Tuesday, 8 January 2013

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.

Week 5 - Landscape drawing (Final finished landscape drawing 1/3)

Here is my observational drawing of my back garden using charcoal as a medium; by first covering the entire page with it and then rubbing out the light areas.
This drawing doesn't have too much contrast because it was quite a dense area, and so there are only a few highlighted areas. This works well because of the subtlety of all the tones present, and yet you can still make out what everything is. There is a clear composition of foreground, midground and background each with varying levels of detail to create those varying levels of depth; for example the foliage in the foreground on the right and the darker/blurrier areas in the background. I tried to get the bird stand on the left as close to the rule of thirds as I could so as to create something the eye could be drawn to; and athough it is not exactly in the right place, moving the whole perspective would have made me miss out other areas.

The lighting is very subtle in this drawing, and yet works quite well. The direction of the light is clear since all the objects have highlights in the right places, and depending on the type of surface, this determined the amount of reflectivity (for example the grass was more reflective than the stone slabs in the foreground).The light area in the upper left also highlights that there is a building there behind the trees.

Week 4 - Light and shadow (Pencil)

This arrangement of a cloth on a beach ball on an upturned stool really brought out many different light and dark areas because of the creases in the fabric and the shadow that it and the ball cast on the stool. Shading is a key element of creating a 3D drawing with a sense of depth, and so it was important to realise the various tonal values that were affected due to varying light sources in the room. This drawing makes clear the darker and lighter areas of the objects, though could do with more detail definition for example making the really dark areas more obvious. This could have been achieved by using more drawing techniques such as cross-hatching.
There were lights directly above and to the left of the arrangement, which is why these areas are lighter compared to the underside and right of it.
When doing this I focussed on the shading rather rhan drawing areas, since the shading gives the drawing the shape itself.


Week 3 - Landscape composition

Composition is important in all forms of visual media, because when done right it can make a scene look particularly interesting compared to another.
With this drawing I took into account the positioning of my viewfinder (i.e. my hands) to make sure interesting objects were on the intersections for the rule of thirds, such as the chimney, building on the right, and the trees in the bottom left.
With this drawing/scene there is a clear foreground, midground and background; which I feel works well because the focal point should generally be in the midground. The foreground and midground seem a lot more detailed compared to the background so that they stand out more and draw your eye to the right places.
The tonal values of the objects on the page vary quite well, for example the dark trees/shrubbery in the foreground, and the shading of the roofs and chimney, as well as the lighter shading on the building. The tones are quite spaced out too, creating a sense of balance in the drawing which is pleasing to the eye.
There are probably 3 main elements of this drawing; those being the chimney, trees in the foreground and the building on the right. An odd number of elements is preferred because too much balance isn't always a good thing, so sometimes it is better to make it seem a bit more random.

Week 2 - Perspective


This week we were learning about perspective; including from a single point view (left image) and two-point view (right). Learning how to begin with the horizon line and use vanishing points to help me construct accurate shapes at different sizes was very useful as it gave me a clearer understanding of 3D and depth/how we perceive objects at varying distances, as well as how things should look. Deliberately drawing foreshortening is one of the primary ways to show depth because our eyes naturally do this so it looks natural and right. Using these construction lines, horixon lines and vanishing points help to make these scenes look right and increase drawing competency and believability in other areas.

Week 1 - Basic marks






We started off our observational drawing module by making various simple marks on paper; such as dots, straight lines (including diagonal) and circles. We were told to use different pencil grips to see which we prefer when drawing different shapes which will help in the future. For example when drawing straight lines I find it easier to use my thumb flat on the pencil whereas for circles I find it easier to use my normal hand-writing grip.