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.