Wednesday, 7th March
For whatever reason, my life drawing is back to normal again. I'm pretty happy with how most of my drawings turned out, and I feel like I'm starting to understand the process of making a drawing. Drawing the Line of Action, Sketching out the basic shapes, and then putting in the details, has become my routine for drawing, and not just because it's what we're told to do. It's the easiest way for me to draw. I think this is an important realisation for me, since I feel like I understand why the strategy for Life Drawing is the way it is.
I found the warm-up a lot easier on wednesday, and I hope that's reflected in the drawings.
I also started drawing more figures on the same page, and it helped me be more consistent with my protrayal of the model.
The second half of the class was long poses and storyboards. I think these storyboards went worse than usual, because we had to draw a male and female pose, and we only had a male model. I'm much better at drawing men as well, so the female pose ended up looking masculine, with big shoulders and a strange midsection. I'd hoped I would be a bit better at drawing the two sexes by now, but come to think of it, I've mostly drawn the male model in life drawing, so it makes that I struggle with the opposite.
A few of these drawings are probably some of the best I've done, at least this semester, and in my perspective.
Thursday, 8th March
I'm also fairly happy with how my drawing went on Thursday. I was drawing fewer lines per drawing, and I think that's really helped me get clearer with what I'm expressing in my drawings.A few of them, like the one on the top of the left image, almost convince my eye that there's some life, and that the drawing actually looks human. That might be a low standard, but I see it as progression.
I lost this a bit as the class went on, and I think it's just due to me being tired more than anything else.
I would like to see more consistency in my drawings, since shapes seem to morph every time I draw a new pose, and it's not clear that it's the same person, because the proportions are different. I also think I need to learn how to draw legs, because a lot of the time they end up far too short (especially the calves) or far too long.
Extras/Homework
Mike showed us the short film "Happy and Gay", and for homework got us to read some articles about gay and queer representation in animation.
I thought the film's attempt's to - in the Animator's words - reveal the suppression of queer society in the 1930s was interesting.
I thought that the film's usage of stereotypes and the "pansy" caricature was interesting, as it also delved into racial stereotypes and caricatures. The film tried to reveal the injustices of the queer community in the past, and, importantly, didn't ignore other injustices. Caricatures of a Jewish person and an Asian man show up in the film, but aren't drawn attention to.
There's a balance of two themes in my eyes. On one hand, a statement is made about the history of animation, film, and LGBT culture, ultimately to reveal parts of the past that have been swept away.
On the other hand, the film makes a statement about a "queer narrative", which I suppose in the film's context makes a statement about the modern day LGBT community's position, as well as the historical community.
Overall, I got the sense that the film had something to say about the present day as well as the past (regardless of the Animator's original intent) about where the LGBT community stands, and where it's come from.
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