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.