First Post For Drawing 3

My name is Jill Alberg. I am an Art Education major and a junior. I have already taken life drawing, as you can see in previous posts. I am taking drawing III because my focus area is drawing. I have always loved to draw and believe that as an artist, if you can draw, you can do just about anything in the arts. As a future teacher, I find it important to be able to draw successfully, which is the main reason I am taking this class. I am primarily interested in nature and animals, which ends up being the subject of most of my work. I also make Jewelry on a regular basis. I mostly work with wire and polymer clay. The posted pictures are some examples of my work. Pictured here are some of my clay beads and and jewelry made with wire, string, and findings.

Final Post

http://www.flickr.com/photos/albergjillian/
-Photos located in the set titled, "Second Half"

Since midterm, I have learned about the skull and have learned more about cross contour line drawings. In terms of cross contour drawings, I am grasping a better understanding of showing different planes of a form. I had never thought about lines wrapping around forms before this class. It is a very simple concept, but it takes time to get used to. In previous drawing courses, we were trained to pump out drawings using shading and value to describe a form. It was a challenge to switch gears, but a good challenge since my abilities have significantly improved. In terms of drawing the skull, I was surprised how well I did. I have never really drawn a skull before. I had mostly avoided it previously because I didn’t know I was capable of drawing one. When looking through my drawings before I knew how to describe the skull, the head looks odd on each one. It always bothered me that I was capable of drawing a decent body, but there was the head looking blank and awkward. Now that I can draw the skull, it is much easier to describe the form of a human head when drawing a figure. Once I had the bone structure of the head figured out, the features came more easily, since they all have their specific place in the skull.

The main reason I took this course was to be able to confidently draw the human form. In paintings and drawings in the past, I had always avoided subjects that include people, since I was afraid that I would not be able to pull it off. I am an Art Education major and as a teacher I should be able to draw just about anything, including human beings. This course has made me confident in my drawings and I feel better qualified to teach in a high school setting. If a student asks me how to draw the facial features, I will be able to answer that question and draw an example.

Last full week of classes

It was really beneficial learning how to draw the face. I have never been instructed on how to do so, and it made a huge difference for me. I have always had trouble with ears and noses, but the lecture about facial features really helped me. My first classmate drawing did not turn out very good, but the second one was much better. Devoting a day to practice drawing hands was very helpful. I definitely needed some practice with it. I definitely improved with each hand I drew on Thursday.

Big Shell Drawings

My line weight has drastically changed in this drawing. I usually draw much darker, but I was careful with my line weight in this piece. I am slowly beginning to understand what the direction of line does to a form. There is not a whole lot of depth, which is something I could improve on. It gets a little better with each shell drawing. I enjoyed working on a larger scale. It forced me to think about composition and the better quality of the paper made me take this drawing more seriously. I liked the thickness of the paper. I erase a lot and this time I didn't end up with any holes in the paper!

The group I was in was very helpful. They explained that if I had an extra plane to show the underside or lip of the shell, it would give the shell more depth. Something that would also help the depth of my shell would be to add extreme lights and darks to my line weight. This would be especially helpful where the shell sinks in. Overall, my group said that I had a good composition and that I used my entire paper well.

To help my group, I drew a diagram to show a way of mapping out bumps on the shell. I also explained that if you have tight curves toward the edge of an object, it will appear to be round. One of the shells was really well done. All it needed was to be lightened up with an eraser in a few areas.

Bodies Exhibit

*The first 5 drawings = in class drawings
*Last 4 drawings = field trip drawings

I really liked our field trip to the Bodies Exhibit on Tuesday. It was so interesting to see what the muscles actually look like under the skin. I think this experience will really help me in my future drawings. I will always have that experience to look back on and be able to pinpoint where each muscle is and what it looks like under the skin. Not only was it beneficial to my drawings, but I honestly learned quite a bit about diseases and the organs. It was all so interesting.

I did enjoy the MIA, though I have been there many times. I always seem to find something new that I never saw the time before.

My cross contour drawings are slowly improving. I am starting to understand line weight and how to use it in terms of atmospheric perspective. The direction of my lines are improving and do not look like a grid anymore.

With the first couple feet drawings, I would say I did okay. I am having a little trouble understanding the bone structure of them still, but I get closer with each drawing I complete.

Movement

I feel like my gesture drawings were taking on a sense of movement this past week.

My mannequin is looking alot better since I have redone the thigh muscles. I have also gone through and smoothed the clay out to make it look a little nicer.

Something I need to work on is my line quality. The long pose we did has a very heavy use of line and there is hardly any variation. I have always struggled with this and will need to figure out how to remedy it.