FINAL PORTFOLIO LINK~!

Hey All,

So my self portrait is done and ready to post.

It is under the Long Drawings Set.

Here is the link to my final Life Drawing Portfolio!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kosmatkac/sets/

Hope you Enjoy!

Chelsey

Final Portfolio Post

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kosmatkac/sets/

Here is my Final Portfolio! Enjoy!
p.s. The Self Portrait will be added soon~

Hello All!

Wow this semester has gone by SO incredibly fast!
I can't believe we are in the final days of Spring 2011.
So for this final post I need to reflect on my semester in my Life Drawing Class.

Life Drawing this semester has been the ultimate experience for drawing. I have learned so much, not only in drawing either. I have gained knowledge of the body and muscles that I was never aware of.

Learning to draw a human form in 3D is certainly difficult. But for those who want a challenge, this class is totally worth it. Amy, our professor, is the sweetest person, but she does grade tough. She bites the bullet if she sees you not working hard. Although, I do have to say that I almost depend on her feedback since she is so helpful.

For someone thinking about taking this class, I would have to say DO IT! If you like to draw and you enjoyed Drawing 1 and 2, then this class is great. However, the drawing we do in Life Drawing is nothing hardly at all like the drawing you do in Drawing 1 & 2. The approach is totally and completely new and different. You are learning about basing your drawings off of wireframe techniques and learning to draw contour lines instead of shading.

The class starts off with gesture drawings, learning how to draw the body, inside out basically. You learn to draw the ribs as an egg, which is weird at first but after a couple of weeks, it becomes totally natural. Then the spine and hips are added in. They look like sophisticated stick people when you first start, but it gets better!

Then we start to draw long poses, this is the tough part. Drawing the object, or in this case, person in front of you is difficult especially when you’re brand new at it.

Trust me, you get over the “naked” part of it a couple of minutes into the class.

The hard part is to make the drawing look and feel 3D. This is where contour lines are your best friend. They reveal show much more detail than just drawing an outline of your figure.  

Overall, this class is challenging but it is good to know to learn how to draw something in line and not depend on the shading. At the end, such as in our self-portraits, she lets you bring it all together and add minimal shading. You go through a lot of newsprint, but I thought it was worth it.

Thank you for viewing my blog this past semester!

Hope you have a good rest of the year.

I will probably be putting this blog under construction to link all my profile “stuff” together. See you soon!

Chelsey Kosmatka

Almost There

Hey Everyone! (p.s. I know this is a little early)

Wow, and here we are, at the end to another great semester. This semester has been such a learning experience, not only in this life drawing class, but in my other classes as well.
This week in Life Drawing, we worked on our mannequins and then on thursday we did a long pose, attaching all the parts of the body( including the face)  together.
I am so glad we worked on our mannequins on Tuesday. It really helped to have Amy come around and tell us exactly what was wrong with our mannequins and what we could do to fix them. So, she met with me first. I was happy she did this because it allotted me almost two and a half hours to get the refinements finished on LeRoy.
He is now finished and I completed photographing him last night. He looks pretty spiffy if I say so myself. The muscles on the mannequin really helped over the past semester in learning what exactly is under that skin. Although, I must say carrying it around campus just was a hassle, but it did give you a lot of attention.
As for the long pose, I think I did okay. I am not sure that the face really goes with the model. If you'd put the model next to my drawing you'd never guess they were the same person, unless he is naked and you examine the body type. Overall, it was a good challenge. I think pulling it all together is the ultimate "end" point that Amy wants us to be at before we leave this class. I am ALMOST there, but I still do need to work on the face a little more.
Next week is Finals week and we will be presenting another online portfolio on Flickr. So, keep checking back to see the final drawings! (as well as finished and polished LeRoy!)
See you next week! (for a final time in the class)

Chelsey

F.A.C.E

Hello All!

This week in Life Drawing we started a very exciting chapter. THE FACE!

The facial structure is EXTREMELY frustrating when you have no idea how to draw it. Since it was my first, relative, time drawing the face, it was so confusing and frustrating. I literally stood in front of my drawing for 10 minutes, figuring out where I should start. We had previously learned how to draw separate parts of the face and then she would tell us how to approach it. However, this doesn’t work when drawing the whole face. I had no idea where to begin, and which part to draw first. I think I still need to connect the dots, relating each part of the face to something else. Such as your ear is about as long as your eyebrow to the bottom of your nose. This was a cute but helpful tidbit of information that helped me proportion my drawing. Amy did help me create the oval/egg shape of the head once I had started on the nose. I need to of course work on proportion and drawing LIGHT. But until I learn to actually put something on the page without any help, I’m putting the knit-picky things on the back burner.

