Review from Mid-Review to Now

Hello Audience, today has been a long day, working on the last shell drawing and taking picture for the final portfolio.  Now I'm writing this blog to summarize the last half of the semester.  Which was been interesting, a lot of challenging drawings.  I had to change how usually drawing from fast and sketchy to slow and clear.  I think I sort of done that, I still do that a times, but I usually go over it again and edit what I did by going slower, erasing some of what I did.  Another thing was that I'm starting to put contour line more strategically, instead of putting them all over the place.  Probably still have to work on slowing and using line economically.  Another thing is that I notice while looking at the drawings from before the mid-term portfolio was due, that there was some improvement.  Comparing the drawings for the beginning of the semester and now at the end of the semester, there's some differences, but I really don't see any great difference.

Okay on to a different topic, how about my final shell drawing. 

Well, I want the last drawing to be more dramatic than the others, so I decided to go with pose for the shell.  I drew the shell out with black conte' crayon.  Then I wet the paper down with and put some black underneath the shell line work.  The next thing I did, I put some red ink with black and brown ink mixed together to prevent getting a pink color again.  I was thinking of using tea or coffee, but to me I would feel like I'm wasting it.  Using the red ink mixture, I worked it into the shell by following the curves and shape of it.  After that I put some watered down black ink on to the shell to make some depth.  I especially want to be put more black ink into the opening of the shell.  Finally, when I had the shell done, took the watered down black ink and red ink mixture, and filled in the rest of the paper with some background.  In the end, I think it turned out okay, comparing it from the very first shell drawing, it's much better than that. 

Well, with the final scheduled for on Monday at 10am, I got to get a final portfolio on here then.  Here is the link to my Flickr account where it's at Final Portfolio .  The Final drawings pictures have the word 'Final' in front it.  When you are done with this blog post go check it out.

I'll might continue putting posts on here, maybe not everyday, maybe not every week, but sometime in the future.  

Till next time...

Shell Drawing #3

Hello again audience, it's a wonderful Tuesday evening in the dorms.  Besides being frigid, its quite nice out.  Well, today was our last scheduled class for life drawing, sad I know it, but it had to come someday, it was just today.  Anyways, our manikins were (kind of) due.  I brought my manikin to get critique by Amy, along with the other manikins from other classmates.  There were some thing wrong with my manikin that I will redo.

While the manikins were being critiqued, we were doing some good old fashion 30 sec thru 2 min. gesture drawing, but with a twist.  Our model, who is a foreign exchange student from Germany, told us about a type of poses that either she did or seen someone else did.  The poses were of her putting clothes on, which was fascinating to be able to do it.  It was like copying a photo of something in mid-action.  Overall, it was great experience.

After the gesture drawing, we did a long pose for the rest of the class.  I would go further into detail about the long pose, but I'm gonna need something to talk about tomorrow.

Also, we got our third shell drawings back today.

I've been waiting to talking about this one.  First of all, it's quite pink.  I used a red ink for the shell itself, but not realizing that red ink on white paper, it turned pink.  Another thing is that I watered it down, so that is probably most of the problem.  Anyways, along with the red ink I used black India ink.  I used to the black ink for the shadow on the lower half of the picture.  Where I should have used the black ink was probably on the shell itself.  Making some gradient on the shell would have help push the sense of depth in the drawing, but I'll keep that in mind for next time. 

Okay, tomorrow is going to be a long day because its the last day to work on our final project for the shopping cart project.  So I might not be able to put a post on here tomorrow, but I will try to. 

Till next time...

Skulls are so metal...

Hello audience,  how was your weekend?  My was snowed in.  It snowed like 18 inches and with 20 mph winds.  I was either brave or crazy, but I went outside Saturday to meet up with my group for a project that is due this Thursday @8 am.  So I'll probably won't be able to put too many posts this week. 

Anyways, last Thursday in life drawing, we drew skulls.  It was very interesting, especially during the lecture.  Amy explained that skull is basically to parts, the face and the cranium.  The face pretty much is only 1/3 of the skull.  The other 2/3 is just the cranium, which holds the brain.  So after the lecture, Amy set up some skull, so we can practice drawing them.  She told us to do two views, a profile (side) and 3/4 view.  I was able to get a side view done which I'll put down here.

Yeah, I liked drawing skull.  It gave me a better understanding on the structure of the skull.  I wanted to get a 3/4 view done, but I only got half of it before Amy took the skull down and put it away.  I was like,  "NOOOOOOO!!!!"  In reality, I was a little disappointed on not getting done, but I shouldn't talked up the last fifteen, too.  But that conversation was so interesting though.  Oh well...

Well tomorrow is our last scheduled class before the final.  Almost kind of sad, because that this semester flew by without me even noticing it.  Well, I might take Life Drawing 2 sometime in the future.

