Two different techniques used to describe this piece of fabric: one with a focus on tone and the other on the use of line. I found both techniques introduced some challenges when used exclusively, where when used together, I find I can work tone and line together to describe form quite well in that the line gives me boundaries to work to and the tone introduces depth and helps to give a three-dimensional effect.
Using only tone made me feel, as in the past, a little uneasy as I had no line to direct me and work too. Broad strokes of charcoal were laid down for the first study whereas, in the second experiment, I experimented with an ink wash. I found it easier to begin with the darkest tones and estimate where they should lie before introducing the lightest (the support of the paper) and then all the tonal variation in between. The texture of the blanket was woollen and I would think this would be quite difficult to describe with the ink wash, the charcoal easier so as the tooth of the paper would have left white pits which could be useful when describing texture.
The use of line was challenging in that I felt the cloth didn’t look as voluminous because of the lack of tonal gradation; perhaps the choice of material and the sharp point of the pen exacerbated this. Perhaps I could have added some cross-hatching but I thought it best to stick to use of line to see how the lack of tonal gradation would impact the representation of the folds of cloth. I also felt the drawing with use of line exclusively gave the material a rigid feeling to the material with the dip pen medium I chose for this, whereas the charcoal and ink wash seemed more fluid; perhaps this came through because of the properties of the materials that were laid down on this specific support.
Describing cloth with the use of line
Describing cloth with the use of tone
Describing cloth with the use of tone
Describing cloth with the use of line and tone
Describing folds in the cloth
Before travel restrictions were put in place, I was travelling back to the UK by plane and took advantage of the 5 hour flight to draw in my sketchbook. One of the things I was inspired to draw was the texture of the seat fabric and stitching in front of me and also another passengers coat. Two simple little sketches but this enabled to see what it would be like to draw on the move and sketch in a public area with people watching what I was doing. I was a bit apprehensive about doing this but I thought this was a good position to put myself if I wanted to travel and draw in my sketchbook in more public places or to continue to build confidence at life drawing classes.
If I were to sit and think about figure drawing, images come to mind of the nude form posed and angled in a variety of ways, artists and practitioners gathered around, ready to challenge themselves to describe the model before them in their own creative way. Before beginning Part 4, I had attended life drawing classes, once a month on average, and although I felt I had learned a considerable amount every time I visited the group, such as estimating how much I could achieve in the time allotted for each pose, class etiquette and environment or a figure’s central line/axis etc. Despite all this, there was something fundamental lacking: a basic understanding of the human form, the structure underneath and how to measure it accurately to describe it convincingly on the paper before me. There is a wealth of historical artwork related to or specifically focused on the human form, I questioned why we as practitioners have so much curiosity about human figures? How did the Old Masters achieve such a high standard of accuracy when describing the human body in their drawings and paintings? Did they attend hundreds of life drawing classes and constantly analyse and scrutinise their technique throughout their lives? Something I noticed when looking at others work during the life drawing classes was how there was only one model but yet it had been described in a variety of different ways, different mark-making, different mediums, different focuses and end-goals. It appeared that some people came to the class to focus on something particular to develop, and this could change every week. This was interesting to me as I had preconceived ideas that life drawing classes were there for one reason: to learn to draw the whole of the human body in one sitting. This was proven wrong quite quickly when I saw one practitioner who maybe focused on the proportions, then others who focused on the energy of the pose and how to represent it with quick and energetic marks rather than concentrating on detail. I understand that I had been using the classes to try to draw the figure and make it look realistic at every change of pose, no matter the duration. Before Part 4, I didn’t really understand what I could get out of the class other than realism; maybe a little naive. Perhaps now I am more open-minded and a little more experienced, when I return to life drawing classes, I will be more aware of what can be achieved at these classes, rather than a fight for realism on shaky structural drawing foundations.
