Traditional Art

Week 1

White Charcoal on Black Paper - Figure Study:

Last block, we mostly focused on portraiture and constructing the human head. Whereas this block, we are largely delving into anatomy, muscle structure and depicting studies of human figures and poses. To start this final block, we practiced our skills with white charcoal on black paper again, drawing a female figure.

Starting off the session, I warmed up with a quick thumbnail to capture the pose and refamiliarise myself with the medium; I made sure to block in the largest areas of light and the shapes found in the highlights to best depict this figure on dark paper.

Next, I translated the pose to a larger scale, making sure to measure using the head as a metric. I worked very loosely by adding lots of the medium and smudging it out to complete an area, building up the highlights. I found that smudging extra with a clean finger would remove the chalk efficiently to darken an area.

After developing the highlights, I went in with some black charcoal to add some extra contrast, subtly depicting shadows like contact shadows to show where the figure touches the ground, the clothing restricting the form, and the deepest shadows found in skin folds like the armpit.

Finally, I added in the white block so the arm wasn't floating in the void, and adapted the drawing par my lecturer's feedback which was to push the highlights even further with some unblended shadows. My soft rendering worked well to depict the skin, but having the blockier highlights helps with the contrast by separating it thanks to the distinction in edges.

Dev Log Evaluation:

This session was a good start to the block, charcoal is always fun to use due to its efficiency in laying down form. You tend to leave with a finished piece by the end of the session which makes me feel productive! I did my best to measure accurately using the head as a metric and had a semi-finished piece relatively quickly, using the rest of the session for fine detail like the toes and black charcoal. This is probably my favourite work I've done in the past block.

Week 2

Figure Study Combining Colour & Black Media:

This session, we had the task of drawing another figure and focusing on muscle structure and anatomy, along with using colour. However this time, we would be combining black media as well to deepen shadows and imply depth in a coloured piece. I did bring my usual prismacolours but I saw that we were advised to use softer media which I borrowed pastel pencils for (thank you Xena). It was my first time using this kind of colour pencil, so I was excited to see how it'd turn out!

I got used to the pastel pencil medium with the thumbnail sketch, capturing the pose and drafting my colour scheme. I went for a primarily warm palette as to not challenge myself too much while learning this new medium - I went for warm yellow/oranges for the major highlights, pinky peaches for the midtone, and purple/blues for the shadows.

Next, I was advised to work on the major shadows to capture the form and depth before any particular rendering. I focused on the head as well, applying those pinky peaches and building it up with pink.

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At this point, I kept working on the head with the midtones which obviously wasn't progressing much due to the lack of contrast.. so Teo came over to show how I can use the deeper colours in the palette to depict the plane changes on the face, incorporating it into the hair as well so the colours feel consistent and cohesive across the piece. She demonstrated how to approach the body by working on the arm with using all the colours in tandem and less layering; the separation of colour helps to show how the shadows increase and wrap around the form. I applied what I was shown to the rest of the body as my independent work. Being advised to strongly apply the shadows helped push the piece further much quicker as I wasn't slowly building up the midtones.

Dev Log Evaluation:

Finally, I finished off the session with a mostly complete piece; I used those orange/yellows as a final flourish for the highlighted areas to emphasise them better with small hatches of saturation along their contour.

I am satisfied with the outcome, given this was my first time using pastel pencils and I feel as though I'm improving my approach to colour pieces in general, with my intuition growing in understanding where to apply colours to depict lighting and form.

While this piece is mostly done, I still need to apply black media and fill in the feet, developing the piece to completion as prep for our submission piece in the same format next week!

In my own time, I put in the black material; I aimed to place it in the areas with the deepest shadows that generally became more obscured, like the back and the leg at the back. Along with this, I subtly placed it in smaller areas like where the arm rests to depict contact shadows, and in the hair so the black tone didn't feel out of place.

Independent Studies:

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Here are some works done in J.C. Leyendecker's art style, directly referencing some of his workings, using colour pencils. I heavily leaned towards a warm pallette for both seeing as he frequently used those kind of tones, especially tan yellow and oranges.

