Well here we stand.

This is finally the last blog post for this class. I'll be sure to comment on a few other people's posts and such, but this is the closing of the story for this class. Here I sit at 2AM the day of the final, listening to music from the video game Okami. It's a sad song too. Which is kind of fitting. I want to say that I've whined and complained here on this blog in several posts about not getting the point of the blog, and I'd be lying if I said I got it by now. I can understand wanting to display our work and keep it organized but I personally think that there are several better options to it. If you even wanted to keep to a blog format, do it for Word Press. Despite my whining though I sit here finishing this project.

Now I don't want you get to me wrong, I love this life drawing class. I really, really do. I enjoy it thoroughly even though it does get a little monotonous having to draw nearly the same thing every day. But I still love the class and I enjoyed the teacher. She was really laid back and created a wonderful atmosphere for the class which I really enjoyed and her teaching methods were well implemented.

For a reflection of my own work in the process of all of this though, I think I improved some, I got a better understanding of making the body more grounded with a skeleton before making any of the body mass work. I personally don't think that the muscle assignment helped me that much in learning about how the human body is built up, I think I would need a little more than just a single semester to really study how to the body is built up be able to recognize what muscle is being displayed on the body.

Over all, I would like to think that my drawing skill has increased because of this class, but I'm still not as good as I would like to be. In the end, here is the link to my flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/42765524@N04/

This is from the one day in class that we had a nude male model. Unfortunately it's also from one of the days where I had next to zero motivation to draw. I can see many flaws with this picture and I kind of despise this picture entirely because of that. The strange thing is that I had more fun drawing the hand up in the corner than I did drawing the rest of the entire drawing. I think part of it was because the model took such a static and solid pose, it might have disinterested me because how static the pose was. I found drawing from the male model really awkward too. Not because he was a male model, though that did add to the awkwardness quite a bit, but I found it awkward mostly because a lot of the poses that he took were really solid and grounded as opposed to some of the female models who did more fluid poses. This was unfortunately so under my taste of liking that it received some of the dreaded writing that I only really put on some pieces that I really dislike. Other notable piece including this writing being my "Ugly Pear" (not found on this blog or portfolio) charcoal drawing.

I really wish I could redo this drawing with more motivation as I feel I could do a lot better. I know the cross contours are way off as well. Anyway, that's all I have for this piece.

Skull

I have to simply start out saying that I absolutely love this drawing. I do not know what it is but skulls are one of the things I really enjoy drawing the most. Maybe it's a secretly morbid desire or habit? Regardless I think this piece is one of my most successful pieces. I think that the semi minimalistic look of the few contour lines does not distract from the form of the skull and accent it in a way that makes you almost feel like you're looking at a real skull. This is because the lines are so few and far between that the bumpy texture that they imply is stronger told and the white area that is left blank feels more smooth and rounded, like the top of the skull which is mostly just a smooth white ball anyway.

I don't know if there was anything I could really do better about this skull. I like it as is, I could probably try and stray from using strong outline contours and using more cross contours and implied lines. I think that this picture really displays how I like to draw though, because being more of an illustrator I enjoy using heavy contours and lines to define a form more than using implied lines to define a form. I would love to draw over this picture in a smudge charcoal composition though, just to see how it would turn out, given the chance.

This was a longish pose we did in class, I want to say it was done for 10 minutes or slightly more. This pose was done off of a live model, in charcoal on a smooth white compress sheet of paper. This is one of the pieces I enjoy the most personally, I think this is because I believe I got a strong sense of proportion on this piece and was able to capture the entire body without a lot of trouble. Strangely one of my favorite parts of this piece is the simplified face of the model. I know we weren't really supposed to focus on the face to much, but I enjoyed adding that simple detail to this piece of work, because I think it gives the faceless model a bit more personality while keeping the sense that it's not really anyone that we should really focus on. I'm really proud of the hand in the background too, I think I was able to portray the foreshortening really well and make it look like it was grounded to the -admittedly non-existent- platform that the model is sitting on.

If I were to expand on this picture I think I would add a few more cross contours to help flush out the body into a more 3 dimensional form and also work with the line weight to help add to that 3 dimensional form. I think I would work with the legs a little more because while they are portrayed well I keep thinking that I see something off about them. I would appreciate tips if someone is willing to say anything.

Quick sketch 2

This is another picture of one of the live models that we needed to work from. This is before we learned about pelvis'. I really like how this 30 second to 1 minute drawing turned out over all though. I think that the pose was very energetic showing most of the body. I managed to get most of the skeletal work down quickly, though she does seem to be missing a leg. I do like how the pose turned out over all though, I think both arms have a strong energetic feel to them. I also think that most of the proportions on the body are relatively correct at least. I might try and expand on this picture later.

That's all I have to say about this picture.

Quick Sketch Of Model.

