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!