Week 12 - Natural Landscapes in Colour

In this week we studied colour in natural landscape, we went to Todmorden to study some for the colourful landscape seen around the area. This first sketch was a very long fifty minute sketch of the canals in Todmorden. As you can see this sketch has layers of colour starting with lighter colours and moving into darker ones. The tonal values of the water are good as you can see different tones of brown, grey and black and go from darker colour values to lighter one to create the sense of distance. The darker black, grey, green values make the compressed sections of the sketch as the lighter colours open up the wider expanding sections. The darker tones to the water create a colder feel whilst the brighter greens and yellows make warmer feels for the path and grass.

Directional marks are used horizontally with the curve of the canal to create the sense of water flow and reflection. Directional marks are also used in the grass to show the longer areas of grass and foliage. Bending has been used to create an even transition between colours. some detail has been picked out using darker colours to pick out the detail in the bricks in the canal wall and the stones on the floor. Scrubbing can be seen in the path to create a gravel texture and the white and silvery colours for water. The perspective of the sketch is good and the sense of distance is created by foreshortening. I think more tones could be added to get the more sutler colour in the water and path.

Week 11 - Colour in Landscape

This week's focus was the colour in landscape, we went to Bradford's Centenary Square to focus on the complex colouring of the landscape. This first sketch is a short twenty minute sketch I did to get warmed up, it isn't great but but it does offer a good starting point at looking at the colours I have used. You can see how I have used layers of colours to create tonal value in the trees, grass and stone. I also used directional marks to form the trees and the branches and also the detail of the grass. By blending colours of the same shade like greens, browns, oranges and greys I can create natural colours that differ in lightness and darkness to pick up on the sutler colours in this landscape.

As you can the the perspective of this sketch is all wrong because it seems to be looking down on the landscape and should be lower down. The proportion is also way off and the size of the grass patches and trees needs work. The bricks in the walls surrounding the grass are coloured we because the show off atransitionof colour from lighter and darker colour creating expanding brick work.  This also creates a colder tone as they are stone using the greys and black for lifeless objects and warmer, brighter tones for the trees and grass for living things and sunlight.

 

The next drawing was a lot longer and took me almost fifty minutes to sketch, this was a much larger prospective of the Centenary square. This sketch offers a more acute perspective and is a lot better proportioned. The amount of colours used in this sketch is good and the amount of blending seen in the grass, floor and trees is very good. Darker tones like the blues, grey and blacks have been used to create colder colours for the non-organic objects like man made objects like the stone and concrete. Warmer colours like the browns, greens, oranges and reds have been used to create the more organic things like trees, grass, bushes and dirt. There is fore shortening in this picture as the things near the back appear to get smaller creating a sense of distance in the sketch.

The separation of colour has helped to create an interesting sketch with a lot of different colours with greeny, yellowy hues in the grass and browny, orangey hues in the trees, I feel this picture could be improved by removing the black outlines seen a round some objects in this landscape this is because in real life object don't have outlines and also this would help everything blend into the environment to create a more harmonious landscape. The used of more sutler colours and also  mixing them more would help to create more realistic colours but I feel this style helps to pick out the dominates colours and also adds tonal value. The saturated colours in this sketch help to define areas that are made of more harded materials like stone which has suttler colour tones. 



Week 10 - Classical Interior Achitecture

This week was a focus on classical interior architecture, we went to the Alhambra theatre in Bradford to draw the highly detailed interior of the theatre. The first sketch I did was a forty five minute sketch of the booths over looking the stage. This sketch shows the composition very well as the focal point of this sketch is the booths over looking the stage and focusing on the corner of the room allows you to see a number of perspectives throughout the sketch. The dark dominate lines in the sketch lead the eye around aspects of this sketch that are most pleasing and defines the main shapes seen from this perspective. The shading give areas of the sketch a sense of a different texture and it breaks up the lines into different objects seen in the sketch.

The detail included helps to pick out the classical features in the interior of the theatre, like the columns, stage, balcony and booths. This sketch uses negative space effectively because the whitest areas of the sketch imply that there is space there and the shaded bits show the most textured and darker objects. The centre of interest is the booths so this has the most detail because the viewer will be focusing mainly on this area of the sketch. Not too much detail is included because that would distract the eye from the overall theme of the picture and enough is there to give an indication of what the complexity of the sketch is.

