Final Reflection - End of the Semester!

"Our bodies are apt to be our
autobiographies."
~Frank Gillette Burgess.


End of Semester Portfolio

Alicia Riehle
Life Drawing I
Fall 2009

Throughout Life Drawing class this semester, I have learned a lot about the human body, drawing styles, techniques and form. Although I have struggled at times, I have worked through a lot of the drawing issues that I had before taking this class and I have developed my style in the meantime. In the beginning of the semester, we learned about the spine, ribs and pelvis. These structures were important to help me develop proportion, direction and movement into my drawings. I still find it very helpful if I look for the spine first and work through the ribs and pelvis as well. Next, I started to learn more about the directions that the limbs should be draw and that has helped a lot in making the person I am drawing look full of life, instead of just like a stick!
Moving on to the shoulders, hands and feet, I learned to add details to the body while still looking constantly at the directions that the limbs are going. I enjoyed drawing feet but I found that I had a lot of troubles with them. I even had 6 toes on a foot that I drew at one point! One thing that really helped me when drawing the foot was to draw the structure underneath. To do this, I kept a skeleton close to me in class while I was drawing and I printed out a anatomy drawing of the foot to help me break down the different areas and to get the right curves to the foot.
Lastly, we worked on developing our knowledge of facial structure and the ears. I found this section of the class to be very fun. I really like to work on details within the physical body and so I was very happy that we went over drawing faces. After drawing the skull a little bit, I had a better understanding of the cheeks, eye sockets and nose areas too.
This semester, I have learned a lot from this class. I know that the skills that I have begun to develop in this class will help me a lot in the world of design while I am still in school and when I graduate as well. I look forward to drawing more people and I find that I am very comfortable doing so now. Life drawing has also taught me a lot about the human body in general and I am more connected to me drawings now, more than I have ever been. I can't wait to draw a portrait of someone and have it actually resemble them!

Happy Holidays! I'm leaving for India in 11 days!!

Until next time,
Ali

Alicia Riehle's Life Drawing Portfolio

Hands, Eyes, Noses and Ears...oh my...

This past week we learned a lot about drawing the facial structure. I thought that it was very helpful to learn about these features and I am surprised that they were so much easier to draw when I learned "how" to draw them with a certain technique. I think that my favorite thing to draw now is the nose. It is very challenging but if you get it right it can really help "make" the face.
I find it fun to really look into peoples faces now and really see the structure of all of their features. I had a hard time when drawing hands in class but I still found it to be interesting when you really break the hand (or foot) down into small pieces. It makes it much easier, when drawing the hands or the face to find the planes and work with what we know about what is underneath the skin to our advantage.

Large Scale Shell #1

I had a lot of fun using different 'medias' and styles for my shell drawing this week. I played around with a very dark charcoal, the charcoal pencil and I also used an eraser in my drawing technique this week. I had a good time with it because I could draw very dark, something I LOVE to do!! I know that I shouldn't draw so dark sometimes but I decided that since we are doing 3 large drawings total, I would try a different style for each!
...more later

Trip to the Twin Cities.

Yesterday we went to the Twin Cities for a life drawing field trip. It was a lot of fun to get out of Menomonie for a while and see some very nice exhibits. First, we went to the Bodies exhibit at the Mall of American in the morning. I have seen a similar presentation before at the Science Museum when I was in high school but I still thought that it was very interesting! At first I felt a little bit queasy when we first got into the exhibit for some reason but I felt fine as we went further along into the displays. I found myself drawn to looking at the area where the heart was displayed, the fetal development area and the final body of the exhibit was the one that I ended up sketching on. It was interesting to think about the contrast between what we normally draw and the insides that we saw there at the exhibit.

Next, we headed to the M.I.A. to view some art. I had fun looking around with some other students. We mainly looked at the Louve exhibit and Native American art. We found that we kind of ran out of time because that place is so big! It was a very fun day and I had a nice break from campus.

Everything is Design.

This past week we worked on many things in class. I found it difficult to re-do the muscles on my manikin and the process proved to be hard for everyone. It definitely helps to look online though. I found some pictures online to help me with the making of my manikin muscles. I think that it will help me the most to look at different segments of the body, one at a time and then look at a picture of all of the muscles together s a reference afterward.
This week, we also started to start drawing some much longer poses in class (1-1.5 hours.) I feel like this is a big challenge for me but it will be good to push myself to draw longer.
More later...

