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!