Week 12 - Posture and pose

Here are some different poses that a live model were making. They all show how the body can twist in different ways and how doing things like moving the arms can affect the rest of the body. 

You can see straight lines where the hips and neck/collarbone are which indicate how the body is positioned, including any twists and turns that it may be making.

These different poses are useful to us because we can re-create these on 3d software to create realistic looking models and movements. 

The past few weeks where we have focussed on the human body will all compliment each other because it means we can get the proportions, shapes and movement right for when we re-create them. 

Week 11 - Musculature (With final finished figure drawing 3/3)

 

This is a drawing I did in 15 minutes of a live model. I focussed in on the back so I could draw it bigger therefore adding more detail. The position of the model meant that certain muscles became prominent under the specific lighting conditions, which were easy to mark down because certain areas were contrasting a lot. I did however decide to exaggerate the dark highlights a little to create more contrast and variation, simply because I like this kind of style.

 Another 15 minute sketch of the same model but in a different pose. This pose with the raised leg definately brought out the muscles in his left leg, as well as the  fibula bone that slightly protrudes when stretching the leg.
The spotlight helped to bring out the highlights and again certain parts were exaggerated to show them off more.

Here is a final figure piece of the model. He is shown here sat down in a natural position. I primarilly focussed on the shape of the body and showing off the muscle lines that were created due to the lighting (such as between the bicep and forearm). Some parts are a bit thin however such as the legs which wern't that thin however the main shape is quite accurate.

Week 10 - Anatomy and movement

Now that we had a basic understanding of human anatomy and proportions, we started drawing moving models quickly to test our understanding of the human form as well as our observational drawing skills, This was challenging because usually when we were to draw something it would still be there when we looked back up from the paper. This tiny timeframe (15 seconds usually) meant that we couldn't be nit-picking about certain details otherwise the drawing wouldn't get done.
Bold and purposeful lines were made to get the basics of the figure down on paper, including the angles and directions that the head, torso, hips, legs and arms were at.
Drawing multiple images to show movement on a single page is useful because it helped me understand the physical changes that our body makes when doing simple actions; and so this will help when translating these movements onto 3d software to make realistic actions.

Week 9 - Basic Anatomy

This was done as part of the directed study involving basic anatomy. This covers the general sizes of an average male and female taking into account head size as a basis for working out other proportions to make a realistic looking figure. for example the width of the male would be around 2&1/3 of the head length.

Week 8 - Reflective surfaces (Pastels)

This still life arrangement has been setup specifically using very reflective surfaces and a perspective that shows these off well, as well as contrasting colours to help show reflectivity. The two vases sit in the intersections of the rule of thirds as they are the focal points for this piece and creates balance between the two halves of the paper. Pink paper was used to compliment the red card which the vases sit on, as I didn't want too many variations of colour (a white background would have stood out too much). 

Long broad strokes were used to colour the vases which helps to create a hard and smooth looking surface as well as show off the reflections. Since the vases were so reflective (almost mirror like) I made sure that the surrounding areas were clearly depicted on them which I feel works really well; particularly the red card on the vase that is lying down. On this vase you can clearly see the highlights and colour variations of the card underneath, such as where the shadow cast by the vase starts and ends. You can also just see a red tint on the vertical vase on the bottom right where there is a reflection of the red card.

The drawing is balanced on both halves thanks to the dark reflections on the aluminium surface which everything is sitting on. This aluminium sheet is slightly bent/curved on the left so the reflection there is slightly wavy, and with soft edges. 

Week 7 - Textures (Pencil)

Here are two materials that vary greatly in texture and hardness. The two on the left are of corduroy fabric which has a "rippley" texture rather than just flat fabric. This creates interesting tonal values that was quite challenging to draw correctly, especially since the fabric wasn't flat on the table. Because it is a complex surface; this was done more impressionistically by drawing in the shading areas with pencil rather than drawing it naturalistically which would have taken too long for such a small section of the fabric.

Week 6 - Composition - (Final finished composition drawing 2/3)

This still life shows quite good composition because there are no orphaned objects and the objects are placed in such a way so you get a sense of depth. There is also a nice flow to this arrangement; because going from the left to right there is a line of objects which helps to bring them all together.

The closeness and positioning of the objects means that shadows are cast which creates interesting tonal variations in the drawing; such as darkness where many objects are clustered together which help to accentuate the bright patches in the front. The various creases and inconsistencies in the cloth help to balance out the tones between the top and bottom halves of the drawing, which makes it feel finished as opposed to if they weren't there. The hard pencil marks to show the hard surfaces and edges work well particularly on the cauliflower and to show the reflections in the jugs, however the jugs would look better and more realistic with slightly softer and gradual shading in some areas.