Assignment Four

If I was to complete the course, naturally I had again to face up to the inevitable challenge of the assignment pieces. It was looming ahead like some dragon waiting to breathe fire at me when I got too close. The trouble is, very often my approach has tended to let me down at this stage and the ensuing drawings become too stiff and contrived.  …not the easiest thing for me to avoid. 

Luckily I was able to obtain a patient and resident model in the form of my husband Kevin, so I was off to a good start.

As the instructions didn’t mention anything about using coloured media I thought it safer to stay away.


Line and Shape

I began all the sketches and drawings by marking in the top and bottom of the figures, to give an area to stay within. I find it helps the drawing fit the page. Then I established the size and position of the head with a few feint lines and checked the number of times the model’s head length fitted into the space provided. I simultaneously transferred these measurements onto the page, allowing for a little flexibility. I checked  and re-checked the lower leg length a few times as they took up such a large part of the height from the kneecap to the toe, compared to  the upper legs and lower arms, which were foreshortened by the sitting position.

Because I tend to have difficulty at times (as may be evident), getting the shape of the lower legs to look believable in my drawings, I tried out a method I read about in an ebook about drawing tips. To look convincing as a human leg the upper calf on the outside should be fuller than on the inside and is fuller on the inside lower calf than on the outside. I tried to simplify things on the second sketch with the curving inner lines but it wasn’t as easy as it looked. I spent a relatively long time on the first sketch, to determine proportions were adequately correct in my own mind.

On the first two sketches I was pulled into drawing the details of the hands at the expense of the face, but I was more concerned with the hands for some unknown reason. 

To the relief of my model I was gradually speeding up with my sketches and the third one, in charcoal, was finished the quickest. I enjoyed the doing the sketch in charcoal, mainly because the many repeating lines in the first two have been replaced by a mix of more decisive and undulating lines, but not enough. I do think it looks more spontaneous too. The clothing is indicated more and I’m fairly pleased with the extra features I included this time, considering it was a faster sketch. The model is leaning on the arm of the chair, which I think looks interesting, although I couldn’t expect them to hold a pose like that for two hours or more. The willow charcoal glided smoothly across the cartridge paper surface, and is forgiving and expressive. Because of my sense of success with the third sketch I decided to use it for my final drawing.

I initially decided to go with a pose similar to the first two – the model looking to the front. When I stood back and examined it, after drawing in the outlines, I thought  the model’s pose was too symmetrical and boring. So I then asked the model to turn to a side (or profile) view. I decided to use this angle, as  thinking back over previous exercises I hadn’t used it before with the model in an upright position seated on a chair. It was also a way of the model being comfortable in a non-rigid looking pose.

Final drawing:

For this drawing it was a case of trying to apply a 3 dimensional appearance to the figure using only line and shape with no tone, as per instructions. Looking at the finished drawing I think I had

 some success here and there – the crease running across the 

front of the model’s top slopes in a slightly upwards diagonal

Final drawing (charcoal)
in line & shape

 from left to right (sloping away) so giving a look of perspective. Despite putting in a few outlines first in pencil, there are a good few clumsy looking lines in the wrong place or too thick (behind the upper arm and top of the forearm) but I didn’t want to try and change them incase I made them worse. The base of the sleeve looks a little too narrow. I put in thick line around the figure’s outline – especially the nearest side and the outer edges of the legs to give them definition against the chair, the shape of which I thought would be better to outline only faintly in relation to the figure to give it less significance. The chair arm would probably look better like this also.

I’m glad I used willow charcoal as, apart from the attributes I mentioned beforehand, I found I could vary the weight of line easily and it was easily erased when necessary. I couldn't avoid this as some areas just looked so untidy if I left them alone, but tried to keep this to a minimum.

Tone

The model was lit from the right hand side by an angle poise lamp at least 4 feet away, emitting a good wide beam of light from this distance.

The first sketch (in pencil) again took a long time to do. I was struggling to get to grips with this ¾ elongated angle. I was careful to make sure I was more or less happy with proportions before proceeding further. I didn’t want the final drawing to be a disaster for this reason. I was constantly comparing measurements of one area to another and checking angles against the vertical and horizontal. The model was wearing jodhpurs, yet the roundedness of the upper outer left thigh looks over exaggerated on this one. His feet were sock free this time and I was glad to have the chance to do the fascinating details of the toes from underneath.

Sketch two - this was completed with Pitt art pen. I was less concerned with proportions in this one, more with just correcting the line of the legs. What I notice most here is the flatness of the face - it looks rather like a mask.

The third - a 10 minute scribble drawing in Edding 2.0 calligraphy pen. The poor man looks completely sizzled and/or mummified here. However, I wished I’d done at least one scribble drawing at the start, as I think it would have been a faster operation to grasp the right proportions. It probably would have taken me more than one sketch, as the legs are way too long on this one.   

model has not been electrocuted despite appearances!

