Final Piece - Semester 1 - Anatomy

Final Piece - Anatomy

In this final piece it was crucial that the contrast in shading was correct, originally constructive lines were in place however were removed once detail was being added. The muscles were seriously considered through out and a large amount of change was added to the chest area hence why you may see some darker lines there.Notice how in this piece the hands don't have much detail in them and that was due to managing time better than previously, time was spent on the male figure as a whole so some areas didn't have detail put into them, this was more about getting the body correct and not detailing the small areas where as previous pieces of work failed to do so. Notice how in this piece the male model is leaning slightly to his left and that leans his shoulders to the left as well, the platysma muscle is being stretched more because of this to the left.

For the lighting it's still low contrast, previous work proved that the human figure was presented better this way to me personally, the only dynamic piece of lighting is between the shorts and the legs. The highlights were also to his left showing that lighting was indeed to his left creating dark values (shadows) to his right.

The human figure also casts a shadow under his shorts in which creates more depth because there appears to be a floor now, the focus point could be considered his shorts as that's where the lighting changes dramatically.

Final Piece - Semester 1 - Environment Piece

Final Piece - Environment Piece

The piece above was constructed thinking of layers first, notice the silhouette of the trees behind the house and the path way leading up to the house in which the house the mid ground. The horizon line curves with the landscape and the house to the right looks a little to curved, that house was intended to show the foreshortening as you can see the detail of the windows lowers the further away the house is. The orthogonal lines are the walls to the right and the garage to the left, notice how the details in the middle such as the door of the composition are smaller because of this. The arrangement of tones was also considered, the clouds in the background along with the silhouettes of the trees create that dynamic lighting style on both sides of the composition creating something easy on the eyes of the viewers, the focal points would be the clouds, pathway and around the door this is due to the fact that the cloud and pathway are the brightest areas and the door area is the most detailed. 

The implied line would be the silhouettes of the trees as the eye jumps to the darker areas when they've looked at the image a little longer. 

Shading wise it's far more dynamic than that of the previous anatomy pieces done and the focal points such as the door area contain far more detail than that of the far sides like the garage.

The house also hits the rule of thirds hitting the top right point with the chimney.

Final Piece - Semester 1 - Still Life

Final Piece - Still Life

This piece took a total of 1 hour 30 minutes and as a composition it's been thought out a lot, the strawberries kissing the oranges was a down point but because you know the strawberries are at the front you realise it only increases the depth in the image. 

It's not all placed in the middle so that keeps the composition more interesting as well.

So as for the shading it's more towards the low contrasts again, except notice how the apple has that little darker shading to it? That's because it's intended to be the focal point and the fact it's got those darker tones only increases the intensity of the reflections on the apple which are white, this makes the lighting more dynamic in this area and makes it stand out to the rest of the image which is low contrast.

As for the implied line the viewer would start with the apple and work around the curve of the banana almost in a 360 degree motion going back to the apple at the end.

There is also a shaded background along with the shaded bowl to create depth.

In order to get the materials correct I used a lot of cross hatching on the apples where as for the banana I used just curved lines it depended on the shape of the object along with the material, the grapes were down to simple shading for the realism.

That's it for the blog, I hoped you've enjoyed following it and any feedback is welcomed. 

Hopefully next year is a good year for art!

Week 12 - Posture And Pose

Week 12 - Posture And Pose

The bottom piece was a 10 minute drawing I produced when we were drawing a female model, of course in that period of time I was only able to produce a drawing with little detail but what's interesting is that there are minimum construction lines which are crucial when drawing the human figure, maybe in the future it would be best to consider keeping calm under pressure.

Due to little construction lines the head appears to small compared to the body but if you ignore the head it's rather correct in size which means the previous revision is paying off as knowledge on the muscle structure is improving.

The second piece (top picture) gave twice as much time to produce so shading and balance was corrected in this piece.

As explained before the balance of the human figure was considered, you can see the female is leaning slightly forwards as she holds her knee as she is balancing on one foot on the table. 

The focal point in the image is considered the models right shoulder, again shading a background behind the model to give more depth and the floor is also shaded correctly behind the table to give a better sense of it all being three dimensional.

The cloth would've contained more detail but time was of the essence.

This time construction lines are used in the chest area and it pays off compared to the first piece where no lines were presented.

The hands could've done with some work as they look a little flat, perhaps shading them would increase the results quality.

It's now time to work on a final piece of anatomy for this semester taking in everything I've learnt previously.

Week 11 - Musculature

Week 11 - Musculature 

In this piece of directed study I looked at understanding the human form to a higher degree, understanding where shading needs to be more dynamic and where the focal points tend to be.

Multiple positions were used to achieve a better understanding, a muscular male model was used.

The shading with in the piece is clearly off as they all appear flat and there are very little highlights with in them along with little contrast in the shading.

It was crucial that the drawings focused on multiple muscles around the body the top left and bottom right looked towards the platysma and trapezius where as the top right was the deltoid, pectoralis major and biceps and finally the bottom left which was the quadriceps femoris and sartorius.

