Category: Foundation Drawing 1 G4

For lesson today, we had a female model come in and pose for us. First we were to fill in our paper with a dark charcoal back ground. We were to create an image of her by erasing off the charcoal background, focusing on the bright areas and the contrasts between the colour tones.

 

 

 

 

 

Prof demonstrating how to do the chiaroscuro style in life drawing. He did this in 5 mins!

 

This is my work which I took 60 mins to complete.
This is prof’s one of a slightly different angle which he did in approx 15 mins only?!

 

I enjoy this lesson very much. I felt that this lesson was much easier for me than drawing realistic human anatomy. It was quite weird for me to “draw” what I see by erasing away dark charcoal areas to show bright highlights or gray areas as I’m more accustomed to building up an image through adding more and more darker tones. So this was quite refreshing. When I was stuck at certain points, squinting of my eyes did help me to see whether the hues are the same(Aka if the hue is the same – same darkness to be used on my paper, if hue is different – different darkness tonal values).

Also, I realized that I made the legs far too short. 🙁 And her head looks weird too?

First half of the lesson was life drawing! The model Steven(?) was a really nice guy haha. We were to draw his anatomy in 60 mins, which was divided into 3 sessions of 20 mins so that the model can rest. (I think being a model is a super tough job having to stay almost still for so long! Kudos to them man.)

 

The requirement was an inch border around the edges of the paper, divide the paper into half again to form a cross. The center point should be where the canto is, the head should touch the border and the legs likewise. This helps in our proportions of the body.

 

We were taught how to draw legs. I learnt that the thighs and the calves are not in a straight line. The calves are slightly more “out” than the thighs, which is illustrated by the square boxes as a top down view.

 

Steven took a stance whereby his feet were slightly apart, one a bit more in front than the other while his arms were lifted as he held onto a long pole. When drawing the model, I still struggled in identifying the boxes for the torso. It was very frustrating. I slowly got it. (I should go practice more so I can get the hang of it.) Here’s what I drew.

I feel that the torso and right calf still looks weird.

 

 

For the second half of the lesson, we learned about basic perspectives namely 1D, 2D and 3D.

 

We just sat around for the remaining class time and tried to draw the furniture such as the horse bench and high stools. I guess the perspectives of my drawings are not obvious as I was sat quite a distance from the objects.

We were taught how to draw human anatomy correctly by using boxes to help us. These boxes would help us identify the angles the body parts are at. I learnt that the torso is actually quite stiff, it’s made up of two giant boxes, mainly the ribcage box and the pelvis box. We are to always draw the torso boxes first as they are the most fixed points of our body, after that followed by legs, then arms then head.

 

To begin, the we draw the rough ribcage box, next we have to identify this vertical bone in the center front of our ribcage, we draw that so it shows us where the front of the body is facing. Thereafter, we draw the collarbone that leads all the way to the shoulder area. If we were to draw from the back, we can draw two triangles that form our should blades. The angle at which the triangles are are dependent on how high our arms are raised. From there we can map out the rest of the top half of the torso.

 

 

 

For the lower half, we draw the pelvis box. The pelvis box is quite immobile. For instance, when you sit, the pelvis box sits squarely on the surface. To help further refine the lower half of the torso, we draw the position of the canto, it is bone joint, hence there are not muscles there and thus there is a slight “dent”. If we were to draw the back, by right we can see a inverted triangle at the tailbone are.

 

We were to draw the white figurine models in front of us. Woon Lam did a demonstration, he did it so quickly and easily. Then it was our turn.

 

My first try (male figurine):

My second try (female figurine):

 

I encountered a lot of problems drawing the boxes in their correct positions. I still don’t quite grapple the concept, so it took me a very long time to figure out the angle of the boxes and which way they were facing. And from the boxes, drawing the body such that it looks believable was hard too.

After last lesson, we were tasked to practice identifying the different anatomy boxes from famous artist’s paintings. By being able to identify the boxes, it helps us have a better understanding of the anatomy and how the body is actually moving and twisting(and how they actually are not moving/twisting, and that it’s all a trick of the eye).

Below are my tryouts.

