First of three catch-up posts tonight!

Hello again blog world, it's been far too long since I have been on here, but I will be getting completely caught up tonight before my last, FINAL post on Tuesday!!

I think in this post I will focus on the sheer fact that we are almost done! I can't believe how fast this semester went. I literally feel like we just started, and now we have 2 days until this class will be officially completed. I have had my frustrations during the semester, as I'm sure we all have, but I am extremely glad that I had the chance to take Life Drawing.

I'm not sure if anybody else feels this way, but I feel like I forget how to draw with charcoal, even if it's only been a week since the last time we drew. It takes me almost the entire class period sometimes before I start feeling somewhat competent with the gesture drawings, and I always feel like I'm still forgetting some critical piece of information. One minute I'm trying to make sure I'm getting the rib cage the right proportions, then when I'm just starting to look at the arms and head, Amy's timer goes off and it's time to start a new pose. So frustrating. But I guess that just goes to show how much practice really goes into this stuff, and I'm hoping to continue practicing over the summer in order to get even quicker and more fluid in my drawing style.

I really think I'm going to try to focus on keeping my drawings extremely light at the beginning, and not worrying so much about getting the lines right the first time. I used to be so up-tight about my drawings, but now after taking this class I really think that the more history that is seen in drawings, the more interesting they are. This is definitely something I need to start thinking more about when I draw in my free time (which I will hopefully have at least some of this summer)

Well, here's a gesture drawing from earlier in the semester, and in my next post I'll add a pic of a drawing from later in the semester, hopefully showing a bit of improvement!

Finally Caught Up!

so i think i'm finally caught up on these blogs, so hopefully whoever is grading these notices and takes note of that (hint, hint) haha

but anyways, i'm definitely happy that we've moved onto the skull and hands, which means we're winding down the semester and going to be able to put together some final drawings that look good all over, not just the abdomen. i already like a couple of the long drawings that we've done with the skull and hands, and i'll probably be using them for the final portfolio, which is coming up fast!


speaking of the end of the semester, i have a project in my digital content class that will be alot of work over the next few weeks. i'm doing a hand-drawn animation, telling the story of a penguin that wants to fly. i made storyboards for the same story last year using adobe illustrator, so that makes the project a little easier, since i know where i'm going already. another thing that's going to help me is how comfortable i've gotten with drawing thanks to life drawing. i'm going to be drawing alot of frames, and if i don't want it to take forever, i'll have to draw somewhat quickly. thanks to life drawing though, i think i'll be able to pump out those drawings pretty quick now.

can't wait to see everybody's drawings now that we're winding down! here's the frames from the storyboards for my animation......

Musclessssss

I've really been pleased with how my maniken has been turning out so far, and I think I'll be able to put some finishing touches on it after I finish the forearm muscles tonight, with hands and face to come soon. I definitely have to go back tonight and fix my tricep and bicep muscles that I made last week, because I definitely didn't make them big enough after looking at the example. That should be an easy fix though, hopefully, ha.

I plan on heading to the art building tonight to work on the forearm muscles, so I'll be able to add some pictures of my progress after I wrap those up, probably in my next post. I could definitely tell in our last pose that I struggled most with the hands and forearms, the only parts of the body we have yet to really cover, so that makes me feel very optimistic that I'm learning what I need to and that by the end of the semester I won't have much trouble with any part of the body. Hands always seem to be difficult to me though, so we'll see if I can improve enough on those to feel like I'm halfway decent at them. Fingers crossed.

It'll be nice to finally have a full week this week, and not have to miss any more Life Drawing classes for anything, at least that I know of. It's been tough to get back into the swing of things after taking 4 or 5 days off, and hopefully the extra practice this week will keep my skills sharp and carry me into the end of the semester.

Hope all our forearms look like these!

Sorry for the wait....here we go.

Hey guys! Sorry I got set back a few weeks here, got completely bogged down with some of my other classes, and although that's not really an excuse for missing a couple weeks, that's all I've got, haha.

Anyways, I've really been enjoying the long poses we've been doing lately. Now that we are finally winding down on learning all the muscles, it's become so much easier to make strong finished drawings over the course of an hour or hour and a half. It feels so much better to be able to actually feel like I know what I'm doing now, instead of sitting there looking at the model feeling like I'm trying to learn rocket science. I also really have been enjoying being able to switch between both the male and female models fairly often. It creates such a nice change of pace, and really changes the way you have to draw the form.

