Semester 1

Colours & Light

The colours in this piece are very harmonious, natural, and mostly muted, adding to the peaceful atmosphere since there are no harsh colours fighting for the viewer's attention.  The hues used in the piece are in an analogous colour scheme, with a mix of cool and warm tones, which I believe adds to the comfort of the area by suggesting a comfortable temperature, neither too warm nor cold, just like the colours in the scene. 

Bibliography

Groenewoud, S / Geurilla Games. 2022. Horizon: Forbidden West - Shaders (Online) Available from: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/KOLenX [Accessed 11th October 2023]

Lastly, I used some extra shading lines to imply volume and extra shadows in my work. Since the task was not to use any full shading, I was careful not to overdo this so that the lines would still imply a sense of tone and light. I used a large cross-hatch to add some extra definition to the forms and to help separate the items in the composition. I feel that this was especially helpful with the flowers since I thought that the linework was confusing and unclear at first, so I put extra focus on how I could add clarity back into the forms, and I think that the light cross-hatching worked to separate the main forms from each other.

If I were to do this exercise again, however, I would be more careful with my line weight from the beginning of sketching, not just when I was happy with a base sketch. This is because I think I have a tendency to make my lines very dark when sketching. This made it hard to erase some of my lines as much as I wanted to, and on the lighter objects, it made the final lines darker, thicker, and fuzzier than I would have hoped. Considering the tone and shadows of an object from the start would have been a much more effective way to clearly describe the objects with just lines as it would have helped to avoid this problem altogether. 

The final piece

Patterns & Shape Study

 I used previously taught methods of constructing each element, mainly using ovals to plot out each of the changes in width on cylindrical objects, and I also paid attention to the perspective on elements such as the block the vase was sitting on, and the small glass tub. 

Once I was happy with elements such as composition, symmetry and overall construction of the elements, I moved on to refining the sketch and placing in the patterns. One notable part of this was adding the details on the corn cob. The kernels fell into a grid shape, so I was able to detail the corn accurately by first sketching in a grid, focusing on perspective, with the kernels (Grid) appearing to get smaller the further away they were from me. I also ensured that this grid was not completely perfect, since I could see that although the kernels did follow a grid pattern the lines on that grid were not completely straight. The lines between the kernels sometimes got closer or further apart and were wobbly in places. I tried to imitate this in my drawing to help the corn appear natural and not 'too perfect'. Once the grid was placed, I was then able to make each square more cell-like and add shading to imply the 3D form of the kernels. 

Another area I focused on was the patterns travelling around the vase. Since I knew they would be useful when adding the patterns later, I kept a light trace of the ovals I used to construct the jug, since they would help me to visualise the curvature and perspective that would influence how the pattern appears. Since I was looking slightly down on the pattern, it would appear to curve down in the centre, and curve upwards towards the edges of the object as the forms curve around and out of sight. However, the pattern on the jug was slightly irregular. Some of the drip patterns were wider than others, which would make it harder to convey accurately in my drawing. I started by sketching out the main shape, focusing on making sure that each point in the pattern was evenly spaced where it was accurate to do so, and they were all following the curves of the form of the jug.  Once I was happy with the basic outline of the patterns, I started to fill it in, using what I had previously done as a guideline.

Progressing on the piece

Once the pattern was placed, I moved on to shading. Since the shading needed to be consistent over each different tone in the pattern, I started by placing down a basic value for each section of the vase, then slowly built up shadows and highlights on top, paying attention to only the forms so that the shadows fell consistently over the different value changes. I think this was mostly effective, since the shadows feel cohesive, and the pattern feels like it is a part of the object rather than a pattern that has been drawn on top. However, I think that I could have improved the placement and proportions of the pattern slightly. Although the pattern was slightly irregular, it still somewhat had a rhythm which I think I did not capture correctly in my drawing, which I only noticed when I had placed the pattern in too dark to correct. When approaching a pattern like this again in future, I will make sure to study it closer before I try to draw it, even if it seems somewhat irregular at first. I will then make sure to use the grid method to help me place the more regular landmarks at more regular intervals.  Even if a pattern does seem completely irregular in future, I will also make sure to be more careful with the guidelines I use to help contour the pattern across the surface.

I received feedback that the pattern does not seem to follow the curvature of the vase correctly,  which when pointed out, I was also able to notice. I will use the advice I received for this in future, that I should follow a similar, or even identical method, to place the guidelines as I do when constructing the basic shape of the vase from ovals. This way I will be able to ensure that the curvature of the form and the curvature of the pattern are as similar as possible. If needed, I could then also split these guidelines up into a grid to achieve a regular rhythm.

