Thursday 28th November

Figure Drawing: Impressionism With Colour And Tone

This piece was produced on white A3 paper with pastels In 1 Hour 30 Minutes.

To start with the values used there appears to be a large amount of warmer colours as apposed to cooler colours however the cooler colours have been placed so that the warmer colours don't completely take over the piece, this is evident especially around the stomach where the cooler colours are used to present light hitting the skin.

Moving onto the contrast there appears to be more on the body and arms than that of the legs and that's a problem as it doesn't create balance within the piece and makes it feel as though the legs are disconnected from the rest of the piece.

Shadows are correctly presented as it's possible to see a casting shadow on the floor from the figure and also some self shadowing under the breasts.

Constructively the brown hue is to overpowering when it comes to the colour range, the choice of a saturated yellow and pink allows the skin to look more realistic in this impressionistic piece but it doesn't blend correctly with the blue and red areas, evident around the leg area.

Sunday 24th November

Figure Drawing: Drapery

This sketch was produced on grey A3 paper with Pitt Artist Pens in 1 hour 50 minutes.

Beginning with the values there doesn't appear to be a large amount of contrast due to the grey paper but it's possible to see gradients throughout and this allows us to see the light highlight the higher areas of the dress however by using cross hatching as the way to produce the mark making it's possible to see the direction in which the drapery hangs off the figure, this can be seen specifically where the dress hangs between her legs.

There appears to be a large amount of self shadowing with in the dress as it creates bumps in it's form and this allows us to understand it's surface as the gradients previously explained make the material appear softer than that of the skin which has less shading and we're also able to see casting shadows from the shoes on the floor.

Constructively the part of the dress hanging from her left leg doesn't appear to go around the top of her leg properly and this makes it look as though her leg isn't connected to her body underneath the drapery.

The lighting on the dress to her right side could have more contrast to create more harmony in the piece as a whole, it feels as though much of the shadows are to her left side of the composition.

Friday 22nd November

Still Life - Final Piece

The following piece was produced in 3 hours 30 minutes on brown A3 paper with pastels.

Looking at the piece as a composition we can see that the rule of thirds have been applied as the plant hits the top left of the piece, we can also see foreshortening happening as the orange floor narrows inwards this implies depth within the piece.

As an arrangement no objects appear to be kissing along with a balance in values as the warm orange is countered with the blue walls and blue plant, this increases the harmony within the piece.

We can see shadows are being cast to the right of the page implying that the light source is to the left, we're also able to see some highlights on the vase and fruits which moves us onto the materials.

The natural objects such as the fruits don't reflect a large amount where as the man made materials such as the kettle reflects most objects in sight, this establishes form with in the piece.

Constructively the perspective of the pots seems off as they slant slightly to the right, the lid of the kettle also requires some fixing as the ellipsis is off.

More contrast should be added to the grapes in order to increase the depth within them, the same can be said for the shadows in the piece as they all appear to be the same saturation.

Sunday 17th November

Figure Drawing: Dynamic and Static Poses

The first sketch was produced using pastel pencil on grey a3 paper, the middle sketch was produced using charcoal on plain a3 paper and finally the bottom sketch was produced using pastel pencil on plain a3 paper. The top and bottom sketches took 30 minutes whilst the middle sketch took 45 minutes.

The sketches all indicate a usage of pose, the top sketch presenting it's self as a dynamic piece includes information such as weight as it's possible to see the woman balancing herself up with one foot on the ground as the weight from her right leg begins to move in mid air.

The second sketch is again a dynamic piece as it appears as though she is about to get up from the ground, her hands and feet balance her up and this presents again usage in weight, the gesture with in the piece is closed as her legs close against her body to create a ball like effect, the arms can be considered open however.

As for the bottom piece it's a static pose in which is balanced on the chair as the weight from her bottom holds her up. As for the gesture it's open as the arms are not closed together.

Constructively the middle piece needs more time spent on the anatomy of the hands, the fingers appear very sharp on the left hand when they should be smooth. 

The neck on the bottom sketch is also very thin and the left shoulders perspective appears to be off.

(Next week may contain a fix for the issues described)

Friday 08th November

Transparent Objects: Tonal Values In Refraction And Distortion

The following piece was produced on grey A3 paper with charcoal and white pastel in 1 Hour 20 minutes.

The values used with in the piece are of a high contrast, this for example can be specifically noticed in the glasses where highlights are presented.

The lighting is indirect in which causes a terminator effect on some of the glasses, the lighting in the piece also affects the form of the glasses as well as the materials, by having lighting in the scene we're able to see through the glasses transparency, this creates distortion when one glass is in front of another as seen in the piece.

