Week Eight

This weeks lecture took place at Leeds City Museum where we had the chance to draw non-human anatomy of taxidermy.

This is my drawing of the Tasmanian dog. The overall proportions and shape are all nearly correct, for example, the body of the dog is the right distance away from it's paws and the head isn't too big for the animal, the tail is possibly too small though as it looks slightly odd. The best part of this sketch is the head and face, it looks very life-like (even though it is dead). The overall shading isn't too bad, although you can tell it has been slightly rushed and the stripes could have been made longer and blended into the body better. This drawing (although a stationary object) has a good sense of movement and this picture clearly shows where the animals muscles and bone structure are. Overall, I am fairly happy with this 34 minute sketch, drawn with a 2B pencil.

This is my drawing of the badger. It demonstrates good form and uses correct proportions. The angles of the badger are mostly correct. Although the drawing does not look realistic, because a badger wouldn't usually be seen in this position, it still looks life-like as you can tell the drawing is a badger, and the shading very much helps with this. The shading going down the stomach of the badger is especially good as it follows the hair lines and flows nicely around the animal, adding dimension to the 2D plane. The arm underneath the face looks very odd and looks as though it comes straight across the badger, when really it doesn't start there. This in turn has made the bottom of the head look strange too. The tail doesn't looked attached to the body though has a nice texture to it. Overall this drawing took 23 minutes, using a 4B pencil.

This is my drawing of one of the skinny-legged long beaked birds. The angle the bird has been drawn at is very interesting and shows foreshortening as the beak looks the same size as the legs, when in reality it is smaller. The curvature of the lines are very effective and have created some very nice shapes that are pleasing on the eye. The curvature really makes you follow the bird along it's body. All the proportions are nearly correct, although the back leg and feet may be slightly off. The basic shading of the beak has worked well and only very partially shading in the body and around the wings has made a nice contrast. The overall composition of the bird is very pleasing to the eye and has been laid out on the page nicely. Overall it took 20 minutes using a 2B pencil.

Week Seven

This week was all about movement and action is dynamic poses and posture. Posture is all about balance and weight and pose is all about gesture, how we convey life through the drawing.

 

This is a series of quick 5 minute sketches, where the model started off in a very static pose, using a closed form and then ended up the opposite, in a dynamic pose, using open form. The first of the three images shows a good sense of balance and weight, you can see that the weight is mostly on the models back leg and she is leaning forwards slightly with her head in her hands. This sketch has a good use of line and shows good body proportions. The middle sketch doesn't use as good proportion as the first as the torso is too long for the legs. The angles of the body are fairly accurate and the slight tilt of the head has been done nicely. There isn't as good balance in this sketch as the last. The last sketch has been drawn too big for the page and as a result the legs have had to be shortened to fit on better, this again is not good proportion. The torso is a better size this time and the head is more upright, which you can see. Overall, as the pose got more dynamic and the form got more open the worse the standard of the quick sketch got, most probably due to the fact that the more open the form, the more lines there are to see.

This is a quick sketch of model lying down resting on her side. The pose that the model is doing is fairly static and her form is slightly more open than closed, as the arms are quite far apart showing you the models body and one leg is reached straight out opening the form up more. The overall posture of this picture is pretty good as you can see a good sense of balance, the picture doesn't make the model look as though she's about the topple over and you can see the weight that flows through arms and onto the models right hand and left arm. The proportions of the sketch are fairly accurate and for a 10 minute sketch a lot of information has been put down. The level of detail is nice as you can see the flattened breast and the slight tilt of the head as she was looking down. This picture was drawn using a 4B pencil.

This is a very quick sketch that lasted less than a minute. It shows movement. It shows the model sitting on a chair and gradually pushing herself up and moving slightly forward till she was in a standing position. The overall line quality is not very good as it is a very rushed piece of art, but the general idea of movement is there, as you can see several heads, bodies, arms and legs all at different stages of the movement.

Week Six

This was reading week. I thought that I would take a better look and have some more practice at anatomy, especially with the female figure.

This drawing is of my model sitting down on the rug with a very relaxed arm and hand posture. In this drawing you can see the relaxedness of the models left arm and hand especially as there is not much tension and the hand looks as thought it is just touching the rug and not putting any pressure onto it. You can also see the tension going through the upper body as the model is very upright and taught. The fold of the stomach under the bra and how one leg is slightly more forward than the other works well in this picture. The overall shading of this picture is not too bad, as it helps to give the picture a more 3 dimensional feel and helps to show where creases of the body are, such as the inner elbow crease. The feet could have been done better by adding toes, and maybe a face would have been nice to complete the picture, though in all, this drawing is of a good standard and shows a use of very good proportion. It took me 29 minutes in total and I used a 2B pencil.

