Week 12: Figure. Posture and pose

These three human body sketches were made with the help of the examples of Die Gestalt Des Menschen by Gottfried Bammes, and represent a study of posture and pose.
All of the three drawings show human gesture that emphasizes their lifelines feel. The lack of shading does not affect much in the case of the first two women models, since their pose is relaxed and therefore the muscles are stretched to portray that exact feel. On the other hand, the third sketch shows some cloth that would fit around the arm and elbow area of the man figure, sitting on a horse, also gesturing but more significantly, contracting the muscles of the back and legs to keep balance while horseback riding. The muscles are more proeminent and visuallly significant and thus, convey the human figure accuratelly in such an instance. On the down side, there are small particularities such as the hand holding the stick or the leg which could have gone beyond the sketching part, as well as a sense of a random style of shading which could have extended further on to the entire body to create unity.

Week 11: Figure. Muscular structure

The three sketches of this week’s session were done in pencil and represent an attempt at understanding more of the depiction of the human body, purpose which cannot be followed if one does not endeavor on drawing human musculature, which gives the shape of the body.
Therefore, the first sketch is a less than dynamic one, showing the human figure in a rested, standing pose, the bones and muscles are simplistically depicted through the use of lines and simple shading. Overall the drawing is faithful to its original figure, although the head could be leveled up to the same amount of shading as the rest of the body.

The second sketch strives to depict more muscle and bone shapes on the torso and arms of the figure and does not fail short while also remaining true to the correct shading and lines of the neck. The image below shows a small definition of the foot and leg but enough to give the illusion of three dimension.

The third sketch should portray the bending of the model, matter which is achieved with the help of the lines of the neck and the differences in size of the legs, one of which curls and heads forward or with the help of the horizontal lines of the body which gradually fall on the left side of the shifting body. All in all, I believe all sketches truthfully show the changes of human shape in varied poses and supposed motion.

Week 10: Figure. Basic anatomy and movement

This week’s session was an in-depth study of movement and pose of the human body. These three sketches were done in pencil and portray different instances of the model.
The first attempt was an experiment, it was drawn using the left hand which is not the usual hand I use to draw, but this particular trial was meant to understand the form of the human body differently and thus, ended up looking similar to a Schiele sketch, which I could not modify anymore.

The second image is of a pose with the back of the model facing the vantage point, which I believe stays true anatomically to the actual human figure. Since there were more dark tones, it could have helped to add more shading on most of the surfaces, besides the margins where light was barely slipping on the skin.

The third image portrays the model in a pose that required shape and size changes of the muscular system, the arms are stretched while at the same time supporting the weight of the body, if the balance achieved by flexing the heel and leg muscles would fail. There is a clear definition of shapes and anatomical accuracy besides the head which is small compared with the body; To add to this, the drawing could have taken advantage of more shading.

Week 9: Figure. Basic anatomy and proportion

The week session consisted of getting familiarized with drawing the basic anatomy of the human body and the drawings were created in pencil with their level of complexity depending on technique, as well as on the time slot allotted. The first attempt consisted in sketching five quick different poses. The accent does not fall on detail, but rather on proportion, shape and gesture which I believe were achieved in being depicted. The lines follow the shape of the body while also not disrupting the correct proportions, there is also a clear attempt at some anatomical accuracy.

The second image did not surpass much the inflicted time period of the other, but represents an experiment of not raising the tip of the pencil in order to create flowing lines and shapes of the depiction of the human body, which I believe was successful since it holds a level of subjectivity and expression.

The third image was intended as a detailed drawing and although it holds true to many of the desired elements, it is far from finished. The shape of the human body is drawn anatomically correctly and there is a clear attempt at shading which looks well so far, but is required more overall. The objects on which the model is sitting seem to fit perfectly with the entire image and in relation to the body but need more shape, light and dark contrast and shadows cast by the model. In general, it is a presentable drawing.

Week 8: Still Life. Reflective surfaces

The detailed drawing represents a session study of reflective surfaces, created in about 15 minutes in pencil. First of all, light falls in varied manners on all objects, either metallic, hard or glass surfaces and is fairly well depicted in all examples, it is fair to say it could perhaps be improved on the cylindrical one. Refraction is also obvious in the relation between the bottle and the spherical object behind it, the two objects also create the intended depth. The overlapping tends to be favourable in most places and adds to the desired three dimensional effect, although on the right side where the vase and the cylindrical object meet, there seems to be some poorly constructed composition. Second of all, as far as those objects concern, they are well drawn and show a multitude of kinds of shapes. The table cloth could use more detail through the form of more shading and the shadows cast by the objects should be more contrasted as should be those of the overall picture where light does not hit any surface. All in all, the drawing manages to portray the desired effect of reflective textures.

Week 7: Still Life. Soft and hard surfaces & texture

The quick 10 minute pencil study is intended to show the effect of light on textures belonging to fruits such as apples or oranges. These surface types required a naturalistic approach which meant using hatching to depict as accurately as possible the tonal contrast and the relationship between objects. There seems to be no issue in the way light distinctively reflects on the apple’s and on the orange’s surfaces, other than the obvious deformed spherical lines that give shape to them, which should be toned down where light hits. Other than that fact, texture could be greatly improved on the apples but only in a chromatic sense, colours being the only improvement that could truly work on differentiating their surfaces and a good background where their shadow could appear.