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I wanted to develop my skills in drawing faces with colour pencils as I wasn't fully confident in my previous results, so I could enter the final version (submission piece) with proper clarity. Throughout the practice sessions, I've improved in picking colours to use for the skin and hair, developin tones and planar reads. I believe that does show here, with also smoother blending and bolder colours.

I'd actually done the sketch weeks before colouring it and neglected to check the proportions so.. you can immediately see the right eye towering above the left. There was, of course, a lesson to learn in doing this practice piece - check proportions always.

Week 3

For this week, we would be producing our submission piece focused on a full body in colour. Using chalk-based pencils was a fun experiment last week, but I chose to pivot back to prismacolours for the submission piece as I preferred the intricacy achievable with this wax-based medium.

Based on our model's clothing, I noticed the very dominant colour of the teal leggings, feeling that I should utilise a cool colour palette for this piece. I drafted up the thumbnail sketch, capturing the pose, and applied some colours. The leggings conveniently had a colour reflecting the exact tone, I chose cool purples and indigos for the hair, and an olive/tan colour for the skin, with peach pink mixed within to maintain the idea of life within the skin.

I translated the sketch to the full page, scaling it up and mapping out the gesture, using the head as a measuring metric. This way, I was able to ensure I wouldn't overscale and I could confirm correct proportions.

When I started roughly placing facial features, Teo pointed out that I made the closer eye way too large. I fixed this independently with her approval, so I started the colouring process.

I got my skin tones ready and laid down the colours, using the tan colour for the majority of the face, drifting towards pink and magenta for the deeper tones, and blue for the deepest.

At this point, Teo came over for feedback and pointed out how I could increase the contrast, which she demonstrated with the blue pencil. Deepening the tones and value around the upper eyelid better demonstrated how it casted shadows, obscuring the eyes themselves. She also straightened out the lips a little more to decrease the exaggeration of the features, that way likeness was maintained at a more subtle level.

With this feedback applied, I branched out and started colouring the clothing, getting a rough idea of their tones and what colours I'd use. For the turquoise leggings, I'd use my turqoise and build the tone and depth with cooler blues. The light grey hoodie would be mixed with grey for the base tone, turqoise and peach to show the influence of the other components in the piece interacting, and then some tan in the lightest areas to add cohesion.

Dev Log Evaluation:

I left this session feeling much more confident than previous ones when it came to colour pieces! I don't think I did a bad job with previous pieces, but I was learning; it's led up to this session where I feel fully accustomed to the process of creating a colour-pencil drawing of academic standard. I even feel as though I'm picking up the pace a little, and choosing my palette comes much more naturally now.

I was advised to look up references for the trainers, or find my own reference instead of blocking it out with the last of the session time, so my goal will be to complete the hoodie, leggings and socks, and then find the right reference for the trainers to complete those. With that done, I could also add in the chair and background for a stretch goal.

Week 4

Developing the Colour Body:

While I missed this week's session due to illness, I took time to develop the colour body to near completion to compensate. I had the head and hands essentially done and the general shape of the clothing blocked out which left me that to develop.

Since the leggings had one of the strongest tones of the piece, I made sure to properly build up this area. I started with a solid base of teal that I built upon with cooler blues and indigos for the shadows.

The grey hoodie felt like a delicate area due to its very light and subtle tone - especially since this is a grayscale object in a colour piece. I decided to use a silver tone for the base, building up the shadows with the same teal as the leggings, and then sky blue and indigo for the deeper shadows.

Finally, I finished up with adding the ponytail and shoes, doing a vague shadow of tone for the rear foot, and used a reference for the one in front - I chose pink/purple for the trainers so the peachy tones of the skin wouldn't seem so isolated in the colour scheme.

Week 5

Formative Feedback:

Since I was ill on the week 4 session which held formative feedback, I brought my work in during the digital session for Kras to assess and help with. We ALSO had comic con on Friday this week so it'd be another trad session missed, so I felt this was the best chance I'd get for feedback.

