Tuesday was our last long pose day and the last day of class.  Since it was freezing in our room our model got a little creative and had us draw gestures of her getting dressed.  This was a challenging yet interesting task! The fabric complemented the body nicely and helped to accentuate her poses.  She did a great job with it and definitely challenged us.  After some gestures we did a long drawing with the model clothed.  This was different and a little bit hard, although you wouldn't think it would be that much of a challenge.  I feel that I could have done better on my long drawings but I was a little fidgety thinking about the rest of the things I have to do before finals are over.  I ended up doing two drawings, one of the full body and then I tried my best to do a portrait drawing.  It's a little off, but I've never been good at portraits.  So in this light.. it's not THAT bad.  Our model also said it was a beautiful drawing-which meant a lot coming from the person you're drawing.

Portrait Attempt


Overall it's been a really great semester! Thank you for all of your patience and knowledge Amy! I'll see you next semester-I'm looking forward to it!


LINKS:
Flickr main page
Long Drawings
Gestures
Homework
Manikin

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

vacaciones!!!

I'm dying for Christmas vacation! after hearing people brag all week about not having anything to do during finals week I'm about ready to snap. I swear finals week was designed to torture art students. This week we had our third shell drawing due.  I was really pleased with how mine turned out. I'm really comfortable working with India ink so I'm looking for new ways that I can push myself to do interesting things with the ink.  I'm also feeling more comfortable drawing my shell.  We had small group critiques and I received very nice compliments. Really, the only suggestion was to make the contour of the inside of the shell a little deeper so that the outside wall of the shell doesn't look so thick.  I also enjoyed looking at everyone's work and was very inspired by how people used bright colors.  I stuck mainly to brown and black and feel very comfortable with them.  So, color might just be a way to push myself.  We also learned about the structure of the hand.  I always thought that our hands were incredible tools.  If you think about it, it would be really difficult to function without hands. I've always had difficulty drawing hands. I attempted it in Drawing one for an assignment and they turned out.. alright.  We were to depict emotions such as mad and joyful through hand gestures and marks. 
hands! from drawing 1 way back when, I apologize for the less than perfect quality of this photo, I had to go digging to find it!


Life Drawing 1 hands



Thursday we worked on the skull. I'm a little frustrated that we're working on the skull last when I feel like it's the most intricate structure. I find it so interesting that each skull is unique and literally shapes our face.  In my drawings I've notice that I've had a hard time making the size of the skull proportional to the rest of the body.  I think understanding the structure will help me keep the skull more proportional. 


this one got a little comical, I tried to exaggerate the cheekbones and add some contour lines.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

9 days?

It's hard to believe we have less than nine days left in this semester. On one hand thats great news because I'm about at the point of pulling out my hair (I can't wait until I get to grad school to see what happens then) and yet, on the other I fear I might go bald from the stress of thinking about all the stuff I have yet to do. Like... six lockers full of bisqued pottery in the ceramics lab that all must be glazed, or two shell drawings and a final portfolio in life drawing, oh yeah, then I forgot about a case study presentation (thank god I got the actual report done tonight, no wonder I feel like I'm a few brain cells short), theres a lot more, but I'm whining so I'll stop. Anyways, last week I promised a picture of my friendly bird friend.  In my usual fashion, I have named him...... Enrique. Poor guy only has a neck, I spent quite a bit of time shading him since I feel like I've been deprived of shading things in for far too long.
Enrique the Turkey.


Moving on, Amy gave us a break down of what we have left to do and it was a little overwhelming. I hate when that happens, just when I start to see the light at the end of the ridiculously long tunnel, a bus crashes. So, I'll be working on a lot of muscles for Charlie this weekend, along with another shell drawing, as well as some other joyful homework.  I'm a little worried about next semester since I'm actually taking more credits than I did this semesters. However, my theory is that I have an online class and worse comes to worse, I'll do work for that on weekends. maybe.  Next semester will be my last though and since I refuse to stay another semester after that I'm just going to push through it. I'm sure you'll hear alllllll about it since Amy is taking me on as sort of an independent study in her life drawing 1 class next semester. (yay for blogging!).  