Well its been a long day and I'm tired so I'll warp this post up.

Till next time...

Thursday!!! Update

It's Thursday audience!!!!  Some may say thirsty Thursday, but since I don't have hardly any money to go out drinking, it's just another Thursday.  Anyways, I didn't get my shell drawing back from Amy today, so I don't have really anything to talk about for today.  But I was bumming around YouTube today and I found a teaser trail of the new Transformer movie.  Here it is:

I personally like the Transformers movies.  I know that the critics didn't like it, but its just a fun movie to watch.

So I'll another post up tomorrow with a summary of this week in my classes.

Till next time.... I'm tired

Shoulders and Hands!!!

Hello audience, it homer11588 and with some pictures. 

Okay, last Thursday we did a long drawing of our nude model.  We had to focus on the shoulders, front and back.  I focused on the back because it seemed more interesting and there was no room to draw from the front either.  I'll put the picture right here:

 

I tried to focus on the should blades and the arms to get a better understanding on how they work together.  I also tried to give it some volume by using contours.  I tried a different style than what I'm used to.  Before I drew to the model real quick and it didn't look that great, in additions, I put a lot of lines onto the figure, which made it hard to see the details. One thing that I wished I didn't do is the contour lines make the model look like Spider Woman, so I try to vary the line more.  So I hope this looks okay.   

This past Tuesday (Dec. 7th) we worked on hands.  Before we worked on hands we critiqued our shell drawing that we inked.  I'll go more into that when I get the picture back from Amy (life drawing teacher).  After we critiqued our shell drawings, we started our hand studies.  We got into groups of two and one of person had to pose their hand for about 20 minutes to a half hour.  We alternated from who posed.  I did a front and back drawing done, so I'll put both of them down below.

Back of Hand

Palm of Hand

 On looking at these drawings the top one seems a better the bottom one.  They both are okay, but the bottom one doesn't jump out off the page as the top one.  Probably because I outlined it with black conte' crayon.  In both, of them, I pushed the bones in them.  Trying to give the viewer (which is you who is reading this) an idea of the structure of the hand. 

So I believe this blog post is long enough for tonight...

Till next time...

 

FAILURE

Audience, I failed you.  I failed to put a post on here everyday last week.  So I feel kind of bad about not getting a post on here in a few day too.  I make this pledge:

 I will put a blog post for the rest of this week, with pictures of artwork I did,too.

I put some pictures on here tomorrow and Thursday when I get my shell drawing back from the teach.

Well, I'm tired for some reason to I'm gonna go to bed

So Till Next time...

Day Three: Totally Random

Why... hello... audience?  Like the title says, this post is about anything that is on my mind.  Which isn't much it turns out.  Maybe that is a good thing... wait, I just remember something... Oh yeah, I get to come up with some crazy designs for my shopping cart project.  Which I'm not sure that I mention in a previous post, so I'm going to give a brief description of the project.  Starting right NOW!!! 

Okay, the redesign shopping cart for a big box store, like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc., is for my Human Body and Form class.  We had to make the shopping cart more appealing to people, yet make it practical.  So nothing too crazy... I guess.  

Oh!!!.. Oh!!!.. No Shave November is done!!  I can shave this peach fuzz off, but I won't cause it's cold outside and I can use the little fuzz on my face it keep warm... yeah.  Anyways, I got to make up some more shopping cart concept designs.

Till next time...

Day Two!!!!

HELLO AUDIENCE!!!!  Wow gone a little crazy with the caps locks there.  Anyways, this is day two of my put a new post everyday this week, going strong so far. 

Today in class we talked about the arm and shoulder muscles.  With the arm and shoulder muscle lecture, we got a long list of muscles to put onto our manikins due December 14th, so I'll work on that when i get the chance.  Another thing was that our 3rd shell drawing got extended for another week, which is great cause I had it mostly done.  The only thing I need to do it get the ink on it, which could be a experience for me.  I never did it before, so I could totally f*** it up or come out smelling like roses.  Who knows, gonna have to try it and see.  

Other news, in my Food Technology class I got blinded sided by a paper that is due next week.  It's not too bad because we get to work in groups for the paper, which makes it less stressful.  My others class are going well end of the semester is rapidly, it seems, coming.  Almost seems to like we just started the school year.  Oh well...

Okay I'm getting tired and I still have to finish up some hw before I got to bed.

Till next time...

A blog entry everyday this week (Nov. 29th- Dec. 3rd)

Hello again audience, Homer11588 here and I have a goal that I want to do this week.  This goal is to put a blog post on this blog everyday this week.  Sounds easy enough to do, not sure that all of them will have topics relating to life drawing.  Probably on some other classes, like my human body & form class, which is an Industrial Design class.  Anyways, on with the blog!!!!