The finished piece

Material Study- Metal & Glass

These included starting shading with the darkest object to better understand the value range I am working with and to build up my shading slowly. I started shading with the large jug since this was my darkest object. However,  before adding too much value, I added small sketches to mark where the brightest, sharpest highlights were so that I did not accidentally go over them with values that were too dark to erase. When shading, I paid very close attention to the shapes of each of the highlights and shadows, as well as how sharp or sudden the transition between values was, since from what I have learned previously in Traditional and Digital Sessions, this is important in describing the material. I think that although rendering has improved from the previous times that I've tried to render metal, there are still some areas for improvement. I think that on the main body of the jug, the material is still too cloudy. I think this method of rendering was effective on smaller objects such as the tin, lig of the jug, and cap on the reed diffuser, so I now know that this is a viable method for rendering that I could use, however, I could maybe focus on smaller areas of the vase at a time. Whilst rendering the body, I tended to focus on the vase as a whole, which split my attention, by making me focus on making the vase as a whole look good and achieving a metallic finish. In future, I think that I could focus on smaller areas of metal objects, for example, 'splitting' the area to work on into quarters, and only focusing on one section at a time, since I think that the smaller metal parts are the most effective since I was able to focus on how the metal looked at a smaller scale.

Progressing on the sketch

The finished piece

After choosing the thumbnail with the most effective composition, I started sketching, paying close attention to not over-complicate the forms too quickly, and using construction methods to create the rounded sections of the building. However, I struggled to place the cylinders I was using to construct the building in the correct perspective. I took some time to use lines from a vanishing point to check where I should place them, paying attention to where they joined the square part of the building, and the furthest point out. From here,  I was able to divide the lines into equal sections for both the round structure and the spaces between them, so I could place them as correctly as possible. However, in hindsight, I think that I should have paid more attention to the shape of the ovals I was using when constructing these parts of the house. Over time, I began to feel more and more that there was something off about the shape of the round sections, and I think this is because I did not spend as much time as I could have to construct the oval shapes to guide me, and I did not spend as much time checking if they were correct before starting to draw over the top and adding details to the house. Next time I approach drawing a building, I will make sure to check over all of the construction lines and perspective before I move on to anything more detailed.

My preparatory sketches, and laying out the main elements

Since this piece was putting a focus on atmosphere, I considered how I could make the scene feel more sinister, since the given theme for this atmosphere was 'Jack the Ripper'. The outside of the house was large and quite empty, which I felt could add a feeling of unsettledness if I could find a way to make the piece feel dark and alone. To do this, I mostly focused on adding dark tones and creating a dark sky, as if it was the middle of the night or there was a storm going on. These dark tones would help give a feeling of the unknown, making the house feel sinister and helping to create an unsettling feeling to fit the Jack the Ripper theme. 

The finished piece

Urban Exploration- Chernobyl Painting

When approaching the enhancement week task, I wanted to use it as an opportunity to better understand the medium I chose to colour it. This is because I do not use coloured mediums otherwise, and the last time I regularly used and practised with my preferred medium, watercolour, was several years ago, at which point there was still a lot of improvement I could make, so I wanted to take this piece as an opportunity to properly practice the medium again and to improve upon the weaker areas of my older paintings. I identified the main areas that made my old watercolour work look underdeveloped were a lack of control, muddy colours, and unrefined blending, as identified in feedback from a watercolour piece I did for my portfolio last year. When choosing an image to use from the virtual tour, I tried to focus on finding an image that would challenge and develop my control with the paint.

I chose to use an image of a train wreck since this piece has a lot of elements that could blend into one another if I was not careful or patient enough, requiring sharp lines and ensuring that my previous layers had dried fully. However, it also offered some softer value transitions that would allow me to also practice blending. Another reason why I chose this piece was because of the composition. I thought that the main elements of the piece formed interesting diagonals, and the piece naturally drew the eye to the focal points of the piece when I sketched out a thumbnail of this composition. However, I did slightly edit the placement of the train carriage on the left, to edit the angle and help create further leading lines towards the main focal point; the red carriage.

The refernce image I chose, and the thumbnails I created exploring different compositions

Progressing on the painting

Once the trees were finished, I moved on to the train. I followed a similar method to what I used for the trees, slowly layering different colours on top of each other to reach the desired tone, making sure to be patient and let the layer underneath dry completely to avoid bleeding. One feature I paid close attention to at this point was the weathering and reflections on the train. On the red carriage on the upper side especially, there is a lot of reflection from the sky, and weathering where some of the pain was starting to wear away. To achieve this effect in my painting, I started the train with a base layer of greyish-blue to ensure that I could maintain this detail. Because of what I have previously learned about colour and light in digital lessons, I also transitioned this underpainting for the train to add more green colours when it got closer to the ground, since the metal would slightly reflect this, and bounce light from the grass would influence the overall appearance of the red. Giving it a slight green tint will help the train blend into the environment around it, make the lighting/colours feel more believable and realistic, and make the colours more cohesive overall.

The last part of the painting was creating the foreground foliage. I made sure to use a dry brush saturated with paint to carve out the shape of the plants in white, greys, and light browns, creating a few layers to block out as much of the painting underneath as I could. I then added shading in the same way as before. Once the painting was done, I then started to go over it with coloured pencils. This is so that I could create bolder and darker tones than I could with watercolours, as well as add some fine details that could have become fuzzy with paint.

