Midterm Post

The past half a semester in Life Drawing I has been an excellent skill building and learning experience. The variety of drawing subjects and assignments has kept the class very interesting. I really enjoy how the class periods usually consist of learning about the muscles of the body, doing gesture drawings, and then doing one or two longer drawings. I enjoy the change of pace compared to past classes like Drawing I and II where it was 3 hours straight of still lifes. The amount of information obtained from lecture and working on the manikin has been very surprising to me. Coming into the class I did not expect to learn so much detail about the human figure, but after doing the muscles I definitely understand why it is so beneficial. Although the manikins can be frustrating, I think they are one of the most beneficial parts of the class. Looking at images and sketches during lecture only sinks in to such an extent, so physically molding and attaching the muscles has been very reinforcing.

Drawings that have been very beneficial to me have been the 3-5 minute gesture drawings. This amount of time allows me to obtain a variety of line-weight, but at the same time forces me to use quick gestural motions to capture the entire figure. This style of drawing is easily related to my industrial design studios. Being able to capture perspective and form in quick strokes of pencil or pen is a desired skill for ideation sketching and rendering. I feel that my strengths are in my line-weights. After having classes like Presentation Techniques and various Industrial Design studios, I have learned about the importance of varying line thicknesses. However, I feel that my weakness in the class is proportion. I often struggle starting my drawings and when I finally get my proportions correct, I find myself not using the entire page. During the 2nd half of the semester I want to focus on creating correctly proportioned figures that take up the page space well. Also, I want to slow down and start with lighter strokes in my drawings, and then once my proportion is correct, start laying down varying thicknesses. Overall I am pleased with my progress so far and I am excited to finish out the semester.

Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/danieljnoll/