Absent Life Model

Today's class was sort of make-it-up-as-we-go, because the model never showed up unfortunately.
Instead we drew the tutor; the clothes were a different challenge we'd not had before obviously and so it made the figure feel very different on paper.

the longer poses worked quite well and I enjoyed them but I didn't have enough time for much shading again. I wish I had kept them as line drawings.

I really like this one. For a 15 minute drawing I tried to be much quicker with the basic outline and to concentrate on the shading and tone. It gives a very dramatic feel and I only wish I'd had more time, once again.

Deciding on Character Design

Today I've been using tall athletic women as reference to draw the figure of my character. It's been quite enjoyable and I've felt comfortable doing this from the development of my confidence through the life drawings lessons. It was fun to exaggerate and manipulate the normal human figure into any shape I wanted; an image I used was fantastic due to the huge variation of body shapes and sizes within it.

I then began to experiment with different designs of clothing and hair for my character. Again I found this really enjoyable.



From these drawings I asked the opinion of others and eventually decided on which design to develop.

My favourite costume was the first one; the design is striking, the clothes leave the woman free to run and move well whilst maintaining a certain visual appeal. The second was quite traditional but perhaps too cliche; like Pocahontas.

The hair was a little more difficult to decide on. The buns were too out-of-place and modern.The braids were again traditional and would work well, but I liked the idea of hair hair flowing freely during battle and wondered whether I could do something with a striking pose and her hair in mid-movement. I then decided to go with hair down with a block fringe - slight modern twist.

Influences - Antoine Rol and Mingjue Helen Chen

As I've been considering more of what I want to do about my task of designing a character. The ideas for my character are that it will be female and that she will be strong athletic in build. The idea evolved into a native american warrior. I've been looking at concept artists and have come across these two; helping me get a feel for the style I want to create.

Antoine Rol

I came across his character concept art for Assassin's Creed and I really like his detailed style. He's able to portray a lot about the character through the pose and attire. Being a video game, he also includes props/weapons which I am considering including in mine for more dynamism.

The character on the right here, is very much what I had in mind for my own. I don't want her clothes to be as elaborate, but this will help to inspire me for clothing and a strong stance. I want her to have war paint and possibly a spear to pose with.

Mingjue Helen Chen

This artist has worked on Big Hero 6, Paperman, Wreck-It Ralph and Frankenweenie. She has a lovely simplified style that emphasises her characters' personalities. It's evident from her work that she understands the human form and it's anatomy. I hope to be as sophisticated in my own style one day.

 

She is able to depict very dynamic poses filled with a sense of movement and excitement. I hope this will help me in creating something similar with my own character in the choice of poses.

Life Model - Lighting

Today we made some very quick continuous sketches - like the previous lesson only with less detail. I quite enjoyed it again and got some quite striking images with this very fluid process. I particularly like the central one on one tip-toe and his arms out. I was really happy I was able to depict quite a difficult pose so quickly.

We did a similar thing again blind. I don't think mine was too bad here. On the right we had a sort of memory test where we looked at the model in a pose for a minute and then drew what we could remember. I'm really happy with what I did there although I'm sure it was a fluke that won't be repeated!

We then tried using grey paper (although it appears brown when scanned) which I really enjoyed as I was excited about showing not only shading but highlights as well. Unfortunately, the first pose was really quite difficult to get right and so the outline took a long time to draw and measure out. I barely started the shading before we were told to stop.

I am happy with the pose itself though.

I managed to start on the shading on these but once again couldn't finish them. I've been really frustrated with having incomplete pieces. I wish we'd had longer as we've progressed with detail.

Influences - Alberto Giacometti

The previous class made me think about Alberto Giacometti and his very free style with charcoal and depicting the form in quite a messy and fluid way.

He focused on the form of a figure over detail. This is shown through his drawings and sculpting. All of his pieces feel very organic and the scribbly style portrays a sense of movement, I feel. He also liked to experiment with proportions which I find interesting; particularly as I like to be as accurate as possible.

Idea for Character

In my mind I wanted to create a female character as I find the female form much more interesting to draw. I envisioned a strong and quite muscular woman; a leader, a warrior.

I researched female warriors in history and came across information about native-american women.

"Indian women were not subservient to men, they often engaged in work – such as farming and warfare – which the Europeans viewed as men’s work, they had a voice in the political life of their communities, and they had control of their own bodies and sexuality. Unlike the patriarchal European societies, Indians were often matrilineal... During the nineteenth century Indian women, and particularly Indian women leaders, were invisible to the American government."

I found this so surprising and hugely interesting and read more about this. I discovered that there were many indian female warriors, some who even led clans into battle. Some well-known warriors had been recorded as saving their husbands and brothers from death.

Therefore, I want my character to be a strong, attractive and athletic woman who has a fierce aura about her. 

As well as the artists I have discovered, I've also made a small collection of images for inspiration.

 

Life Model - Form

Today was interesting. We were asked to try and focus on the form of the figure as a whole rather than outlines. We were told to use a method where our pencil or charcoal never left the paper and it created form on the page starting from the center. I really quite liked what this produced and it reminded me a lot of an artist I'd studied before, can't quite remember his name but I will look into this more later and refresh my memory.

The results were interesting and quite free. It was fun to try and get the proportions of the pose and the sense of weight right as the charcoal never left the paper and you had to visualise it on the page. I liked playing around with the pressure too to get shading and depict the model better. I believe I improved as I went along but the central one looks the best to me.

We were given a 30 minute pose next. Here I decided to plan out and draw the outline and then really go into detail with charcoal. Unfortunately I ran out of time  once again which really bothered me because I think this would have made a good piece. The proportions are getting better and more accurate I feel the more I have practised; prehaps this is affecting the amount of time I'm taking with it to get the foundations right before adding the detail.

I really liked doing this piece as it was a challenge to get the figure looking right from this angle but also I really enjoyed the shading on this one. We used a light to create more contrast and I'm happy with the result. I only wish I had been able to also shade in the material he was lying on; however I guess it gives quite a stylised finish.