(SEMESTER TWO) Week 7: Experimental

In our session this week, we did not make the environment as planned, and instead revisited some previous areas that we wanted to strengthen our skills in. In the Friday class I know they put together an environment from hanging materials and drew within that, which I think would have been exciting and unusual! Unfortunately I could not attend the Friday class, but I still got some good pieces out of my Monday session and am pleased I was able to revisit some previous weak points.

Warm-up exercises - 2B pencil
1 - 5 minutes, 2 - 4 minutes, 3 - 3 minutes
4 - 2 minutes, 5 - 1 minute, 6 - 30 secs
7 - 15 secs, 8 - 10 secs, 9 - 5 secs

As usual we started with some warm-ups, and Mel went through a variety of poses which I enjoyed as it helped us get back into the swing of things quickly. We started with some longer drawings, and progressed to shorter and shorter times until we ended with a 5 second drawing! It was a challenge to get anything down at all during such a short time but it forced me to be very spontaneous and the result is simple yet effective as the rough bones of a figure. I am also pleased with my 1 minute drawing, where I think I achieved foreshortening quite well despite having to draw very fast. The first three drawings are probably the least successful as I had more time to be tentative and hadn't warmed up properly at that point.

3 x 10 minute drawings, overlaid - blue pastel, HB pencil, Micron fineliner 08, charcoal

 This was an interesting exercise as you had to focus quite hard in order to draw separate poses on top of one another! I enjoyed seeing how different drawings and mediums could work together to create one final composition, and it made you think lots about placement and perspective. During the exercise I recieved feedback from Jaime that the micron fineliner line was becoming lost despite being 'on top' of the blue pastel and pencil layers. This is because the line was too thin and therefore too similar to the pencil lines. I decided to change mediums and drew over the fineliner lines with charcoal, which helped considerably and brought this layer to the forefront. This ended up working well because this was the layer with the facial features so defined the areas of detail nicely.

45 minutes - 6B pencil

Our first sustained pose was 45 minutes so I could take my time with this piece. The position I was drawing from was quite tricky as it meant Mel was almost totally foreshortened and therefore a lot of my time was spent measuring, re-measuring, and planning. I considered moving to an easier position however I was determined to give this a good shot as I wanted to test what I had learnt over the course of the semester (and semester one). I think that on the whole the perspective isn't too bad, considering how difficult the angle was. The angle of the back perhaps may be slightly off, as the legs appear to be more vertical to the head rather than retreating backwards. I should probably have double checked the sizes of body parts in relation to each other to avoid this. However, I think the yoga mat and the tone that I added in help to counteract this, so the perspective isn't totally unsuccessful. The mark making is a successful part of this image in my opinion - I wanted to bring in techniques I used in previous weeks, and I love the texture and direction that this gives to the figure, especially the hair. The fact that Mel was reading a book was also a nice touch, as this created an interesting composition with a bit of a story behind it.

35 minutes - dark blue, light blue and white pastel & 4B pencil

Our second sustained pose drawing again included foreshortening for me where I was standing in the room, but this was a little easier as the torso was upright so only the legs needed foreshortening. I spent longer on the measuring with this piece as the colour didn't require too much time to apply. This paid off and I recieved positive feedback on my foreshortening here, which was a lovely boost of confidence to get in our final session with the model. I worked really hard on this drawing and am very pleased that my skills show improvement from last semester and this semester's earlier sessions, because it encourages me to keep working on them and that the module has been beneficial. I am also pleased with my use of tone here, which I tried not to overwork - I think it gives a effective sense of 3D and keeps the image light. The composition could have been centralised to frame the subject better, but generally I am very happy with this outcome.

10 minutes - willow charcoal

I finished the final 45 minute drawing with about 10 minutes to spare and to avoid overworking it I went onto a new piece of paper and did this 10 minute study. I fancied trying it in more of a linework style considering I had just been focusing more on tone and colour. As a quick piece I think this is pretty accurate, and I enjoyed practising some quick mark making skills to end the session.

(SEMESTER TWO) Week 6: Movement

I found this week one of the most challenging of the semester, due to the speed in which we had to draw poses and the continuous movement of the model! It was easy to get frustrated if I felt that my work wasn't working and I couldn't seem to do the tasks very well; however, looking back I can see that some of the attempts have real potential, and pushing myself to try new things is how I will improve.

