Week 5: Homework

Subtractive Tone Self Portrait

For this homework we had to make 5 self portraits using the technique we'd been practising in Monday's class. Two had to be full body portraits to enable us to use our foreshortening and proportion skills.

When attempting the homework, I wanted to bear this statement in mind, given to us on the homework sheet:

'Try to see your (objects) face as being larger than life and having monumental qualities.'

This reminded me throughout the task that the drawing needed impact, and the tonal contrast needed to be dramatic. The drawing should be full of life, emotive and powerful, especially when drawing a face. The homework asked us to consider lighting, angles and emotions when planning a drawing.

I have mixed feelings about my homework pieces this week. In some ways I find them successful and I am happy with how they turned out. But in other ways I think I could have done a lot better and feel a little disappointed.

The close-up portraits are the ones I had the most trouble with. Although not an excuse, I think some of the reason for my struggling was that I had very bad lighting and no moveable desk lamp which I could use to cast shadows and light on my face. This meant I was often drawing one handed in order to hold the lamp under my face, or holding my phone with its flashlight on. This meant I didn't really have a consistent image to draw and the light was often moving. Even so, I managed 3 close-ups each from a different angle. The first is probably the one I'm happiest with - I think the fully white background is effective at bringing the face to the foreground. I was able to capture the hair quite well; it catches the light in a way which I think appears pretty likelike.

40 MINS / CHARCOAL AND RUBBER

The next image was using light shone from underneath. I had a hard time drawing this as I didn't want to move my head from the pose too much but I needed to look in the mirror and look at my paper. As a tonal study, I think the drawing is powerful, with strong areas of dark and light tone and lots of emotion. The gaping areas of shadow around the eye sockets starkly contrasted with circles of light give the face a ghostly, gaunt appearance and this is compelling to look at. However, as a self-portrait I don't find it overly successful because I find no likeness to myself in the image, so I'm a little disappointed with this as that's the aim of the portrait. Despite this, I am glad to have made the drawing as it was a very interesting tonal study to attempt.

50 MINS / CHARCOAL AND RUBBER

I then tried a different expression and drew a sad version of myself. This looks slightly more like me although it still doesn't really have any likeness, which is a shame. From this activity and the first self portrait task, I've identified it as something I need to keep practising. I do like the tone in this image anyway, which was quite fun to study because the face slightly turned to the side created an intense contrast between either side of the face, where one was heavily shadowed and the other directly being shone onto. The light also gave lots of intriguing creases and lines in the face, where the sad expression was manipulating the muscles.

30 MINS / CHARCOAL AND RUBBER

As they hadn't been too successful, it was nice to leave the close-ups behind and move onto the two full body drawings. I don't often choose to do these in my own work, so I really enjoyed it and am inspired to draw more soon! The first one I did was a seated pose, because I was hunched over in quite a constricted position on the floor while drawing and it created lots of interesting tonal creases in my clothes. My foot was also stretched out in front of me so I could work more on my foreshortening skills. I am really pleased with this outcome and think by this point I had definitely got into the swing of the charcoal and rubber method, because I found I could work pretty quickly and boldly. I have to admit I didn't make much use of the measuring methods we had been practising in class, so I think the image could've been made more accurate had I taken slightly longer - however, I can see lots of character in the drawing. I am particularly proud of the hands, where I think my tonal practice really paid off, as they are beautifully defined and full of life. I also like the foreshortened foot, mainly because I doubted my ability to draw it and surprised myself by managing a decent job of it! If I were to go on and produce a more developed and technically accurate version of this piece, I think it would be even more successful.

30 MINS / FULL BODY TONAL STUDY / CHARCOAL AND RUBBER

Finally I drew a standing self portrait, another challenge! This is another piece I am very pleased with. Because I was only using A3 paper, I had to size the figure down to fit onto the page, which meant I couldn't include much detail at all. At first this concerned me, but seeing the end result I think it's a lovely effect, because the figure is defined by broad soft strokes of white and the drawing is almost purely tonal. I could capture the folds of my clothing very well using this technique and you really get a soft sense of light in the image without it being distracted by facial features, lines or detail. I think a few of the proportions could be touched up but with the technique being so loose and abstract I don't think technical accuracy is too necessary here.

25 MINS / FULL BODY TONAL STUDY / CHARCOAL AND RUBBER