Traditional Art

Week 20

Skull Observational Study

Due to our dive into anatomy this block, we must study each component carefully to understand how to construct the human form accurately; we are stripping back all the smaller details on the surface to look at the structure itself, the skull. Learning how to draw the skull and how the bones are situated will aid us in drawing a human face, muscle and flesh too, accurately. Before you delve into stylised work, it's important to learn the rules to be able to break them.

To begin the session, we started by drawing small thumbnails to get an idea of the structure in a smaller frame as practice. Immediately, I had issues where the skull was going off the page because I started by measuring the base's angle to find how it sat on the table; this led to me compromising the proportions to fit the skull on the page. I was advised to start with the cranium and work my way down as to not lose any of the drawing off the page border.

Once my skull's base drawing was done, I received feedback in which it was shown I failed to measure; this caused the mandible to elongate unnaturally and the cranium to be too big, making the eye sockets appear too small. In the right image, I added some tone and fixed what mistakes I could by shortening the cranium and mandible, but structurally it was clearly still inaccurate. Therefore, I'll be mindful when I scale up the drawing and redo it.

This is how the proportions of the skull were looking in the scaled up rendition, I improved in the general proportions from measuring using the tip of the pencil and my thumb, comparing the length of one segment to another as I grasped how the cranium and upper jaw were the same length, and the eye sockets and chin matched in length.

However, there were still flaws to this sketch; my tutor assisted and showed me how I generally elongated the skull too much, causing the cranium to be too tall and the chin too long. They shortened these and widened the general lower jaw to show the "V" shape chins tend to take from a front angle, suggesting that I add some teeth and tone to start developing my piece.

Using a HB pencil for the lighter tones and a 4B for the darkest areas, I rendered this piece. I chose to use HB since the local value of this skull is very light, meaning it gave more definition to the dark areas such as the nose and gaps between the jaws, providing effective contrast.

Dev Log Evaluation:

I believe this session went well, I still have a lot to learn and need to familiarise myself with the layers of anatomy stripped back but I hope to practice these throughout this block as it's our primary focus; since learning the method of measuring with the pencil tip and my finger, my ability to capture proportion has improved but I still think I'm not done improving. Analysing each area of the skull has aided me in understanding human form further which shall benefit my future drawings.

Week 21

Pre-Session Loomis Practice:

Understanding that we will be drawing plaster heads using the loomis method and measuring later today, I chose to practice my basic ability of creating a loomis head.

I started with a basic circle to mark the cranium.

Next, I drew a vertical line down the centre to ensure good symmetry. I also measured out 3 lines that marked the hairline, brow line, and cheeks. Generally, we would measure out 4 to split the face into 3 major sections - the forehead to eyes, eyes to upper lip, and upper lip to chin. I wasn't considering the mouth at this point so I excluded it, though I'll make sure to include it next time to ensure my measuring is correct.

I then marked the temples, drew the jaw which elevated the more square shape heads take at a front view. Ears are placed between the eyes to the muzzle.

Following this, I added facial details; I believe I achieved general accuracy but made the eyes too small. The eyes are wideset, so the space between the eyes is larger than one eye but the temple space is smaller than one eye in comparison. This is an example of variation in anatomy from person to person. If we understand the rules of measurement, eg the face being split in 3 equal parts, we can break them to create different designs (small forehead, longer chin for example).

This time, I wanted to draw from a reference of an actual human for a more realistic drawing using the loomis method. I also chose a photo in the 3/4 view; I started with the circle cranium and followed up with a line to mark the centre of the face. I measured this by following the video as shown by the small dots.

Next, I measured the 3 major face sections from the hairline to gauge the eye, mouth and chin placement. From the vertical central line, I drew a curve following the cranium to ensure the drawing felt 3D - I followed this up with another parallel curve on the right of the head to mark the side plane of the head, with a cross inside to mark the centre where the ear would be. Following this, I drew out the jaw and connected it to the chin, finally adding a line connecting from the side of the face to mark the cheekbone.

With the proportions of the face marked out, I could begin sketching and rendering. Yippee yippee yay beetlejuice yay!!!!