Warm-up exercises - charcoal:
 Top right - 15 secs
Middle left - 30 secs
Bottom left - 1 min
Bottom right - 2 mins
Middle right - 3 mins
Top middle - 4 mins
Top left - 5 mins

The warm-up exercises were good for getting back into the swing of things and approaching the form with the quick, gestural strokes that we would be needing for this session on movement. As usual, my longer drawings look overworked and stylised, while the quickest ones are my most successful ones. I need to work on bringing these successful elements into my longer drawings

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15 minutes - Yoga Poses - 3B pencil

Mel began moving between three poses and we had to draw each pose in the sequence. This was massively challenging! Jaime told us it was a good idea not to approach each pose separately, but to draw part of each pose every time it came around. This meant we were using our time effectively rather than waiting for each pose. While this made things easier, it was still so hard to be constantly changing focus and following both the model and your pencil! Having found the task so hard, I don't think my attempt turned out too bad - although it is rather loose and suggestive rather than 100% accurate, the sense of movement and sequence has been captured. (The top left drawing is a repeat of the crouched pose, when I didn't feel I had drawn it properly the first time).

15 minutes - 3 main poses and inbetweens - oil pastel and charcoal

This exercise required us to draw the 3 main poses in one medium and then fill in the spaces with 'inbetweens', using a different medium/colour. This was both harder and easier than the previous activity - on the one hand, it was even more information to be taking in and transferring to paper, but on the other hand it helped you visualise how the body was moving and how the poses worked together as a sequence. Ironically it is probably the seated pose that is my least successful here, as it is quite inaccurate! I think the other figures capture movement quite well, and the green is effective against the stronger black lines. I am also happy with the composition, which carries the motion across the page nicely.

5 minutes - charcoal and brown chalk

This exercise gave us such a short amount of time to work with that every second counted! Decisions had to be made very quickly, leading to fast, directional marks and only the brief suggestion of a figure. I was very surprised to find this my most effective drawing of the session, as I was really struggling with it during the time! Looking back later though, I could see how well the simple and rushed mark making had caught the motion of the figure. It works especially well since the motion itself was very fast, so the subject matter matches the technique and brings the image to life.

30 minutes - continuous line (180 degree view) - Micron fineliner 08

For the final activity we could choose a technique we wanted to revisit, and it was a static pose instead of movement. I really enjoyed the 'line for a walk' 180 degree view of the room last week, and since my second attempt last week hadn't gone too well, I wanted to try again. I am really happy with this outcome, and am glad I chose to use a pen here because I haven't used pen in life drawing for a good few weeks. Often this is because I'm worried of making a mistake but I wanted to be confident and see what happened, and it led to a bold and detailed result which I like a lot. I very much enjoyed capturing the body language and expressions of my fellow students as well as the model, and seeing as the students were all moving while drawing, this brought some of today's movement practice into play! I think the drawing has a real sense of character and story to it.

5 minutes - continuous line - Micron fineliner 08

I had 5 minutes to spare at the end so instead of overworking my larger drawing I filled the space at the bottom with a close-up study of Mel's foot. I couldn't quite get it right so I made a few attempts. The bottom left is probably the most accurate one, although it still could be improved. I think with this technique though, accuracy is not quite as important, as it's more about the quality of line and how the object is drawn rather than having a perfect final outcome. 

(SEMESTER TWO) Week 5: 3-Dimensional Form

Continuous line drawing (180 degree view) - 15 minutes - 2B pencil

The first exercise was focused more on mapping out a tableau rather than tone or shading, so we used the 'taking a line for a walk' technique. I really like this technique as it allows you to draw pretty quickly, and I always find my drawings end up a lot more accurate than when I spend ages trying to draw in my own style. You can't be too self-critical when drawing in one continuous line. It's also helpful in planning compositions, as your line wanders across the whole page and you're trying to use the negative space. I'm really pleased with this outcome, in particular the unusual angle from which I was drawing and the interesting perspective this gave the image. The figures worked out well in terms of proportion and accuracy, and I like how I appear to have caught them in a state of movement. This technique lends itself well to that due to the fluidity of the line.

Continuous line drawing (180 degree view) - 20 minutes - 2B pencil

We repeated the same exercise but changed our positions in the room so that the 180 view was different. I don't think this drawing went quite as well as the previous attempt, as the perspective got a little distorted and this disheartened me a bit. It was good practice and I like elements of it still, but it goes to show that improving drawing skills always has ups and downs!

30 minutes - oil pastel, graphite and white chalk

The next three pieces used 3 x 10 minute stints. In each of these we were told to focus on one area of tone (dark/mid/light) and a different medium was used for each (dark - oil pastel, mid - graphite, light - white chalk). This was a really good way of training your eyes to really take in the area of tone they were looking at without distractions. Building up the image like this was also helpful for proportion and perspective, as you could make alterations along the way rather than drawing a solid outline then realising later it was wrong.

