Nudity in art has been around for centuries, we see it all the time but does it make it easier for us to do it with contemporary art? There is mixed opinions in nudity and i’m going to look into that. For a lot of people nudity makes them uncomfortable, it’s seen as something which should be hidden, it’s private. People get offended sometimes more than not at the sight of nudity and whether it is right or wrong to express that through art.
I feel that nudity in art is fairly common in the early centuries and is very common in a lot of famous artists work. I feel people have mixed opinions on this, personally I feel nudity is an awkward subjects a lot of the time but through art I think people express it in a beautiful way, I personally don’t enjoy drawing nude but I can see why people like to represent the human body and it creates interesting work. I do think when I was at college and I did life drawing I thought it was interesting, and majority of my class thought it was awkward yet when you’re at that age it is awkward. If we are introduced to this work at an earlier age I feel more contemporary artists would feel they wanted to explore this subject more. Personally I won’t be looking into this, I feel if the circumstances were different and I could attend a college class for it I would yet that isn’t an option to have right now.
In this assignment we were asked to create 3 pieces, two on A1 and one on any size we preffered. One of the piece was to be seated, one in a relaxed reclined type pose and the last one being a portrait with a different angle. I will talk each piece through and my mind set behind it below. I did decide to do all these drawings with a soft 2B pencil as that has been my go to throughout this full section.
Drawing one is my seated piece, I wanted to get a main focus on the limbs and show my improvement in proportion therefore I focused on the arts mainly and torso. I do struggle personally with larger scale as I feel my whole mind gets a little confused with the proportions but I decided to just take my time and no stop until I felt it looks right (not alien). On this piece I did not focus on the facial details but the next two I do as I felt this piece I wanted to focus on the hands because I have had a lot of back and forth with my confidence doing hands. I do feel like I need to spend more time doing independent studies doing larger scale pieces, it’s out of my comfort zone but I do need to improve in that department. During this piece I did a lot of the tones using my finger to blend the darker shades to the light to get a more realistic approach. Below is the picture of my finished result:
This piece I felt went good, I was so hesitant and nervous to do this assignment as I really do find doing larger scale pieces difficult. I find it hard to get the right proportions and be able to make sure the whole piece looks like it matches. I do think with taking more time to do these pieces it has worked so much better in my favour as I am able to make sure I am happy with how it looks and I’m in no rush to get it done fast. I did actually enjoy doing this piece in the end I found it enjoyable to make sure it was accurate and see how I could make sure it all matched up. I found with this piece I wanted to spend time making sure the hands were as accurate and realistic as I could, I always find it so difficult to get the shapes right so it doesn’t look odd. I still have a lot of improvement to make on my arms yet I am seeing my progress on making hands look more realistic and less alien. I do feel like I did well on the tones throughout this piece and I found I am happy with the outcome, I do believe you can see my progress throughout this section of the course and this as a final outcome has just shown how much I feel I have learned on proportions and also working on features like that hands.
Drawing two was to get a pose of reclining position, for this I decided to get someone lying down. I felt like I did this pose throughout the section and I felt it would make sense for me to do this pose on the larger scale in the assignment. I did this pose with as face, I do feel like this wasn’t my best work I did and it’s my least favourite of the three I have done yet I do feel like there was an improvement and I kept it because I felt it will help with my progress. I do did a lot of work on the tones throughout this piece because I wanted to make sure the shading though out was very known and the darker tones blended well throughout. Below is the picture of my result:
I think in this piece it was a bit more basic, the pose I chose was more basic than I would have hoped yet I do think the shading and mark making I made throughout was very well done and the tones were good to see. I do feel like I did a more illustration type drawing on the face yet I do think I didn’t realise that, the eyes don’t look in proportion with the rest of the face and I think that was just on the basic of working on a larger scale yet I do know I need to improve on this in the future. I believe piece is my least favourite just for the fact it was too challenging and it came out as quite a basic piece, I feel in the future I need to challenge myself with different poses and I do wish I had done that during this assignment, I would have done it again and had this as a practice yet I have run out of larger pieces of paper and the shop I get it from is currently shut.
