Final Reflection

This semester in Life Drawing I have been focusing on many different aspects of the course. I feel like I have fulfilled many of them, and improved on all of them. Maintaining a blog has been an excellent way for me to reflect on my own work. Updating it weekly has helped me practice how to effectively communicate about my work, skills, and things to work on in the future. Understanding artistic anatomy was difficult at first; it was hard to find a balance between what I saw and what I knew and then draw it effectively. At first I focused too much on the bone structure that we were learning, but as time went on I improved on combining it with the knowledge of the muscles and of what I actually saw on the model. I enjoy drawing with a structural approach rather than painterly drawing, but it is a different mindset that took me a while to understand. At midterm, I really began to focus on understanding the form better. Also, my midterm report suggested creating more fluidity between parts of the figure. At the beginning of the semester I would draw contour lines anywhere on the figure without reasoning behind them; at this point in the semester I have trained my eye to see the plane-changes as well as subtle curves of the body. Spending more time looking at the figure and how it works together as a whole has really helped me. This is still something that I still want to improve on. I know that the ability to draw in this way will be beneficial in my career as an interior designer. It is important to be able to draw as a way to quickly convey an idea to a coworker or client. Also, it will help me understand the way forms are constructed.

Final Portfolio: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mccarthyk2070/

Self Portrait

Drawing the self portrait was a very rewarding assignment. I was really not looking forward to it because the face had been frustrating previously. Although I don't think the drawing looks a lot like me, I can tell how much I improved on drawing the features and seeing how the all fit together as a whole. It went a lot faster than the other drawing I did of the face and I did not have to erase as much. They eyes were the hardest part; I had to redo them to try to get them to match in size and the direction they are looking. It is also hard to get the eyes to look like they are fitting into the sockets and not plopped on the face.

Final Drawing: Full Figure

After just focusing on specific parts of the body (hands, feet, skull, and facial features) it was nice to be able to put it all together on the last day of class. I thought that this drawing went pretty well. I can really tell how much I've grown. It's amazing how my eyes can now see the form better. I struggled with the upper body; it was difficult to get the correct angle of the sternum. The face could also be improved. Overall, I am very happy with my progress! I hope to continue pr acting drawing the figure and drawing in general.

The Face

Learning about the ear and the mouth, and then adding it to the knowledge of the nose and eyes was exciting but also frustrating. It seems that when drawing the face the different features have to be captured very exactly in order for it to look correct. Also, the angles of the face and where things line up is crucial! I really struggled with lining up the eye and the nose correctly. The lips and ear were easier than I thought they would be. I think that the self portrait will be challenging.

The Eye and Nose

After learning the structure of the skull we learned the basics of the eye and the nose. These forms were harder than I expected to draw accuratly. When looking at the eye and nose it was difficult for me to see how to capture the angles and curves on paper. I drew two eyes and the second one was an improvement, but still needs a lot of work before I work on the self-portrait! The nose took me many tries; I think that in comparison with the eye it should be a little more angled. I think that being able to see people individual features and draw them accurately would be a great skill to have. I'm glad we are learning the basics but I can tell it is going to take a lot of practice.

Final Shell Drawing With Ink

This drawing is a huge improvement from my previous attempt. The first drawing that I used ink with became very washed out and blurred. Right away I lost the pencil marks and was basically guessing where the shadows and highlights were. My goal for this drawing was to make sure the lines were dark enough to stay so I could use the ink to really enhance the form. I used a softer pencil lead which helped. I also was more cautious with wetting the page which gave me more control of the ink. Overall I am an satisfied with it, the bottom is the open part, but this was lost with the ink; it looks a bit like it is reflecting in water which is a neat affect (if I had meant to do that). Lastly, I would have used a different color of ink (not brown) because it looks kind of dreary.

Hand Drawing

I was apprehensive about drawing the hand, I thought that it would be difficult since it has many details and it seems crucial to get the proportion correct. For a first try I am fairly happy with how the drawing turned out. I like the finger portion better - it seems blocky and unfinished, but I think it has more dimension and life-like qualities. The back of the hand portion, on the right side of the drawing, seems flat to me. I do not think I captured the bottom angle exactly right. In the future I would like to work on a view with the hand open.

Shoulder Blades

I had been looking forward to learning about the shoulder girdle; I thought it would make my drawings look a lot more finished to be able to add more detail and definition in that area.
My first attempt was a little more difficult than I anticipated. In previous drawings I had added some of the main lines in the shoulder blade region which seemed obvious. From the angle I was drawing it seemed hard to capture the correct angle since the left side is angled away. It look many tries for me to figure out the angle of the should blades; looking at the drawing I think there is still room for improvement, especially on the left side of the back.