Assignment 2 Feedback sections

In assignment two, most of the work I did was in sketchbooks and so will not be posted here. I have life drawing class sketchbooks as well as a sketchbook for around the house and one for exercises that didn't fit in the other books - so a bit all over the place, but then - I am meant to be an artist. Most of the things here are close-ups or self portraits, and I hope you won't think I'm vain! I wanted to get the detail just right, and only I have the patience to sit for that long for myself!

Proportions
I did sketching of people around the house and at my class for different short periods of time - looking at them even a few days later, you can see improvement - that's not to say I think I'm some kind of genius picking things up so quickly, but having NEVER drawn people beyond a stick man before until I started my sketchbooks, I found it very difficult to pluck up the courage to draw so quickly for a while. Most of my early and short figure drawings don't look solid in the time period I gave myself. It depends on how difficult the pose is, but most of the time I think I can convey the gist decently. The proportions of the people are improving all the time, and the only problem I had, and I don't know if this is a really weird one, but I often start with the shoulders and draw them bigger than they should be in comparison with the rest of the drawing.
I tried starting at other points, but I seem to exaggerate where I start whatever I do right now.

Gesture
For this one I did some drawings of my little brother posing and a lot of dynamic poses at my life drawing class. I think I did ok - I thought I'd have a go with charcoal for the faster drawings, as I was still using pencil for most other things (I'm still on wobbly ground with figure drawing). I don't think that I could capture the whole of someone in any smaller space of time though, and that worries me slightly. I think they're balanced alright, and I hope any shading I've got in shows the weight of the figure and grounds it a little more. Conveying a sense of energy? I might have to practice that one... Then again, maybe I'm not being imaginative enough with it.

Form
I do so many of these drawings at my life drawing class, I hope I can answer these in an informed way. I think that my ten-minute drawings are improving no end - at the beginning I could just about sketch in an awkward outline or a properly correct arm and back or something - I think I'm capturing more of the spirit now and the figures look much more evenly balanced. I think that I need to focus more on shading and light and dark areas next. Mostly I'm alright on proportions, but I do need to try and draw bigger (without being forced to by my materials). There are more action-centred poses that I suppose could only be viewed one way, so probably come out best. That's not giving myself much credit, but I still don't think I'm all that good. I'm afraid that even after the gesture drawing exercise I still don't think too much in terms of a central axis. I don't see what people mean all that much when they talk in terms of identifying shapes either - I don't know if this is a problem, or just me being difficult, but I try to approach every drawing in a very practical way.

Structure
Slightly longer drawings that I can just do in pencil are much more my thing, and again, I do quite a few at my life drawing classes, but I also did some with myself in front of a mirror.
Again, the central axis isn't something I take into consideration on paper very much - sometimes if a drawing looks off, I hold something straight but thin against it or hold my pencil in front of my face and close one eye so I get a better idea. I think the drawings I did in the end for this, taking into account the foreshortening, were reasonably well proportioned and conveyed the forms well.

The clothed figure
I've done quite a few drawings around the house and of myself for this - taking note especially the drawings of me in my Victorian dress. That series of drawings, although it took a long time, wasn't too hard technically - I began with the outline of the skirt and built up, (adding the hair over it when the rest of the drawing was done) - I think that's probably approaching it in sections. My sketches of people round the house are much shorter and I think I approach them more directly. I think I'm really quite good at creating volume in the material - the stripes and patterns on different material always helps, of course. Taking my Victorian drawing for an example, while the folds of the skirt are very full, the bodice of the dress is fitted, as in the style of the time. The rest of the time I wear fairly fitted clothes and it's easy to show the forms, but my sketches of my brother (who often wears baggy clothes) are slightly more difficult. However, on this part of the subject I'm doing quite well, if I do say so myself.

The moving figure
Argh! 'Fleeting moments' are all well and good - that's why I've been drawing everyone around the house without telling them! We're not the most action-packed of households, and we have no pets, but I can draw people cooking, reading, playing games, fine. I even went out to cafés and sketched people sitting around for the street scene exercise, fine. But moving figures from memory is one of the hardest things yet. I found it incredibly difficult... There's a few different movement exercises we do at life drawing, but nothing like this! I found it very difficult to remember any detail and ended up with the outline of clothes, mostly. I'm quite disappointed in myself.

