Final Post

This semester was a good one. In life drawing, I learned how to do a proper gesture drawing, I learned how to do a proper cross contour drawing, I learned how to do an ink wash, and I learned about all of the main muscles and bones in the human body. This class was very focused, and tightly scheduled. In the beginning I had trouble with the rib cage, and I thought I wanted more time to work on it, however, I feel that as I did more and more advanced drawings, I was still able to practice the ribs. because of this, I would have liked to see the class move faster. We were unable to do the self portrait because of timing issues, and we only spent one day on the skull, and no time at all on the face. this was a major disappointment for me because I would really like to get better at these things. If I were to take the class again, I would have liked less in class time to work on the mannequins, and more in class time to do gestures, and face/skull studies.

to see my work please go here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/imhumble/

Now I will discuss the successes and failures of my last shell drawing (Shell 4, Sorry about the poor quality pic.) I approached this drawing with a lot of confidence. I had done three successful cross contours of this shell before, and I now had some experience with the ink. My line work turned out really good. I was very pleased with how the contours described the shell without getting too crowded. When I went to ink it, I got cocky, and because of this it did not turn out the way I had hoped. Although there are some elements that I am pleased with (Leaving some white hi-lights, getting the curve of the shell rendered nicely, and a softer background) I am sorry that I was not able to get the same mood from this drawing. In the middle area, I got lost, and was unable to make the correct shades of pink and white, which gave the shell a very flat and ambiguous feel. If I could take  off the ink, I would.