Something in my memory came back to me regarding realistic, impressionistic and abstract figure drawing. When reading Experimental Drawing by Robert Kaupelis previously, I found it really exciting to see so many varied styles of drawings of the human form. Artists and practitioners of all styles used a variety of marks on various supports to represent a figure, others more realistic in style, and some more abstract and/or impressionistic. One exercise Kaupelis used with his students was to show that an entire figure can be represented in one line. How freeing and liberating to draw in this way. I feel this is certainly a way to engage the brain and ask the viewer to read the drawing rather than simply observe it. As previously pondered, I wonder which attributes of the human form are needed for the viewer to acknowledge they are looking at the human figure? Do these recognisable attributes change depending on the shape, weight and style of mark made? This is an experiment that I would like to try in my sketchbook. It certainly is a step in the other direction from the ‘Old Masters’ traditional and classical way of drawing the human form which can feel overwhelming and restrictive if not allowed to wander away from this starting point to investigate a more creative and abstract view point.
Furthermore to this line of investigation, when previously reading The Story of Art, E.H Gombrich, Phaidon Press Ltd, 1984, I remembered I came across an interesting paragraph which discusses Pablo Picasso and his two styles of drawings depicting a chicken with her chicks and a cockerel. Although the birds are similar in classification, the drawing styles are not. When looking at form and realistic construction, I see that the chicken and her chicks are much more realistically described compared to the cockerel which is more of a caricature, bringing out the cheekiness and feisty attitude of the cockerel. Gombrich explores the idea that the opinions of people that view the work of the artists, who produce drawings of forms whether human or animal, can be very prejudice in that they may view a piece and judge it’s success by how accurate the rendering of the subject is in terms of realism. This flagged up a few questions for me: why do some people automatically judge a piece of work to be incorrectly drawn if different to what they envisage the ‘correct’ image to look like? Why do some artists choose or favour drawing in an abstract way, yet can achieve highly detailed, realistic pieces of work? Why and how do some artists/practitioners select elements of the subjects characteristics to portray and how do they successfully convey this through their use of media and mark-making? When looking at historic mark-making, did representational drawing and depictions begin with archaic cave drawings which slowly evolved into more refined marks, then reverted back to more simplistic and abstract shapes with contemporary art? Was it shocking for the society within the era and culture that these abstract and non-realistic drawings where being produced alongside beautifully detailed pieces of work? Did the public deem these abstract risk-takers to be less skilled because of the differences in their work?
I acknowledge that this comparison of Picasso’s chicken and cockerel drawing is transferable to looking at studies of the human form and how artists use different influences and styles to produce their work, whether it be realistic, impressionistic etc. Art history shows that as humans, we have been obsessed with describing the human form as a whole or focusing on individual attributes of the body since we have learnt to make marks with Earth’s materials. This can be seen with sculptures, paintings, drawings and the like, which have been produced for a huge variety of reasons; wealth and power symbols, enjoyment, information/warnings/ religion and culture etc.
I have enjoyed reading about the renaissance period and how artists during this period were united in their aim to study the human form accurately and so, according to royalacademy.org.uk, figure drawing was born as a collective activity. For many years, it was the tradition to study the human figure and ‘correctly’ describe it; I believe this is what is referred to now as classical or atelier drawing? I enjoyed looking at Michelangelo and Da Vinci’s historic drawings of figures; many as preparatory work for their further investigations or masterpieces. I believe that the intense studying and drawing of the human figure, traditionally in the nude, was initially meant as a way to further encourage accurate and detail description of the form rather than elicit shock and offence to the viewers of their studies. The artists would see beyond the nudity for the structure of the figure, the skeleton, then come back out to the shape of the muscles then how the skin was wrapped around those muscles to complete the anatomical figure. A bare or undressed figure, free of restriction and disguise would enable accurate measuring and observing of the figure in its natural form. This sturdy foundation was then built on to drape the figures in textiles if so desired.
A search through google and various social media platforms brings up an array of contemporary figure drawings. It’s not hard to find a wide spectrum of styles and expressions of the human figure. Some of these pieces appeared, to me, to want to draw out unusual feelings and emotions whilst others I found were quite calming and delicate; an appreciation for the human form as if it were. I found highly sexualized nude figure drawings or portraits quite distasteful and I found myself feeling as though it was more pornographic and that it was difficult to concentrate on and understand the techniques used to create the piece and be able enjoy it as a composition. However, this is my mere opinion and there were many contemporary nude figure drawings that I did enjoy studying, more so towards the loose line and figurative drawings which had a suggestion of the human form, rather than a hyper-realistic recordings. I especially liked returning, multiple times, to Kaupelis’ book Experimental Drawing for contemporary figure drawings due to the wealth of examples to select for inspiration in my own experimentation here: the simplicity of a few lines, contour drawing, blind drawing. The list is non-exhaustive, as is the variety of ways to study the human body. I really love looking at all styles of work revolving around the figure as it gives me a small insight into how perception and expression play a huge role in how the figure is described and what the overall outcome and feel of a piece has. Much like Picasso’s chicken and cockerel drawings, some people perceive a ‘right way and a wrong way’ to draw the human body, and others have a more open-mindset and can explore the ‘grey area’ between the black and white with expression, spontaneous experimentation and freedom in their risk-taking to go against tradition.