Dev Log Evaluation:

I think I got off to a rough start with drawing out the facial features onto the loomis head, but this may just be due to it being the warmup; I'm already familiar with the loomis head and the notable guidelines on it so I had ease with these parts but proportion is a new thing to me, such as the face being 5 eyes wide. Measuring these proportions is something I need to be more mindful of to ensure an accurate drawing, but I am familiarising myself well with it.

With the rendered drawing, I chose to draw a micro celeb with microcephaly, meaning they have a smaller brain and cranium - this tested my ability to draw people outside of the traditional, equal proportions. My biggest issue was sizing the head since the loomis head I made was marked with the traditional proportions, so as I sketched the details I gradually shrunk it down. If I'm to draw someone like this again, I'll make the loomis head with their proportions in mind, using measuring with my pencil to do so.

I'm pretty happy with this practice and while nervous to tackle a submission piece I want to do well in, I look forward to drawing more.

Plaster Head:

This session marked our first submission piece, an observational study of a plaster head; I chose to do the planar bust for its geometric design that greatly helped in demonstrating volume and direction through how the planes were lit. Since our focus is on facial anatomy in this piece, we employed the loomis method to accurately construct the head, created by the profound artist Andrew Loomis. This method is comprised of marking primitive shapes for the base, measuring the proportions of the face and using those grid lines to implement the features.

Choosing this head as my reference, I began by marking borderlines around my page the width of two fingers to allow space for the whole drawing with extra wiggle room if over-scaling occurs.

I began with a thumbnail to grasp the proportion of this head and get a warmup doing the loomis method; I started with a circle for the cranium and a vertical line down the face's centre, measuring the 3 major sections of the face horizontally. These primary gridlines marked out meant I could start marking the facial features. I started with the brows, adding some angle to them and implementing the eyes underneath, ensuring that they were 1 eye apart. I drew a trapezius for the bottom plane of the nose and connected it upwards to the brow with the radix, an upside-down trapezius which allowed for the flared out transition.

I then observed how instead of the centre of the eyes, the lips on this model came closer to the inner corners, measuring the bottom third into thirds again to place the lips on the top line. I added the cheek bones and created a line going down to the mouth to show the planes connecting to the jaw.

With the thumbnail complete, I scaled up my drawing and followed the same process, leaving me with this sketch.

I followed the same process as the thumbnail, more mindful of capturing likeness by measuring not only the proportions but the angles of each plane too. This helped to define the model's rounder, feminine face with a smaller, sharp chin and small but plump lips. Her muzzle is quite defined, shown by the lines connecting the mouth to the cheekbone.

At this point, I finished marking the proportions down and each plane lightly, so I lightly shaded the face, excluding the strongest highlights, to implement the light local value with my 2H pencil which helped create a soft base tone. I was mindful of how these flatter surfaces gather the darkest areas on the edges, learnt from drawing primitives in block 1 and the polygonal bear in block 2.

With feedback given and correct proportions, perspective, and angle implemented, I started to push the darker tones to achieve better depth.

Feedback time!! Feedback time!!

Eyes were too small.
Nose was too short.
Radix needed to be narrower to accommodate the slim nose.
Angle of the head was straight on but the model was tilted slightly to the left.

I believe I was worried about doing a slightly tilted angle that wasn't quite front or 3/4 so I tried to convince myself I was looking at it head on, but my tutor corrected it by shortening the left plane and elongating the right to show that angle, giving me the correct angle and therefore confidence to continue.

Dev Log Evaluation:

I'm glad I got practice for the loomis head in and I've greatly familiarised myself with the process of using the method, this will greatly benefit me in creating my hero for digital art and drawing live models.

I believe I need to work on varying my measurements to fit the subject's proportions, rather than squashing them into the traditional loomis head, causing a lot of rescaling and inaccuracy to occur.

However, observing my tutor's feedback has helped me understand where I went wrong with this issue and I know to measure each proportion like that next time so for now I'll continue to render this piece to completion.

