Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Final Life Drawing Portfolio/Post

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60163718@N02/sets/


Life Drawing One has taught me to not only recognize the correct proportions of the human body, but to also to recognize the individual structures that make up the human body.  The 30 second gesture drawings have helped me tremendously because having that small time frame forces me to focus on the basics of the subject matter.  In 30 seconds I only have time to catch the figure of the backbone, ribs, pelvis, head, and sometimes a few quick lines for the arms and/or legs.   I think that I made significant progress in drawing faces and facial features compared to how well I could draw faces before this Life Drawing class.  I will still continue working on drawing facial features.  I think that it is better to draw faces of people you do not have a strong personal connection with.  I feel more satisfied with a drawing of a strangers face rather than that of a face of a friend or close family member.  Along with continuing my study of faces will continue my over all figure drawing in my sketch book and possibly in larger drawings as well.  Feet and hands are definitely going to be a concern or point of interest when drawing or sketching.  This course has helped me engage a more realistic sense to my drawing style, which I think has helped out my own style and has opened doors to expressing myself in further drawings.  I am very interested in taking more advanced drawing classes to further my knowledge and view of the human body and also of other subject matter.  I will also be encouraging more life like figures in my artwork from now on because of my new found knowledge and interest in the human figure.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

12th Life Drawing POST


Almost to then end with my twelfth post for Life Drawing.  I was gone for one day but from what I can tell we’ve been drawing a lot of face and head type things the last couple weeks.  Which is fine with me because I feel that I lack skill and/or practice to add definite personality to the people I draw.  For class this last week we talked about the importance and shape of the ear.  When Amy demonstrated how to draw the basic shape of the ear she used straighter lines on the ear to show angles and turning points that I would have usually just rounded off.  Pointing out where these points on the edge of the ear are has really helped added definition to the faces I draw.  I also never knew how exactly the ‘swirls’ of the inner ear went around until Amy showed us in class.  This has also helped me understand what the basic look of the ear should most likely be.  Also I have been using plainer structures to help draw and map out my sketches.  I have been doing a few warm up sketches before working a larger drawing.  I think that the gesture drawings are becoming more and more necessary to my drawings because they help me map out and get used to the shape of whatever it is I’m drawing.  The gesture drawings I do are mostly involving the basic shape of the skull and the vertical dividing line on the face, and most times I throw in the lips and eyes and a quick curve for the ear and just a few quick scratches for the nose.  I have been blocking in small doses of value to help find the plains of the face.

11th LIFE DRAWING Post

For my eleventh Life Drawing Wall post I will be talking about skulls and facial features.  Once again I will be talking about my fascination and obsession with comic books.  Lots of the comic books and novels I have seen are full of facial expressions.  Although they may not be realistic, they are extremely easy to read.  Many facial features are accentuated in almost all comic books; this helps to portray people without having to get down every detail of an individual’s face.  I think that being able to identify certain features of an individual’s face is very important in being able to draw that person.  I like to draw caricatures of people I know sometimes, and I always map out the distinguishable features that gives that person their individual look.  Cartoons have been a big part of drawing faces for me as well.  Both kid cartoons and more adult humor cartoons have helped me.  I like to use cartoons as references because almost all cartoons have guest stars.  These guest stars are caricaturized and it becomes easy to see a movie star as a cartoon and then look at a real photo of that same movie star and compare the two.  Arnold Schwartzenegger was my first famous person caricature that I’ve drawn.  It was easy to find his features because he has squinty eyes, large brow, large gapped teeth and huge bulking muscles.  I have a hard time trying to draw details of faces.  I feel like I have a pretty good sense of getting the basic features of a face but when it comes to laying down some details I have difficulty getting exact features.  I would really like to continue drawing faces and familiar people because it is something I would like to work on and it is something I enjoy.