LIfe Drawing: Week 1 - Day 3

 40 min charcoal and chalk work

                                           (L) Charcoal - Rubbing back technique    (R)  Charcoal - Sitting pose - quick study

It did help to walk around and see some of the others...... only 3 students had prev. experience in drawing the human figure and outshone the rest, with super results each time........but for the rest of us, it was a new topic ... not done before.

I felt unable to start each drawing, again today.  In some ways it was worse. 
Somehow I stumbled forward and in 3 of my pieces I felt I achieved something .... with strict coaching. (The ones above). 

There were one or two other pieces, where I thought I had got somewhere, (being a beginner in this topic)... only to be told it was all wrong and to rub half of it out :(  What a horrible feeling.... necessary but harsh for a beginner.  Especially under the time limits we worked under and the size, materials and style of drawing. 
The urge not to rub out half of your work, that you felt was the best you had done......to leave it and feel that one had got somewhere,...... was overwhelming. We were pushed so hard.  Yes, we got results, most of us in the end. 

 (Below)  This is after rubbing out half of the image, and redrawing in the last couple of minutes... I agree it was more accurate but losing the models head, did not feel good....

 

(Above)  This was before rubbing out the top half of the body, because it was at the wrong angle :(

Here are some examples of works by famous artists (although they had more time and more experience...)
We were told to look at their shading and try to emulate it...

 This is where I got the scribbly lines from in my one drawing....

 

Even for my best drawing of the day, in the last 2 minutes - I got ...... "Can't you just do one thing right... put the tone in the right place at least!!"  At this stage I think I had tried so hard and done each part of the body about 10 times, correcting, correcting, correcting...it was always wrong...slightly, in some cases but wrong.  This is where I learnt that charcoal is forgiving....I had never felt this way about charcoal before. 

It was the time limits more than anything that limited our results - without that pressure.....one could better draw a face or body, correcting, perfecting (or could/would we...)  ?

Given the spec's, the time limits..... the final instructions to correct what we had achieved - made our results (which go for our assessment) seem pathetic and rushed and unfinished.

I know often that I am pushing myself, considering my injuries, to do these studies.   It seems at times that its not possible to be an artist with what has happened to me.  Yet following my head injury in 2007, and subsequent loss of memory ... drawing and painting (and photography) is almost all that remained with me, for much of the time that passed since than....that natural instinct to want to draw, paint - my own style.

This, being the first time I have ever had the opportunity to study art, makes it so challenging.

I wonder that is unfair, that I have had so many injuries in my life..... and having been told I am not talented in art, why I attempt to do this...   its because it returns to me, that feeling, wanting to draw, paint...working with colour and design...despite everything... it stayed with me.

That does not go to say that I (or anyone) can be talented, or learn to do ....each and every kind of art that there is, within the syllabus.

I felt very strongly at this stage that I should give up, my studies, that I was useless and could not continue.

Yet I feel ........looking back ..... that a handful of pieces over the 3 days, I did manage to get it, even though it did not feel like it at the time.

Its a journey, not just a study of art.


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The tutor that we had today .... was very strict ...unlike our usual tutor who is kind, encourages us with words of wisdom, smiles and laughs.  Not this taskmaster...forcing us to go on, through the darkness ... without a torch.  Do it :/

(Personally I feel our tutors should at least be able to demonstrate and draw an example of what is required themselves.  This is sorely missing.  That total refusal to draw examples of what we should be aiming for.  Yes, we get shown copies of works by great masters, well known artists but surely our tutors should be able to demonstrate?  We, as students, get  many 1/2/5/10 minute drawing tasks - with the odd 40 minute big piece.  Surely our tutors could and should demonstrate themselves what they can achieve in 1-10 minutes - their own bursts of artistic talent.  This type of demonstration would inspire us, lay aside our qualms and fears of inadequacy, show us how they correct and judge their own works within those time-frames... and yet total refusal to do this.  Our regular tutor does show us how to proceed with making marks (hatching, varied line pressure)  on a page, with different mediums............ but still....no drawing of an object, scene, hand, foot, leg, face, angles, poses, human figure.   There should be time for that, its part of the learning, teaching experience.)

Life Drawing: Week 1 - Day 2

Again, we had a live model (clothed) in the studio. 