Week 22

Live Model Practice:

This session marked our first encounter with live models; we would be observing a model in the nude, stood in various poses, to improve our skills in anatomy by measuring the model's proportions, marking the main landmarks of the body, and attaining the gesture to put together a quick drawing capturing the pose.

We would start with 5x3 minute poses, followed by 5x5 minute poses, then 3x10 minutes, 1x30 minutes, and 1x40 minutes. Starting with quick poses will warm us up and get back into the groove of drawing and teach us not to overthinking an observation - capture the most important components (main landmarks, proportion, gesture) and omit unnecessary detail. Getting caught up in a small area can waste time better spent elsewhere.

Due to the quick duration needed for the model to pose and take breaks, our tutor would not be giving feedback unless we were really struggling; this meant we had to focus extra to find mistakes and reflect with a keen eye afterwards.

3 Minute Poses:

I got off to a decent start, not quite a positive outcome yet. With my first pose in the top left, I only got time to draw the top half. I was able to determine the angle of the head, proportion of the shoulders and torso, placing the arms too, but I wasn't working quickly and confidently enough.

For the next pose to the right, I achieved a full body drawing with the prop included - a small success! However, the pose feels stiff and the spine, therefore the whole bodyline, isn't curved or dynamic enough.

This was an issue fixed with the third pose in the bottom left corner, which is a contraposto - this means the shoulder-line and pelvis are in opposing directions, creating a pose with weight and variation. The back facing angle allowed me to capture the curve of the spine with the back's outline, the silhouette helping to capture the curve that falls on the downward facing pelvis, portraying the weight held on it.

My fourth pose was difficult due to the model sitting down, meaning I needed to capture the angles of the chair and her placement on it. I measured the angles swiftly and drew a line where the spine would be from the chair to her neck; I built the proportions up from here, starting with the main landmarks and adding limbs next. This one definitely felt more dynamic and fleshed out but I made the forearm too small and lacked the thinner forearm bone which rounds out the arm, making it cylindrical - this looks rectangular.

The final pose demonstrates the familiarisation I'm earning with this process, able to draw most of the body, only lacking the legs which I didn't have enough space for.

I could really feel the fast-pace observation skill coming together in this task, as you can already see more confident lines, dynamic poses and an effective semblance of gesture. My first pose started strong with a good demonstration of the spine twisting, shown by the scale of each shoulder, the right just peeking because of the ribcage starting to face away from me - the right foot comes forward and almost turns up, leaning on its side which I did show in its position in front of the left foot, but some tone could communicate this better, which I'll be able to do in the submission piece.

The 2nd pose to the right is probably my favourite of them all, my only advice from my tutor as to lengthen the legs a little but otherwise, I succeeded in getting the correct proportion and anatomy too - such as achieving the sense of distance in the right leg positioned further back, using scale.

My only issue with the 3rd pose in the top right is the lack of fat on the upper arm - this made the forearm look too big despite it facing towards me, emphasizing it. The legs could do with a little more length too.

I feel as though my method of measuring the chair and placing the spine's position on it really assisted me in achieving realism in the pose - this time I just had to ensure the pose itself was correct too. I marked the ribcage and shoulders, connecting the arm to its resting place on the chair, followed by envisioning where the hidden leg extrudes from the pelvis based on its angle.

Once again I went off the page!! Megan make more space for yourself. I could've marked the proportions in a smaller space, attaining the head to toes height and working within that box to prevent this, but overall the areas included on the page are accurate. The very subtle leaning back of the woman coudl've been further communicated had I fit the whole pose on the page, showing the feet coming forward to depict that slope.

5 Minute Poses:

Look what you did... ^^^

10 Minute Poses:

This pose was definitely a great success and demonstration of my improvement in gesture; loose gesture and exaggerated poses were always a preference of mine in art over controlled, calculated, precise drawings. You can gauge the angle of the shoulders through the slope from the trapezius connecting them. The hands resting on the hips strengthened the stance of the left leg due to the silhouette left by the upward curve of them, defining the hip bone. I made sure to capture the curve of the buttocks above the thigh to portray the angle of the thigh and the leg's central point.