This drawing is very similar to the last, the body has just been moved round slightly and the legs in a different position. In this drawing you can clearly see the weight being put onto the back hand. You can see the tension staring at the shoulder and flowing down to the hand, the arm is slightly bent and the hand is flat. The other arm is the opposite and is very relaxed with no tension at all, you can even see how relaxed the muscles are because the skin is not taught, but has a few bulges. The head is slightly too small for the body, resulting in the drawing appearing strange, the facial features and shading around the neck don't help to compliment the head either. The shading is quite good in other places of the body, mostly the back arm and the stomach area. This sketch took me 30 minutes in total, using a 2B pencil.

In this drawing you can see a very good example of good proportions, everything is the right size for everything else, although the stretched out leg is possibly slightly too short. The curvature of the lines are very good and show good anatomy by displaying the actual shape of the human form of the model. The arch in the back has been nicely done along with the taught upper leg of the bent leg and then the curve on the lower part as that part is more relaxed. The facial features, although not perfect show a good representation of the human female face and the hair strands flow nicely. The posture is good in this drawing, as there a good sense of balance. The shading is not perfect but does help to give the drawing a 3 dimensional feel. This drawing could have been improved by including toes and fingers and maybe looking more closely at the outstretched leg as it is slightly off. This sketch took 22 minutes in total using a 2B pencil.

Week Five

This was our first figure drawing session of the semester. Recapping everything we had previously learnt.

This 15 minute sketch is of the male model sitting cross legged, slightly leaning forwards. Planning has been done for this sketch to get the proportions correct, this hasn't been correctly done as the model looks to elongated. The form is bad on this picture as the model looks too skinny and disproportioned. The bend in the arm is very unnatural and has no mass to it. The bend in the back has been exaggerated too much, making it look as though the model has a chunk taken out of him, not looking realistic at all. The overall shape flows well and it is easy to identify where limbs are. The legs have been positioned well showing that the model was sitting cross legged. The shading is simple and not finished but it is starting to give some form to the overall picture and the line down the back of the back gives a nice indication to the curvature of the spine. I used a 4B pencil for this drawing.

This quick sketch took me 10 minutes using a 2B pencil. The proportions of this sketch are good and the overall form is nice especially around the torso area. The head is in proportion to the body and joins up to it well. The bend of the head has been done well as you can tell that the model is looking down slightly, adding interest and realism to the drawing. The shape of the buttocks are good, as they are not perfectly round but have been flattened out slightly, showing that the model is sitting. The main problem with this picture is the floating leg, the side leg appears as though it is not attached, and although it was not on the floor, it does not look correct and makes the picture look odd. The line going down the back of the spine makes the sketch look odd, although it helps to show that the picture has nice symmetry. 

Week Four

These are my directed study quick sketches. Each are drawn from an angle in which foreshortening will have to take place in the sketch. 

This sketch took 22 minutes. I used a 4B pencil for this sketch of a hair dryer. The focus of this drawing was to get a sense of foreshortening along the blow tube. The end of the dyer is bigger in proportion to the front and higher up so that you are able to view the sketch as though it was moving further away. The shading around the rim of the dryer is good as it gives the object a nice form, as well at the different tonal shading going down the handle of the dryer adding more interest to the image with greater depth and detail. The shadow underneath the dryer compliments the overall drawing as it helps to give the overall picture good balance. This picture could have been improved by varying the tonal values of the shading going from the back of the dryer around to the buttons on the handle. Another negative would be that this picture looks too flat and doesn't have much dimension to it, possibly due to the over usage of hard lines.

This quick sketch took 12 minutes. It consists of looking onto the smaller face of a tissue box, drawn with a 2B pencil. The focus of this drawing was to get a sense of foreshortening along the length of the box. As you can see, the further away the eye goes along the side the smaller their width gets, giving a sense of distance. The overall shading of the box is average, with different tonal values on different faces depending on where the light was hitting the box. The shading on the tissue is good as you can see its form and it has good volume to it, being able to distinguish where the folds lie. The arrangement of the box on the paper is good as it has a nice blank space in the top right, which creates a nice balance. This sketch could have been improved by altering the quality of line and the quality of shading. The overall proportions are correct which makes the picture more pleasing to look at.