Drawing three was my favourite to do, it was in my comfort zone and I have really been enjoying doing this portraits for this section of the course. I found it more interesting doing a different angle too and I felt this really helped with my piece to make it more challenging and show off how much more I have learnt throughout. Again I spent time trying to blend the tones throughout to get a more realistic look on this piece. Below is the picture of my result:
I really did enjoy doing this piece, I feel like I am more suited to smaller scale pieces although that might just be as I have had most practice with this size. I feel this piece has good tones throughout and I think the facial features turned out well throughout. I do believe I want to do more independent studies on features especially eyes, to get the detail in. I do feel as though I put a burden on myself doing the facial features using a thicker and softer pencil and I have learned to try a different softness in the future. I do like how the face looks as a piece and I have made improvement on the tones and how to make the face look more realistic than I had at the start of this section.
All in all I do think this assignment went well, I found it difficult using a larger scale yet I do believe it has helped me improve on my outlook at proportions and how to identify making the body look correct. I have learned different ways to show tone and how to really look at the body to show the features and shapes throughout. I found it helped doing this assignment to look at the negative of the poses and it helped me get the outline for all of these drawings which really helped me out when doing these larger scale drawings. I feel when I start to practice more in my own time I will start to improve more and feel more confident doing all of these things.
In this exercise we were asked to use our imagination or memory to create a portrait of a person. We were told to do it from someone we had seen or if we had read a book to recreate the character in the book. For this I decided to draw a woman I had seen recently seen, this was quite a difficult challenge to do, below is the picture of my result:
This exercise was quite tricky, I found it difficult to get the proportions right and to make it look unalienable. It was hard to know how to place it therefore I did a rough sketch of a head and sketched out the two lines to indicate where I was going to place the eyes, mouth and nose. I felt like you have to have an imagination to create something which isn’t therefore reference and I do feel like I achieved a good result on this task.
All in all, I feel like I have learned a lot about looking at a portrait and recognising the different characteristics needed. It was very eye opening to think of where to place the different facial features and to focus on how I would tone the face and make the detail up. I quite enjoyed this task it felt quite adventurous to use my imagination and memory to form this portrait of a woman.
For this exercise we were asked to draw two interesting images of our out head, to think about the pose, measuring the face, tones and lines. Look at ourself and make lines, don’t concentrate too much on being completely accurate, keep moving the pencil and just slowly build up tone. Consider how to pose for the drawing and how to angle your head swell as not do such a bold line to create a cartoon effect just look a the lighting and don’t be bold on the outline.
Below are the two pictures of my results, I chose to do one drawing in charcoal and another in a soft pencil:
For this exercise I decided to use a soft pencil as that is what I am used to using and I felt like I would have been able to achieve the tones throughout the face to make a more realistic portrait. I thought using this media would suit me best as I could blend in the different tones and create the more accurate portrait of myself. I thought this media went well as it blended well and I got the right shadows and tones throughout the piece. I also used a rubber to create lighter tones and I thought this created a good effect in the face. In self critic , I feel like I should use a slightly thinner pencil because I think the pencil was too soft to get the right amount of detail to create that really realistic piece. The proportions do look fairly accurate, the only thing I feel like needs a lot of look into is the hair, I wasn’t quite sure how to represent my hair as it is very curly, I want to practice on this type of style because I feel like the hair lets the piece down on the realism. I do believe I got the proportions correct and the distancing from each feature looks accurate from what I see in the mirror.
On the second piece I wanted to use a different type of media to experiment with portraits in a different material therefore I could get a different effect and look on the picture. I felt charcoal would be a good idea to start looking into doing portraits in a different media. I think the different techniques you can use to create a good looking tonal piece. On this portrait I decided to take a different angle therefore I could be more adventures with trying to get the proportions right because I do believe it is more difficult to match up the proportions and features when the face was on a different angle.
