Portrait

Finally, this is my last post for the semester. Sad, but exciting. Drawing a self-portrait was difficult for me in many ways. I found it difficult to only look in the mirror and draw. I'm use to a photograph and other sources. The next thing that was difficult was drawing the face so large. I over exaggerated the size of the eyes without realizing it and I noticed the mistake after the drawing was completed. I think that this could have been improved by stepping back or mapping out my page better. I enjoyed doing this though it really put our skills to the test and I think in that aspect my drawing was successful. I also enjoyed using just lines, up until this point my drawings has always been drawing the outline and shading that portion afterward. I know this class will improve all parts of my artwork. Now I kinda wish I could do all my other classes over :) 

Final Posting and favorite pictures

These are a few of my long drawing from class. They are also a few of my favorite. I enjoyed learning the process and I think that these drawing were successful. The top drawing is especially my favorite and I really think that it portrays the knowledge that I learned in class. I think the strongest part of the drawing is the lines. The eye drawing is also another part I improved on. Drawing portraits and facial features has always been on of my favorite things to draw as you can see my drawing below I have improved a great deal on making the eye and the nose look more 3-D. 

I feel like this shows a good change in my drawing and how this class has helped me. The class has helped me a great deal in other aspects. Proportions has always been a big struggle for me, and I know that learning how the body works and how parts relate to each other has helped me with my struggle. Another aspect of the class that I really enjoy is sketching a person with out looking a somebody or a picture. I draw portraits from pictures all the time and I am able to represent them pretty closely, but if I were to try to draw a face with out a model in front of me the picture comes out looking like a cartoon. This past week after learning the steps in drawing I was sketching portraits on a napkin because I knew how the facial features, the skull, and the body was formed. 

Blogging is still on edge for me. In ways I think it was very successful, but some part of me felt like it took away from drawing. Noting on other blogs and posting frequently became a chore that was hard to keep up with. But, I do think it was a great aspect to the class and seeing other student's drawing has been a great experience. It has helped me see what kind of level I am at, and maybe things that I need to improve on. I noticed the use of line in several drawings and I used that for my own drawings. Life Drawing has been a great experience and more importantly a very valuable one. 

The experience of building the mannequin has been a great break from long poses and gestures. I think that learning the back, leg, and ab muscles were the most important when it came to drawing the models. They really helped me with line and contours. The most valuable muscle that I felt really added to our drawing abilities was the lat muscle. Drawing a gentle line to portrait the muscle added a great touch to drawings. I do think that some of the muscles were unnecessary and the time taken to build these muscles could be cut back to concentrate more on drawing. 

Tattoo project

These three drawing are tattoos that I did for my cousin over thanksgiving. It was really challenging because they were portraits of the kids with a lot of clothes on. So it was a process to make up a body that would work with the poses I was given. Another challenging piece was making the faces simple but realistic. I enjoyed doing these because they took a lot of creativity to figure out out what would look the best. The tattoo's will line up across the back and shoulders and each is three inches big. 

Ceramics

This semester I was also in Ceramics 1, and these are just a few of my projects. The right is a continuous curve bowl that was glazed with wax resist. The other two are mugs done in class that were in a series. This is the first time I had to pull a handle for a pot, so it was an interesting process.