Week 9 - Modern architecture

This week was a focus on modern architecture and we visited the Bradford media museum to focus on the modern architecture seen inside the building. The first sketch I did was of the entrance of the museum, this sketch shows good detail in this modern architecture, the detail and shading in the vertical supporting columns, the metal oval door and blacked out windows are effective. The amount of lighter and darker shading gives a sense of metallic texture to the columns and door. You can see the slopping angles of the windows are captured in this sketch, they were difficult to get right.

I feel this sketch was drawn too closely and the viewer would get a better sense of the architecture if more was included. Also more shading would determine the lighter and darker areas of this picture. I  think a smaller picture would allow less precise vertical and horizontal lines and more interpretation. The perspective of this sketch seems to close but does show how it was drawn from a balcony. The props that hold the windows in place give the picture a third dimension because they angle differently giving different perspectives.

This second sketch is a thirty minute sketch of the stairs seen in the Bradford media museum. This sketch has a lot of very abscure angles including the angle of the stairs and the glass pains that from the stair supports that the rails are attached to. This perspective is a sort of fish eyed lense effect like you would see using camera as parts of the stetch open out and spread across, so it is difficult to get these two perspectives to look right in one image. The shading has been used effectively to dermine the difference in texture throughout the sketch like for example the wood stairs and the landing and the handrail leading all the way up. The use of diagonal lines and horizontal help to lead the eye from the bottom to the top of the stairs. Some foreshortening can be seen in terms of the stairs in front and the ones smaller at the back which indicates there is a gab between the two sets of stair to create distance.

The use of darker and lighter lines, shading and vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines help to create the sense of 3D and also the darker lines draw the eye across the page and up the stairs. I feel this sketch successfully shows the perspective of this sketch but. I feel it is lacking and could use a smaller perspective to gain more information in terms of the surroundings of the stairs and more shading to get the different textures seen in this sketch. This sketch overall is successful in showing modern architecture as it shows the way it has changed in term of how stairs are interpreted into a more modern building.

Week 8 - Non-human figure drawing

This week is about non-human anatomy and figure drawing in animals, my first drawing was of a stuffed panda in the Leeds museum's taxidermy collection. This sketch took me about twenty minutes to do, This sketch shows the posture and pose of this animal well. The external lines of this sketch help to show the structure of this animal with its big back legs, back muscles and neck muscle, these lines really show off the bear like anatomy of the panda and also the size of this animal. The positioning of the legs and back posture give this sketch a sense of weight as the weight appears to be shifted on the front paws and powerful shoulders.

The amount of detail is good because the features like the face, ears, claws and fur texture can be seen, the shading helps to show the texture of the dense fur on the panda and the black patches which are so dark and cover the eyes. Proportionally this sketch is fairly accurate and the paws and legs a relevant to the size of the torso and head. The perspective of this sketch shows how this wasn't draw directly sidewards on but at a slight angle as the face and front paws suggests. I feel this sketch could use more shading to get more detail out of the fur and face also shading to suggest where the light came from.

The second sketch was of a completely different species of animal this time and took about twenty  minutes as well. This sketch is of a stuffed horn bill at the Leeds museum, the pose is shown well in this sketch you can see how the external convexed lines help to form the curved body and wings as well as the neck and head which is pointed forward. This is a fairly dynamic pose for an animal because the legs are not side by side instead they are positioned diagonally. Also the wings are slightly stretched and not exactly to the body and the most dynamic thing is the head outstretched from the body. These lines also help to show the anatomy of this bird and how the wings are tucked in to the sides of the torso and the neck muscles stretch out to hold the head up and the long thin beak with the shovel end. Proportionally this sketch is fairly accurate as the legs are almost twice as long as the body.

The posture this seen effectively in this sketch because you can see how the weight is off and looks like it is leaning forward, and the positioning of the legs looks as if it is about to take another step forward. I feel the legs could have been drawn better because the back leg looks slightly bent in a weird way and the foot looks a bit short compared to the other foot. I feel this sketch could benefit from more shading to bring out the feathers of the bird and also a better idea of how the light is hitting it. This does diminish the fact that it is easy to tell what animal it is and also the pose and posture of this animal.

