Traditional art

Submission Pieces

Primative shapes in 2-point perspective

week 1 - practice session

In our first traditional art lesson we focused on drawing primitive shapes in 1 and 2-point perspective. Before this lesson I had been aware of the principles of perspective and I had often practiced these fundamentals in my free time. Despite this, however, I would consider the work I produced within that lesson to be quite unconfident and sloppy - despite presenting a basic understanding of perspective. many of my horizontal lines are slanted and there are quite a few examples of 'searching lines' showing uncertainty before committing to a single line. The cubes and cuboids are also meant to have the same height (when the cuboid is lying on it's longer side) but in my study this isn't being represented effectively. I think I mostly struggled here because I was using my wrist to draw the lines rather than my entire arm for longer strokes.

week 2 - Assessable component

For our second lesson of traditional art we worked on drawing a bigger collection of solid primitives to start thinking about composition and making sure we can maintain our entire subject within the center of our page. I am much happier with this outcome in contrast to last week's studies because the shapes look as if they are actually lying on the same ground plane as each other :D

After having completed my study, I went to Chris to ask for feedback after a Wednesday's drawing center session. He mentioned how the outlines of the blocks are too dark which reduces its sense of three-dimensionality. I agree with this but I struggled to not stress the outlines of these objects because they are white and barely had any sort of tonal changes due to the many lights on the classroom's ceiling. I tried shading some areas of the background to help push the white shapes forward but I didn't want to do that around the entire study because I believe it would look too messy. I also really struggled to draw the cast shadows because the drawing room has many ceiling lights - leading to many faint and confusing cast shadows. I also couldn't successfully convey the visual texture of the reflective darker cuboids that I had found so interesting when observing the set up.

I think the rendering is alright considering it was the stretch goal but form is only vaguely implied with the rendering. The perspective line-art is doing all of the heavy lifting.

Ellipses, Symmetry & Volumetric Boxes

week 3 - practice session

Week 3 was all about practicing volumetric boxes and ellipses for drawing more complex objects. I really like constructive drawing - especially on unique and interesting objects such as these bottles and vases. my main struggle with rounded objects are keeping ellipses straight and drawing symmetrical curves. I have noticed that the left side of my studies are always much rounder than the right because I am right handed and the wrist motion to draw curves on the left comes more naturally. I have also noticed that when I draw my ellipses they tend to raise higher on the left and fall on the right causing my drawings to always have a slightly squashed and slanted look on the first pass. I didn't practice using many volumetric boxes in lesson because I felt that a lot of the bottles and vases would be easier to draw using only ellipses since they are standing up, however, I would like to practice using volumetric boxes in the near future because they allow construction of drastic perspectives to be accurately drawn. It also makes checking for errors - and avoiding errors -  far easier. (they also look cooler). If I had used volumetric boxes for the other studies I had done in that lesson, I could have noticed the asymmetries sooner. There was also a spray bottle I studied but I drew it too large so I didn't manage to fit it all within the page (I sometimes overscale if I am too focused on the little details). I also got confused about finding the centre of the spray bottle and thought that I had messed up somewhere else but it ended up being just me drawing a slanted centre line. The use of a volumetric box here would have definitely benefited me.

Note to self: Measured drawing focuses on precision, constructive drawing focuses on foundational elements that breaks down complex subjects into simple geometric forms

week 4 - Assessable component

In week 4 we continued studying slightly complex objects with an emphasis on using ellipses, symmetry, and volumetric boxes to aid our construction. Of the 4 setups on the table, the collection with the unique teapot caught my eye. Not only where the three objects built using circular forms - lending a sense of cohesion to the arrangement - their varying hights and materials also added visual interest (and I really just wanted to draw the teapot).

My main interest for this study was the teapot and it's characteristic spout and handles grabbing my attention in contrast to the other quite stocky and short objects. 