Self portrait
I've quite enjoyed this exercise as it gives me time to do all the detail I can't fit in with other people sitting for me. I've done lots of different ones with different hats, etc. I think that I did well capturing the detail as well as the basic shapes - one good idea was drawing each feature of the face separately before I really got into drawing a detailed picture - very interesting. In my opinion, they look convincing. I quite often lit my face from one side to get more interesting shadows - that sometimes makes them look asymmetrical. I wouldn't say that I have asymmetrical angles, but I have a few moles - two on the right side of my face (from my viewpoint), one at the top of my forehead, one under my left eye, and a little scar on my chin - do they count? I suppose they must do, as I almost always include them. I didn't find I had any particular difficulty with shadows - of course, not all patterns of shading are flattering - when you're lit from above and get a shadow under your nose and eyebrows - if you're not careful you end up a moustachioed (this is a real word!) panda! I don't think I adjusted the overall size very much - I think mostly I drew a little larger than sight-sized. When you're just drawing your face, and I don't know if this is 'cheating', if your face is a little too small for a good composition, you can always put on a hat or draw in shoulders, extending up or down... One of the tricks of the trade, perhaps?

Portrait from memory
This exercise was a little odd. I thought it'd be best to just do myself again, as I would have plenty of time for sketches and detail before I tried it, and besides, I probably know myself best - or at the very least, a caricature of myself. Now, the questions at the end of this section are mostly about converting sketches - I was unhappy with my sketches for this, but thought I'd better go for it (I might flatter myself unententionally and draw something nice) and the finished drawing was much nicer than any of the sketches! I think I might have warped the idea in my head for each of the sketches - So I think if anything, were I to use myself again, I'd probably spend less time on the beginning! Then again, maybe it's just luck!

Now, there isn't a round up of questions for the end of this section, and I wrote some notes on my assignment drawings, so before I post the letter that my tutor sent to me, I'd just like to round things off by saying that I've come from never having drawn a person before to something pretty great here - again, I'm proud of the work I've come out with.

An additional note - somewhere between my house and my tutor's (in the post) three of the end drawings for this section were lost. Part 1, my brother on the dining chair, and parts 5 and 6, the close-ups of the pattern on the sofa. It's certainly a shame, but you can still see the photos here, and they weren't the finished drawings.
So, Page 1:



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Assignment 2 - part 7 - Finished sofa drawing

Here's the finished drawing. My drawings of people are much better 'zoomed in' as it were, so I thought I needed to focus more on him. The pattern on the sofa took me far too long, and is mostly what delayed the assignment. I just hope my subject stands out enough! I'm proud of persevering with my idea, and I think you can see all the work that went into the picture.

Assignment 2 - part 6 - Sofa pattern sketch 2

The accompanying part of the pattern.

Assignment 2 - part 5 - Sofa pattern sketch 1

Here's a sketch of half the repeat of the pattern on the sofa.

Assignment 2 - part 4 - 'Sofa' drawing sketch

The second drawing is someone reclining on a sofa. Here was a quick drawing I did, leaving out the pattern on the sofa until I was happier with the composition. It's ok, but the figure - again, my little brother - wasn't great.

Assignment 2 - part 3 - Finished chair drawing

Here's me being a bit of a rebel - I was told to do a drawing of someone on an office or dining chair, and here's my view of it. I'm not sure how well this will go down, but I thought the perspective on the jacket and the buttons was interesting, and I'm putting equal effort into the background, creating interest and using the paper to its full potential. The pattern on the seat of the chair and the tiles on the floor came out quite well, and the way I was sitting I could only just see my toes, so you can see them peeping out there as well. It doesn't look quite as nice as a photo as on paper, I will add.

Assignment 2 - part 2 - More detailed chair drawing

Here's another chair drawing. It took longer than the first for this assignment, and was an exercise in trying to use the shading to get a rounded look to the limbs, and it's ok. My hair does really look like that. I think the arms are less of a success than the legs - they look a little flat. I was also trying to do a slightly more interesting pose, and using yourself means you know how you were sitting if you shift round without thinking!

Assignment 2 - part 1 - Preparatory sketch

So, here's my second assignment. The first drawing is someone seated on an office or dining chair, and here's a quick sketch of my little brother (playing on his Nintendo DS). Wondering what angle to have him sitting at, I decided to draw him right from the front to start with, but with his hair falling over his face, he was mostly in shadow. I should explain at this point that I've had such a long gap between this and my last blog post because I've been working on these assignment drawings (which are a bit complex, as you'll see later), I've been a bit ill, and have been working on another course at the same time. You'll notice I haven't got as many pictures up as I did before my first assignment, but I've been keeping a sketchbook around the house and two others for my life drawing classes - so it doesn't look like much online, but I have three books too!