Overall, I think that this was a good exercise for practising my control with watercolour. Although there are still some fuzzy areas and unwanted bleeding, I believe that it has improved a lot from my previous watercolour work. I have also not considered underpaintings and the way that bounce lights and reflections would influence my choices in colours and layering before, so it was also good to experiment with this to improve the muddy colours as well, which I think that I have been able to do lot better before. In future, I will continue to experiment and practice with techniques like this.

The finished piece

Head Construction Study 1- The Skull

Finally, I received some useful feedback for the shadow I placed under the shadow. Since the surface the skull was sitting on was dark, I made the shadow dark to show the tone of this surface. However, I received advice from a tutor that I should lighten this shadow. This is because it created a very high area of contrast with the white background and skull, which drew the eye away from the skull entirely. This helped to improve the composition of the piece, helping the focus to remain on the skull whilst still making the object feel grounded.

The finished piece

As suggested, I started by creating the eye closest to me. I particularly wanted to focus on the structure and anatomy of the eyes in particular, since I felt I knew the most about the eye's anatomy, but have never been able to accurately convey the forms through a drawing.  To try to represent the forms better, I started with the eyelids, focusing on their thickness, how they would curve around the eye, and how they connect to the rest of the face. To make sure that I could still correct any mistakes I made, I made sure to start off all of my lines very light, so that they would be easy to erase and correct later, acting as a guideline in the place of a regular sketch. Continuing the eyes, I then tried to create the 3D form of the eyeball and eye socket. I still kept these light so I could correct any mistakes I noticed later, but I wanted to create a solid basic structure of the first eye before moving on to the second one, with the thought that having more landmarks around the eye would help me to pace and proportion the second eye.

When moving on to the rest of the face, I had to make sure I was measuring the proportions carefully, since it would be harder to place them without a line drawing underneath and would instead need to show everything through shadow alone. I did this by measuring with the eye I had already drawn. I measured the width of the eye and marked down a faint shadow where the inner corner of the second eye should go, then considering the perspective and slight curvature of the face, I started to draw in the second eye. I then measured the height of the eye, and how that relates to the placement of the nose. I decided to measure up to the shadow of the underside of the nose since the contrast of these areas would be a good indicator of proportion. It would help to indicate the position of the face, the width of the nose, and the general shape that I could then develop up the bridge of the nose. Since this was a bold shadow, I could also squint at my reference so that it simplified both the shape of the shadow/underside of the nose, as well as let me better compare the proportions in their simplified forms. Once the nose was placed, I had everything I needed to measure out where the chin, mouth, and top of the head should go.

Once I had a rough 'sketch' of everything placed, I then worked on rendering fully, still putting an emphasis on the forms of each facial feature and trying to achieve a 3D form. I also wanted to apply what I had learned from the skull piece; that you can use dark tones on a white object (To an extent), as long as the mid-tones are not too dark. I took advantage of this to describe some of the most prominent features, such as the corners of the eye, and nostrils and to indicate the boundary between the lips. I've found that on some of my previous portrait pieces, these features have gotten lost or muddy since I did not want to use tones that were too dark since I was usually trying to render a lighter skin tone, or the white of the plaster head, so knowing this definitely helped me to improve the definition of the forms.

Progressing on the piece

Overall, I am pleased with the results considering that I could not use any lines or create a full sketch, however, there are some things that I am not so happy with. I think that the face is somewhat creepy and in the 'uncanny valley'. Although it has been acknowledged that the plaster head is a bit creepy in the first place, I think that I have exaggerated this. I think this is because of not rendering enough in some places, and not enough in others; mainly focused around the eyes. I think that I have rendered the eyes in a way to feel like they are staring, and I think I have used too many dark values in these areas, emphasising the eyes a bit too much,  bringing further attention to the staring effect. I think I could improve this in future by looking into ways that I could give the eye a more relaxed and gentle appearance.

However overall, I think that this technique would be very useful for me to use in future pieces since I think that now that I have no heavy or messy lines left over, I think the 3d forms are communicated a lot better. However, I would still like to work on producing lighter rough sketches, since I think that this will help me to place objects quickly and accurately, and then I could go over this with this sheading technique to refine the sketch, where the habit of creating dark lines shows through the most.

The finished piece

Still Life- Reinforcing Skills

After the piece was sketched out, I moved on to focusing on how I could render each item in the most convincing way, especially the glass. Using what I had learned, I emphasised each corner of the vase by adding a darker shadow on each edge of the curve and highlighting the centrepoint to help give the impression of light refracting, and faintly shaded in the stems of the plants inside the vase, adding distortion around the corner to imply the refraction further, creating a more convincing look. 

Progressing on the piece

The last thing I tried to improve my rendering on was the flowers. I received advice that instead of rendering each petal, to look for shadows that spread across many petals to improve the speed of rendering, as well as not creating too much detail here and muddying the forms. Taking this advice, I made sure to squint at the flowers frequently as I was rendering to identify where the largest shadows were, then once the general forms of the flower were defined, I then started to add some smaller shadows to help define each petal where needed. I found this to be a lot more effective method of rendering the flowers, possibly because it considers all of the flowers to be mostly as one form I found that this made the lighting look a lot more consistent across the flower, and working in an order of large to small shadows helped me to clearly define the petals where needed, making it a lot less muddy than when I have tried to render flowers in the past.

