I missed Wednesdays session so I came in for Friday morning instead, to make it up.
This weeks area is the beginning of observing in more detail, the drawing of heads, hands and feet. These are typically problem areas for many people, myself included, and can offset an otherwise technically accurate drawing with frustratingly clumsy or inarticulate depictions of specific features.
We began by observing the models head first of all. We were advised that the general shape of the head tends to be fairly simple in most instances, and so beginning the drawing of proportions can be reduced to a simple geometric combination. Greg pointed out that when looking at a person, it is usually not just the front of the face that is visible but even the crown of the head. As we were advised, I began my drawings by creating a sketchy circular shape, and then adding lines to represent the jawline in whatever position it was meant to be, adjusting it bit by bit until it started to look reasonably accurate, gradually adding more detail but still keep it relatively rough.
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| The drawings were quick and simplistic. |
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| Different poses provided different problems but were exciting to experiment with, particularly at speed. |
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| The drawings were good opportunity to practise placement and proportion without spending a lot of time on perfecting details at this stage. |
The drawings were not particularly of a high quality but provided me with an understanding of what to do in future drawings, and with practise I expect my drawings to improve more rapidly.
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| This drawing in charcoal uses the notion of negative space and inversion to create variations in tone, in a manner that I found particularly interesting and enjoyable. The charcoal was applied to the paper and rubbed in to create an overall block of tone, onto which areas were added to more thickly for definition, or removed with an eraser for highlights. The effects were subtle and quite dramatic, however the angle at which I was sitting in relation to the model for this pose made it difficult and I would have liked to apply this technique on a larger drawing containing more of the figure. |
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| Drawing hands & feet is definitely a challenge in terms of adding detail, however the outline is reasonably straightforward to accomplish, particularly when working gesturally. |
