Group Discusion

During our last class we met in groups and talked about our progress in the class. These are the people who were in my group: Lauren, Leah, and Kyle. We decided to go around and read our blogs to each other and get feedback on our work and talk about the things we were having trouble with. Lauren had trouble loading all of her images for the mid-term on one post. She ended up doing separate posts for each image. She said that the class has been more intense than she initially thought it would be. She has trouble using the clay for the manikin due to issues like craft and especially making the muscles 'twist' the way they do in the body. When drawing from the model Lauren finds it helpful to find dynamic angles. As a group we commented on the fact that the images she posted of her manikin were blurry which she said was probably due to touching them up in iphoto. Photoshop is better to use for things like that. We also commented on her model drawings...they were really well proportioned.

Kyle sees a lot of progress in his work since the beginning of the class. The main things that he has found to be helpful in drawing successfully to not use straight lines, contour lines help to add volume to the figure easily and proportion is the most important aspect of making a believable drawing. He said he has trouble creating correct proportions but we assured him that this wasn't true because his gesture drawings have really good proportion, and the foreshortening used in his long poses was very successful.

Leah thought that we would be working on more long term assignments rather than the short poses and in-class drawing we do. At first she was annoyed by the 30 sec. gesture drawings because she didn't see the significance they had but she has realized the value and importance they have now in learning to understand the human form. She said that she now looks forward to the 30 sec. drawings because it helps her get ready for the long drawings. She finds that during the long poses she tends to draw what she thinks is there rather than what she actually sees and doesn't spend enough time looking at the form before and while she's drawing. The thinks that the clay and manikin are the most difficult parts of the class.

As a group we also talked about different techniques that could be used when working with the clay. I suggested using coils and layering them to make thicker muscles and then smoothing in the 'seams'. This is the technique I use and it's pretty successful. Other techniques used were to roll slabs and cut out the shape that was needed which created the common problem of not having muscles that seemed thick enough.

It was a good discussion.