Reflective Essay

The second semester of learning how to draw for animators and illustrators proved to be extremely varied from the previous semesters activities and tasks. It really pushed how experimental our drawing styles became, whilst refining our talents on creating a successful looking life drawing. 

My initial anxieties on certain exercises we performed in class really showed from drawings early on in the semester, a lot of the lines I were using were sketched and repeatedly drawn over trying to achieve a good line. As the weeks went on my drawings slowly became more refined and stronger in confidence when it came to drawing harder poses with different methods. Below are two examples, left is from the first week of tableaux drawing and the right example is from the fourth week. The left drawing really lacks in confidence, it’s nervous and sketchy as if it was almost rushed to an extent. The drawing on the right however demonstrates quite well the evolution of my style, although it retains an element of sketchiness like the original it certainly conveys an assurance in this method of drawing. I know the two drawings are very different in subject matter but still shows growth in style and approach. 

Drawing faces has really improved since starting this module, along with my study on George Bridgman guide to life drawing book. Comparing the two images below show the left image in an exercise where we were tasked with using an array of marks to draw a portrait, this sketch is particularly weak in areas such as proportion and placement of basic facial features. Messing up on these vital steps in a drawing really separate okay-drawings from good-drawings, for example; the drawing on the left is from the same lesson but I then took into account things such as correct placement of the mouth, enlarged the eyes to a realistic size, not over shading the check and forehead and so on. So this is a direct example of how I showed immediate improvement upon critical self analysis.

  

Alongside Stephens lessons I have been reading George Bridgmans Guide to Life Drawing (1) as external practice as suggested by another famous illustrator and comic book artist Jim lee. This book really takes the art of drawing back to basics with simple methods and easy shapes that the body can be broken down in to. His style was given the term box form as he always rounded shapes into squares and wedged them together then worked on refining details. As shown on the page below you can see how straight line most of his drawings were, but they clearly illustrate exactly what he is trying to convey with perfect form and proportion.

(1)  

Bridgmans guide to life drawing has definitely influenced the way I start under drawings when I start sketching, quickly ‘boxing in’ shapes and important angles to assure my portions are on point. I feel as if this drawing of a skeleton illustrates this well. Although are task was to segment the skeleton out to manage proportions, Bridgman has definitely changed the way I do this. I don’t adapt straight away to his box-wedge style that he implements, but with further practice and effort hopefully i’ll be able to become more better in this method 

Another artist who has directly influenced my style and helped me improve on my work is comic book legend Jim Lee. Lee has been an inspiration to me from a young age and I have always admired his specific art style, Lees style comes from his intense study of Bridgman and other artists like Tony Daniels. One method Lee teaches is his unique way of drawing hands , starting off with drawing a pentagram and then circling on finger joints and tips. I directly reference this method whenever i draw hands in class, it really allows me to utilise the skills that industry standard professionals would use in my own work, if you look close enough you can see the pentagram under drawing in my sketch on the left. Drawing hands correctly is an extremely crucial aspect in an artists toolbox as many people consider it very difficult, so being able to produce hands at a high standard really boosts my confidence when starting on any life drawing.

(3)(4)

 

One task I still struggle with drawing is conveying movement in a drawing, I find it very hard to catch form in an instant when drawing people as I take a fair amount of time when actually deciding on how I want to draw the pose. Obviously this challenge is even greater when the model is in a non-stop walk cycle, below shows our model equipped with a pole pretending to be a tribesman. I think trying to capture perspective in a person that is moving is quite difficult as the perspective is always changing, I struggled to express that in my work as shown below. My drawing seems very static and doesn’t really give us the theme of motion, it’s more like 4 separate, static models each in their own poses beside each other. I can improve on this by looking at artists who are well adapted to drawing movement, one artists that comes straight to mind is John Muir Law, a nature illustrator who goes into the field to directly observe birds quickly and with great detail. I actually own his book and he provides some really good tips and tricks to drawing birds in motion but the same principle can be used for models. (5). One tip he gives is draw as much of the pose as possible, then as much of the next pose as soon as possible and so on. This process is repeated until your subject has re-entered on of the previously drawn poses and continue to carry on with the drawing. 

One aspect in my drawing  I have developed greatly is drawing scenery in the few activities and tasks we’ve been able to do it. The main lesson this was demonstrated was the experimental life drawing task. Decorating the room into a wild space really added to the atmosphere of actually being somewhere else, which in turn feed in to the experience of actually being in a jungle or desert like landscape. I think I responded to the immersion of the lesson by constantly sticking with the amazon jungle theme, the use of jungle sounds whilst we were drawing also played into what would end up on paper, it had a direct influence on our work. Being able to frame the page with not only trees and vines, but also adding  multiple characters into the mix with the models multiples positions allowed us to lay out a narrative for the viewer. I think equipping the model with all sorts of weapons and clothes really allowed me to show my imagination through my drawings, it really gave me a drive to show how creative I could be with such a baseline landscape and model.

