Final!

 Sets:
Long Poses
Gestures


Entire Flickr Acct.


This has been a definitely different semester than last when I took life drawing.  I feel that this semester was a lot more relaxed and that I produced better work than before.  It was really nice to have options in class and decide what I wanted to work on while still working with the class; this is also the reason i have more photos than required in my sets. This semester I wanted to focus more on portraiture since we didn’t get a chance to do that in our life drawing class last semester.  I was a little nervous to work on portraits since I literally knew nothing about them and didn’t know any of the landmarks of the face.  I worked independently while the rest of the class was doing long drawings and feel that I did a few good drawings a nice example of this would be long pose 13. The eyes in this portrait were a little difficult since they were closed, I was also looking down at the model which was a weird angle to be at, but overall I was fairly happy with the outcome of it since I didn't have much direction with it.  During the last week or so of the semester Amy went over the parts of the face, which helped put everything together and the different structures made more sense. I feel that the best portrait I did was long pose 21.  I feel that there is a close likeness to the model and that I did well using contour lines to show the different parts of the face; I especially like how I handled the nose. Compared to last semester this class went a lot smoother, mainly because it was a refresher course. I'm really anxious to use the knowledge I've gained in other mediums.  I'll be going to London this summer and will be studying painting and drawing and am hoping to use the figure in a lot of my work.  I'm hoping that my understanding of the body and ability to sketch it quickly (thank goodness for all those gestures!) will help me realistically portray people.  I still feel like I have a lot of work to do and a lot I need to continue practicing, but overall I'm happy with my progress.  I think some of my strengths are drawing with my whole shoulder and trying to show movement within the figure. I think that my hair in my self portrait is a good example of this. Some of my weaknesses are drawing too quickly and trying to overcome what my mind is telling me and just to draw what I see.  It has been a great semester; I've learned so much this year! It's been a great experience, thanks Amy!

ridiculousness.... if thats a word..

Eitherway, it's the only word that I can come up with to describe my schedule lately.  I have been cramming stuff in left and right, the true definition of "multi-tasking" comes out in me when I'm stressed and have a million things to do.  Lately I've been working on a huge case study for a psychological research method's class i'm taking for grad school credits. It's kicking my butt, I wont lie.  It's of course right after life drawing so I always feel like I'm rushing out of class to book it up to Harvey on time.  Regardless, I'm very close to finishing my study, had a brief presentation on results today and then a full presentation of the study on Tuesday.  I can only imagine what my facial expressions must look like while I stand up there and talk about a study I really didn't like.  I'm so glad we're going over parts of the face in class, I thinking it's the most interesting thing we've learned thus far.  You can read people so well just from their facial expressions alone.  My ultimate goal when drawing the models is to get a close resemblance.  The first portrait I did of our male model is probably my favorite so far, I feel that it's pretty accurate and at least somewhat recognizable.  I had a little bit of a harder time with the female model because I was at a weird perspective and her head kept moving.  I had the most issues with the nose and just couldn't seem to get it right. Overall I'm happy with the line quality and how the hair turned out.  Today we did a full body drawing and once again I was at a weird angle, but it was a good challenge for me. I was a little bit unfocused because I was nervous about presenting my study results, but I think it turned out alright in general.

three weeks!

Theres this little voice inside my head that keeps screaming, it makes me a little nervous. I dont feel as stressed out as I should be and trust me, I should be getting nervous. I have so many large projects to finish up, but it's just not phasing me yet.  This week we focused on parts of the face, particularly the eyes, nose, lips and ears. I'm glad we had time at the end of this semester to go over this because last semester we just ran out of time, so this is all new information for me! However, it's also something I would like to learn more about, so although frustrating it's very rewarding.  It's difficult for the drawings to have a likeness to the model, but I dont think i did too bad today.  With a little help from Amy I think my drawing was starting to shape up pretty well.  I always love watching Amy draw or make corrections to work.  She just sees things so differently, obviously because she's trained at what she's looking at.  It makes me feel blind somethings, like "oh shoot, how did I not see that obvious landmark?!".  Our final project is to do a self portrait.  I'm pretty nervous about actually drawing myself, I've drawn myself from pictures before and they usually turn out fairly flat.  This time i think my approach will to actually use a mirror and just take lots and lots of time, we'll see how it goes.

I miss the sun...