Semester 2

Life Model Drawing - Focus on Portrait

I made sure to construct the head in the most effective ways that I had used last term, such as starting with the closest eye, avoiding using lines to sketch, and making sure to measure the proportions on both the model and the drawing. However, I was not happy with the results I was getting. I felt that my drawing looked very stylised and that my drawing did not look like the model. However, I received some useful feedback that helped me to correct this. 

Initial progress on the drawing

The last thing I wanted to focus on was the contrast of the piece and fully shading it. The model was wearing a dark shirt, however, in the last term, I received feedback that dark areas that are not the focal point of the piece draw attention away from where I would want someone to focus. Because of this, I wanted to experiment with the values I used on non-focal areas of drawing, and I felt that the shirt was a good opportunity for this. To achieve this, I slowly built up my tones with a rendering technique, whilst regularly squinting at the piece to make sure that it wasn't too dark and drew attention away from the face. Once I had a dark enough tone to convey the value of the shirt but not overpower the face, I started shading as usual, but with a more restricted value range, since the viewer's eye would naturally be drawn to the highest area of contrast, so I wanted to reserve high contrast for the main facial features only to ensure that the composition still feels and works effectively. To make sure that the greatest area of contrast was still the face, I finished the drawing by going over the darkest areas of the face, and ensuring that there was a full range of values to focus in a viewer's eye to the face, whilst still making sure the midtones weren't too dark so that the skin still appeared being light.

The finished piece

Life Model Drawing - Focus on Portrait 2 (Charcoal)

A part of this week's task was to use charcoal for a portrait of a life model. This was a completely new medium for me, so I wanted to consider how I could best use it to give the best results. Since the charcoal could be easily blended, I chose not to avoid creating a sketch with obvious lines for this piece, since I would be able to better construct the generic shape of the head (Building off feedback I received last week), and then blend the sketch in with the rest of the piece to then hide these lines which would otherwise make the drawing appear flat.

I made sure to note the longer and slimmer face shape of the model, measuring the width of the head compared to the height, then dividing the basic head shape into the generic facial proportions building off feedback that I received last week, to ensure that I did not forget the more generic rules of facial proportions and construction, even if it was a notable part of a subject's appearance.

Once I was satisfied with the proportions, I moved on to rendering the rest of the face, using the suggested method of starting with the eyes and rending as I went. To try and create a portrait with good resemblance and character, I started to pick out the most notable features of the model more deeply, so I knew which areas to put the most emphasis on and to work out which parts I should slightly exaggerate. I found these to be the face shape, downturned eyes, a strong nose shape and a pronounced space between the nose and upper lip. When drawing in each feature, I made sure to mark in the exaggerated a little more than I thought I needed to in order to achieve resemblance, for example, making the eyes a little more downturned than I thought they needed to be. 

Progress on the portrait

As well as this, I made some additional considerations to portray the character of the model. I interpreted the model's resting expression to be slightly on the stern or serious side, and so I wanted to consider how I could emphasise this. The first way I did this was by ensuring that I achieved a neutral expression. I made sure that I achieved an accurate and slightly exaggerated angle on the eyebrows and ensured that the corners of the mouth were downturned to avoid any confusion in the expression. I also considered how I could use lighting and shading to help convey the character. I thought that the best way to do this was to slightly emphasise the darkest shadows of the piece. This would help to increase the contrast, helping to create a more intense effect. Since this piece used charcoal, this was quite easy to achieve. To help emphasise this contrast further, I also lightened some of the lighter areas of the face. However, I received some additional feedback whilst doing this, which I found very useful since it helped me to better pick out what exactly the defining features made them so characteristic to the model, as seen below.

Overall, I think that I was mostly successful in creating a more intense or serious personality in the portrait. However, in future, I think that I could emphasise the expression even further. Although I tried to emphasise this in this piece, I think that the expression looks more neutral than stern. However, I think that creating greater contrast was effective in creating a more serious and impactful atmosphere around the subject. I think that charcoal was an effective medium to do this, however, I found that working with this medium often made certain parts muddier than I wanted them to be, and even after I sharpened the pencil, I was not able to achieve all of the details that I wanted to. If I wanted to achieve a similar effect in future, I could experiment with combining the use of graphite pencils to achieve midtones and details, whilst using charcoal to intensify shadows to create a more bold and intense look than I could achieve with graphite alone.