Today - it was the huge challenge - for me - drawing the full body!!   What a task - having not done this before.  It's a study that is a study in its own ... 

MY FINAL PIECE

There were many bad learning images leading up to this so it just goes to show, that despite feeling really intimidated by this section, I did learn a lot ...

Here are some of the learning experiences from terrible beginning onward:

Initial first image (charcoal) and then moving on to conti crayon...

 Charcoal - 2 minute studies (below)

 Then using a long twig stick and ink, at arms length:

Personally I think, that starting off with scaled, and measured, printed images and practicing small scale would have helped. But we dove straight in ...at the deep end...without knowing how to swim.

It seemed comparable to being given a couple of pictures of people swimming through the ages and then being thrown in and told to swim.  Most likely drown?

At the start, I never thought I would be capable of achieving what I did.  I was ready to give up before I started.  It seemed too difficult.  I am sure that for everyone there are always those parts of ones studies that feel too difficult....well this was one of mine.

We learnt, first off, that there are approx. 7-8 heads (measurement) in the human body and if you can get this right then you will have managed to draw the human body in proportion.... from top to bottom that is.  The width still needs work...

Easier said than done.  Perhaps it was just me, but all I can say is that drawing the human figure, without previous experience of this, was a very challenging matter... Its all very well to hold up a pencil and measure the head, and the body in this way...  BUT immediately transferring that to paper, and accurately depicting what you are seeing, whilst trying to interpret ....what you just learnt, was almost too much for me.  There seemed no time to absorb the info before we had to apply it.  First attempts where highly embarrassing to say the least, when I did get them down on paper. 

Not to mention that we were not drawing in pencil ...we moved straight to charcoal, conti, indian ink & stick held at arms length etc.  In hindsight... I learnt that charcoal is forgiving, although it does not seem that way at the time.

We had to hold the drawing instruments in a certain way too, like a wand...but no magic emerged...  It felt awkward and humiliating...  BUT it worked in the end.  A difficult journey to say the least.

We moved at a  fast and furious pace too, with no room to recover.  I had difficulty getting the proportions into my head at first and felt like hiding away, unable to magically replicate what I was seeing, onto my page.  On my first attempt, I sort of managed the first 3 (Head, mid chest, navel) - all, wrongly  representing a stick thin person ... and then I could not seem to absorb the remainder of the measurements, with in the time limit.

Working at an easel, on large format paper is a luxury...which I am grateful for...honestly - but its not easy, especially for me (with my prev. injuries etc). 

Prev. injuries, together with the combined new, recent events/injuries - since starting my art studies (all around Sept, Oct) of shingles, trigemeral (?) nerve incident at dentist, impact to my head and face, 2 injuries to my hand etc ...all seemed to weigh me down.  I think I totally lost my confidence on this day of life drawing....  how I managed to stay in the room, I don't know.  I felt shell shocked and occasionally a tear or two, brimmed in my eyes, alternately escaped and rolled forlornly, slowly down my pasty face.

We all got through a such a large amount of drawing, over the week, and it was amazing to see all of our efforts improve... BUT it was incredibly intimidating for me, to the point of feeling like.... I could not attempt these drawings... for the fear of the childlike efforts, I produced.  The urge to rush out the room to avoid attempting this ...  The overwhelming feeling that I could NOT do this.

Having to dive right in and do so many timed exercises, not really knowing where to begin, feeling like each attempt was useless...this section felt impossible to me ... impossible to achieve a good result, and under timed-pressure.

Still, I am pleased to say that at the end of the day, somehow, with strict coaching, I did  manage to achieve a few realistic results.

I was not sure I could post my worst efforts but then again...perhaps it shows how far I came, to achieve my better results.....which was very far indeed.  I honestly don't know how I got through this week, it was really a difficult one for me. 

Next is day 3 of our first week:  Sitting and Lying down at different angles...........  the terror continues

Life Drawing: Week one - Day 1

This week we had a live model (clothed) in the studio.

We started learning how to approach drawing the human figure.  We started on faces, different angles ...
then, we had to draw, imagining that we were peeling back the skin, in places.... to reveal the structures beneath the face, shoulder.  We moved on to hands, lower arms,  lower legs and feet. We applied the same peeling back effects to them....revealing skeletal and muscular structures beneath.  This was done by drawing the model and then referring to printed diagrams to fill in the details.

