So it started senior year of high school, in my AP studio art class, I was doodling in my sketchbook and started drawing a girl with a big head, crazy wavy hair, and a ridiculously long elegant neck. I kept it simple with focus on the big eyes and hair.
So I decided to develop the idea more, it has been coming along slowly and I more doodle the idea of a character here and there in random places, but I perhaps plan on making a series, I don't know yet if I want to paint them or leave them as sketches. I thought about the name of this series of twisted doll like shaped ladies, and am deciding to stick with the name Dead Dahlias. The last picture shown is the most recent one done beginning of this year, so enjoy or lemme know what you think :)
My Sketches: My Dead Dahlias
Life Drawing Class: Portraiture and Final
Even though I'm no longer in life drawing seeing as the class ended in May, I have made note I am quite a few months behind on my blogging and am going to be catching up for a while. After gestures and drawing the figure, my class moved onto portraiture. I was not at all very good at drawing face accurately, but after I learned how to do this, I was amazed at what I could do.
We would still start with marking where things were and drawing a triangle to get a feel where the forehead and chin were. Then we would carve out the light from the charcoal, then gradually move onto detail. First starting with a chamois then moving up to finer tools such as an eraser. So here are some of the portraits I did (keep in mind some of them are unfinished since the models we had in class were only there for a few periods).
For my final, we had to do a self portrait, mine doesn't look like an exact representation of me for those that know me. Yet I did it in 7 hours and spent more time brainstorming about the piece. I chose a blue toned paper to bring this feeling of melancholy, and I wanted to focus on this one feeling because that was all I was thinking about. I was somewhat depressed during this time. I got a hold of a broken mirror (thanks to my dad) and cropped it so the cracks would be at the edge and cause this sort of tension and uncomfortableness, also that the cracks, spider web like are creeping into the picture. It represented this chaos and distortion, brokenness and sadness. I had one light source and the things in the background I blurred out because they didn't matter, at the time I didn't care about anything else. We were supposed to spend about 20 hours on it, but my teacher loved that I put thought into almost every little detail. Yay for a good semester of life drawing, one of the best classes I've ever taken :)
Life Drawing Class: Midterm
For our midterm in life drawing we had to reproduce a Vermeer painting using charcoal. I chose the picture of the Woman Holding a Balance. She's reassessing the importance of certain things in her life and I enjoy the quiet softness and thoughtfulness of this painting brought about by her calm demeanor and the shy light coming through the window.
Life Drawing Class: Value
Just before spring break in my life drawing class we got into value. We started just separating planes on the figure when we did quick gesture drawings, then we moved onto longer drawings. It has certainly gotten a lot more exciting in the class. These are some of the things I've done in class and one picture is my homework assignment that I drew of my lover.
My professor basically says to think of ourselves as sculptors, we carve the form (light) out from the dark. We do a quick sketch, marking where important points are and the basic form of the figure, then we squint hard and unify the darks. After we carve out the strong light, then move onto getting into detail and middle values. Our movements get smaller and smaller.
I would have never thought I'd be able to draw the figure but my professor, Cynthia Grilli, in my opinion is amazing. Here's her website if you want to check it out.
My Life Drawing Class
In my class, we're always looking for shapes and negative shapes in the figure and in the interior around the figure. Using architecture around the model is very helpful in seeing where and how he or she is positioned. Many of our gestures are done in 2-5 minutes, with an occasional generous 10 minutes to check, recheck, and observe.
At the beginning of the semester, there was a basic formula my class was taught and followed.
1. Draw a center line (following the body, from base of neck to usually an ankle, depending on the pose)
2. Draw a platform line (establishes width of pose/distance between feet)
3. Draw a skirt (of legs) up to pelvic line
4. Draw a triangle from pelvic line to base of neck
5. Draw the shoulder line (usually at base of neck, if drawing the back, it would be lower, you'd draw the triangle to 7th cervical)
6. Draw the center line through the head
7. Draw the orbital line
In my class we want to stick to traveling along the center line (which can be changed or shifted if needed). It's like Main Street for us. After understanding the torso (establishing where navel is and nipples, etc) and breaking everything into shapes, we want to break at the joints (knees, ankles, elbows, wrists, etc). I've learned so much from this class and am starting to draw and notice things in a different way than before.
Front and back gesture of the same pose.
First drawing my class completed of the model laying down, using the platform to help.
The last drawing I worked on.
In my class we're starting to look at muscle groupings and planes of the body. The human body is so fascinating! I'm feeling better and more confident in drawing the figure, something I did not think I could do before, well at least not very detailed or as accurately.