The finished portrait

Colour Aesthetics & Drawing Techniques (Portraits in Warm/Cold Colours)

Using my usual method of constructing the face, I started placing in the features, taking note of what the model's most notable features were, and what made her look like 'her'. These features included: a rounded chin and jaw, downturned eyes, and a short nose. Once I had these features identified, I started to experiment with a colour palette that I wanted to use. Looking at the example work given, I liked one piece which had a heavy emphasis on orange, but also included a full range of warm colours, including a cooler purple in the darkest shadows. This technique also matched advice that we were given in session, that we should contrast warm highlights with cooler shadows, and vice-versa. Using the pencils I had, I started to experiment with what tones could work best. I selected a full range of warm colours; yellows, oranges, reds, pinks, and finally a purple that I intended to mix with a dark brown, to create a cooler tone that still blended well with the rest of the palette and that I could contrast well with the yellow highlights I intended on using, since yellow and purple often sit on the opposite sides of many colour wheels. To help me keep a consistent use of colours, I 'assigned' each colour to a certain value range, with the yellows being for the highlights; and reds, pinks and purples being for the darker tones. I initially started by sketching out where the shadows were with the initial light brown I was using, then gradually built up by layering and blending the different colours. I then repeated the same process for the cold colours.

Whilst working on the pieces, I took note of how the warm piece felt brighter and more inviting than the cold piece and tried to think of ways I could experiment with this further. The main way I thought of experimenting was to use more cool tones on the shadows of the warm piece, and more warm tones in the highlights of the cold piece, or how I could add opposite temperature colours into each piece to see how it affected the overall mood of the piece. I mainly did this on the cold piece, by occasionally adding areas of pink around the eyes, on the cheeks, and on the lips, since there would be high areas of blood flow to these areas, which often leads the sintone to be slightly more pink or red in these areas. I found that this was useful to add extra life to the cold piece, without affecting the overall cold and somewhat stoic attitude of the cold piece. I believe this is because the pink did not appear as warm as a more natural skin tone such as a more peach-red colour, but was also a lot warmer than the blues and purples I was using for the rest of the piece, therefore adding life to the face of the subject.

On the other hand, the warm piece seemed to have a lot stronger 'personality'. I believe that the warm colours led to an association with the model having a 'firey' personality. I think that this was because I used a lot of strong oranges and browns, which gave a stronger impression than the example work I was referencing which used white paper, making the colours appear softer, as well as the use of colours which are slightly less saturated, and overall lighter than those I used, which I think made the portrait feel more warm and welcoming, rather than firey. I think that the way I drew the model adds to this further. Since I was focusing on slightly exaggerating the features to achieve a likeness and personality, I think that I also made some of the features a lot stronger than those seen in the example work, which made the character look a lot more confident. I think that I could learn from this to make better use of colours in the future. I think that my use of colours should depend on the features of the model, and how the colours I use would affect the perception of the subject. More confident or strong features paired with strong colours will help to create a strong, bold personality, whereas softer colours with more gentle features would help to complement each other and create a more calm, gentle feeling. 

Before and after receiving feedback. I was advised to try and pick out the finer details of the model's features more closely since it appeared I was drawing more 'generic' features, or I was drawing them in a way that I had done in the past.

However, I was struggling to also achieve likeness in my cold portrait. Although I was able to get a rough sketch done in class, I had to continue it in my own time, so the only reference I had of the model's likeness was my own drawing. This led to my cool-toned drawing looking nothing like the model, with a lot of issues in the structure of the face. Mostly, the features were too small and missed the fine details of the features (As mentioned above) that would help to capture her likeness. I also received some useful feedback that since the face was very smooth, it made her look a lot younger than she really is.  A method I was shown to combat this was making the colourwork slightly patchy. This not only adds a lot of interesting colour variation to the piece but also adds more texture to the skin, making the person appear older.

These are all techniques which I think will be useful to me in future, since not only knowing what to pick out in a person will help me achieve their likeness, but also knowing techniques on how to add age to a portrait will be very useful, since this is another factor that will help me to make my portrait look more like the person I am drawing.

Golden Dutch Age Portrait Analysis

When considering how the artist captured the subject's portrait, it can be assumed that the artist has slightly exaggerated or highlighted certain features of the face. The main example of this is the eyes. The subject has slightly downturned eyes which are very expressive, alongside dark irises which help to create a high area of contrast, bringing further attention to this feature which helps to make the expression even more clear.  Since these features are very pronounced and distinct, it is safe to assume that the artist would have slightly exaggerated the downturned shape and the expression shown in the eyes, mainly by flattening the bottom eyelid to imply that it is being pushed upwards by the checks when smiling. 

It could also be argued that the irises have been made slightly darker than they would have been when observing the subject. When considering the main light source shining directly and brightly on the face, it could be assumed that this would illuminate the eyes and show a slightly more intense, brighter colour than seen in the portrait. As mentioned above, this could have also been an intentional choice by the artist. The dark irises create a very high area of contrast, in the centre of an already highlighted focal area. In combination with the creation of the leading lines mentioned above, this creates a composition which is very effective in focusing the viewer's attention on the face and especially the eyes, which helps to emphasise further the emotion that thy eyes and warm-toned colours in the face convey.

Bibliography

Frans Hals (1624) The Laughing Cavalier [Oil on Canvas] Wallace Collection, London. Available from: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/hals-frans/ (Accessed 28th January, 2024).