What a poopy week! first off, it snowed, it's disgusting and I'm royally sick of it. Today is the first day I have seen the sun and I have to be in class all day.  I need to pack, seriously. I dont know why I'm blogging about the sun and packing, but It seems important.  On a serious note, theres four weeks left in the semester, I'm freaking out. I have so many huge projects that I have no motivation to do and then I'm basically graduating. I have student teaching next semester, which I haven't even received my placement for and then after that, I have to grow up.  I've spent four years complaining how much I want to graduate and now that I'm here.... i'm blank. I want to be done, but now what? Apply for grad school? get a job? Sometimes I wish that this were all already planned out for me, but i suppose that would defeat the purpose of actually "living". 

back to life drawing:

Tuesday we worked on the skull. I LOVE working on the skull.  It's slightly irritating because it's basically one big optical illusion.  It's difficult to get the placement of landmarks and remember that the cranium is actually 2/3 of the skull, thats HUGE.  I've been dabbling with some portraits and studies of skulls from previous classes, but it was nice to have a refresher and everyone focusing on the same thing.  I'm always impressed by my classmates drawings and feel like I can learn a lot from my peers.  


OH, and totally unrelated to ANYTHING... my squirrel friend came for a visit the other day :)

spring weather: 1.. homework: 0

It has been so gorgeous out this week that I have literally put off homework to go outside and play volleyball 24/7.  I think that's why I'm a little bit depressed today, it's slightly cold/windy and cloudy outside and I heard it was going to snow tomorrow.  Definitely puts a kink in things. This week was a full week, which was nice, but it was also difficult because as I stated above.. I wanted to be outside the entire class period.  We continued to work on shoulders on Tuesday and Thursday was all about hands.  Although difficult and sometimes frustrating I really like working on hands.  I also liked how Amy ran class today.  It was laid back and we could each work at our own pace, but knew that we had to get at least two drawings done.  One drawing from the skeleton and one from the model.  Being a ridiculously fast drawer I whipped through those, so I dabbled a little bit on trying to map out actual little bones.  Overall I felt relaxed and productive, which is a nice change of pace from being stressed and overbooked.  I feel like my drawings turned out better because of this.

lacking concentration...

I wont lie, I would probably be more productive if I was out laying in a field somewhere doing nothing rather than sitting inside classrooms all day while it's GORGEOUS outside. This week was a half week, Tuesday was advisement day so we didn't have class. Thursday was pretty relaxed, we worked on some gestures then did an hour pose focusing on the torso, shoulder girdle, and arm.  I, once again, sat in a spot where I had a goofy perspective.  This is good because it tests my ability and makes me work on something that I hate, but it also frustrates me to no end.  I was actually flipping through my drawings and was feeling pretty good about my progression. Granted, I was looking through some drawings that I did last semester, but I can definitely see increased understanding just within my gesture drawings. I'm really eager to keep working on my skills and possibly branch out more.  Once I feel fully comfortable with proper proportion I would like to start abstracting my drawings a bit more.  I would also like to start working with india ink again. WARNING: bragging is about to happen :).  I had actually posted some of my work on facebook and someone saw it and put down an offer on the piece... over facebook. I was floored and very excited.  It's hard to sell the piece because I reallllllly like it, but then again, I am going to London and am funding the trip myself.. so I need cash, ASAP.  Buh-bye favorite ink drawing.

every time I turn around...

my "To-Do" list gets bigger!! tricky little devil, really.  Lets see, this week was fairly normal for once. On Tuesday I had a typical "Johna needs to expand her artistic horizons, or at least pretend to" day.  I had this thought about exploring personal perceptions of ones own body and how one might view something they cannot change such as their skeletal structure.  I got this idea looking back through my photos of drawings from last semesters life drawing class and one of the first drawing of the skeleton I did was so disproportionate that it was almost interesting. Regardless of how incorrect it was I was intrigued and thought of how I could really mess with things.  I began to sketch random bones/structures and connecting them with ligaments and tendons.. it didn't quite turn out how I wanted it, but it's a start.  I'm just thankful Amy lets me explore things on my own while staying within the range of "life drawing".. which is a more difficult line teeter between than you'd think.

still working on it.. definitely not happy with it yet.

So, to make up for my artistic dabbling on Tuesday I hunkered down and worked with the class today, which was probably a good decision on my part since we ended up doing a two hour pose.  I broke it up into two one hour poses and did one of the face/torso and then worked on a facial profile.  I was looking at the model from kind of a weird angle so that was a bit of a struggle.  I had a lot of difficulty with the arm and was hoping Amy would give me a couple pointers, but she never got around to me, which is okay.  I honestly think it made me work a little harder to figure out how to truthfully represent what I was seeing. However, it still ended up a bit wonky looking.. and I was definitely too far away to really be focusing on the face, but I thought I would try anyways.. I think it's better than my first attempt.

3 minute gesture

one hour pose

30-45 minutes