SELF PORTRAIT

THE END OF A BEGINNING. T_T (PART II)

III. Skulls!

#2 #3

#1

These three skulls were all drawn on the same day of class, the lower skull was the first, the side view the last. I think after drawing a couple of the skulls, I was able to nail it much better on the side view.

Skull #1 is the first skull I drew, and was supposed to be more a 3/4 view rather than a front on view which it ended up looking like when I was done. I think what messed me up was the left jawbone of the skull, which was longer than the other side, due to the 3/4 view, but I must have missed that. Although some of the facial features were wrong, the overall shape of the skull I thought was pretty good for my first attempt.

Skull #2 is much more apparent as a 3/4 view. I also added the shadow to give it a much nicer composition on the page.  Also, my shading on the sides and lines on the upper jawbone was much better this time. The eye sockets on this skull are also a little better proportion wise and actually look like they have some depth to them.

Skull #3 was the final skull that I drew that day, and I really think that it's the best of the three. The side view was the easier of the three, because of less things to have to draw, so I tried to get a little more detail on some of the lines, especially in the nose and lower jaw/teeth.  Overall drawing skulls was a really fun exercise that gave me a little more of a base to go on when I draw a person's head from now on.

IV. Gesture Drawings

#1 

#2 

Throughout the semester, I thought that gesture drawings were my weakest aspect of Life Drawing, I'm just not a great quick line drawer, I pay too much attention to outlines, but I tried to break the mold, which I think worked out somewhat in helping me to see the long axis lines and planes instead of the figure's outlines.

The first gesture posted here is one of my better ones after the mid-term. I feel it really captures the pose that the model was in, and gives it more of a character. The multiple, scattered lines on some of the curves is something that still needs work, but it doesn't take too much away from this gesture. Also there is some line variation, both in weight and thick and thin relationships. (For example the abs and the forearm)

The second gesture was a bit light, but I liked the feeling it gives me when I look at it. It's so simple yet shows both long axis lines horizontal and vertical. Also, the head is really the only shape here that looks somewhat odd, and a little too sketch-like. But the line that separates the legs has a really nice weight variation to it, and enhances some of the outlines, without actually drawing outlines and trying to make it all nice and neat.

Well that's all for now, I really enjoyed Life Drawing this semester and hope everyone else in the class has an fun and safe break. I really enjoyed blogging, it was something new to me and enhanced the learning experience, I hope not just for me but for everyone else.

THE END OF A BEGINNING. T_T

I. MANNEQUINS

Building the clay mannequin was probably the most fun I've had on a drawing

class assignment. Yes, it was hard to find the time to just sit down and enjoy building

each of the body's muscle groups, while also learning a little bit along the way.  Although

I have been a little slow with my ability in seeing the muscles while drawing from a model

but I just need some more practice at it. I thought I would at least document some pictures

since I spend oodles of time trying to build each muscle to the best of my abilities.

II. Long Poses (post-Midterm)

1. 

2. 

First, drawing #1.

These 2 long poses are really the only 2 full body drawings I had after Mid-term. The first drawing took about the entire length of class. (2.5 Hours) I think overall this was definitely

one of my best drawings, both proportionally and in accordance with line variation and atmospheric perspective. This is suggested by both the hard outline along the pelvic crest to suggest a closer object to the viewer. The softer lines where the ribcage is resting on the floor plane, along with the lighter lines suggesting the objects being further away.

Next is drawing #2

This drawing was a little more difficult, I thought, because of the awkward slouch in the figure, which really tends to distort everything else. It took me the longest time just to get the rib cage and shoulders into the drawing as best I could. In my other drawings, I noticed I tend to draw the legs both in different sizes, but this drawing is a little more correct proportion-wise. If you take a closer look at the obliques and rectus abs of the figure, you can see the lines of striation in the abdominal muscles. Although these were not quite visible on this model, I was able to draw some of them in with help from the teacher. =)

On a small side note, I really like how the background works with the figure ground relationship, the model is neither floating or completely planted to the ground. It looks as though she is sitting inside a pocket/dent in the paper. Though unintentional I thought this was a pretty cool effect.

(this is part one of a 2 part final post)

Signalnoise.com - The Art of James White

I recently found this amazing graphic designer, James White's blog. He mainly does professional looking poster designs and digital imagery. The site also contains a lot of creative inspiration if you are looking for some. I'll let the posters speak for themselves.....

By the way you can also check out abduzeedo.com for a huge range of Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator tutorials and resources to create some pretty awesome artwork, I've become addicted to Photoshop all over again.