Now it's November..

It's amazing how fast time flies! I feel like the semester just started and here it is, November already. These past few months in Life Drawing have already taught me a lot but I am just surprised by how they have flown by. This past week in life drawing, we worked on our manikins, trying to get the proportions of the leg muscles done better. Then, on Thursday, we all shared our midterm portfolios in class. It was nice to see where everyone is at and how they are feeling about the class overall. I think it was nice to have a review at this time because we will be able to look back later and see where we were at, at this point in the semester. I look forward to class today and for the rest of the semester. Hopefully my long pose drawings will improve soon!

Portfolio Summary.

"I hope I shall be able to make some drawings in
which there is something human."
- Vincent Van Gogh

Mid-Semester Portfolio

Alicia Riehle
Life Drawing I
Fall 2009

Throughout Life Drawing I class so far this semester, I have already learned so much. First of all, I can sketch much more quickly. Although many of the drawings that we have done so far have been focusing on slowing down, the fast gesture drawings have already helped my sketching in my other classes get looser and more relaxed. Besides drawing speed, I have also learned a lot about the human body and it's many different components. It has really helped to not only draw from the models, but to also be learning anatomy within the classroom and on our own with the clay modeling manikins. Throughout the past, I never realized how much of a difference it ma kes to learn about the internal muscles, bones and tendons, and then to draw them with the external form of the body. It is so helpful to figure out the components in order to figure out the right proportions of the body. Seeing the models and comparing them to the skeleton and our manikins has really taught me a lot about the different proportions of the body, especially in terms of different people.

Although I have had a good time learning about the human form and this new drawing style, I have also had my share of challenges so far. I think that the first struggle that I had was with drawing quickly, all while not worrying about outlining the form I saw. Throughout my other drawing classes and past experience, I have always focused on drawing the external more than the internal of an object. With Drawing I, we also practiced chiaroscuro, which has made it hard for me to not shade my drawings and not necessarily worry about the lighting in the room. I have also struggled with line weight and mark making. It has been difficult for me to make many different types of marks within my drawings, I tend to draw to dark. It is very difficult to decide what drawing medium to use and so far, I have stuck mostly to conte crayons. As I tend to draw very dark, for the rest of the semester I am really going to focus on my line weights and try to be much more intentional with my marks in my gesture, homework and long pose drawings.

While on one hand their are many struggles for me in Life Drawing class, there have been a few successes that I am particularly proud of. One thing that I am very happy to see is my sketching is getting more loose and quick every week. This is a very important skill for the business world I will be going into after school so I am very happy that Life Drawing has helped me push that skill already. Also, have been really enjoying doing the contour drawings and the slower, loose 'internal components' drawings in class. These drawings really make me slow down and pay attention to what I am putting on my page. While I think I can still push these drawings plenty, I have already seen a change in them since the beginning of the semester.
It is with the drawings and exercises in this class that I have become more aware of why drawing the human form is such a skill: It is so difficult! There are many things to consider and many tiny details to notice in every sketch and drawing. I have enjoyed learning all that we have done this far in class, and I do look forward to what the rest of the semester will bring!

Goals:

• Draw with more varied line weights
• Slow down with longer poses
• Focus on one thing at a time

Alicia Riehle's Life Drawing Portfolio

Some I.D. work.

Just thought it might be fun to post some things I am working on in Interface Design...

Ribcage and Pelvis.

This past week in life drawing, we began to get further into learning about the pelvis and the rib cage. I found it very helpful when Prof. Fichter pointed out how close the two are together (a matter of inches.) I was surprised when I felt the bottom of my own ribcage to see that this is true. I am getting a little bit more comfortable doing the quick 30 sec.-5 min. poses but the longer ones prove to be much more difficult for me. I find myself starting too quickly and then needing to start on a new page because I have finished too quickly and started to draw too dark (a problem I have always had....) However, one thing that I have found I am doing better at is not simply drawing the outlines of the body. I am being much more careful to "look" into the body and see where the muscles and bones lie. It is interesting to see all of the things that we might not have noticed at the beginning of the semester, and even if it doesn't seem like it at times, the whole class has come a long way since then. For the rest of the semester, I would like to focus on line quality and getting those three different types of lines in my drawings to help push my gestures. I am going to be prepping my portfolio tonight...more later!