Where shadow is concerned it's possible to see that the glasses cast a shadow onto the table along with the place mat and shadow is also used for the chair in the background, this creates higher contrast as it's very dark as apposed to the highlights on the glasses.

Constructively the base of the glasses are kissing on the left hand side and almost on the right hand side.

The ellipses on the bottom of the glasses could also be corrected as they are at an incorrect angle, the shadows of the glasses could also be a lot stronger on the right hand side.

Saturday 02nd November

Man Made Forms: Vehicles

The following piece was produced on brown A3 paper with Pastel Pencils in 2 hours.

To begin with the piece correctly presents usage of light to help reinforce the form of the car, since it's shiny we can see a large usage of contrast, especially where the metal is painted black, we're able to see where the light is bouncing off it.

By correctly reinforcing the form we're able to understand the hard and soft materials, for example the back of the trailer is made out of wood and we're able to tell this because the rest of the car is metallic and shiny with a large contrast where the wood doesn't have.

Line is also considered where the car doors are, by looking at these lines we're able to see the angle of the car and the piece correctly foreshortens as it reaches the trailer of the car, this implies depth in the piece.

Constructively the contour of the roof isn't in correct perspective to the front of the car where the grill is, it's angle is incorrect.

The ellipses at the back of the car which represents the wheel is also not at a correct angle, the same can be said of the light to the right of the car.

Sunday 27th October

Tone And Colour Values: Sky Impressionism

The following piece was produced on grey A3 paper with acrylic paints in 1 hour 15 minutes.

First off we are able to see a great amount of contrast, as the weather is slowly becoming darker from the bottom of the page we can see it gradients up to the top of the page in which is brighter and perspective is also considered with the larger clouds at the top of the page.

The lighting appears direct and due to the fact it's strong we're able to see the form in the clouds, specifically the opaqueness around the edges of the clouds which show signs of movement in the piece as the clouds deform.

The colours used in the piece are very cold, little balance is shown between warm and cold colours and the colours used like purple and pink are very saturated however they do manage to highlight the brighter parts of the clouds.

Constructively there isn't much harmony in the piece, it all feels unbalanced and the colours don't mix correctly, shadows have been considered with the purples but this doesn't blend well with the whites of the clouds.

The darker colours at the bottom of the page also don't blend in well with the brightness of the clouds, perhaps if it the blue background was more saturated at the bottom of the page it would work better.

Reference like a building or town would've been a good way of showing scale in the piece, even if it's not that large in the composition.

Saturday 19th October

Handling Complex Information: Impressionism (3 Sketches)

The pieces above were produced in under an hour each, on plain white A3 paper with Grey Toned Marker Pens and Pitt Artist Pens.

The pieces above have all used lighting to depict the form of buildings and foliage, most of this lighting is direct and comes from the sun with little indirect lighting be present.

With light being considered this also gives way to shadows and we can see that the direct light is hitting off buildings to cast shadows onto other buildings, this can be seen in the middle image when the tall building in the middle is casting a shadow onto a building to it's right.

As for mark making we get a difference between hard and soft materials, specifically between the foliage and buildings, the scribbles around the page depict the softer foliage which is in movement whilst the contour of the buildings depicts hard materials such as brick.

A foregound, midground and background is also present in the compositions as we can see best in the middle image, the foliage to the front of the page creates an angle of foreshortening implying a sense of depth in the image.

Constructively the foreground in the first image is to light which distracts us from the focal point which is the town, if a silhouette was added as the background the midground would be highlighted more and increase the angle of foreshortening.

As for the compositions the rule of thirds could be considered, all images appear to have a focus point in the middle and if fixed more balance could be added for harmony.

                                                           

Tuesday 15th October

Mixing Media: Interior Perspective [Fix]

This piece has been produced in order to fix the issues present in last weeks Mixing Media.

(This piece was produced on A3 Blue Coloured Paper with Sketching Crayons and Pastels, I will talk only about the fixes, you can can check out last weeks piece to see what my constructive input was)

To begin with depth has been worked in, we can see this by the tones of the walls behind the pillars, they're dim which highlights the pillars and makes them become an area of interest, if we follow the implied line of the pillars it leads us to to our focus point which is the blue window to the right, this is our focus point due to the contrast in light and dark this also happens to be in the rule of thirds and contributes to the composition.

Perspective has also been improved as the proportion of the arcs in the pillars now get considerably smaller the further away they are, this also goes for the rows of chairs where detail lessens to present a vanishing point.

