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Boy have I learned a lot about the human body in the last 5 months!  Learning the different parts of the body week by week really intrigued me and I enjoyed listening to the lectures.  It is fascinating how much there is to know; I probably just scratched the surface.  The book wasn’t my favorite to follow along with the muscles, but once I got a real look at them, it was so cool to actually see them on the live model.  I really do now see the curves and muscles in people’s bodies in every day life.  We only drew from the life size skeletons a few times, but for the hand and the skull, it really helped me to visualize what was underneath our skin. 

I think one of the main things to remember when drawing the body is the angle of the sternum.  This, along with how the rig cage is positioned, is really the base of the whole body.  In the beginning of the semester I used a charcoal stick, and after midterm I switched over to a charcoal pencil.  It was much easier to control the lines and smudging.  For gesture drawings, I always wanted to draw the edges of the body rather than overall lines.  Sometimes I got frustrated when I had to go really fast and it ended up not looking like anything, but gesture drawings really are essential to warming up for a longer pose to get your brain working at looking at overall flow.  A struggle for me was knowing that my drawings weren’t going to look perfect, but realizing that I’m still learning.  There are so many aspects of all the parts of the body to get to come together to make the whole.  Many places of the human body are hard because our eye assumes one thing, but in reality having to overcome those familiar parts.  The face was probably the hardest part for me, and the hands. There are so many planes that are necessary to get right in order for it to look realistic. 

This class has really forced me to look at contour lines and subtle plane changes.  Showing the curves in the body embeds muscles and bones and also gives dimension.  It was always a good feeling when, especially the final weeks of class, I finished a drawing and got it to look mostly right.  It is cool to put all the pieces together and make it look like an actual whole body.  I think this class will bring more life into any of my art in the future.  Knowing that planes really do make an image look more 3D, I will even bring that into my GD work.  This class has taught me so much about the make up of the human body and also to observe what I see.

The Face!

We dissected the face this week.  This was probably my least favorite part of the body so far.  It was just constant revisions the whole time for me.  I am not too excited for our final self portrait because I think it will be very hard to make it look like yourself.

Eyes: for the eyeball think of a globe, with the latitude and longitude feeling of roundness. The cornea, or colored part, is a partial sphere itself and is raised up.  Where ever the cornea is - is where the eye is looking.  The eyelid wraps around the ball shape.  The top lid has 3 planes, the bottom has 2.  Where the brow hits its high point and at the side of the cornea is where the plane change happens.  The upper lid is longer and always going to overlap the lower lid at the lateral corner.  When drawing lashes, think of it as a 3 dimensional for or shadow-like; most dominant on the outside upper lid.  Also don't forget the "U", which differs from person to person.

Nose:  The nose starts with bone and ends with cartilage, there will be an axis change where this happens.  Also remember the nostrils are always on the bottom plane.  The philtrum connects the nose to the mouth, this is also called the "love filter."

Mouth:  The upper lip of the mouth is longer and overlaps the lower.  If you draw a line straight down from the center of the eye this is where the end of the lips should be.  Don't let the lips end at a point!  Exaggerate the thicks and thins.

Ear: The ear has a lot of little parts that make it up.  Overall, the ear is angled back and from the eyebrow going back is the top and the bottom of the nose going over.  Really emphasize angle changes.

Neck:  The neck easily described is a cylinder on a diagonal.

Hair:  Do not draw individual strands of hair, but rather as a form. with planes!

These are all the tips I got in class, but they are easier said than done!  There is so much to consider when it comes to the face and its hard for me to bring it all together to actually look realistic.  I chose one drawing from class to post, but i honestly wasn't a fan of any of them.  Practice practice practice!