For my self-portrait I tried to experiment with a facial expression that is not typical. This forced me to pay closer attention to proportions and the shifting of forms from the relaxed pose. I added the drawing of my face to the right to show the shape mapping in a generalized way.

This is an example of what I'd consider to be one of my gestures that best met the teacher's objective to focus on the true axis direction of the form rather than simply the outlines.

Final manikin project in full frontal view. The project involved paying a lot of detailed attention to layering of muscles in real space where proportions must be correct in order to proper build the whole form.

View of the back of the final manikin model

This is the final rendition of the manikin project depicting all of the muscles

This drawing is part of an observation session focused on drawing the human skull.

This is an observational drawing of a skull that was on display during class.

This is an observational drawing of hands made during class as we switched off between having classmates model and draw each other's hands

This is an older drawing that combines some of the observations of the skull with the life pose of the figure

This is a close up of the all session drawing of Lindsay described below

This drawing was done for an all class session right before Thanksgiving break. I was surprised by how many times I re-drew the crossed legs, but I feel that I had plenty of time to double check proportions.

Summing up what I feel I've learned and improved upon during the semester, I think that I have learned to not rely so much on the use of outlines in drawing and be more aware of secondary contours. I have also become more aware of noticing how dramatic the curves of the body can be, especially the spine. I think that earlier in the semester I would assume that certain lines or shapes of the body were straighter or more generalized than they really are. I distinctly remember noticing how dramatic the curve of the spine is in a lot of basic poses. I realized just how much life it adds to a drawing if I make sure to dramatize those line.

I also learned how line variation is really helpful in gesture drawings. Using unique and dynamic line quality during gestures really helps to make the sketches energetic, rather than plain and flat looking. Looking back at a lot of my first gestures, I realize how basic I was being when using line and how little I used line variation to create emphasis. I feel that by continuously practicing the gesture drawings I am able to evaluate the true direction and shape of the body parts, rather than just trying to lay down the primary outlines. I feel that doing this has helped me to make less mistakes with proportion. This has also helped me to generally draw faster.

The manikin exercise has helped me to be more considerate of the internal muscle structure and how it effects the outer muscle structure. I feel that I was already well acquainted with the outer muscle structure, but not so much with the foundational lay out of the inner muscles. Being aware of that helps me to know how the muscles will logically behave in different positions. I feel that being aware of the inner muscle structure also allows me to have a better understanding of how to make drawings more lively, since by knowing what the muscles are shaped like I can be aware of how the skin will bulge or be depressed in certain areas. I'm also more aware of how the overlapping of muscles makes sense when I observe them creating shapes on the body of a model. Knowing the under-structure makes drawing the muscle bulges or boney regions on a live model more intuitive since I have a better understanding of the mechanics of the muscles.

This is the backside of the revision I made on my manikin depicting the muscular structure. I have removed the outer muscle structure and began to work on the deeper structure.

This is a revision of my previous work on the manikin. I have stripped off the clay from before and remade the individual muscles that lie underneath the outer muscles I made earlier.

This is a gesture drawing that I feel does a fair job at capturing the quick and basic lines of the body structure. As with the other gestures, this one was done in 30 seconds.

This is a gesture drawing of a suspended upright skeleton drawn during class during roughly a 30 second time frame.

These are examples of gesture drawings from class that are done rapidly at about 30 seconds each.

This is my colored sketch of my final idea for my Painting II class assignment of a landscape. I want to have the right side be a photo-real rendering of a tree stump and as the painting moves to the left I want to increase the amount of dramatic mark making and color use. An artist by the name of Eric Aho inspired me to try this technique in what will be the majority of the painting apart from the stump on the right side.

These are sketches from my Painting II sketchbook with added Guash coloring. They are early ideas for our new landscape assignment that needs to be uniquely different from the typical landscape where there is the basic rendering of the sky, background, and foreground.

This drawing is of a model who posed for us during class. I feel that finished the main subject matter, but I did not finish the details on the stick that he is holding.

This drawing is of a suspended skeleton that we observed during class. I drew most of the main features but did not finish it all.

