Traditional Practice

Perspective:

This week, we were introduced to one point and two point perspectives. Our task was to experiment with the placement of objects in perspective, carefully observing the angles, shapes and translating what we see onto paper.

I have always been interested in how these rules help us to draw accurate looking images from our view of the world to the paper. It was not a new concept to me, I had taken some courses before on perspective but I used to draw using reference images so my horizon line and point of view was always static but drawing using real life objects was a great exercise for me to further improve my observational skills. We were also told to use thumbnails before starting the observational drawing and I have seen that this makes it really easy to place the objects down when I scale it up because it gave me a better understanding of where I want things to be placed.

Assessed Piece:

This week we did a more detailed and an accurate version of the geometric shapes that we created last week. I executed my lines using my whole arm and fast strokes to make my marks look confident and neat, I tried avoiding going over my lines as much as I could while drawing as precisely as I can. I have a tendency of making the object in my canvas a little bigger than they should be but I have sorted that problem out by creating a thumbnail that had a grid on it so when I scale it up I can use that as a reference for my bigger artwork. I have learned how to measure angles using a pencil and tried to capture the angles and the shapes as accurately as possible. The lighting on the shapes where not defined well so I tried to capture what I saw and tried to exaggerate it a bit to add more value to the drawing. 

Last week for the shading of my objects I used lines and came to the conclusion that I didn't quite like the amount of values I received using that technique. This time, instead of shading using only the tip of my pencil, I also utilized the side to achieve more pronounced value shifts, all while considering the planes beneath the shadows.  This resulted in a more visually accurate image to what I observed.

Feedback sessions played a crucial role, pinpointing my mistakes and offering insights on improvement. In response, I made minor adjustments, focusing on cleaning up lines, correcting the cone's and the prisms shape to refine my end result.

Volumetric Boxes and Ellipses:

In this weeks class, we explored ellipses and volumetric boxes. The objects placed on the table served as our subjects, and I initially attempted to represent them using straight lines, striving for accuracy. However, this approach fell short of capturing the true essence of the objects. 

Recognizing the need for a more intuitive and natural line style, I made a shift in my technique. below I have documented my progress by sharing a comparison of my early drawings, created with straight lines, and the later ones characterized by a more natural line style. It was tough to figure out how much the ellipses were going to be distorted when foreshortened but I found it really helpful to use boxes to construct cylinders to place them in the right perspective like the ones below. I also challenged my self to jump straight to drawing the ellipses without the boxes to help me because doing this sometimes could lead to unnecessary time waste when sketching.

Assessed Piece:

This week, we created a piece using our knowledge from previous classes and were informed that this piece would be graded. I began with a thumbnail sketch and then proceeded to lay down shapes of the forms I observed. I tried to implement the theories we had covered, such as perspective, ellipses, and symmetry. After laying down my basic shapes, I realized that my composition was incorrect, so I had to make adjustments. By "adjust," I mean I had to erase the entire right side of the page and recreate those elements closer to each other. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture when it was in its earlier stage, so I edited it to show how it looked.

Additionally, the formative feedback we received in week 6 prompted me to make some small adjustments to my drawing. I corrected the shape of the teapot's spout, cleaned up the base of the lamp, and refined the overall sketch marks on the piece.

Rendering:

During week five, we were introduced into shading techniques, and I decided to take on both hatching and cross-hatching combined. This exercise was a real eye-opener for me. It helped me better understand the shapes we were working on and forced me to think strategically about how to position my lines to match those shapes accurately.

I did face a bit of a challenge, though, particularly with the glass object. I'm not as experienced with that, and it was a bit of a struggle. But since this was a practice session, I forged ahead, trying to capture what I saw and applying some valuable advice I received from my lecturers to improve my work as much as possible like not placing the cross hatching lines intersection in ninety degrees to each other and having the lines wrap around the objects form.

Also one of the feedback I received was that I was lacking the darker value ranges since I was only using the 2B pencil I had, but After I got that feedback I went and  purchased more appropriate pencils for rendering like a 6B to get that darker values in. I also realised That my biggest mistake when rendering was not paying attention to the colour or value of the object itself. This resulted me in creating my objects with only the shadow and light values but not include the value of the object itself. And I feel like this has really changed how I view of objects.

Assessed piece:

In week six, we worked on the assessed piece for rendering. Reflecting on the previous weeks, I realized the importance of avoiding rush in the rendering process and embracing a gradual approach towards adding details. My strategy involved transitioning from light values to dark values, acknowledging the ease of achieving a darker shade by layering strokes on top of a lighter foundation, as opposed to the challenge of lightening a shade already darkened. This adjustment aimed to enhance the overall quality of my rendering.

Furthermore, incorporating valuable feedback received, I adopted a more careful approach. I started paying a closer and more intentional focus on the value of each object. Unlike before, where my attention was predominantly on the of shadows and lights, this shift ensured that I captured the unique values of individual objects. This change have really changed the look of my drawings, adding a nuanced depth to my rendering.

Museum Visit:

In week seven we got the chance to visit a museum which I believe gave us more opportunities on exploring new subjects. I worked on a turkey skeleton because I found the overall gesture and the shapes really appealing. I also wanted to study bone types and how joints would interact with each other because I though it would be useful in the future. While working on this Piece I really tried to image how different joints would move like the bones connecting the neck, how the tail bones would move, how the legs would behave and etc. I think I still could have worked on some other subjects if I worked slightly faster but I was too focused on laying the shapes and forms as precisely as I could, which made me lose quite a bit of time. During next study sessions  I plan to study more subjects to build and add more to my visual library in my mind.