Dec. 20
Final Post.
This semester in life drawing I learned a lot about the structure of the human form, and how to see that structure. Rather than only seeing how a body occupies space, we learned to understand how that body is built, and how to demonstrate that in our drawings. This course helped me become a better drawer because it forced me to understand the forms that I draw, not just their silhouettes and value. The skull was where this understanding really came together for me. As I mentioned in the post that week, being close to the subject was a big help, and I think that's where a lot of the success I had drawing the skull came from. Pushing the line weight was a big thing for me this semester as well. It makes the drawing so much more interesting and allows you to control the language precisely. Even when I draw pots that I want to throw now, I think about building it on the page, instead of drawing the silhouette I want. My sketchbook looks a lot better as a result, and I think it's even helped with the pots themselves. I have started thinking about the structure of the clay and how that wears skin and what the layers look like under that skin. It helps me appreciate that on pots I use daily as well. My understanding of proportions is still very limited, and I'd love to keep studying that, but at least now I can understand what I'm looking at when I do.

Dec. 10

We drew faces this week. I was very glad that I had spent a good deal of time practicing eyes and the skull. Understanding that structure allowed me to build the face on the page more confidently. Being physically closer to the model was a significant help. I think that one reason my figure drawings have been looking a little flat and outlined is because I just can't see the body well enough to really understand what's going on. I really enjoyed the portraits.
Hands were interesting too. I remember Amy mentioning a while ago how thick the hand is, and that it shouldn't look pancaked. A friend of mine recently lost four fingers off his hand in a farming accident, and it is amazing how thick the palm is behind where his fingers were. Understanding that really helped with my hand drawings.

Nov. 26

My shell drawing was a big improvement over the last. I was careful to have more line variation and that made a huge difference. There is a lot more depth as a result. I also tried to be more selective with the lines I used. This lets the drawing present itself as more considered and allows the more important parts of the drawing to be read as such. The size of the paper didn't make a huge difference in the way I drew, but the drawing looks a lot better that size. When we critiqued the drawings and had them all hanging up, it was an impressive sight.

November 20.

We went to the Bodies exhibit at the Mall of America. Seeing in person the skeleton and muscles that we've studied in class was valuable. Flat pictures simply cannot read the same that a three dimensional specimen can. Seeing the bodies allowed us to understand how the body is put together in space. Seeing how the spine worked inside the body was especially interesting.

The MIA didn't have anything new up since my last visit there and that was disappointing. I did walk around MCAD with another Stout student and it was interesting seeing there facilities. They had several miniature gallery spaces that appeared to be a place for students to have work critiqued. That, and their very separate studio spaces were what I was most intrigued by.

We also drew skulls in class this week and that went really well. I think these are my best drawings in class to date.

Nov. 12

This week we drew shells again. This went much better than the first time for all of us, and I felt much more confident going into the assignment. The shell was a different one, and far more complex than the first, but the surface was probably more appropriate for this sort of drawing and that helped. Understanding where to change direction and how to join two axis was important on this shell and I feel like that went pretty well.

November 5.
This week in life drawing I tried to push myself out of my dependence on line. I think about line a lot. How line helps us define a shape or an object, and how that object occupies and interacts with space. The contrast between line and surface fascinates me, and using line to define, accentuate, or occupy surface is an interesting idea. Perhaps it is for these reasons that I struggle so much not to define the figure with outlines. A drawing is unavoidably constructed of lines in some way, and I have a hard time ignoring that concept. I think what needs to happen in my drawing is to bring the lines across and inside of the figure. The figure occupies more space than what is communicated by a silhouette, or even an assembly of many silhouettes, and that has essentially been what I have created. This was never a problem when I had several values to work with, in a light/shadow based drawing. Amy's goal is for us to bring more to the audience than how light looks on a figure, though, which is a much different idea than the ideas of drawing instructors I've had in the past. "Draw what you see, not what you know!" has always been the instructions I have received. Of course, the only thing we are capable of seeing, in a very literal sense, is light or lack of light. To find edges of positive and negative shapes, has been my fallback from ignoring light's interaction with surface and simply finding edges is not adequate. My goal now is to learn more about the body and bring as much of that information to the page as possible.