This pose was another success using the "measure chair angle, place spine" method and I succeeded in the proportions. However, right leg leans towards my view which increases it in size, but the lean doesn't come across in this gesture - I believe this could be fixed with some heavy tone under the feet to show how it's turned to lean towards me.

Oh yes I'm getting the hang of it now. The proportions feel correct as I measured the shoulders with the 3 heads wide rule, the torso with the 3 head long rule, and the torso/legs being the same length. My most important goal was to capture the scale of the feet to depict the left leg coming forward and the right holding the body's weight further back. I was able to do this by measuring the feet's angle on the floor, and using plumb lines to gather its placement vertically and horizontally - vertically, it aligned with the furthest hand and the top of the ankle horizontally. Speaking of the hands, I measured the stick's angle to place that, and the arms' centre line to connect them from the shoulder to the stick. This pose was successful, but the shoulder seems a little too close to the forearm.

This was my 30 minute pose, done with the usual method (measure chair, place spine) and I was given time to ensure the proportions were all correct. I started with a thumbnail to gauge the gesture swiftly. I believe I succeeded in this, employing negative space to help place the right arm using the space from the stomach to the arm. I previously had the arm too close which failed to show how it stretched underneath the thigh so the use of negative space benefitted me. My only issue is that I spent too much time pondering the pose and didn't get the opportunity to implement tone. In the submission piece session, we will need to use our time wisely so we can mark down as much as we can while we can observe the model due to no photos being allowed.

This is the final pose, done with a 40 minute time limit; I was able to achieve some application of tone this time, skin folds, and even some facial detail, but not a large amount. Next time, I'd like to place general tone all over the piece in layers, rather than working on one area as this will throw me off and cause my tone to be inconsistent in each area, so working on the whole pose step by step will assist me in tonal consistency. My tutor gave feedback at the end of the session and stated how I mostly had it correct, but the legs were too large in comparison to the torso proportionally. He demonstrated how the leg's central line tilted towards the chair and didn't rest on the floor, which improved my piece vastly.

Dev Log Evaluation:

This session was a great success and my skills in gesture and observation have vastly improved - I received very little feedback which meant I wasn't in dire need of help (although I still had flaws to my work). Due to the lack of feedback throughout the session, I had to correct my own work by keeping my eyes peeled for mistakes and I was able to fix some problems in the longer time frames, but I mostly pointed out the issues in my retrospective look here. My critical skills have improved in spotting mistakes in my own work thanks to the lack of feedback leading to growing independence and my increase in knowledge due to engaging with theory in lectures.

Previously, I was nervous to tackle a life drawing with limited time, but I'm feeling ready to take it on next week for my submission piece!

Week 23

Live Model Study - Submission Piece 2:

This session marked our 2nd submission piece, the first with a live model. We would be drawing a young, short woman of a lean, toned build so it'd be important to keep in mind the change in proportion and capture the subtle muscle shown through shadow occurring in volume.

(3 minute warm up sketches)

Starting off the final pose's study which will be the submission piece, I drew a thumbnail in the top left corner of the page where the negative space is to avoid interfering with the larger drawing. I attempted to capture the pose and proportions swiftly so I'd get as much time as possible to work on the larger drawing. I started with placing the spine, tilting slightly as the model sat back on the chair but mostly being upright, no slouching involved. Following this, I placed the pelvis and torso, marking the limbs stemming from these, ensuring the length of the legs and torso were relatively similar. I then drew around these markings with anatomical detail, creating sharper lines where joints lay and blockier shapes for them like the shoulder, and considering fat like on the underside of the thighs which create a softer curve.

With the thumbnail complete, I felt confident enough to move onto the larger drawing. The thumbnail helped me understand placing the body on the chair and the proportions as it bends in a sitting position. Observing the thumbnail also assisted me in capturing the gesture, seeing it as a curved lines following the spine down to the resting leg, which allowed me to find what areas of the page the drawing will take up. I followed the same process in placing the body's main landmarks, measuring more carefully this time as I have space to accommodate for light markings I'll make in ensuring the proportion is correct. From here, I drew the body's outline and received feedback from my tutor.