Just a quick update: today we did a long pose, which was kind of humorous. Our poor model must be so sick of is, we were a little particular getting her into a position that worked for everyone. I give up every time we take a break because no matter what it's never the same as before, but she does her best and I don't feel like being a pain over things being off by a couple centimeters.... although it really does make a difference. :( Heres the results from today's long drawing!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Field Trip Day!!

Today we spent the day in the cities at the Walker and the Bell museum.  The walker was interesting as usual, after being there umpteen times I still get lost! They had a lot of interesting works though, most noteably a large amount of Yves Klein's work.  I was very intrigued with the fire paintings.  It was great to see them up close instead of from a picture, I feel like so much gets distorted in photos.  I was also excited to see a photograph by Cindy Sherman, I find her whole process very interesting.  After the Walker and a short bus ride we ended up at the Bell Museum, which I had never been to before. I quickly made myself at home in the fossil room.  After wandering around for a little while I found a skeleton of a bird that I thought was interesting, little did I know that it was a turkey skeleton, very festive! The bird was in pretty rough condition, I'm thinking he was from quite a few Thanksgivings' ago.  His neck vertebrae was pretty wonky and looked a little beat up, so I did the best I could to understand how it all connected. I also took the opportunity today to use shading and crosshatching to my hearts content and it was great :)!  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of my drawing before jetting off for home, but I'll take a picture next week when I get back and post it.  Until then, here's a little diagram to see what I was working from.



  Between breaks we were able to pet a resident snake and a few turtles that live in the museum, very friendly little guys! It was nice to sit and relax for awhile and draw from non living things (they tend to be a little more patient). Overall it was a very fun trip, but I was definitely ready to get home for Thanksgiving break! Bring on the Turkey!  I hope everyone had a safe drive home and has a good break!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

India Ink!

 First off, let me mention that "Four Right Angles" is being showcased in the student gallery (AA 209) for the week and weekend.  It showcases the work of Trey King, Chealsey Sword, Mallory Weir, and myself! It's such a relief to be done, I'm very proud of what we all accomplished!




Andy Ducett and I discussing "A Split Second"

"A Split Second"

Action shot of hanging all the portraits!


Anyways, back to life drawing.  We ended up not having class on Tuesday, which was a nice break and I used the time wisely to work like a mad woman on other projects that needed to be finished. Today we got to work with India ink, which I have a love/hate relationship with. First off,  I was somewhat excited because ever since starting contour drawings I've had an itch to shade the forms in. India ink is definitely a way I can incorporate shading into my drawings.  I've also had some practice with this medium since I just hung up my senior show (see pictures!!!). For my show I showcased an entire wall of tea portraits.  I also included somewhat of a collage entitled "In this light" (pictures can be see at the end of the post)  I roughly painted around 130 and close to 120 made it onto the wall. I'm very comfortable working with tea, but the permanence of the India ink somewhat intimidates me.  I don't want to be a creature of comfort but I might start to include tea into the shading of the shells.  There something very ethereal and calm about working with tea and I love the look of how it sits on paper. Amy also made it a point for the ink to act as another means for us to make our drawings look alive. So, that's about what's going on in life drawing this week, short and sweet since we only went to class once.  However, next Tuesday we get to spend the day in the cities at the walker and the Bell museum. I love to draw bones, so I'm really excited to spend some time in the Bell just sitting and drawing.  Meanwhile, I will be working like crazy to get as much homework done as possible so that Tuesday night after we get back I can get in my car and go home for Thanksgiving! I'm in dire need of a break from Stout and classes!



Thursday, November 11, 2010

feels like week 1,203...

Long Drawing from Last week


This week is dragging by at a turtles pace! I keep hoping I wake up tomorrow and it's Christmas vacation.  This week we only had one day of class because of mid program review, good luck to all of those going through that! I hated going through mid-program review, I was very disappointed that I had to supply a large amount of artwork when in reality, they only looked at 1/3 of it.  Anyways, on Tuesday we went over the foot and did a long drawing of feet.