Number Four - the ¾ view (in ballpoint pen) I hadn’t tried before, and it looked interesting; It was actually more angled towards a front view. I liked the sharper angle of the legs and the angle of the feet – they looked natural, but this time I already had my sights set on using the same angle as previously. The landscape format appealed more to me, partly because it was a change from the mostly portrait format I had used in the past and because the 

angle of the pose looked well balanced and filled the page.

Sketch four

Tone - final drawing:
The first attempt at a final drawing was a disaster. No matter what I tried I could not get the left foot in the correct position. It was drawn in and replaced 2 or 3 times, when -finally I realized the legs were too long.  At this stage the only thing I could do was take a few deep breaths and start again. At least now I knew what not to do and things went smoother from there on.

I decided beforehand to try out some cartridge paper previously gessoed with a homemade mixture of emulsion paint and pva glue. I read in a book that using this paper one could easily obtain very deep dark tonal shading with 2H to 6H hard pencils. It looked impressive in the book and it had worked well on some other paper I'd gessoed prior to the latest batch.  When I tried it out on the paper I had this time the effect wasn’t quite what I was looking for. I figured maybe I used too much pva in the mix this time and/or the wrong type of emulsion – silk when it should have been matt. Anyhow when I tried 2B and B pencils they seemed to work fine, so I continued in this manner. Fortunately the paper did seem to produce a darker effect with less pressure from the pencils than would be the case using untreated cartridge paper. It also seemed easier to smudge with my silicone paint pusher. The media and surface combined certainly gave a sheen to the whole drawing. To use a different texture paper from the norm was also interesting. 

In the final drawing I tried to treat the background as secondary to the figure, giving it a slightly hazy look, so the figure would have more prominence, while at the same time keeping the background and figure related. I'm not sure I managed to pull this off - the figure seems to blend in with the background quite a lot, although my attention is drawn to the face. 

sketch five

Proportion wise, the model’s hand could be slightly too large, but I’d rather it was this way than too small. When I compared the feet with those in the previous line drawing (after my tutor's comment about them) I noticed they don't look as convincing. The slippers look relatively small. I’m not too happy with the nose, it looks clumsily done – so I’m glad it occupies such a  small part of the drawing as whole. The back left of the chair looks a bit too dark, but probably helps the area as a focal point. The light and shadow seem to form an interesting pattern of movement around the composition. The lines on the picture behind are running in the direction of the model’s head and body. On the smaller picture to the left, the bottom right hand corner of it seems to point towards the head, helping to direct attention towards the area again. These factors I think, are really more of a happy accident than intentional. I feel that I've captured the model's character and achieved a good likeness - and he agrees. However I did struggle with the leg proportions. Comparing this with certain earlier exercises - The Longer Pose and others,  I can detect an improvement in my technique overall, despite the extra time taken in this drawing. I am pleased to be able to admit, my confidence to do both figures and faces has improved markedly over this part of the course, in spite of one or two moments of frustration.

My poor husband was very patient considering I didn’t finish within 2 hours. It was more like 2 1/2 hours not including breaks. I felt relieved and fortunate that he was able to tolerate it as well as he did, since he had already posed for long periods of time for all the sketches and drawings for line and shape in this assignment piece, and the whole project from start to finish took me  several days to complete.

The final drawing (version 1) in pencil on gessoed paper

Spot the difference - in the second drawing above, the cup and slippers have been removed. 
Also I altered the the model's right hand and left foot. These were all points that my tutor commented about in feedback re- the believability of right hand and were the cup and slippers necessary? 
The sole of the model's left foot looked distorted, with no definition to the heel causing the sole to curve round and up the inside of the ankle. This whole are was one solid flat mass. The whole foot looked stiff and too straight. Rectifying this was a process of erasing and re-shading in the odd (appropriate) location.  The toes were adjusted slightly and the lower left leg widened - which looked too narrow and straight before. Practising by sketching my own foot beforehand definitely made the process more straightforward. It surprised me how this time I could see much easier the angles and shapes in relation to one another than during the first attempt. Now the ball of the foot and the toes actually appear to have a convex curve to them, so looking much more natural.
The intention originally with the cup and slippers was to add context, but now they have disappeared I  realize they were over the top and drawing attention away from the focal point - the model. In fact not really doing the job they were intended for. On this occasion there's enough going on elsewhere. 
Beforehand the fingers looked too straight, limp and flat . The fingers were rather like the empty fingers of a glove hanging loose.  I altered the angle slightly, so there was plenty of erasing and rendering to do. It was definitely more demanding  to do than the feet. Now I think it looks more three dimensional and appears to hang naturally as though the armrest is partially supporting the hand, which it is. Looking at the faults now I'm amazed how I didn't see them at first - they appear so obvious now. It's been quite a learning curve I hope that  as I keep looking hard signs of progress will become more apparent.