Investigation
Robert Kaupelis, Experimental Drawing, Watson-Guptill, 1980
This drawing inspired me to ask and investigate what recognisable features or patterns do the human eyes and brain need to see before recognising a human form?
Whilst following some exercise’s in Kaupelis’ Experimental Drawing, I decided to branch off and investigate in my sketchbook some techniques which could be used to describe the figure. I was intrigued about the simplicity of figure drawing in an abstract or figurative style and when we as the viewer recognise it is a figure drawing we are looking at in an unrealistic representation. The following photos document my learning; photo captions explain my thought and physical processes.
For the first of my experiments, I decided to follow some exercises from Kaupelis’ Experimental Drawing. and try contour drawing and blind contour drawing. I also took inspiration from other featured artists work and tried similar techniques with a reference photo from New Masters Academy. I kept using the same image to try different techniques and mediums as I didn’t want to be distracted by the different energies or dynamics of individual poses, rather observe the differences of the medium and technique itself. The top drawing is a pencil structure and dry brushing with leftover earthy tones from my watercolour paint palette. Second drawing bottom left is a ‘partial peek’ contour drawing in ink without a pencil structure so proportions were off due to only taking my eyes off the model to look down occasionally. The third drawing, bottom right, is a blind contour drawing in ink where I didn’t take my eyes off the model and drew on the paper blind. I took inspiration from Luca Cambiaso for this.
4th drawing, top, is a pencil structure with ink laid over in the style of Abrecht Durer in his Portrait of Agnes. According to Kaupelis, he used hatchurling over the body to describe form and tone, apart from on the face. I quite liked the simplicity and semi-looseness of this style of working. 5th drawing is in the style of Egon Schiele who distorted the figure in his Self-Portrait, 1910, and used tone sparingly. I thought about how he would need to observe the accurate structure of the human figure to be able to distort the figure to how he felt it should be distorted. Without the preliminary studies of the figure, how would Schiele have known how to to distort the parts of the body he needed to, to get the desired effect?
6th, 7th and 8th drawings are abstract contour drawings in pencil, ink and finally charcoal. I noticed by the charcoal version, I was loosening up quite a bit and the slow steadiness had become more smooth and quick strokes of charcoal which meant proportion suffered a bit but looseness and expressiveness had grown.
I really enjoyed following an exercise here that involved allowing the heel of the hand to rest on the support and smudge the charcoal as the drawing progressed. Usually, this technique would cause some anxiety and usually I wouldn’t allow my hand to smudge the work I had so precisely placed. However, it was quite liberating to go against the norm for this contour drawing with charcoal. 10th picture, bottom is a blind contour drawing in pencil without taking pencil off of the paper. When comparing this blind contour drawing to drawing number 3, it is easier to see that I was a lot more anchored as the pencil remained on the paper and maintained specific reference points on the figure which helped keep the drawing more ‘together’.
Drawing 13 sees a progressive charcoal drawing where I reduced the number of lines I used to describe the figure which are representational of the contour lines and lines of flow. I enjoyed seeing how different ways of working produced these results, some looking very smooth and slowing, others looking jaunty and less refined.
One of my favourite experiments so far is this Indian ink exercise where I started with 5 lines and gradually reduced until I drew the figure with 1 line. This gave me a great perspective on what the single dominant line of flow was in the figure, the one that represented, to me, what the figure looked like in its most basic form. I also was able to see how varying the weight and shape of the line helped to describe different parts of the figure, whether they be the solid torso or more delicate fingertips.
