Professor Lauren Rice taught my ART 131 course every Monday and Wednesday from 11:00am – 12:50pm. This course counted towards my Aesthetic Pillar as well as towards my major. The main focus of the course was on drawing realistic figures. Almost every class, we had a live model who came for us. We moved through the semester working on gestures, contour lines, and shading, almost always using charcoal. I really enjoyed this class, and I believe I learned quite a bit.
We did not have a course textbook; however, we did have different articles to read. For each article we read, we had to post a discussion board response. Our articles also had to do with whatever we were focused on learning at the time. For example, we had a chapter from a book to read that was all about anatomy in art while we were focused on shading with the muscles to create a more life-like figure.
(Portrait, Kyra Valovick, 3.2020)
This project was a portrait project. Before we began this project, we had read an article about portraits. This was probably the most fun for me out of all our projects. The majority of our other projects included the entire body, not just the portrait, or face. Drawing the entire body, I put quite a bit less focus on the face in order to complete the entire figure. I find the face fascinating to create, especially with charcoals. For this piece, I used Alphacolor soft charcoal, charcoal pencils, white charcoal, and a paper towel for smudging.
I think the balance of light and dark, the value, was well done in this piece. Throughout the semester, I learned a lot more about creating realistic value with charcoals. There are a few spots that I think could have used a little bit more time in order to render them more realistic, namely the glasses and the ear.
Since moving to Longwood University and starting my classes fall 2019, I have already learned so much more about art and drawing. I hope to take this knowledge I have acquired from ART 131 into my other courses here, as well as out into my future job as an art teacher.