The final landscape scene which was completely up to our own interpretation I think is where I really excelled in showing an external flare of creativity to put into my work. I fashioned the model as a lone hunter, waiting for prey in the river. I think the simplicity of this scene makes it quite deep on a few levels, firstly is the obvious looming threat of the shadowy figures of some predators lurking in the grass as well as the hunters pose. The pose is very lazy almost as if she she’s drifting off to sleep against her fishing spear, this is accentuated by the rainy weather, giving a drab, dim vibe to the scene as well. The use of dark ink for the shadows of the predators works in contrast with the soft, faded tones of lead given by the pencil. I think if the whole scene was drawn in ink it would lose a certain sombre tone that is currently present, if ink was used the darker tones would give a much more negative and graphic feel to the  image as if it’s an action scene, which is really what I didn’t want to portray. I think I responded to the immersion of the lesson by constantly sticking with the amazon jungle theme, the use of jungle sounds whilst we were drawing also played into what would end up on paper, it had a direct influence on our work.

Bibliography

1.George Bridgman (1930). Complete guid to life Drawing by George Bridgman. New York: George Bridgman. 

2. Paraka blogs. (2017). Bridgmans guide to life drawing. Available: http://www.parkablogs.com/content/book-review-bridgmans-complete-guide-drawing-life.

3. Jim Lee. (2013). Jim Lee Hands. Available: http://myconius.deviantart.com/art/Jim-Lee-Hands-11-25-2013-415980877.

4. VZA. (2013). How to draw hands with jim lee. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAQb-5VKxmg.

5. John Murs Law (2012). Laws Guide To Drawing Birds. California: Audabon. All.

Week 7: Experimental life drawing session

Experimental life drawing session

We started off the session with practicing drawing with ink and a brush, it was fairly difficult to adapt to at first, you can see from some of the rough sketches below. However I enjoyed the fluidity and permanence that the ink created on the page, it gives you a feeling of control but also an element of uncertainty when it comes to putting liquid on paper.

We got to decorate the room with black bags to emulate the environment of a forest or jungle, this was to get us into the feeling of creating a scene. The immersion of the atmosphere really gave me a drive to show an imaginative touch to my work, I decorated the model with ribbons and a rough spear. I tried to create a scene from a comic or movie by really focusing on the composition of the main figure impaling the boar in the middle of the page to directly catch attention to the viewer.

Our final task was completely up to us on how we wanted our scene to look and what it was comprised of. I really tried hard to add some sort of narrative into my piece, the model wasn't exactly in the most exciting position in my angle but I worked with what I had to create a dynamic scene. The use of dark inks to create a silhouette for the predators was a really unique idea in my mind as it allowed me to convey a general form of a predator but didn't make me commit artistically to creating a detailed wolf drawing. Quick pencil sketches across the page was also a really simple but effective idea to simulate rain in the amazon, it also adds to the tone of the image giving it a sombre tone of impending danger.

A more detailed close up of the figure

Week 6 Life Drawing and movement

Drawing Movement

We started off with some basic proportional sketches and warm up exercises, I think I hit the proportions quite well and felt ready for drawing motion.

 Our first exercise involved drawing our model performing a sort of push up/stand up motion in loop. I found it extremely difficult to sketch and actually start on drawing a position without the model altering her posture too much, but obviously this is the challenge of motion. As you can see I got slightly frustrated whilst sketching these positions.

Next up was a walk cycle whilst the model held a long ruler posing as a spear, I did better on this task in comparison to the last as I actually got some decent form on to the page. However it still feels like its just four different static poses on the page instead of a fluid cycle of movement.

In our final segment of the session we moved on to prolong drawing (non-motion). I decided to focus on hands and feet, most people say hands are difficult to draw, but I think feet are much more difficult just due to the strange shape of the angle and curvature of the foot sole. I really utilised shading in this sketch as the model had dirty feet from where she had been walking around, this actually developed black on the bottom of the feet which helped me shade the toes, heel and the joints of the feet.

Then I moved on to sketching a fist, I always start out drawing hands with a base construction drawing of a pentagram shape to frame the fingers and thumb joint on. This base drawing is crucial to getting proportions right and avoiding typical hand drawing mistakes.

week 5 Life drawing & 3-Dimensional Form

Life Drawing and 3 Dimensional Form

After our few warm up drawings using varied types of line drawing exercises, we began on a longer timed tonal piece. I began with drawing a quick thumbnail sketch of the models pose and segmenting out main ares of tone.

I then moved on to the actual drawing after the thumbnail, I tried to approach this activity in a similar manner to the Franz Frazzeta, whose work uses this method of instantly putting down giant shaded sections of tone, constantly moving around the piece applying shades in segments. I don't think the approach quite worked the same with my piece, I heavily relied on squinting my eyes to carefully observe the tonal values but in turn made my drawing a bit disconnected in looking three dimensional.