This sketch of a toaster took 27 minutes using a 2B pencil. The focus of this drawing was to get a sense of foreshortening along the length of the toaster. This picture was drawn from above the object, creating a more interesting angle. We can recognise the foreshortening by the compression of the top of the toaster, how it looks squashed, also the cable that is running around the outside gets gradually smaller in size, demonstrating this as well. The overall tonal values of the shading have worked well as you can see where the light is hitting the object, especially on the side of the toaster with the white mark, showing that the material of the toaster is shiny in order to reflect light like that. The quality of the shading however is maybe not so good as it looks quite rushed and some of the lines are all over the place. The overall form and proportions of the toaster are good, although the object looks strange as it has bent round, if the quality of shading had been improves then this problem would have been sorted out. 

Week Three

This week we were focussing on composition. We had to think a lot for ourselves as we had to move the objects around ourselves till we thought the composition was good. We would then quickly sketch it and keep doing more, this was a good practice.

In this quick composition sketch we only had 3 objects and the cloth to play with. The composition has both good and bad points. The bad point is mainly the kissing between the bottle and the vase which could have been avoided if either the bottle got moved to the left slightly, or I had moved myself. There are many more good points than bad, for example there is an implied line that goes from the top of the bottle through to the bottom right corner of the jar. There is also a good balance in this picture as it is somewhat symmetrical yet, not too obvious. For a 2 minute sketch I think that the proportion of the objects is relatively good and a fair amount of detail has been involved.

For this quick composition sketch we got the chance to play around with 5 objects. Firstly, there is an implied line formed by the position of the objects, a definite upside down 'V' shape, with a longer sloping side and a shorter steeper side. The balance in this composition is also very good and pleasing on the eye as 3 shorter objects are behind the cloth and the taller object is in front, with a long thin object next to them both in front and behind the cloth. There are no orphaned objects, although there is quite a bit of kissing taking place on either side of the picture. The main focal point in this picture is this tall bottle with all the other objects being points of interest, as neither stand out more than the other. This sketch took me 2 minutes again and I am happy with the amount of detail I managed to put in, especially the different tonal qualities of the line on the vase as you look through the bottle.

This is my final piece from the lesson. This was the favoured composition of the group and it is clear to see why. For a start, there are two implied lines, an outer line and a more inner line, both following the shape of the layout of the objects. This composition uses very nice balance as the tallest objects are in the middle and then to balance them, the composition uses a short, long object either side, and where there is the longest object, on the other side it is balanced by two objects. There are no kissing or even near to kissing objects and none of the objects have been orphaned. The overall composition is very pleasing to the eye. Some of the lines of the objects are not quite correct, though the majority of the picture is in proportion and the shading is pretty much correct. This picture took me 21 minutes.

Week Two

This week was all about shape and form. For example when we concentrate on shape we are looking at the external lines and form is all about the interior of the shape, form helps the 2D drawing to look like it's 3D subject.

This is a plain contour drawing of an arrangement of objects. Only the shape of the objects have been drawn, using a mixture of concave and convex curves, the inside form of the objects has also been drawn, but only as a line drawing, no shading has been added. The overall composition of this picture is very good because it is pleasing to the eye. There is an implied line that makes your eye follow around the picture, this is from the top of the tall vase following down to the top of the object on the far right. There is also a very good balance between all the objects as they are varied in height, though all the same type of shape. Also there is no centralised object, as the tallest of the composition is positioned to the far left, adding interest to the picture. There are no orphaned objects in the picture, although there is a bit of kissing going on between the jug and the thin vase. This picture took me 20 minutes and I used a soft graphite stick.

This is a negative space drawing, much like the contour drawing you can only see the shape of the objects. The point of this exercise was to just concentrate on drawing the negative space around the objects, which in turn would reveal the shape of the objects themselves. The top half of the picture is very strong and you can clearly see the shape of the big vase, though further down the picture it gets slightly muddled and especially as no background was included some of the objects look orphaned and as if they're kissing, when in reality they were not. The texture of the negative space is very effective and creates a lot of interest in the picture, this effect was created by using a soft graphite stick and smudging hard lines. This drawing took me 20 minutes.

After the negative drawing in the session another one was created at home as it was a very interesting task. The picture is of a variety of vases and an old metal bucket. This is a very simple negative space drawing, although a very effective one. The precision of the negative space creating the objects is very good as you can clearly see what the objects are. You can also tell which objects are in front and behind. Charcoal was used for this drawings, creating a different texture from the last, as this one has turned out a more block colour, this creates even more simplicity which complements the picture. Overall this is a successful piece of work.