Still life Final

 Still life - Final: Composition

1 hour 30 minutes

This is the final image of my still life drawing, applying all the theories and techniques that I have learnt over  the semester which are all put together in one drawing. The main focus was on composition. We see interesting composition, with variety of materials. These materials are purposely selected, to acquire lot of shading to the drawing.  We see lot of materials with unique textures: soft and hard, smooth and rough surfaces. The weekly themes have given me confidence to produce a very satisfactory piece of still life.

Composition in this image is in high standard. We see rule of thirds (point of interest) at three locations.  The 3 focal points in this image are the keys, the diary, the orange and small tint of highlight at the end of the banana, located in the area of rule of thirds at the bottom left. The second focal point  also in the intersection of the rule of thirds is located on the open jar that is laying down tilted towards the viewer in a 3/4 angle. The third focal point is located in the areas of the top of the banana, the glass cup and the shadow of the banana. These points are very strong and keep the viewers eyes at these points. The image also display flow of line/implied line in a circular loop. For example starting from the keys at the bottom, the line flows through the orange, apple, banana then to glass cup and the vase. But the vase and the focal point; the shadow of the banana brings the eye back towards the centre. The line of the fruit ball keeps the flow and jumps to the tilted jar; which is another focal point. And because the angle of the jar, the way its faced, it brings the implied line back towards the keys through the diary.

The image supplement a good spatial organisation. It has taken me at least 30 minutes to decide how the objects should be laid out before the drawing took place. The objects are clustered and placed nicely avoiding orphaned and kissing objects. In terms of balance, the shading and the way the objects are placed it has a good sense of unity. I was amazed how much I have progressed. Especially in the shading and adding texture to these objects, for instance the texture of the translucent objects: the jar and the glass cup.

Perspective is very satisfying, and depth is very visible by the way its shaded. There are lot of different marks implemented in this image to bring the still life objects very realistic mapped on to the 2D plane especially the translucent objects. I am very pleased with the final outcome of the scene.

Figure - Final

Figure - Final: Anatomy

This is my final figure drawing viewing point of a posterior, of a female model, an image displaying anatomy. This image took around 20 minutes and was drawn during the semester. I have chosen this as my final piece, as it had very pleasing perspective,showing foreshortening, also good standard in proportion, weight, balance, pose and gesture. This drawing clearly express those features. Balance and weight, where the model is sat on a table legs apart, where her feet are pressed on the ground  and using hands for support on the knees.The way its sat down is the gesture and the model looks powerful. Composition is also well implemented as the image is not in the centre. The image can be improved by adding shading. But apart from that, the detail of the model's anatomy is clearly visible.

Landscape - Final

Landscape - Final : natural elements and buildings

40 minutes

This is my final landscape drawing. Implemented with all the theory and techniques learnt over the semester. The main focus here was applying, perspective, composition and impressionistic technique.  Adding Impressionism was the key in this final landscape drawing as there are too many objects in the scene, therefore parts of the objects and the background is impressionistic. But naturalistic drawing is also included. The objects that are points of interest and in the area of rule of thirds, those objects are much more detailed. Perspective here was difficult to apply as these buildings are not placed in a line as the land is very hilly, some buildings are in an angle, especially at the right of the image. But this drawing is drawn using single point perspective. This is supported by the angle of the buildings (orthogonal lines) on the left of the page. And following that angle the vanishing point is located central  at the top of the image. The horizon line lies horizontally, in level with the top of the trees at the left of the image. There is also some layers of detail in this image. Foreground, mid-ground and background. Overall the image represent high standard in composition, impressionism and perspective. But more detail could of been added.

Week 12 - Figure

Week 12 - Figure, Posture and pose

 The image below display a female model with an interesting pose/gesture. Proportion in this image, the left leg is a bit too wide, apart from that proportion is reasonable. Perspective was also tricky as there are many numbers of angles in the pose. Balance and weight is also shown: the left foot, sitting on top of a box, the buttocks on a table and the cuddled arm around the bent, right leg just below its knee, which all provides  support to the model.