The third sketch I did was a quick 10 minute sketch of a bison seen in the taxidermy collection at Leeds museum. This sketch doesn't really offer a lot but it was good starting point to get warmed up. It offers a good sense of pose but is llimited by the fact you can't see the whole body, the head is shown well and allows you to see how the bison wasn't looking directly forward and more to the side. Also the positioning of the front legs as you can see they are one forward and one back. The detail is mainly in the face and allows you to see the nose, mouth, eyes and horns, this sketch does show some anatomy mainly in the torso and head because the external lines show of the big back muscles seen in the sketch and also size of the head and legs structure.
This sketch is lacking shading and detail which would greatly improve it especially because it is drawn so closely. The posture seen is sketch is a well balanced one that has the weight spread fairly evenly across the body and legs as far as we can see. The proportion looks accurate and the head seems the right size in comparisment to the body which is the biggest and strongest part of the is animals anatomy.

Week 7 - Life Drawing - Movement and Action in Dynamic Poses

Week seven was a continuation of life drawing but we moved onto a close look of the movement and action seen in the dynamic poses that a life model can position themselves in. There is a number of different poses that can be drawn  both a dynamic and static pose but the ones seen in the sketch are a set of more static nature although some bits show a little dynamo to them. The first sketches seen here are two of a set of three poses which start from a very closed pose and stretch out into more open poses as seen above. The first pose on the left is a moderately open pose but isn't as open as it could be. This is a fairly static pose with her arms and legs all roughly the same distance apart and by her sides, but some may argue that there is a tiny bit of dynamo in the position of the left arm and head position.

This sketch is well proportioned and the continuous lines in this sketch really help to show of the curves and shapes of this model. A good level of detail in included to show off the main features of the body and this level of detail helps to gauge a good sense of weight in the poses of the model and it is clear to see that the weight of is positioned fairly central but more on the right side. This second sketch is a lot more open pose which is also fairly dynamic because this positioning of the arms and the hip twist throw off the balance of this pose and as you can see one arm is more outstretched than the other. The proportions of this sketch are good but the right arm seems a bit misshapen, it does offer good reference of pose weight and anatomy but could use shading to capture the skin texture and the lighter and darker parts.

This is one of my better sketches it is a very closed pose that shows some dynamism in it, this is because the weight of this pose is very unbalanced and the weight is at the front as she leans forward which puts stress on the back and the legs are positioned weirdly this is show bad posture. This gesture shown in this sketch is very enclosed and secure and gives a sense of defence as the arms cross across the body protecting the vulnerably parts of the body. The convexed lines really show off the shape and curves of the body really well, there is a sense of foreshortening at the back of the back and bum.

   

The proportions of this sketch is very good and a good amount of detail is shown which helps to show the pose, posture and gesture of the model. I feel a closer focus on the hands and feet would have helped to add more information on the pose of the model and also would make it look more realistic. Also shading would help to improve the level of detail in this sketch and the stretch and sag of the skin and the blemishes seen, this would also show where the light had shone on her and where it creates shadows. Overall this sketch is a good sketch because it show the principles of life drawing well and also give a good sense of the types of dynamic pose that can be created.

This last sketch is the most dynamic of all the poses I drew in this session, as you can see the body is stretched out across  diagonally and one leg is stretched out whilst one is bent in and the arms are placed behind her head, this helps to create the dynamism in the posse. This is a very open pose as the limbs and torso are stretched out and relaxed. This sketch really does show off the posture and pose of the model and gives the viewer a very good sense of how the model was laid, but it also you long convexed lines to show off the shape of the her body and also the positioning of the limbs like the leg bent under and the arms under her head.

The portions of this sketch are very close but I feel that a bigger sense of foreshortening needed to be achieved in the sketch to show how she was laid. I also feel greater detail could have been given to the face and feet so that it could look more complete. Still needs more shading which is something I should try to fit in the short amount of time I have to draw. Overall this is a successful sketch in terms of its pose posture and dynamism but still could use some finer touches to make it better.

Week 5 - Figure Drawing

Week five was the start of life drawing this week focused on refreshing our ability to draw the human form, This sketch was the longest of all sketch's I did this week and lasted twenty minutes, and this focuses on the starting points of life drawing, proportion, gesture and anatomy, As you can see in this sketch it took me a while to harm up to drawing the human form again but this sketch does offer good  practise of the key principles of drawing human anatomy. This sketch shows good gesture as you can see the sloping of the back and the curvature of the spine this helps to show the models pose. This also shows good human anatomy clearly representing the main features like hands, feet, head, facial features and limbs. 

