Thursday, September 30, 2010

Week Three


This past week we spent more time developing our skills at drawing a live model, studying our manikins, and added the rib cage to our studies as well. I can see how the spine is the most important thing to start with when drawing the human body. The rib cage comes next which helps give our drawings volume and will also help with proportions in the long run. We were taught that when drawing the rib cage it is best to draw it as an egg which at first seemed odd but after trying it out it made sense.
When it comes to modeling muscles with clay on our manikins I have a long ways to go. It helped a lot to see examples of other students’ work that had done the assignment well. First and foremost I need to work on my craft. I struggled with the clay and getting it to stick to the plastic manikin but after seeing that others accomplished that feat, I know that I can too. I also need to study the proportions of my muscles and make them look more like a cohesive grouping of muscles. I plan to redo my current work before moving on to the abdominals next week.
As far as drawing goes I feel that I am continuing to improve my skills. I have been practicing drawing with better techniques such as standing an arms length away from my paper and holding my utensil differently so that I draw from the shoulder. I have also managed to slow down my drawing and really observe more. By doing that I’ve noticed that my hand is more coordinated with what my eye sees and my drawings are improving because of it.
I have attatched one of my contour drawings from this week.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Week Two

This week we draw live models for the first time.  We started with thirty second gesture drawings and eventually worked our way up to thirty minutes drawings then back down to thirty seconds. I had never done gesture drawings before and while it was stressful at first I enjoyed it quite a bit at the end. The drawings had more energy and movement to them and I felt like they were more interesting than a lot of previous drawings I’ve done. I never realized how difficult it is to draw ligaments when they are being extended towards you.  There were a few times when the model was facing me and it was harder to draw than when they were in a profile or three-quarter view.
On Thursday we were assigned our manikins and started to dive deeper into studying the human body. I attempted to start the manikin after class on Thursday and I have included an image of my progress thus far. I find it difficult so far because the clay doesn’t always stick to the manikin and it is especially hard to recreate organic shapes. The scale feels really small to me as well and since some of the muscles can be small it is hard to get much detail in so they don’t feel correct. Hopefully after more practice and studying, working with the manikins will come easier to me.  I’m interested to see how my drawings will change as I start to understand the human body more. I find that I struggle with proportions a lot so I am hoping to improve that over the semester.  This week was full of firsts for me so they are more of a challenge right now but I am looking forward to getting better at them.
My manikin so far.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Week One

This past week we started to study the skeletal system of the human body. This is something I have studied numerous times before but was never able to apply it to art. I am already starting to see how understanding the human skeleton will make my work more accurate.
We started off the week with being assigned a sea shell and making our first attempts at drawing it. The first exercise was a blind contour drawing. For those of you who are unaware a blind contour drawing is where we study the shell by holding it in one hand and connecting our hand movement with what our eyes see to draw the item without looking at the paper. I have posted what I feel to be my best blind contour drawing of my shell below. After a few attempts at blind contour drawings we got into groups to critique our work. My group gave me some good tips on how to improve such as trying to improve my composition on the paper (which is hard to do when I can’t see what I’m drawing but at the same time a valid point), and also to emphasize arched lines even more. My critics felt that I had demonstrated a good use of line thickness, good use of time, and that I had observed my shell well. We also got a chance to draw cross contour shell drawings, this time we could look at the paper. I have included a picture of this below.
The second day of class this week was focusing on learning the five sections of the spinal column and how each section moves. There are primary curves which consist of the thoracic and sacral vertebra. Primary curves will always curve the same direction. Then come the secondary curves. These curves consist of the cervical and lumbar vertebra. The direction of these is flexible as opposed to the primary curves that will always curve the same way.
Overall I feel that I already learned a lot for the first week. I am excited to continue learning about the human body and get to live models next week.


Blind Contour

Cross Contour

Friday, September 10, 2010

Welcome

Hello!
My name is Shauna Baska. I'm an art major with a concentration in interior design at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. For as long as I can remember I've been interested by the arts and I wanted to eventually have a career where I can practice creativity and innovation. I enjoy and appreciate all different mediums of art although some speak to me more than others.

I will be graduating in December and after that I hope to land a job at an interior design firm in the twin cities although I am open to any opportunity I an get right now. I'm the type of person where if something feels right I go for it and that outlook has yet to let me down. I enjoy learning and broadening my skills in any way I can. That is actually the main reason I am taking Life Drawing I. I am absolutely terrible at drawing people so I am hoping that this course will help guide me in the right direction. Growing up I always believed that artistic talent is something you had to be born with and was impossible to learn. After taking numerous art classes at Stout I have found that to be untrue. I have greatly improved many of my artistic abilities and nothing feels better than seeing hard work pay off.

When I am away from class or work I love relaxing and enjoying life. Bonfires are one of my favorite ways to do just that. I also enjoy figure skating, watching movies, doing puzzles, shopping, and being with those most important to me. I am a person with many passions in life. When it comes to tv and movies I really like things that are very clever and have a lot of wit. As far as music goes my two favorite bands of all time are Queen and Metallica. I love all sorts of music but those two bands speak to me the most.

I've included two drawings that I have done for past classes that I enjoyed working on.