Life drawing this term has been an interesting experience, and vastly different from last year's classes in the methods we have tackled. I feel that with a wider variety of techniques, I have gained a better understanding of how to apply ideas of structure, gesture and anatomy to my own work.
I'm quite pleased with how my early silhouettes have turned out, especially when combined with the line of action work that Thaw had us draw in lesson one. The exaggeration and direction really helps to solidify the sense and weight of the pose, and would definitely help with natural gesture and weight distribution in future animated works. There are still quite obvious issues with my anatomy - my legs continue to be too short and arms are still generally too elongated, but for the first week I'm still very proud of how they turned out.
Anatomy studies are also an area I feel like I have improved in - it was helpful to reference sketches done by masters such as DaVinci and refer back to the anatomy sheets that we had been given last year. Combining these with the exaggeration of the previous lessons made for much more dynamic skeletons in my opinion, and a much more pleasing composition over all. I feel as though I can study a skeleton and be able to tell apart males and females now, even though I may not be able to name most of the major bones of the body. As I wasn't able to sit in class to study a live model, I had to refer to Bridgeman's anatomical drawings to get a better sense of how muscles sit under the skin for the next week's work. Repetition and different angles really helped me to solidify which shapes appear in things such as the torso and legs.
Sculpting was perhaps the most difficult out of all of our lessons, as working physically with clay is a medium that I am still very unfamiliar with. I feel as though my first two sculptures were not very good - the second one repersenting the arms especially, as I focused too much on the torso and ignored the arms completely. However, the third sculpture of the legs shows some definite progress and a better understanding of how to block out and shape the form of the body.
Overall, I feel like I have gained a better understanding of the different areas of life drawing and hope that I can combine these lessons further to continue to grow and improve. Sculpture in particular has been an exciting part of our studies, and I am definitely eager to learn more techniques in that particular field.
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