Back to Class.

After a few days off, and a personal sick day on my part, we were all back to drawing in the classroom last Thursday. It was interesting to learn more about the abdomen and the rib cage. I found that drawing in these components really helped to push my drawings and give them better proportions. Throughout class last Thursday we had many longer poses and it was interesting to see how each person used the time. I found myself rushing a bit to much and I now know that I need to slow down and focus on smaller, certain components of the body rather than trying to push myself to do the whole body at one. Another interesting aspect of class this week was the clay building. I found it very interesting to learn more about the mid section of the body through building with the clay and looking through the textbooks and notes. I am glad that we are learning about this part of the body because I think it will help a lot for us to build the core, to help the rest of the body be better proportioned and all the more strong as a whole.
So far in class, I have been happy with what we have learned. I feel like I have learned a lot more about human anatomy already and it has helped me to further grasp my understanding of what health, fitness and strength are somewhat. I would really like to push my drawing this week and study the anatomy more to learn more of the terms. I have a medical product design project going on in Human Interface and Interaction Design, so maybe the two classes will benefit each other and teach me a lot more about the human body than I thought that I would through art and design courses!

Manikin and Shell

This past week, I learned a lot in life drawing class. We started doing more with contour and began practice on our shell. I am excited because we got to have individual critiques to figure out what to do better with our contour drawings in the future. Today, class was canceled but I think sometime this week Prof. Fichter is going to give us new, bigger shells to draw too! We also got our manikins last Thursday. I thought that it was going to be really hard to do, but it was actually kind of fun! I think that I will learn about a lot of muscles this semester and that is something that will definitely be very beneficial for me. I am hoping that the muscles don't get too complicated and the configurations stay pretty straight forward. I am hoping that this Thursday we get to talk a little bit about drawing another specific part of the body. When we break it down piece by piece (skull, spine, limbs..etc.) it really makes it a lot easier for me. One thing that I really would like to learn how to draw better are the hands and feet. I seem to be able to block out a lot of the body but when it comes to limbs and hands and feet it is a little bit rough for me. Anyways, I will be added some photos of my shell and my manikin tomorrow, goodnight!

First Week of Class.

I was happy and surprised to find that the first week of class went very well. I was nervous to draw a model at first because I thought that it would feel a little weird. It ended up really being alright. I feel like I have already learned a lot about the human form and I am interested to see what other exercises we will do next.

This week, we started drawing with a few instructions and then by the end of the week we were doing contour drawings and learning a lot more about technique. I haven't really done many contour drawings so I think that it will be good practice for me.
It was also very nice to see more about how to form the human head. I know we will get more into that later but it was nice to get an idea of how to maybe get the basic form of a head down and have it look half-decent. Drawing heads is something that I have struggled with for as long as I can remember.
I was glad to learn more about the correct way to do contour drawings because at first I thought that we could simply outline our object as we were drawing it. As we practiced by choosing a limb to draw from the model, I quickly learned NOT to outline and to pay more attention to the dips and curves of the body as this will help my contour drawings.
Looking towards the week ahead, I am looking forward to drawing some longer poses, to capture more detail and maybe even getting our manikins!

A New Beginning..

"life isn't about finding yourself - it is about creating yourself." -unknown


After a somewhat lazy and relaxing summer, I am ready to begin. School has come upon us quickly, but seeing all of the students walking around and working so hard on their school work keeps me going everyday. I am anxiously anticipating what this semester has to offer. With the start of life drawing class today, I began thinking about what this class could possibly bring and how much I can learn from my experiences here at Stout. I know one day I will look back on this time and be happy that I was able to have the opportunities to learn about the human form and to broaden my horizons of drawing techniques. I have been known to be 'sketchy' or 'painterly' so I think that this class will be very challenging and hopefully rewarding for me. I am a little bit nervous about getting back on the drawing board (literally) after not drawing much since drawing 2..freshman year. I do, however, remember how much I learned during those semesters of drawing 1 and 2 and how happy I was with much of my work afterward. Overall, I am excited and open minded. I am ready to push myself out of the box that I have kept myself in, as far as drawing goes. I think that life drawing will really help me with my line confidence and my sketching greatly. Being an Industrial Designer, those aspects of my drawing for projects are both very important. I am really looking forward to this experience, as new and different as it may be.