Three Finished Pieces

This is my first final piece for this blog and it is a still life of a bunch of apple on a tea towel with two books nearby. The medium for this piece of work was a drastic change from the using pencil, charcoal where hard mediums are used, for this painting a much more fluid medium of water colours were used to try to give the composition nice reflections. The painting took about an hour and a half to complete, the rule of thirds was used whilst creating this painting as the apples and books have been place along the intersections.

Since this is the first time that this medium has been used within my work for a while I found it difficult to get everything in the painting perfect which is obvious due to one of the apple which has almost no depth of field compared to the rest of the piece. This is something which was impossible to correct due to the intensity of the red paint that had been used.

Looking past this mistake the painting has still been incorporated into the blog as a final piece due to the amount of time and the high level of detail which can easily be seen for the apples and books. Going back to this medium that is preffered was refreshing and helped to produce an aesthetically pleasing piece. Its disappointing that watercolour has only been used now when it could have improved my directed study and in class work.

This is my second final piece which is a still life of my girlfriend lying on her bed with a folded duvet under her head. The drawing took 40 minutes in total and the medium used was charcoal. The pose used is open and very dynamic, this suggest that she is very comfy. The proportions used for this drawing seem to be correct due to constant measuring whilst drawing. 

The one section of the drawing that causes some concern is the right foot, since it is at a slight oblique angle it was difficult to draw accurately. Looking at the foot now it seems to be too long and this is something that can easily be corrected. Charcoal was the preferred medium for the final life drawing mainly because of the gradients it produces when smudged, these gradients seem to work extremely well for human anatomy such as arms and legs.

The face is something that has never been a strong point within the blog although it has looked reasonable realistic at times. The face within this drawing is reasonable good as all the main features such as the eyes, nose and mouth are distinguishable. The clothing within the drawing was difficult to get right but it seems to work nicely with the rest of the drawing.

This is my third final piece; it is a landscape drawing of some classical architecture. This drawing took around 1hour and 20 minutes to complete. Artistic markers were used at the medium to easily outline and then shade every feature. This piece has a lot of detail and looks remarkably similar to the actual building which is always a good thing. The perspective within this piece is good and there are only a few places that could be better for an example the front wall is slightly wider at the top than at the base, if anything this should be the other way around.
Since this piece is only one section of the building it definitely could have been better by simply completing the right wall. A foreground would also improve the look of the drawing and give it more depth. This drawing is mainly based around classical architecture so trying to avoid the modern road with traffic light and other modern objects seemed to work as it isolate the main focus which is the complicated brickwork mainly around the windows.

Week 12 :Colour Within Natural Landscapes

 For our drawing session this week we went to Todmordon to easily capture a range of natural landscapes. This week we are once again following the theme of colour within drawing to gain a good understanding.

The first drawing took around 10 minutes, it was a quick drawing using coloured pastels and shows foreground (the brick wall), mid ground (the field and houses) and background (the hills and small wood). The colours used within this drawing make it very warm and sunny which completely contradicts the weather on the day but is quite an unexpected observation. It would been better if I had spent more time on this landscape as it was a beautiful setting and sadly this is hard to notice whilst observing the given piece.

The second drawing took 45 minutes to complete and was also drawn using coloured pastels. This is a very nice landscape drawing as the landscape is hidden behind the railways bridge and can be seen through the arches which give it a nice effect. Most of the brickwork in this part of the Todmordon seemed to be sandstone so I have used quite a strong mix of yellow, orange and brown hues to try and recreate the material. If a larger canvas than A3 had been used there could have been a lot more detail within the drawing but due to the medium it was quite hard to get the finer finishes.

Week 11 :Colour Within Landscape Drawing

This is the first week we have decided to use colour within our drawings which literally opens up a whole new spectrum. Using colour rather than just drawing in grayscale gives artwork a new light, It is easier to portray many other aspects other than just the drawing for example the weather.
The first drawing on the left is of Bradford’s city hall, this was drawn from Cemetery Square. Coloured pastels were used for this piece and it took 40 minutes to complete. The main focus within this drawing is the clock tower; it has high detail especially when using pastels and has a nice mix of yellow, green and brown hues. The rest of the drawing was quickly sketched in to give the tower a setting so it wouldn't look out of place. Some of the perspectives are slightly out which can lead your eyes away from the main feature but this could easily be fixed by re-planning certain sections of the drawing.
The second drawing is a sketch of a warehouse that can be seen from my accommodation. Coloured pencils were used for the drawings medium which gives it quite a clean look. The red tones within the drawing give it a warmer feel. The main focus within this drawing it the central building due to the amount of detail that has been applied to it compared to other outlying buildings and scenery.