The overall image seem to be reasonable in both proportion and perspective, but this image lacks detail, and for it to be finalised, adding more shading would of made the image very pleasing.

Week 11 - Figure

Week 11 - Figure, Muscular structure

The focus in this session was to understand how muscles work in our body and how we put this feature in to our drawing. The image below is a male model sat on a stool. The intention was to know the basic anatomy of the male body and knowing where the muscles come in to place. As you can see in this image the left shoulder is disproportionate.

The image below is a study drawing of the upper body part of the male model closely zoomed to his neck, collar bone, chest and his right fore arm. This was to analyse and observe every detail of the bone, muscular tissue and skin covering the muscles, to apply shading to the drawing. This task was challenging as detail was key. The bottom right image below is the models leg, and this again was another study drawing of muscular anatomy of a human body. We can see the muscular parts of the leg: the knee-cap, the Quadriceps  and the Gastrocnemius. These drawings are very pleasing with high degree of detail. Also the proportion is also accurately drawn. To understand the whole muscular structure of the human body, I need to have more study drawings just like the images below.

Week 10 - Figure

Week 10 - Figure, Basic anatomy and Movement

All these drawings below are displaying poses and showing movement of a human figure.

The focus in this session, was capturing the pose and movement of the human body. The 3 men  below are all the same pose, drawn at different angles. These sketches were drawn very quick without lifting the pencil off the paper, at intense speed. 

More poses here below.

This final image is the model holding a stick, and here it was challenging as we had to capture his movement and draw continuously. The drawing looks a bit messy but we can visualise the movement he is displaying. Standing still, body bent to the side where his head is at the furthest, and as he move, his body expands and stretches, at halfway point his up straight, and returning to same position leaning, to the side of the body, but this time facing towards the viewer. We see the movement is curved.

This task also taught me the basics of key framing of a human movement.

Week 9 - Figure

Week 9 - Figure Basic anatomy and Proportion

Figure drawing is not just drawing people, it includes all other living species. The focus in this task was to draw a living human being, of their anatomy and understanding the size/proportion of the human body. According to the theory an average sized human proportion is 8 heads tall for adults (measuring using head count with the subjects head).

 The images below shows a female model with two poses and another image with the same model sitting on a clothed table. The first image containing two poses was focusing on the basic of human proportion when they are standing up. The left pose was the first drawn image, and as we see its disproportionate where, the bottom half of the model from the buttocks and upper legs are far too wide. The second pose on the right, the proportion looks more accurate.

This second image below was still focusing on anatomy but, as well as focusing on perspective. This has distracted the accuracy on proportion as we see the left leg of the model is not in proportion to the rest of her body. This was applying foreshortening in the image, but it was difficult to adjust the size and the angle of the leg correctly. 

Short task showing drawings of inner and outer hand

Week 8- reflective surfaces

Week 8- reflective surfaces

This week, the focus was drawing reflective surfaces. This image was drawn using charcoal and took roughly 40 minutes to complete. The asymmetrical vase had a reflective surface.

Overall the image does show Specular reflection, where the vase is lying down on two sheets: one was a paper that had no reflective surface and the other sheet that had reflective surface. There is reflection/mirroring of the vase on the reflective sheet. Another success in this drawing is the composition, the focal point in this image is where reflection is presented. The perspective in this piece is very accurate. In this drawing I applied some impressionistic technique, for background, some of the surfaces on the vase, and the reflective sheet(displaying diffuse reflection). There was a fixed light shined on the object during the process, so implementing the highlight and the shadow was attainable to the image.

Week 7- Soft and Hard surfaces and texture

Week 7- Soft and Hard surfaces and texture

This session, we had to draw objects that have distinct surface types including soft, hard, smooth and rough surface textures. For example, cloth, brick, glass, wood etc. The drawings above and on the right are small study drawings of a asymmetrical vase and corduroy clothe, zoomed closely at their texture/surface. The importance of this session was acknowledging on when applying these techniques: naturalistic or impressionistic technique, depending on the surface of the objects that we draw. For instance, cloth is knitted and it takes time to draw every detail, so impressionistic technique had to be used. This session is focusing on efficiency, and what objects should be detailed and not detailed in our drawing.