Feedback on Self-directed Pieces:

Portrait: I elongated a lot, the jaw was too slim and low down, eyes too small. Kras fixed this by shortening the top of the head a lot. It wasn't too disproportionate otherwise. He brought the jaw higher which broadened it, helping balance the overall skull shape
Graphite body: I made the torso too elongated which made the legs too short, when measuring with head metric the belly button is placed one head down. While Kras did fix it, I was recommended to have another go as I'll be aware of those issues next time and it'll be easier to redo given the adjustment of each part based on the adjustment of other parts. Also, make sure to establish the gestural line of action to gauge balance of the pose. The head isn't so tilted but also not fully vertical - find a middle ground.

Week 6

Starting the Clay Sculpture:

Starting this week, we would be working on the final submission piece to sum up block 3 & 4 - the clay sculpture. The requirement is to depict the model's head and bust.

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I started by blocking out the major forms and landmarks, building up the glob of clay by shaping the vague silhouette of a neck and head. From there, I worked on the landmarks like the eyes, nose and mouth. I also sculpted in a prominent brow bone an jaw that I could add to down the line.

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After the break, I worked on developing the forms by adding the beard which was crucial in attaining the likeness and gauging the rest of the features in relation to it; I also started shaping the brow bone a little more, along with the cheek bones which are rather prominent and distinct in plane changes compared to the other features.

At this point, Teo came over to give some feedback and assistance. First, she adjusted the balance of the sculpt as it was gradually leaning back due to the tilting weight of the head which I kept trying to minimally fix without the proper necessary strength. Next, she shifted the clay to upturn the nose more, which meant I'd need to move the mouth upwards in accordance. She also demonstrated how to work on the eye, carving the details in with line first and then shifting clay to attain the right plane changes in the eyelids, finally using depth to achieve contrast as the pushed in clay creates shadow.

Dev Log Evaluation:

After the break, I attempted to use the same method to create the other eye, ensuring it had depth and decent contrast in the carved areas while keeping it from appearing flat - the eyes need to read as spherical. Something I need to keep in check while doing this is the symmetry! Not only do I have to make sure each side is proportional, but also all on the same angles.

This is the result of my sculpt by the end of the session, and I believe I have some semblance of likeness captured but I need to develop the sculpt to bulk it up and give it necessary volume. After that, I can polish the details and make sure it looks clean, finally adding sculpted hair to the beard and some ears which will help widen the front angle. If I could, I'd like to add more to the bottom to give him extra room for the bust.

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Week 7

Redoing the Graphite Anatomy Study:

Since I had the advice to restart my graphite figure study regardless, I decided to try a new reference as well. I felt this would help refresh me with something new to look at. I did measure using the head metric in the first one, but very loosely which is likely what caused the distortion. Therefore, I made sure to DILIGENTLY measure this time with frequent checking. My issue is that I had done an initial measure the first time, marking each line per head but not rechecking where I was placing features in regards to these guidelines. This time, I did this in conjunction with the careful measuring.

I started with a thumbnail, noting down the horizontal/vertical count of heads and then starting with a gestural line of action which helped determine the balance of the pose, followed by the measured placing of the limbs. I translated this to the full page with subtle sketching, followed by rendering the face as the hardest part of a figure study's rendering.

The reference photo is very locally light, which meant I had to be very delicate about bringing in tone as to not darken it too heavily, and therefore require more graphite. I very gently brought in the tone of the stomach, trying to capture the protrusion of the ribcage with the slight shadowing down the navel. I felt it important to also include the deeper shadows where the hips turn in, and where the uterus pouch protrudes.

Next, I continued rendering down the body reaching the legs. I started out with a pretty even tone on the bottom half as this area was generally darker than the rest, followed by deeper shadows to show how the front part closer to the light collects more shadow and light in contrast.

Finally, I used the feedback given by the lecturers of blending out the kneecap which felt sharper in shadow than rest, and enlarging the feet slightly.

