Week 10 - Life Drawing - Tone and Colour in Skin

30 minute sketch, Hard Chalk Pastels

 

These set of life drawing sketches are focused on the tone and colour of the human skin, capturing light, skin tone and tonal value helps to recreate skin in a realistic way. Understanding the structure of skin helps to recreate it effectively. The following theory is present in this sketch:

 

Positives:

• The use of dark shadows helps to define where the skin crumples and bends in  the joints of the hand and also hangs and stretches around the tendons and bones.
• Interesting perspective and it allows you to see the foreshortening of the fingers under the hand and how they rest.
• The white and black chalk shading gives the hand tone allowing you to see where the natural light hits on the hand and the shadows cast on finger joints, knuckles and folds of the hand.
• Long, hard, black lines define the shape and form of the hand well.

Negatives:

• The first finger length seem slightly off from the perspective it is at.
•  More colour tonal values is needed to emphasise the skin on the hand and where it bends and stretches.
• Subtle detail on the skin in terms of tone changes on the knuckles and wrinkles on the joints.



 



30 minute sketch, Soft Chalk Pastels

 

This is another sketch focused on the tone and colour in the human skin,  focusing on the skin tone and how it varies throughout the body and also how natural light effects the colour of the skin is important. The theory that can bee seen in this sketch is as follows:

 

Positives:

• A variety of subtle colour values and shades has helped to create a good amount of realistic skin tone and also shows how it changes throughout the body.
• The use of darker more saturated skin colour and lighter more desaturated skin colour shows how the natural lights hits the body.
• Dark opposing colours help to create the darker creases of the body as seen in the arm pits and under the breasts.
• Soft smudged chalk lines help to create the sense of soft flowing curves on the body.

Negatives:

• The limbs could use more detail and shape to emphasise the hands and feet instead of being sausage limbs.
• The pose and posture could be more emphasised to show weight and how the models rests of the cloth.
• A backdrop is needed to ground the sketch and to add a source from where the light is coming from and how it hits the model.
   

Week 9 - Life Drawing - Gravity and Drapery on the Human Form

 

10 minute sketch, Charcoal

 

In these life drawing sketches the main focus was drawing drapery on the human form and how gravity causes material to hang and cling to the body giving it weight. This sketch shows the following theory:

 

Positives:

•  Good use of planing lines for the shoulders, spine and hips has helped to map out the   positioning of the body, how they angle and  twist, it has also helped to map the correct proportions of the body and limbs.
• The use of crinkled lines and shading helps to create a impression of creases and wrinkles where the fabric bends by the legs and hangs off the shoulders.
• Good amount of pose and posture giving the impression of resting on the table.

Negatives:

• Lacking in detail in the limbs like the hands, feet and face where they need more shape and picking out detail in the finger, toes and facial features. 
• More emphasise on how the cloth drapes off the body and how it bends at joints would improve the sketch.
• Shading and tonal value is needed to show of where light is hitting the fabric and highlights would help give an indication of what it is made of. 
   

5 minute sketch, Charcoal

 



 This sketch was a quick 5 minute study of how drapery interacts with the human form, this sketch is to show how fabric is affected by gravity and how it hangs off of the body. The theory shown in the sketch is as follows: 

 

Positives:

•  Nice, curved and flowing lings which help to show of how the fabric drapes of of the shoulders, down the back and off of the fore-arms and elbows.
• Good posture and pose seen in the model as the arms cross to grasp the coat stand and how the body is positioned standing back straightened.
•  Nice amount of proportion in terms of the size of the cloth and the limbs, head and torso.

Negatives:

• Needs more tonal values to show the type of material the cloth is made of and also where light hits the it and where the shadows are cast.
• More detail is needed in the hands to show how the model grasps the coat stand with her fingers and detail in the face to show express.
•  Background shading is needed to plant both the stand and the model on to the floor and where the light is coming from.



Week 8 - Life Drawing - Basic Anatomy

10 minute sketch, Charcoal

 





These set of sketch are the start of life drawing they are a focus on getting the basic anatomy correct, an understanding of the anatomy of the human body is important in these drawings. Measuring is an important factor to getting the anatomy right. This theory is visible in this sketch and is as follows:

 

Positives:

• The proportions of the body are good and the arms and legs are well proportioned to the rest of the body and the body follows the rule of about six heads long.
• There is nice posture and pose to this sketch and it is clear to see how weight is applied to the fist and arm of the right arm and how the left arm rests on both the legs.
• Fair bit of tonal value on the skin giving it a sense of light and shadow as well as skin tone.

Negatives:

• The limbs are still not detailed enough and need to be made less sausage shaped and more shaped to show off the anatomy.
• The sketch looks flat and needs more shading and better perspective to make it look three dimensional.
• The overall use of the medium is messy and needs to be cleaned up and the lines should be more curved and smoother instead of being scrubby.
•  More background information is needed to ground the sketch and offer more scenery. 
• More shading and specular highlights on the skin would give life to the skin and also give light and shade.

 



5 minute sketch, Charcoal

 

This is a quicker sketch still focused on the basic anatomy of the human body, it offers the same as the other sketch but with slight improvement. The theory applied in this sketch is as follows:

 

Positives:

• The proportions of the body, arms and legs are good and are in the correct proportion to the to head.
• Nice shape to the back, chest, bum and legs showing better anatomy and better understanding of the models figure.
• Good amount of posture and pose see in this sketch seen by how the arms cross and how the feet are positioned differently and also how the spin twists. 

Negatives:

• Still not enough detail to the hands, feet and the rest of the body, more detail is needed to show how the limbs interact with the restof the body and how the muscles are working.
• More toanl values is needed to show how light is casted upon the body and where the shadows are being cast upon the body.
• The use of the medium is still messy and scrubby and the use of clean fowing lines would help to show anatomy in the body.
• More background information is needed to ground the sketch and offer some enviromental effects on the body.

Week 7 - Still Life - Detail in Natural Form

30 minute sketch, Graphite Stick

In this sketch the main focus was the detail seen in natural form and the recreation of different detailed materials as you can see in this still life set up. The following theory is visible in this sketch: 

 

Positives:

• Lots of tonal value seen in this sketch which creates a good sense of where the light hits the still life set up and where the shadows are cast upon the different materials and fabrics creating texture.
• A range of different mark making techniques used on the scarf to create a wool texture, the bed sheet as it folds over itself and creates shadow and also the wool hat and cushion with strong indentations.
• There is a nice pleasing composition as the objects are arranged in a way which shows how each object interacts with each other, it shows how they overlap and hang over each other also the shadows they cast on each other.
• The strong, crisp, dark lines and the mixture of dark and light shadows helps to lead the eye around this sketch to all areas focusing on the detail.

Negatives:

• The perspective of the still life set up seems a bit simple as its face on and it could have been either higher up looking down or down looking up to create a more interesting perspective.
• The sketch could use more background information to ground the arrangement to the floor instead of floating.
• More subtly and contrast in the shading and highlights would have emphasised the difference in textures seen in this sketch.