This image here is a directed study drawing of still life object of a glass jar, which took 20 minutes to complete. This was very challenging to draw on paper as glass have a hard surface, refracts light and it is a shiny object. The drawing was successful as it is clearly definable that the object is a glass jar; looking shiny and translucent. However, there are some errors in perspective, the angle  of the top of the jar and  the bottom look irregular. But the focus on this task was to understand the principles of drawing different types of surfaces.

Week 6 - still life

Week 6: Still Life - Natural and man made forms

In this practical session, we had to draw a natural and man made formed objects, positioned on a clothed table. The drawing took 45 minutes using a pencil. This session was closely looking at composition. For instance, spatial organisation demonstrating unity and balance, where objects are near to each other leaving out orphaned objects, overlapping nicely creating a sense of unity. Objects are stationed so closely, it casts lots of shadows in the scene when the light was lit. This enforces to invite lots of shading in the drawing; generating wide range of tonal values of dark and highlights. It is clear where the light originate from in the drawing; lot of highlights on right side of the objects, darker shades on the left and extreme dark tones in the centre, where the objects are clustered together blocking the light(shadow). Implied line is also visible in this drawing, flowing in a circular loop. In addition the image has 3 focal points: The leak and its reflection from the vase beside it, the tall vase at the back and the cauliflower. All three of these objects are placed nicely where the lines of rule of thirds intersects in portrait view.

The drawing was successful in terms of composition for still life drawing: displaying focal points, demonstrating rule of thirds. Illustrating perspective, where all 3D objects are drawn accurately on a 2D plane. Spatial organisation avoiding kissing and orphaned objects, and displaying balance by the way the objects are placed and the way it is shaded.

 However, the drawing is not fully complete; there are parts of shading still missing, for example, the pumpkin behind the parsnip. 

Week 5 - impressionistic techniques

Week 5 - Impressionistic techniques

This week, the theory is based on impressionism in drawings/paintings. The image below is an example of impressionism in a drawing. This image was constructed using 6 different coloured pastels. We see impressionism here as the markings are randomly marked on paper, but maintaining the objects/shape to be recognisable for any viewer. In this image we see interesting composition. For instance layers of detail, illustrating depth in three layers: background, mid-ground and foreground. The foreground are the bushes at the front of the image at the bottom. The big bright red-leafed tree as mid-ground, with strong colours and have highly detailed markings. This is the focal point (area of interest). For background the blurred yellow-leafed tree, the blue tint representing a part of a building and a shade of yellow to fill the white spaces. This drawing also demonstrates atmospheric perspective, where distant objects are blurred ( the yellow tree). However the drawing is not fully complete, there are areas with white spaces. The overall image has a calm feel by the way its marked. Furthermore, there is contrast and colourful scenery.

Week 4 - light

 

Week 4: Light and shadow

These images focus on implementing a range of light/dark values, shadows and cast shadows to illustrate shading and appear depth to a drawing.

The three 5 minute individual sketches focuses on shading using a pencil. The objects (pipes attached to a wall) were directly aimed by a light source, which the objects has displayed a range of dark/light values and casting a shadow. The two objects on the right were drawn using only one angled diagonal lines which the range of dark/light values were narrow making visibly difficult to picture the 3D shape, which the drawing looked very flat. To surpass this problem, the third sketch below was drawn using various shading techniques: hatching and cross hatching to enable use of wider range of dark and light values.
The third sketch is much improved compared to the other two, as shown there is more contrast between dark/light; highlights and very dark shadows, where light is completely blocked. However there are still few tints of shades missing in the drawing. This session has given me the importance of shading and how it is applied to a drawing to produce depth on paper.

