Portrait Class 5

This week, half hour an hour pencil drawing followed by a painting using oils, with a wider choice of colours than the previous session's acrylic painting. Again support was coloured paper this time brown rather than grey and the focus of the tones even as we attempt to get our colour mixes right.

Given more time I would have finished working on the forehead, highlight near hairline needs  to be lighter (it was lighter than lightest shade on the model's chin), and blended better with the remaining plain of the forehead.

Exercise - Energy

In following drawing I captured my son in different poses walking down the stairs, I have tried to keep the drawing loose to give a sense of the figure moving in space.  Possibly a sense of movement but not energy

Working on the same concept added more poses and even less detailed, think it has improved the drawing, not only the finish with addition of some colour but an increased sense of movement.

Another attempt to get energy in the drawing moving away from boy descending stairs idea. This time I have my son skipping. I started to draw my son skipping in the same manner as him walking down the stairs, but this time having more of an overlap. Was not entirely sure it was working so rubbed the drawings back so the lines were only slightly visible then drew a figure on top of these faint lines in biro adding colour in soft pastel which I have then smudged to highlight the direction of movement.  I think this drawing is the most successful in conveying  energy

Exercise - Sitting and Waiting

The following studies, drawn in.. surprise surprise biro.  Several pictures that looked the most promising selected from a Saturday supplement.

Enjoy working from pictures in papers / magazine, something that I find myself doing quite frequently... perhaps a little to frequently would benefit from more still life practice than working from pictures in a magazine.

Portrait Class 4

Tonight we spent the whole session on a single painting,  having 1st had a demo from the tutor. Had to work with the three primary colours (acrylic paints) plus white as our palette. We worked on black paper this I believe this should help judge the tonal values better.  As with the previous session's painting we were told to focus on getting the tonal elements correct rather than worrying to much about the colour mixes. If the tone in the painting is correct then the sense of space will look right even if the colours are wrong.

Position of the ear initial wrong, but was able  to rework without to much upset. Not happy with the highlight above the closest eye, possibly the eye brow it's self is a little to high. Tutor avised that I should check, or think the highlights  in relation the plains of the face,  lighting from  above hitting the  forehead, where in turn into the hairline, check bone, collar bone, bridge of the nose... also need to judge the intensity of the  highlights those on the forehead lighter that those on the collar bone.

Not sure why but the paint approach was quite dry (no drinking whilst on duty), perhaps I was aware that I only had one hour and forty minutes to complete the painting (wary of drying time)  or concerned about how much paint the black paper  could happily take.  End painting has a look as if it has been worked in soft pastels.

Not having black as part of the palette was a pain, dark areas painted mainly in blue mixed a touch of red.

Assignment (D1) Four

1st part of the assignment is to complete picture of a seated figure using a lines, avoiding blocks of tone.      Based on my drawing experience to date this  goes against my favoured approach, which is to define the tones and then add the details correcting the initial tonal shapes as I go.

I played with different medium, but for me a drawing that was about line was going to need to be executed in ink, to keep the lines crisp... other mediums more likely to smudge, qualities that I felt should be avoided in the first part of the assignment.

Linear studies, in biro and dip pen, in some instances I have laid down a wash of red acrylic ink

Final study done with and orange bic,  happy with the pose I use this picture to work up one in ink that I decided would include a a wider variety of marks.

Final picture 1 line and shape.  Tempted to draw out the image in pencil first but decided the end drawing may suffer from a lack of spontaneity so went straight in with the inks taking little care to avoid blots.

This second picture looks less like my son than the 1st, but feel there is an impishness about the the face, he is struggling to remain serious for a few minutes more as his dad completes the drawing definitely true of his character.

I have made the most of the dip pen varying the pressure applied to create some heavier lines. I have used darker lines on the foot stall on which my son is sitting to define the trousers. These heavier lines  help added a sense of depth that is missing from the biro study. 

Second part of the assignment, model should be lying down and the focus of the drawing should be on defining tones

1st study, done in some wax pastels, son lying  awkwardly some cushions in the corner of the sofa.

Applied the medium gradually building up the tone rather increasing the pressure as I made the marks. The wax pastels are water-soluble but  I soon decided against using this feature

Next study, for the tonal part of the assignment, my daughter more lying than sitting, using her lap top (possibly doing her homework). Here I am using charcoal and soft pastels.

Happy that I have the tones are correctly placed but don't feel that the first thing that jumps out at you are the lights and darks... perhaps I should have left out the soft pastel colours.  Should have spent more  time making sure the lighting would give me the contrast in tone that was expected from this exercise.

Short break (in Bournemouth including some sunshine) took the youngest son with us, woke-up on the first morning of our vist the curtains near my son's bed were not full drawn and he had kicked the covers down towards the end of the bed. I had the pose and the lighting I wanted for the second part of assignment four,  but not the materials so I took several snaps to work from when I returned home.

Studies, thumb nail sketches working on composition, position on the figure within the drawing.

Considered the possibility of portrait format  (including the triangular opening of the curtains) but decided on landscape format which would put the focus more on the figure.

One more study, in colour pencils:

Final drawing in coloured pencils:

Portrait Class 3

Thirty minute drawing in charcoal,

Then on to paints, black and white. Purpose of this exercise was to focus on searching out the various tonal plains in the model's face, looking for around five variations or certainly that was a many as we should consider, as an upper limit, in our painting.  Advised against using pure black or white paint in the picture. As we were using acrylics it did not matter in which order we laid down the tones...fast drying and easily corrected (not building up layers). Also told to be careful about the use of the lighter tones, use where they are seen on the subject, lighter tones in the shadow will still be darker than those area being hit directly by the light... getting this right will help give sense of form and space in the painting...getting it wrong will flatten the image.

