ASS3 - Project 1 - Observing the Human Figure

Exercise Drawing the human figure

For this exercise I  am going to sketch my fiance Antonio. I have got him sitting in a chair for me. Hes playing on his computer, looking at the screen with a controller in his hands. I am sketching from his left side first. I notice the way he is a little bit slouched into the chair and that his right foot is lying on top of his left bottom leg and foot.

10.12am - I have just done a quick sketch of this and I somehow have made him look wider in the chest then he is. I have drawed in a basic chair for not as I am only concentrating on the figure. I have decided my next angle is going to be in front of him. 
10.20am - Sitting here I instantly notice his legs. They are a great angle to draw to show shortfortening in my drawing. I have sketched him now and I really like this angle. I think it has a bit of character to it. I have made him look too thin on this one in the chest. I really need to look at this issue again. 

11am - I have drawing two more sketches but I still really like the one I did when I drawed him from the from. I am now going to sketch it again try to get the body right and add in the detail of the chair.
11.20 - I really like this final sketch, I have got his proportions as I see it and his chest area looks a lot better. I am now ready to paint.

Exercise Lina Figure Study

Firstly I have just done a wash on the paper and left it to dry. I have then used a watered down paint and painted on his body pose using my skeleton lines. Next I have added in the shaped to add to the volume. I have now used a darker paint and with a thin brush gone around the main lines to create shape.
I have just added a few bits of colour to fill in the shapes and I think I am finished. I have not tried to be neat and I have just been a bit more looser. I feel its quite hard for me to do, but I will try to break my habit of spending too long on a painting. 

I think the outcome came out really well and I feel I have completed the main objective to show that I can drawn line of a figure.

Exercise Tonal Study

      For this my friend agreed to model for me, she took some persuading but I made sure she was comfortable. For a exercise to show tone, I wanted to see more flesh. I got my model to pose with a scarf. She did not want to be taken from the front view, so I asked if I could paint her from the back and she was happy enough to do that. I got a lamp on the left hand side of her to add light and she messed around with the scarf. She actually got a look going on that was elegant and with her body arched to the right. I started to sketch her out firstly in a cylindrical form. This did help me to create volume of her body and get the correct shape. I then did a pencil sketch of her with tone to make sure I had looked properly. I kept getting her feet wrong as her left foot was at a slant and a bit twisted. I felt it was hard to grasp the angle it was at, I went up a bit closed to her and looked again and did a sketch of just her feet, I  think I have got then to look ok now.

  I like the out come and I think my model will be pleased when I show her the final painting. I had already pre done a background wash. For this I used a natural brown colour and instead of just washing it across the page I swirled my paint brush around in spirals to create a swirl effect in the paint on my paper. I think this gave a great technique and I am excited to start painting on top of it. My friend has quite silvery pale skin so I am going to try and capture this in my painting and I also feel this will be a good contrast to my background I have done. 

Painting

      Firstly I have just done a basic outline, using a watered down skin colour.  I have made sure I have got her at the correct pose on my painting to what I am seeing. Now I have the out line. I have chosen 3 colours yellow red and white to mix them to create a skin colour and also by adding a little black I am hope to try and get the silver skin tone that she has. I have decided to paint the dark areas first, which are on the right side of her body, away from the light. Whilst painting the shaded areas I really got looking at her body to see the shapes of those dark areas too.
       Next I added a bit of white to my colour to get a mid tone and then I applied that to my painting. Its beginning to look really well. looking at her feet I am having the same issue I did when I was sketching her out, but as long as I get the shape and tone right for now, I think they will look ok. I have now gone to start to add the lightest areas and been really careful to make sure I am painting the right areas. I am really enjoying this, I feel I  have been a bit careful but not as much as usual, I want to get the tone correct on her body.  Her top of her back is where I am also finding it quite tricky too, as the light is hitting some of the muscle areas and then where theres a few ditch areas, it goes darker really close to the bright areas. Finally once that dried, I added in the hair and the scalf. I realised that in the sketches, I saw a part of her face, but when I started this painting I couldn see her face. Both ways look fine.