Directed study

The three images displayed here are drawn using a pencil of one cubic object in different set of lighting environment: the first image at the top with just a torch in a dark room, the second without torch but with a room light, and the third image both torch and room light together, looking at different view point. These drawings illustrate the theory and demonstrate the techniques of shading: hatching and cross hatching, bringing a wide range of values of light and dark. We see the second image room light have less marking compared to the other two. The torch image has more variety of light and dark values. But more marks and variety of grey implemented on third image.



Week 3 - Compostion

Week 3 - Composition

The quick sketches below are my planned composition for a landscape drawing. This session has given me the opportunity to understand the key elements of composition and put in to practise. The images below display many elements of composition such as layers of detail, especially the first image with bushes in foreground both side of the page at the front, for mid-ground the steps, central tree and the stone beside it, and distant tree as background. The first image is also supplemented with the rule of thirds (point of interest) which, in this case is the stone in the bottom right corner, above the steps. The stone perfectly sits at the point, where lines of rule of thirds intersect. The bottom right image also again supplement with interesting composition, just like the first image, it demonstrates layers of detail and rule of thirds, but it also display line/implied line by following the tree left to right of the image, adding extra element and interest to the viewer.

The bottom left image is also very pleasing, going down the steps towards the vanishing point. Also positioned to allow layers of detail to create some depth, supported by the  distant trees at the background. At the point where the steps disappear, is also very close to the intersection of the lines of the rule of thirds.

The first image and bottom left image, are not satisfactory as a  final image template as there are other elements of composition that needs to be implemented. The missing features in the first image is balance, the image has interesting focal point (stone), however, there is too much objects in the scene. Hence, it distracts the viewers' eye to not look at the focal point. The bottom left image is lacking depth, as the height of the railing steps are far too low at the front. The bottom right image, contain the best composition out of the three. Overall, the images have some elements of pleasing composition however, improvements can be made.

Week 2- Perspective

Week 2 - Perspective

Interiors

The image below illustrates interior landscape, of a hallway. Single point perspective is illustrated in this image with a single vanishing point at the top of the image. The angles of the orthogonal lines are clearly visible by the way the corridor is drawn, following towards the vanishing point. The horizon line is placed, matching the line of the furthest central door at the bottom, at the back of the corridor. Foreshortening is also visible in this image where the door and other objects such as the door Matt on the floor at the front and the angle of the table at the back, follows the angle/direction of the orthogonal lines. The front vertical line of the door on the left is longer than the second vertical line of the same door that's further. Foreshortening in this drawing was a success, the objects look smaller as you view down the corridor and up the page; we see the objects and the corridor become smaller and more compact. But there are errors in this image, some of the angled markings such as the floor of the corridor on the right, is not following the direction of the orthogonal line correctly.

Exteriors

These drawings are exteriors of a landscape drawing, the image on left, is drawn with a single vanishing point with walls and cars (orthogonal lines) directing towards the point. This image again shows foreshortening, as both objects (cars) and the wall become smaller and compact, towards the centre, where vanishing point is located.

 The image below however is drawn in 2 point perspective, again all the elements of perspective are applied: foreshortening, horizon line, vanishing points and orthogonal lines. Viewing from below, looking at the upper part of the building. Here we see the orthogonal lines directing in two directions. This is due to the fact that there are 2 vanishing points located on each side one on the left and  one on the right. This brings the whole image a more interesting scene.

Small study sketches on single, two, and 3 point perspective. 

As the number of vanishing points increased, drawing simple shapes have become much more complicated and challenging. However, these studies have shown the way for me to develop, to draw objects in different perspectives.

Week 1

Week 1 - Basic marks on paper and a box

This was the first week getting the hands on observational drawing in to practice. This session was  implementing different marks on paper, also learning the way artists should hold the pencil and drawing with the use of elbows, instead of the wrist. The images displayed here are the markings that I have produced in the session.

Drawing a basic box was the second task.

The main focus of drawing this box was an introductory to perspective,  measuring by using a pencil and practising the basics of shading.