(SEMESTER TWO) Week 3: Skeletons, Anatomy and the Gothic

This week our session included skeleton models which our life model interacted with. It was a really interesting and fun session due to the contrast between the real body and the much more angular and sharp forms of the skeleton. This led to a very experimental session with lots of expressive mark making and textural work.

20 minute warm up exercise - candle wax, diluted ink, paper towel

 The first activity of this week's session involved drawing blindly with white candles and then applying diluted indian ink (ink mixed with water) over the top with a paper towel, to create a wax-resist effect. This is a technique most of us remembered from childhood, but I had never thought to apply it to figure drawing! I really like the results of the warm up, because I think the technique lent itself brilliantly to the subject matter. The candle wax meant we had to draw blindly and only saw the results once we painted over it, so you couldn't be over-cautious with your marks and had to rely on what you were seeing! The outcomes are quite sketchy and loose, and I even ended up doing some using the paper towel as a painting tool, which are equally gestural.

25 minutes - charcoal

This piece was more structured and I used charcoal which gave more defined lines but still kept a looseness. For some reason I struggled with perspective on this piece, and I think that I should have measured more in order to get distances and proportion correct, as the inaccuracy lets the piece down. Aside from this, I like the skeleton here, and found the shapes and curves of its form fun to draw, which I think can be seen from the relaxed manner in which it has been drawn. In contrast Mel looks very stiff and solid and almost fades into the background, and I am not happy with this area - a lot can be learnt from this!

25 minutes - charcoal

I was drawing faster by this point because after the last drawing, where the figure was very incomplete, I wanted to make sure I had time to get both the figure and the skeleton fully developed. As a result I find this drawing better as the tone is nicely balanced on either side, and the composition works well because of this. Because I was working faster here I also had more time for checking and measuring proportions, which I think is visible in the improved accuracy of this piece.

25 minutes - charcoal

The third of the charcoal drawings was a standing pose so I chose to frame my drawing with portrait orientation. This worked well for the composition; however I didn't manage to fit the full figure on the page which led to the feet being cut off the page. This is a shame because the composition looks a little interrupted, and aside from this it would have been one of my stronger pieces. I'm happy with the proportions of this piece, and I made use of negative space in between the skeleton and the human figure to size them correctly in relation to one another, which really helped. If I had the chance to improve this piece I would go back and add more tone, so that there was depth and the subjects were brought forward. I don't really mind that this piece ended up as more of a line drawing though, because I'd much rather spend the time getting proportions accurate than shading an incorrect drawing!

30 minutes - charcoal tonal study

This piece allowed me to experiment with tone which I perhaps hadn't used much in the previous few drawings. I chose to include lots of different mark making techniques such as the side of the charcoal stick, and directional mark making, to bring variation and further experiment with these skills. The back of the model caught the light nicely, so the image ended up with some interesting block areas of dark and light contrast. The perspective could be worked on a little more, maybe by remeasuring angles of lines especially where the mat is concerned, and the skeleton is overworked so not massively clear. The figure is a strong point of the image though, and I learnt a lot here.

30 minutes - charcoal drawn into with eraser

Close-up

The final image of the day was this charcoal tonal reduction drawing. I found the time limit for this piece to be quite tough so the outcome could have a lot more added to it. The stage I got to has some positive elements, and I've included a close-up of the most successful area of the drawing in my opinion. I think the head and shoulders of the model and skeleton turned out nicely, as I had developed the tone here the most, and defined some areas with charcoal lines. I deliberately left the faces loose and suggestive and I am happy with the sense of mystery/emotion this brings. Had I worked quicker or had more time, I think the rest of the piece would have been strengthened by these same additions.