This is a bit more of what our instructor was looking for in our quick drawings currently. Although I kind of had a horrible angle for this drawing, namely the fact that there was a pillar between me and most of the model. I do however think this is a great rendition of the pose because it shows good proportions and understanding of how the body was sitting in space. Although the body is partially obstructed by the pillar that was there, I think the pillar actually helps make the picture more interesting. This is because the character is interacting with an object, sort of grounding it further in the environment.

This is one of the 1 minute drawings that we worked on as exercises from a live model. I tried to get the skeleton down on the drawing before getting some of the line of the contour out. I don't really know what else to say about this picture, I do think it's one of my better contour drawings, so I decided to put it in my portfolio.

Field Trip

At one point through the semester our life drawing class took a field trip off to the Walker Art Center and Bell Museum of Natural History. During our trip to the Walker art center we were supposed to find out about one of the artists and write about them unfortunately due to complications we didn't have enough time to simply find one artist and write about their work. Instead this post is about the entire experience in both of the museums.

I myself am sort of a fan of some contemporary art, but some of the art at the Walker Art Center was just a bit to out there for my tastes. Most of the stuff I didn't really understand, much less like. One of the more memorable exhibits I saw there was an exhibit about the phases of life. It had several different parts, ranging from being a star, to playing an online game that simulates life, along with other pieces of work. I didn't understand the exhibit at first but I did recognize the game when they were showing it, which is what caught my attention initially.

Next we went to the Bell Museum of Natural History. This was a small history museum based on exhibiting taxidermy animals. During our trip there we were supposed to draw a picture or two of either a taxidermy animal, a real animal that was there or a skull/ bone that they had upstairs. I did a few pictures but they seem to have gotten lost recently so unfortunately I can't upload them. I did really enjoy the whole trip out to the other museums though and I thought some of it was helpful to our learning experience by seeing what others are doing for art currently in the world and learning about different bone structures and body structures outside of humans.

2nd Shell Drawing.

This piece is the second shell drawing that we had to do for an out of class assignment. For this shell drawing I tried to focus more on the cross contour lines that were were supposed to focus on and less on getting the texture of the shell out. I believe that this helped flush out the piece in a different way than the last shell drawing. This piece is a bit more simple and clean cut. This piece was done with charcoal.

Although this line drawing is more simplistic and clean cut than my last line drawing. I think it conveys the textures, bumps and feel of the shell just as well. Personally the strong contour makes it a bit flat, but over all the cross contours give it a feel of being 3 dimensional. Unfortunately I don't think this is one the stronger pieces in my portfolio. This I do like how it ultimately turned out though.

Some parts of this drawing are a bit out of perspective and proportion though. The back of the shell is a little further off than I would like unfortunately. If I could do something a bit more on this drawing, I would probably go in and maybe add some more cross contours to the work do that it would give a better sense of both shading and texture. This is a semi successful piece in my opinion, but still needs work.

Fourth Shell Drawing

This is the fourth in the series of the shell drawings that we were required to do for our life drawing class. I really enjoy how this one turned out. It's rendered quite well in my opinion. I enjoyed doing this shell drawing as well as because it gave me another chance to experiment with the previously dreaded medium of India ink. This time I used a wet paper canvas and very wet brush so the India ink ran or bled more than my previous shell or spinal drawing. I think this gave a good feeling of shadow, lights and darks as well as depth, by letting the ink flow and spread out into recesses instead of using layers with a dryer paint.

A few things I don't really like about this painting are how much I let the ink flow. I think it's not really the style that I usually like to use. It made me a bit frustrated because I wasn't able to control it nearly as well as other mediums, or by using a dryer brush to complete it with. I don't think the cross contours came out quite as well as they probably should have as well, they could have definitely been rendered a little better and with more care and intention.

I'm excited to present this to class tomorrow, and see what kind of critique I will be getting on it. Overall this is probably one of my most favorite pieces of the entire semester, simply because it let me step out of my bounds and try something entirely new. I really think that this succeeded.

Spinal Drawing

We did this painting in class. It is a painting of a piece of plastic human spine. I actually really enjoy this piece, even though I often don't enjoy india ink and other wet media. I'm sorry to say, but this piece is replacing my third shell drawing in my portfolio because I honestly did not like my third shell drawing. I enjoyed this piece so much I thought it would be much more fitting to include this piece of work instead of another that I do not like. I think the cross contours turned out rather well in this picture. Although, I could have made them less dark towards the bottom of the piece.

Honestly, somehow I produce some good pieces out of India Ink, I did a piece on a still life a few years back, and it's recently became one of my more favored pieces. I think this is probably taking the same route as that piece. Perhaps I need to delve into this interesting hypothesis further. I think that if I were to look into doing more india ink, it would expand my artistic abilities by giving me a challenge in a new medium that I don't often really use.

I'm sorry for not including my third shell drawing in this post, but I honestly am not very proud of how that shell drawing turned out, at all. I know we're supposed to add it with our Final portfolio, but I cannot in good conscience do that to myself as an artist, simply because of how poorly it turned out. As I stated before, I enjoy this piece a lot more, and thus will include it in my portfolio in place of the third shell drawing.