Design Used for the Greater Good

I was randomly surfing PSDTUTS.COM when I found this interesting collection of 23 examples of design used as a force of good. It contains designs intended on bringing issues of the homeless, world hunger, and fresh water supply in other countries into the public eye.

Most of these designs are used as street advertisements from not only the United States but all over the World, from countries such as Brazil, England, Portugal, and Germany. I feel they are extremely well done in grabbing the viewers attention and some really get you to think. I really suggest checking these out if you are interested in real world design for the benefit of humanitarian and world aid organizations.

(You can click the picture or the link.)

My Feelings on Blogging

Before life drawing, I really didn't know what blogs were about, but I had read some and they seemed to just be people venting about whatever they wanted, and people commenting on random things. It took me awhile to get used to, but blogging to me is just like keeping an online journal of your experiences on a certain topic, ours being Life Drawing.

The thing I enjoy most about blogging would be the satisfaction of showing others your work and the ease of sharing visual imagery back and forth without having to meet face to face. Blogging also helps to organize our drawing process and to analyze what we have done in class as each week passes, whether it be on the mannequin or just drawings done in class. The only frustrating thing about keeping a blog is remembering to update it regularly and to critically analyze your drawings after ignoring most of what you had learned up to the point in class.

I have been trying to post about other things as well to get the weekly requirements for class but it's hard, for me at least, to share feelings about a drawing or my work as an artist, but I really would like to get better at that. Something that I have not yet posted about but would like to is information about graphic design and specific designers that inspire me when I am working on projects not relating to life drawing.

Having students in groups helps to split up what each of us is required to look at and to comment on. I try to comment at least once a week on each of my group members posts, but it is hard when not everyone keeps their blogs updated, so sometimes there is a lack of comments on my part. I will definitely try and work harder on checking and responding to my groups blogs, as well as keeping my own up to par. No one would want to respond to my blog if I had not contributed to theirs as well.

I like the blog assignments so far but if I got to assign one blog assignment to the class, it would be to do a drawing outside of class. All you would need is one person to sit still for an hour while you draw them, and if not you would just take a picture of them in a random pose and draw from that. =D

How would I rate my blog up to this point? As far as being helpful to group members and responding to their posts, I would probably rate myself on the lower end but definitely hope to improve as the rest of the year goes on. In terms of image quality and trying to represent myself professionally, I would have to rate that somewhere in the middle to higher end because I do actually put time into a post when I make one and also compositionally, try to keep the whole blog from looking messy and unattractive.

I look forward to seeing the end result of the blog after the class has completed!

Three "Best" Drawings So Far

Span of Gesture Drawings

These six gesture drawings are numbered in order of completion in class

Current State of the Mannequin

Class Summary

Upon entering class the first day, I wasn't really expecting anything because I had never talked to anyone who had the class before. Drawing from a model has probably been the most challenging thing so far and close behind that would be the building onto mannequins with clay. I consider model drawing the most challenging because before this class I was pretty bad at drawing a figure and keeping proportions correct. I was unaware we would be exploring as much detail as we have so far into the human body and the anatomy of each muscle group. That in itself has made the class even more interesting than any other drawing class I have had.

I feel my figure drawings in both the long poses and gesture drawings, just keep getting better. I also think that building the clay mannequins isn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be, as long as you don't fall behind on anything. As long as I keep improveing on whatever I do in the class, I will be very satisfied when the class is over and will attempt to continue exploring figure drawing long after. Drawing the figure is much more interesting and challenging than drawing boring old still life, not that drawing still life isn't important too. =P

As I am a graphic designer, drawing a figure isn't so important as having some of the important skills on a computer, but I still take the class seriously and try to improve myself more in the drawing department.

Hamilton Wooden Type Movie!

Movie: Typeface
Drawn Here: Contemporary Design in Conversation

"Although the heyday of wood type was more than a century ago (think “Wanted” posters and circus broadsides), its revival and preservation carries on today. A new film, Typeface, chronicles this effort by documenting the Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, which houses one of the premier wood-type collections in the world and runs letterpress workshops for designers and artists from across the country. Join us for Drawn Here: Contemporary Design in Conversation, featuring a special sneak preview of the documentary film and a post-screening discussion with director Justine Nagan; Bill Moran, St. Paul–based designer and letterpress guru who cowrote a book documenting Hamilton; and Greg Corrigan, designer and technical director of the Hamilton Museum. Presented by the Walker Art Center, AIGA Minnesota, and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts."

