T-Giving 1-Day Week

The BIG shell cross contour drawing was a bit of a struggle...once again, I was not crazy about the shell I had to draw. Like the first one, this shell was very smooth and plain looking, making it a little boring to try to work from. Aside from my feelings towards the shell, I do not think the drawing was a strong one. I felt one of the only decent aspects of it was my line weight, being dark at the closer areas and fading to light farther away.
There are plenty of not-so-good areas of this shell drawing. I felt it was harder to get the correct proportions with the larger paper. the front and back are pretty good, but the middle section (the largest of the smaller swirls) is way too long. I also thought that the angle I chose to draw from could have been more exciting. This long axis direction is plain and very simple. The final bad aspect is that the lines are very even and conformed, making it very exact and boring.

One the next drawing I have quite a few things to work on. My first drawing was very boring and a little flat, so I need to make it more alive and playful. I will do this by not making sure my lines are not completely erased and uniform. Using my whole arm, and not just my wrist, will also help with my line variation. Distancing the space between each of my lines will also help it feel more alive and add to the surface variation. The final thing will be to choose a different, more intense angle that allows me to capture more of the shell's unique aspects.

FIELD TRIP WEEK

So...this was the week of the field trip to the Bodies exhibition and the MIA. Unfortunately I woke up Monday morning with the flu and proceeded to lay in bed all day. I attempted to get up Tuesday morning and try to make it on the field trip, but when I got up I was still not feeling well enough to be sitting on a bus and walking around. So I did not get to experience the exhibit, which I am genuinely upset about. I was really looking forward to seeing it and getting to sketch and have a better understanding of the body in 3D. Not happy...

Aside from that, Thursday we started the skull and it went well I thought. I'm not sure what it was about the skull, but I felt more comfortable and confident drawing that then the actual whole human figure. It was nice to be able to look at the skull and see the various sizes and proportions of everything. I am looking forward to being able to draw the face and some features in the coming class periods, and continuing to work on my line variation.

the week after Midterm...

We focused on the legs more this week and my manikin is getting better. After completely redoing the quads, I feel like I am enjoying working with the clay much more and spending more quality time on it. I can definitely see improvement on the quality of my leg muscles, which should also help in drawing.
The longer poses got better this week too. I spent more time focusing on the proportions and getting everything mapped out before going too in-depth with it. I struggled a bit with the rib cage and kept making it too long. Hopefully I can straighten that out in the next couple sessions so I can spend more time on the other areas.
Overall, I feel like there has been definite progress made this week, both in the drawing and clay areas. I would like to continue doing well on the manikin, and also work on my lines (weight and variation) in the next few weeks.