Impressionism and Post Impressionism - Portrait in Warm & Cool Tones

Impressionism and Post Impressionism- Analysis of an Impressionism Artist

yellowish-brown hue, due to the background. This suggests that this impactful use of exaggerated colour was an intentional choice by Degas, likely to create an impactful piece with strong contrast, which exaggerates the neutral facial expression to create a stern, strong atmosphere.

Another thing I noticed about this piece was Degas' use of texture, or lack thereof. The materials of each surface are mostly implied through the roughness of each surface, for example, the more diffused highlights and shadows on the jacket suggest a rougher surface (Such as fabric), whilst surfaces like the skin on the face have slightly less diffused lighting, suggesting a smoother surface. Other than this, the main suggestion of any textures is through leaving unblended brush strokes on surfaces that have a finer texture, such as on the jacket. These brush strokes follow the forms of the jacket, suggesting that they were an intentional choise to imply the texture of the jacket without adding too much detail to it. This can be inferred further by the fact that these brush strokes are barely present on the face.

Bibliography

Degas, E. (1857) Self-Portrait by Degas [Oil On Canvas] Private Collection. Available from: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/15533/self-portrait-by-degas/ (Accessed 27th March 2024)

Human Anatomy Fundamentals: Basic Body Proportions

When approaching this task, I wanted to ensure that I measured all of the proportions carefully and made use of horizontals and verticals since although I feel mostly confident in my knowledge of anatomy, I think that I have a tendency to make the proportions of figures stylised or exaggerated. Using these methods will help me to ensure that the proportions are realistic and correct in each of the drawings. To achieve this, I first started by sketching out some quick thumbnails making very rough and basic use of horizontals and verticals to help guide me in my final piece, since it would allow me to more easily align the main landmarks of the figure, and since I sometimes use my thumbnails to place objects based on their location in the composition, ensuring that these landmarks were mostly in the correct place would help me further if I were to make use of this method whilst sketching.

I also wanted to make sure I set out a natural feeling pose in each of the thumbnails that I could reference in my final drawings. This is most clearly seen in the thumbnail for drawing 2, where I aimed to achieve a contrapuntal pose by slightly exaggerating the angles that the hips and shoulders were placed on. This type of pose not only helps to imply weight being placed on one leg as it creates an effect of the subject leaning slightly and the hip being well-supported by one leg and not the other, but it also helps to give a more relaxed, natural feeling since it avoids repetitive angles which feel too rigid for an organic form since the shoulders lean in the opposite direction of that of the hips.

Finished drawing 1

Figure Drawing on Black Paper

For this piece, I was keen to take a new approach to 'shading', because of the media used in this piece, I would have to 'shade' the highlights, and leave the darkest areas of shadows untouched. 

Due to the unusual pose I chose to work from, and the fact that the pose features the model twisting and resting his arm on a specific point of the knee, I aimed to create a thumbnail that would help me to correctly place these elements in the final piece. I used the horizontal and vertical technique, measuring roughly which points 'lined up' with each other on these axes.

To help me line up the figure in my final piece further, I then drew a faint rule of thirds overlay/grid over my thumbnail to see more clearly where in the composition each of the features was placed. It would also help me to adapt the composition slightly if I wanted since it would make it easier for me to adjust and re-align any of the focal points onto the areas where the rule of thirds grid overlapped, helping me to improve my composition overall by moving the focal points onto a more appealing or natural-feeling place in the composition. 

I started to draw out the pose as usual, taking into consideration the most effective techniques I used from last week, these included mapping out each part of the body as a very simplified shape first to help me better visualise proportions, using the head to measure the scaling of the rest of the body, and using horizontals and verticals as mentioned above to help me align each feature more accurately.

However, there was another technique that I found very useful, This was using negative space to help me define the shape of the features. In a lot of cases in this drawing, it was much easier to draw the empty spaces in the pose; such as between the upper and lower arms, and the area between the hand, torso and thigh; than it was to draw the details and shapes of the limbs separately/normally. I think that this technique was effective in helping me to achieve a more accurate and convincing pose since I was able to achieve a much more accurate pose in a much simpler way. I think that the use of this technique was encouraged by the fact that I was already having to 'think in negative' when it came to shading, which I found a very useful benefit of drawing with a white medium on black paper.  

Another factor that I found very useful about drawing with these mediums is that I think it slightly altered the way I thought about the forms of the body and how light interacted with them. I think that this can be seen especially clearly around the upper arm. Instead of making me think about the low points of the form (the areas where shadows would form), it instead made me consider the highest points, which I think was very beneficial to my shading process. It pushed me to think about the forms in a more detailed way than I usually would and approach it from another angle, which I believed pushed me into referencing the form more closely and overall achieving a more interesting and effective result than I would if I were using a dark medium on a lighter canvas. Although thinking exclusively about the highlights may not be as useful when drawing with a dark medium again, I think that I could take this technique forward by considering the highlights and shadows more in unison with one another, rather than focusing exclusively on the shadows like I usually would. I think that paying more attention to the highlights will help me to shade with more definition and clearer, more interesting forms with higher amounts of contrast, an area which I believe I am weaker in when shading with a medium I am more familiar with.