I went to view the special 9pm screening at the Walker Art Center last night with a few friends and I must say the film was exceptional. I included a brief description above that talks a little bit about the base of the film and the director, who took some questions and also formally introduced the movie to our audience before the screening.

The Graphic Designers of today's computer age do not appreciate the old techniques of letter-press and type setting, and I myself am ashamed to say that I would fit pretty well into that category. It's not a person's fault though, since computers have become the standard in almost all of today's graphic design firms.

The film brought to light the importance of not forgetting wooden type and type setting used for printing. After seeing the film I have become a strong believer in perhaps reviving, or at least passing on the skills that Hamilton Wood Type, in the past, has given the world.

The fact that all these amazing presses, not to mention boxes upon boxes of cut wooden types are sitting in a warehouse-like Museum, in an extremely simple and quiet town blows my mind. I really hope none of this history is lost.

Since the museum is in Two-Rivers, Wisconsin, a town just 2 hours from my house in Appleton, I am definetely going to take a trip there this summer or Winterm and maybe do some of the printing I saw in the movie. (Click the picture below to check out the Hamilton Museum's website)

My Current Obsession

Currently for my advanced Packaging and Product Design class, we are doing an alchohol project. I chose beer for my project and must design not only the brand, which I decided to make from scratch, but I then must print labels or onto actual bottles (3 different kinds of beer), and also make a gift that relates to either the New Years Holiday or beer drinking. Everything must be designed into a Holiday Package, celebrating the introduction of my new beer, from Husar Brewing Co.

I'm using my last name for the Brewing Company because I thought it would be pretty cool to see what I could come up with for my own family name. Since the name Husar is Czech, I decided to create a Czech style of logo and packaging.

The only problem for me in designing a Czech style is the fact that I am not very knowledgeable about the history of the country's designers or design. So in the past week I have become obsessed with researching its' history and trying to find out as much as possible about it so my logo and brand has a strong identity as being from the Czech Republic.

Check it out if you want to, this site contains some interviews with current Czech designers and also important imagery from each time period in the country's design history.

Skeletal Structure Drawing + Figure Muscles

These pictures are from 2 different drawings in class a few weeks back. The drawing of the figure was about an hour, while the skeleton drawing was a half hour.

I'll start first with the drawing of the skeleton. To me this drawing turned out a little more detailed than I would have liked it to, but overall I think the scale and proportions are correct for the most part the exception being increasing of the skulls' size. I started this drawing as lightly as I could before darkening in the pelvis and rib cage. I feel there is somewhat of a good atmospheric perspective because the skull is lighter than the rest, and the front side of the pelvis is darker than the back side.

In the other drawing, the one of the model, proportion wise the only thing needing correction would be to slightly reduce the height of the figure's waist. This was a very interesting pose, because not all points of the figure are grounded and the stick is helping the figure to balance. I also drew a few of the quad muscles but I was a bit confused as to what muscles I was able to see while just glancing at the figure. You can also see placement of a few of the spinal erectors. I believe a strong point in this drawing is the line variation and the attention to highlighting the figures muscle tone.

Quad Muscle Group + Missing Glute Pics

Newly Added Muscles: Quadriceps - vastus intermedius, vastus medialis, vastus lateralis,
rectus femoris. Adductors - pectineus, adductor longus, adductor brevis, adductor magnus,
gracilis. Hamstrings - semimembranosus, semitendinosus, biceps femoris. Sartorius - the
body's longest muscle.

When building the Hamstrings, Adductors, and Quadriceps, It felt as though I was trying to put together a complex puzzle. While I was building each muscle seperately, I also kept looking back at the finished muscle groups to make sure I kept the correct shape of the leg as a whole. After I got done with all the muscles that were assigned, it looked to me like I had left something out because much of the femur on the anterior side was visible, but I still have not figured out what that is.

The mannequin is finally starting to come together a bit more with the finishing of the thigh and upper leg. I believe that I have somewhat progressed in terms of creating a process for myself when molding and shaping each new muscle. I am still using the internet for a secondary source but perhaps I still need to find a great book that I can carry around with me on the anatomy of the human body, specifically on the muscles but I'm a bit stripped for cash at the moment. =(

All the attachments to the knee area and underneath the patella should be correct and to me, forms a believable shape on the mannequin that looks human. The most difficult part for me was correctly creating the attachments underneath the already build rectus abs. What I did was peel back the rectus abs muscle I had created, making work on the mannequin so much easier.