We had to analyse our work by writing out a short list of pros and cons about the piece.

Using a range of mediums our next task was to create a bit of a landscape view using different mediums to portray values in the artwork. The mid tone was actually conveyed as the base shade of the paper, this contrasted well with the darkness of the charcoal and the glow of the chalk sandwiching the paper to be its own medium-tone.

Our final Task was a prolonged pose using our medium of choice, I really gave my hardest effort to express a large variety of tones in this piece, I think due to my first tonal task not coming up as well as i'd have expected it inspired me to try harder using pencil again to show that I really can convey a good sense of three dimensionality in my work. However I did borrow the same basic principle of blocking in the darkest spaces first and just gently feathering in the lighter tones as I progress.

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week 3 Drawing skeletons, Anatomy and the Gothic

This lesson was all about anatomy of the skeleton, the main basis to everybody (literally). The lesson helped in giving us a better understanding of the skeletal framework which our body mounts itself upon.

We started off with a quick sketch just grouping out the main portions of the skeleton, ribs, skull, shoulder joints, spine etc. This aided in making right judgements in proportion when drawing the skeleton.

Here's a close up on the skull. Drawing skulls is something I have a lot of practice in, this exercise restricted me by not allowing me to utilise drawing in detail.

Here is a detailed sketch of the skull, with some spinal work that show off some neck vertebrate

We then moved on to drawing using charcoal, this medium proved to be quite effective as it allowed us to access some really bone like colours/values. I applied the negative drawing method on some hard to draw areas such as the elbow joint and the skulls side profile.

Closer look at the skull

Closer look at the back and arm

Our next task was to draw with wax candles on to paper, then using black ink, apply it to the areas we drew on revealing our ghostly wax sketch. The expression on my left skeleton is really quite sinister and evil, it almost looks like a freeze frame of a villain. The drip effect the ink leaves on the image adds to the malicious tone. Although the drawing may not be as proportionate and detailed as my other skeletons, it is probably my favourite one due to the ghostly tonal contrast.

A closer view, the dripping ink from his draw makes it look as if the skull is drooling.

A spinal study of the skeleton

A mismatch of bones and skulls

An interesting shape of the skull, the jaw is very exaggerated in this drawing. 

The shoulder blade and ribs

Week 2 Expressive hands and portraits

The lesson today was on creating expressive hands and focus on drawing portraiture, it began by us dividing our A1 sheets into quarters

The first task was to draw Mels side profile in a silhouette, this activity wasn't to difficult and actually turned out pretty good. It really forces you to look at tiny details on the surface of her facial profile and also constantly making sure that the features of the face are in constant proportion with each other. If one feature is too large or small it really messes up the immersion of the profile

The second activity was the opposite of drawing a silhouette, for this one we had to draw the negative space. You really have to concentrate on drawing the space and shapes around Mels head, rather than simply 'drawing an outline'.

Next up was drawing a clenched fist, Mels hand was really good for this exercise as it was quite veiny and had a lot of texture to it which added a good amount of character to the drawing. I shaded the sides of the fingers to create a distinction between them, aiding in making the drawing look more realistic.

The finale of the four tasks was to draw the hands in a resting position, I really tried to use tonal values and line weight effectively here to create a three dimensional form within the hands.

We then moved on to a page of quick warm up face drawing, some blind drawn, some with continuous line and some with our non dominant drawing hand.

Here is a slightly more detailed warm up sketch

Here is a portrait of Mel really trying to use line effectively here to show three dimensionality within the image. I think it really shows on the nose area where the shading helped shape the nose greatly, I do have a bit of difficulty when it comes to drawing noses so this really helped.

The final task was to draw the hands and the face together in a image. The tonal contrast on the hands in comparison to the face help them in giving a quite real view in the drawing. The line work on the nose really came in effectively from my last drawing on to this one.

Week 1 Tableaux

Group Tableaux Drawing

The aim of this project was to draw half the group posing in a scene or environment, then after our drawings are complete, the models switch roles with the artists and then draw the new models.

This was a quick initial warm up sketch to loosen ourselves up, I adopted a quick and relaxed drawing approach start off with.

The first main attempt was mainly testing the waters of drawing multiple models, which isn't something we do often in life drawing class. This particular scene had the theme of an uninvited guest which was the person standing and everybody reacting to her presence.

This scenes theme was the birthday party, it was mainly split in between the boys and the girls. Someone had accidentally smashed a mug which added to the surprise factor on some of the models faces and expression. Slowly a narrative had started to develop between our drawings which told a loose story of people at a party.

Conclusion: The tableaux exercise was very enjoyable and actually gave us a chance to draw a 'scene' with multiple characters and scenarios with multiple narratives being developed as we produced work. I prefer the middle sketch of an uninvited guest as it really shows an atmosphere among the models as if it was a still from a tv show or scene from a book.