Finally, I received some feedback that I think will also be beneficial to other future work, regardless of what color medium o canvas I am working on. As seen above, I initially had very strong outlines around the shadowed areas of the figure. This gave the effect of an extremely strong rim light which in reality didn't exist. It also flattened the drawing a lot, a problem that I experience in my regular pieces, too. To amend this, it was suggested that I make use of the background to define the forms, without the need for an outline. This would help to add more 3-dimensionality to the piece, as well as help place the model in a space and remove the impression of a strong backlight. I think that this technique would also be very useful for my usual dark-on-light drawings too, since I usually omit most, if not all, of the background. This leads me to have strong outlines, especially around the highlighted areas of the piece. I could use this suggested technique in reverse to help remove some of the flatness I experience in most of my work.

The finished piece

Bibliography 

New Masters Academy (2015) Art Model Images to Draw - Figure Drawing Reference Images (NON-NUDE SERIES DLDS #6) in Ultra HD 4K (Online) Available from: https://youtu.be/tPLRJrlq7x0?si=47S_caJR8omcW8UV&t=311  [Accessed 18th April 2024]

Figure Drawings in Indian Ink

I had not used inks before, so I found this task very challenging. Not only was I unfamiliar with how the medium should be worked, but I also had very little time to complete each painting and it was suggested that we do not create a sketch before we used the inks, since the sketch could be visible through the ink, or interact with it in undesirable ways.

Because of this, I wanted to feel confident in my thumbnails and that they were enough preparation for me to build upon in my final paintings without needing a sketch, however, I also wanted to keep those thumbnails simple so that I did not become focused on smaller details too quickly, and so that I did not spend too much time on them when I also had to work with the unfamiliar medium.

In the thumbnails, I aimed to quickly get the pose correct with all of the landmarks and major forms marked out in simple shapes so the angles and placements were very clear. I also aimed to use the horizontal and vertical methods that I practised with my first figure drawings so that when I was placing my washes, I could quickly use this as a reference for each part of the body was supposed to go and to help my proportions.

When it came to starting to paint with the inks, I first started by watering down the ink, under the assumption that it would be easier to work with since I'd then have a more transparent ink that I could then layer to have more control over the values in the piece. I then painted out a few lines and washes of ink to get a feel for the medium, and to not waste any more time, I started to create painting 1, which was created with ink washes only. My intention for this piece was to use ink washes primarily for the mid-tone and shaded areas, leaving the highlighted areas completely white to leave me with a piece that had plenty of contrast which I could then use to improve the composition by increasing the shadows & layering of the inks around the head to help draw the eye to this area.

However, I struggled to achieve this. As seen below, a lot of the painting is very dark and lacks contrast in a lot of areas. Although they still somewhat lack some contrast, the feet and the hand on the stick have the closest effect to what I was trying to achieve. I feel that I should have planned the pose out better in my thumbnail knowing I was not going to be sketching a guideline for me to paint over first. This would allow me to potentially block in the general shapes of lights and shadows, as well as sketch in the more detailed forms for me to follow, to help me control and layer my ink washes a lot better. 

Next was a line-only drawing which I felt much more comfortable with, however, I still needed to make sure that I carefully observed and measured using the different methods mentioned above to ensure that I got a result as accurate as possible since I still would not be able to undo any mistakes I made. In this piece, I experimented with applying different techniques that I have used in past pencil drawings, primarily making use of different line weights and tones to imply lighting to help me communicate the forms more clearly. Since I had watered the inks down, controlling the values of the lines became a lot easier. I also aimed to exaggerate some of the curvature of the muscle structure in this piece to help add more interest and to communicate more information about the forms despite the lack of shading. This can be seen the most clearly on the outstretched leg.

Finally was the piece combining ink washes and lines. Using what I had learned from both of the previous paintings, I started with the lines to lay down the most prominent features, still paying attention to exaggerating some forms and making use of line weight, which I then came back to later with the ink washes to add shading, aiming for the desired effect that I missed on the first painting.

As mentioned above, if I were to do another ink-wash-only painting in the future, I think that I would benefit a lot from more detailed preparatory sketches, since my initial plan of excluding details seems to have become a factor which has lowered the quality of the first painting, overall making the process more difficult, less accurate, and more time-consuming. I will be sure that the proportions and light are clearly marked out, along with other potential considerations such as where I want the greatest areas of contrast to be to improve the composition and draw the eye to certain points of the piece.

Painting 3- Ink washes & line

Ink Wash in Traditional Chinese Paintings- Contextual

form, with additional layers being placed on the tree to help darken it, further implying depth and ensuring that the form is clearly separated from what lies behind it. It then appears that the artist has used a fine brush with control of the ink to add outlines of sharper and more detailed forms, such as the details on the bark, especially present on the midground tree on the left-hand side of the piece. However, it appears that the artist had planned out the ink washes thoroughly before starting to paint. It can be seen on the trees on the right that there is a hatching effect, created by a lack of ink.  Since it would not have been possible to erase the ink once placed on the silk, it suggests that the artist either used a form of sketching on the canvas to know where to place this hatching to best imply the light and texture,  or they began with the loose outlines still seen in the trees.

