Week 6: Finishing up Week 5 Overflow and Doing Some Figure Studies

Getting A Little Bit of Fresh Air

Week 5 Overflow: Getting Stuck

The eyes are the only part of last week's piece that I really ended up being satisfied with. Because I was so sick of the piece as a whole and I really wanted to chuck the painting out of the window, I was seriously in need of a painting break and a trip back to my drawing roots. even looking back at the eyes I find a million and one things that I hate about them. It angers me to reflect on the piece as a whole... aghhhh I have got to stop dwelling on it.

Oh So Unmotivated...

By the time I got to laying in the background, my brushes were caked in paint and the last thing I wanted to do was to keep working. In a pit of anger I quickly laid in the background in desperate attempt to just finish off the painting. By this point, I had about a hundred brushes caked with tacky oil paint and linseed oil and a crappy painting that I was no where close to proud of. This was definitely the all-time low of senior project. Frustration is part of the artistic process though. Senior project wouldn't be complete without my fair share of failure and disappointment!!

Palette of Pencils

Instead of paint, here are the pencils I used for this study. I usually don't use H pencils but I found that the toned paper made the graphite appear darker, warranting the need for a lighter pencil. I also didn't go all the way up to 8B for this piece, for I didn't want the piece to smudge and I love the dainty and soft aspects of Michelangelo's sketches in particular. I ended up sketching the majority of the outlines in B and then adding the shadows in 2B. I only ended up needing the 4B to add the darkest shadow accents and tie the studies to the paper if that makes any sense.

Inspired By the Greats

In researching the processes of famous artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci, I stubbled across inconceivable amounts of incredibly detailed sketches and figure studies. The intricacy of these sketches was incredibly inspiring to me, especially considering the about of anatomical research was present in each. Ms. Higger graciously lended me some of her drawing anatomy books which were a real help through this process! It was fascinating to learn about how the connections of bone, muscle, and tissue combine to create the human form. It shines light on how complex figure drawing can be and as a result why the masters are considered so great. It gave me an entirely new appreciation for the intricacy of these sketches and studies.

An Anatomy Lesson

I had a lot of fun deconstructing the human form even after I had finished this last piece. It inspired me to try and find some live models!! This is something that i really have not experimented with in art at all, so it should be an interesting way to switch up my process and see my subject matter in a different way. I think that live modeling is especially important to the human figure because of its intricacy and complexity. Even though I didn't end up doing any hand studies outside of the one pictured at left, It was fascinating to look at the magnitude of bones in your hand alone. To be completely honest I haven't stoped staring at my own hands for the past twenty four fours. I actually happen to be staring at the flexion and relaxation of my own fingers as I type.

- I've Seen Too Many Naked People Today -

If you were wondering what I was drawing from as a reference, I actually use a nudes website meant for artists. I discovered this website back in middle school, for I quickly realized that googling "nudes" in attempt to find reference pictures for such figure drawings did not end well. My scarred middle school mind did not give in, though, and I ended up finding the website that I have been using since. I have linked the website below in case you feel like browsing through some nudes (no, not in that way...). I love it because of the diversity in it and the magnitude of poses meant for studying the human form. It is a wonderful alternative to forcing my own friends to pose naked for me in my opinion!!

Last One In The Books

This is definitely not what I expected of my last piece nor is it what I had scheduled. I am happy with it, though, despite its "study like" nature. It kind of comes full circle with the first oil study that I did even though it is much different in terms of medium and subject matter.

Reflecting back on this piece, I don't love the overall composition or the face on the right figure. I don't hate it nearly as much as the previous piece, though. However, I do like how each of the styles turned out. I think they ended up contrasting nicely. Also, for a freehand drawing it turned out much better than I thought it would. All that gesture drawing in AP Studio really served me well!

It might not have been what I would have expected myself to do for the final week of senior project, but I am glad that I did it nonetheless. It was a good lesson in a classical staple of two-dimensional art and it definitely inspired me to keep studying the figure and all the complex anatomy behind it. I definitely needed a quick break from the oil paint, and considering I was in the midst of a massive artistic burnout when I started this piece, I think it turned out pretty well.

Figure Studies: Process Video

This video was a little different than the previous videos I've made for Senior Project, but it was a nice deviation from all that sticky oil paint. Further, I haven't done a figure study in a while so this was a lot of fun!

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