All in all, I do feel like the first portrait has a little more of a realism because of the tones throughout. Yet I do like the effect I achieved using the charcoal, I feel it created a more interesting piece and the hair looks better in this piece. I do feel like these pictures do look like me, if I saw this drawing I would feel like I knew it was me. I do believe I have a lot of practice to do to create a more realistic look on my portraits yet I am making progress. It wasn’t too difficult to switch from individual features to full yet it is difficult to make them all not look alien together.
For this exercise we were asked to look into magazines, on the TV and different images at people and do a couple of pages of facial features for such things as eyes, mouths and noses. After this we were then asked to try and draw an entire head and face and don’t worry about it being untidy and overlap. To just experiment and see how the work turns out, below are the pictures of my results.
I liked focusing on the different features of the face in this exercise, I found it was a better way to focus on detail and getting the right lines on the drawings and making sure all of the proportions are right and it doesn’t look alien. I do think I did well on these , I do need to practice more on mouths because I feel they were the weakest of the different features I did but the rest I was happy with the results, I would like to keep doing these practises just to get stronger at drawing individual features.
I found after doing the features individually it did build up my confidence and it made it a lot easier to put them all together in the last portrait. I do think this helped build up how the final piece turned out and it was better for me to fill in the detail throughout the last piece of this exercise. I do feel like it turned out well but I want to continue to try and build up a more realistic look. For my first portrait in this section I do feel like it went well and I am excited to further doing these pieces in the rest of the part.
For this exercise we were asked to go out and people watch then take quick sketches of groups of people and focus on the way their standing, how they interact, what they carry and what their doing with their hands and legs etc. For this I decided to look at past pictures of groups of people and reference from that seen as we’re back in second lock down and also so I could have a longer look at the subjects.
Below are the pictures of my results:
I decided to have two lots of drawings one sitting down and the other not, I feel like it is difficult to get across movement and to capture a type of pose. I do think that it helped a lot to reference from a picture I took earlier therefore the subject was still and look at the poses of the two people. I think in the future I might go out and try to do quick sketches on the spot and try to have an impulse sketch of the subject instead of using a longer reference. I do think that the longer reference has benefited for this piece and I found it interesting to draw random people because I never have really done that before. It a very good exercise and I enjoyed it a lot.
All in all, I think this exercise worked out well and I enjoyed doing this exercise as it opened my eyes more into looking at different interactions and looking at groups of people when they aren’t just poses and it’s a natural pose. I do believe I want to practise going more candid type work where it’s just drawings of natural poses to learn how to do that style. I did enjoy this piece and I feel like it turned out well, I would improve on doing bigger groups and maybe crowds of people next time.
In this exercise we were asked to drawing moving figures and try to fill a page a day, so today was my first day and I filled a page with four people drawing and I will continue to draw these pages until the end of this assignment. This will help improve my look at proportions and also stance when in movement. Below is my results:
I think this exercise has helped me look quickly at movement and be able to try and show that in my sketches, I think by the poses you can see the lift of the leg and the different angle of the figure there is movement involved, I do think tomorrow I will add more shading to these and make sure to do some different types of movement such as maybe dance or running.
For this exercise we were asked to draw three drawings in three different poses for the model. The aim of this study was to practise making interesting studies of the figure to show that we understand the basic structural principles. Before we went on to large studies we should spend time looking at the poses we wanted the models to do and try to observe the body and how we will draw that.
For this I decided to do both, A4 and A2 therefore I could experiment with both. I found this task good and I felt it was a bit more challenging working on a larger scale but it was good practise to get proportions and basic shapes right. Below are all of my results:
These are my smaller scale drawings in the three positions, personally I found the lounging position more effective and I think I captured the proportions better on this piece than the rest, I still believe I need to spend more time on the finer details such as hands and feet. I chose to just use a soft pencil for all three as it was just a rough exercise for the work on the larger scale.