These sketches are for an assignment in my Painting II class. I haven't finished the piece yet, but it was supposed to somehow be based on the figure. I chose to based the piece on the saying "The longest journey is from the mind to the heart". The man is shown with crumpled pieces of paper orbiting around his head to represent mental clutter, while he tries to escape it by writing a heartfelt letter to his family.

This is an initial sketch of a painting I recently finished in my Painting II course. I do not yet have a photograph of the actual final piece, but this sketch show the chosen idea that I came to base the work on. The piece deals with a combination of traditional and contemporary art in order to represent how traditional ways of life are still alive in modern times (represented by traditional objects being depicted in a contemporary way).

Side view of back structure of the figure

This is the back rendering of the clay manikin depicting the muscle structure. The top muscle closest to the bottom of the neck is the Trapezius and functions by allowing the shoulders to move up and contract inwards towards the neck. The muscle to the side of it on the shoulder is the Deltoid. It allows the arm to be contracted towards the back and also allows the elbow to extend outward. Between the Deltoid and the Trapezius are the Teres Major and Teres Minor muscles with are anchored around the shoudler blade and allow for the more complex shoudler functions. Below these this group of muscles is the Latissimus Dorsi. It leads down into the lower back and connects at the bottom of the spine. This muscle group allows for lower back functions such as lifting. To the side of this muscle group just above the Glutius Maximus (the main muscle composing the butt cheek) is the Glutius Medius and allows for certain lower twisting motions of the torso and lower back in connection with the rest of the Glutius muscles.
Below this muslce group and back towards the spinal column is the Glutius Maximus which allows for lifting motion with the back and legs while protecting the pelvic region.

While I was making this model, I found that it was difficult to always follow the path of the muslces in three dimensions since the pictures were a flat two dimensional depiction of the muslce structure. I also wondered about the formation of muscles within the main groups and where the difference in sections were exactly. I also had some difficulty when muscle groups followed in a similar direction and I needed to distinguish between groups. I also had difficulty with the Teres Major and Minor groups and how they interacted with the shoulder blade.

I think in the next clay assignment I will experiment more with layering smaller chunks of clay to build up a general area, since I used considerable large chunks before and did some surface carving aftrer that. TIps I would offer are to pre-cut lines into the clay with a knife before scraping the clay out, since it will curdle and bunch up when it is simply gouged out.

Angled view of the frontal structure

This is the front side of the manikin model depicting the quadratus lamborium which is the main lower part of the abdominal muscles trailing down to the pelvic and pubic area. These muscles contract in sections to allow the body to move the torso towards the legs and also acts as a defense cover for the many organs that rest between the navel and the pubis. To the left on the immediate bottom from the quadratus lamborium are the internal obliques with the external obliques directly above them. These muslces allow the torso to twist from side to side and stream is a spiral curve from the ribs to the pelvis. Above the quadratus lamborium is the rectus abdominus which rests on the navel area of the bottom of the front of the rib cage. these muscles, like the lower abs, contract and allow for the abs to have a strong anchor to the rib cage while protecting the bottom part of the rib cage.

This is the 50 minute session drawing that was done on October 2nd during class. I showed the rib cage and pelvic landmarks in this piece and along with the back muscles that trail down the spinal column. Much like the 10 minute drawing, I relied on and mostly used outlines and showed only the basic lines to represent the direction and shape of the skeletal structure. I feel that I was more successful in this piece with using thinner lines and creating the contrast between both thin and thick lines. My line character is also more variant in this piece since I used some softer lines that are not simply a streak of conte. Our professor's drawing was very active with line qualities and thickness and depicts more of the movement of the internal structure of the skeleton and muscles.

Use of Structure in the Drawing:

I have drawn in the basic shape and direction of the long axis line flowing down the spinal column as well as the basic curves and lengths of the other bones that compose the skeleton. I did not put too much detail or focus on these lines and they are mostly a consistent thickness. I also added in the main structural landmarks of the internal body that we've studied so far, such as the rib cage, pelvis, and the muscles directly around the spine.