Drawing 13 is an experiment where I develop a contour drawing and basic lines of flow with trialling wet into wet and wet on dry with Indian ink. I started with a large patch of water on the paper and painted the Indian ink in for the figure. With the other two drawings, I gradually reduced the area of water so there were more sharp edges than ink finding patches of water. I found this quite exciting as I didn’t know where the areas of ink were going to bleed into the water which meant the drawing had unpredictable qualities. Perhaps, If I wanted more control over this, I could lay down specific areas of water, or even a tonal wash to see where they are, to control where I put the figure lines.
Experiment 14 moves towards applying a more controlled wash of tone to my figure. I used undiluted Indian ink to lay down the contour lines and then when dry, applied areas of water where I wanted tone and diluted the ink on the paintbrush progressively, applying the darker and mid tones wet-in-wet to describe form. I feel this is quite an abstract outcome and something quite dynamic and striking because of the sharp contrast of undiluted Indian ink, the white of the support and the tonal washes helping to bring together the concept. I wonder what this would like on a colour or rough support? Or even if I introduced a little colour into the tonal washes or line?
Drawing 15 is a simple and delicate drawing of a figure with a nude colour palette to describe form. I applied a very light contour line and then applied the darker tones wet-in-wet.
I had fun with this drawing in that it started with a cross-contouring drawing in pencil, then I saw a wrapped effect, a bit like drapery over the body from the shape of the lines following the curves of the figure. I also imagined a lined wrap around the limbs and torso.
I decided to spiral my lines around the body parts to give a caged, wire effect. Not quite sure why I went in this direction but I am glad I experimented and took the risk to try something that came to me as an idea. It is a liberating technique in that it asks the viewer to look for patterns and shapes it recognises into understanding the drawing as a figure.
Originally, my idea for drawing 17 was going to be an ink cross-contour drawing but I felt like I had experimented enough with that technique at the moment. This drawing started as a pencil structure and then I felt like changing the medium to fountain pen as I knew the ink was soluble and would therefore bleed if I touched it with a wet medium. I also knew that fountain pen ink has more colour variation to it when bled when comparing it to Indian ink.
Drawing 17 saw me pick up the rigger again and add the same nude colour I used in drawing 15. I gently dragged some of the fountain pen contour line into the areas of tone with the watercolour nude wash I was applying with the rigger. I used the rigger because I knew with certain pressure, I would be able to bend the brush bristles and apply a spontaneous and loose wash so it wouldn’t be so detailed but I could get interesting results with the combination of watercolour and ink. The area of tone could be controlled but the mixture of colours bleeding together was a lot more unpredictable which was satisfying for me to observe. The mixture of soft and hard edges offer some interest to this drawing too and I would like to consider this technique for Assignment 4.
Drawing 17
Here I draw abstract shapes and marks and question my family which body parts they think they are.
A mixture of lines and shapes which describe a figure. This style reminds me of some of Picasso and Modigliani’s work.
The experimentation that I have undertaken here will set me up for the rest of Part Four as I will be able to recall the various techniques and materials that I have experimented with. Also, by looking at the human figure with all of the exercises, the time spent observing and finding the contours and structural bases for the figure drawings has improved my technique and observation to some extent. I am looking forward to seeing what the rest of Part Four brings and how I feel inspired by it.
A really enjoyable walk around the sculpture park enabled me to see these sculptures up close and personal. I actually found this sculpture park in Part 2, but I’ve revisited them for this exercise and it was nice to try charcoal and pencil to describe these forms. There is a lot to understand about sculpture and, just in a small snapshot that I have documented here, I can see how expressive artists can be with their chosen materials. The variety of sculptures and their textures, whether raw, smooth, dynamic, soft and flowing all have a story to tell and I think a lot of my intrigue and reaction to the pieces comes from being able to lay my hands on them and feel the forms under my finger tips. Many questions arise from the design of the sculptures too. Which materials/colours to use? Single or mixed materials? How tall/wide? How to position? How will the light (reflected light and shadows) effect the overall feel of the piece to the viewer? What message will the piece emit? How will it look from different angles?
These questions are much like those I would ask myself when looking at drawings and paintings, or even planning my own. Sculpture, to me, opens up a new world of possibilities, in that the subject becomes three dimensional, open to interpretation with all sides exposed, leading me to think that the artist has to think about the sculpture’s vulnerabilities from all angles.