When first starting out on the mannequin I would build a muscle, take a second or third look at it, then never go back to it again. This next set of muscles was different. I am now finding myself more comfortable with the clay and the adding and subtracting process needed for the mannequin to be successful.

Good Website for finding the Functions of Muscles

I stumbled across this website that explains the functions of some of the muscles inside the groupings we have worked on so far. It's pretty basic but It helped me to see the functions of the muscles instead of having to read a ton of information just to figure out what the Gluteus Maximus or Latissimus Dorsi does.

Click here if you would like to check it out.

Group Discussion / Mannequin Building

When building the spinal erectors, our group discussed how we had trouble with the proportion of the muscle building with clay. We all had difficulty building them but were able to fix them by looking at outside sources and comparing our mannequins to one another's. Jim and Channa were able to see that their spinal erectors were too large compared to the books. Jim also compared his mannequin with mine and we discovered that his external obliques were too small. He was able to add clay to the top of it and see exactly where it connected. Channa was able to compare her mannequin and to see that she needed to add some more clay to the gluteous maximus on the bottom so that it attached correctly onto the femur. It wasn't long enough compared to mine and the muscle anatomy atlas.

I myself was confused by the book and I had trouble figuring out where the Tensor Fasciae Latae was supposed to be connected, which was the bottom of the knee. My other 2 group members helped me look at some outside sources and then talked to Amy and discovered where it connected.

Over all we discussed that even though sometimes we had inconsistency with the thickness of the clay or understanding exactly where the connections of each muscle went, we were able to look at outside sources or ask each other for help. We felt that building onto the mannequins is helping us to understand how the muscle forms actually work together and where their exact location is in the body. Clay muscle building has helped us in picturing where certain ones are and their functions.

TEN and FIFTY minute poses

Well, I wasn't sure

which pose was "the" 10-minute, so I just put up 2 of the ones that were before my 50-minute. When compared with Amy's drawing, my drawing seems much less planned and plotted out. Also, my atmospheric perspective is pretty good but isn't quite there yet. With Amy's drawing, it seemed very light, which makes sense considering in order to draw a figure, you should make sure you have the proportions and angles correct before you realize that its entirely wrong when you are done with the drawing. I'm not saying that mine are that bad, but that is one thing I will try to be more careful on, going from light to dark, not the other way around. Although I did put in some cross contour lines, they don't really seem to connect the forms on the figure to one another, but rather help to outline single forms.

I notice that I tend to have a darker outline on my figures which helps me to see the angles and perspective, but I should be more careful about outlining and just try to draw whats there. In terms of line variation I tend to have

the same line width in half the drawing and a different width in the

other half, but I think my line variation is improving
somewhat from drawing to drawing.

This is my 50-minute drawing and quite a difficult pose for me to draw I might add. At first you might notice that I attempted at drawing in the rectus abs on the laying down figure. I also included pelvic landmarks on both drawings but my rib cage landmarks were a bit weak. As far as the anatomical landmarks go, I think I did a pretty good job of maping out the points on the pelvis and bottom of the rib cage, in order to indicate the navel on the figure.

In the 50-minute drawing, the line variation and atmospheric perspective is much more planned and consistent throughout the figure. In the 10-minute drawings there doesn't seem to be a very good line variation which makes the figure a little more flat in space. In this 50-min drawing, the contours on the face, arms, and legs are nicely defined and help to push the curves of the figure around and back in space. This drawing feels much less coloring book like compared to the two 10-minute drawings that I did earlier that day.

Now, lets talk in terms of Composition how well the drawings look. Starting with the 50-minute drawing, I oriented my drawing surface to a horizontal plane so that I could extend the figure out into space more, with less restrictions on space while trying to draw the entire figure. The actual picture is zoomed in, but when zoomed out you would see that my figure sits nicely on the page but is a little bit small. This small thumbnail may seem crowded but that is not so on the original page that I drew this on. There is a nice relation with the negative space and the figure. You can see the taller negative space on top of the laying posed figure in the upper 10-minute drawing, which creates a much needed feeling of weight for the figure instead of giving it a feel as if it was floating in the middle of nowhere.

In the 10-minute drawings, the figure-ground relationship is pretty well reconstructed and the angle seems realistic to how the figure is positioned. The taller figure is oriented vertically while the laying down figure is oriented horizontally.

That's all for now.

