Class Reflection

Here is the link for my portfolio

So this semester...had a lot of ups and downs. I had high hopes for this class, and I feel like I learned a lot. I can definitely tell from my old drawings that I've really improved since the beginning of the semester. It was really great to work with a real model.

I really don't like having to do this blog...I guess I see the point behind it. I always had a hard time keeping track of it and updating it. Having to turn in a digital portfolio is a bit easier than turning in a paper one, but it gets a bit hard to photograph stuff sometimes.

The Maniken was also a pain in the butt. I think I could've done without it. I'm not that good at working with clay. I mean, I understand muscles a lot better now. But I think there's a better way somehow because not everyone is good at working with clay.

All in all, I got a lot out of this class. I really hope I can utilize my skills for more in the future and build on them as well. I want to get better with proportions and different positions and foreshortening.

Final Shell Drawing...

So here goes the last of the shell drawings!!! All in all, I kinda liked them actually. Well, at first I didn't and thought it was dumb. But now I kinda like it. My second and third shells turned out the best (so far). As I'm typing this I've only drawn the fourth shell. I still have to ink it, which will be fun!!!

So here it is. I'm not that happy with the line work :\ My last one was so much better! I think it's because I had the opening to work with, which gives it an interesting shape. This one was all spikes and stuff... not terribly exciting.... At least it fills up the page and has a pretty decent angle.


I'll post the rest of this blog when I get the inking done :)

And here's the inking....


Hmmm, I'm not exactly happy with how it turned out... the colors got a little out of control :\ I like the drips but yeah... I tried to experiment a little more and it didn't turn out so great. Oh well, better luck next time.

Put Yo' Clothes Back On!

Lol I have no idea where I was going with that title...

Last day of class! OMG! I'll be sad but somewhat relieved at the same time... This semester was really struggling for me and the outside work for this class didn't help... but I really enjoyed drawing in-class...

So for the last day it was rather cold in the room, poor model! Luckily she had a great solution. Piece by piece she put a different piece of clothing on in different poses. It was a lot of fun to draw!

So here are some short gesture drawings I did from that class. Looking back I think my more recent gestures look closer in proportion to the model that when I started out. It's good to know I improved!
After that we did a long pose with the model in clothes. It was good practice for learning how folds work. I think I prefer a nude model personally. I'm still not as up to snuff as I'd like to be with drawing people in general. It didn't turn out as great as some of my other long poses, but I was kinda in a wonky mood that day as well...

Skulls!

I drew my first skull back like Freshman year and I thought it was extremely fun! Then 5 years later we get to draw them again... I didn't realize how difficult it could be! There's way more to the skull than I anticipated. I didn't know that pretty much every bump and section had its own name. It seems like that should be obvious.... anyhow...

Here's my first attempt at drawing a skull:


The basic shape is a little hard to get down. I kept on having problems with the jaw being too short and not elongated enough. The part where the brain goes is also a little mushed. I think it's a good first attempt though.

Here's my 2nd attempt:


I tried a different view this time to see if I could get a better result. I think this one turned out better. There's a better shape to the skull, the brain area looks less mushed and the jaw area seems to be long enough. It wasn't quite right but still better. Just need lots more practice.

Hands and Shoulder Blades

Oh my, the semester is pretty much done! *switching on freak-out-all-nighter mode*

I have LOTS of work to do on so many things! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Anyway....So for one week we worked on Shoulder Blades and Hands (or something along those lines). Both of which I seem to have a rather hard time with. For some reason I'm having a hard time grasping the concept of the shoulder blades, I just can't seem to get them right! I need to make a mental note to work on that more. I had a good view of the model to draw them too, although not a whole lot was going on with that view...



Hands...they're so tricky to draw! Mine always look funky no matter what I do! I think making the skeleton lines of how the fingers are bending is a huge help. Thumbs certainly can throw off the whole picture though. I need to make my fingers look more realistic and less cartoony. I also need to think about the planes more too.

Drip, drip, there goes my sanity...

So happy fun times with ink! I actually find it super relaxing and I feel like it's something I can actually do!

