Just as with term one, I feel that the weeks spent in life drawing this term were really helpful, and that I have gained another set of useful skills from them. It was wonderful to come back on the first day, remember the lessons about line of action, exaggeration and form that we had learned previously, and immediately apply them to our warm-up drawings.
I really enjoyed the classes on drawing from imagination, trying to get an idea of how the figure would move and how sketching out 2-3 poses from imagination helped to convey the way the body moved and gestured. It was also quite enjoyable to turn the model into an animal. A lot of my sketches for that week still look terribly anthropomorphic rather than a posing animal, but I would like to practice this more in the future. I feel references of actual animals would help in getting a sense of accuracy - the shapes of the bat I had to do for homework for that week really gave me an idea of how megabats are shaped and the kind of silhouette I should be trying to aim for. Things such as my tiger and dragon from week 10 look ridiculous in comparison as they come across as generic cartoons, lacking an understanding of anatomy and shape.
The points on drapery were particularly striking. Though my practice is lacking in that area, it really helped to know where folds should lie and how they are created in a garment. I'm quite pleased with the later drawings I have, though by drawing from sight I overestimated the length and size of a lot of the garments. It is not particularly noticeable, but I am frustrated with my own shortcomings and feel that further research and practice is necessary for this area in particular.
The lessons on construction were my favorite. My base sketches have always been flat and two dimensional, I had never considered applying 3D aspects in order to achieve a result that would be closer and more accurate to life. Drawing squares was a lot easier than drawing softer organic shapes, but when we combined the two, I found that my proportion control had improved significantly - it worked especially well when I applied it to my own personal drawings. With construction I am finding it much easier to recognize instantly when my legs and torsos are too long.
Faces and rendering are still difficult for me, though I am getting a better understanding of imagined lighting. When rendering I noticed I struggle a lot creating lighter shades and my shadows tend to become very dark very quickly and do not represent the lighting at hand very well. It may be an issue I have with how tightly I hold and press with my pencil, in spite of the way that I hold it for this class. I am noticing that I have gained a little bit of control over tone and shade which becomes apparent in week 13 and 14's work, but I still have quite a long way to go. Looking at the rendering of masters such as Da Vinci and Carravagio, I'm amazed at how such light shading can make the form look so soft yet so defined at the same time, and how thicker outlines imply weight and tension.
Overall I feel where term 1 taught us the basics, term 2 has built on refining our form and figures to bring them closer to life. Its unfortunate that we only have life drawing once a week as I would like to practice and hone what we have learned this term further, but lack the free time to do so.
No comments:
Post a Comment