First Attempt @ Muscle Sculpting

These are pictures of the progress on my clay mannequin so far in Life Drawing. First, in the front view you can see the one major muscle, the rectus abdominis. I also scratched in three segments, which show the distinction of the abs on a figure. The rectus abs show the long attachment of muscle from the side curve of the ribcage to the symphysis pubis and iliac crest.

In the picture on the far right, which is 3/4 back view, you can see the quadratus lumborum, which attaches the inner lumbar curve of the spine to the pelvis, and allows the twisting motion of the body along with the external obliques. If you look at the picture of the straight back view of the mannequin you can see the entire muscle grouping that make up the spinal erectors.

The cervicis, which is a muscle that runs along the dorsal surface, attaches the spinal vertebrae along the base of the neck at the skull to the bottom of the neck. This muscle is seen best from the back 3/4 view (second from right). The two neck muscles at the top (capitis and cervicis) twist together and run down to the upper back of the figure, blending into the the iliocostalis and longisimus, which are the larger portion of the back muscles in this picture, extending down to the lower spine (lumbar curve). The muscles connect the base of the skull and upper back ribs, down to the larger thoracic muscle, which lays slightly on top of the suface of the actual rib cage, connecting many of the upper ribs on the back of the figure.

While building the spinal erectors, I started with the muscles that ran along the dorsal and spine of the mannequin. Next I built up the longisimus, which ended with building the iliocostalis. The hardest part about building the muscles for me, was getting them to blend into one another, and make them look like they belonged to their specific muscle grouping. Also, the initial building of the longisimus was not correctly curved according to the curvature of the rib cage and there was a bit too much of a gap between the spine and ribcage, but in these pictures it shows the correct finished version.

I have never sculpted clay before, much less having to sculpt it into the many muscles that I was still unfamiliar with. Learning the muscles before sculpting helped quite a bit with getting a correct final form on the mannequin. At first, I would roll out the clay into a flat surface, and try to cut out the outline of the muscle, then from there paste it onto the mannequin and sculpt as needed to fit into the other muscles that were going to have to relate to the one I had just put on. I found out that this was not such a good idea, and started to just grab chunks of clay and start to mold and sculpt them into the muscles and muscle groupings, then scratched lines into them to indicate the different locations of the muscles out of the primary form. This approached worked much better for me, and I was able to see the connections quite a bit better.

I think the next time that I build my muscles, I will look at other sources than just the atlas, to get a clearer understanding of each muscle and its functions as I am building it. I guess some tips that I have for other people would be to first plot out where the muscle is going to be, and how to adjust its location based on the other muscles in that particular area or group. Also, the colder the clay is, the easier it is to twist and bend as needed on the figure, such as in the upper neck muscles that we have already built. When the clay is warm, the twists and curves that you make in the first place don't always stay that way, so its better to do those things last.

Building these muscles has not only allowed me to realize whats underneath a figure when I look at a person, but it also has brought to light that the muscles aren't always straight and cleanly seen as they are in a textbook, when a figure is a live human being going into dramatic, twisting poses. I think the next time I draw the figure, I will try to visualize where those muscle groupings are and try to draw the outer lines on the figure.

As the mannequin building goes on I can only get better..........right?

Pelvis Structure Tracings

Name: The Creation of Adam

Artist: Michelangelo

Medium: Fresco

Location/Time: Sistine Chapel Ceiling, Rome, c.1511

Name: Fighting Men

Artist: Raphael Sanzi

Medium: Red Chalk over leadpoint

Location/Time: Italy, 1510-1511

This first tracing is taken from "Fighting Men" and is of the reaching figure on the far right side. At first glance, the iliac crest and anterior iliac spine are the most visible parts of the pelvis in this drawing. The gluteal cleft and fold are also clearly defined by the artist and you can see the coming together of the muscles (glutes) down to the symphysis pubis. I drew in the sacrum, although it is buried under a hunk of muscle, by folowing the curves in the muscles which make that triangle shape. I had to imagine it a little bit but using the triangular shape made by the glutes and back of the figure helped me to draw it in.

The second tracing is somewhat a front and foreshortened view, and comes from the work "The Creation of Adam". From doing the drawings of the pelvis in class, I was able to imagine where the pelvis would be, because the pelvis was not as easily revealed as it was in "Fighting Men". First I figured out where the posterior and anterior points were on the iliac spine, and from there I drew a triangular form. Unlike the other tracing, in this one I was able to see and label the inguinal ligaments, which were easily visible in Michelangelo's figure of Adam. Because this was a frontal view, I did not label the sacrum or anterior inferior iliac spine.