For this exercise, I really liked the idea of the colour flowing in like a mist. I also was drawn to the dark links and limited tonal variation.
Experimenting with media / mixed media
Trying a sketch-style with the ochre colour for tone
Moving away from the dark line here and opting for an ochre line in colouring pencil to sketch out the scene.
Enjoying using the light tone of the paper as the brightest tone in the scene.
This drawing makes me feel quite relaxed and happy to look at. Not only does it bring a sense of familiarity as it is near my home, but the warm, rich ochre colour reminds me of the warmth of the sun that beats down on this road and its houses. I’ve not worked with a monochromatic colour palette before and opted for this because I felt like it provided my drawing with the relaxed and light-hearted feel I wanted. The subtlety of the tones is much better than the previous attempt with the dark line which feels quite harsh and rigid in this sun-kissed scene. I found it easier to describe aerial perspective with this duo of pencil and watercolour paint than with the pastels which I tried in an earlier exercise. I lightened my touch/pressure and retracted the intensity of the colour, the further away the lines and forms were from the viewer to achieve this.
Considering the perspective exercises in part 4, I did find this exercise a little easier than if I hadn’t completed the preparatory work. After finishing the line drawing, I saw a few areas, such as the road not meeting on the horizon or the foreground fence panels being slightly ‘off’, that didn’t conform to their receding lines or vanishing points. I felt like my preliminary sketches, documented in Exercise 1, helped me to shape the drawing and get a real feel for how it would look once complete. I tried to capture the sense of perspective, with lightening the weight of the line and using lighter cross hatching for the little areas of tone, as the drawings recedes towards the horizon. If I were to draw this scene again, I would like to spend more time focusing on the receding lines of the angular perspective to really ensure the drawing completely knits together. I also would like to draw with a tighter line to make the drawing more realistic.
In this exercise I explore using conté, charcoal and chalk pastels, taking a risk to explore these materials to look at aerial perspective. I understood the practise of tonal degradation as distance between the fore and background increases. I chose to pick these materials as I knew they would be a challenge for me to work with to describe this effect of perspective. I do feel the drawings are a bit solid looking and heavy, because of my manipulation and inexperience of the materials in this context, but I can understand how the tones can effect the sense of perspective and depth on the viewer. I do wonder how these scenes would look if rendered in colouring pencil rather than the thicker materials that I have used here. Im sure that I could layer the tones more gradually, ensuring I have a bigger range to describe the aerial perspective. It would be nice to see which artists use this method in their own work.
This exercise was very challenging for me, with multiple vanishing points that appearing off the page, the drawing started to get a little confusing and I wasn’t sure where I was supposed to be placing lines. I should have put the horizon line in first maybe? I enjoyed adding the detail to the books to bring them to life, I still feel that this drawing isn’t entirely accurate and angular perspective is a technique that needs to be practised consistently in my case. I appreciate how technical drawings can become with perspective drawing and following the principles, and it does tend to put me off a little as I feel I could loose my looseness and spontaneity, although, as discussed in the previous exercise, there is also the opportunity to utilise my natural style with perspective principles because I like to draw in a realistic way in which perspective is still present, giving good form and shape to my subjects.
I really enjoyed this exercise; I didn’t think I would as I had a few preconceptions about perspective with its rules and regulations, most of all, I was slightly sceptical about using a ruler to draw. Nether-the-less, the exercise itself was good fun and I felt it was a beneficial learning exercise which, once I added the vanishing point and squared up the lines in the drawing, it suddenly made sense as to the scale and how all the lines are positioned in relation to each other in the rules of parallel perspective. Once the lines had been drawn in with the ruler to square up, I realised that the sink and the toilet were far too small in scale and that the floor at the back of the bathroom was very high compared to where it should be in true perspective form. I’m quite pleased that the lines that I had placed before using the ruler with the vanishing point weren’t too far off the mark from where they should be for true perspective placement. I am sure that my technique and judgement will improve the more I practise.
I’ve also realised that by applying perspective practises into my drawing, it gives the impression of a realistic drawing. However, I don’t see why I couldn’t combine a loose line with true perspective practise. Perhaps this could be another research topic to look into, to see how other artists explore this idea, maybe in urban landscapes where there a multitude of lines on offer to investigate.