I really enjoyed drawing the teapot because it's construction came very naturally to me and It only took two passes for me to reach it's final line-art. In the preliminary sketch, my tendency to draw unintentional oblique ellipses is evident but this was an easy fix. I am glad that Craig came in and mentioned how the handle of the teapot should be drawn so that the right end of the pipe-like handle should be slightly larger than the left end to imply perspective. Teo also came in and told me how the left side of the 'S' shaped handle should be shorter than the right side which was very helpful in emphasising the perspective of the lid.

I believe the hole-puncher could have been executed more effectively if I had used a volumetric box to contain it. Although it was not compulsory,  I really wanted to try and render this study in preparation for next week's lesson on shading and texture because I was unsatisfied with my last rendering attempt on the primitives shapes. I also know that I need a lot of practice on rendering. The picture on the left is where I left it off in class. My rendering approach is still not any more strategic than my last assessable component's rendering but I guess this takes time.

For rendering I tried to stay true to my reference's values, making sure to translate the colour value differences each object has. This has incidentally lead the hole-puncher to receive all the attention of my study rather than the large teapot but I don't think this is too much of an issue. 

I found the glass flask to be a real challenge. Not only is it a difficult material to render (and a material I have always passionately avoided my entire life purely to save my sanity) but the shape was difficult to get right. I was really struggling to see it's shape properly because I couldn't tell for certain when the glass ended or began so I put it off for a long time and I can't say I ever really drew it structurally accurate using any form of volumetric boxes or ellipses to aid me in it's construction. since I was procrastinating on the glass flask near the beginning, it lead me to making some errors in the placement of the hole-puncher's base. For future studies I should make sure to pay close attention to the subject closest to me so that it does not affect the ground planes of other subjects. Other than that I am satisfied with the outcome. I believe I have captured the teapot's unique shapes, the materials have been easily identified by those I have shown, and I am happy with my rendering attempt. 

Rendering

week 5 - practice session

I really struggled this lesson. I spent the entire 3 hours just working on a single jug as I was trying to focus on getting it's core shadow correct. The persuite to work on core shadows was prompted by Kras after he gave me feedback on my last rendered study. Kras mentioned how I hadn't thought about the core shadow on the teapot's surface in my last piece so I really wanted to make sure I focused on that this lesson. Despite my determination, however, I was really struggling to understand it because I had chosen a really reflective object and I was getting confused because of the many light sources in our drawing room. trying to find the darkest shadow on the table also wasn't helping me. Once I had left the room with photos of the setup, however, I was so surprised to see the answer was looking right at me!! If I had just looked at the other objects that weren't as reflective I would have realised where the core shadows where meant to go a lot sooner. I also need to remember to SQUINT so that I can start rendering the important values in quickly. I still believe core shadows are something I need to work on so I went back to rendering a basic sphere whilst focusing on it's core shadow in the meantime.

week 6 - Assessable Component

When I entered the room for this lesson I was so sure that I would avoid that reflective jug I struggled so badly with last week to make sure this assessable component would be successful. This, however, did not last because I felt the composition of the assemblage it was in to be too enticing. I was drawn to the large wooden dice, the onion, and the collective composition which would allow a harmonious study to fit nice and efficiently within my page. I also thought that it related far too closely with the material studies I was doing for my digital art practices that I couldn’t resist trying to render these materials traditionally to see my different approach to rendering. I am also currently struggling to make my manufactured wood material study look believable so this was a perfect way of analysing the material with fresh eyes.

Drawing the setup was relatively easy but I think the mouth of the jug is disproportionately too wide in comparison to it's body but I can not fix it because I had already gone too dark on it once I realised. For my rendering, I remembered to start by working on the objects' core shadows but I have to admit that I am still struggling with it - especially on that jug.

Unlike the other two assessable components, I feel I have really focused on the texture of the objects I was drawing in this rendering. This was necessary as I had to show the visual contrast of the large wooden dice and it's grain against the feathery onion. I'm quite satisfied with the dice and the small succulent but I think the onion and the dark jug could be improved - especially the brim of the jug.