Reflections on a semsmer of drawings

I believe this is one of my final blog posts for the semester for Design Visualization.  This has been such a challenging and rewarding course for me.  Most of the terminology was new to me.  Most of the instruments, pencils, triangles, drafting boards were items that I knew of and wanted to use.  I think the most important thing that I learned in drafting is patience.  Taking my time, being neat, and clean made my life so much easier;  and my drawings much cleaner when finished.  I also learned that sometimes it's easier to just start over.  I did this a lot.

Paper Rips.
                   Pencils Slip.

                                       Rulers Shift.

                                           [Straight edges aren't always straight]

                               Velum hates being erased

On the non technical drawing side in the world of sketching and shadowing, I gained a lot of experience.  My greatest success story was learning how to create images through shadow rather than line.  I'm still not very good at it and need lots and lots of practice, but I now know that shadows create everything.  I still struggle with people and proportions.  I can draw myself as Vasco De Gamma or some other 15th century figure, proportionally slightly askew and final image somewhat awkward.  I learned that trying and trying and trying are the best ways to  understand what I'm trying to portray.  It's frustrating at times and hugely rewarding even more. 

This is my most successful technical drawing of the semester.  I chose this drawing because it was the most challenging.  I was given an orthographic view with 4 measurements and I had to figure everything else out.  I learned a great deal about how scale drawings work by doing this exercise.  I also learned that from some parts I can assemble additional information to create a whole.