Saturday, November 8, 2008

A whole bunch of stuff...

Short Drawings

Figure 3Figure 2Figure 1

















In order Left to Right: Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3


















In order from Left to Right: Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 6


Overall, I do a pretty good job of including the whole figure on the page. In a few gesture drawings that weren't pictured, I did have to cut off parts. Figure 4 above doesn't include the whole figure because we were focusing on the pelvis with that drawing. Figure 1 is one of my very first drawings, before we covered the long contour (starting in Figure 2), so it's the only one which doesn't really use anatomical landmarks. Figure 6 uses cross contour lines as well as the landmarks. Line variation is something I'm working really hard to improve. I like to outline objects and that makes my drawings start to look flat. I think I started to get better at this in Figure 6. Figure 4 seems to look more like an illustration, but I liked it so I included it. While drawing, I notice that I tend to match the angle of my hips to the model, or at least get close. I also need to work on exaggerating the angles so it looks more believable.



Long Drawings














In order from Left to Right: Figure 7, Figure 8, Figure 9

I feel that Figure 7 is strong because of how hard I tried to get the proportions correct. I also liked that I added a little shading. I included Figure 8 because of the muscles on the back--I like how they turned out. I also think I did well with line variation. Figure 9 is my favorite drawing that I've done so far. The proportion is slightly off, but I tried to get the muscles that I could remember in as well as the general shapes of those we hadn't learned yet.



Mannequin













From Left to Right: Figure 10, Figure 11, Figure 12, Figure 13


I think the strongest feature of Figure 10 is the abs, and I think I could improve the tendon that runs down the middle. The strongest of Figure 11 is the twist in the neck muscles, but I feel the proportions could be better for the back muscles. In Figure 12, the thigh muscles could be thinner to fit together better, but I like how the sartorius turned out. In Figure 13, I feel that I did the glutes well and that the muscles around the back of the knee could be improved.




The most interesting post I've found so far is this one by Matt from my group. I've used illustrator only a small amount and I find it really challenging. I've basically only been able to accomplish lines and text so far.


It's nice to see what I've been doing in class all in one spot. I find the general layout and amount of text displayed on a blog frustrating. I'm a web design student, and blogs seem to go against most of what I've learned about creating a good web page. I can't really show it to a future employer because while I did create the work, he or she would also be looking at the site itself, and I need to create a real website. I would like to post about website aesthetics, suggested amount of content, and other things like that. If I could give an assignment to the class, it would be to tell a little about themselves.

My image quality is the best I can get, while not owning a digital camera and not always having my roommate available to use hers. The quality of my writing, I think, is pretty good. I probably don't always spell check as much as I should, though. Due to lack of time, I haven't really been commenting on my other group members blogs, and they haven't been commenting on mine. I haven't replied to the comment I got. We did talk a bit in class during the maniken building times, which was helpful. I haven't been able to blog about non-class related subjects. As a professional artist, the blog doesn't represent me well because I'm just learning figure drawing. Looking at the work, someone would probably think I'm not a good artist because the drawings aren't that great.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Group Session 2/Upper Leg Muscles

While working in class, we asked each other a few questions about whether or not the muscles were layered, and how they fit next to each other.













To build the muscles of the upper leg, I made sure to keep the clay as thin as I could, and especially thinned out the connections because in the books it always looked like the muscles were attaching in the same spot. Maybe they're all merging into one tendon or something, but it wasn't portrayed like that. While building the biceps femoris, I made them thin at first, then added clay to make them match the book as well as I could. With the other muscles, I found myself subtracting a lot of clay in order to keep the leg from looking too bulky.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Group Session 1/Glutes

What we discussed in our blog group was that we learned that the Gluteus Maximus was supposed to be slightly longer than what we built it to be. We found out through research that we were missing the Iliac Head. We also learned that the IT Band is a tendon and not a muscle.

(Quads were started when these images were taken.)












While building these muscles, I tried to keep the clay as thin as possible because there were quite a few layers and I didn't want to make my skeleton look strange. I was a little confused as to how the glutes actually sat next to each other (some seemed to overlap) and where some of them attached.

Monday, October 6, 2008

10 and 50 minute Drawings

10 Minute Drawing
The differences between my drawing and my professors were that my drawing has more outlines, less variation in all the lines, and my drawing's proportion wasn't as correct.

In this drawing, the long axis lines are visible and show the direction of the limbs. I have included outlines, but the lines probably aren't as varied in shade and width as I'd like them to be. They also seem to be a bit closed in, except through the waist.

I made sure I showed the shape of the ribcage, starting with an egg shape then moving to the cartilage and some rib forms. The pelvis is also drawn in roughly, showing where it would be in this figure. Mainly the iliac crest and the coccyx are shown. Since this is a back view, the sternum isn't included.