A really interesting start to this exercise as my immediate thought was drawn to a up-close and personal scene which had a fore, middle and background view to it. On a walk recently, I found some beautiful lavender, which when I bent down to smell it and look at the bees going about their business, I noticed a really lovely scene which was split into thirds: the lavender heads near my eyes in complete focus, the middle ground showing a little less detail and the background completely out of focus but with tonal variation. I wanted to have a go at a pencil drawing with this exercise and stick with the greyness of the lead rather than introducing colour. I thought this might take away from the detail and the striking contrasts with the darkest parts of the drawing.
The photos below show my work at various stages; I must have spent about 12-13 hours on this piece. Originally, I thought I might like to work with a looser line, which is my tendency, however I was drawn to a tighter line and something with more detail for this piece. The initial sketching out and positioning didn’t seem too much of a bother to me as I had a good idea of how I wanted the piece to look. Where I could have made better choices was with applying such dark tones to individual areas as they were being built up, rather than start with the darkest and lightest tones and then fill in everything in between. This decision actually hindered me as I felt as I was progressing and needed to adjust the tones to represent realistic shadows, I had to layer the tones darker and darker, until, the lavender heads in the foreground especially, lost their light and delicate appearance. I also found by not placing the darkest tones first and lightest tones first that I didn’t achieve as much of a variation of focus in each section of the fore, middle and background sections. I could have put more emphasis on each section to give the impression of more depth. Also in photo number 4 below, I quite like the look of some areas looking a little incomplete, like some of the scene has washed in with detail and the strong sunlight has glared through and taken away some of the vision of the scene. This effect could have lightened up the scene and made it more obvious between the three layers of depth. There were a few moments where I laid down the heaviest tone and then realised that some leaved and stalks should have been drawn in and so trying to lift out heavy pencil lead was quite difficult. Some areas of the drawing look quite realistic with detailed shading and light reflections, and others look more loose. I think this is because of the length of the time and the mood I was in when sitting down to the labour-intensive task of rendering hundreds of lavender leaves, I swapped between the two styles, perhaps rushing to get it finished when tired, or even unconsciously turning back towards my more instinctive mark-making style?
Overall, I am really happy with the drawing for this exercise and I am happy that I picked this ‘zoomed-in’ style to work with for this exercise brief. It’s not so much the outcome of the piece that I am grateful for here, but the learning experiences I have gained which are numerous. I also learnt an awful lot about mark making with a pencil, including but not exhaustive: when to swap to a softer/harder pencil grade, how not to smudge the material after it had been put onto the paper, how different grades can be beneficial in describing tone, how to use the putty rubber to lift out highlights and the capabilities of the rubber with the different grades of pencil.
On a day trip out to an Olive museum in Cyprus, we found a creative corner where the landscape work of Monet and Van Gogh were appreciated. I thought it was quite lovely that these prints were positioned here as the subjects looked at trees but I also took note of how these artists described their fore, middle and backgrounds with the use of perspective and tonal variation. It is clear to see that the use of colour describes aerial perspective in that the colours become more muted and less intense, simulating that sense of distance with a large volume of air between the fore and background. I also notice that their landscapes divide the paintings into three distinctive areas which when looking for them, divide the frame up into the fore, middle and background areas. This technique has made me think about how I would begin to construct a landscape piece and how I would convey a sense of depth and perspective.
Quick sketches of an adventure exploring a Cypriot village in the mountains. I looked at basic perspective here, but tried to see how the background would be quite blurred and less identifiable in relation to the cobbles or stones near the feet of the viewer.
Below are photos of my research that I undertook for this task but also for personal experience of looking at fore, middle and back grounds in a particular scene that could be developed into a drawing or painting. I tried to look at the scenery through different ways: standing, sitting, turning around on the spot to see what else was in my range of vision, climbing high and looking out or downwards, getting really low to the ground and looking up.
I’d really love to spend some time working on developing this scene into a drawing. I love the viewpoint and the energy of the waves crashing up on the rocks. The darkness of the rocks compared to the brightness of the sea and the sky are really enthralling and I can’t wait to describe it.
Laura Baker 522918 Learning Log - Drawing 1 