Finishing the Clay Sculpt:

For the final week in Leicester, I had to fully prioritise the completion of the sculpt - especially since we missed a session for comic con. Due to this, we had a 3hr session on Thursday and Friday.

Thursday Session:

To begin the session, I was trying to fiix the symmetry as the left eye's pupil was smaller than the right's. Kras helped me out on the left eye (I did the right one with the same method) and showed me how using the metal tools to scrape the clay gives the form a much stronger planar read and makes a great foundation for sculpting the eyelids with ease.

We also bulked up the brow bone significantly more so it cast more of a shadow, this also strengthened the resemblance to the model as one of their distinct features.

Friday Session:

This time, Teo offered some feedback as she had a good way of demonstrating the sculpting of nuanced form.

Using a toothpick, she was able to soften some creases in the eyelid and carve out the contrast in the pupils. The left shows the strong geometric base, and the right shows Teo's example of how to convert that to a softer, more realistic form.

This photo shows how I adopted this technique and tried to independently replicate it on the left eye too, although I needed to bring back the height changes in the eyebags since they're more flat and carved here. Teo also suggested using a toothpick to etch in the hairs of the beard, making sure to follow the contour of it for a strong sense of direction. I also used a metal tool to press on the eyebrows for a more simplified hair form since its collection was sparser here.

Before any more major changes, we sliced off the bottom and placed a slab of clay underneath, cross-hatching each side with decent moisture to then bring back together which left me with more space for the actual bust. This gave the head a better sense of scale and didn't feel so oddly puny as it now had more of a base.

I used the same cross-hatching method to attach some clay to the sides of the head, making sure they measure up to the eyes and mouth horizontally, followed by carving out the inner area. I then started carving out smaller parts and re-adding clay to form the shape of the ears.

For the beard, I used less intense methods as I used around the mouth. That area required more specific detail with smaller toothpick strokes to show finer hairs, but the sides fade out with less hair so I used bigger strokes with a metal tool, like how I did the eyebrows, that blended with the sculpt more, ensuring it still followed the flow of the beard.

With all the major parts needed doing complete, I could start polishing and prepping my sculpt for final photos. This meant bringing in smaller forms like the smile lines and dips in the cheeks where bones prominently show with age.

I also added the forehead wrinkles and used a wet paintbrush to smooth out any areas, such as toothpick carvings that left behind small chunks of clay, or generally uneven and patchy areas.

Final Outcome:

Week 8

The Coloured Portrait:

With the clay sculpt complete, the other trad submission pieces, and digital/game prod submitted, I was able to entirely focus on the coloured portrait with warm/cold hues. I used prismacolours as I feel most confident with them, and had a subject already picked out which Kras helped me structurally fix a few weeks earlier.

Starting with the sketch that was previously created.

I started blocking in colour by layering up the local tones of the face, starting with lighter peaches and adding in darker pink/red hues to depict the shadows. Looks a little scary...

Next, I focused on the eye so I could see how a deeper contrast would look on this piece. I layered this up with more warm tones like orange and brown, applying more pressure too.

I completed the other eye with the same method and at this point, I was developing the whole face's skin with those same peach tones, followed by cooler maroons to start the transition towards the cold tones. This area was kept warm using browns and tuscan red which is a wonderful combination of brown and magenta/red which has that perfect middle ground. I did a decent amount of layering of different tones to get the right one, achieving more nuanced colours.

I also added more pink over peach to the cheeks to incorporate colours on the cooler side. I blocked in the base tone of the hair with green and blues, tuscan red added overtop of all of it. This area largely consists of the cold tones. I also started colouring around the neck area, using much more magenta and purple in the shadow, but more beige and cream in the light areas of the highlighted skin as it's less blushed compared to the face and cheeks.

Next, I worked in the fuller tone of the hair by pressing harder with a navy blue, layering it with black as most of it is obscured in shadow with very little highlight. To get the lighter areas, I used a white pencil on top which softens the tone. Since black was incorporated into the hair, I could start using it in the face too, placing it in the eyelid folds and pupils where the most contrast is found. I also decided on teal for the headband, since it featured on the colour figure study.