Feedback:

Pretty proportionate, although feet were too small. Should be equal to or slightly larger than head.
The upper arm was too long and affected the forearm's angle as I tried to place the hand above the thigh. Fixed by shortening upper arm and enlarging the hand to depict the arm's scale, as we observed the thumb almost reaches the shirt's outline.

With feedback given, the pose complete and the proportions correct, I started to clean up the sketch and add detail. Keeping in mind our lesson on the loomis head, I marked the model's face in. Given the 3/4 angle, her right eye was hidden by her nose but the facial outline was still evident thanks to her strong cheekbones. I blocked the hair in as a vague silhouette due to its dark tone, only requiring small highlights rather than a range of tone. Next, I added in clothing folds, mindful of how the shirt wraps around the torso to maintain the 3D feel I'm aiming for, followed by a few small markings on the arms/thighs where the bone separates from the fat which creates slight concavity and therefore shadow.

My tutor advised me to start blocking in tone and squint to find the primary core shadows, so I began to apply tone to the piece with my HB pencil to keep it soft as skin appears in texture. Squinting helped me find that the shadows collected mostly on the legs' underside which turned away from the two-point lights; the majority of the upper body and head are lit because of this lighting so it was important to show that through the tone applied to the legs. I also shaded following the contour of the anatomy, as shown by the right arm, hidden by the torso as I shaded where the joint lies, as it protrudes on the outside but not the inner arm, leaving a slight dent which needs shadow. The shadows would not be straight along the limbs as they have a general cylindrical shape, built up with squares where muscles lie, meaning I'd need to shade with a curve, going further into the arm where the muscle shrinks and shading closer to the edge where the muscle expands and leads to more light exposure.

I had some very basic rendering done with the shadows, but my tutor pointed out that my piece was full of midtones due to exclusively using a HB pencil to shade, meaning all of the local values combined and lacked distinction. Therefore, I deepened the tan tone of the skin by lightly grazing those areas with a 2H pencil and then went over the darkest areas with my 4B pencil to increase the tonal variation and contrast.

Dev Log Evaluation:

I came out of this session with feelings of confidence, as I had managed to accurately draw the pose with the correct proportions and anatomy, but also include some base rendering too! Compared to the previous session, I was able to apply much more much quicker which proves my familiarity with anatomy and my growing skill in live drawing.

Apart from a few small mishaps, I didn't have much constructive feedback (it's always good to receive, but I mean that I wasn't majorly struggling) and got praise too! I think this proves anatomy and human studies to be my strong suit in traditional art, compared to houses or objects. Given it's my preference, it does help but I'm very engaged which is an improvement compared to previous blocks.

My aim now is to apply more tone, and render with more intricate detail, perhaps even adding a background to communicate the very light local value of the shirt and push the highlights on the skin.

Week 24

Live Model Study - Submission Piece 3:

Today's session would be our final submission piece, studying from a male model around 60 years old; this time it'd be important to consider the decline of muscle mass with age, therefore the sagging of skin and extra definition created by bones.

We began the session by warming up with 3 minute poses. These went okay, some were better than others. I found myself focusing too hard on certain areas, as shown by the far left pose where the legs are complete but the arms are neglected. This is also seen in the far right pose, but it was incomplete due to figuring out how the arms met and hands wrapped around the lifted leg, leading to the legs not being added. I made a note to work on my efficiency and measure the limb's directions when I was confused by the pose.

I started with a thumbnail in the top right corner of the page, turned landscape due to the wider composition, using the negative space to place the sketch. I kept it simple with the main landmarks of the body, but added tone to the left leg to show its heavy foreshortening due to its placement further back, causing shadows to appear.

With the thumbnail complete and the general structure of this pose understood, I scaled my drawing up and began lightly sketching the main landmarks of the body. In placing the arm, I drew where the hand was situated over the head and marked the elbow, connecting the two. This photo was taken during the first break and in returning to my seat after, I realised how horrifically long I made the right arm; I believe this was due to placing the hand first and simply connecting the arm to the shoulder. I rectified this by starting from the shoulder and building the arm down to the hand, checking the proportions were all correct.