     I am really happy about my final painting for this and I feel like I have made a step forward with my figure painting and drawings. I have got the proportions correct and I really like the tone. There are  few areas I would redo such as the top of the back. looking at it now the light areas may be too bright and I should of blended them better when next to a darker colour. Also the feet could of been at a better angle. I really enjoyed looking and painting the tone into the body of my painting. My model was really happy with the painting and she liked it that much she wants to buy it off me once I have finished with it, which I was happy about as I feel I am starting to get my painting correct.

ASS3 - Investigation of the human Figure

      I am excited to start this. I have had a 2 week break and had time to think about the criticism, I have had and to churn it all into positives. I am going to really push my self this assignment as I want to achieve that degree and improve my self.

   Drawing figures a year ago was quite daunting to me and I did an assignment in drawing 1 when I realised, it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. What I learnt from that assignment is that I needed to look at proportions closer and get use to thinking about the muscles and volume that they give to the body when drawing.

   I've decided to start an investigation in my sketch book, to really help me get to grips on figure painting. Also I want to refresh my memory from last year on how to draw humans, to make sure I know and understand what i'm doing. I am also going to look at a few artist styles in figure painting and try to find something I admire and put my own spin on it to try and push my personal voice out of me.

Investigation

First I decided to look at at some youtube videos to get a few ideas on how to draw figures, refresh my memory. What I need is a basic structure of the skeleton to work from to create movements and expressions of my models and input that in to my paintings.

I had a look at the following :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2fKxNDsXuw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TvgLbKBKlA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4353W2Xqm0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF9C88xSxvY

      I did look at a few more, but these were my favorite ones. Jazza in the first video really inspired me on how to look at the human figure... I liked that he interpreted  the figure to a basic stick form then added volume. Even though it was more animated than real life, his technique I found was useful and I understood it really well. After looking at these videos, I discovered there are different ways in drawing a figure and everyone has their own decoding of the human figure to create a humans overall shape.

       I have decided to input some of my research in to my sketchbook and to practice to find what way of drawing a human figure suits me best.

        I have just done my research on getting the skeleton form correct. I cut out some models out of my shopping catalog and drawed their skeleton basic shape, so I can see more clearer on a nature person. I found my way worked alright, but feel maybe using circles on all area restricts to create angles of movement in the body. I will test this further, prehaps with using triangles, to create angles on shoulder line and above the hip. Those areas are important as those areas can tilt and twist. I find is the main area to get correct first so that i can get proportion inline the rest on the body correctly.

               I then looked up muscles. They I feel are the next main layer. I decided now that i should look males against females to see the differences and what I need to take not of when I am drawing each gender.

               After doing this research,  it really helped me more to understand what I need to concentrate on in a painting/drawing to help produce the figure of each gender. I understood males muscles are a lot bigger and that a 6 pack, actually has 8 muscles two that hide under the pecks of a man, they are the smallest. I also discovered that women are generally more shorter, than men and have more of a softer flow to their shape. They also have wider hips than men due to the reproductive system so keeping this in mind will help to show more of a correct female figure.

       The next area I looked at, which was an issue last year, was to get the proportions rights especially the length of the model. I did some pre sketches just and glued them in to my sketch book, they show my proportions are quite out. On the second drawing my arm of my figure looks longer than it should. I then looked into this and realised I had forgotten the 7 length head rule. I tried again and compared it to another previous sketch and noticed my proportions were a lot better.

I have really enjoyed the investigation so far and I am eager to get stuck in. I want to make sure I have some knowledge about muscles now, just to feel comfortable in what I am drawing. I have decided to look at some muscle areas which I am unsure of so that I can portray them properly, when I think about them underneath my models skin. This will help to create their forms.