Final Outcomes:

Post Mortem:

This was a really great ending to our learning for traditional art. It's something that I really cherish in art with the physical aspect and range of mediums, and I'm glad to have concluded it with my best efforts. Traditional art is definitely the class in the course that gives me the most mental anguish, but it's entirely because it's something I want to do justice and put my all into. It's not really anguish I just don't know how to put it into better words... but regardless, I'm really proud with how far I've come in regards to trad and I'm sad to see it go for third year, each session was great and I learnt so much. It's a medium I will continue to practice diligently from third year onwards.

I do believe I have some strengths to observe with these submission pieces, such as my ability to overcome the struggles of proportions with the graphite figure study in both independent studies. Since both were self-directed, it was great that I was able to adapt and learn from my mistakes of measuring loosely and not checking the first time, to then measuring accurately and completing the piece with comparative ease. This piece was locally very light in the reference which I captured, but it was on a dark background originally. I enquired about this with the lecturers and they said it was fine to exclude the background, but I do wonder if the piece would be more standout with some sort of tone behind it, as it appears to blend with the page a little.

The coloured portrait was another I struggled with in attaining the right structure but this and the first graphite figure study were done when I was in a bad mood, which is largely what caused the reckless measuring... regardless, I got the help I needed and was able to finish this piece in good time. I was rather hesitant with this piece as I knew I wanted to really push my skills with prismacolours, using layering more and having fuller tones by using pressure. I succeeded in these goals and the result was a piece that wasn't patch with white spots at all. I also believe my intuition with colour picking is improving as at the start of block 3, I struggled a decent amount to acquire a good tone for skin. I do have a few nitpicks with this piece however, as I drifted away from the sketch in the lips and they ended up rather small. Where they're supposed to meet the middle of the eyes roughly, they're closer to the inner corners. To compound this, the eyes are pretty close together too - it does come together to create a very distinct face, but it's structurally off and lacks a sense of likeness too. I also wish I used more neutral tones in the hair instead of fully committing to navy blue, a seaweed green would've still sufficed for the cold tone requirement and it would've incorporated nicer with the warmth of the skin.

I believe I had an easier time with the coloured figure study compared to the rest, as the hardest parts were done in-session and the rest only took one more session of work. I found this piece to showcase my colour-picking intuition the best, as I rendered the whole face within the session with a solid cool colour scheme, using pink and purples to showcase skin in a colder light. I felt rather hesitant in rendering the light grey hoodie as I didn't want to use just a linear grey, but I believe I depicted it well in colour using a neutral silver compounded with blues and pinks from other areas of the piece to make it feel well-integrated. I do think this piece could've benefitted with more blending to appear smoother like the portrait, and the feet are REALLY small which isn't an easy fix like pencil, since colours don't erase like that... it's a reminder that I should always check proportions before committing with colour. I also would've like to add the chair.

For the clay sculpt, I do think it turned out good. I had an odd worry that it would look more like a caricature or just not realistic enough, but I believe I employed all the techniques we learnt well to create solid planar foundations and then nuanced secondary forms with smoothed creases and folds. I also tried to replicate the methods we were shown of using mark-marking to create the effect of hair strands. One goal I had for this sculpt was building on my previous clay project feedback of polishing this one. I didn't wanted any frayed clay, small chunks, or scratches to remain on the final piece so I ensured I used a brush with water to smooth areas and polish it a lot which I do believe mostly came through. I feel as though I could've done more with the beard at the front - this area is seen most in terms of hair and could've benefitted from larger separated chunks with larger strand marks instead of large chunks with small etchings.

Overall, I had a great time producing these pieces and have learnt a lot throughout the process and in retrospect. I look forward to continuing my journey in trad and might even make a separate blog page to post personal work!! My next medium to conquer is alcohol markers... and maybe gouache..

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