Week 5: Anatomy

A 10 minute anatomy and pose study, again with quite a focus on foreshortening.

In this image the foreshortening is clear and good. It is quite obvious to the viewer that the leg is held upright in front of the body, and also that the rest of the body is behind it at a different angle. The proportions are good, and the perspective points clearly to a horizon line above the top of the picture.

There are also some good lines in the image, for instance the one which comes down from the raised arm and follows the body towards the leg. This is a good continuous line and helps to create form in the image, as does some of the directional shading, which gives a feeling of weight and depth to the picture.

Week 4: Foreshortening and Perspective

A 30 minute drawing focused on perspective and the foreshortening that comes from perspective.

The perspective and foreshortening of the skeleton in the foreground is done well, the body is approximately 6 heads from top to bottom (or side to side) diagonally, which would indicate somewhere between half a head and 2 heads of foreshortening, which from the angle would make sense. The anatomy of the skeleton in general is good and proportioned correctly, all the limbs are placed somewhere which would make sense, and nothing is floating around wondering where the rest of the body has gone. There is one problem which is that some of the ribs are missing to the left of the spine.

As both the skeletons were diagonal from the viewpoint and the horizon line is not on the image, the only real hint that is given is the drapery on the floor, which would suggest that it is somewhere above the drawn space. This would indicate that perhaps the skeleton in the background should be foreshortened or angled slightly more, however it still adds to the depth of the picture and would appear to be proportioned in a way that makes sense with the skeleton in the foreground.

Week 3: Composition

A 10 minute line drawing focused on form and composition.

The composition in this image is good, as there are some good uses of the rule of thirds, specifically the jug on the right in the vertical, and the cup on the left in the horizontal. There are also some good lines in the image following the tops of the objects and also the sides of the jug which display long continuous lines. There are also no orphaned objects and no kissing objects, although with the tops of the two central objects it is slightly unclear if they are or not. The slightly lighter lines describing the people and area of the background also aid the image overall, as they give the composition more place and help to give a sense of depth to the picture.

The lines and especially the ellipses of some of the objects are good at describing the form, even though there is no shading there is a distinct idea of how the objects are shaped and where they curve, if they do. One place where this is not very effective is the top of the rectangular object, it is not entirely obvious what it is doing. 

Week 2: Form and Shape

A 10 minute negative space drawing focused on the forms in the composition.

The composition in the image, while central and potentially not very interesting because of this, is otherwise good as there are no orphaned objects, especially interesting as this means all the objects essentially merge into one due to the negative space, creating an effect where you are not quite sure where objects meet, but are aware of multiple objects in the image. There are also some interesting lines going through the tops and middles of the objects, creating a feel where the objects seem almost to be scaled up in size the further to the right they go.

The stark whiteness central to the image stands out from the background and creates interesting tonal values in the image, included in this is the drapery which has only been semi-shaded, creating a suggestion of space without a large amount of information.

Week 1: Efficiency and Effectiveness

A 15 minute drawing of drapery on a chair, this drawing is focused on being quick and efficient in style. This is achieved by using long, continuous lines which are measured and observed, and large areas of smudged shading to create different tonal values and highlights. The checker pattern is then essentially an overlay over this layer with some highlights picked out with a rubber. The checkers have been observed to make sure that they appear to follow the curvature of the fabric.

The composition in this image is not brilliant as the chair and fabric appear to be floating in space due to the lack of background, and there is no rule of thirds. However the image is balanced down the centre and has some good lines along the edge of the inside of the cloth.