Well, thanksgiving break is done and I'm back at school.  Before I left for break, our life drawing class on a field trip to the Walker Art Museum and the Bell Museum of Natural History.  The Walker was.... interesting?  They mostly had modern art there and it is not my kind of art I like to look at.  I'm not putting it down, or anything, (maybe I am?) but they had a room that had solid blue paintings.  What was the point, probably was written on a card somewhere, but I didn't see any real skill in most (not all) or what was there.  The most interesting thing I did see there was a large sea shell made out of concrete and had a hole in to see the inside of it, that was cool.  Anyways, my experience at the Walker left me unimpressed.

That was only half of the field trip.  After we left the Walker, we went the Bell Natural History Museum.  It was full of stuffed animal, not like a teddy bear, but taxidermy.  It had animals from the Northern Midwest.  They had a wide variety of critter, birds, rabbits, deer, and, my personal favorite, badgers. We had to find a critter to draw for a bit, I've chosen a little river otter.  I sat there and drew the little guy for an hour or so, then it was time to go.

Look he's smiling :D

Okay, I'm gonna cut off here, so I'll have something to talk about tomorrow...

Till next time...

Better late than never...

Why hello audience, homer11588 again and with a completed shell drawing.  YESSSSS!!!!!  Here is a picture of it

Looks, almost, like some kind boat?

 

 

Anyways, I just got it done today around 3 pm and then I started to work on my manikin and finished.  Had to do the muscles of the lower leg and foot.  It was sort of difficult of getting the clay underneath the foot because there was hardly any space.   I got through it, and worked on the rest of the muscles that were assigned for it.  I took about 2 1/2 hours to do and I think it looks all right. 

This blog isn't really a reflection of the week, hence, it's Monday.  I do got two life drawing classes this week, so I should have something up on either Thursday or Friday.

Other News...

In my Human Body Form Class (Industrial Design Class), we got our last project for the semester   assigned today, and we had to design a shopping cart for 'supercenter' stores (like Walmart and Target).  This sounds super interesting to me and I think I'm going to like it also.  I'm not going to do this project alone, oh no, we got assigned into groups that, our teacher thought would be a good mix.   Hope he is right, but it just started, I'll give it sometime before I put any judgment.

Okay, I think I blogged enough tonight.  I got to study for a history exam tomorrow.

Till next time...

Reflection of the week of Nov. 8th

Hello all, this is Homer11588.  Today, I've decided to go with my screen name for this post.  It's a little more impersonal than having my real name on here, but I just don't care at this point.

Anyways, we only had one class this week because of Mid-Program Review.  In which, all art and design classes were canceled.  It was sort of a day off, by 'day off' I mean one less class to go to, so I used the time to work on a project that was due tomorrow for different class.  The class we did have this week, we talked about the foot, on about its bone structure and its parts.  After we talked about the structure about the foot, we critiqued our homework drawings. (Well everybody else did, I didn't cause I forgot my shell at home)  Which is deserves a paragraph itself.

The reason why I didn't my shell drawing was that last weekend I had my aunt, who lives in Illinois, came to visit for the weekend.  It would have seemed rude to work on homework when my aunt who drove all the way up here just to see family.  In short, nothing got done.  My plans changed because of this, in which, was to do the drawing back at school before class on Tuesday.  When I got back from home, I was getting ready to the drawing, until I couldn't find my shell.  After tearing my dorm room apart, I called home to see if it was there, which it was, and had to figure out what-to-do.  After talking to the teacher about what happened, she gave me a week to get the drawing done, which would required me to go home and get the shell, which was a pain.  Now that I got my shell, I can do the drawing.   Which leads me to the next paragraph.

Because I don't have a drawing to put on here with this post.  But I'll get docked points for not having a picture every post, I put just a random picture on here. 

 

YAAYYY!!!!  Eye popping Kitty!!!!

This has nothing to do with on what I said in this post.  It probably won't count, but this whole thing of doing a blog for a drawing class does not sit right with me.  IT'S DRAWING CLASS, not a intro to blogging class, but that is a completely different story.

Anyways,

Till Next Time.... maybe...

Mid-Term Reflection

It's midway through the semester already, almost feels like we just started. Anyways, this semester has been very interesting. Like having to stare at a live nude model, which was very awkward for me, but with time it didn't bother me anymore. The manikins were interest to do. (So interesting I'll insert a picture of it right below here)

Yeah, working on this little guys was fun, but the only thing I didn't like about it was that it was very awkward to carry back and forth to class.  Carrying a little half skeleton man around people sort of notice.  Overall, it's been fun.  The drawing is another thing that was interesting, too.  Have to work with a live model (it would have been awkward if it was a dead model) made me understand the human body on how it moves, how the muscles change as they move, and all the little shadows you don't notice unless you are looking for them.  The last thing we did for the semester was to make a mid-term portfolio on Flickr.  So you guys can take a look when you get a chance. 