The proportion of the arms and the legs appear to be slightly off in this sketch and are a bit too long in comparisment to the torso but if you measure it the body is around about six heads down the whole of the body which is right for a average man. Lack of detail in this sketch makes it a bit difficult to tell the finer muscle tones but the main detail is there and helps to form a good understanding on the models body structure. Overall this sketch was the most successful of them all because it was the closest in terms of proportion and gesture and correct human anatomy but it does need more practise.

This was a quicker ten minute sketch of the model in a different pose, this sketch easn't as successful as the last one but was done in only half the time and also before the twenty minute sketch, this allowed me to harm up and draw better. This sketch does offera good sense of the models posture, pose and weight. The down side is that the propotions a off and there isn't a lot of detail and muscle difiniton. Most of the external lines are good in terms off reprisenting the shape and posture of the model.

This sketch lacks detail and also correct proprtion and structure but it is a good grounding for improving how to draw the human form and helped me to progress as seen in the previsious sketch.

The lines are hairy and need to be more continous so that the shapes and curves are more esentuated on the body. Shading would help to add tone to the sketch aswell.

This sketch was another quick ten minute sketch which was after the previous sketch, in this sketch I foused on getting the correct proportion, thickness of limbs and alsoanatomy. This sketch shows good human anatomy and it is clear to see the features of the body structure. The posse is shown well and the weight of the model is show effectively. This sketch is lacking correct proportions of the arms and legs and also lacks detail but it is an improvement from my previous sketch because it is getting closer to being accuirate.

In it you can see more muscle definition and shape the the body which helps toshow the anatomy of the model alot better and it shows how the shoulders and hips where positioned. The proportions of the bodyare slightly short and the arms should be lower down. Overall this is a decent start to drawing the human form again but a lot has been learnt and mistakes have been made but it helps me to learn from it.

Week 4 - Foreshortening and extreme angles

In week four we continued a long the same subject of still life but we looked closely at the more tricky aspect of still life which is foreshortening and extreme angles. This is very difficult to get right and takes a lot of practise so we focused on drawing something complex like these skeletons, so that we could practise getting all the angles and foreshortening of the body correct. The first sketch was a very quick three minuet sketch which was to see how much information could be captured in this space of time. It was also a practise in trying to improve our ability to draw extreme angles and the foreshortened parts of this object.

As you can see in this sketch I started off making mistakes and the perspective and proportion is way off in this sketch but it did give me some foundations to work on and you can see in the sketch that their is some foreshortening and extreme angles but they are not accurate. This sketch does shows clearly how the angles of the bones in the skeleton are mainly oblique angles, this sketch also helps to show the perspective of how the skeleton was laid on the floor and the shapes that can be seen by the bones and the negative space they create.

The next sketch was a whole fifty minute sketch which was a focus on capturing the whole of the skeleton and focusing on the perspective of the sketch, detail in the skeleton, extreme angles of the bones and the foreshortening of the limbs and lower body. As you can see in this sketch a lot of detail is included you can see most of the bones and how they are connected also how the spine runs behind the rib cage and connects to the head and down to pelvise.

The perspective is good in this sketch as you can see that the skeleton is laid down and you are looking at it from a slightly higher angle looking down on it. I've managed to capture the extreme angles of the bones and also of how each limb is positioned really well. Foreshortening can be seen at the back where the lower back bones, pelvise and legs join together. Overall this is a very well observed sketch and is highly detailed.

Week 3 - Composition

Week three was the continuation of still life but was a main focus on the fundamental principles of composition. The first sketch was a quick ten minute pencil sketch of a still life arrangement that was composed by a small group of students from our group. Firstly the primary focal point of this sketch is the flowers in the centre of the sketch. They draw the viewers eye towards it firstly and then the convexed lines of the two jugs lead the eye away and around the sketch. This has been achieved by adjusting the picture area of this sketch so that the flowers are more centred.

I feel there is an implied line in this sketch that stretches from the left upper corner and touches the top right edge of the first jug, then moves to the edge of the flowers and then to the bottom corner of the big jug. Most of this sketch has interesting rule of thirds except for the upper left hand corner which is blank and white. It seems to be a well balanced arrangement of objects and the proportion of each object is correct. You can clearly see some overlapping of objects in terms of the flowers, jug and object behind it. This has a mostly pleasing composition.