On the whole I am happy with those aspects of this image, as I was constantly checking before putting marks down. The mediums I chose work well together to give tonal contrast, and I think I captured the most striking areas of light and shadow. One part I am not keen on is her face, and I wish I hadn't included it because it looks a bit cartoon-like and doesn't fit the image.

30 minutes - oil pastel, graphite and white chalk

This pose was more difficult to draw as the crouched position created more tonal areas and the boxes in the background made things more complicated! It was interesting when contrasting the angular box shapes against the softer and smoother human figure though. I am happy with the figure here, where I feel I achieved proportion quite well and didn't overwork the tones. The background is less successful and I should probably have considered using different mark-making or texture as it blends in with the figure, making the overall image seem flatter.

1 hour - oil pastel, graphite and white chalk

This was the longest drawing of the session and allowed us a bit more time to hone the skills we'd practised in the previous two drawings as well as refining the outcome with more detail. I am happy with the figure in this drawing, where I think my tones have visibly improved and I was careful not to overwork them. The area I think that went wrong here is the background, and the perspective. The tones blend in to the figure too much, and I should have thought about this more while drawing the figure so that it stood out in the foreground more! I also struggled with making the boxes look 3D, so they add a flatness to the image and don't give it depth. This is a real shame because it ruins the composition and stops the image being believable as a 3D scene. Despite this, it's given me a lot to take away and learn from, and I will definitely improve my from my mistakes.

Below is one of the more successful parts of this image. I think it's important to still search for areas that have positives about them, for motivation and proof of improvement! I really like the softness of the arms in this section, and how the angle and curves have been suggested simply by using line and directional marks.

Close-up of most successful area (in my opinion)

(SEMESTER TWO) Week 4: Life Model, Animals, Birds

This week Mel was joined by some stuffed creatures in glass display cases which raised a whole new set of challenges! It meant choosing compositions was a lot more complicated and allowed lots of experimentation with sizing and perspective.

Warm-up exercises - top left: 2 mins, top right: 5 mins for both,  bottom 3: 10 mins for all.

The warm ups helped me get a bit more confident with the subject matter before heading into the longer/more complicated full scene drawings. I made an effort to keep my lines loose and not worry too much about the proportions as this session was more focusing on texture, mark-making and composition!

10 minutes - continuous line & semi-blind

This is possibly my favourite of this week's drawings. I think the technique worked well with the subject matter in the way that it helped link the composition together and the whole image has a sense of fluidity. I even quite like the slight 'wonkiness' of the lines and the perspective, because I think it gives the simple line drawing a sense of life and movement.

LEFT: Mel and (3) animals - 5 minutes
RIGHT: Mel and (4) animals - 10 minutes

My first mistake with this piece was probably not doing each exercise on a separate piece of paper. It meant I was limited with space and couldn't work as expressively as I'd have liked. It also negatively affects the final look of each composition. I also struggled with timing, as you can see the left drawing was meant to be Mel and 3 animals while I only managed 1, and the right was meant to be Mel and 4 animals and I only managed 3. The right hand side is probably the better of the two, as it's less stylised and more accurate, as well as more finished; however it's still very lacking in tone and proportion.

Textured paper collage - 50 minutes

For this piece we used textures we had made at the start of the lesson, using paint & rollers and charcoal rubbings, to create the animals themselves and then arrange them in a composition. We were also told to include Mel but I decided against this as I was happy with having the animals larger, and I was more focused on them anyway as they are something we don't often get to reference from. It was a fun exercise being more hands on with cutting and collaging, and I enjoyed thinking about which textures would work best for each element of the picture. Surprisingly this took me the whole 50 minutes, as I found the cutting was very time consuming! Therefore the boxes had to be rushed a little and I'm not sure whether they have added anything positive to the composition. I felt it was important to include them though, to separate and frame the individual focal points, so I'm glad I didn't leave the background space empty.

(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.

(SEMESTER TWO) Week 2: Close Ups

WEEK 2: CLOSE UP WORK - EXPRESSIVE HANDS AND PORTRAITS

Unfortunately having missed week 1, semester 2 started with week 2 for me! We were starting by focusing on faces and hands as lots of people had requested specific skill sessions for the new semester.

I really enjoy drawing faces and hands but can sometimes find them challenging so I think this session was valuable in getting a more technical understanding in how to approach these subjects.

Series of quick experimental drawings - 20 secs x 3, 30 secs x 2, 1 min x 2.

More experimental quick drawings - 2 min x 2, 2 min blind x 2, and non dominant hand 5 min x 1.