SIDE VIEW (3 Quarter) 

- with "peel back" detail on skull (Cheek, eye socket) and shoulder

 

FRONT VIEW

- with "peel back" detail on skull (Cheek, eye socket, teeth) a

 

NOTES

 Some of my other learning experiences along the way:

 Moving on to hand and feet studies

I must say that drawing the human body is not my strong point and I found this really difficult.  The face, hands, feet were sort of ok but as we moved to Day 2 and Day 3,  I struggled on this section.

Alternative photography: Cyanotype, Photogram and Pinhole Photography

 It was so fun learning to do these.     

 *Here are a small handful of photos taken in "dark rooms" with a mobile phone - poor quality images for record purposes only. Final photo's of work produced to follow later.
 
The first one we learnt about was Cyanotype Photography.

Here are the chemicals

 





These chemicals are carefully measured into seperate, resealable containers, and each mixed with water.  Then they are added together, in a specific ratio, in a seperate containter - to make a yellow liquid that is painted on to paper/silk etc.  We had to decide on a object to use for our images - either an inverted acetate / transparency or an flat-ish item.  These were then exposed to UV light, in a lightbox for various recorded timeframes ranging from 2 - 15 minutes  (Inside) to 30min/1 hour outside (under glass).  Firm contact between the itme and the paper produced the best results.

 
I used a transparency my tutor lent me and a feather that I brought with. 
The items under glass, inside the lightbox.  Note UV Light is harmful to the eyes, so the lightbox is only switched on once the lightbox is closed.

This is the exposed result and the items used.  Next the image is washed and hung up to dry (this removes the yellow chemicals and some of the chemical that has already turned blue (on being exposed to UV light)



Before being washed






After being washed and hung out to dry.  This was very exciting and I loved this cyanotype process.

Here are some others I made:



M
More paper waiting to dry (this can also be dried inside a cupboard or with a blowdryer.
A skeleton leaf, before being washed out.

Slices of apples waiting to be exposed.

 
Hanging up to dry after being washed





SSome feathers exposed onto a piece of silk.






The beetle print - This one turned out nicely.


This is a print of a local polytunnel project.  An inverted image on acetate was used for this image.


Photograms - In the darkroom, we placed items onto photographic paper and expose these to light for a few seconds. These were two of my results - hanging up to dry after being washed off. It was amazing to see how the light can penetrate the objects, in such a short time.

 
The photographic paper in the dark room

 

 
I used fruit and veg for my items as well as a peeler and a knife.  These related to my Personal Sketch Book topic of the local poly tunnel project of growing and selling local produce (Vegetables, seasonal fruit and salad items.

A chilli pepper, a slice of apple, some corn/mielie seeds, fennel seeds, a peel and knife

 
Apple and cucumber slices, peas, chillie pepper and a carrot.  Its amazing how the light of the enlarger (in the darkroom) penetrated the peas to reveal their 3D nature.

After exposure these prints were placed in the 4 photographic trays:  developer, stop bath, fixer and then washed in water.  Then they were hung up to dry.




The darkroom safe light, that allows you to see in very dim light but does not contain ultra violet (UV) Light that will damage the photographic paper ( Light sensitive).  The exposure time is only 6 seconds which is a very short time to produce an image.




NEXT:  PINHOLE PHOTOGRPAHY



This was my first image with my "biscuit tin pinhole camera" (It had been painted black and modified with a tiny pinhole in the lid, a strip of tape for a shutter (seconds for exposure to light) and some photographic paper in it! It was amazing to see the results. *Note this is a negative image. The final positive images will be posted later.

Thanks to our tutor for teaching us this method of photography.


This was my second image.  I placed the "biscuit tin" pinhole camera closer to the subject (20cm) so that the subjects (Mug and water bottle)  took up more of the frame.  Exposure time was 12 seconds (outside)



 This was one of my images in the wash tray after exposing and developing the image.



It was quite fascinating that a tiny pinhole in a biscuit time could produce such defined results.  Note these are negative images.  The positive image is created by creating contact prints in the darkroom, onto a new piece of blank photographic paper.




This is a photo of  "My pinhole camera" (Biscuit time with a pinhole 'lens' busy taking an indoor photo (15 minutes) Final image to be posted shortly.