At first I was really discouraged about this whole "ink painting" thing. I didn't really see much of a relation either to the class, other than something different to do with the shells than just lines and more lines. Here is what my shell looks like before I slopped ink all over it. I'm actually rather pleased with how it turned out. There is a nice variation of lines and you can actually tell what it is. It also took up the page nicely! I was super scared to ink it... Only major problem I have with it is that the back end of the shell isn't as light as I'd have liked it. I also learned that this paper is a pain to erase lines on!!!!!


Annnnnnnnd.... here it is with the ink!


For my first time doing stuff like this, I'm super pleased. It's not as colorful as I would like, but I think I did a rather good job with the shadows and highlights on it. It definitely looks a lot better with ink than without it. Just gotta work on getting better colors for next time!

Oh also, my paper is super wavy!!! Anyone else having this problem and know how to remedy it?

Minneapolis Musuem Adventure

So right before Thanksgiving was our big museum trip. Overall it was alright. I'm really not a huge fan of "modern art" honestly. I think it's kinda pointless. Anywho, that's not really relevant I suppose.

I rather enjoyed the Bell Museum of Natural History. There were so many animals and quite a few of them had interesting poses which was neat to look at and observe.



I did 3 drawings, two of them in the canine family and one of some cranes. My canines turned out the best. I found it rather difficult to draw the animals because the fur covered up all the curves and muscles. I just need to practice more. It was good to at least get proportions and poses worked on. Now to just learn fur and feathers!

I wish we had a little more time at the Bell but it was still worthwhile.

It's a long story, full of sighs...

It's been a while since I posted a blog, I know that much. There's been a lot going on in my life and it's affecting my school ethics now...

Anyway, Here is my last shell drawing. I think I've improved tremendously from my first one. I really focused on the simple shapes first. I also have more of a vertical going better. Also, I have less, more even lines. I need to make it fit the page better, but at least it looks better.



Also, we learned about feet and the lower parts of the legs. I actually am rather proud of how my foot drawing turned out. It came out really close to what it actually looks like. I'm really pleased with how much my drawing skills are improving.

Midterm Ova!

So yeah.... I feel like I'm gonna collapse soon... I've been so busy it's driving me insane! Ugh! Don't even get me started on emotional stress either! >.< Anyway, this last week was frustrating yet fulfilling. I learned a lot but my stuff is still off and not fantastic. Both days were filled with short gesture drawings and long pose drawings. I can definitely see improvement in my work over the semester. Getting the proportions down and forshortening is really tricky. I'm also getting slightly better at line weight, I was rather pleased with how my second long pose drawing turned out.

This is my 2 min pose. I'm rather pleased with how the proportions turned out.



This is my 1+ hour pose drawing. I'm rather pleased overall how this turned out, especially the line weights.

Midterm Reflection

I missed a couple weeks on my blog... whoops.... I've been having kind of a weird semester with all the things that have been going on in my life... Anyway...

Here is the location of my gallery sets for my portfolio.

I have learned so much this quarter already! I can really tell that my drawing skills have improved and my attention to detail is higher. I'm rather proud of some of the drawings I've done of the model, they actually look pretty good and the contours look good too. My proportions are still a bit off but they are much better than they were when I started. I do know that I really really need to improve on my muscle maniken and my shell drawings. My muscles have more to be desired and I really need to spend more time working on it. I really just need to redo all of them.... I'll get to it eventually...



And my shell drawing... I just really need to focus on the shell as a whole and not each individual bump on it. When I first did my shell drawing I focused too much on all the tiny bumps on it and my drawing just came out as a bunch of scribbles. When I do my next one I need to look more at just the basic shapes and getting the base down first before I try to do more of the details.



I have a hard time trying to get these blogs done... I -do- understand the reasoning behind them, I just always forget to get them done on time and I feel really bad about it...my goal for the second part of the semester is to get a blog done every week so I don't fail the class...

Rib Cage fun!!! -.-

Last week we learned more about body structure and mostly the Rib Cage. I've gotten better at my cross-contour drawings, I've even gotten compliments from a couple of my peers. So that was mood-boosting. I honestly can't remember all of what we did on Tuesday... I just remember doing cross-contour and more short exercises with the model. Below is my cross-contour from that day.


