This week was a shortened week due to Advisement day. So by the time we actually had to draw again, i felt out of practice. After doing a couple 30 second gesture drawings of the girl model, I began to get back in the groove. What I liked about this class period was that we had longer time amounts to draw the model, and really focus on the whole body and detail. I find the 30 second poses good for becoming comfortable with the subject matter at the beginning of class, but I find it hard to really get much of anything drawn. I like the 5 minute up to 45 minute poses the best. I also liked the variety of views the girl model was able to give us this week. However, I found it hard to draw some of the views depending on the angle. When she is straight on or sitting down, sometimes I find it hard to figure out the placement of the pelvis or rib cage, or have troubles with the foreshortening. This week, I felt as if I got a little better hold on foreshortening when Amy and Josh walked around the class and pointed out different markers or ways to check your drawings to make sure they are in proportion. I feel that the figures I draw are slowing becoming more and more in proportion each week, with learning all the different skeletal and muscular structures that make up the body.

The Pelvis

This week we spent Tuesday watching a video on the pelvis bones and glut muscles. It contained a lot of information and was somewhat interesting. Since it was an older video it was a little dry and I had a hard time seeing what he was drawing, but I learned a lot about how to draw the pelvis. I thought it was good that we got to practice drawing the model that same day because we got practice doing what we just learned and it broke up the class period. I learn better when the class is segmented because it keeps my attention better. Even though the video taught me a lot about how to draw the pelvis, I think I prefer having lectures. I can then ask questions if something is unclear and I like how Amy draws it out as she explains it because that is how I learn best.
I enjoyed drawing the model on Thursday as well. We hadn't drawn a girl model in a while, so it was nice to get some variety. I liked how she gave several poses because it really helped me to practice drawing what we had learned during Tuesdays class. It took me a while to warm up, but after doing the 30 second poses for a while, I was able to get back into it again and found that my drawings improved a great deal. I think learning about the muscles and bones is really paying off because my drawings are improving and I am able to make sure the body is proprotionate to everything.

The Abdominals

This last week we learned about about the ribs along with the abdominal muscles. I had never realized that there were four different muscles that make up the abdominals. I had thought that there were only two. The ribs were also very interesting to learn about. Now that we talked about how to draw the sternum and how to draw the ribs from the front and side view, it is a lot easier to draw the models. I have a better idea of how long the abdominal and rib cage so be, helping me keep the body in better proportion. I was confused or wondering about one thing though, I had thought that men had one less rib than females, however, we were told that everyone has twelve ribs. So is it a myth or is it true?
Drawing the model this week felt a little like starting over. It felt like a long time since i had drawn since we missed a week and half of drawing. After the the first couple drawings for 30 seconds, I began to get back in the groove. Some of the poses were hard to draw because of the angle or how he was standing. But after practicing, I got better, and began to understand to draw the rib cage, spine, and sternum, along with the spinal column that we learned a couple weeks ago.

Muscles!

This week in life drawing, I didn't get much time to actually practice drawing the spine. After learning about how it curves and what the spine is made up with, I had my shell critique and only got to draw one drawing from the model this week. I really hope we get more time to practice with the spine as well as learn how to draw the central line in the front, because I missed then while in critique as well.
I worked on building my muscles on my little skeleton model this last weekend, and found it a little difficult. Even though the book provides a variety of views from different angles sometimes it is hard to tell how big and the location of each muscle in comparison to each other. Some of the muscles that we were supposed to put on the skeleton this week were pretty little and just ended up getting covered by other muscles which is a little frustrating after working hard to make sure they are in the right spot and shaped the same as the one in the book. I think once we get further along in building the skeletons it will be more fun because there will be more muscles that I will be familiar with and be able to recognize on the body when I am drawing the model in class.

First week

The first week of classes went surprisingly well. I was excited that we got to start drawing an actual model right away. At first I thought it was going to be a little awkward, but it wasn't! Our first model we had did a really good job switching poses and making sure everyone got to draw from all angles. It took me a little while to get warmed up and used to drawing again, since I haven't taken a drawing class for a couple of semesters. Drawing in gesture form for the first half hour of class really helped me get things in proportion and see the figure as a whole. I am still having a hard time drawing with loose lines and trying to show the whole form only drawing the lines that are closest or most dominant in the figure.
After doing the in class contour drawing, I realized that I had done my wrong. I drew lines going in both directions to show the curves of the body form from both directions. I also, did it with fast lines and filling in most of the form with the checkered board-like lines. However, after looking around the room and seeing how other students created their contour drawing along with the discussion about how everyone drew theirs, I now have a better idea of how to draw using contour lines.

Intro Post

My name is Sam, and this is the first Life Drawing class I have taken. I have always been fascinated with drawing people, particularly faces, however I would like to expand my horizons by drawing the whole body. I have done lots of self portraits and people drawings in several of my art classes in the past and have really enjoyed working with the human figure.
I think this class will help me to draw things in three-dimension and learn how to draw better with line rather than just shading. I want to work on having clean lines rather than ones that have a sketchy quality along with having variety with my line weight. I also want to improve on drawing things/body parts in proportion with each other.
Here are a couple of drawings/paintings I have done in other classes.