This was a little tricky when it came to dealing with foreshortening and being able to be detailed. Toes are  a tad bit hard to see when you're standing a little ways from the model, that or I need new contacts. Before that we went over our homework which was our second contour drawing of our shells. I was a little dissappointed with my second drawing, but in general I'm just having a really hard time drawing my shell.  I WISH there were spines or something interesting on it because I feel like it's so smooth that once I incorrectly place one line, the whole shell is off.  It's frustrating because I actually take time and study the shell and do a couple sketches of it, which usually turn out better than my final drawing (see images).

Sketch
Final Drawing



As a group we compared our second drawings to our first. My group said that the tail end of my shell was very nice and that I did a good job with line weight. However they said to try to push darkness more towards the front. They also said that this drawing looked more rushed and not as meticulous. As I stated I'm still having a really rough time with this shell and getting it just right.  I wish I could have turned my sketch in! I'm not sure what happened when I went to draw that final one? The anxiety of drawing on expensive paper must have gotten to me.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Ready for pumpkin pie and homemade cranberry sauce....


(Yum.)


Oh my gosh, where do I even start? My senior show is in TWO weeks, and I have SO much to do! Between two studio classes, art history courses, and two classes that are requiring three separate case studies all due on the same day (you figure that one out.) I'm freaking out. This past Sunday I woke up very.. itchy.. when I got up I felt slightly light headed but made it to the bathroom to discover that i was entirely covered in HIVES. Seriously, hives? It couldn't have been something a little more exiting? I've actually never had hives before but it was quite a shock to have my entire body covered in this red itchy bumpy rash (ew).  So after a trip to Urgent Care I had a diagnosis and quite a bit of anti-histamines which did nothing but make me sleep.  So anyways, this week has been insane. I've been trying to "keep calm" since they believe my hives are from stress since I don't have any outstanding allergies to anything. This concept kind of makes me laugh inside...but not for very long. I guess on the plus side I did get to register today, I think I was seriously one of the first, it was great! Amy was also very sweet and is letting me switch into one of her classes but as a Drawing 3 student, she has no idea how much it helps me. I feel like this year has been so close to being intolerable many many times. Anyways, sorry about the rant, I needed that. This week we worked on long poses and on the manikins a little bit. We went over the knee and let me tell you, I really appreciate my knees a lot more! I've really started to like long drawings more than I did when we started. It's my chance to just stop for an hour, slow down, focus on ONE thing and just breathe.  It's frustrating at the same time, but it's also very nice to just slow down for awhile.  I was pretty pleased with the drawings that have come from them, but unfortunately I don't have pictures right now.  However, because I've constantly been feeling like I'm not drawing enough I've been going online in my downtime and just looking at random pictures and sketching them. It's a little strange sometimes sitting in a public place sketching from a picture of a nude person. I just figure it anyone asks or gives me a goofy look I'll say I'm an art student, it usually seems to answer a lot of questions. So I have a couple of pictures for you of those sketches. 
sketch 2

sketch 3

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Midterm Portfolio!

Gesture Drawing 2
Let me start by saying that I cannot believe we're three weeks away from Thanksgiving vacation, this year is speeding by! It's hard to even judge my progress because I feel like we just started. However, I will start with my gesture drawings. I really disliked gesture drawings when we first began, but I think it was because I wasn't comfortable standing, let alone standing at an arms length away, or using my entire body to draw. I'm definitely a creature of habit and after two consecutive drawing classes of sitting and drawing still life's my old habits are dying hard. Gesture drawings really help me get back into the swing of things and how to proportion the body correctly as well as just getting the model's general movement down.  I feel like my photo "Gesture 2" is a good example of how I mapped the model's movement. When looking at this photo I can actually "feel" the stretch in her side.

I also really enjoy long poses, it's nice to switch it up after drawing gesture drawings for weeks straight. However, they're a totally different animal and doing the first one was a little difficult. I had to remind myself how to start and map the rib cage and pelvis, then use landmarks to map out the rest of the figure. "Long Drawing 2" is a good example of how I used landmarks and angles to double check my proportions.

Maniken assignments have also been an integral part of understanding the human form. While frustrating at times, building the muscles individually really does help me understand how our body moves. I think building the spinal erectors was what really interested me most. I think they're incredible how they support our bodies and keep our torso's up right, of course with the help of our abdominal muscles. I also found it interesting that our abdominal muscles actually create a big asterisk that keep our core "together". 