I hour painting done of coloured paper after spending around 20 minutes drawing the form in chalk trying to map out the different tonal areas. The hogs hair brush I was using was not going to allow me to deal with any detail, plus I was keen to have something that was as finished as possible , i.e., all areas of the painting worked up to the same level within the time available.

Research Point - People Watching

Drawing done whilst at my son's scout parade. Despite the obvious lack of details and some issue around the scale of people in the drawing I feel I have capture the character of the event with the flag bearer and the scouts marching in unison behind the scout master.

Had taken an artist sketch pen with me, would have been happier if I had packed a fine biro

Research Point - Anatomy

Several books that I have been looking it on the subject of anatomy, the first Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters by  Robert  Beverly which looks at works including Michelangelo, Rubens, Botticelli, Rodin and describes the the creative process with reference to these works for example identify the sphere and egg shapes that can been found in the of Michelangelo's Studies for The Libyan Sibyl.

As you make expect the book includes Leonardo da Vinci's  Canon of Proportions. The author makes and interesting observation, that these ideals of proportion appealed to him as a man living in the fifteenth century Italy... An Asian man performing the same investigations made not have found these proportions suitable.

From Canon of Proportion's we learn that the the following measurements

• Nipple line is one head below the chin
• The pubic bone is halfway done the figure
• The upper and lower legs are two heads high
• The head is divided in to three equal parts from the hair line down

Studies done from this book 

1) Andreas Vesalius, De Humani Corporis Fabrica, 1543

In this study focusing on picking out what in my mind are the main muscles

2) Peter Paul Rubens, Study for Abraham and Melchizedek

3) Raphael Sanzio, Study of David after Michelangelo

Here I am thinking abouts the tension in the muscles in the pose being held, have read that that it is advisable to experience the pose for yourself that you are trying to draw so that you can feel which muscles are doing the work.

4) Jacopo da Pontormo, Male Nude

Real sense of limbs in his drawing, almost like they are not fully under control .. like a young dog that still has to grow into its paws.

Another book/magazine that I have been looking at is Anatomy essential (from the makers of Imagine FX).  Introduces you to Reilly's method and talks about the importance of identifying the gesture line and the "landmarks"

• Pit of the neck
• Points of the shoulder bones
• Bottom of the ribcage
• Peaks of the hip bones
• Bottom of the crotch
• Kneecaps
• Ankles
• Big toes

Viewing the figure from the back you would plot the

• Shoulder blades
• The Sacrum (triangle patch of dimples at the bottom of the lower back

Attended a short course, two evenings, that looked at anatomy from the  point of view of an artist.

On the first evening we looked at the skeleton covering the  types of bones the skeleton is made up of. There  are I believe over 200 bones in the body all of which can be considered one of the following:

• Long bone :  Limbs, fingers and toes
• Short bone:  Wrist and the ankle bones
• Flat bones:  Shoulder blades, pelvis and ribs
• Irregular: Vertebrae, bones of the face
• Sesamoid: Found with in  tendons, hyoid in the neck and the knee cap

We then looked at the joints functions, studying a skeleton and other bone movements. One movement that I hadn't appreciated was the way the two long bones in the lower arm (Radius and Ulna) cross over when you rotate your lower arm and hand.

Once we had studied the skeleton, we drew some match stick action people showing roughly were we felt the main bones should be placed.

Also looked at Disney's early interpretation of skeletons, The skeleton dance.

Finished first session, by drawing the skeleton

  

Second evening looked at the muscular system

Types of movement:

Concentric: Muscle attachments pulled closer together
Eccentric: Muscle pays out in a controlled, slowing down movement against gravity e.g., sitting down.

Finished the session by drawing from a live model, positioned, series of short poses to bring, to highlight the muscle definition

 

Exercise - Form and Movement in a Clothed Figure

Youngest  son wearing one of my hoodies to help accentuate the the folds in the clothing. Two studies of the same  pose done here, one in charcoal and a second in oil pastel. Both mediums allow for quick expressive results which suits my particular approach and also lends it's self will to defining the folds in the fabric, soft marks that can be easily blended.

Portrait Class 2

Started the  2nd  evening's portrait class with two charcoal drawings  spending no longer than 5 minutes on each.

In this one the model has her hand resting by the side of the neck, may not be clear from the limited detail I had time to capture in this part of the drawing

Profile view of the same model

In the next drawing I used my left hand  (naturally right handed), found controlling the line and the amount of pressure I was able the apply very difficult, oddly enough the direction of line that I favour ordinarily (over use when blocking in areas) diagonal line running top-right  to bottom left  I had the most trouble with e.g., forehead and nose. Despite the issue controlling the charcoal with my left hand, I decided that the use of my left hand should not be an excuse to introduce any measurement errors.

Next drawing a portrait without looking a paper.  For me this exercise  went wrong the moment I took the charcoal of the paper, lost all sense of the space I had been working in... anyway I can make out some eyes and a nose

For this drawing were allowed 3 minutes to study the model's pose before she left the room. We were then given 5 minutes to draw her portrait from memory... think my drawing has taken on more of an cartoon / illustrative quality some similarities with the model but perhaps an equal amount of how I believe the face in general is built up with these key components (outline of the face, eyes, nose and mouth) marked with a  heavy line.

Normal 15 minute pose, angles of the forehead and face beyond the tip of the nose corrected, re comments by the tutor, angles more acute than I had initially drawn them...lapsing back to how I believe the shape of the face should be rendered than actual checking and measuring what is in front of me.

Final drawing and change of model, 50 minutes to work on this, focusing on tones and working on to a mid-toned sheet of paper that we prepared before hand (rubbing back charcoal)

Had issues here with the placement with the hairline which I reworked but now gives the appearance of a cap (or wig), but feel I achieved a likeness of the model with several distinct tonal values.