Week 9

Tuesday: I am starting to get a hang of the manikens and I think the muscles are getting easier and easier for me to visualize. One that we added that i think is very easy to see are the Deltoids. Some in the back i feel are harder to pick out in real life, but the shoulder has alot of curves and dimension going on around the shoulder bone.

Thursday: Lot of drawing in this week! 6 full hours! Still mainly working on the shoulder girdle. I noticed a significant amount of difference in the muscles from female to male models, definitely easier to see on a male.  I enjoy drawing the shoulder, I think I am losing sight of the egg though and I find myself just starting to draw the shoulders and then realizing i should add the egg in, such as in my second gesture drawing shown, i went right for the shoulder blades and i had to add the egg in toward the end and it looks too low in proportion to the body.  In my first gesture drawing below, even though it is only a 30 second drawing, I really like how you can see all the movement through the spine and the hips and the legs.  The bottom two are longer drawings.  I tried to focus mainly on contour lines in the last one because the armpit had so much depth going on.  I feel like the drawing looks kind of weird because i was smack dab on the side of him.

We learned a little bit about the arm today.  The elbow is located between the rib cage and the hips.  I think the arms have a lot more dimension than what we realize because people automatically think of them as two super long straight parts of the body, but theres actually a lot going on. 

Week 8

Shoulder Blade & Collar Bone-

The scapula and clavicle make up the shoulder girdle.  The two key points to keep in mind for drawing this section are the 1)medial border of the scapula, which runs along the angle of the ribs, almost parallel to the backbone in resting position, but also moves in regards to the arm. 2)spine of the scapula- spiral along the top of the blade.  The shoulder blade is actually larger than we assume it to be, it is half the length of the ribs, from the 2nd rib to the 7th rib.  The summit of the shoulder is the high point where the clavicle and scapula meet, also known as the acromion process.

We did some short 30 second drawings in class and then did a one hour pose.  I feel like the shorter ones helped us quick grasp the angle of the medial border of the scapula in relationship to where the arm was placed.  Seeing different poses over and over gave us an overall understanding of the movement.  Sometimes, such as in the longer pose it is very subtle and more difficult to see where the shoulder bone is located.  Since it was a somewhat normal position we knew where they were by referencing a skeleton.  I learned that we have to keep in mind the egg shape when drawing the shoulder blade and it almost cups around it.  It also helped to see the effect the spinal erectors have on the positioning of the shoulder blade.  Another thing I initially did wrong in some of my shorter drawings was draw the clavicle in reverse.  It is tricky to see the curve, even in simpler poses. I am excited to put these muscles on my maniken to even further understand this section of the body, hope it doesn't need too much clay though because I definitely feel like I am getting to the end of my pile!

Week 7

Feet-

No model tuesday resulted in a maniken day.  We added the feet muscles in preparation for Thursdays class which was all drawing.  The feet muscles are all pretty round and long and skinny, kind of noodley.  The feet are a very intricate part of our body.  There is the ankle system (Talus), the heel system (Calcaneus), the navicular bone, the tarsal bones, metatarsals, phalanges, etc.  The toes and fingers are similar structure, the only difference is size because the feet have to hold weight.  The second toe runs up to make the arch.  The tips I learned to draw the feet to make them look realistic is to exaggerate the narrows and wides in the foot.  Also exaggerate the toe planes - trying to avoid sausage toes!  Another interesting fact I learned was that the knee and the ankle on the same leg are going to have opposite diagonals, which makes sense because our body always balances itself.  We did some 5 and 10 minute drawings of the foot and then we moved to an hour long.  I think I made a lot of progress in working my way up to the hour pose.  The first few really smoothed out a lot of my glitches because I felt very comfortable as I went into the last pose.  I think showing planes is really the most convincing part to these feet drawings.  It is important to stay focused on all the contour lines because there is so much going on.  It is so interesting to see how all the bones are placed under there and how they all fit together and then to convey it on paper.  A tip from my midterm portfolio was to use a more compressed charcoal for a more controlled drawing and less smudging, I worked with a charcoal pencil and i really liked the difference.  Now for a week of spring break. Enjoy!

Midterm Portfolio

Midterm Photos

Looking back at our first day of drawing, I think I captured the whole overall movement of the figure better because I wasn’t focused on looking at just the rib cage in particular, but the figure as a whole such as in Drawing1.  Focusing on the spinal cord, rib cage and pelvis definitely helped out a lot though, I think it is confining me more and making my drawings into more realistic figures.  These three things we have primarily focused on thus far in the semester.  I need to learn how to quicken myself in shorter gesture drawings.  I’d have to say about two minute gestures are perfect time to go quick, but yet get most of the information you want and also having a little bit of time to look.  I do, however, enjoy the long poses the best because you have ample time to really observe and pick out muscles and make corrections.

Mannequins can get me frustrated easily.  Not only is the book tough to accurately represent the muscle, but I have a hard time forming the clay and making it smooth.  I think it is due to my cold fingers not being able to activate the clay.  I’ve learned that it is better to go bigger because it is easier to take off clay than add it.  On the positive side, I really do enjoy the lectures we have in class regarding the anatomy of the human figure and how the muscles interact.  It is also cool to add on muscles and then visually see them on the model when we draw.  Sometimes, since there are so many muscles I get them confused or forget the names, but I think time and practice will make me a pro.

One thing I need to work on is finding the movement in the spinal cord and rib cage because I just assume it is all straight and start off with a normal egg.  I need to push myself to look at the overall movement first and then lay it in.  I also feel like I get lost in the pelvic bone at times.  I have a tendency to make the triangle in the back of the pelvis parallel along the top of the bone, which i corrected in Drawing6.  Some of my longer drawings get a little smudgy and I need to start off with lighter strokes, however I do think a little smudge adds to the overall piece and shows its history adding character.  Overall, I am liking my progress and know some areas i would like to improve on and am excited to finish off the body.