Week 6: Still Life. Natural and man made forms

This detailed pencil drawing took less than 30 minutes to complete though it is far from a true finished piece. It depicts the relation between three glass made objects that create a compelling still life image, with important elements such as light and texture being taken into consideration. Lines and different styles of hatching play a significant role in creating the illusion of an actual texture, which in this case are three types of glass, that reflect and refract light differently. Therefore, I tried to overlap the two glasses and double the effect of light on this type of surfaces. It is fair to say that more hatching, thus more detail, would have greatly enhanced the appeal of the drawing, moreover three other significant problems are the space between the bottle and the glasses which ruins the sense of unity of the entire picture, the obvious line asymmetry in the case of the neck of the bottle and of the taller glass object and the missing background which makes one believe the objects are located into thin air.

Week 5: Directed Study Week

In the directed study week we had the liberty of portraying varied landscapes according to our own choice. Therefore, I believed it was necessary to improve my one point and two point perspective skills since examples are easily found in nature and surrounding areas, but mostly in different viewing angles of buildings. 

The first image is a 4 minute charcoal sketch, created to show the illusion of depth by the use of simple lines and no other interfering elements. Pluses are the expected foreshortening between the upper parts, from the one located in the area of the focal point, to the one disappearing or shrinking on the right and the simple use of darker tones. On the down side, it is very much an incomplete drawing, it falls short of a landscape since it does not hold other focal points such as objects near by. To add to this, we see no texture that could provide a sense of what the materials of the building are like or a simple light source that proves helpful to the drawing.

In contrast, the second image seems to convey more space organizational elements to a certain degree. It insufficiently depicts the rules of one point perspective, since the lines barely converge to the point where the focal point draws our attention to, but that happens because the shapes of the buildings and the angle are quite deceiving. Because of the inconsistency between lines in the foreground and the ones in the background, it is not clear whether all the lines are parallel or meet in a point. The problem being that the road is not straight, as it creates a type of curve that greatly impacts the position of the buildings. If I were to correct it, there would be an attempt at transforming the drawing into a two point perspective one. Another issue is the sporadic lack of parallelism between certain lines or the missing outer objects that would improve the idea of the image being a landscape. On the upside, it hold a greater level of detail than the first charcoal sketch and actually sticks by the rule of the foreshortening, with smaller objects in the distance, to create a massive illusion of depth.

Week 4: Natural Landscapes, Light & Texture

One of our session’s detailed light and texture drawings, done using pencil in 10-15 minutes of extensive work. It’s purpose was to show the casting of light on a particular material, by use of various hatching techniques as it can be seen in the image. The lines depend on the direction of the light and are done in accordance to it with the exception of the upper part which, though it does not hold any shading, it clearly shows too hard of a line since the light source is closest to it and thus, would fade away the dark tones and create instead the lowest contrasted part of the drawing.

Despite the fact, lights and shadows create a good contrast without unbalancing the white and black content, with little cast shadow as seen on the actual object. Unfortunately, the texture is barely represented and could be mistaken by any type of cloth material, but surely does not detriment the overall veridic sense of the object.

Week 3: Composition

The five panes represent five different landscape perspectives done during session, each of them taking in average five to ten minutes to complete, depending on the difficulty of the angle, very little on the level of detail or of spatial organizational elements. Composed using charcoal, the images were intended to clearly show the rule of thirds in application. The first and the fourth images are less dynamic than the second one, but clearly illustrate the third division concept, whereas the latter uses linear perspective as a way of creating a rudimentary form of the illusion of depth, by the positioning of the objects. The third and the last picture convey three dimensional space through two point linear perspective.

All of the drawings are a mere attempt of studying line, perspective and most intentionally composition, though they barely reach the goal since the vantage points are not the most favourable and the lack of foreshortening techniques clearly detriment the desired depth effect. Also, there is no shading, no true detail which could greatly improve the realistic feel of the objects.

  

Week 2: Landscape - line & perspective

This is a page of directed study, three 2 minute quick sketches done without the use of a ruler but in pencil in the case of the more detailed one, charcoal, in the case of the other two attempts of understanding two point perspective. Though simplistic looking, the intent was to draw as accurately and correctly as possible the lines and shapes in order to emphasise the different perspective techniques, such as foreshortening since the objects seem to be getting smaller as further away we get from the points where all converging lines meet and closer we get to the vanishing ones. In the preparatory charcoal drawings, the lines are stretched enough to follow the implied lines of the two vanishing points, while also making sure the other lines are not erroneously drawn and respect the implied space conventions. 

Although the charcoal sketches are obviously flawed since the objects are portrayed either from above or from a lower than the horizontal line vantage point with no direct relation or connection with one another, they served as preparation for the pencil experiment which does obey rules of parallelism in most of the construction of the objects. Another asset would have been adding a type of shading that would have brought forth the closeness and the distance by use of darker tones in the first case and lighter ones in the latter, as well as patterns of texture which would have given a realistic feel to the pencil drawing.

Week 1: Drawing the basics

This is a simple 10 minute pencil detailed drawing that was created using actual lines, as opposed to implied ones, with the exception of the vase that uses vertical lines, curves and semi-ellipses shapes, the rest create natural, organic shapes. These various lines generate the three dimensional space in the picture plane, bringing about the illusion of depth either by overlapping or position.

Though it is a good study of basic lines, the drawing obviously lacks important elements such as shading induced by light, which would have further emphasized depth; Colour which would have separated chromatically the objects in the picture; Or even the presence of background that would have leveled up the degree of realism. The objects are subjectively portrayed and could have used a better reflection time on their shapes but since this represents a study of different types of lines, it serves its purpose rightfully.