III (Tres)

This week, Tuesday September 9^th we began by again looking at the human spinal column and how it relates to the whole body.  We see that the movement generated in the body relates to the various musculatures within the spine.  This was greatly useful in our preliminary drawings of the human form.

            We were introduced to our figure model, and were instructed as to our classroom decorum regarding our interactions with the model and our purpose for a live model.  It was very instructional and good to see the level of professionalism in which Professor Fichter conducts her class.  In the first drawings that we were asked to make we divided our paper into quarters and each quarter was again divided.  This helped us find the center point of the model, which is approximately the bottom of the pelvic bone.  We were then asked to make multiple drawings at thirty-second increments, where the model moved giving varied perspectives to the form.  This was exceptionally challenging and frustrating as there was limited time to gather visual information.  The true difficulty of this process was the transference of this information to the page. 

            Upon the completion of this series of timed drawings the time increased to one minute.  The addition of thirty extra seconds made a great difference in ones overall ability to gather information about the line, and form.  The process then repeated as before.  Following the minute the time increased to ten minutes and again to twenty, then back down to ten seconds.  The practice and process of this exercise was helpful to develop ones memory of the form.  Perhaps the most helpful component of these exercises was the instruction to draw the figure using lines that follow the central sections of the muscle groups.

 The class was issued manikins to use as guides in developing the musculature of the human figure.  Before any application of clay, we were asked to remove previous clay.  This process was interesting and informative, as was the recording of the various vertebrae on our manikins.  Professor Fichter discussed with the class how the Atlas worked and how we should proceed through it in order to successfully apply clay to our manikins.  The final part of Thursday’s class we learned the correct terminology of the human form, relating to direction.  For example:  Anterior (Front), Posterior (Rear), Superior (Top), Inferior (Bottom), Lateral (to the outside), and Medial (to the middle).