The construction lines in this were used on all but the bottom left piece as there was no head to use for measurement.

Week 10 - Anatomy & Movement

Week 10 - Anatomy Study

This piece was a concentration on the various view points of the human body like video game characters blueprints in which are used to produce 3d models.

Construction lines were used in order to keep the muscles all the right sizes at the right angles however because of this the side and back look slanted due there being no vertical construction lines. There for a better composition should have been applied before hand.

The piece follows the muscles around the male body and uses a low contrast of shading in order to present this.

Again the upper muscles such as the platysma, trapezius and deltoid are much larger than the leg muscles which was an issue last week

Surprisingly the floor was shaded on this piece.

If no study was done on the muscles of the human body then future pieces would struggle to present any understanding and development because knowing where muscles would be placed in situations would be impossible.

Week 9 - Basic Anatomy

Week 9 - Basic Anatomy

Please Note!: Certain areas of the body have been left basic on purpose due to feeling uncomfortable during live sessions.

The final piece at the bottom was a 30 minute sketch which took in factors such as the ideal proportions of the human body, in order to better understand this multiple basic sketches were done before hand (seen above the final piece) the basic sketches took into consideration construction lines which are used to help guide the artist better understand how the skeletal structure would work in a certain pose.

To begin with the concerns the female models trapezius muscle along with the deltoid muscle were poorly drawn so in order to hide this a shaded background was produced and in doing so the model has a nice background to it however yet again a silly mistake was made, no shaded floor! It still looks like the piece is floating in mid air...

The table was used in order to give that three dimensional appeal although if less time was spent on the table more time could've been spent fixing those muscles.

There are also to many lines near the hands which creates a false focal point for the viewer.

Week 8 - Fell ill!

I've had to miss a week out due to falling ill, hopefully next week I can make up for that...

Week 7 - Texture

Week 7 - Texture

Final Piece (Bottom Image)

The piece shows a larger amount of contrast than that of my previous work and it also contained far greater preparation than that of week 2 and week 3, as seen on the top image. 

The lighting is off as the shading on the cloth confuses us due to the shadows being pretty much everywhere but if you look at the vase you can see the light source is to the right hand side hence the highlights on the vase. The cloth has also been detailed far more than before so progress is being made on understanding detail in cloth.

The table leg at the bottom of the picture should have been shaded darker as well along with making the vase brighter and shading a floor because it looks like it's floating! A silly mistake.

The focal point is the vase in the middle which goes against the rule of thirds so a mistake was made there but it does contain consideration of the intended line where the viewer will follow the corduroy along to the vases.

The detail in the image benefits both sides as there is an even amount of detail on both sides so the viewer doesn't see that empty space.

Week 6 - Still Life: Natural & Man Made Forms

Week 6 - Still Life: Natural & Man Made Forms

Quick Sketches (Top Image)

The sketches are multiple views of a natural and man made piece, they represent the research into what was about to be produced and although it's not considered a finished piece, it shows an understanding of composition in short periods of time along with focal points.

Finished Piece (Bottom Image)

The contrast in lighting is low as the vase and cloth are considered the darker values, this brings out the focal point in which could be considered the cabbage or pumpkin, the implied line takes the viewers eyes around the table starting with the pumpkin which is the brightest object on the table.

The light source would be to the right of the objects hence why the shadows are to the left, the highlights can be seen on the objects such as the pumpkin and the cabbage, this is slightly incorrect as the vase behind the cabbage should have been brighter along with it. The shadows should have been more dynamic and show more contrast in the tones of shading.

Texturing wise the cloth has been shaded far greater than that of the previous weeks in which I explained my cloth shading was poor, this brings that realism to the piece where previously I struggled.

Reflection should have also been considered on the vase.

Week 5 - Landscapes

Week 5 - Natural Landscapes

Natural Landscape - Lesson Piece (Top Image)

The piece at the top presents an attempt at learning techniques with chalk, for example the leaves on the trees are simple swerves where as the ground is a load of lines, the focus point is towards the left where the trees are brightest. 

An issue with the piece is that the sky is a similar colour to the trees so it could've done with more tones of colours.

A foreground is also presented with the floor where as the trees suggest a middle and the sky suggests a background.

The shading could've been more dynamic but that's again to do with the tones of colours used.

Natural Landscape - Directed Study (Bottom Image)

This piece presented far more perspective as orthogonal lines could be seen as the place where the ground and the water meet, there was also a larger amount of contrast in shading as you can see with the river.

The shaded water also represents realism in the piece as the light source is coming from the right and reflecting some of the trees in the water, an implied line is also present as the viewer follows the river down to the top of the trees and the bridge.

The man made bridge is also a nice change showing a partnership between nature and man made objects.

The bushes also show a great representation of foreshortening and the bridge is considered the horizon line.