For these sketches on A2 I decided to do all three of the sketches in different materials therefore I would be experimenting on all three and trying something different. The stance picture I used charcoal, I feel like it’s hard to show tone yet it created an interesting piece. The lounging piece I used graphite, I enjoy using this material as it’s easy to make fast lines and glides well across paper. The sitting piece I used ball pen, I found this more difficult to create tone but again it creates an interesting piece of work. Below are my results:
I found it interesting doing these pieces because it was so much different trying to way up the proportions on a larger scale drawing, I found it was harder to not make the body look alien and to make sure the proportions were all okay, I do think my proportions are a bit off with the top two but it was my first time doing this on such a large scale. I do think I need to practice more on larger scale to get better at match the proportions right with the scale. It did help me a bit imagining the sifters skeleton and mucsles to get the right structure yet I do feel like I need to work on my larger scale drawings as it isn’t my normal choice to work that anyway.
All in all, I feel like I need to improve on my proportions and look into working on a larger scale as I find it a lot more difficult getting the right shapes for larger drawings and making sure the body doesn’t look abnormal. I think this was a good effort for a first drawing on this large of a scale. I will practise more with this and try to get used to working on this big of a scale.
Mattew Stone is a London based artist which graduated from CamberWell College of Arts, London and he is currently stages performances and films. His work is widely known and I have discovered it by seeing his underlying structure art of a face. I was fascinated by his use of colours and the different ways he was showing the underlying of the skin in his work. Below is the picture of his work:
I picked this one out because I thought it was interesting how the paint was layered up in different ways to create the effect of the structure behind the skin. I think it is an interesting way of expressing this theme and showing contrast and cases of colours in the work. The different brush marks call for an interesting piece and I was really drawn to this. It is such a different way of expressing this theme rather than older work, it’s a lot more modern and shows such an abstract piece of work.
I love the way this artist has mixed the colours like that and managed to get the lighter tones in with the skin tones, the blend between the structure paint is really interesting, it doesn’t look bizarre it all just blends and works together well. I do think this is interesting and has really opened my eyes in my own work and trying to develop my self into thinking outside of the box.
Leonardo Da Vinci
Leornardo Da Vinci was an Italian painter also considered one of the greatest painters of all time. The Mono Lisa is the most famous of all his work and the most famous portrait in the world. His work isn’t just that he has various different pieces showing underlying structure which is what I have found whilst doing this research, below is the picture I have chosen to look at in more detail:
This piece is good for comparison from the first, you can see how the movement in art has changed. This piece is more more a factual piece of work and shows the in-depth of muscles and the full descriptive look at the scripture of the body rather than an abstract colourful approach from Mattew Stone, I find this piece much more interesting as it’s a realism drawing of the human diagram.
I think as years have gone on people have got more of an imagination when it comes to using bold colours or thinking more interestingly about showing art. The bold colours are completely different to this realistic sketch of the body yet they both impact on the theme. I find it interesting how time has evolved and how different artists think to represent things in different ways.
All in all I found this research interesting, like all of these comparisons it’s sure to see how much artists imaginations have changed throughout history and how much more adventurous they are with showing off different things in more abstract ways. In both pieces it has made me want to look into different styles of work and to experiment myself in ways I can create more interesting pieces.
For this exercise we were asked to loosely sketch some of the structures which make up the human body, look up some photos and also use our own body as reference, loosely sketch and let this exercise help you figure out the bodies measurements and and proportions of the body. For this I decided to do the hands and the feet, I feel like this was the best parts to focus on for me as I do struggle to show detail on these parts of the body, I just can’t seem to get the right shapes. Below are the pictures of my results:
I chose to just use a soft pencil for these sketches, I did this so I could do quick and fast lines and be able to add tone on my first few hand sketches. I thought this would be good practice when I get onto showing more detail further into this project. I do like how the tone has created the more realistic look and it does make me feel more confident for future ones, although there is a lot of room for improvement I think it has boosted me to carry on with the practising because I will get better. I have always struggled with hands and feet but I do think I am happy with these outcomes.
All in all I do think this piece turned out well, I like that I have been able to improve on drawing body parts and I am impressed with this work yet I do think I need to improve on the detail and look closer into these things a lot to get more practice. I have defiantly learnt about the different measurements I need to keep in mind when drawing the body. To make sure the proportions are right and that the body looks all in the right size and not alien.
Sophie's OCA Art Work 