Ordinary/Extrordinary Drawing Critique Summary

I am not sure what the right word for the critique for my Ordinary/Extrordinary drawing would be...the piece had more of a personal concept that maybe everyone did not see at first. The idea of feeling trapped and not having much freedom seemed to be quite recognizable, which is good since that was the main message.
However, I think there was too much of a personal idea in it for people to truly see it. The icon man and woman spray painting graffiti appeared to be well-liked and fit the idea of the piece. The background and pipes on the other hand, did not go over well. Some people thought that the boxed-in idea of adding the pipe outline was over-doing the idea, however that was my intent. Comments on the brick background were also mixed, which I agreed with as well. I was not sure what I was going to do with the background when I started, but I thought the brick might work well with the graffiti idea. I do agree with the comments I received on the background and pipe areas, but I am not sure what I would have done differently with them. But yes, they could have been done differently to make the piece stronger.
The idea of my drawing came after I had chosen the images and started sketching a few out. I had all these images of the place I have begun to come sick of, so that is where the images took me. I started with the slide picture, taken from a small playground by my house that I pass every day. I always seem to think about the contrasting ideas of the playground...the intended 'fun', childish aspect, combined with the abandoned, lonely feeling that the playground has. I then added the rest of the Stout images, the 'Polytechnic' lightpole flag, the iconic male/female symbols, the light socket, the bland brick, etc. I tried to sketch out a composition with all the chosen images, but it did not seem to be working, so the final drawing is simply a collage of my thoughts.

'Art Lessons' Reflection

I found this book as very easy and informative reading. The author has had so many experiences to share with the reader, which makes you really think about things and relate them to your own life. As she talked about all the different cultures and monuments she has studied I began to realize how little I know about these things! She mentioned a lot of foreign places, people, and things that I have not heard of, so it made me interested and wanting to find out what she has seen.

The portion of this reading that I related to the most was about schooling. Haynes has been in school for so many years, while also taking time off here and there to travel and go explore other places. Her art has always been a part and focus of her studies, but she mentions that writing and other areas of study have also captured her attention. I have begun to feel the same way through the past few years. Art has been something I have done my whole life, and when deciding where to go to school and what for, I knew that had to be it. Not only did I enjoy it, but I really couldn't see myself doing anything else, like sitting behind a desk or a 'boring' job like that. Having explored three different, but similar majors, graphic design, industrial design, and now art education, I still enjoy art and think I want to continue it, but at the same time I wonder if art education is what I want to do for the rest of my career. Here path of taking some time off during her schooling is something I have seriously considered at points over the last two years. Not only has the stresses of money, work, and time become a major issue, but also the matter of if I should continue with the path that I am on. Overall I really enjoyed reading the first few chapter of this book, and I am looking forward to more stories, information, and advice throughout the book.

DRAWing III INtroDUction

I am Brittany Schmelling, currently a senior Art Education major at UW-Stout. I chose to take Drawing III as part of my drawing concentration for my major. As a future art educator, this class will allow me to practice and advance my drawing skills and explore more ideas/mediums in order to better assist me when it comes time to teach. I feel that I still have a lot to learn in a short amount of time before 'the real world,' so I am looking forward to a lot of practice, exploration, and learning this semester. I took Life Drawing I last semester and it went a lot better than I had expected, so I see good things happening this semester as well.

I included images of previous work below, there are more images under the other tabs from past blog posts.

Images...
life drawing- skull
life drawing- figure
printmaking- wint '09
drawing I- fall '06- peanuts, popcorn & tape

Life Drawing Conclusion

The semester is over...and I have learned a lot. The first half of the semester was a lot of introduction to the body, the muscles, and how everything worked, which really helped me with my drawing. I avoided drawing the human figure at all costs before I came in to this class, but now I am looking forward to opportunities to draw the body.
This second half has seemed to be more on practicing and perfecting techniques and basic concepts. I have seen my line quality and variation get better, and I have also loosened up with my drawing and let it not be so 'perfect', like my first large shell drawing was. The shell was difficult because I do not usually care to draw on a large scale, but it helped with the contours and getting the line quality better. The introduction of the washes was a nice touch that really helped the shell drawings, but I wish we had time to do another in order to fix our mistakes from the first one.
Overall I really enjoyed this class and I got so much good information and practice out of it. My view of drawing the human body has completely changed and I am looking forward to do more figure drawings in future classes or on my own time!

Link to second half semester work images:
http://s606.photobucket.com/albums/tt147/BSoccer1030/FINAL%20LD%20blog/

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.