This week we focused on the balance of a composition in life drawing. Mike explained that if we were to draw lines through the limbs- the weight should look like it balances equally on them. Mike then suggested we practice analyzing our art work through the terms he gave us (see above).

Definitions

Scale-this refers to the actual size of the drawing and that all things are in respect to each other. For example, the chair would come to the middle of Jackie’s waist in height.

Proportion– shows a real object with accurate sizes reduced or enlarged by a certain amount. For example, in this drawing, as the person is small and obviously fits on the A3 page, how does it fit with the whole drawing. Are all the aspects of Jackie’s body of the correct length and size?

Force-I actually couldn’t find much on the force in drawing.Something I’ll have to ask Mike about further.

Weight– The act of making a character look like gravity is actually acting on them. There is no point of a large, robust character standing on a beach ball that is fully inflated. No, this ball would sag down, the air pushed to the sides as it nearly bursts.

Alive– this is literally was it means. It’s the task of making the character come alive to the viewer so they can capture the movement and lifelike quality to the form itself.

Believability– this is the form of making the character looking alive. Is the pose correct through the form and the proportions. Is this pose alive and believable to the viewer.

Form- form is creating the 3D element to the piece. Upgrading the flat drawing to a more believable life like one. Surface places part in this.

Surface- creating the difference in surface in this pose was interesting as we have the difference in both the body and chair.

Solid Drawing- This technique involves creating a believable silhouette for the character based on the true anatomy and balance of the character.

Balance– This is dependent on the balance depending on the position and weight of line.

Tension– The forces acting on the subject causes this tension build up on the body around.

Perspective-Defined as the art of representing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other.

Review

I thought I gave a lot of thought to the weight in this drawing- I tried to show the how the seated position on the chair is the main focus of the weight- shown in the squashing of the knee on the chair . This acts as the center of gravity, as all the weight acts on here. The balance of the character is demonstrated through this as the weight is evident upon the chair. When drawing the lines of gravity through I found they matched up pretty well.

I think I managed to get the scale of the body to the chair well as it looks believable and still gives the illusion she belongs on this chair.

The proportion of the drawing is pretty good in this- or I think so anyway. The thing I struggle with is getting the thigh and the calve in proportion- I normally draw the thigh to large in comparison. However here, I managed to get it to match, with the relative shape and size of the chair. One of the things I struggled with this week was the foreshortening of the left arm as it fell off of the view line over the top of the chair.

This foreshadowing was part of the perspective that I was trying to achieve, which I think I achieved with the rest of the body. Further away limbs- the right arm and the hidden leg, matched the size of the body and gave the idea of her movie into the final pose. The perspective in the chair itself is something I like and find quite mathematical in positioning, ever since Mike showed me the principle of the parallel lines in the first few weeks. I think I achieved this pretty well- as it matches with the perspective of the model correctly.

Although this was not a tonal drawing I gave my best at creating the smooth surface of the skin compared to the harsh, rigid surface of the chair. This came in the lines that I drew over the rough original drawings. Even in the body itself, their was a variety of textures, from the softer fat around the limbs to the stronger muscles on the limb. I think I achieved this pretty well, especially when differentiating the difference in the hard shoulder line to the softer arms.  I had a lot of original surface lines to capture the movement before going over them to create a more solid drawing. I think I created quite a good silhouette from this pose and is is easy to see what is going on.

I captured the motion of the drawing pretty well- one of the things I think I am pretty good at. It helps when you have early morning life drawings- I find a certain level of lack of sleep gives you a more fluid drawing. I think my level of reverting to basic shapes for the limbs and body helped with defining the form of the body and it also demonstrated the motion. I believe I could draw a few of the before poses of Jackie getting onto the chair fully.

Making the model look alive was a concept I struggled with. Mike explained this came from a combination of all off the concepts above. Hopefully I achieved this.

Progress in Drawing

Old life drawing- the pose isn’t as seen before me. I find that I barely look at the paper now!

Comparing both, I can see were it is easy to loose the form of the model and the movement. I think the sheet week was one of my most successful, allowing me to use my mind to ‘find’ the composition.