Constructively it suffers with colour values the piece appears saturated, for example the walls are a tone of grey and take up a lot the composition, the same goes for the yellow windows where there should be more highlight to show glass and light coming in.

Sunday 13th October

Mixing Media: Interior Perspective.

The following piece was produced within 3 hours using sketching crayons and pastels on a grey toned sheet of A3 paper.

The horizon line is considered as it cuts through where the top of the stairs are and this allows the rules of perspective to be considered such as the vanishing point where we can see the chairs narrow inwards, the same can be said for the pillars where to the sides of the page they appear large and narrow in to the middle in order to become smaller. The focal point can be seen to the right of the page where there is a large amount of yellow along with a wooden notice board which corresponds to the rule of thirds.  

Colour wise it uses a lot of greys and browns which allows the greens, yellows and reds to pop out however there seems to be to much brown which can make the piece appear less interesting perhaps using more colour would fix this particularly as it reaches the window where colour is used.

The media used correctly mixes together as it's difficult to differentiate what is pastel and what is sketching crayon, most of the media blends in allowing objects to present their materials correctly, for example the wooden chairs which have scrapes going down them.

Constructively it comes down to the areas of interest where there appears to be to much happening on the page, to much detail has been given to areas which don't need it such as the chairs to the front of the room and this makes it difficult to identify the focus point. 

The perspective of the arcs to the right of the page could also be fixed as the lines don't appear rounded enough compared to the left hand side, the chairs to the right also seem out of perspective as the chairs to the left should be in line with them however they're not.

Sunday 6th October

Architectural Rendering: Exterior Of A Modern Building.

The following piece was produced with in 3 Hours using Pitt artist pens and pencils on plain A3 paper. 

Straight away a focus point is established as we look directly at the top corner of the roof to the right of the page, this also reflects usage in the rule of thirds as it's to the top right of the composition. Contrast and Line thickness are the main reasons for this focus point and it's also the reasoning that our eyes move down the orthogonal lines to the left of the page to the vanishing point where we see the entrance to the structure. Detail lowers as well as we reach the vanishing point in order to create more interest in the focus point.

The vantage point appears to be at quite a distance since the whole building is in perspective, this also allows us to clearly see the horizon line which if we were to draw a line across the page it would be where the darkened trees are. 

As for the light and shadow we can see that more contrast is used towards the focus point than that of the vanishing point, attention to values in the clouds and car park are also thought about as we can see reflections from the pillars.

A foreground, midground and background are also recognized as we can see the darkened trees in the background and the car park in the foreground.

Constructively some of the lines are off, specifically the lines behind the pillars which seem to curve a little, this disrupts the orthogonal lines and there also doesn't seem to be enough space for the building in the composition, it seems to be kissing the sides of the page when it could be a little more inwards to make more space for a background. 

Thursday 3rd October

Still Life: Composition [Fix]

This piece has been produced in order to fix the issues present in last weeks Still Life. 

(Again produced on A3 with Charcoal, I will only talk about the fixes, you can check out last weeks piece to see what my constructive input was)

The range in contrast is far superior in this piece than the last piece, there is a higher amount of darkness and that brings out the brightness in the man made objects such as the jars and bottles, this creates more areas of interest.

The objects are more spaced out than before thus there are no longer objects kissing.

There is also a much stronger focus point on the jar to the bottom right since it's the brightest object, it's also in the rule of thirds which the previous piece didn't have.

Constructively the other piece did have a better use of gradients and the box to the left is misplaced, it would be better to let the vase be seen more.

Saturday 28th September

Still Life: Composition

This piece was produced within 1 hour 45 minutes using Charcoal on plain A3 paper.

The piece focuses on the composition whilst establishing a difference between manmade and natural objects, the high angle vantage point allows the vases in the back to be seen creating a background for the objects in front of which creates more depth.

The oranges to the left and right of the image create a focus point due to their contrast, it has brighter points than that of the vases and this makes the eye flow around their contour to the manmade objects which have more shape to them because of the form.

The composition feels even due to the natural objects on both sides however the use of shadows from these natural objects deny it from being perfectly even as the contrast and positioning of them is different.

Constructively the piece suffers as the range in contrast just isn't enough, it's difficult to differentiate between the oranges and the vases even with the brighter patches on the oranges.

The composition could be more interesting as well, perhaps using the rule of thirds on the vases along with spacing all the objects out more would do a better job.

There is also the issue of objects touching, the oranges are slightly kissing the vases along with the two vases being straight down the middle which disrupts our perception of depth in the piece.

The final issue would be that the vases appear titled to the right, it seems more time needs to be dedicated to the man made objects contour.