This next week we are finishing up our Mannequins (i.e. LeRoy). Then we can start working on more long poses in which I will be concentrating in the face mostly. I will be doing this because we also have a final assignment. Our final assignment will be a self portrait of ourselves. I am unsure on how I feel about this. I will let you all know how I feel when I actually start drawing myself.

Until Next Week,

Chelsey

 Hello All,

This week we learned about the head/skull. We had a goal to reach to have three drawings of the skull. One three quarters view of the back of the head (see to your right), one three quarters view of the front (coming soon) and the profile or sideview of the skull (see below). The skull at first did not look TOO intimidating, however, it was very difficult. I had so many troubles getting the 3D effect to pop out in front of me. I really did try to create a little shadow, which Amy said we could do since, especially the back of the skull, is kinda boring and dull. So, I shaded the bottom "knobs" to show that they were going under, otherwise known as a bottom plane.
The profile of the skull was different, but in a good way. I had a lot more to look at, but that means a lot more to draw. I had trouble with the nose. My mind refused to draw the nose correctly. The nose is actually fairly long, and I had made it too short. Amy came around and helped me correct it and then we learned that in order to make the object (drawing) pop out more than others, give it more attention to detail. So, i wanted the cheek bone to pop out, and therefore I made contours stronger and shading more concentrated. I think I did a fairly well job of getting that to pop out more so than the part of the skull behind it.  Overall, I hope we spend more time on the skulls. I do need to draw a front view of a skull too, but I have no idea on how to start it. I hope we draw some today!

Well, See you all next week!

Chelsey

Hands

Hello All,

This past week we mastered HANDS! Boy o boy, hands are difficult. I think the hands frustrate me three times more than feet. I think the wrist is throwing me for a loop. The foot is longer and has the big toe jutting right out of the top, just like all the other toes. With drawing the hand, the thumb is lower and connected to the hand base totally different than the rest of the fingers. The thumb also only has two sections where the fingers have three. We had to draw at least one of each "type" of drawing. One was supposed to be of just the model's hand posing. The second was supposed to be of a skeleton hand. Many thought that drawing the model was harder thant drawing the skeleton. I, however, enjoyed drawing the model's hand over drawing the skeleton. The skeleton had so much detail that I think it psyched me out. With the model, I felt at ease, drawing in my own "norm".

Hand Drawing A Hand

I thought the picture of this week would be a little light-hearted and fun. I wanted to post the famous hand drawing a hand since we concentrated so much on hands. I think this drawing is funny since it goes in a loop of 2D to 3D and so on and so forth. This hand drawing represents my frustration of drawing hands. The progress grows and then stops short and then starts to grow and then stops short again. It will be like this until I completely get comfortable with the new drawing "norm" as well as the difference from hands to feet. 

Speaking of drawing in my "norm", this past Tuesday Amy made us draw "correctly". This whole time our class was drawing like we were handwriting. I guess this was the most comfortable position we knew. However, there is a much better way to draw. With drawing with your shoulder rather than your wrist, you are able to get more movement in your drawing, creating more smooth transitions than with just your wrist. I had a hard time breaking the handwriting pose habit, but I tried and tried. I think it is true that you are able to get more space in drawing with your shoulder than wrist, but it's getting accustomed to the technique that is going to be difficult.

Well, see you next week!

Chelsey

Week ending April 2nd

Hello,


So sorry this is late. I have been having a busy and sick week. Today is the worst, but it will hopefully be gone in the next 2 days. This past week we learned a lot about muscles. We concentrated on drawing the muscles in the shoulders and pecks. In the long pose on Thursday, we had our model pose lying down with his hand above his head. This gave us a great view of his armpit. I concentrated on the muscles that attached by the pecks/ribs and then it stretches back. I also learned to draw the contours on the arms. Amy said the arms weren't difficult to learn, but just to know them was good. I am comfortable drawing the ribs and the peck muscles, now I just need to work on the arms, hands, and neck/head. I am not sure if I will like drawing the face. I have seen a couple of students that have already added in the face to their drawings, but I haven't gotten that far. I'm not quite sure where to start. You'll see in the long pose that I attempted to start drawing the neck, but I'm not sure if I was doing it correctly. I know there is a million different ways to approach drawing, but I think Amy's input so far has helped me tremendously, so I think I will just wait for her advice.