Shell One

I did this shell drawing one night off of our assignment shell that we were given. Personally, I like how this picture turned out. I think even though it doesn't show cross contours very well, it shows good line work explaining the texture of the shell. I was a little apprehensive about the shell drawing at first, because I had such a complex shell so this was kind of a challenge for me in the first place. I think the end product turned out well.

Personally one of the main reasons why i like this shell is because we got to do it in charcoal, which is one of my favorite mediums. I do, however, prefer using a more messy method with charcoal. I still think this turned out well for what I did. If I were to go back and do this project again I think I might spend a little more time working on getting the contour lines better, and focusing less on translating the texture of the shell.

I think the shape of the shell gave me the most trouble, it challenged me to do a very strange and organic form, which I haven't done a whole lot of before. I really enjoyed challenging myself with the complex organic form of the shell. I think some of the form in the back could use some work, such as adding more texture or a better contour overlay. Over all, this is one of my more favorite pieces from this class though.

First of all, here is my flickr portfolio, the shell drawing will be uploaded later today.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42765524@N04/

Ok, so I've had a bit of a rocky journey for this first semester back to college. First off I've had a heck of a time with this blog, even though I know it's such a simple thing to keep up. I wish to apologize for not keeping it up, though there is no real excuse as to why I didn't. I really don't like the idea of dealing with a blog on a regular basis anyway, so I guess that's what demotivated me enough not to do it.

Despite my lack of participation on this blog project, I am thoroughly enjoying the class. I love working with the live models and learning about the various ways to draw the body, along with learning the body structure. I kind of wish we would learn about the skeletal structure a bit before learning about the muscle structure, simple because I think it would be helpful to know.

Over all I am enjoying the class, it's what I expected, and I don't mind the out of class work that we do. I am also enjoying the sketches we get to do, and the exercises. My one qualm with the sketches, is at the beginning of the class, the blind contour and continuous contour drawings. While I can understand their value, I've done them in every single art class I've ever been in. I've done more blind contours than I can count, and I'm rather sick of them to be 100% honest.

I want to say that I have a good reflection on my work and that it has been getting better through the things I've learned in this class. I am better understanding the human form and how to set up proper measurements from one part of the body to the next. So far I think the class is doing a wonderful job, and I hope second semester goes the same if not better.

Late work...

Ok, so for my first couple weeks back at school I've had a hard time getting back into the swing of things. This includes dealing with my life and schedule. This also means I've gotten behind on quite a few assignments that I should have done. I'm sure this has been frustrating for my instructors, and trust me when I say it's been incredibly frustrating for myself too. I hope by this time I've gotten my act together enough to start working my hardest on all my classes and really step up to what I need to do.

Anyway onto the blog.

So this week I took a picture of one of my favorite sketches that we did in class. We've been learning about the anatomy, spine and and bone structure, but being an illustrator from the rest of my life, I really like a good contour. I also really like the old pinups and more modern ones as well, so the reason this is my favorite piece from the sketches is because this displays a great curve to the body. It shows the important sort of emphasized curve that can be made from the right pose.

We've been doing a ton of short sketches to help practice drawing the form quickly. I don't entirely like doing this personally, but I don't mind it that much because it helps me see the body in a more simple form, and give me the ability to take down many different poses. The one thing I don't really like about doing the quick poses though is because I love to finish a drawing to what I want to to look like once I start. So this kind of forces me to sort of throw away each drawing before I can finish it. Anyway, I'm enjoying working from the model.

First Post

Hello everyone, I'm Landon. I pretty much created this blog for my Life Drawing class. Periodically I'll be uploading some of my artwork here so I hope you'll enjoy my work and help me by critiquing it.

I guess I'll start off that I was born in the Madison Wisconsin area and moved to Mount Horeb around 2nd grade. I have been into art most of my life and have gotten fairly into art recently. My senior year of high school I got to help out my art teachers by basically keeping the art department together. That year both art teachers were out of the office for an entire semester, so I needed to help teach the substitutes how to do things. I later came to Stout for art education, and pursued that for 2 years before deciding it wasn't for me. I switched my major to Game Design and Development. And, now here I sit.

As for my art style, I don't really have a defined style yet, and I doubt I truly ever will. My favorite mediums are digital painting and charcoal. I really don't like using pen and ink or watercolor. I rather hate blind contour and continuous contour. I love doing a mask of charcoal over the sheet of paper because it sort of removes the sense of permanency of the marks. I don't really like a messy work of paper, I prefer the clear defined lines of illustration. I believe I'm in life drawing more to learn about proportions rather than realism.

All in all I'm looking forward to this class (except the blog part, I have trouble with blogs) and expect it to be like the life drawing class that I took before, but I wouldn't mind some surprises.