The following piece was produced on plain a3 paper with Charcoal.

Starting with the proportion, the anatomy appears mostly correct however with the musculature the trapezius muscles appear to thick in conjunction with the rest of the body along with the gracilis muscles appearing to thin, this in turn makes the rest of the leg look to thin.

Moving onto the pose, it's a dynamic pose as we can see the figure's weight lean onto his left foot in order to balance himself as the right foot is about to lift up, it's also an open pose as the arms aren't completely closed by the side of his body.

The anatomy of the face has also been considered and this assists in the expression and mood of the piece as he looks on into the distance.

The lighting on the figure is direct and this causes a terminator line down the middle of the body where light is transitioning to darkness, highlights are also considered, an example of this is on the thigh area on his right leg.

The shadow on the piece is both casted and self shadowed, examples of casting would be his stomach area where as the self shadowing would be his right arm since his body is blocking it from the light, the chiaroscuro is best seen to the figures right side of his body.

By using light and shadow it helps reinforce the form of the person and this also effects the soft material of which is skin, the contrast is high in this piece and that increases the depth.

Constructively his left hand appears to thick in proportion to his wrist along with his left foot looking to small in proportion to the rest of the body, there also appears to be a limited amount of vertical mark making in the piece.

Saturday 14th December

Facial Anatomy: Expression And Mood

The following pieces were produced on plain a3 paper, the first piece being produced with pastels and the second being produced with water colour pencils.

The first piece correctly acknowledges placement of the eyebrows in order to increase the surprised expression this is also helped by the tilting of the head.

The expressionism in tone helps the expression as the warmer colours present it to be a lighter scene in which is a more pleasant suprise rather than one with a darker atmosphere, complementary colours are also used to create more harmony in the piece.

The second piece similar to the first one presents disgust as the subjects tilts her head more along with the raised eyebrow however unlike the first piece this one uses more contrast and that sets the mood as being darker as the purple dictates the shadows.

The eyes in the pieces also assist with expression, the top image with the eyes looking directly at the viewer presents that the figure is interested where as the bottom image the figure is looking on into the distance presenting more of that disgust expression.

The backgrounds also help with the mood as the blue background on the top image helps enfore it to be a happier mood where as the grey background on the bottom image presents it to be more uneasy and unsettling.

Constructively the angles could be more interesting which would also help with the mood and expression as they currently look to static and not dynamic enough. Lighting has been considered as we can see the highlights on the face however the shadows could be darker and this would increase the contrast and the mood.

Thursday 5th December

Facial Anatomy: Portraiture

The following three pieces were produced on plain white A3 paper with Charcoal.

The pieces above correctly present proportions on the face with minor issues present such as the the left eye on the first piece. (More explained at the end)

The mark making used on the pieces is subtly applied throughout all three pieces, where hair is concerned the lines are not all in one direction and this allows us to see the shape of it.

Shadow and light has been used and this creates form and depth throughout the three pieces, the fact that gradients are used for the lighting on the face makes the skin look soft as well, meaning materials have been considered.

Highlights have been used and this creates a chiaroscuro effect on the pieces especially down the nose of the second piece.

Constructively there is a lot of contrast which is good however the first piece doesn't appear to have as much and this presents it to be flatter than the other two pieces, perspective on the second piece appears to need attention as the contours to the left of his face make the cheeks bones appear larger than they would be in real life, this also makes the head look flat rather than round. 

Finally the third piece needs some work on proportion as the nose appears to small, it would be positive to make the face longer in order to accommodate lengthening the nose.

Friday 22nd November

Environment - Final Piece

This piece was produced on plain white a3 paper with watercolour pencils in 4 hours.

Starting with perspective the horizon line would be across the bottom of the house, a vanishing point is considered as foreshortening can be seen on the path, the best example would be that the chairs close to the house appear smaller where as the plants around the pond appear larger, the orthogonal lines would be far off the page as well due to the horizon line being so high up the page.

A foreground, midground and background is seen, the foreground being the plants and path with the house being the midground along with the sky and trees being the background, the trees in the background appear to have been made darkrer in order for the midground to gain interest.

The focal point appears to be the chimney as this is within the rule of thirds along with it having a darker roof near by which increases the contrast, it also contains the most detail in the piece along with a path that leads the viewer to the side of the page in which the chimney is.

Although lines are present, the bushes and trees use a different saturation in order to create their form when next to the house or sky, using different hues enables the clouds to stand out as well.

The impressionism of the bushes lends a helping hand to the focal point as there doesn't appear to be to much detail in those areas and since foliage is on both sides of the page this increases the balance and harmony of the composition.

Constructively the pond appears to have to much detail and this could lead the viewer away from the proposed focal point, lighting could also be considered more as the piece appears to be to flat and lighting would increase the dynamism in the piece as a whole.