Drawings: OCA Part 4: Proportions II - The Longer Pose

 The Longer Pose

Oil Pastel on Green Paper

 

Thank you to my mother for once again offering (involuntarily) to be my model for this exercise. I ended up doing two drawings instead of the intended one as I wanted to experiment further with a different medium after finishing the pencil and wash piece and produced the oil pastel piece above as well. I employed the time tested artists method of holding a pencil at arm’s length to judge the right measurements and learned a valuable lesson – always ensure you’re using the same pencil for this.

The Longer Pose

Pencil and Wash

 

Learning Log

 

Have you managed to make a complete statement in this time? What were your main problems?

In the majority of my drawings there is a compete statement but I have to admit not necessarily a totally accurate one.

I find that the main problem that I am encountering is with the details of the face and hands. Working with larger mediums like pastels of thick charcoal this is not so noticeable; there is less room for details so fewer marks. However I really struggle when using finer utensils such as pencil or ink pen to record the details of faces and hands smoothly and succinctly. I know his is all down to a matter of practicing it so practice it I shall do.

How well have you captured the characteristics of the pose?

When I stayed focused and concentrated on each mark that I made the character of the pose definitely came through much stronger and produced a more satisfying drawing. However sometimes I would get bogged down in certain areas and loose some of that individual personality.

Do the proportions look right? If not, how will you try to improve this?

Surprisingly I think the proportions of my figures are generally quite good, at times the faces and hands are a bit off as mentioned before, so I shall practice to hopefully improve in the future. Otherwise I don’t think they are at all that bad I found that using objects in the background to relate to really helped to get the scale right.

Preparatory Sketch

Biro and Marker Pen

Drawings: OCA Part 4: Proportions I - Quick Poses

Marker Pen on Scrap Paper

 

Now onto the fourth part of my drawing course and it is time for some figure drawing, a subject that always seems to be very hit and miss with me. I know I can produce some very good figure drawings but at the same time I’m prone to some awful ones too, shall just have to see how it goes.

 

Producing these quick drawings in a few minutes was quite refreshing after spending hours on the same drawing of a tree and such like. Although it was challenging to capture the character of the subjects in such a short time, sometimes it started to come through surprisingly quickly with just a few well chosen lines.

 



Biro Pen on A4 Cartridge Paper

 



Marker Pen and Biro (L) - Soft Pastel (R)

Biro Pen (L) - Pencil (R)

Drawings: OCA Part 3: Assignment 3

Assignment Three - Drawing Outdoors Final Piece

Graphite and Chalk on Coloured Paper

 

First off I have to say that this assignment was hard, or more specifically finding the right view to work from was the hard part. I needed a view from a window or doorway that included natural objects (i.e. plants, trees etc) had a sense of depth to demonstrate some perspective as well as some straight-lined objects. I found looking out of any window covered a couple of these criteria but they all seemed a bit, well, bland. So when I finally found this view I knew that this was the one I was going to work from, it had a linear perspective in the buildings and some trees in the foreground and the church gave an interesting background.

 

So, having found my chosen view I set about playing around with the composition and decided on a portrait format that I felt showed the depth of the drawing well. I then experimented with the perspective of the buildings to ensure that I had it all right. After this I decided to eliminate one of the background buildings and I am glad I did this as it helps the church to be more dominant in the background.

I experimented with a watercolour and pen drawing that I decided not to pursue, it did not feel like the right media for the piece; I wanted to work with something that showed off the setting better. After a bit more exploration I decided I really liked the way chalk and graphite worked against each other, especially on the coloured paper as a mid-tone. The media manages to capture something of the feel of the place quite well.

I ended up spending a couple of hours creating the final piece and I am really satisfied with the result. My only concerns are that I may have lost some of the depth in the final drawing and that I should have explored some more choices of media that may have showed certain elements off better.

Experimenting with Composition

Biro on Paper

 

Pencil Sketch (left) and Working out Perspective (right)

Watercolour and Pen Piece (left) and Charcoal Sketch of the Same Tree (right)

 

First try with Chalk and Graphite on Coloured Paper

Drawings: OCA Part 3: Townscapes III - A Limited Palette Study from your Sketches

The Wellington - Strand

Pen and Pencil on Orange Paper

National Portrait Gallery

Graphite and Coloured Pencil on Pastel Paper

 

I really enjoyed this exercise and drawing townscapes in general, it is not a subject that I have previously explored all that widely until now. I ended up completing several pieces for this particular exercise, partly because I was having fun with it but I also had an afternoon to waste in London after visiting the Picasso exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery.

I have found sketching the London architecture is great fun anyway, with all different styles juxtaposed together in such close proximity but producing drawings with a limited palette meant a challenge and generated some interesting results. I really like the piece I did of the Wellington in the Strand; its elongated architecture suited a portrait configuration very satisfyingly.

Coach and Horses - Bruton Street

Black and White Ink on Brown Paper

View Down Jermyn Street

Marker Pen on Orange Paper

Drawings: OCA Part 3: Townscapes I - Study of a Townscape Using Line

Rooftops

Marker Pen on Paper

It is always hard when producing these line drawings to resist the urge to start shading; it seems the natural thing to do, especially when you have recognised a foreground, middle ground and background in the piece. It is also tricky to include all the details at just the right scale for it all to fit in without looking awkward. Whereas you can tweak still lives and landscapes, with a building, if the windows are all different sizes, it will definitely be noticeable. I quite like the result though and it was actually a rather enjoyable process.

Drawings: OCA Part 2 III: Project - Drawing Fruit and Vegetables in Colour - Part II

Exercise: Using Markers or Dip Pens

 

 Orange, Pear and Lemons

Marker Pens - A4

Apple, Pear, Orange and Lemon

Marker Pens - A4

 

 Apple, Oranges and Lemons

Marker Pens - A4

 

I really enjoyed this exercise, both the process and the results captured my interest. Using coloured marker pens to draw with was a fairly new thing for me, I have never tried sketching anything out with them properly, so it was with a bit of trepidation that I began this exercise. It all turned out fine though and I became engrossed in building up the hatching, using the bold lines that are inevitable with marker pens. I had quite a good range of markers to utilise in these drawings and after some experimentation i dicovered that layering the dark blue and red close to each other formed a great dark tone for the shadowy parts.

 

I also produced a couple of drawings with the use of ink and dip pens. I have used dip pens before in my first assignment, but I stuck to black and sepia then, unlike in this exercise. I approached each drawing differently intentionally. With the first one I washed some rather bold strokes onto the paper with a brush, layering the red over the green where it was darkest and sketching the details in afterwards with a dip pen and black ink. The second drawing I did completely with a dip pen similar to my marker pen pieces, building up the hatching on different planes.

 

 

 Two Apples

Washed Ink and Dip Pens - A4

 

Apple and Lemons

Pen and Ink - A4