This semester has been very interesting so far.

I have always loved drawing people, but usually tend to stop at the neck, because I am always too scared to draw the body. However, now I feel I am way better at drawing the body, so this class has made doodling more fun for me! When looking at my gesture drawings from day 1 up until this point, I see a dramatic difference. I drew gesture drawings in a completely different way, and now I have more of a sophisticated look to it. I feel I have improved on line quality, and the way I draw. By simply changing the position of my hand in relationship to the pencil, I feel it has changed my drawing style. Also, I feel I have become a better sketcher for my industrial design classes, because I have started using contour lines when I sketch now, and it has made my sketches look way more 3 dimensional and professional! Amy has taught us some really good tips that have helped me. For instance, when drawing a still life, look at the surroundings in the background to compare where things should be placed. That really helps with perspective! I also feel I have improved in not being as much of a perfectionist. I have been taking more risks and doing things I normally wouldn't do, and it is slowly making me become less of a perfectionist. Sometime perfectionism can be good, but sometimes it can make art look very boring and static.

Some things I still need to work on, however, are almost all the things I have improved on! Even though I feel I have made some great improvements, it's still not perfect, and I still have room for improvement. I have a tendency to make things look flat, so I need to work on making things have more dimension.

I would like to get better at gesture drawing by putting more emotion to them. I feel I understand how to draw them, I just need to stop thinking so much while I'm doing them, and just let my hand take me where it wants to go. I would also like to learn more about the skull. I really hope we get to that this semester! Since I love drawing faces, I feel it could help me improve my skills if I learn more about the skull. Hands are another thing I would love to practice drawing more! As an industrial designer, I need to know how to draw hands. When I demonstrate how a product is used, I need to draw hands to show how they interact with the product.

Overall, I feel this class has been very helpful and fun, and I am thinking about taking drawing 2 sometime. :)

Here's a link to my photos so far: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44071825@N04/