Assignment 4 preliminary ideas

OCA Drawing Skills Level 1, Figure and the head, Assignment 4

For this assignment I need to draw two figure studies and a self portrait. One figure has to be seated and the other laying down.

I have been thinking that I may explore these figure studies as male models. Up until now I have done female figure studies and it’d be good to explore the male figure before I finish this section.

I have previously done figure studies with graphite, using a lot of tone, as well as stripped back, minimalist brush pen figures and both appeal to me. I like the aesthetic of the brush pen more at the moment, but am aware that it may not show the lessons I have learnt about tone etc.

I have purchased a very large Pental marker pen and am considering doing large scale minimalist style figures using this pen to see what effects I can get with this.

When it comes to the self-portrait I am aware that I have already done one using graphite and chalk and have demonstrated a lot of tone. I have also done some using fineliner pen and alcohol marker as well, but this style feels more suited to smaller portraits.

I also feel like I want to explore colour for this self-portrait as it has been a little lacking in this section so far.

I had the idea that I’d like to gather symbols that reflect my character and utilise these in a portrait, kind of along the lines of the vegetable portraits done by Giuseppe Arcimboldo.

This could be a watchmaker’s loupe, drumsticks, art materials, running shoes, rowing machine, books and other objects such as these. I don’t know how easy it would be to utilise these into a coherent portrait.

I have also considered gathering these items together and allowing them to represent me in a self-portrait, rather than drawing another head and face. The items themselves could be the portrait of me.

These are all ideas I have been mulling over before I start my preliminary studies.

Portrait from Memory or Imagination

OCA Drawing Skills Level 1, Figure and the Head, Project 6, Exercise 3

This exercise plays right into my wheelhouse and what I have been practicing lately. I have been undertaking a long series of portraits based on Instagram pages, or photos I have taken. I have tried to draw these fast and loose, but I have also been trying to recreate some of these based upon memory as well.

I drew one portrait of a man with a hat and earphones and then tried to recreate it from memory alone. The detail was much less and the angle of the chin was not quite right, but the feel was definitely there.

I tried to draw another portrait of a man with quite hooded eyes and a sharp nose. I gazed at his features for a short while and then tried to recreate his portrait. I did not draw his forehead high enough and the top of his head feels squashed, but it was a pretty decent portrait.

For some other portraits I only allowed myself a brief glance at the faces I was trying to recreate, as if they were on a bus or I could only glance at them surreptitiously. These portraits are generally quite fast and loose anyway, so they have that feel of artwork on the go.

I tried to recreate a portrait on the whiteboard at work as well and this worked out OK. The medium is not one conducive to detail but it was good to work on a larger scale and work from memory.

I also included a portrait with a dog and the back of someone’s head as I liked the composition, but also wanted to learn to convey body language when you couldn’t see the face.

I also tried a fast and loose style piece in graphite, where I couldn’t use alcohol marker to show tone.  I didn’t capture a good likeness working from memory, but it is a decent looking portrait in it’s own right.

I found this exercise useful as I felt it was pushing me to use the portrait skills I have been learning lately and actually rely on skills and methods I have been learning to recreate a portrait from memory.

Your Head

OCA Drawing Skills Level 1, Figure and the head. Project 6, Exercise 2

This exercise required a lot of reflection when making some self-portraits. I had to think about pose, tonal variation and placement of features to give a believable head. I considered the anatomy and features a lot and took a lot of time to explore my features and planes of my face before beginning to work.

I chose two alternate poses to give the shape of my head from two angles and with the light hitting from two opposing sides. I drew these in the loose sketchy, scribbly style I have been exploring lately and used alcohol marker to add in shade and some tonal variation to bring out the planes of the nose and brow etc.

One part I struggled with is that I shave my head and had a slight stubble in these images. My head does not have strong hair lines to hang the drawing off of and I have found the hair a useful part of the head to add dimension and perspective in the other portraits I have been drawing recently.

The strong light also evened out many lines on my face so that the face felt very devoid of lines and distinguishing features.

My second self-portrait was drawn using graphite and chalk on toned paper and has a more front on pose. I very consciously wanted to do a different medium and style to the previous portraits.

Self Portrait

I took much longer on this second portrait and it is much closer to my likeness. I feel I could’ve pushed the darker values a little more, although the photo of the picture doesn’t help to show this. Again, the skin feels a little too smooth and featureless, but it was tough to add these in using the medium I was using without the portrait becoming ‘muddy’ and lost.

I really tried to bear in the mind the structure of my skull beneath the skin and other shapes of my face to create the correct distance between features etc. It was much more controlled and polished compared to the loose sketchy work.

I also tried to add an element of drapery to this second portrait.

These slower graphite and chalk pieces have a more accurate likeness, but the loose fineliner portraits have much more life and character to them. I have noticed this previously. I like the energy and life to the loose work and this is not something I would’ve thought I’d embrace before undertaking this course.