I found this exercise quite useful, I struggled quite a bit in the first two(especially the first one), but it got easier. I hope I got them right though as I’m quite unsure about the pelvic box.

Perception VS Conception

For lesson, we sat around a table with objects such as flower pot, glass bottle, small metal thermos cup/flask, glass bottle, metal dishcover(?) and mini flower vase. The backdrop is a slightly crumpled brown paper. We were told to choose minimally two objects to sketch.

 

This was what I did!

 

I learnt the difference between compressed and willow charcoal. When drawing with compressed charcoal, it feels a lot harder and solid. The lines are also generally sharper(although I’m not sure if it is due to the charcoal piece being new or the general nature of compressed charcoals versus willow charcoals). When I used the compressed charcoal to draw the glass bottle, I found it hard to erase areas I wanted to highlight as light reflecting off the bottle. (That’s when it became known that a few of us bought the wrong type of charcoal.) Woon Lam told us that compressed charcoal are darker and harder to erase as manufacturers add some kind of bonding agent such that it sticks to the paper better(no wonder!). Woon Lam suggested that we use compressed charcoal only for when we are almost done with the piece, to add very dark spots since it is unattainable with willow charcoal. Woon Lam kindly gave us a few sticks of thin willow charcoal. When tried this new charcoal, it felt really different! It felt a lot more lighter and porous in my hand as I drew. The shade of black, or grey if I may say, is definitely a lot lighter than compressed as prof mentioned.

 

Prof also taught us how to shade metallic objects. The trick is that metallic objects have very high contrasts between the highlights and darks. These can be done in “blocks”. Using an eraser to create highlights are very useful. It is also very often that the brightest spots are beside the darkest spots. Thinking back, I quite like shading metallic objects haha.

 

I learnt that doing backgrounds, especially those made of paper are super hard. This is so as there are very little shade differences unlike the very contrasting ones on the metal dish. I struggled with achieving the effect for quite long, until Woon Lam gave us the tip. The trick is to blend everything up using our hands. The change in shade difference is subtle. I feel that I can improve on this as I feel that the change in my charcoal shades still look unnatural.

 

I feel that I can improve in my sketching. Such as straight lines to be straighter and perpendicular/parallel when need be. I cannot stand my metal dish as the shape is obviously not round, even after correcting it multiple times. Also, I feel that I can try to work faster. I only managed to do two objects whereas my classmates mostly did 3 or more. I’m generally a slow worker, so finishing 2 felt like an achievement in my personal capacity. However, comparing with my classmates, I still got lots to improve on. Overall I’m quite satisfied as I feel that it’s a relatively good first try(I hope) and I learnt a lot of new tricks/tips when using charcoal.

 

As an additional tip, we were taught that we need not always draw what we see. And that what we see is subjective. For instance, we know that hair is rough and has texture when we touch/stroke it. Yet hair can LOOK smooth and silky. This discrepancy confuses us and makes it hard to depict a relatively correct representation of hair. Hence we should fill the overall shape and colour of hair in first. After which we draw some lines where it is obvious where hair strands can be seen to show texture. For instance, a little fringe, and the hair tips. To further show texture, we can use an eraser to lift off/erase “hair strands” or general areas where light will fall upon and reflect.

We went to Can2, sat down (some bought breakfast). The task was to be aware of negative spaces and sketch people and the surroundings in Can2 through “unknowing” them. In the sense that we reduce the details to mere lines and shades.

My first attempt. It looks horrible. Woon Lam, told me that I shouldn’t be outlining my subject matter. He suggested squinting my eyes to see the dark shapes and sketching that.

So I tried again, trying to use shading as a means of showing forms. But I feel that it still looks like I’m outlining then colouring in. This is very hard!!

My next attempt still has elements of outlining, although in my opinion, lesser than the first two attempts. How does Woon Lam do it so easily and effortlessly AND IT LOOKS SO BEAUTIFUL?!

Trying again, I think it’s much better this time. The first is of a guy drinking coffee in front of the stalls reading newspaper. The next is of a guy ordering at the fancai stall. I feel that these two look better?Hopefully.