Life drawing: Foreshortening and perspective

 This weeks life drawing was focused on foreshortening, which is essential to make figures the right proportion when they are lying down or seated. Seated poses viewed from the front often need thighs to be drawn a lot shorter than the brain wants. I found the legs on both my drawings very difficult, because on my first line drawing, the legs were a lot smaller than I thought they were, and on the second drawing, the thighs were a lot shorter than I expected, and the lower legs and feet seemed very long in comparison because I could see along the whole length of them. I found that stepping back and looking at my drawing as a whole made it easier to see any mistakes in the proportions or perspective.
We only did two drawings this week, one line drawing, and one with tone. We spent most of the day on our second drawing, which gave us time to get the proportions right then focus on adding the tone. I am very pleased with this drawing because of the subtle changes in tone the charcoal can achieve. I think this is one of my best drawings yet.

Life drawing: iPad drawing

This weeks life drawing was a bit different, because we were drawing on an iPad. I quite enjoyed it, which I wasn't expecting to, because I don't enjoy drawing digitally. It was surprisingly easy, using the application 'brushes' because I could draw with my finger, and change the width of the lines and the type of lines easily.
I usually had four layers on each drawing, one for the background, one for the outline sketch, one for a mid tone flesh coloured fill, all over the figure, and one for the highlights and lowlights. This meant I could erase parts of each layer without disrupting  the other parts. I found this worked well because i could rearrange the layers so the outline was on top, even if I drew it before the other parts. I experimented with the different types of brushes and lines to get different effects, some more blurry and fuzzy and some more sharp and detailed.

Fashion: 3D modelling

 In fashion, we were looking at shape, rather than trying to make a garment that fits to the body. To create the shapes, I used a pattern piece for a sleeve, and drew around it, then overlapped the same shape over the top, and kept slitting the piece and pulling it out, to create interesting patterns and shapes. I used the photocopier to make some of the shapes bigger, to make them have more visual impact when I pinned them on the mannequin. I think some of the best designs came from when I experimented pinning the shapes in places that weren't obvious, so not to make a garment, but put them in more unexpected places. I found this gave more interesting results.

Textiles: monoprinting

Mono printing was one of the ways we looked at to apply pattern. I also used collage under the mono prints  For this one I used red and grey ink, over the top of a collage basic fish shape. I also used masking tape to create voids in the lines of ink

For my next one, I used scrap paper to block off the llama shape from the red and grey ink. I think I used too much ink on the plate because it printed onto the parts that I hadn't drawn onto, but I think this was a good effect because it made random shapes in the background.

I then made one using red, orange and grey, and it had quite a patterned design. my favourite part of this one is where I have used red ink after the grey to fill the gaps in the grey pattern.

My last one was more simple, I used less ink so the background would be plain, and just used red and orange so it wouldn't be too busy. I think this is very illustrative, and I like the simplicity of just having lines, with no shading or tone.

Overall, I really enjoyed the mono printing, but it was difficult because I wanted to lean on the paper, but this would have transferred onto the design, so I had to be very careful.

Miniature Elephant

In half term, I had time to test out my idea for a miniature elephant. I used silver polymer clay, and simplified the shape because of the scale, but I think it worked very well. This final elephant was my third attempt, the first two wouldn't stand up because their heads were too heavy.

Life drawing : Paint.

We used paint this week to add tone to our drawings. We started by only using blue and dark brown, and Varying the amount of water to get more diluted, paler shades. I also left the lightest parts white, and let the paper show through.

We then moved on to a large A1 drawing, using more natural flesh tones. Each time I mixed a new colour, I put it in all the places around the body before moving on to the next colour. I think this makes it look like a coherent whole, and I found it easier than painting it in bits. The aim was not to blend the colours, but to put in blocks of tone to build up the whole picture.

Textiles: Surface pattern.

In textiles, we focused on surface pattern and colour, rather than fabric or garments. I liked experimenting with mixed media and texture such as masking tape and stitching, and I liked the methods we used to get interesting patterns. on the first strip of paper, we chose a part of the still life in front of us, and used ink to draw the negative spaces. We then turned the strip upside down, and drew the same part of the still life. I liked this because the ink created very interesting shapes, and they did not match up with the drawing on top. In this piece, I used ink, oil pastel, emulsion paint, chalk pastel, netting and thread. I also sprayed on bleach, to change the colour of the ink.

On my second piece, I was focusing on just one object. I started with a masking tape outline, then turned the paper by 90 degrees and used a chalk pastel to draw the object bigger. I carried on turning the paper around and changing media, And I think this gives a very good effect, capturing the object without just drawing it. I think this worked well because the object I chose had a very patterned texture, so the finished work has very detailed patterns and interesting lines. I think these could both be made into a repeating pattern, to use as something like wall paper or wrapping paper, or a fabric print to use on a garment.

 I then moved on to smaller pieces, and made a collage background from different papers, and part of a photocopy of one of my larger pieces. I then stitched a strip of ink dipped fabric on, using pink stitches. I stitched it so the fabric went from the top to the bottom of the paper, and the stitches went across. I then added more thread, in a wavy line, and some pleated paper.

 After I had done the pink stitching on my first small piece, I noticed the back had some very interesting marks, so I photocopied it and made it the background for my second small piece. I then used parts photocopied from one of my bigger pieces, and stitched onto the background with yellow, green and blue thread. I used all different sized stitches, then glued down the long ends of the thread down.

I really liked the bold stripes on the paper, so I put it with the inside of an envelope, so the large stripes contrast with the small repetitive pattern. I used a strip of fabric going diagonally across, and different stitches on top. I tried to stick to a fairly limited colour palette so it wasn't too over-complicated.

Life drawing : Colour

This weeks life drawing was focused on colour, and using colour that wouldn't be used normally, like blues and greens. I think this sometimes worked well, but It was hard to know how much colour to put on without making it look very unnatural. I feel I have got better at looking at proportions, and I've found that I am not rubbing out lines as much. Yellow ochre and other earth colours made quite convincing flesh tones, but I enjoyed experimenting with other, brighter colours like yellow, orange and bright pink

We then added ink, using prussian blue to make the shadows and darker areas, then worked into the ink with pastels for the lighter areas. On the ink and pastel drawings, I tried to only use two or three pastel colours, because of the dark tone of the ink, and the mid tone of the paper, I didn't want them to be too busy.

I am pleased with this drawing, because I think I have used the tone of the paper well, and I have used white and yellow for highlights, and brown pastel and blue ink for shadows and darker areas.