Week 10 :Classic Architecture, Interior

This week the theme has been based on classic architecture and interiors, this is a very interesting subject due to the fact that most buildings with classic interiors are very detailed. This makes them difficult to draw without planning. The medium for the drawings above was artistic markers. This made it easy to get the perspective correct by using the lighter markers to plan out the scene and then the darker makers to finalise it.

The image on the left is from one of the corners of the Alhambra theatre in Bradford, it took around 60 minutes to draw and shows a high level of detail on the extruding features to try to recreate their patterns and to give it a 3D style.

The image on the right shows a viewing box for the theatre this took around 55 minutes to draw; this drawing was completed almost in layers to even out the workload due to the amount of detail. The drawing is quite realistic and easily represents the setting. Many tones of marker were used to complete this drawing to easily show which bits were reflecting light.

Week 9 :Modern Architecture, Interiors

The topic for this week is modern architecture and interiors. This at first seemed to be a straight forward topic due to the fact that most modern building are quite straight and square structures, It turns out that there are a number of much finer details that come together to give a modern building its look. Some of these features are shadows and reflections.

This is evident within the drawing above as it shows slight shadows on the balcony and on the entrance doors. Shading has also been used to show shadows on the pillars to add another level of complexity to their 3D structure. There are slight reflections on the glass railing which have been considered by fading any background scenery and adding a very light and smeared tone to its surface. Overall, this is a good drawing of a modern interior using artistic markers since it contains a foreground (the balcony) a mid-ground (the entrances) and a background (the windows and pillars). After having a good look at the drawing the top section of the left wall has extremely bad perspective due to the fact that the line is at the wrong angle which in turn disturbs the curves and angles within the ceiling. (1hour and 15 minutes)

Week 8 :Non-Human Anatomy

This week was concentrated on non-human anatomy, trying and gaining skills to look past all clothing and in this case fur to get the anatomy right and therefore produce an anatomically right drawing.

The first image is of a friend’s turtle as it swam in a tank, to get this pose a picture was used to bookmark the turtle’s position since it was constantly moving. The right side of the turtle has more detail than the left due to the point of view, the rear leg was very tricky to get right but after many attempts seems to work with the rest of the turtle’s anatomy. (20 minutes)

The image on the left is of a squirrel from the taxidermy museum, it has been positioned in such a way that it looks like it’s about to jump off its stand. This was a very hard pose to draw but after spending around 15 minutes on it the pose has been captured. The drawing was started with basic shapes and lines to try and get some insight on the animal’s internal structure. This method along with hundreds of lines to mimic fur seemed to work as it produced quite a visually appealing drawing.

The final drawing of the butterfly has very subtle details around its body to give it a three dimensional look. A lot of detail has been put into the butterfly's wings to give it a light look using transparency on the wings to show their nearly non-existent weight. (7 minutes)

week 7 :Figure, Dynamic Poses

Week 7 emphasised on some dynamic poses of the female model. A few sketches of an additional model were drawn, the one that portrayed the best dynamism is above.

In the first image the model has a very dynamic pose due to the hand gesture and slightly tilted head as if she is thinking or looking at something with interest. The hands are covering a section of the front of her body which makes the pose slightly closed.

The second image containing 3 drawings of the female model shows both dynamic and static poses which also contain open and closed gestures. The first drawing is dynamic due to the hidden gestures implying that there has or will be movement, it is very closed since the model is trying to cover her chest with her arms and has curled up almost into a ball. The second sketch is static as the model is simply standing, her gesture with her arm could hint for some dynamism of say thinking about her next action. Overall, the pose is very open as both of her hands are by her side leaving her anatomy completely visible to any viewers. The final sketch is very similar to the second sketch as it is also static due to the standing pose. It is also open as both hands are by her sides. (7 minutes, 5 minutes each)