The first fineliner portrait has a degree of likeness to it and the graphite one is very close. My family members all agree with this observation. The second fineliner portrait has some elements of me about it, but isn’t quite there.

It was difficult to move from a loose portrait to a tighter, more refined portrait and I had to cultivate a different mindset for each. They are enjoyable in different ways and give very different results. My inclination is to draw slow and tight and I am really trying to utilise the lessons from his course to work with more life and expression.

Facial features

OCA Drawing Skills Level 1, Figure and the Head, project 6, Exercise 1

For this exercise I had to draw a selection of facial features and once I had done this I was to draw a portrait of a complete head.

I had drawn some eyes and ears as part of a previous exercise which I will include here, but I also did an additional series of nose, mouth, chin, eye and ear studies. I tried to include eyebrows and eye arches into these studies and also explored what shapes make up the various parts of the anatomy and what mistakes to avoid (specifically with the ear).

I tried to use a variety of line art, hatching and graphite shading to bring in some tonal variation. One thing I could’ve done better was to use the hatching in a curved direction to bring more organic lines to the studies and I will explore this more next time.

I have been doing a series of portraits recently as explored in another Learning Log and I have included some new portraits in this vein to demonstrate the various facial features actually in situ.

At the start of the course I was very interested in precise, realistic style art, but I am starting to explore looser, sketchy styles and this is reflected in my latest studies compared to earlier ones. I am enjoying the freedom from these looser pieces and will continue to explore this route a little more.

References:

Sturley, A (2021) https://sturleyart.wordpress.com/2021/08/14/portrait-studies/ (accessed 19.08.21)

Groups of Figures

OCA Drawing Skills Level 1, Figure and the head, Project 5, Exercise 2

This exercise required me to ‘people watch’ to understand human movement and interaction. I went to a Boot fair at the weekend and used this opportunity to make some quick studies.

I had to draw very quickly to catch the essence of the group of people and scene before me and I struggled with the scrappy, squiggly nature of my sketches. But weirdly, looking back over them I feel like I have captured something of the scene I was drawing and the lines have a life and energy to them.

I felt a little self-conscious sitting there drawing people, especially when other people walked past me and noticed what I was doing. It felt as if I should be asking people their permission to draw them and this is an interesting point of reflection when it comes to making art from public scenes.

I think one of my favourite scenes I captured was people queueing at an ice-cream van. There was something familiar about it and the way there was a mix of young and old and overlapping figures felt very active and alive.

I also like the scene where two people are kneeling together looking at an item and haggling over the price as two others look on. The huge bag makes for an interesting focal point.

I like the bent over figure unpacking a box as they set up their pitch, as the pitch to their side is already set up and ready to go. There’s a nice sense of perspective to it.

This perspective is also felt with the scene drawn next to a path, where a woman in sat looking at her mobile phone, as people walk behind her. The bollards and sweep of the path show the perspective well.

I tried to follow the instruction from the course to look at the figure more than the paper and this worked out reasonably well, especially considering how quick I had to sketch to capture the interaction before me.

This was an interesting exercise for me as I had to draw at speed and yet this vitality feels like it is captured upon the page. I will attempt to do this again the next time I am in a group setting.

Three figure drawings

OCA Drawing skills level 1, The Figure and the Head, Project 4, Exercise 2

This exercise has asked me to make three figure studies in standing, seated and lounging poses. I am to focus on basic structure, tone and shadow, foreshortening and parts of the body that we may not see.

I’ve made an extensive series of figure drawing studies that I have drawn upon for this exercise. These were made using graphite, fineliner pen and brush pen.

I found that imaging the skeleton and bone structure helped me position some of the limbs and joints correctly and I went back to adjust some of the figures with this in mind.

I enjoyed the poses with strong foreshortening, as these gave a more realistic rendering of the figure, although these were also the more difficult figures to draw.

The use of tone and shadow helped give depth and form to the figure I was drawing. Recently I have been moving towards very loose, minimalist sketches and artwork, whereas previously I was very much about using a lot of tone and different graphite to build depth. For this reason I found the fineliner and brush pen figures way more satisfying to create, but I understand that the correct use of tone and shadow has it’s place and is a skill that needs to be built and learnt in its own right.

I really enjoy figure work, anatomy studies and portraiture in all it’s forms and this was an interesting exercise to reflect back upon on some figure studies I have made and think about what aspects of these studies have been more or less successful.

Portrait Studies

Similar to my previous post, where I have been trying to keep my hand in and maintain my art practice and build skills that would be beneficial to my OCA course, I have been undertaking a series of portrait studies in the past couple of weeks.

I found a reference page on Instagram called Earthsworld where a photographer takes candid shots of Americans at County fairs and posts them online. There are a whole range of portraits and I have selected a few to study from.

I initially started on a very simple sketch and tried to portray the portrait in as few lines as possible, whilst retaining the likeness.

Graphite portrait using minimal lines

I then moved onto a series of graphite studies where I gradually built in more detail and added in shading via the use of hatching.