     Tonight, I have looked at arms, legs, back, hands and feet muscles. I have really got to grips with them and where they are placed in the body. There is a lot to learn still, but hoping once I get started, I will be thinking of these things whilst I am drawing. I feel its really helped me to get a heads up on what I am about start in this assignment.

Research

I had a look at a few artist work on the links below to get to grasp of ideas and styles I could input or add my own twist to a style to try and find my personal voice. I looked at Ingres, Degas and Matisse.

http://www.jeanaugustedominiqueingres.org/
http://www.edgar-degas.org/
http://www.musee-matisse-nice.org/

Out of the three, my favorite Artist Figure Painter is Degas. I was inspired by the oil paintings of the ballerinas and the way he painted them in a soft was to make the paintings show the elegance and the floatiness of the ballerinas. 

The Dance Class II

http://www.edgar-degas.org/The-Dance-Class-II.html

Ballet Dancers in Butterfly Costumes (detail)

http://www.edgar-degas.org/Ballet-Dancers-in-Butterfly-Costumes-(detail).html

Dance Rehearsal in theStudio of the Opera

http://www.edgar-degas.org/Dance-Rehearsal-in-theStudio-of-the-Opera.html



          Looking closely I can see, especially on the top two paintings that he used a flat brush to create a netty effect of the dress. I think this works really well and it creates transparency at the ends of the dress to get the correct texture to it. I also notice he does not add in every detail that he sees, such as face features, which look blurred, but still gives a great affect to the paintings. This artist clearly concentrates on the body form and angles of movement, which I think inspired him to dancers as there is a great amount of different movements to capture. The fist painting I have put on here is also interesting for me, as he has used one point perspective, with the dancers in a room. It helps me look at the lines and a good example of what I have just been looking at as requested by my tutor. I had to also put this last painting on because I like the techniques he has used for the background and floor. For me, just doing a plain back wash is a bit boring, so I want to experiment in this assignment on background colours and techniques that help to show figures stand out as well as the techniques on the backgrounds in my paintings.

     I had a look on the internet further, see if there was any other artists I liked. I came across a modern today painter called Julia.

Heidi- Figure Oil Painting
https://www.juliaswartz.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=197


      I really enjoyed looking at her work and I think her application of paint is the best I have seen so far. Its really looks fun and one that I would like to attempt my self.   The way she wisps it on where she sees dark and light areas really inspired me to try this technique. Its really a bold and brave confident painter and you can tell this by her paintings strokes. Shes not afraid to put paint down, where as I have been in the past a bit to delicate and scared I will mess a painting up. Please see the links below of her other work.

https://www.juliaswartz.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=197
http://juliaswartz.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_ID=8

Sketches

        I have just done some sketches tonight of some of my friends, who modelled quickly for me and two sketches of ballerinas from photos

My first sketches were of Zac my work colleague. The first font view one could be better as I did his head to small compared to his body. The second drawing of him was from his side and I feel this is the better of the two. It looks more like him and better proportioned. His shirt he was wearing, looks a bit big on his back but I think that was because of the way he has it tooked in his trousers.

      Next I drawed my 2 other friends who are twins sam and lucy. lucy is wider at the hips then sam is I think I drawed sam well, but lucy has a arm that looks to short and her left leg looks funny position to her angle shes posed at. I have got to make sure I am really looking at was I am drawing more.

     I then drawed two ballerinas from photos, I was inspired by Degas oil paintings of the ballerina's, to capture movement and elegance of this type of dance. I attempted in oil pastels first and it turned out rather well. Its harder to get the figure correct off a photo , I know the Painting 1 Course folder tells you to avoid photos, but I wanted to really try drawing them. it really helps as you can see a lot of their muscles in there body, whilst they are stretching about doing that type of dance. I really like my pencil sketch I did I feel like I am actually getting there with my proportion issues I had. 

