Week of 2/16 and new Contour Drawing

This week, we began including the ribcage in our focus of the human form (adding to our initial focus on the spinal column). So far, I'm learning new and interesting things, such as the egg shape of the ribcage, where it connects to the rest of the skeleton, its position, etc...

Below is an image of my second contour drawing. I think I've made steps since my first one; while I still got some help from my prof, I erased most of her marks and drew my own.. and it actually resembles a human torso!

Mishelle

This is the shell that serves as a wonderful model for some of my drawing practice. I shall call it "Mishelle".

Mishelle is a Fox Striped Horse Conch. At one point, it was inhabited by an extremely large predatory tropical and subtropical sea snail.

Mishelle is a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Fasciolariidae. While known as a horse conch, Mishelle is not a true conch, as it is not in the genus Strombus.

This species is the largest gastropod in the American waters, and one of the largest univalves in the world.

Source: http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Pleuroploca_gigantea

Muscle modeling - Spinal Erectors

In Life Drawing, we are modeling muscles out of clay. This first part focused on the spinal erectors. Here's what I have so far.

Gesture Drawing

Gesture drawing over the first weeks of class has been interesting. I hadn't taken a drawing class within the last couple years, and it took a while to even get myself going again. I'm also pretty unfamiliar with gesture drawing, so the combination of both led to an interesting transition back into the whole process.

Although I still have a lot of practice left, I feel that I'm getting better at gesture drawing. I'm beginning to understand its significance when creating a piece, and I recognize its value in creating the form from the inside out. My next step is to demonstrate this understanding through my work.

Below is my 10-minute gesture drawing of a shell. I feel that I've made progress since I my first drawings, and I hope to further improve as the weeks move on.

Also, this is my first contour drawing. It looked a bit messier before the prof gave me a few tips and pointers, but I can only get better from here.. right?

Blind Contour

This is a blind contour drawing created in Life Drawing I on February 2, 2010.

I began drawing from the toes. I then drew other parts of the body that had more complex contours in order to get some more practice, and just to see how they would turn out. I haven't done much of this kind of drawing in the last few years, so a blind contour was a fun yet challenging way to help me get back into the swing of things.

Three words that I would use to describe my drawing are strong, clean, vivid.