After this I attempted a few portraits using a fineliner pen and deliberately tried to keep the lines loose and almost scribbly. I wanted to find the face amongst the lines and go over the lines that I wanted most. I really liked this style and felt the looseness gave the portraits some life, whereas the graphite studies felt a little staid.

I then attempted a face of a well known celebrity as I wanted to see if my family and followers on Instagram could determine who it was. I wanted to do this as a test of my skills and capturing a likeness. I am pleased to say this was successful and everyone could tell who I had drawn.

Who is this celebrity? Answers in the comments.

Finally I attempted to draw some portraits where I used a copic alcohol marker to add in the shadows on the face and neck. These added another dimension to these loose images and I tried to keep these shading marks similarly loose and free. These were also quite successful and it was at this point that I felt I should write something up for my learning log.

I will continue to work on these studies as they are relatively easy to fit in around work and trips to my parents. I hope I will able to use these studies for future exercises and if not, at least the skills I am learning are helping my artistic journey overall.

References:

Earthsworld Instagram Page: https://www.instagram.com/earthsworld/ (accessed 14.08.21)

Just how big are paintings anyway?!

Last week I went to the National Gallery again. I wanted to explore the impressionists a little more, as well as going to see some paintings I liked again and see some others I missed from my previous visit.

I always find it a strange experience standing in front of a Van Gogh painting such as ‘Sunflowers’, as it almost feels as if I am standing in front of a celebrity. It is so well known and widely recreated that you feel you know it intimately and to stand before it in real life creates a real sense of awe.

I had this sensation very strongly with ‘Bather at Asnieres’ by George Seurat. This piece is so well known and so striking that it left me open mouthed as I sat before it and studied it in greater depth. One thing that really hit me was the size of it. I hadn’t realised the sheer presence of it and how big the canvas is. When it is recreated in a book or on a website you get no idea of scale and when you see it in the flesh it feels monumental.

Inversely I had a similar revelation when I saw ‘The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cerami’ by Jan Van Eyck. I had read about this painting and have watched a documentary about it and I anticipated it to be a bigger canvas than it is in real life. It felt much smaller than I’d believed it to be and I had to lean in to study the features I had previously learnt about.

The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cerami by Jan Van Eyck

This occurred over and over as I walked through the gallery, where artworks were either larger or smaller than I’d anticipated.

This made me think about my own experiences with creating art and reflections on the size of work I create. This is touched upon in another learning log where I discuss how my job of working on minute watches makes everything else I create seem larger in comparison. To see the vast canvases before me made me question how would one even begin something like that. How do you structure it, build it up, plan it out and more?

I have learnt about grid techniques and how artists like Da Vinci used to create drawn cartoons that were then pricked through to transfer onto a canvas and I guess it is in techniques like this that these vast canvases can be created. Never-the-less, the sheer scale of them is something to behold and makes for an immersive and evocative art experience.

Now, I just wonder how did Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel?

References:

Sturley, A (2021) https://sturleyart.wordpress.com/2021/04/12/scaling-up-the-art-i-create-and-watchmaking/ (accessed 11.8.21)

Jan Van Eyck, ‘Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cerami’. 1434. (Oil on Oak) https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/jan-van-eyck-the-arnolfini-portrait (accessed 11.08.21)

Trying to keep my ‘hand’ in (and a foot too)

After a previous learning log post, where I discussed my father becoming ill during this course and having to start long term care for him, a lot has happened. My father has improved a little, gotten much worse and slipped into a coma and ended up in ICU where we had to go and say our goodbyes, then he bounced back and steadily improved again and we have had to continue with his regular care. Then additionally on top of this, my mother has become ill with a suspected heart attack and the long term health investigations that occurred from this. So, needless to say, it’s been a very busy stressful time to say the least.

I managed to complete section three of the course and submitted my third assignment. I was pleased with the body of work I made, although it took longer than I’d like.

I then made a good start on section four before stalling again as these health issues with my parents came back to the fore.

Like during section three I have wanted to keep my hand in with my art and set out on a series of anatomy studies. I wanted to build a body of work that contributed to this section of the course, but create art that wasn’t too time consuming on a daily basis as I have been very tired and preoccupied.

The main anatomy studies I created were of hands and feet. I am aware that these are often deemed the hardest part of human anatomy to recreate accurately and so I always spend time on these, hoping to push myself on and improve.

I did some studies with unusual perspectives and foreshortening and whilst some were more successful than others, overall I am pleased with my progress and development.

I will try to continue with my OCA course exercises and steadily work my way through this section, but at least I know with these daily studies I am continuing to build my art skills and maintaining a daily practice, even if I am unable to complete longer pieces.

I am still hoping to compete this course within a year timeframe, although it is feeling quite tough at the moment, but having introduced art into my life I am not willing to let it go and I will keep working towards my longer term goals and overall improvement.

References :

Sturley, A (2021) https://sturleyart.wordpress.com/2021/05/08/near-death-experiences-and-re-evaluating-art-directions/ (accessed 01.08.21)