Figure Studies: Week 7

I know I have posted this image already but I made a big change to the hair. My prof made me realize that I had drawn in all the hair since it was blond but I had not paid attention to what parts of the hair were lighted and which weren't. The assignment was to draw the light so I erased half of the hair and it looks much better now.

Thursday, I walked begrudgingly into class out of the 72 degree perfect weather to find this skeleton sitting as our model. Basically, our prof had us stuck inside for 3 HOURS to draw a skeleton instead of letting us enjoy the great weather. It was really fun though, I was on the verge of insanity by the end with the sheet!
This drawing I did of Eric on Friday. The idea was to work on background which I must admit is very hard. The hardest part was probably figuring out what to lay out first (which I did wrong but now I know)and having to fill in the background in little spaces without messing everything else up. I did this one in charcoal which means it smears extremely easy (I am literally covered in black by the end of class) so whenever you touch the paper you either take black off of something or put black onto something.

Figure Studies: January 28th, 2011

This drawing is not my favorite by far but I figured I would share it anyways. It is probably two feet wide and done in graphite which I hadn't worked with in a while, causing me to forget how time consuming it is and so I was unable to finish the drawing before class was over.

This was done on our drapery day when we were learning how to draw clothing, sheets in this case. This one was a 5 minutes warm-up drawing.
Another one of the drapery drawings, this one took about 10 minutes I think, it was a lot of fun.
Our last drawing of the day, we had about an hour and a half to complete these one. Our teacher found this arabic sultan get-up somewhere. The cape was actually a very shiny gold material but it was so hard to shade material with charcoal I just went ahead and covered it all in charcoal and then did darker areas and took out the lights with an eraser.
I did this drawing this afternoon, we had 2 hours and were told to go after it. White conte is hard to erase and kind of a hit or miss kind of medium so it took some getting used to. It was scary to make the first few marks because you want to outline the figure and make changes constantly but you just had to get this one right on the first shot and draw in only the light areas.

Back to School

School is finally back on for a week of a whole two days. It is very cold here today but the sun is shining so that helps a lot. I seem to forget how depressing winter can get sometimes. Snow and sunshine change that though so I am in luck.

I am at work, obviously with nothing to do. I am starting to wonder if my brother and Katie fell of the face of the earth or if they are just having a good time in Scotland. I'm jealous.

I have been reading more about Prague and the old statues and castle and churches. I can't wait.

Last night I had dinner with friends and then watched some American Idol and Modern Family. It was just the beginning of American Idol so we were lucky enough to see the worst of the worst singers. I forgot how much bad singers can make me laugh. After that, Kiersten and I went over to Andersen and got crepes which were delicious. They had all kinds of fruit and nutella and it was definitely a treat.

Today we have a model in art and then we are doing the insanity workout afterwards. I can definitely tell that that workout is working because every time I do it I take less breaks and can do more. I pumped myself up for it yesterday by watching The Biggest Loser beforehand. If they can workout I figure I can do it and enjoy it too.

I am looking forward to the weekend, I would like to relax some more since this week has been so packed and busy with one snow day after another I can barely keep track. Tonight we have Starbrooks so I am trying to get all my homework done this morning which was not much and now I can just enjoy the rest of the day.

Snow Day #3

I am officially ready for school to start back up again. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would get sick of snow days during mid-terms week but the time has come. Tomorrow we are supposed to have a model in art class, given that they can get here with all the snow and ice. We are supposed to get down to -5 degrees here tonight. What I want to know is who is the crazy groundhog that decided Spring was coming early this year? Definitely not a good week for giving us faith in that whole tradition, although I hope the groundhog is right.

I woke up early this morning after going to bed early (second night in a row and I am loving it). I read my lesson during breakfast and then went to the gym and played volleyball for an hour with Mary Ann, her daughters, Hannah, Sara and Ally. Afterwards three more people showed up and joined us to do the Insanity workout. I'm pretty sure I would be happy being a personal trainer judging by how fun it was.

Some of us went to lunch together afterwards and then I had my art midterm which was on bones and muscles. It went well I think and I am glad that it is over so now I can just focus on drawing and building up my portfolio for the end of the class.

I got to talk to Kurtis for a good 45 minutes this afternoon which was great. We skyped and he showed me around his campus, it is beautiful. There are colorful murals of social revolutionaries everywhere and all the walls are painted bright colors. It is right on a hillside covered in trees above the city and I guess the weather is perfect, mild enough to have to wear a sweater but at some points warm enough to just wear a t-shirt. He was telling me about his homework today: they broke into partners and were asked to go into the market in town and find foods that they had never seen or heard of before. They have to present it to the rest of the class tomorrow in a "creative" way. Kurtis said he and his partner are probably going to write a song about it. During his trip in the market he ended up with a bag of four huge fruits that he is clueless about, I hope they taste good! Overall, he said he is having an amazing time and absolutely loving it. He was able to play music with a music class he has been sitting in on and learned some hymns from the other students. I'm so excited for him.

I'm starting to get excited about Prague as well. I had a dinner with my teacher and she told me that this abroad is different than most in the fact that there is a lot of individual time since it is focused on art and creative writing. I can't wait to just wander around the city drawing people as the go about their daily life. Woohoo! Just five more weeks and then I am pretty much done with college. How exciting is that?!

Winter Storm

School was cancelled yesterday and today and by the looks of it I will be watching movies in bed tomorrow as well. Everything is coated in ice here which makes it beautiful but also very cold and dangerous. We are supposed to get up to 24 inches of snow in the next couple of days but so far all we have gotten is lots of sleet.

The wind is starting to pick up and I am hoping that it doesn't get too crazy or else trees are going to start breaking.

So far this morning, I went to breakfast, worked on my capstone and finished a movie about a young girl who gets into a relationship with a married older man who she didn't know was married or a thief, both of which he was. It wasn't as creepy as it sounds, it was actually pretty thoughtful.

I am trying to muster up the courage to put on a coat and some boots and head back outside all the way to Hay this time where I am meeting up with some friends to do the Insanity workout. Later today, I think I am going to watch a movie with friends and get some Prague homework done, do some drawing (a secret project that I am already starting for Kurtis' birthday). Tonight the biggest loser is on, I might try to get Christy to watch it in her apartment so I don't have to wait until tomorrow. Who would have thought that my capstone quarter would allow me this much free-time. Maybe I've finally learned time-management?

We have a visiting weekend starting Thursday but by the looks of this weather and the forecast things are going to be bad today and tomorrow and stay cold for a long time afterwards. I hope the weekend doesn't get cancelled!