Lastly we got our first homework assignment where we had to do a cross contour drawing of a shell. My shell is pretty smooth and somewhat boring, so my drawing was a little... boring. Creating contours is also more challenging than I thought it would be. I got a lot of good suggestions in our critique though and feel that I have a good idea of how to improve my next drawing.

For the second half of the semester I'm going to work on my cross contour drawing skills. I feel like these are going to take awhile to get correct. It's a totally different way to draw and I'm not completely comfortable with it yet. I am also going to work on using the page more appropriately, while not the most difficult thing to do I definitely need to be more conscious of it.


LINKS:
Manikens
Gesture Drawings
Long Drawings
Homework
Whole Account

Thursday, October 21, 2010

first quarter is approaching!!


Contour Shell Drawing #1
I think it's a pretty safe assumption to say that you can tell first quarter is approaching because it seems like everyone on campus is in this mad rush and there's a lot of tensity in the air.  I feel like this year, more than others, I'm just in way over my head. However, I never expected senior year to be easy-just wish it were a little less intense. I'm spending more money on coffee and art supplies than on actual food.  So anyways, Tuesday we had contour line drawings of our shell due. After redoing mine three times over the weekend I was fairly satisfied with my shell. I made a really conscious effort to follow the rules that Amy had laid out and felt pretty good about it. The one major thing I would have changed would have been the use of the page. My shell ended up taking up the entire top half of the page, I'll definitely work on this in the next drawing.  We also did a short little group critique which was very informative. we had a couple critieria in which to evaluate them with:
-achieve the illusion of form
-is there a believable diagonal long axis?
-is the whole shell drawn? how well did they use the page?
-no outlines.
-ever line should be different, specificity of line and form
-evident plane changes, changing the direction of the line.
-does the drawing portray a sense of life?
-why/how is that life being portrayed
-how could it be given more life?

The critique definitely helped a lot.  Critiques always make me want to rip my drawing down, run away and fix it and then quick bring it back. I always have to remind myself that they're to enhance learning and that I should sit still and learn from them. the critique of my shell went something like this: My shell created the illusion of form and my group members liked my line variation.  However, they would have liked to see more contour lines drawn and show more "roundness". They also suggested that I draw the lines depicting the cavity of the shell a little lighter.  The diagonal long axis was evident however it could have been pushed a little bit more, which I agree with. I did depict the whole shell but I think we can all see the problem with the use of my page, no arguments there. They felt that I did a good job trying to be conscious of not drawing an outline and that my line variation helped this.  They said I should try to vary my lines and push plane changes a little more, however after I showed them how smooth my shell was they saw where I was coming from.  They felt that my drawing did portray a sense of life, mainly from the use of line variation and being conscious of not outlining the shell.  Pushing the diagonal long axis and depth of my shell, as well as being more conscious of the use of page space could have helped push this more. I agree with everything they said and am a little anxious about starting the next one!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

I feel rusty.


Said "Shell"
I hate to admit that I haven't drawn all week.  Okay, I take that back, I've sat in class and sketched people from behind but I don't think that entirely counts.  I've also been on a "doodling" kick. It's interesting to me that I have a ton of homework to do and am preparing for my senior show and all I want to do is sit and doodle.  Not sure how that correlates to anything, but hey, maybe it's reducing my stress level.  So anyways, this week it was so ungodly hot in our classroom that Amy was nice enough to give a short lecture on the hip muscles for our manikin and then let us go for the day.  So, I got down to working on the hips, which don't quite look like they should, but I don't think the first time you make any of them muscles they are exactly right. However I must say that Charlie looks much better with a little meat on his bones. He has also grown a curious looking handlebar mustache-what an individual.  Class today was canceled, but none of us knew that because the sign was placed on the wrong side of the door, so none of us saw it and sat in the classroom for a good twenty minutes after a very enjoyable fire drill. For next week we have a contour line drawing assignment due on Tuesday. I'm a little nervous to even start this because I feel like it's learning a foreign language.  My shell is currently sitting on my desk and whenever I get bored I'll stare at it for awhile. I hate to be stereotypical, but how "Hippy" did that sound? Anyways, I'll probably start sketching some stuff out tonight on scrap paper just to get the motions going again, then actually start this weekend when the inspiration hits me.  We'll see how it turns out. I did find an interesting artist while doing some searching online. I must say she has to be the queen of contour line drawings. Here's her website! You can follow her on her blog as well.  She's seriously incredible! Although she draws very abstractly and organic in nature and I don't think the forms she creates necessarily represent anything the way her lines form space is amazing! I was very taken aback when I found her work, what a steady hand she must have!