I found that I really enjoy longer poses. The pose on Thursday was the longest we've done so far. It lasted about an hour and 40 minutes.
As for LeRoy, he is coming along. I will hopefully have pictures of him posted in the next posting or two, so stay tuned!
Gestures are still difficult to draw thoroughly and accurate. It still takes me about 2 minutes to get everything in with a well drawn structure. Otherwise, it looks like kindergarten scribbles. I hope to improve on this in the next upcoming class periods.

Until Next Posting,

Chelsey K

Shoulders

Hello All,

DaVinci's Shoulder Study

 This week was all about working the shoulders, literally. We learned about the shoulder blade as well as the muscles around it. We learned mainly where to look for the muscles, and how to draw the simple triangle of the blade. I thought this was going to be very difficult. And at first, it was very difficult. I did not realize that the shoulder blade went half way down the back of the ribs. This was tricky since at first I was drawing this dinky triangle as the shoulder blades.
I did also find out that I need about 2 minutes to each get to the shoulders. We did a lot of gesture drawings on Tuesday, and I have to tell you that I could not for the life of me get to the shoulders. I would draw the spine, ribs (egg), hips, start of the legs and then the beeper would go off. I had to get the "egg" right so I concentrate most of my time on that, so it took forever to even get a hint on the shoulders in within the 30 second and 1 minute gestures. Finally, when the time was increased to two minutes could I then add the shoulders with some time to refine them.
As my picture this week, I chose to show DaVinci's shoulder studies. He does a very good job defining the muscles and curves the the shading of them is just jaw-dropping. I wish I could draw like DaVinci. 
After the gesture drawings, we moved on to a longer pose. We were told to specifically concentrate on the shoulders and arms. I had a pretty decent drawing by the end. Amy had come around to help me and helped me with the muscles. After that was done, I better understood the armpit and how the muscles formed it. I put a lot of contour around it and made the elbow very boney.
I have yet to master the shoulders in the one drawing session we had, but I hopefully will learn to draw them without any help.
As for LeRoy, well he has a ways to go before we can call him finished. This week we had two muscle assignments which will bulk him up in the shoulders and upper arms. After this I imagine we will concentrate on the lower arm and hand, which I have a feeling will be very delicate.

Until Next Week,

Chelsey

Before Spring Break..

Wow, it’s already half over,

Foot

 

Contour of Foot

This semester has flown by so far, but yet when I look back I have learned so much and that might be the reason. This past week before Spring Break, we were concentrating on the foot. We had all of Thursday to learn to draw and master the art of the foot. I personally do not care to draw the foot. I think feet are ugly and they are extremely difficult to draw accurately. I struggled at first, but once I got into more contour drawing, I did alright. I think that we should learn a little more about the foot and how to draw it. However, when I think about it, we usually draw the model standing and then there isn’t much feet to draw. I mean, the main structure of the foot is hidden since he is standing, it more so the ankle you concentrate on. I am looking forward to this next half of the semester in really refining my drawing skills. I hope to master the knee and shoulders since I’m positive that I am not drawing them quite right.

Cont

LeRoy is doing alright as well. He looks like he is almost finished but I have a feeling that we will be doing a lot of work on the hands and forearms since those muscles are so delicate and there are so many.  I am not sure that we will get to the face muscles, but that might be interesting if we do.  I do think this next week will bring some new information, probably in the shoulders and neck. I am looking forward to drawing some more next week, because believe it or not, I miss my life drawing class!

Until Next Week,

Chelsey

Midterm Blog Post

Midterm Portfolio

Hello!

Hour Long Pose, Female

Above this blog post is the link to my portfolio so far.
This week we had another hour long pose to add to our collection of drawings.
Also, this post is going up on Thursday night since our portfolio is being graded on Saturday! Nerve-racking!

