Now that I have hands and feet slightly under my belt, this week’s life drawing assignment was to draw seven heads.

The last time I drew my head was in my junior year of high school, four years ago. Let’s compare it with this week’s first attempt of seven, shall we?

The scan quality is better, but so are the directional lines. I think the new one turned out a little too soft, though; the face lacks some underlying structure. So, I commandeered the head of the skeleton in the library for a few hours of skull studies.

Can you look at them without thinking of Halloween? It was hard for me at first; I was actually more nervous about drawing the skull than I was about the nude model! But with time and practice, I can start to see the skull as a beautiful part of us that God designed.

When I drew myself again, I tried to visualize the structure of the skull underneath my skin. The result turned out more architectural and accurate, I think!

To be honest, I’ve never liked the view of my face from the side. But as I drew, I began to notice flowing parallel lines and a number of proportional shapes and lines… I’ve decided that God did a great job of designing me after all.

Head number 6: Thanks Kelly, for posing for me… the first and only person I trusted to do it!

(She’s much, much prettier in real life.)

And… I did myself one last time.

According to some people, this looks like me in fifteen years… do you agree?

Homework

Hands and feet, as shown in the previous post.

In class

Thanks to all that amazing shading practice, this week’s drawing has much better volume than any of my previous ones.

Imagine yourself in my personally curated art museum. This little family of logos is designed to help you find your way through the various sections. Each bouquet represents one of my favorite art movements. Can you each guess each one? They are in chronological order. Scroll for the answers!

Medieval art in Europe grew out of the artistic heritage of the Roman Empire and the iconographic traditions of the early Christian church. These sources were mixed with the vigorous “Barbarian” artistic culture of Northern Europe to produce a remarkable artistic legacy. The period ended with the self-perceived Renaissance recovery of the skills and values of classical art, and the artistic legacy of the Middle Ages was then disparaged for some centuries. Since a revival of interest and understanding in the 19th century it has been seen as a period of enormous achievement that underlies the development of later Western art. (Wikipedia)

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe.  As a cultural movement, it encompassed a resurgence of learning based on classical sources, the development of linear perspective in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform. Although the Renaissance saw revolutions in many intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval, it is perhaps best known for its artistic developments and the contributions of such polymaths as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. (Wikipedia)

The Arts and Crafts Movement was an international design movement that originated in Britain and flourished between 1880 and 1910. It was instigated by the artist and writer William Morris in the 1860s and was inspired by the writings of John Ruskin. It influenced architecture, domestic design and the decorative arts, using simple forms and a medieval style of decoration. It advocated truth to materials, traditional craftsmanship and economic reform. (Wikipedia)

Art Deco is an eclectic artistic and design style which had its origins in Paris in the first decades of the 20th century. Led by the best designers in the decorative arts, Art Deco affected all areas of design throughout the 1920s and 30s, including architecture and industrial design, as well as the visual arts. Art Deco moved away from the organic forms of Art Nouveau and embraced influences from many different styles and movements of the early 20th century, including Neoclassical, Constructivism, Cubism, Modernism, and Futurism. Although many design movements have political or philosophical roots or intentions, Art Deco was purely decorative. (Wikipedia)

During the emergence of neo-impressionism, Georges Seurat and his followers strived to refine the impulsive and intuitive artistic mannerisms of impressionism. Neo-impressionists used disciplined networks of dots in their desire to instill a sense of organization and permanence. In further defining the movement, Seurat incorporated the recent explanation of optic and color perceptions. (Wikipedia)

Op art, also known as optical art, is a style of visual art that makes use of optical illusions. Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made in only black and white. When the viewer looks at them, the impression is given of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibration, patterns, or alternatively, of swelling or warping. (Wikipedia)

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According to my life drawing teacher, the most difficult parts of the body to draw are the hands and feet. I think I have to agree. The assignment was to draw 12 hands and 12 feet in a week. Either the teacher or myself  must not have known what he was assigning… because after spending twice the suggested homework time, I only had 7 of each. They are each very lovingly drawn, though.

Actually, the loving part usually only comes in the last 15 minutes of the drawing. That’s when I’m shading. The first 15 consist of me almost wanting to cry because I can’t get the proportions quite right.

I rigged a couple of mirrors and lamps to get the different angles of my feet and hands. Also, I now know how the model feels and why she HAS to flex every so often!

I liked how each set (page in my sketchbook) turned into a kind of composition, even though I didn’t set out to do that.

And it was cool how each set got progressively better!

Random and inconsequential fact: Listening to a dramatization of Little Women kept me sane during this assignment.

A significant part of my school (the Art Institute of Indianapolis) is the culinary program. Recently, they opened a gourmet restaurant to be operated by students. The culinary department and PR reps approached our Corporate Identity class with a special project: to design a logo for the restaurant.

The restaurant is called Eleven at the Pyramids (it’s located on the 11th floor, so the name helps to compensate for a lack of storefront presence).

As members of the class, we went about this project competitively. There were so many aspects of the restaurant to pick up on and conceptualize. I choose to focus on the uniqueness of the space. It’s cool, well designed, and has a view of the Indianapolis skyline on a clear day. My first draft was an abstraction of the floor-to-ceiling window, the columns, and the skyline.

The restaurant people didn’t see this one, but my teacher and I discussed refining the lines, heightening the sense of depth, and moving away from the heart monitor look.

So in draft 2, I added little tables (with pyramid napkins!) in the foreground. Also, the new line quality more closely imitates the flowiness found in the restaurant’s own design.

Out of the 20 in our class, 6 logos were chosen by the culinary staff for further revisions. Mine was among them. Some of their concerns included: the strong horizontal proportions, how it would appear at small sizes, and the tables looking like boxes of tissue. Oops!

My teacher offered even more focused suggestions. Two weeks and many frustrated attempts later, I offered this revision. I also gave them a version without chairs, in case they were feeling more in a more abstract mood.

This logo is now among the top 3 that will undergo further refinement before they make their decision. Rumor is, they want it simplified. Watch this space for the final version!