On Thursday we went over the rib cage. In concept it seemed not that difficult. Make an egg shape where the ribcage sits in the body. Holy cow it was a -lot- hard than I anticipated! I had an extremely hard time trying to get the shape down right and the perpective down on which way it was sitting in the chest! I learned a lot in this class period but it is definitely something I really need to work on. We did many 30 second sketches and a few longer ones. We had 30 minutes to work on a cross contour. I don't have a lot to show for it because I spent almost all of that time just trying to get the perspective down. I almost got it on the 4th try when Amy came over to my rescue!


I'm have a heck of a time trying to produce 300 words for each blog... I'll just end it with this I guess: I'm really enjoying this class and am getting a lot out of it for it being only the first month. I can't wait to learn more! My cross-contours are getting better but I need to work a lot on the ribcage now!

Human Form

Second week of classes got more interesting for me. I had a crash-course on life drawing when Amy taught my Digital Narrative class last spring. I learned a lot about how the body moves and perception and anatomy.

First we did 30 second exercises which I found very helpful. Got a good chance to work on anatomy and body movement. Amy also showed us where the pelvic bone should properly end on the spinal column so it's correctly proportional. These exercises also showed us to not focus so much on the nitty gritty details and just try to get in the form correctly.


We then did contour drawings for a longer period of time. This time we were supposed to get into more of the nitty gritty details. I'm actually rather pleased with how mine turned out. It's fairly proportionate and detailed. I just wish I had more time to work on the hands or spent more time doing that then something else. I need a lot of work but I'm still pleased with what I did.


After we did contour drawings we went back to short drawings. But this time we had 15-10 minutes to work on them. It was informational to get the movement quick then add in some of the details. I learned a lot from this exercise and I think I enjoyed this one the most.

The first week of classes

So far my semester has not been a good one at all...I got into an accident and lost my boyfriend among a few other things I don't want to share publicly. So sadly I really needed a mental break and didn't attend class on Thursday. So I will share with what I learned at Tuesday's class.

Tuesday was spent working on blind-contour drawings; something I'm not good at at all. We were given shells to draw from and were told to draw our first one for 30 minutes without looking at the paper. This seemed very daunting to me, especially since I haven't taken a drawing class for 4 years and I have a short attention span. I know I have a lot to work on that's for sure.

I ended up drawing three different blind contour drawings. I was actually rather pleased with how the second one turned out. Amy said to really work on pressure with the charcoal so I really focused on doing that this time around. We were divided into small groups and I was happily surprised that my group rather enjoyed mine. I really learned a lot from this piece and know that I really need to slow down and pay attention to details. I also need to get used to working with an object moving slightly instead of a still-life.


The second drawing we were actually allowed to look at the drawing but still trying to use the same techniques from the first one. I also did three or so drawings this time around. I was actually unhappy with my results. My shells looked deformed and unrealistic. I admit I was trying to draw without looking at it so my results look like they might've been done half-blindly. But still, I really need to work on my drawing skills and need to practice outside of class on my own time doing my own motives. Even though we weren't supposed to I drew the same angle twice to see how they compared from viewing and not viewing the drawing.

Introduction

My name is Sharon Stickney and I'm a design student at University of Wisconsin - Stout. I chose to be in the art field because for a job I really wanted to express myself creatively rather than sit behind a desk and punch letters all day. I graduated fall 2009 with a concentration in Graphic Design and a minor in Business Administration. I re-enrolled last spring to start a concentration in Multimedia Design and I also took up the Photography minor. I hope to gain more experience so I'm more sellable as an artist.

The work I'm most proud of is a majority of my photography as well as my Senior Show I did for graphic design last fall. You can visit my DeviantArt account to view some samples of my work: http://lady-draco.deviantart.com/ I have a good mix of digital, traditional and photo works that I've done.

I think my most favorite course I've taken at Stout would have to be Children's Literature. It was such a fascinating class and it was a topic that I really enjoyed. I also got to make my own children's book for my final project. Dr. Levy is an amazing professor.

I'm taking Life Drawing 1 because I really want to understand the human form better so I'm not so embarrassed to draw people all the time. I really am looking forward to getting a lot out of this class.

When I graduate (for good) I hope to get a job related to what I'm doing for design. I'm really not picky, I just want it to be in my area of study.