I'm hoping I can keep finding a way to create some decent drawings in those long poses so that I can make my final portfolio as strong as I can. I've already improved much more than I expected to this semester, but I definitely know now that I have even more room to grow. Hopefully I can make that happen in the next few weeks, and hopefully I'll be able to put everything together at the very end of the semester to create a few great drawings after we finally learn all the muscles of the body.

Keep up the good work guys! I'll have a couple more posts coming up either tonight or tomorrow to get fully caught up!

Back at it

Well, time to get back to work.

I definitely had a very relaxing Spring Break.....maybe too relaxing though, because now I just can't seem to get back into the swing of things.  I had a great time going to Las Vegas for 4 days to start out my break last weekend, and then just relaxed the rest of the week.  I did start one painting at home, that I will hopefully be able to finish in my spare time before the end of the year.  I also made a much needed trip to Buffalo Wild Wings.....the best.  Overall, definitely a very refreshing break, and now I'm ready to get back to work.

I definitely am ready to start learning more about the foot and how to incorporate them into my drawings.  Just by adding the feet in an anatomically correct manner will add so many more levels of believability to my drawings that I have been lacking up to this point.  I still have to practice quite a bit, since I left early last Thursday.  Hopefully I can catch on quickly.

In one of my other classes, Digital Narrative 2, we've been designing characters.  Learning the anatomy of the human body helped me tremendously when trying to draw my character from different angles and in different poses.  Now, we are attempting to animate these characters.  Although its a ton of work, it's really rewarding to see my character start to walk and talk (even though its still pretty rough at this point).  I really believe that Life Drawing has made this project so much easier for me, just by being able to imagine my character walking and moving in real life.

Here's a pic of my character, with a background of storm clouds behind him (evil)

Well, hopefully you guys all had a great Spring Break as well, and I'll see you Tuesday to draw some feet! haha.

i'm going to vegas

vegas, here I come

I leave this afternoon to head to las vegas, and I can't wait. I just turned 21 last week, so I'm definitely looking forward to having a great weekend with a couple of my best buds.

I think I'm gonna be just fine taking a week long break from school and homework, and just focus on relaxing and getting things done for myself.

I do need to do a painting for my girlfriend's brother still, but that should be easy enough and a nice change of pace from the classes I have now.

Can't wait to get back to class, and start learning about the foot! I think it will definitely make for some better drawings when I can include even more detail in the extremities of the body.

hope you guys have a great spring break!!!!

here's a great drawing of a foot to get us motivated! (i didn't draw it, haha)

Midterm Already??

First off, here is the link to my Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60230915@N05/

Alright, now to the post.

I definitely can't believe how fast this semester has been going, but I don't think I'd have it any other way. It would be one thing if I didn't feel like I was learning anything, however I think this has already been one my most productive semesters so far here at Stout. I've really been enjoying Life Drawing, as well as my 3D animation and Digital Narrative classes. I even like my Sociology class, although that is mostly due to the awesome teacher, haha. I definitely have learned a ton already thus far.

Specifically in Life Drawing, I've seen my skills progress far quicker than I first anticipated. I've always been a decent drawer, but have always struggled with charcoal, making this class quite intimidating at first. However, through sheer repetition I have slowly started to gain some confidence with charcoal, and I'm even starting to enjoy using it. It really has made me focus on line weight and how that affects the subject matter of the drawings. You can really see an improvement from some of my earlier sketches (Drawings 2 and 6 on my Flickr page) where my line weight was pretty similar and thick throughout, whereas some of my more recent drawings I've been able to strengthen my variety of line (Drawings 3 and 7). I'm definitely happy with my improvements overall so far, and hope to continue this trend in the second half of the semester.

I've really started to gain a strong understanding of the human body as well. It took me a while to get the hang of looking at the entire body rather than spending time on one specific part, but I'm so glad I've been able to break that habit. Drawing becomes so much easier when I'm able to see large shapes instead of getting stuck on details, which I would normally try to do too much of. Much of this understanding has come from both the gesture drawings we've done so many of, as well as from the Manikens. By actually sculpting the muscles, I have been able to truly feel how thick muscles might be, and how the work in large groups rather than separately. I definitely can't wait to see the Manikens when they're finished!

Finally, looking forward to the rest of the semester, I hope to mainly just get even more comfortable with charcoal and the human form. It might seem like those are pretty obvious skills to gain from Life Drawing, but I really have been benefitting in other classes because of how much my drawing have been improving. I definitely want to do more of the longer poses, because I have been really happy with those have been turning out for me recently, but the gestures definitely keep the mind working at a very rapid and exciting pace. Overall, I'm just pumped to keep drawing and keep improving!