So far in this semester, I have learned a tremendous amount.  My drawing skills have changed dramatically. Not only the technique, but as well as the accuracy. In my first two drawing classes, it was all about shade and highlight, not line. Life Drawing is the opposite, you try to capture that outer line and the muscle “inner” lines, to create a smooth 3D-like drawing. Such as in my 5 minute drawings. So far, we have been learning all the muscles with our mannequin-building. I think the mannequins give me a great understanding as to how the muscles should look when drawing, sort of a close up—Since you obviously can’t go up to the model and look at his thigh.

Hour Long Pose, Male

Anterior Mannequin

These next couple of weeks, I would like to learn the shoulders and knees. We went over the knees in lecture already, but I still am unsure how to draw them fully. I guess with experience and practice I will learn best. I also hope to improve my accuracy and size ratio, which is what I know that I struggle with a little. I am comfortable with contour, (as shown in both hour long drawings as well as the 30 minute drawing) but I assume later on that we won’t be able to do contour for every drawing. I also would like to learn how to draw the neck properly. The shoulders and neck are probably the most difficult when you do not know what is underneath. I would also like to learn a little on facial construction, how to draw the nose and mouth correctly. Overall, I have learned a huge amount and it has been a fun experience, I enjoy the live model drawings versus a still life of vases and boxes. 

Until Next Week, 

Chelsey

Week 5

Hello all!

This week we got to learn a lot on how to draw the pelvis. I had some trouble with it at first but then eventually began to understand the way the hips come up so high. I thought I was making the butt muscles of our models so big, but when you really look at it, the hips do come up that high. I found that I am more comfortable in drawing the back view, I can see the butt muscles better as well as where the hip bones turn on the side into the front.

This is NOT my drawing, this is a reference I found very helpful.

To help me understand how to draw gesture drawings better, I looked online at some gesture drawings of other artists out there. I thought that would be my picture of the week since it did help me better understand the form of the pelvis. I found some great examples on how to draw in the lower half, and to visualize through the skin and down to the bones. I can see that my drawings are not TOO off from the examples I found, but they do need some improvement. I will hopefully be able to pick out the hip muscles and such very quickly by next week.

This week, specifically Thursday, went a little slow. I was not in the best of health, so, feeling dizzy and mucus-filled I trotted through class, struggling to concentrate and zone in on my drawings. I did give my attention to Amy when she spoke of our upcoming midterm portfolio review. This makes me a little nervous, since she and others say that she is a very hard grader, expecting a lot. So, we will have to photograph our 10 best drawings as well as 3 different angles of LeRoy, my clay mannequin. LeRoy.. oh LeRoy. He is looking pretty hunky. He now has butt muscles, and quad muscles, and will hopefully next week (or the week after next) have calves and shoulders.

Until Next Week.
Chelsey

Week 4

Hello All!

Gesture Drawing with Spine, Ribs, and Pelvis

I hope everyone had a great week! I had a very busy week, what with all the Scott Walker stuff and all. Therefore, this week we did not have a lot of drawing class. Instead, we got to stand up for our teachers and all the hard work we do. I just want to say that I truly appreciate my professors and all the effort they put into giving us feedback and honest one-on-one time with students.

Gesture Drawing with Spine, Ribs, and Pelvis

 Even with all the bill ruckus, we still managed to get a little drawing in. We have been learning how to draw the body from an inside, then out, standpoint. So far we had learned the spine curves, and the "egg" ribcage. On Thursday, we learned about the pelvis. We learned the hip points in the front and back and how they curve on the sides and change planes. I did not have any trouble learning and understanding the ribcage being an egg form, however with the pelvic bones, I just can't seem to wrap my head around it. I think once Amy drills the concept into our brains a little more, then we will start to understand the plane changes and where to look for certain drawing decisions.
My pelvis drawings are very "sketchy" and I do not think they are accurate at all. I struggled with them a little in the beginning, trying to visualize all the bones as a whole, instead of thinking in parts. In this case I learned that if I think about the different aspects and plane changes, then I could potentially map out the point and simply "connect the dots". Easier said than done.
We had a male model on Thursday. I must say that old habits die hard, I am much more accustomed to drawing the male body versus the female. I'm sure Amy will mix up the two genders fairly often, but at this point in time, I prefer male. It is a lot easier to see the bones and major muscle groups that she wants us to draw. 

Well, until next week...
Chelsey



 

Week 3

Male Model Contour

Hello Again!

