Life Drawing

Today, we have begun to do full body life drawing from a nude model. We used easels and A1 sized pieces of paper; newsprint and brown paper and drew using pencil and charcoal. The first two sections were 15 minute time slots where i used pencil to draw on newsprint paper, i found it challenging to fit the full figure on my page and i wasn't able to get the proportions correct. During the second 15 minute time slot, we were told to use charcoal and used an outstretched arm and a pencil to find the size of the head and how many heads make up the body. I drew on a line at the top, a line at the bottom and a line down the middle to help guide the proportions. I found using the charcoal made the drawing look much more effective as the lines could be freer which is helpful when sketching out shapes. The second drawing was a little more successful, however i found myself running out of space for the feet even though i had put down lines to guide me.

After doing some research into Leonardo Da Vinci's 'Vitruvian Man'  i found how important it was to split the page into sections to achieve the correct proportions. Using this, i split the page into 6 and a half sections (the heads) and measured where areas of the figure should lie. I found this very useful as it enabled me to get the head in proportion with the legs and feet which i had previously struggled with.  The next few drawings were done in charcoal over 20 minute, and two 10 minute time periods. I began to overlap drawings as the model turned after 10 minutes;  this would be a helpful skill for concept art designers who would need to create quick, accurate sketches.

For the last three drawings i had 5 minutes for each, after which the model would turn. I found these drawings the hardest because they were so quick, i think it was hard to capture the figure accurately. The proportions were rushed but these were the only drawings where i could fit the feet on.

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12th March

This week we have been life drawing again, this time using a male life model. We did two ten minute and two fifteen minute drawings during which I tried to focus on certain aspects of the model’s body. I used charcoal for three drawings and pencil for my last, more detailed drawing of John’s head, neck and chest.

This is my first 10 minute drawing in my sketchbook. I found it hard to get the proportions right on this and the shoulders seem too wide, however i am still happy with this first attempt.

In comparison to the female model, I found John harder to draw because he is quite square shaped; I find it easier to draw curves. On the other hand, I think John has more visible muscles which allow more tone and detail to be added to the drawing. I didn’t find life drawing as easy this week because I was unable to get the shapes and proportions correct.

This is the second ten minute drawing i did on brown paper using charcoal. I was pleased with the results because i managed to get the proportions slightly better than the previous drawing.

On my first fifteen minute drawing i did i concentrated on just the face, however i found this quite hard because i didnt get the proportion of his face to his hand correct and so the hand looks somewhat distorted and out of place.

My final drawing was done in pencil on brown paper over a time of fifteen minutes. I found that i could apply much more detail with the pencil rather than charcoal and therefore i prefer this drawing to my other three.  

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Tuesday 19th March

Similar to last week, today we have been again drawing a male life model. This week we didn’t have as much time life drawing and so therefore I have only done three drawings, however, one of these I have concentrated on and given more detail to by creating a collage.

We did two ten minute drawings at first to get back into the techniques of life drawing. I have been struggling with the proportions of the body even with the use of sections to divide it; I haven’t been able to fit in the legs and feet most of the time or they look distorted and inaccurate. I think this is simply something that I will be able to improve upon as I continue with life drawing.

The last drawing i did was at first drawn in pencil as a very simple form and then later i added strips of photocopied magazines and brown paper to create a collage effect. I also went over the lines in charcoal as i prefer the freer result it gives and i added in more detail such as tone and facial features. Overall, i think the collage was successful; however the proportions were still a little squashed when it came to drawing the legs. The part i am most pleased with is the face which surprised me as usually it isn’t something i am able to do easily.

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Tuesday 26th March

We have been life drawing again this week; however, we have a bit of a change to the day. Previously, Leavon Archer visited us to talk about concept art; we looked at some of his work and we attempted to create our own concept art characters. This wasn't particularly successful for me, however it did allow me to look further into it and learn more about it- I have since played around with concept art at home. Leavon visited us again this week; however this time we did life drawing with him and adapted our drawings to form a character using Photoshop.

We did 13 five minute drawings using different materials; charcoal, ink and pencil on brown paper and card. We also moved around a little so that the perspective was slightly different for each drawing. On my smaller drawings, I found it easier to get the proportions correct, whereas on the larger ones I found that I couldn't fit the feet on or the back was too long. I think I like working in ink the most because you can get different strokes using different materials, such as sticks and knifes, that it becomes much more individual.

 

The final drawing was a group drawing; we each set a piece of A2 paper on the floor and drew in ink for about 3 minutes, moving around the room adding something to each piece. This was sometimes difficult because different people saw features in different positions to others which led to some of the drawings having more than one foot or hand.

We took a photo of one of the images that we liked and uploaded it to the computer. Leavon then talked to us about the basics of building up a character and how he has developed work to create the final image. I found this particularly interesting because it enabled me to see the process of how an image is made.

I opened up the image I selected to use in Photoshop and also browsed the internet for inspiration, looking particularly at traditional stories and fairy tales.

This is the image I used:

I created a silhouette of this image in Photoshop using a black brush and began to add some lighter tones to create the structure of the image further. I had looked