Blog report week 07

Where am I now?

Degas_Baillerina_muscle

This is my try on the exercise we got to do on Tuesdays lesson. I realized that I had very little knowledge of the muscle anatomy and it was very difficult to transmit what I saw on an example picture to this image. After a while I sort of got a better feeling for it but I really have to practice a lot.

Here are some examples of drawings I have done during the years with human bodies. I have very few full body pictures which in itself is evidence that I’ve been practising too little and that I have gotten used to just doing faces as an easy way out. The Cow Girl on the bottom is from two years ago and the other pictures were made during last year, some as assignments and some on my spare time.

girlPrincess Bella Turnaround_Jenny Grip thumbnailshead_by_du_e_hajmat-d76avm2   windman   arbetsprov_1_cowgirl_edit_texture

After doing the 2D courses last year I think that I would have been able to do the cowgirl much better than I did before but I can still see a lot of holes in my knowledge.

I have a very hard time seeing what is wrong with the proportions of a character, even though I can see that something is wrong, and for that I must look at references and study proportions and anatomy. I have never really thought about the anatomy when I draw before so that is something I have a big problem with. That I have to stop and think about what should overlap what when I draw an arm for example shows that I need to have more understanding of the muscles and why things overlap in the first way. Doing exercises like the one we did in class may be a very good way to force the anatomy thinking when I draw. Sketching a lot and try things out will also be helpful.

The feedback I got was mostly on the cowgirl. We talked about the obvious problems, for example the arm and neck situation. She does not really have any shoulders on my picture and the arms are awkwardly attached. Then they mentioned that I have some problem with proportions such as the head/body ratio.

What will I do to get better?

  1. The first goal will be to start practising drawing. I haven’t really done that since the 2D course ended and that is a big problem. I do not have any control over what I am doing with a pen or a tablet and in order to get better at anatomy I will have to make sure that I can draw what I see. To copy (not transfer) others artwork will help me understand how things are supposed to be done.
  2. The next goal will be to study anatomy from books and pictures, maybe some life drawing. Perhaps I should make a habit of drawing several times a week and ask people for their opinions and critique.
  3. The third goal will be to make several paintings with layers of bones, muscle and skin to make sure that I can make everything fit together.