Overall

       At the start of this investigation I wanted to make sure I knew how to make sure I got the following points correct and also to understand areas of the body:

1. Learn proportion
2. Remind myself of skeleton form and muscle
3. Look at ways to paint figures
4. Look at techniques of paint to show tone and skin colour

       I feel in my investigation I have looked at all I wanted and I am beginning feel confident in figure drawing and painting. I am really going to try and push myself harder in the assignment and I am going to try to stop being so neat and let mistakes happen and just let my brush flow. I need to get out of bad habits to become better. I am feeling ready now to get started. 

Research - Reccomented by tutor Derek.

Romanticism

       Romanticism was a movement in art in the 19th century across Europe. It was an era of expressing emotion, freedom, heart and imagination. This was shown in art work of this time. Artists used medieval life images, as this was known then as a powerful religious age and which showed stability. People believed, Rural lifestyles were better then cluttered urban living areas. Many of these painting during this time showed rural areas with an image of a church to create that medieval religious images I spoke about previously. Artist also thought nature was an important part. Instead of painting nature in its normal beauty, they would emphasis this and create sublime art. An extremely powerful image, which will strike emotion in the viewer. My tutor has requested that I should look at two artists of this time.

Delacroix

        I had a browse on the internet to look at his work. I discovered two paintings that I felt really caught my eye and also the stories within them being told.

The Barque of Dante

http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/barque-dante

      I spotted this Art on the Louvre museum an was intrigued of what the painting story was about. I discovered that its a story from an old poem. Its about a man called Dante who travels from hell then ends up in paradise. This painting is of when he was in hell. Looking at the painting I can notice that Dante is the one cloaked in the middle of the boat. I think the man on his left is the boat keeper. This painting really shows you an insight in to hell. 

         The emotions in this picture bring it all together, to create a sense of fear and endless torture. Especially form the people in the water, who are obviously the dammed, trying as hard as they can to get on the boat. You can see there stressed and pain emotions in there faces. Dante's expression to me, is surprise and terrified at the same time. Hes looking at the sea of people, thinking that he did not expect it to be as horrendous as it was. It also looks like he wanted to get out of there pretty fast.

         The colours used in this painting are quite subtle, which is a quite calm use of colours to use when its a painting of hell. I would of thought the colours would be more dramatic, but thinking about it he kept then subtle, as the expressions are more then enough to understand what he is portraying here. I have also just spotted the fire in the background at which is another object that you symbolize hell with. His technique here is very detailed and I can clearly see his brush movements which create a dramatic effect for a dramatic moment in Dante adventure.

The Death of Sardanapalus
http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/death-sardanapalus

      I really enjoyed looking at this piece of art and admiring the detail within it. I read about what the story entails and its really inspired me to try and input stories and emotion in to my work too. This was a painting from a play that was shown in Paris and whilst it was there Delacroix was inspired himself. He produced this very in depth painting which I think is such a great example of expression. The story is in the title of the painting ' The death of Sardanapalus'. Sardanapalus was a Syrian king, who lived in a palace. His era was before Christ was born. In this story, the king kills himself and a concubine, as there were rebels who were taking over his land and were at the palace doors making there way in. In the painting you can see the king lying on a pink coloured bed, looking at what is going on around him.

        Lying over the bed is a concubine, pleading to the king to have mercy and to let her live. She looks as though shes exhausted of asking the king to let her live. To me the expression on the king, is that he has succumb to his fate and knows he will die by the hand of the rebels, if he does not kill him self first. He looks at though he is completely blocking out the cries on the concubine and just accepting his end.

        All around the bed, there are other people. Looking at them, I can see some killing each other or committing suicide. On the left side of the painting, I can see a woman carrying a golden bottle and inside it I'm guessing, is some sort of poison. 

