Making Progress

Even though it's only been a few weeks, I think I've started to make some noticeable progress. It's been a couple years since I've really drawn with charcoal, so it's taken me a while to get back into the groove of drawing and sketching. I'm really glad that this class is forcing me to start drawing again, because I feel like I've lost a little bit of drawing skill over time.

The more drawings we do in class, the more comfortable I seem to get with charcoal in my hand. I'm still not anywhere near the point that I'd like to be, but I'm starting see a little light at the end of the tunnel. I've really started to enjoy learning about the body and how everything fits together; I have a feeling that I'm going to learn a ton about figure drawing over the semester.

This is a drawing I did last week, and I felt pretty good about it. It was a minute long sketch, and I tried to capture the entire body as quickly as I could. I always find myself getting too caught up in the details when I draw, so I concentrated on looking at the entire figure. I was really pleased with how the drawing turned out overall, and I hope I can continue to keep improving on my gesture drawing at the pace that I have been improving so far.

I also have been enjoying the clay modeling on the skeleton; its been helping me visualize the body parts that we have started drawing and learning about in class. Seeing the muscles separate from one another in three dimensions on the skeleton make it so much easier to visualize those same muscles on the models we draw from every class period. I think the skeleton and muscles will prove to be extremely useful tools this semester.