Feedback:

My tutor said that I did most things independently and relatively accurate, but the major issue was the torso was too long which caused compression in the neck area and lowered the pelvis. He fixed this by bringing the waistband of the shorts up, and therefore the whole leg area. He also pointed out how the shoulders were too broad and facing me too much, when they didn't - this meant the further shoulder would be hidden slightly, giving it more of a curve and slope to show how the chest is in front. The final note was that the right foot was a little too short.

With feedback given, I corrected my form, cleaned up the lines, and began to render. I started with my HB pencil, squinting to gauge the tone and most prominent shadows, filling in the overall tone and marking where the bigger shadows will appear.

At this point, my tutor told me to push the contrast so I started using my 2B pencil for the larger shadowed areas and my 4B for the strongest areas of shade. Once this whole study is rendered, I'll go over with a 6B pencil to define areas, ensure the contrast is strong and the piece feels 3 dimensional.

Dev Log Evaluation:

My progress in this block so far is going well, I've kept on track and my work efficiency within the sessions has increased as I've been able to leave with at least an establishment of tone and shadow when I'd previously leave with an outline at most, often just blockouts. This demonstrates my increase in confidence relating to perspective and form, and an improvement in pace so I have less to do following these sessions.

I only struggled with misplaced proportion this time, so I believe it'd be beneficial to check the proportions through measuring using the head metric at each stage of work (sketch, outline, base render). I did struggle in the first half with the arm holding the stick due to the foreshortening of the upper arm feeling flat, this is something that would improve when rendering to show its direction through tone but the model's position slightly changed to a pose I preferred anyway hehe.

I'm confident in this block so far and have good establishments for each submission piece to work on, so I'll use the rest of my time to render everything to completion.

Week 24

Developing Submission Piece 1:

After receiving feedback in the planar head session, I came back to this piece to refine certain areas and then start rendering. I mostly just tried to correctly attain the values of each plane on the face; at some point in doing this I realised that only half of the face was broken down into planes, the other side was smooth and realistic. Due to this realisation, I restricted myself to the plane side of the face so my flow wouldn't be broken by a different surface structure.

I made sure to keep the darkest areas on the edges which I picked up on in block 1 drawing primitives like cubes, where the hardest shadows collect at the edges of the shape. I went in with a 2B pencil at this point to darken the piece, bringing definition to shadowed areas such as the nose's underside and eye area's hollowness.

Here I'm establishing the tone for the smooth side of the face, layering with a 2H pencil to start the soft transitions.

I used a B pencil for the larger areas of mid-tone such as the temples, cheeks and eye area, followed by the 2B for the shadows like where the cheekbone creates a slight concavity at the edge of the face, and the eyelids.

At this point the face's rendering was somewhat complete and I added the hair, with its sculpted effect. I drew in many hard lines to show the peak of the hair quiffs, followed by a lighter tone to show the depression of this peak, omitting any tone where the light would hit it to imply the sheer brightness of this subject's local value.

I felt a notable issue with my drawing and observed for a time to realise the left side of the face was too wide; I measured the photo reference and the drawing's vertical facial halves to realise the right should be significantly wider. I fixed this by erasing the edge of the face on the left, slimming it down by relining it much closer to the right to appropriately show the very subtly turned angle my reference is at. It borders on front and 3/4, meaning the halves aren't drastically different, but not identical either. I also brought the hairline further down so the cranium wasn't squished; a brain could actually fit in there now.

At this point I started marking the neck and bust base.

It was looking disproportionate so I measured the angles with my pencil to ensure the perspective was correct. I also measured the head's height to the neck/base to find that it needed to be much shorter.

I started to render this area by implementing the shadow cast by the head and used horizontal strokes on the square base to imply the brushed texture earned in the sculpting process, likely using a paint brush to smoothen the shape into a square, leaving thin and sharp brush stroke marks.

