Second Week Reflection

This second week we have continued to gain experience with drawing live models. I feel that I’m gaining confidence in capturing forms, and given the amount of drawings I’ve carved out of my newsprint pad I would hope that I’m improving. We are continuing to practice series of short, thirty second poses so that we can begin to get a feel for how to flesh out the body in a given space, and develop some solid knowledge so that by the time we move on to more lengthy poses we might learn more out of them. I’m still getting used to drawing from live nudes, but so far it has been a new and rewarding experience. Usually I approach drawing figures with a rough idea of what the person looks like under the clothes, and then spend a lot of time trying to figure out what the clothes would look like on top of my nebulous human sketch. Getting to intimately know the human form and all of it’s common curves and landmarks is no doubt going to improve my ability to create believable figures, clothed or unclothed.

Aside from drawing, we have also been introduced to our skeletal models, which we will begin applying layers of clay muscle to over the next few weeks. I’m excited to learn more about the muscles and how they interact with the rest of the body, both for artistic and anatomical, scientific understanding. With human figures being one of the easiest things to relate with in a drawing or design, it is very important for me to digest this material. Specifically in terms of game design, if a game doesn’t have realistic, clearly humanoid forms to engage with, it won’t attract and engage with a general audience. We’re starting off with just the spinal erectors, because a believable back line is the keystone to a figure drawing, but will be moving on to other muscle groups shortly.