Review Week 9

This week we critiqued our final portrait drawings. My drawings were talked about near the end of class so feedback wasn't as abundant as those discussed in the beginning. The class enjoyed my use of charcoal and the likeness of my portraits. My suggestions for improving the portraits were easy fixes. My value transitions could have been smoother and less dark in some areas like under the chin on the neck.
For the most part, I am happy with the outcome of my drawings. The most interesting and difficult drawing was my non-traditional view. My boyfriend posed as my model, which I found quite difficult to draw. It was much more challenging to draw someone I am close to and see everyday. I found myself more focused on making the portrait look like him as opposed to paying attention to the structure of the face. I enjoy my treatment of the hair in all of my drawings. I chose to leave it mostly unfinished to keep it from taking away from the face. I also enjoyed returning to vine charcoal to add value. I have exclusively worked with pencil and conte for the entire semester. Diving into the value drawing with my fingers and the charcoal was refreshing. Overall, I would like to go back and tweak the drawings with my feedback from the critique. I am pleased with my improvement from life drawing I, but they will hopefully improve more after I revisit them.

Review Week 8

This week we continued to work on the in-class portrait drawings. We were given the week to finish the three drawings and revisit some of the models. I posed for the unusual view on Monday since I did that drawing outside of class due to my time absent on the field trip. I posed for the full three hours, which was once again very uncomfortable, but beneficial to my classmates nonetheless. On Wednesday I drew the back 3/4 view of Lauren. She was a bit of a sleepy model so the drawing was a little more difficult, but I'm sure she has her hands full as a new mom and I can't blame her for nodding off! I feel like the drawing process went much faster in this view being so familiar with the form from the skull drawings. I put emphasis on the ear and left her hair with no shading to show some of the process. Overall, I am happy with the outcome of my portraits and I look forward to getting feedback on Monday!

Review Week 7

This week we continued to work on the portrait drawings. I posed as the model on Monday, which was nothing short of a bad neck ache. I missed class on Wednesday due to an all day field trip with my aesthetics class. We visited MCAD, the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts, and the Walker Art Center. This was my third time taking this field trip and it was once again, a very pleasurable experience. It was a non-managed field trip and it was refreshing to connect with the work without having to do some sort of assignment. This was my favorite visit to the Walker. The Yves Klein show was an array of his International Klein Blue pieces, but I enjoyed his fire paintings the most. I was mesmerized by the living installation Naked. The piece engulfed the viewer with an eerie sense of death and I revisited the work three separate times while we were at the museum. I also found immense tranquility in the James Turrell piece located around the back of the building. I laid on the benches and stared through the hole in the ceiling and into the sky while my eyes began to shift in and out of focus creating an illusion of spacial boundaries. I enjoy his celestial works and it was exciting to be able to directly interact with once of his pieces. All in all the field trip was a success, but I lost out on class time to finish my portrait. This weekend will have plenty of work in store for me!