Week 4 - Light & Shadow

Week 4 - Light & Shadow

Shading Cloth (Bottom Image)

The image shows an understanding of a light source as the shadows appear opposite that of the highlighted area although the bench below the ball and cloth should have been shaded as it destroys our sense of 3d in the image. 

The image can be considered low contrast as there are very little dark values situated with in the piece.

The cloth could've contained far more shading as it looks a little flat with out those creases in it, the top of the image is considered the focal point as that is where it's most dynamic, as explained before the rest is low contrast.

It also has a shaded floor so it doesn't look like it's floating in mid air.

Light And Shadow On Various Objects (Top Image)

The simple objects composition shows various ways of shading objects going from low contrast to a more dynamic approach, you can see the cone uses a lot more lighter values where as the cubes shading uses a more dynamic appearance.

You can see that the light source of each of those objects is to the left hence why the shadows are opposite it, the highlights also differ depending on the object.

Light And Shadow On Various Objects (Middle Image)

The image is more of an experiment to see how various hatching styles effect shading on an object, overall they're poorly presented as the shadows are to large for the object being hit by the light. 

It's difficult to tell where the light source is and because of this there aren't many highlights in any of the images.

Week 3 - Composition Drawing

Week 3 - Composition Drawing

Larger Composition Piece (Top Image)

The image at the top was the first piece of the week and was a study of the landscape at this university, due to the composition being about placement and arrangement it was crucial that the objects within the piece appear correct in size and it does indeed show correct proportions as you can clearly see the tree is larger in size than that of the sign for example. 

The depth with in the piece has again like week 2 shown an understanding of a foreground, middle ground and background. You can see the bushes in the background have a silhouette where as the trees in the middle contain the shading and the foreground has next to no detail at all, It could've included a little more towards the value of the image as it feels empty lighting wise in order to prevent this next time it should include shadows and a sky. 

Their is balance with in the lighting on both sides due to the shading on the trees.

The line has been presented clearly with the flow of the trees, almost as though they're all connected to each other however the bold shading on the trees provides the fact that they're not connected.

There are very little kissing objects as well although the sign is kissing a silhouette bush on the right side and the horizon line is clearly indicated at the bottom of the trees.

Multiple Composition Pieces (Bottom Image)

For directed study multiple compositions were produced in order for us to understand the theory of structuring our work correctly, below I've explained each attempt very simply as it would go on far to long if I detailed each one.

Attempt 1

Was the attempt of understanding orthogonal lines more however failed due to the foreshortening not appearing on the structures on the roof of the building. 

Attempt 2 

The clock tower was the perfect choice for a portrait sized composition although again it looks flat due to the orthogonal lines not appearing enough, it also could've shown foreshortening on the details of the clock.

Attempt 3

This was an attempt to show multiple structures in a small space, failed due to the buildings looking cut in half along with no representation of depth.

Attempt 4

The cube buildings seen in the circular composition show a sense of depth as the background buildings are shaded, in my opinion the most successful attempt at depth.

Attempt 5

Showed knowledge of environment as it included foliage unlike other compositions on the page along with structures.

Attempt 6

Had the most detail however no real focal point was presented along with a large amount of objects kissing.

Week 2 - Landscape Theory & Perspective Drawing

Week 2 - Landscape Theory & Perspective 

I chose not to upload Week 1 of our course which was drawing techniques!

Perspective Piece (Hallway Scene)

The first piece of week 2 was a corridor scene which represents foreshortening and perspective, the vanishing point can be seen near the horizon line which is at the end of the hall way. 

The Orthogonal lines appear to get closer to the doors the further away they appear, in order to represent this correctly it was best to lightly draw the Orthogonal lines first and draw over them multiple times fixing the line each time.

The doors are the representation of foreshortening, notice how the doors appear smaller as the line of sight appears to get further away, to show true foreshortening the hallway could've gone on a little longer in order to show more of an understanding.

Landscape Theory

The next piece that week was a landscape drawing, this piece was poorly produced due to it not showing knowledge on things such as the orthogonal lines, foreshortening and 2 point perspective.

To begin with the layers of depth are actually presented, if you look towards the top right of the image you are able to see the silhouettes of buildings in the background, this increases the focus points strength and also makes it more pleasing to the viewer as it's not just a huge mess, the foreground could've been presented to a better degree as It could've included simple foliage in front of the building to make the building stand out a little more. Balancing could've been presented better as it looks very one sided to the right and very little to the left, because of this there is an unwanted area of interest as it's just practically empty, the line of interest goes across the top of the buildings going from left to right but again it could've been implied a whole lot better.

As for the rule of thirds you can see the building towards the left is shaded and detailed far more than that of the rest of the image, this was purposely done in order to hit one of the left points in the rule of thirds. 

To finish of the 3D perspective could've been presented greater as the building looks a little flat due to it not following the rules of foreshortening and two point perspective.

Content On It's Way!

I want to apologize about having no uploads at the moment but I can safely say there will be a large amount on it's way this weekend!