  I also realized that I should have been posting pictures everyday (oops.), I'll just call it an opportunity for learning.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

quite the week...

This week has been never ending! I had to really push myself through drawing this week. I was so tired and by the time I got to life drawing that standing and drawing for three hours was the last thing I wanted to do. Although, I think Amy could tell that the class was less than thrilled to be there, so we got a lot of much needed breaks (thank you).  Tuesday we worked from our shells a little bit, I'm definitely a little apprehensive to do a contour line drawing from my shell. Drawing just contour lines is a new way of drawing for me and I'm not totally comfortable with it yet. We also talked about the abdominal structure. I love learning about the muscles on the body-it does make me want to go to the gym even more though. I knew that our abs held together our entire core, but I didn't know how many layers of them we had. It's incredible! I also love that when all put together our abs create a big asterisk that holds our "innards" in and supports our entire core.  Learning about all the structures is really helping me appreciate my body more. 


Charlie, Showing off his new abdominal structure.

Today, Thursday, we worked from the model all day. I was so tired that I really had to push myself and even though I tried not to, I did complain a little bit (mostly under my breath, sorry).  Amy made us step way back from our paper and use only the very tip of our pencil, barely letting it touch the paper and drawing very very lightly. This was super challenging, my arm was definitely hurting by the end of a first couple drawings, which apparently means I was doing it correctly (that's the good news).  I was a little entertained when our model came around and was looking at our drawings and I asked her if it was weird to see twenty some drawings of herself and she laughed and said, "it's very very strange to think that's me".  I give her a lot of credit, she's such a good sport for letting us draw her for three hours. I really appreciate what she does so we have the opportunity to draw from a live model instead of a skeleton.  Our assignment was to complete our abs on the manikin for Tuesday so I worked on that tonight since I'll be working all weekend, they were definitely a lot easier than the spinal erectors (thank goodness!).  I'm also going to try to work on my shell contour drawing this weekend, but that's more than likely just wishful thinking. I also meant to take pictures this week, but that just didn't happen- so maybe next week!

Thursday, September 30, 2010

motivation....

I definitely could have used a little more energy this week. As I'm preparing for my senior show in November (eek!) I'm finding that it's more difficult for me to focus in classes. Tuesday and Thursday were especially hard days for me and life drawing is my last class of the day, which makes focusing even more difficult! However, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly the time goes by. Learning how to draw the center long axis of the body was a little challenging. I kept wanting to draw the spine because it seems to make more sense to me. Learning about the rib cage was interesting though. I liked how we approached it from a simple "egg" shape. Learning how to manipulate that shape as the model moved was challenging. I'm really enjoying class so far though, more than other drawing classes. I'm really trying to draw with my whole body and be conscious of the marks that I make. My shoulder is definitely more sore than it has been in the past couple of weeks, so I must be doing something right! I'm also really trying to slow down, I know it's still a problem I have, especially when I draw three drawings in the time I should be drawing one.

As you can see from my photos I need to work on my ribcage size and it's relationship with the pelvis. I'm also still trying to figure out how it should sit depending on how the model is positioned. Amy also keeps pushing us to "draw with our body" and to try to imagine ourselves in the position that the model is in. I try to keep this in the back of my mind when I draw, that and to try and stay relaxed and not worry about what everyone else is doing (I tend to do that).  I also need to work on my posture, funny that after YEARS of slouching over a desk it takes a class where I stand for three hours to really push the fact home.   It's also strange to me that when I wear "supportive" Dansko shoes, that I paid a little bit of money for, make my feet hurt more than if I wear flip flops. I really think this further proves my point that going barefoot needs to be socially acceptable in our society.  Although that probably wont ever happen, I can still dream. :)

Thursday, September 23, 2010

3rd week already!





