Hands

This is a laugh, but I was digging up old pictures from elementary school and even middle school that I had drawn. From the start I have been curious about the human figure and trying to draw it accurately. I believe Leonardo DiCaprio drawing Kate Winslet in Titanic started it all but that's not the point. For the longest time I noticed, I drew figures with their arms twisted around to their backs. Although it gave many of the images innocent poses, the main reason is because I was very weak at drawing hands.
Hands are tough to get down, even now I tend to save illustrating hand gestures until the very last moment. However, when doing them as gestures, I use to make them into crescent shapes and was pleased, but now I base them off of the muscles that build them. I feel like they are much more lively and have a sense of motion to them. It's very exciting, and now I like placing hands in visible places. It's great.

Posture

Going into the muscles of the upper thorasic area and the pectoral region, I see how much the muscles are allowed to stretch and pull when a person sits up straight or slouches. It makes me wonder how we can possibly train ourselves to sit up straight, is it really beneficial in the end to have better posture? I believe it feels better, however when the body feels sluggish, not holding rigid poses seem to feel more comfortable. When models sit or lay in long poses, their bodies seem tense in some parts, especially joints. I find myself making darker lines to get the feeling of tension and discomfort.
The human body can be physically strong, however, can be equally weak when it comes to the smallest inflictions. Including poor posture and uncomfortable settlements.

Cooking with Muscles

I remember the day in class that Amy showed us a slab of meat (online) and how the white lines were actually sections were muscles have been cross cut.

I saw this while adventuring out in Wisconsin's wilderness and cooking up a 2" arm roast over a campfire. If you pick up the meat/muscle before it is cooked, it will hang and begin to separate from itself. I found this interesting, because you can also see the muscle structure and how it intertwines. It is also interesting to think how they would flex, extend, and contract. I wonder how holder peoples muscles look like in comparison to babies or even athletes vs couch potatoes.

Midterm

Before starting Life Drawing I, I was some what confident in my ability to portray the human form. Not so much the shell form- I knew that would be my biggest challenge. However, I knew that I needed this class to really learn the structures and reasons for shapes and contours. I think when I use to draw the figure, I was more concerned on the form based on the skeletal structure. Sure muscles were there, but it didn't click that they were how the curves and tones underneath the skin came from. I always hated cross contour drawings because I like to scribble my way through ideas and when I have to be smooth and follow shapes, it's frustrating. But, I'm getting better and starting not to dread them! So far, the thing that LD has helped me with the most, is to slow down my scribbling and to think about my process. The most I want from this class is to feel accurate when drawing figures.




Oh man, I sure love midterms this semester.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenzieowens/
Here are my drawings so far in Life Drawing 1.
I have a few more to add, including a photo of my ManiKen (Louis)-He wasn't 'ready' to be photographed when I was the other day....

Muscles

Between 5 hour drawings and clay molding, I do believe I am building some mean muscles... somewhere.

Just now I was thinking, how is muscle built/maintained. Why do muscles grow? How do they grow? Is it a chemical reaction or something else? I'm no body builder but I am curious of what it takes to make lots of muscles and how some people seem to be without any extra bulk.

I felt stubborn to drawing the shell at first. But once I sit down, I just go and try to get things right the first time. Or fixable. Sometimes I just want to lay the charcoal on the side and shade in order quickly show curves and depth. However, I haven't felt the need to for a while.... I wonder if I can anymore.

Trickland

I have not been on a field trip since middle school, so it felt awkward sitting on a bus full of people I hardly knew. Regardless, I have been out and about visiting and touring my share of museums recently. Not once while I was out on those adventures, was I able to sit down and really force myself to think deeply about a given piece.
At the Walker in Minneapolis, I walked into a large salon-style room full of 90 paintings. It had paintings that reached the ceiling with benches on in the center with binoculars to see the highest paintings. Although the room had giant paintings, I chose a rather small one to study called, Trickland by Michael Borremans, 2002.
Standing farther back from the work, it looks highly detailed and like it was painted with smooth and realistic craftsmanship. However, it is very choppy and busy in strokes up close. Almost like a gesture drawing. The piece is very dark in color around the outter edge and only lightens up slightly from the shadows. The details such as the eyes and delicate noses are deep shadows. The figures look like children all seated and playing with a mock farmland, but it is adults-old women, farmers, mothers.... all placing their hands down on what seems to be a model of a country side.
When I looked at the painting, I felt drawn to it because on how the figures-although not highly detailed, were painted with detail to human proportions.

Torso

The "Maniken"s we are using to create clay muscles are pretty awesome. However, it's a new medium for me. It is so great to have to learn how to work with my own muscles that have been trained to function certain ways-for me it's to learn how to go from drawing to molding clay. The muscles in a humans hands are so beautiful. Under the skin, there are so many delicate muscles and tendons all connecting and weaving in order to allow the hands to work for their purposes.
Currently we are building muscle for the torso and seeing where everyone has muscles underneath fat and curves of skin. It is interesting to be able to locate the sternum on everyone, but underneath that point is is different for each person.