Additional Exercises: January 14th - 16th

I made an opportunistic drawing of my son lounging on the sofa watching TV:

20 minutes from life. Drawing pen and charcoal

The proportions are not too bad although I have missed off his left foot. There is a problem with the folded arms though - his right hand looks as though it goes straight into the flesh of his left arm rather than being tucked underneath it. I also think the arms may be too short. The chunky hoodie he was wearing really wasn't good for getting his proportions - he looks quite chunky around the middle whereas in life he is reasonably lean. I did like the effect of the charcoal for the creases in the leather sofa. I am also quite happy with his face. I think it does look like his 'watching TV face' relaxed yet somewhat engaged.

Later that night I was on my own at home. No willing models but I still felt the compulsion to draw something. I know that later in this part of the course I will have to produce a self portrait so I decided to take a long hard look at myself in the mirror.

40 minutes from mirror. 4B woodless pencil (graphite)

I actually think that for a first attempt this is reasonable likeness. At least the face looks reasonably well proportioned. My husband and son both say that I've made myself look too masculine and given myself too many chins. I look very serious but that's because I was concentrating quite hard. Maybe I have over emphasised the overweight and the masculinity because those are things that I don't like about my ageing physiognomy? It is very difficult to be objective when looking at yourself. 

I completed an exercise from a 2011 edition of "Artist and Illustrators Magazine". This was about figure drawing and in particular establishing the proportions of the model. I went through several steps with each drawing:

1. Draw a 'plumbline' down the central axis of your pose
2. Mark the top and the bottom of your figure
3. Make marks showing the number of times a chosen structure goes into your figure (usually the head) vertically
4. Make marks to indicate the width of the pose at its widest point.
5. Mark in the slope of large anatomical landmarks like the shoulders and the pelvis
6. draw in the major anatomical structures
7. Reassess and correct
8. Complete with tonal values

The results are below. Unfortunately I didn't have access to a model on this occasion so I used some poses from "Anatomy for the Artist" By Sarah Simblet (Photography by John Davis). Dorling Kindersley 2001. I have designated then pose A and pose B. They are both female athletic models. I think in both of them I have made a better attempt at the proportion using the measuring described above. On pose A the upper arm gave me trouble and I had to reassess its length several times. I haven't made a detailed drawing in either case just blocked in the main tonal areas.

 Pose A:15 Minutes from photograph. Graphite (4B woodless pencil)

 I prefer pose B because of the cures of the figure through the space. The way the pelvis is tilted makes the curves more evident so there is a more feminine feel despite the powerful hand gesture and musculature of the body. The overall proportions seem OK. However, there are a couple of problematic areas. The shoulder blade areas don't look quite right. I think maybe I have exaggerated how far her right shoulder blade juts out. The left arm also doesn't feel natural -it looks very stiff as if modelled out of concrete rather than flesh and blood. I think the muscles of the upper arm and shoulder and the angle at the elbow are not quite right.

Pose B:15 Minutes from holograph. Graphite (4B woodless pencil)

On both of these, despite being drawn from a photograph - which is considerably easier than drawing from life, the feet are terrible. On pose B I tried several times to overdraw to correct the shapes but gave up in the end because I ran out of the time I'd set myself. I really need to do some additional work on drawing feet. 

The next step is to apply what I've learned about measuring and proportion to drawing from life. I did a further Sketch of Luigi in 25 minutes we had to spare before going out yesterday morning.

25 minutes from life. Graphite and brush pen

I struggled with this one. I started quite well, measuring and marking and placing the figure in space but two things happened. The first was that as Luigi relaxed into the pose his hands dropped down. I had marked where they should be on the paper but when I came to draw them it didn't look right. I also got carried away with the legs. Again I didn't step back frequently enough to assess and correct. As soon as I had finished the drawing I realised that either his arms were too short or his legs were too big or (more likely) both - at which point it was too late to correct it. The perspective on the chair legs is not correct either - the back leg seems to splay out more than it should (also no shadows means everything is floating in space).

One thing that I am quite happy with though is the face, I think I've captured the way he peers down through his glasses perched halfway down his nose. Luigi doesn't like it - he thinks it makes him look old.

I am making progress - I am much more aware now of the need to step back frequently from my work and to measure accurately and reassess whether measurements are correct if something doesn't look right.