I cannot believe how fast the first couple of weeks has flown by! This past week has been full of new experiences. On Tuesday we had the opportunity to draw from a model, which was a new experience for me. The model was great and I was quite pleased with my skill level and myself.  Drawing for thirty seconds was a little interesting. I know I’m a fast drawer, but thirty seconds leaves a lot to be desired. I feel like I started to get the drift of gesture drawings though. I really appreciated the time that we took to slow down and do line contour drawings of the model.  This is also a new skill to acquire and hone in on though. It’s very challenging to think of how to express the curves of a form using only lines. Maybe I wasn’t really paying attention in my other drawing classes, but I don’t remember ever doing this before! I’m a little anxious to do our first homework assignment because I really have no idea how I’m going to tackle doing a shell with only contour lines. I really didn't think I would like life drawing much, but the more we draw and exercises we do, the more comfortable I am with it. I’m already seeing positive benefits from it. My sketches seem to be more realistic and my line work has gotten much better. I feel like it’s helping me to understand form and space much more quickly that I thought I would. They say it takes 10,000 hours to learn and be proficient at a new skill.  I’m not sure how much I’ve dedicated thus far, but I can’t wait until the end of the semester to see how much my skills have improved.  

first long drawing!


spinal erectors!


Today  (Thursday) we got our mannequins! Mine has thus far been very patient with me as I scraped all of his old muscles off and started to create his new ones.  I actually didn't think that creating the muscles was that complicated. Although, they do look as if it's just one big block of clay, not layers and layers of clay layered on top of one another. I'll be anxious to get to class on Tuesday to see if I did everything correctly. I've always been very interested in the human body so piecing this mannequin together is very interesting to me. We are amazing creatures, really! Our body has the ability to do things that our brain can't even comprehend.

Friday, September 17, 2010

2nd Day!

The second day went much better for me! I focused on really slowing down today and found a niche that allowed me to do so. We did 5-10 minute drawings of the spinal column from different angles. It's really incredible to me that our bodies are capable of so much movement just from our spine alone. I started my drawings out by drawing the specific curves, in my efforts to slow down I then went into detail and started to draw the bones directly over the lines I had previously drawn to represent the curves in the spine. I did minimal shading/cross hatching to help me understand the forms of the bones. Even though my drawings looked much more meticulous and less free flowing compared to everyone else's drawing, working this way really helped me slow down and focus on the line the spine was creating. At the end of class I felt really accomplished and proud of my drawings. I left with a good understanding of the vertebra's that make up the spine and the landmarks that can help us make sure our bodies are in proportion. I'm really excited for the next class! Over the weekend, if I have time, I'm planning on doing some sketches of bones just to work on form a little more.

First two days!

Life drawing thus far has been quite the experience; I'm actually enjoying it so far! The first class period, as in any drawing class was a little monotonous, but I understand the importance of the exercises that we do. The whole process of learning to stand up as we draw is a new curve, but I almost like it better. Like Amy (my professor!) explained in class, you are able to use your whole body to make a line, which brings more energy into the work.  Our first couple of exercises were of drawing shells.  First we started with drawing blind contour drawings of them. I had a couple problems with this, first off, I'm a very fast drawer.  I've always been a little too quick for all of my Professor's likings, but I've learned to live with it. It's something that I know I need to be conscious of and am going to work hard at this year. So instead of working on one blind contour for the entire amount of time I produced around sixteen. The second exercise was a continous line drawing of the shell.  Once again, my speed ended up hindering me a little bit. My drawing became dark very fast and looks as if I had gone in and shaded the whole thing. In all truthfullness, it is one line, just many many layers. I definitely failed on slowing down the first day. Evidence is shown on the left. I chose to take pictures of two of the blind contour drawings that I really appreciated and felt captured the shell best. The last picture if my continuous line drawing. The outline became really dark because they were the lines I used to trace back as I creating the different segments of the shell. Even though we were only supposed to do the outline of the form, I went in and tried to add the pattern on the shell, once again because I was whipping through the drawing way too fast. Overall the exercises were a great refresher after not drawing all summer!