For the second half of the semester, I expect myself to improve in my ability to draw the human form.  Also, to finish up my manikin, it would nice to see it completed.

Till next time....

Shell Drawing Contour Homework

Okay everybody; here is my first shell contour homework assignment drawing.  (That was a mouth full)  Anyways, we were assigned this assignment a couple of weeks ago, and the assignment was to draw a contour drawing for 5-6 hours, in which to me is a long butt time.  We had our choice of drawing median, which I used charcoal pencil, on 30”x 22” Stonehenge paper.  Drawing this shell was easy to do.  I did it one line at a time, until I got the whole shape of the shell.  After I got the basic shape of the shell, I started to put more detail into it.  While I was drawing it I was trying to keep in mind of atmosphere perspective.  Which is the farther an object is, the hazier it looks because of the atmosphere itself.  It shouldn’t matter with this small of an object, but for dramatic affect I did.  In reality, it was to give it a sense of depth.  I did this by using a harder charcoal pencil as I was going towards the back of the shell. 

After we got the drawings done we did a critique on them.  We got into groups of 3 to 4 and took five minutes for each drawing.  Mentioning the positives and negatives of each drawing.  The positives of my was that it showed volume well and the contour of shell itself.  Negative was that it was not taking the full space of the paper.  Another one was that it seems to be too dark. 

Till next time…

Reflective of the week of September 27th

All right!!!  This week in life drawing has been somewhat… tiring.  To begin, I had a cold for most of the week and couldn’t really concentrate in class on Tuesday.  In which, we had to bring our manikin with the 9, wait 10, back muscles on it.  We were assigned it last week and had to do it over the weekend, but I didn’t get all the muscles written down before I left class on Thursday.  In result, I was missing one muscle.  So after being told the basic requirements for how the muscle was suppose to be done, I went back and redid the whole thing, with the missing muscle included.  But before class was done on Tuesday we did some 15 sec. gesture drawings, which we had to get the basic long axis line, then to 30 sec. drawings, same as the 15 sec. ones, but with a little more detail, like rib cage, limbs, etc.  Before class was done, we did a 30 min. contour drawing, in which, I redone three times and still didn’t get a good one out of it.  So like I said at the beginning  of this post, I wasn’t feeling a 100%.   But Thursday was a different story.

Thursday was a pretty good day for me.  I was able to concentrate much better, and it showed.  I should have some pictures in this post, but I don’t have my drawing pad with me at the moment.  So I might add them in later, or not.  Seriously, though, it was a good day.  First, we talked about the rib cage and its features.  Then we used what we discussed about the rib cage, like using an egg shape to represent the rib cage, into some 30 seconds drawings.  Going with what we did in the 30 seconds drawings, we went to 1 minute drawings, and then to 2 minutes drawings.  By the end of class, we did a 25 minute contour drawing, in which, we used the egg rib cage technique to get the basic shape of the torso, and also used the long line axis, too.  I still seemed to have trouble slowing down when doing contour.  Still, I need to improve on a few things (more like everything), but that is life. 

Till next time…

First Shell Drawing - Contour

Hey, this is my first of, hopefully, many drawing I'll be posting on this blog.  This drawing, which is above, was an in-class assignment on our second day of class.  I did a continuous contour drawing, or at least tried, of a shell that I was given for assignments.  I used just plain charcoal to draw this out, and it was fine.  The only thing I didn't like about using charcoal is that there's the risk of smearing it and getting charcoal on your hands.  As I was drawing the shell, I tried to capture the roundness of it, while trying to keep the line continuous, which I probably didn’t.   Being used to sketching, it was hard to remember to keep the charcoal on the paper the whole time, especially when I got really into it the drawing. 

            The ¾ view turned out to be a little too dark for my liking.  I was putting too much pressure behind the marks, making them too dark.  You can probably notice that as you look at the picture I posted with this blog post.  On the side view of the shell, I tried to lighten my marks and be more cautious of trying to keep the contour line going continuously.   I was trying to make the lines show the roundness of the shell by having darker lines closer to the bottom of shell, to imitate shadow, and to have lighter lines to show some glare.  In which, I think might need some work on my line weight.  In this drawing they seem to be about the same, especially in the ¾ view.  I think one of the reasons of this it that I tend to draw fast, so slowing down is another thing I’m going to be working on as the semester continues.  With that, I “shell” be going. 

Till Next Time…

HELLLLLOOOO!!!!!

Hey, this is my first post on this blog.  I usually don't do blogs, but this is for a class.  I haven't yet read the guidelines that my professor has for our blogs, but I figured that I should put something up before thing really get a rolling with this class.  Well, I'll post some stuff from my Life Drawing Class.