Head, shoulders, knees, and toes

Monday and Tuesday this week dragged so ridiculously slowly by. Wednesday with the whole snow day thing made it go by faster, but it still seemed like a longggg week. With life drawing more specifically, we worked on our clay mannequins to put the shoulder muscles in. The muscles helped me a little, but the shoulder bone is one of the most confusing parts on the body for me. I just don't understand what it looks like underneath with all the different angles that the models give us. It's getting really frustrating because this is the first real roadblock I've felt like I've come up against so far in life drawing. Maybe I just need to give it more time, but right now I just don't understand it for some reason.

Wednesday's long drawing went pretty well though. I think because we're adding so much to our drawings now, I hate the 30 second ones and love the 3 minute ones. I just feel rushed and like I'm doing a poor job with the shorter timed drawings. And that definitely adds to my frustration with my shoulder bone issues. But anyways, the long drawings was fun. I had a side angle which didn't help my shoulder bone problem because I really didn't practice it. But I did get to practice one angle of it as well as getting the clavicles in there which was good. I like this drawing for the most part. I didn't get to finish it because I didn't have enough time to put her left arm in, up on the pillows which was kind of a bummer. The super large muscle assignment this weekend will probably keep me busy, hopefully it goes well. Hope everyone else had a good first week back and it didn't drag on as slowly as mine!

Little Feet

First off, yay! It's spring break! So excited to have this week to relax a little, and catch up on some homework so when I get back I don't feel like I'm behind. Secondly, this week, like I assumed was pretty stressful. Life drawing wasn't bad because we just had some muscle assignments due though. Monday when we worked on our clay assignments I felt like it was time well spent, I got feedback and finished my assignment during class which is always nice. Wednesday was an awesome day. I felt really positive about how my foot drawings were going, and it was a nice change from the hectic week to slow down and draw for a long period of time.

The foot drawing I included isn't the best quality again because it's off my cell phone, but I think it's clear at least just a little dark. Our female model made the best foot positions I think we could have gotten. They were interesting and just complicated enough. Below my drawing, you can see Amy's sketch that she drew while helping me with mine. For the most part, I think they follow the same structure.
Once we get back it'll be interesting to see if I'm not as intune with my drawings as I was before I left. Taking a week off can really make a difference, but hopefully it won't affect me too much. Who knows, over break I'd like to work on a painting that's been unfinished for a couple months now at my house but we'll see. I imagine I'll just want to do the bare minimum while on break. I hope everyone that's traveling is safe in their journeys and have a great break! :)

Midterm? No way. Already? Sheesh!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60148576@N04/

Above is the link to my Flickr account as requested. I hope i included the right link, Flickr is completely new to me and super foreign.
So... onto discussing this semester thus far. I honestly can't believe its already midterm. Sure I've learned a lot but I also feel like just yesterday I started drawing again. It's been since last spring semester that I've had a drawing class, by the way. I guess when I break it down proportions is the biggest thing I've learned. I feel like I really am starting to understand the proportion between the upper body compared to the lower body, then comparing the ribcage to the pelvis, etc. I think one of my best examples of this is seen in "Two Minute Gesture Drawing 2" Where you can see the rib cage and pelvis, as well as the shoulder and pelvis angles.

  

I never really understood the spine until this class. The different sections, especially the lumbar on women, is extremely important in the defining the rest of the figure. I probably wouldn't have realized that on my own or used it as such a deciding factor of the body's angles. I think what I want to learn most about next is strange angles of the body. We've been doing the crisp, clean straight from the front, side, or back; but I'm interested in learning how to draw things that are more like everyday life. Not too crazy, but just things we haven't drawn yet. A figure sitting Indian style, or crossing their legs. I guess I'm not completely sure what I want to learn, just some different angles I suppose. That's why I drew "Fifteen Minute Long Drawing" because it was a completely new angle for me, I had never drawn anything like that before. I really enjoyed it and challenging myself. Just a breath of fresh air.

Looking at the long drawing I drew on Wednesday (in this week's blog) I notice my ribcage and pelvis are pretty accurate... but I don't know what I was thinking when I drew her thighs. I'm pretty sure I did them last and apparently didn't check them over enough because they don't match up well to the rest of the body. Other than that I'm decently happy with it. Overall, I'm excited for the rest of this semester, it's pretty promising I'll be able to get some strong human figure knowledge and drawings out of it.