Use of Anatomy in the Drawing:

In depicting the rib cage structure, I used the basic shape of an egg as my guideline and applied it to the angle that the model was laying in. I then added a few details about the shape of the form. As for the landmarks besides for the rib cage, spine, spinal muscles, and pelvis, I did not add in the frontal muscles such as the abs because the model had her back turned to me.

Use of Line in the Drawing:

I feel that my line use in this piece was more effective since I used thinner lines at the points where light was openly exposed to the model and where the parts of her body came closer to the foreground. She laid at an angle that was parallel to me, so I could not use a dramatic effect of atmospheric perspective. My line character also has more change in this piece than the previous since I used lines that were softer in form rather than simply a certain thickness of a regular streak of conte.

Use of Composition in the Drawing:

The relationship between the model and the ground is quite different in this piece compared to the previous 10 minute drawing since I added in the folds of the fabric that the model was laying on and showed how they fold up at certain points and slightly cover the model's body. This also means that the shadows that appear under the figure are depicted and pronounced. As before, the figure is not cropped or crowded over to the edge of the page. I feel that I could have made the figure a bit bigger, but I do not think that she is too small in relation to the full size of the page.

This is the 10 minute in-class drawing that was done on October 2nd. Comparing this drawing to our instructor's drawing I find that I relied a lot on outlines rather than focusing on the axis lines. I also didn't use very dramatic lines on the tension points or points where joints were connected. I used a generally consistent outline for most of the drawing.

About the Structure of the Drawing:

I have used very basic axis lines and I don't think I really used cross-contour lines. I did use a lot of basic contour outlines. The lines I used express the direction and shape of the body parts and the shape of the bone structure. My drawing is not very variant on the weight of line and doesn't really approach a truly thin line, but mostly has either a regular thickness or a very dense thickness.

About the Anatomy of the Drawing:

I've drawn in the egg-like shape representing the rib cage and I have added in the pelvic structure and the line of the spinal column. These are the main landmarks that we've studied so far and help to map out proportions in relation to each other. Once these are done then it becomes easier to map out the other parts of the body.

About the Lines of the Drawing:

My drawing doesn't have a wide range of line character/value but it does utilize thicker lines in areas where there is less light. The lines have a somewhat flat look because they don't vary too much and don't have a very apparent atmoshperic perspective. Our instructor's drawing focused a lot more on the nature of line and how making a lot of contrast between thick/thin and light/dark can be used to depict the figure.

About the Composition of the Drawing:

I included the entire figure in the composition and did not crowd the drawing of the figure up against the edge of the page. I didn't use any cropping on the figure. In relation to the ground, I only focused on the proper perspective of the figure as she rested her leg on the ground so that it travels into the background.

This exercise is a study of Michelangelo's figure drawings that focused on the upper body. I traced over them with graphite and added in the emphasized rib cage, spinal column, and pelvis areas along with the terms for each specific area in order to show how those internal body parts appear to be moving in Michelangelo's drawings.

This drawing is the third in-class model observation drawing
done so far of the same model as in the earlier pictures

This is the second 30 minute in class drawing
done from observation of a model. Each of these
30 minute drawings are done on different days

This drawing is the first of the 30 minute drawings
done during class of a model.

The first two pieces that I posted are highlights from my Industrial Design classes last semester. I have switched my major into Studio now.

The third piece is a special piece I made after a service trip down to a poor town in Louisiana. It reflects my experience there. It is a mix of different things and people who made memories for my service trip group.

The next four pieces are done for fun. The first three of the four don't have any deep personal meaning. They're mean to be in the style of concept art and character development. The last piece is also done for fun but it's a picture from memory of my BMX bike (I drew it on the 9 hour car ride to Louisiana). One of my favorite hobbies is BMX flatland biking, so making the piece has a level of personal connection.

Ryan L. Smith's Life Drawing I blog

Hello,

The first of the following pieces of artwork are various works I have done before the beginning of my Life Drawing I class (fall semester 2008). The pieces after those are a record of the work done in the class from start to finish.

Thank you,

Ryan