Keeping in mind the 1-2-3 value read, I ensured that each side was tonally distinct - the left being darkest, hidden from the light source, the front with decent but not dramatic shade, the right acting as a subtle mid-tone, and the top being completely white where shadows aren't cast onto it thanks to the light local value. I then redefined areas with my 4B pencil to maintain depth, also correcting areas like the cheekbone which was too small previously.

Dev Log Evaluation:

I believe this post shows an improvement in my rendering skills and improvement in independence; I'm naturally thinking about cast shadows and even bounce light which adds so much more flare to a piece. I've been able to identify anatomical issues in my piece without help too, showing my growth in knowledge and ability to self-assess a piece. I believe this piece needs the final touch-up of a cast shadow and a dark background to properly communicate the light local value of the subject but I'll wait for feedback next week before finalising anything.

Week 25

Formative Feedback:

With each piece relatively progressed on, I'd be receiving feedback to understand what my priorities should be in refining the pieces for an end result that excels.

Since pushing contrast was always a flaw of mine in traditional art, I've been aiming to work on it this block. I believe I overcompensated here and depicted the head as having a darker local value than what it has; my tutor used a putty eraser to softly dab the darkest areas which already helped it seem lighter overall. My aim would be to add a dark background to further push the brightness of this subject.

Before the feedback session, I worked on pushing the tone as the piece was ready for rendering so I'd use a 4B pencil in the darker areas with softer transitions where fat lay on a softer surface and hard transitions where bone created harsh edges.

This was how the piece looked before feedback.

I had a decent amount complete within the live session, so my primary feedback here was to just continue rendering and push the tone of the skin to add distinction between the white shirt and the tan skin. My tutor also moved the left arm a little up as it was a bit too long - with that, I'd render some more and finalise it.

Dev Log Evaluation:

My ability to balance each subject has improved a lot this block, I usually leave traditional work to last because it's something I'm familiar with and don't need time getting comfortable with it. However, it's much better to gradually progress on the pieces each week so I have time to rectify mistakes and improve them.

Week 26

Finalising the Submission Pieces:

Before the session, I'd already worked on some finishing touches for this piece - since I went so dark on the subject, I decided to add a dark background with my 6B pencil to brighten the head and implement some dramatics to the piece with the implication of harsh lighting. In the session, I was told to soften some of the transitions and otherwise, this piece was complete. I also erased highlight areas to depict the near-white of the head.

This piece was essentially done once rendered, I was advised on darkening the shorts a little and I added a slight gradient for a little visual flair since I wouldn't implement a chair in this one.

I wanted to give a shot at implementing a chair to practice my perspective skills with primitive shapes; I started by marking out a chair following the rough angles I marked in the thumbnail so it was accurate and I could flesh it out in the finished piece. I made sure the lines would converge to show the distance of the chair from my view.

I kept in mind what I learned from block 1 in drawing primitives like cubes, such as how the shadows would gather on the hard edges, and to remember the 1-2-3 value read so each exposed face is easy to tell its angle from the light source. I added a cast shadow to the woman on the chair and the chair itself with a soft gradient background for the finishing touches of the piece.

Dev Log Evaluation:

This block was a strong one for me, I thoroughly enjoy anatomy and tackling live model drawing was so enriching. I love capturing the gesture of a pose and seeing a piece come together with the bone structure and muscles connecting, along with capturing the likeness of a face so I look forward to portraiture next block.

I believe I succeeded in managing my time well for traditional art seeing as everything was pretty much complete by the final week aside from some finishing touches, and I achieved my goal of pushing contrast as one of my weaknesses in traditional art; I used my 6B pencil much more to achieve that tonal variety.

I think I need to work on my rendering; it is a very easy process, creating gradients and achieving tone or texture, but I would like to make it cleaner and more intricate. My pencils are whittled away so I'll be buying a new set, so being able to sharpen a fresh set should help me with smaller details. I'd like to build up my tone better with softer strokes to prevent the grainy texture that happens when I render quickly.

Regardless, this block still went very well for traditional - I can see the improvement in my work with confidence and skill so I really look forward to next block.

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