I believe that my work over the course of the semester shows that I was able to make good progress towards achieving the course objectives. I am able to view the human body with an understanding of how it all goes together, from the bones out to the skin. Before Life Drawing, I would view a person as just a couple of shapes and attempt to grasp things like proportion based on rules-of-thumb that I learned back in elementary school. I didn't understand the planes that make up the human body; for example, I would look at a skull as simply an oval rather than viewing the planes of areas like the forehead and noting the change of the direction of the line as I use it to move around the planes and create form. After learning about actual anatomical landmarks and the muscles of the body, I feel that I am much more comfortable and successful at drawing the human form.
I could improve upon the use of line weight and variation in my work. I've become better since I started this class, but I still find that I have a hard time using it correctly. I've learned that there are so many ways to use line, and I have yet to figure out which method I prefer to work with or which I find most successful. This hinders my ability to add good depth to my drawings, so a bit more practice in this area will be very beneficial to me.
The feedback that I received from my midterm portfolio included comments about my gesture drawings and the long poses in class. I needed to work on getting rid of outlines in my gesture drawings and focus more on using the long axis to capture the motion. During the beginning of the class, I would draw what I believed to be the bone structure as the basis for my limb gesture drawings, but they would never end up looking right. I have made efforts to correct that an now try to use the surface as the axis line for the limb. I need to use cross-contour more in my gestures in order to build depth; outlining the shape only flattens it. I haven't improved in this aspect as much as I would like, but I'm hoping to work on it a bit more in Life Drawing II next semester.
I really believe that my more recent drawings show a stronger understanding of artistic anatomy than some of the work in my midterm portfolio. I better understand how the form comes together as a whole and how the surface lines make their way across the planes of the body. I've made an effort to practice better proportions, and I've made progress with that, as well. I still have some room for improvement, but I'm happy with what I've accomplished. My next goal is to be able to get the same drawing results in less time. I like producing good work, but I also like sleep.
Life Drawing I will be very helpful for future classes, my concentration, and my career. I'm enrolled in Life Drawing II next semester, so obviously the things I've learned in LD1 will help me be successful in a higher-level course. My interests in the multimedia concentration are in 3D modeling and animation. As I mentioned in one of my first posts on this blog, a big reason that I took this class was to strengthen my skills in the modeling of 3D characters. If I want to successfully model anatomically correct characters, I have to have a proficient understanding of the human form, and LD1 and LD2 are going to help me immensely in achieving that.
As the semester is coming to an end, so is this Life Drawing I blog. I am glad that I can look back and be happy with what I have accomplished this semester. I had a good time learning, and I'm sure I will be more than pleased with everything I learn next semester. Until then, adieu.
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