I should have turned my paper so that I had more room to draw. When I cropped it to make a smaller file, it looks fine, but on the large piece of paper, it looks a little strange because it's a landscape drawing on a portrait oriented piece of paper. Since this drawing was only 10 minutes long, I didn't get a chance to draw much of the platform the model was on.


50 Minute Drawing
This drawing's long axis lines were mainly lost, except to get the angle of the legs correct. The line that makes the spine is also visible. The outlines are definitely there, and I made sure to have the lines vary to show weight on the lower side of the limbs and body. Cross contour lines are visible at the base of the ribcage and the top of the pelvis.

I started the ribcage with the egg form as usual and added the curve to show where it comes around to the spine, as well as including some ribs. There are very basic marks to show where the pelvis is, including the iliac crests. The spinal erectors are shown along the back from the base of the skull down the back to the pelvis. The quadratus lumborum is also visible on the sides.

The lines drawn here have a lot of variation in shade and weight. The darker lines are where the figure meets the sheet and pillows, as well as where one of her limbs rests on another part of her body. If a limb was closer to the viewer, it will be slightly darker. The lines that make up the body are darker and more defined to show more detail and draw the eye to the muscles we've studied so far where the arms are lighter.

I made sure to turn my paper for this drawing to allow for more drawing space. This time, the figure fits better on the picture plane. Also because I had more time for this drawing, I was able to show the pillows and sheet the model was laying on, as well as draw a bit of the platform so that she wasn't just floating in space.

Clay Model 1

1.
Straight on and 3/4 Front Views
The quadratus lumborum can be seen in the 3/4 view on the side. It attaches at the 12th rib, transverse process of L1 to L4, the posterior iliac crest, and the iliolumbar ligament. It functions to help flex the spine.

The external obliques can be seen in both shots. These attach to the 5th through 12th ribs, the anterior of the Serratus, the linea alba, iliac crest, and the inguinal ligament. Their function is to flex the spine, compress the abdoman, and allow a person to twist at the waist.

The rectus abdominus is also seen in both shots. They attach at the cartilage of ribs 5 to 7, the xiphoid process, and the pubic symphasis. Their function is to flex the spine as well as help a person consciously exhale. The navel can be seen indicated as a small indentation in the straight on view. The tendons are indicated by lined showing the "6-pack" and the white clay down the middle.

Straight on and 3/4 Back Views
The spinal erectors are visible in both views shown here. They include the spinalis cervicis, attaching to vertibrae C2-C4 and C7-T2 which extend the cervical vertebrae. Also the spinalis capitis, which attaches to the medial occipital bone, and C7-T1, and allow the head to rotate. The spinalis thoracis is also included, attaching to T1-T8 and T11-L2, and extends the thoracic vertebrae.

The longissimus capitus attaches at the dorsal mastoid process and to C4-T5. It allows the head to flex laterally. The longissimus cervicis attaches to C2-C6 and T1-T5 which laterally flexes the cervical vertebrae. The longissimus thoracis attaches to T1-T12, ribs 3-12, vertibrae L1-L5, the quadratus lumborum fascia, and the lumbodorsal fascia. It laterally extends and flexes the lumbar vertebrae and rotates the thoracic vertebrae.

The iliocostalis cervicis attaches to vertebrae C4-C6 and the angles of ribs 3-6, which extends and flexes the cervical vertebrae. The iliocostalis thoracis attaches to the angle of ribs 1-6 and to ribs 7-12. It rotates thoracic vertebrae. The iliocostalis lumborum attaches to the angles of ribs 7-12 and the medial iliac crest. It extends and flexes the lumbar vertebrae and rotates the thoracic vertebrae.

2. To build the muscles, I would knead the clay to warm it up before rolling it flat and cutting it into the general shape I needed. I would then re-shape it as needed after it was attached to the model.

3. While building, I learned that this is a lot harder than I thought it was, and a bit more frustrating when the muscles are small, such as the ones in the neck.

4. I turned my frustration into a want to get the assignments done--sort of the idea of not letting the clay win.

5. The rate at which the clay cooled off and became hard to work was pretty frustrating, so I worked faster to have it in place before it got too cold. I also seemed to have trouble keeping the layers of clay thin enough so that the next ones wouldn't seem too bulky.

6. The problems I solved were having enough clay to create muscles in one piece, as well as working fast enough so the clay was warm enough to move easily.

7. In the next assignment, I'll probably try to work more clay at a time so one piece doesn't get cold while I'm kneading another.

8. Keep the clay you're using warm, unless you need to twist it. Don't be afraid to carve it off if you have too much clay, and keep the layers thin.

9. Building this model will help me understand the shapes of muscles better.

10. I looked at pictures I found on google.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Pelvises


Click for larger image

3rd image to come

Ribcages

More images coming soon...