         In the background there are flames coming from buildings. This shows the rebels are winning and that the whole city is going to go up in smoke. The colours used in this paintings are not subtle like in the Dante painting. They are very colorful and rich, to show the wealth of the king and the beauty of the palace. The painting strokes are very dynamic and flow fluidly. The composition is another point I wanted to note,  I  feel that your eyes are drawn all over this painting with the action within and also the details hes as inputted in too. Suicide back in Romanticism time was favoured by artists and this painting to me clearly ticks all boxes that Romanticism is all about.

Théodore Géricault

     My tutor has told me to look at the work of Gericault called 'Ten portraits of the Insane'. 

The Ten portraits of the insane were Gericaults reaction to his own illness which was that he was suffering from delusions of militry command. There are only 5 insane paintings left that survived the times.  The painitng were used in Gericaults vision to show soccietyys 

Ten portraits of the insane, only five of which survive, were Géricault’s reaction to his illness: A Man Suffering from Delusions of Military Command; A Kleptomaniac; A Woman Suffering from Obsessive Envy; A Woman Addicted to Gambling (Fig.1); and A Child Snatcher. These paintings confronted society’s perception of the insane and tested the stereotypes constructed about them. Driven by concerns in altering attitudes to disease and an appetite for controversial art, his work challenged the prevailing stigma towards the mentally ill

Portrait of a woman addicted to gambling, 1822

Théodore Géricault

Oil on canvas 

72 x 58 cm 

Musée du Louvre, Paris, France

    This painting caught my eye first out of the 5. Its a very scary looking woman and I think the painting justifies the title to it. Her eyes look so sore, as though as shes watched a lot of races or sport (depending on what she betted on) Her eyes just stare, in hope of that big win. However her clothing makes me think she never ever won that big one. He clothes look old and her skin is all wrinkled. It portrays her to be a woman that has gone through a lot of stress. Her mouth is a half smile and that to me shows she has not had a happy life. Her mentality for me is easy to see in this painting, she looks as shes been on edge, putting all her valuables on the line for that big win. As a painting the artists has a way of using his personal voice to show the personality on the figure. 
      The blackness of the background and figures clothing, really brings your attention to her face expression. Ive come to discover with painting figures, you need to also add expression and personality of the person into the painting. Its really good as it makes it interesting to the viewer, who is trying to figure out the story behind the figure.

Portrait of woman suffering obsessive Envy

http://www.artcyclopedia.com/featuredarticle-2000-11-port5.html

    In this painting the woman looks old and cranky. she looks the type of person who is alway playing games, to get what she wants as shes jealous. Her expression reminds  me of the evil queen in snow white, who is jealous of her step daughters beauty. in the story she turns into a old hag to give snow white a poison apple.


https://www.pinterest.com/milantarot/no%C4%87-ve%C5%A1tica-halloween/

   I really think the same personality is in these both figures.

 In the painting you can see her frown lines in the middle of her head . This portrays a angry personality. She has a faint smile, which probably is when one of her evil plans work she cackles that shes succeeded in revenge or got her own way. Shes ugly  so Im guessing beauty and happiness are two things that she wanted but never got. The painting is again similar to the first one I talked about, where the artist as made sure the viewer is drawn to the face to see the expression.
      Gericault's and Delcroix;s artwork has made me realise, theres more to figure painting than just painting a figure/person. You have to also involve the personality of that person and look at their facial expressions to go with that personality, which tells the viewer a story. I am going to keep this in mind when working on my own figures in the next assignment.

Perspective

    My Tutor told me to relook at one point perspective, as I didn't do it correctly in last assignment. I decided to look on internet and I also found some useful websites and youtube videos:

Linkhttp://www.technologystudent.com/designpro/perspec1.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/design/graphics/drawingformalrev2.shtml
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Draw-A-Room-Using-One-Point-Perspective/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEymIyLbiAI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mjSDIBaUlM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY0H1dH_fIk

    Well, after looking on the internet, it made me realised that I thought I knew how to do it, but maybe I should've looked on the internet first, to refresh my memory. Last time I did it was when I was in Sixth-form at school. I have learnt from it, so Ill make sure from now I look more before I leap. 