This next one is another quick sketch of another still life arrangement that only lasted fifteen minutes. This sketch is not fully detailed and finished but it does show a lot of the key principles composition in it. This sketch does offer some depth in terms of how the ellipsis are shown in the more rounded objects, also the way the objects are drawn from different angles adds to the third dimension. There a re some very strong lines in this picture especially around the cans and jars. Also there seems to be some implied lines, one almost in the middle stretching across the sketch where the horizontal line of the jar laying sidewards and diagonally across the page from the top left.

The rule of thirds is quite apparent in this sketch and helps the eye move around the sketch by following the lines of each object. It also shows good use of negative space because the spacing between objects helps show just how close they are together in certain parts of the sketch. Proportion is shown correctly and well and also the object are position so that it appears to slightly unbalanced. The composition of this sketch is completely correct because the objects do seem to close together and some appear to kiss but it does give a good amount of overlapping with a for-ground and mid-ground.

The last sketch is the almost the exact same still life set up as seen in the previous sketch but was moved over so slightly, I have focused on more detail and cleaner lines so that the rules of composition can be clearly seen in the sketch. This is took me thirty minutes to draw and shade. There is a definite amount of depth in the sketch, the drapery, shading and positioning of objects all add to the effect of a third dimension. This is a more refined drawing and has very strong and bold lines which lead the eye around each individual still life object.

A strong sense of overlapping can be seen in the sketch with large jar position horizontally across the for-ground and the other objects leading to the mid-ground and drapery as the background. This sketch seems to be fairly well balanced with two jars on one side and the cans on the other, it also had good proportion as you can see how the objects more to the front are larger and those at the back are slightly smaller. This sketch offers contrast because you can see lighter and darker shades if grey which represent where the light and shade is cast. The primary focal point of this sketch is in the middle where the most detail is seen

Week 2 - Mass, Form and Shape

Week two was the start of still life the main focus of this week was mass, form and shape, we started by drawing a number of still life objects that were arranged in a interesting composition on a table in the centre of the room. The first sketch I did was a twenty five minute sketch done in charcoal, this sketch focuses on some of the key principles of still life, shape, composition, mass and form. This sketch is a focus on just the siluette of the shapes in this still life arrangement.

This sketch shows a  interesting composition but does show some kissing objects which isn't that great but I think their is enough detail to tell that some objects are further away than others. The shape of the objects and also the way the drapery connects them together is shown very well in this sketch, It also has good proportion and mass which makes it easy to see that the objects a all different sizes and that they all have some mass to them. The sketch uses strong convex curved lines to accentuate the curves in some of the more rounded objects.

The second sketch I did was only a twenty minute sketch and again this was a focus on the shape, form and mass of these still life objects. Starting off with the shape, the shape  of these objects is shown very clearly in this sketch the contour lines are bold and continuous to form the whole shape of each object. The smooth, continuous, convex curved lines really help to accentuate the shape of the more rounded objects. 

In this sketch the form of the objects can be seen which help to interpret the third dimension to this sketch and gives a sense of distance between certain objects. The addition of drapery to the sketch gives the objects mass and grounds the objects to the table instead of having them floating around. The arrangement of these objects could have been improved because they a too squashed together and look like they are kissing.

This last sketch was a focus on drawing the concept of negitive space within still life arrangements. This sketch onlyincludes the sillute of each objectand no detail what so ever, this allows us to see the negitive spacing around the arrangement, the shape and form of the objects together in one mass and also the external lines of each object. From this sketch it is easy that there is a line just leading from the top left edge of the tallest still life object and stretching down a long the edges of the other two objects.

Week 1 - Introduction to Observational Drawing

Week one was a introduction to the observational drawing module and it gave us a chance to refresh our observational drawing skills and get back in to drawing again. We did some long sketches of a still life table, chair and drapery set up. The drawing above is a forty minute sketch that was done in charcoal and focused on getting the proportions of the set up correctly by using measuring, also to get the external and internal shapes of the chair and table legs and the way the drapery forms shapes as it falls on to the two objects. This sketch also focuses on to the detail of the checkered drapery and how the lines bend and form around the objects, light and darker areas of this patterned design.

This sketch shows a good sense of weight regarding how the cloth drapes over the chair and hangs over the sides of the tables. This also shows how the two objects are connected together by the hanging drapery drawing the eye towards the hole in the centre of the set up this sketch coursing a point of intrest. The heavier lines around the drapery lead our eyes around the shapes of the cloth and the chairs. The rule of thirds is apparent in this sketch and includes activity in most areas of this sketch.