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.
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