When in Rome...

This is a sign I made for my aunt and uncles grocery store, formally my father's. It was pretty much the scariest thing I had ever done. The size of this was huge and I had to crawl on it to paint it, on a pair of really wobbly saw horses. I reused the old sign and used whatever I already owned. I really wanted something to catch the eye of the viewer right away, I also had the amazing task of trying to figure out how to make this sign outlast the ever beating sun rays. This sign is placed right on the Sparta Bike Trail, trying to get the bikers to stop in the store. This was the first thing I got paid to do, but since it was for family I'm not sure how or if that really counts for being hired to make a sign.

Review

Well, not quite sure how to start, so I'll start with the beginning. When joining this class I was fearful about what my capabilities were when drawing the human form. I did relatively well in the other drawing classes and drawing was pretty much why I got into art in the first place. I found that when I look back at my drawings from the beginning of the class and now I can take everything I've learned, which is quite a bit, and make the drawings stronger. I started out by just drawing the outline of the form and not even thinking twice about what make the form function or look the way it did in the first place. I can now see the model, see the muscles and think of the functions and that really helps me think of how it should look on paper.

The skeletal models are a totally different story. I feel that I am still struggling with them, and more than likely all of them are wrong. I find it very difficult to look at the book and put it on my own model. I really appreciate that the list of muscles we have due are pretty much in order to the way they go on. It's not an all around terrible thing to do, I find it relaxing but frustrating at the same time. I'm not the best at finding a second source to compare with since I'm confused right off the bat.

When it comes to the blogs, I try to keep up to date with the due dates. I'm better with the pictures we're supposed to post individually for homework. I'm terrible at posting comments and art related topics. It's not that I don't find this part of the assignment important, I feel very self conscience posting my work at the work I've done in class compared to everyone else's. Even this post might be read by somebody else and that makes me feel indifferent. I feel like I hold back with what I post and the things I say. I do feel that this is starting to make me open up and explain my work a little better than before. I find it easier to write about my work than try to do it in class and stumble all over my words in front of a group of people. The blog assignment has proved useful in other ways since I started to put my work from other classes in a different blog and have sent the link to a person who will hopefully hire me for an internship. I find it a really nice way to organize and display your work, especially for those of us how have no idea how to make our own website and beats sending a ton of files.

Mid Semester Muscles

Some of the Better Ones....

When starting out, like many I'm sure, I would try to draw the entire form when doing the quick sketches. Later I then realized how much harder it was to fit the entire image in the space I gave myself. It was also harder for me to get the right dimensions and proportions. I also felt right away that this was the best way to go about with the quick sketches, until the next few.

These few sketches are from later on in the semester, this process is much easier when starting out any sketch. It allows me to get the rib cages and all other body parts in proportion. The sketches start out from 30 sec from the left, 60 sec in the middle, and 5 min on the right. These sketches are easier to complete faster and with greater accuracy.
These are the long drawing from later on in the semester. The one on the far left, I've noticed, still has an issue with the size of the legs. I'm still trying the foreshortening and I feel over the course of the semester I have gotten better at it.
The image in the middle was a challenge, since the torso is so stretched over the cushion. As you can see I had placed the torso other places before finally getting it right.
The final image on the left was the most difficult, it's amazing how much different it is to draw women apposed to men. Everything is much more rounded and the muscles are difficult to see. You have to pay attention to the shadows created by them to really place them correctly.