Final post for LDII

 Gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/akibaboy65/sets/72157625644576106/

As I reflect on the whole semester of Life Drawing II, I think about how much I've grown over the course of drawing dozens of skulls and faces for these months. Focusing on the drawing of the head was really interesting because I had previously developed a very rigid style on my own on how to draw the head. It was mostly based on cartoons and expression, namely what was easiest to convey. When you give character large mouths and eyes and very dynamic facial bone structure, it's easy to convey ideas better. For example, a villain character's face will almost always have large eyebrow bones that jut out above his eyes sharply to give him a strong, disapproving appearance at all times. These are the kinds of things that become habit when drawing faces and heads. I've had to learn how to pay attention to the actual correct form of the skull and the relationship between the face's features etc.

When drawing my classmates, Dan, Brandon, and Jordan, I noticed how drawing a lifelike face requires a lot of subtlety. If I drew my lines to heavy, or didn't follow the form of their face completely perfect, I was accidentally making the figure look older, or angrier than they really were. With Jordan's drawing being the last of the 3, I learned to use light repetitious strokes in order to create layers of form that could be played around with. Brandon's face drawing on the other hand features a lack of foresight on my part, and the hard lines I used to draw his eyes make him look a little pissed. This was another important thing I realized that I needed to practice, the way in which my lines spoke.

Our final skeleton I think was my most challenging drawing yet. While its large scale constantly required monitoring of the overall perspective, I also had to realize effective time management. My favorite part of the drawing was the feet, because there was so much texture and hidden shape within the bones that it became a huge challenge to express them on flat paper, with theoretical lighting.

Overall I had a great time this semester, and am inspired to keep practicing Life Drawing because I realize how pivotal it is in the work I do.