These experimental drawings were a good exercise to kick off the session and get used to approaching the subject in a less conventional manner. I found that the quicker drawings (20 and 30 seconds) often turned out more realistic/better proportioned than my longer attempts, where I sometimes fell into my own drawing style and lost accuracy. The blind drawings had a similar outcome - despite looking more abstract the quality of line is a lot more fluid and interesting than the faces I tried to keep realistic.

5 min continuous line

This drawing used continuous line and we couldn't remove our pencil from the paper. I always find this technique useful as it makes you consider things in relation to one another, and you think about composition and quality of line more than you usually would. A successful element of this piece for me is the variation of line that I used to create tone and depth - for example around the edge of the face and nose where I used more pressure for a darker line to separate from the hair. This teaches me that you don't always need shading to create depth. I don't think my accuracy is brilliant, however, but in the time space of 5 minutes I am pleased with the outcome and found that working quickly is getting easier for me!

5 mins planning, 5 mins mark making - 5B pencil

5 mins planning, 5 mins mark making - charcoal

I found it especially interesting how switching between markmaking techniques could have such an effect on the emotion and quality of the final outcome. This is particularly obvious in these side by side images, where the left image hasd been drawn with 5B pencil and the right with charcoal. Despite both taking 10 minutes, and using 5 minutes for planning, 5 minutes for mark making each, the results are very different. The pencil piece came out quite soft, loose and gestural with a more tonal quality, while the charcoal and the varied mark making techniques gave the right hand image a harder, more linear and contrasting look.

15 mins varied mark making - 6B loose pencil

This drawing is my favourite of the session and in my opinion the strongest piece. Taking inspiration from the previous exercise I tried to bring a wide variety of marks into the piece and not use too many 'outlines'. As a result I think it gave the piece a dynamic and lively feel which works quite well with the interesting angle I was drawing from!

15 mins mark making - only 1cm marks allowed - 3B pencil

Although this piece has some proportion issues, I like the mark making technique we were using as I had not attempted it before. It was quite a challenge to limit myself to lines of 1cm or less, but meant that the end result was very different to my usual work and forced me out of my comfort zone with drawing style. I found it interesting to vary the direction of the marks to suggest tone and the direction of light and shadow, and learn that this could be used in place of solid lines to define certain shapes.

10 mins silhouette outline - 2B pencil

Looking just at the outline of the face and shoulders gave me the opportunity to focus more on proportion and negative space definition. In that respect I think this piece is more successful than some other drawings from this session. Once again directional lines were useful here, however the simplicity of the exercise meant that they had to be placed more carefully as there was no tone to bring the image to life. I found that some areas needed only a few lines to suggest the shapes which stopped overworking and heaviness.

10 mins silhouette negative space - 2B and 3B pencils

Again, this image was focused around negative space so required lots of focus and continuous looking and checking! It was challenging to just focus on the outline rather than adding any detail, but it gave a bold and contrasting result.

10 mins proportion study - charcoal

We then moved on to hands. My position made things a little tricky as I wasn't massively close to the model, however it meant I was forced to constantly be looking and staying focused, which is good practice for life drawing! For a quick study in charcoal I think this piece turned out okay, and I tried to remember the previous exercises when drawing my lines so they stayed loose and gestural. However, I do think I relied on my own imagery in this drawing, for example with the mug, which does look a little too stylised. I need to remember to not retreat into my own drawing style and what I think it should look like.

10 mins mark making tonal study - 4B pencil

In contrast this drawing is much more successful both in accuracy and style. The limitations of the technique meant I had to rely on what I could see and this meant it became more realistic and proportionally correct. I enjoyed bringing tone into the image, and experimenting with layering marks to build this up. Also, even though I did not finish in the 10 minutes, I find this half-finished effect somewhat effective as it lets the viewer's eye fill in the spaces.

20 mins line and tonal study - 4B pencil

This image is a longer version of the previous one and continues to improve with use of tone and line. I brought what I had learnt about variation of line, mark making and directional tone into the image, and I think it works well as a striking piece. The position of the hands could probably use some refining, for example, I should maybe have involved some measuring techniques to check the lengths of the fingers and the angles. Despite this, I think there's a lot I can take away from the image.

10 mins tonal studies (2 attempts) - 6B pencil

I am also pleased with this final image, which I had two attempts at. The shorter time allowance meant I was working more quickly which is reflected in the expressive lines. I find that as a result the hands look quite accurate and have a sense of freshness and life about them. 

I really enjoyed this session as a way to kick off the semester of drawing. Not only did it teach me lots of technical skills in general, that could be applied to a range of drawing tasks, it also refined my approach to specifically detailed drawing areas, such as facial features and hands.