A tough semester

Hi, I am back. I know I promised to write more. I am sorry. It has been a rough semester. I took too heavy a course load. The rule from now on is two apparel classes per semester, no more. I dropped two of my classes, so hopefully I will have a little more time now. I did not want to drop the classes, but I felt that if I kept them I would end up failing everything. Spanish and line development are gone leaving me with cut and sew knits, textile evaluation, and intro to apparel design.

Line development was the most time consuming class. I found myself spending more than 20 hours per week doing homework for it, and it is only a three credit class. Even with all the time I put in I had only a C- average. C is passing, so it was obvious which class I should drop. It is not required for my concentration, but it is a useful class nevertheless. I may take it again in the future.These two boys were part of my men’s collection. You see why my grade was so bad.

Cut and sew knits is my only sewing class this semester. I love sewing, but I am having some difficulty in this class. Part of the problem was finding enough time, but now that I am done with line that is no longer an issue. The big problem is that I need to draft the patterns for all my projects, and I have not yet taken pattern making. Pattern was not a prerequisite for this class, but the professor thought it was.
Some of my projects did not turn out so well, but I am pleased with this sweat shirt.

That’s all for today. I will be back soon with more pictures and some info about my other classes.

Igor Stravinsky, Line Development, and a Horse

I will eventually develop a line or two in my line development class, but first I need to learn how to draw. I knew I would eventually have to take a fashion illustration class, but I did not know this one would be it. A good rule of thumb for college classes is to expect to spend one to one and a half hours studying and doing homework for every hour spent in class. So far I have spent six hours in line development class and about 15 hours doing homework for it. I have another six or eight hours of work to do for it this weekend. I should not complain; drawing requires a lot of practice. I am have already seen some slight improvement in my skills. I still do not draw well, but my croquis now at least resemble humans. I hope to have a few usable croquis by the end of next week.

The first assignment for the class was to copy a picture of a horse and a Picasso sketch of Igor Stravinsky. We turned both pictures upside down before copying them so that we could focus on just drawing lines rather than on creating a recognizable image. It sounds odd, but it worked. None of the students in the class had heard of this method before, but it seems to be a common technique for teaching drawing. Many thousands of art students have copied the upside down image of Picasso’s Stravinsky found in Betty Edwards's book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
Before I began work on my horse I would have said that horse was far beyond my drawing skills, but to my great surprise I drew one. Other horses might not welcome my horse into their herd, but most humans can immediately recognize it as a horse.

Even after finishing the horse I was still skeptical about Stravinsky. The horse had long lines and few fine details. The same cannot be said about Igor. The only way to learn to draw is by doing it, so I got to work. It took a few attempts to get started, but by the time I finished the head I was on a roll and was able to finish the sketch. I am no Picasso, but for my first Russian composer I am quite pleased with myself.

I must learn to draw good croquis, but once I have some I can make copies to use for the rest of the semester. I need six croquis, each in a different pose. My attempts at croquis have not turned out so well thus far, so I will not be including any pictures of them today. Once I have some good croquis (or as my professor calls them, Best Girls) I will post photos.