Hello Again,

   Well, here it is the third week of school and already I sense the feeling of being slowly overwelmed is not far off.  So goes the life of a Art major at Stout.
   As I previously mentioned, this blog is an ongoing assignment for Life Drawing I, so I guess I should update the followers as to what we are learning, or have learned thus far.  As I mentioned in my last post we have jumped right in and started figure drawing but this week we were introduced to another method.   
   The new method is a bit more tactile than simply observing the human form followed by attempting to transfer those observations to a two-dimensional representation of the three-dimensional form.  On Thursday of the past week each member of the class was issued a Maniken.  I have dubbed mine "Man-Fred"

Man-Fred

"Man-Fred's" Muscle Material

Through the use of Jon Zahourek's method we will slowly over the remainder of the semester be adding the musculature to our Manikins using clay.  Another benefit of this method is we get to learn Latin...
   I do believe this will increase my ability to better understand the human form as I will be "creating"  the muscles in a three-dimensional form. This will allow me another way to "see" the form through my sense of touch. I think knowing what the muscles look like under the skin will aid in transferring what I see in front of me to paper through my drawings.
   So I guess in addition to my development as a better figure artist,  the design of this blog to more closely reflect me, Man-Fred makes a third thing you'll have to come back to check on the development of.

Realizations...

   Greetings & welcome to my One Point Perspective blog. And If you've been here before, welcome back.
   Well we are  now in the second week of Life Drawing I and .... Our actual drawing started with the class spending thirty minutes drawing a "blind contour" drawing of a shell each of us was assigned. Yep blank paper over the drawing hand, draw the shell's contours without "peeking"  I'm proud to say I didn't look at my drawing till the time was up. But...not proud enough of the result to post it here.   A critique by a small group of classmates suggested I had a nice variety in line weight and they were able to recognize it as a shell (nevertheless perhaps a shattered one) so maybe I'm just to critical of myself.

   Leaving the shells behind we moved on to 5 min drawings of the human torso from various angles.  These were based not on a model but a skeleton thus allowing us to see the spinal column from all angles. Using the spinal landmarks we learned in class, we worked on showing the form through simple line/shapes. 
    Here are two of my sketches.

While they are far from what I hoped, I think I am beginning to accomplish describing the human form through line.  As I mentioned in my introductory post stay tuned and watch me improve...

In The Beginning

As I notice the leaves changing colors, and see the ever increasing numbers of big yellow buses, I reflect back, finding it hard to believe that it has only been almost two years since, after becoming a victim of the economic downturn, I returned to the halls of academia
When I made the decision to return to school to attain a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree (Multimedia concentration) it was at an age closer to the average students father's age than the student themselves. This gap in time between obtaining an Associates of Applied Sciences (Graphic Arts Technology) degree and returning to the hallowed halls of UW Stout has led me to the realization that unless one keeps working with and applying their artistic skills over time those skills deteriorate quickly. I was first disappointed by my first drawing of Drawing II class to quietly pleased with the progress I had made by the end of the semester.

First Drawing of Drawing II

Last Drawing of Drawing II

As a requirement to obtaining my degree I have had the opportunity to be exposed to other subjects expecting to produce a well-rounded graduate...  I was surprised to find that it was one of these non-art related classes, Sociology in fact, that had became my favorite thus far.  Perhaps this was because it gave me the ability to understand the sociological reasons for so much of what I have experienced thus far in life.
While the driving force behind this blog is an on-going Life Drawing I assignment, I was eager to enroll in Life Drawing I as, I believe, no one can truly consider themselves an artist unless they are able to accurately portray the human form.  And if it turns out I can master the skill it will come in real handy when I'm asked by a client to produce something more than a stick figure to sing/dance.
As to where this journey is going to lead, I'm not exactly sure but I welcome you to pop in every once in a while and note the changes, not only in the design and/or direction of this blog but in fact the design/direction of my destination.