Blog

As far as the blog process goes, I'm not really sure how I feel about it.
On one hand, its a great way to easily display progress, but it can be sort of frustrating to scan/take pictures of all your work and then upload it and all that.
It is definitely a different technique to the traditional critiques and reviews that we get in most classes. One thing that catches my attention most when it comes to blogging is the pictures/photos. I like looking at those much more than actually reading what the student has to say, especially if its a lot of text.
So blogging has its benefits, because it is something a lot of us have never done, and it is pretty simple, but it can also be a bit of a hassle...

Long Drawings

This was one of the first long drawings that we did in class, and I enjoy the simplicity of it.
The line work in it is another part that I feel I did well. I also used the long axis lines in this drawing in a way that really show how the model was positioned.

For this drawing, the difficult part was getting the foreshortening of the right leg. I had to use the negative space to find the forms, and then fill in the positive. I think this one does a good job showing the landmarks. The weakest part of this drawing would probably be the line work. There is not much variation, but the values are pretty evident.

Hour Long
I think this is one of the better drawings I have done. Many of the landmarks on the model are shown. Composition wise, this drawing fit well on the paper, along with a good portion of the figure. The thing that I think makes this one stand out is the mark making and the lines. The left side of the body is shown in more detail and with heavier lines, and the far, right side is left ligher and slightly blurred

Photography

I've been doing a lot of photography lately, in fact, I bought a Canon EOS Digital Rebel Xsi just about a month ago. Along with that, my older, Nikon 7600 Point and Shoot, and various pinholes, I have just been having a wonderful time. The pinhole that I used was the paint can pinhole that was used in Exploring Photography, but since I don't have a dark room, I haven't been able to do much with that lately.

So I started researching making pinholes that I can use film with, and then get the film developed from Walgreens or whatever. So I made a pinhole camera out of a matchbox. Directions can be found here, if you're interested in trying it yourself : http://www.matchboxpinhole.com/
Unfortunately, the roll I took with it did not turn out. There was information on the film, but no visible pictures. I think it was because I was not sure how much to roll the film after each shot, so I was probably getting double or maybe even triple exposures, causing utter chaos on the film.

Another option, that I haven't tried yet is the Dirkon Paper Camera. From the website (http://www.pinhole.cz/en/pinholecameras/dirkon_01.html) you can download a PDF file that you must print out on cardstock, and then cut along the dotted lines, and construct this paper camera. This one looks a lot more complicated than the matchbox camera, but also a lot cooler.

Most people think I'm crazy to waste my time building cameras. They say "Ryan, you have a really high quality, DSLR that you spent a lot of money on and it takes incredibly good pictures, why would you spend maybe five dollars on supplies and waste time to make a camera where the results are not gonna be as good quality, or there might not even be results." Well, its all about the process, I say. Making the camera is fun, and also, you need to be real careful when making the actual pinhole, and you need to make sure the box or can or whatever is light-proof. Yes, I love my digital camera. More than a lot of things. I know exactly what I'm going to get when I hit that shutter button, and I can change basically anything I want in the camera's settings, or in the lens, to get nice quality images. On the other hand, there is something that I find really thrilling in building your own camera, and then pointing it at something, hoping the pinhole will capture it, and that the exposure that you guessed is correct, so the image is not blown out or underexposed. So I guess it's all about the mystery. The lack of ability to predict what is going to go through that pinhole, and whats going to happen to the light inside the can or box. Is there going to be some strange blurring, or obscure light flares? Where is the focus going to be the most prominent? Its all a complete mystery, but if all those things work together in such a raw application of photography, what normally would be a normal, boring, static shot, could turn into an interesting masterpiece of a shot.

Here are a few links from the post, plust a few photography sites that I enjoy:
http://www.matchboxpinhole.com/ - Matchbox Pinhole
http://www.pinhole.cz/en/pinholecameras/dirkon_01.html - Dirkon Paper Camera
http://peterbaker.net/photos/afterhours/ - Peter Baker Photography. I especially enjoy the "After Hours" gallery...great night shots.
http://www.jamespomerantz.com/main.php - Great photojournalism shots from James Pomerantz
And here is a site where I have some of my photography. Most of the photography is done with my Canon. Some of the earlier photographs are from my Nikon. I haven't had a chance to upload my pinhole shots to the site yet, but eventually will.
http://thinoxygen.deviantart.com/gallery/

Skeleton

Here is the long pose of the skeleton we did. Though it is really tall and skinny, I think that the proportions are all pretty good. Plus I enjoy how the ribcage looks with the spine behind it. I used different line weights to show the space in between there. I think this is one of my best drawings of the skeleton, and I even drew a helmet on the skeleton, as if he was a warrior in the army of death.

Best Gestures.

This is a quick gesture drawing of the skeleton. It shows all the landmarks. The emphasis of this drawing was the ribcage, but the other landmarks are shown on the drawing. The whole figure is there, along with the axis lines of the spine, arms, and legs. As the emphasis was on the rib cage, that is the darkest part of the drawings, with lighter, tapered weights being used on the rest of the figure.

30 seconds:
This was a thirty second gesture drawing. The closer features are darkened with heavier line weights, and pretty much all the landmarks are evident. The egg shape of the ribs is right there, the long axis lines are clearly shown, and the landmarks of the hips are lightly shown on the bottom of the gesture.

Probably a few minutes long:
I believe this to be one of my best gesture drawings. There is a lot going on here. The axis lines of the back, legs, and arms are all really clear. The crest of the hip on the left side is darkened, as to emphasize the landmark, as the bottom of the rib cage. The left side of the body, which was closer to me, is also a darker weight than the right side, as to show the space. I think the way I drew this along with how I think this was a really good pose to draw, makes it one of my best gesture drawings.

Early Gesture Drawings

30 seconds:
Early gesture drawing. Long axis lines are there, other than the spine. Not much in the way of landmarks. No ribcage or pelvis.

30 seconds:
Another really early gesture drawing. Probably one of the first days of class. Though the whole figure is on the plane, and it is clear what the position is, the lines all have basically the same weights, and there is no evidence of landmarks.

60 seconds:
This is one of my earlier gesture drawings. It was done before we learned many of the landmarks, thus it does not include marks of the ribcage, or pelvis. But, many of the long axis lines are still evident. The spine is the long line on the right, and the legs and arms are visible. Considering this is one of my earlier drawings, I still think it is rather strong as a gesture drawing. It is clear what the model is doing, and the whole figure is present within the plane.

As a whole for these early gesture drawings, they all show what the position was, they all show the whole figure, and they all do a decent job of showing the long axis lines. Early on, I guess I was more concerned with getting the proportions and positions right more than getting the drawing to look good. There is not much in the way of line variation or how the image was composed on the page.