Wow, week 3 has flew by. I have learned a lot in the past week since the last post. In class we have learned about the ribs and how to draw them. We have been practicing a lot because being able to draw the "egg" of the ribs can make or break your drawing. The rib cage is formed like an egg, becoming narrow and small at the top and then growing wider as it comes down. Yes, the ribcage is hollow, but we are not drawing the inside, just the outside. It helps to think about the egg shape since in different poses, the egg "shape" stays the same but the angle you draw it differs. We also have gotten the privelege of drawing a female model on Thursday. I have gotten opinions saying that the female body is easier to draw. I beg to differ. I DO NOT think so because you are not able to see the ribcage "egg" as well. I would much rather draw a male model at this point since it is easier to see the muscles and bones that Professor Fichter wants us to draw.

Male Model Contour

"Egg" Ribcage and Spine Sketches

We also got assignments for our mannequins. LeRoy got some rib and ab muscles put on him. I am also working on his butt muscles but I am not quite finished so the pictures of LeRoy will be posted next week.  I have come to like shaping and forming the clay muscles on LeRoy. The anatomy of LeRoy gives me understanding of what muscles are under the skin of the model I am drawing. However, I think learning how to draw the "egg" is very important, just as is the spine. I am looking forward to learning more on Tuesday and Thursday.

I have also found out that I very much enjoy drawing contour drawings. I think they give me a good understanding of drawing the 3D item in front of me. I enjoy drawing every little bump and lump around joints and muscles. It gives me a chance to show detail without shading or values.

Until Next Week,

Chelsey

Week 2

Hello again,

Well, here we are the end of week two and the beginning of week 3. It seems like the semester is flying by and we've only just begun to learn! I have learned a lot in the past week, a lot specifically about anatomy. Muscles are a key ingredient to learning how to draw a human figure. So, naturally, we all should have to learn them.
This week we had been assigned our first mannequin assignment. The Spinal Erectors is the section of muscles that we had to sculpt onto our skeletons. I, personally, gave my mannequin the name of LeRoy. He seems like a LeRoy, and he will have green colored muscles. So far, he has his spinal erectors in tact and ready to be critiqued. It was way more difficult than I thought it would be. But after a couple of hours fully concentrating, his back muscles had begun to look successful. I think I did a pretty good job sculpting the 9 sections of spinal erectors that were assigned. On Tuesday, Amy is going to go around and give us comments on how to improve our muscle sculpting. Which, I'm actually looking forward to, having a few tips might make it a little easier.  
We did not do much drawing this week, well not much full body drawing. We concentrated on the spinal bones, because we are supposed to learn how to draw from the inside out. This is difficult to catch on to, but once you have it, you learn to get better. When the model is facing forward, you obviously can't see the spinal bones, but instead you are supposed to draw the middle line that goes down your chest, stomach and waist. It is the middle of your body, since our bodies are symmetrical. 
Until Next Week,
Chelsey

Introduction

Hello.
My name is Chelsey and I am a currently a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.
I am working on my BFA with a dual-concentration in Graphic Design & Multimedia Design.
I'm currently enrolled in a Life Drawing Class which is how and why I am getting involved in blogging. I figured that this blog will help me post my art online in a safe and secure way. I can also use this blog space to be casual as well as professional in my art life.

So far,  my life drawing class has been a learning experience. I have taken two drawing classes before this one. However, the techniques that we will learn in Life Drawing seem different than my previous drawing classes. I have never been one to want to draw life, as in human life. I can draw pumpkins and vases and fabrics galore, but when it comes to muscles and body parts, I am a total beginner.

Today, we had our first three hour long session class and our first model. We had to start off with gesture drawings lasting from 30 seconds to about 3 minutes. It was difficult but enjoyable because it wasn't concentrating on detail, just overall relaxingly casual. After we did that, we started contour drawings. I chose the model's forearm and hand. I thought I did an alright job for a first time. The technique of contour is extremely difficult, considering it is drawing rings of an object ( a human model in this case ) and how you do this is to imagine there is a string that wraps around it. You imagine all these strings wrapped around this object and the result of drawing all these rings is that you get a sense of dimension. The rings give the object the look and almost feel of the object in its every plane, crevice, every texture of the certain object your are... contouring.  Overall, it was a very good beginning to an interesting class.

Until Next Week,
Chelsey