Le Portefeuille Final

One Last Reflection...

What a semester it has been. No joke. It has felt so short, but when I look back at the work we've done, I realize how much time we've spent in this class and how much we've accomplished! I'd be lying if I said I enjoyed every minute of every assignment and never had frustrating times when I wanted to give up... but when I reflect on the struggles I had in this class I am grateful for them, because (I'm pretty sure) they helped me improve in my skills for drawing LIFE! I definitely learned more than I expected to, and some things I learned without realizing I was really learning them. Strange.

It's hard to sum up all of the things that I learned, but I guess I will mention what things were struggles for me, because I believe I improved the most in those areas. First off, gestures. The first day of class when we did quick gestures of the form I had no idea what I was doing. I was trying to remember how we did these my freshman year in drawing one, but they looked pretty awful. Throughout the class period, Amy would demonstrate her gestures and I would catch on a little more. But my gestures in the beginning were very outline-y, and I didn't realize this until I learned a better way to capture form, and could compare the drawings. Week by week, when we learned about the spine, the rib cage, the hips, etc. I could see how my understanding of the human body and how to capture it became deeper. In my free time, when I doodle, I really like drawing the female body in different fashions (I love drawing clothes, a random hobby). Just this semester I have seen a vast difference in the way I doodle these people. My roommate even noticed the improvement and was impressed. That's when I figured I must really be learning something! I have always loved drawing people, but I was hindered with incorrect anatomy and not really knowing proportions. I hope I can continue learning and take what I have learned with gestures to my other art classes and work I do on my own. If I could go back and give myself advice at the beginning of the course, I would say to really pay close attention to anatomy lectures and even spend extra time drawing the skeletal structure; it'll pay off enormously!

I also learned a lot through the clay mannequins. Although it's hard to feel like I really learned, because I got so tired of the muscles by the end, I know I did. Building those muscles was never something I ever felt like doing or had a passion for. The first assignment with the clay was the hardest. I was confused and frustrated and I struggled with understanding our books. But with every section, I got a little more confident and I was able to take away more from what I was doing. It is actually pretty interesting to see what muscles really lie beneath our skin. At home, my roommates were surprised to see how may muscles there are in the arms and down to the hands. I also realized that drawing the human form isn't about outlining the edges that you see (like I previously did), but really understanding how everything (the bones, muscles, skin) work to give the human figure life and movement. I guess that's why it is called life drawing!

Even though I still do not feel one hundred percent confident with contour line drawing, I have come to really appreciate it and enjoy looking at something and recognizing it's planes (in the shells!). I also know that I will never reach perfection... there is always something to learn, which is the whole point of art! If you are never challenged, if you are always satisfied with the level you are currently at, you will never strive to become better or learn new things. This class has given me a glimpse of what I can learn more and more of in the future, and although I know it's going to be hard, I'm really looking forward to whatever challenges come next! Seeing the artwork that is produced after a struggle is what makes it all worthwhile.

FINAL PORTFOLIO: http://www.flickr.com/photos/laurenbot/