If I were to do an ink drawing again, I think it would be useful to take this technique into consideration alongside the other techniques I have previously identified to help my improve the way that I communicate depth, form and texture within an ink and wash painting. 

Bibliography

Jin, D. (N.D.) Boat Returning amid Wind and Rain [Ink and colour on silk] National Palace Museum, Taipei. Available from:https://www.comuseum.com/painting/masters/dai-jin/boat-returning-amid-wind-and-rain/ (Accessed 15th April 2024)

Muscle Structure: Combining Black and Colour Media

The finished piece

Focus on Human Figure: Tonal Drawing

I think that this piece has helped to further my understanding of drawing a clothed human figure because of the strong folds within the clothing, that I was able to make use of to help describe the underlying forms. I have tried to convey the forms of the figure by trying to use the folds to express tight and loose areas of the clothes and try to describe the 'direction' in which the forms travel and how the clothes are wrapping around the body. I think that this can be seen well in the mid-section of the model's body. Since the model is sitting in a way that slightly pushes forward the hips, the midsection is bent forward slightly, and the clothing folds help to demonstrate this here. Since the bend is compressing the fabric, it creates loose folds to gather around this area. Since the fabric is loose around this area, the folds would also be loose, so would also have a slight wrinkling or waving effect because of the lack of tension or stress being put on the fabric. In contrast, if the fabric was being stretched or put under tension, it would follow the curves of the form a lot more closely and would not have the loose wavy effect seen on looser folds.

Taking advantage of this would help me to convey information about the body underneath. As mentioned above, I made sure to make the folds appear loose by making sure that the shapes did not entirely follow the forms to the body underneath to show the compression and looseness of the fabric, and I closely referenced the model whilst adding the folds to make sure that I got the correct shapes, number of folds, and so on. Tighter folds can be seen around the elbow, where the types of shapes used here are more straight and look as if they are being pulled, since the fabric is compensation for the bend of the elbow. I followed the same method here as I did for on the torso, paying attention to which direction that fabric is being pulled, along with shapes, number and shape of the folds, and so on, as mentioned above

Overall, I think that making use of clothing and its folds is a very useful way to convey the human form that I can develop, as they can convey information about how the form is placed underneath the clothing, and how it is bending, through information such as how tight or loose the folds look, and in the case of loose folds, how the fabric is being compressed, whereas for tighter folds, they can covey infomation about how the fabric is being stretched and is compensating for the movement and shape of the forms of the body underneath.

The finished drawing- I added some charcoal to the darkest shadows to improve the range of contrast

Clothed Figure Drawing in Colour

For the piece overall, I chose to use lighter colours with a focus on mostly warmer tones to try and reinforce a brighter, more inviting atmosphere around the model. This is something that I had a chance to explore with my warm and cold portraits, and I found that the warmer portrait was a lot more welcoming than the colder version I created of the same model. This is because the warm colours could be associated with a warmer personality or atmosphere. When rendering, I made sure to add the warm undertones to each part of the drawing, mainly by either first laying down a subtle layer of a warm orange or brown colour (depending on the colour I was planning on laying over the top), then layering my intended colour on top of it (Or vice-versa, in some cases). Because of the highly blendable and sometimes semi-transparent nature of soft pastel pencils, this allowed some of the warmer undertones from the base colour to appear through the main colours, warming up even some of the colder colours such as the blues.

I also focused on adding warmer shadows, since these are a lot more prevalent and noticeable than the smaller highlights I needed for this piece. Going off advice I have been given previously since the shadows are warm, the highlights should be cooler. Choosing to make the shadows warmer would mean I would be using warmer tones, shifting the overall balance of the piece towards warmer tones achieving the effect I wanted. As well as this, I used the same technique of using a grey pencil to add some 'cold' highlights, much like I did for the task, 'Impressionism and Post Impressionism - Portrait in Warm & Cool Tones'. Since the grey is surrounded by mostly warm tones, the lack of warmth within the grey makes it appear like a cool colour next to the surrounding colours. This allowed me to add cool highlights without using too many blues, which was especially useful on the skin since it helped me to avoid the use of too many blues, which could risk making the model look too cool, or even 'dead'. 

To add some final touches, I applied some additional techniques with rendering that had been suggested to me throughout the semester. The main one of these was intentionally leaving the colours slightly patchy. Because of the smoothness I could achieve with this medium, I had gained a tendency to intentionally smudge everything to achieve an appealing transition between colours. However, during my cool-toned portrait, it was pointed out to me that leaving patchy and unblended colours can also give an appealing effect, especially when it comes to adding age or overall interest to the colours. I also wanted to make sure that I maintained the details of the forms.

The finished piece