   I saw a video on youtube of someone creating curved steps. that video has really inspired me as there was so much detail in the finished drawing but was easy to achieve, once you get the rules and knowledge of one point perspective (last link above).

  I did a practice of what I studied on the internet in my sketch book and I think I have got a better grasp of where lines go now and to use a ruler. I will practice some more and I will use this, to help with the figure in a interior exercise, which is coming up in the next assignment.

ASS2 - Feedback from Tutor and Assessment results for Drawing 1

Feedback off Drawing 1 Assessment

   I received my feedback before Christmas, but I have been ill due to stress and other things so I treated myself to a 2 week break: no work and no art work. Just spending time with family and enjoying some me time. It helped me think things over and gave me time to get myself back on track, to being the normal happy me and grasp what is important to me. 

   I spent most of yesterday going through my assessment from Drawing one. I got a pass and 45 percent mark. I was not happy at first, as I thought my work was better then that. I had to realise that this is the first time ever, that my work has been really criticized and that the criticism is for my own good. It will help me to progress in areas where I am going wrong, or need improving. There was nothing bad. I re-read it and these are the comments I need to take note of and act upon:

• Take more risks
• Find my personal voice (show experimenting different techniques and ideas  to find my voice)
• Improve on Self reflection - Analysis and synthesis of information
• Investigate more
• Look at own interpretations of subjects I am looking at
• Have more intermediate dialogue with work
• Learning log - treat as a professional document
• Commenting intelligently and concisely on own work and others
• Use more terminology

   I have really had time to think and these are all things I really want to now work on, to progress. There are quite a few to take in to account to start all at the same time. So I am going to take little steps, to get use to thinking of these whilst working constantly. 

   The last seven pointers above are mainly for my log book. To show investigations that I make and criticise my work. I also need to comment whilst doing my art work more to do investigations on how I am painting, mistakes I make and ideas I find along the way. I also need to take more risks and be brave in my art. I really need to let out my art spirit within and just paint naturally with my ideas.

      I think the hardest one for any beginner like myself, is finding your own personal voice. Its hard to, especially when your discovering new things such as for me - painting. how do I learn to paint correctly and experiment painting different object yet also finding my voice as I go along - it is a hard task. However nothing is easy and I want to get that hidden voice from out of me. I have looked on the internet and in a few books to find ways that will help.

     I found that experimenting with techniques of different artists is a good place to start. Artists that I admire, Look at there techniques but put my own twist on them to create my own ideas and hopefully keep doing this to find my own technique - my own personal voice. Its all about experimenting and inputting my favourite mediums, ideas and techniques together to create some thing uniquely special to me, to stand out from the crowd.

      I also discovered that a good way to help is to write a lists of different thing such as likes and dislikes, what makes you happy sad or laugh. Objects you admire or dislike. All of this can create a list of ideas to use to create your own voice. To create something that tells people a statement/message or a story.

     I really found the internet useful to help me find my inner ideas. I am definitely going to create a list as above and also pick out some artists I admire to start with. I will then look again at there techniques and ideas, find out what I like about them and discover what I can achieve adding my own ideas to create something completely new. 

Feedback Ass 2 Painting 1 - From tutor

      I had this feedback also before christmas and I had time to think it over. I was disappointed at first and worried that my tutor thinks my work may not be good enough got assessment at the end. I really want this and so I have looked and listened to his comments and I have really took them on board. The main comments he has mentioned are:

•  To paint more fluently
• Thin paint more to dry quicker
• I have a tendency to paint neatly so I need to stop this and leave some unfinished areas and mistakes
• On perspective work use a ruler.

    I feel the comments made were again good, to put me in the right direction to improve my self and my art. 

     Overall, I have took the feed back in and churned over it. I am ready to tackle the issues in front of me now and to really show, that I do take this seriously. This is my life long dream and I am going to conquer the pointers given to me, to become better and show my passion, in my work and log book.