ANIM1003 ESSAY
I am
required to write about my life drawings that I have been doing for the past
seven weeks; all of them having pros and cons about them. Throughout the weeks,
I have had different attitudes towards the various techniques we were required
to use on our nude model. Sometimes, I enjoyed using a certain material like
water-colour paints and coloured pencils, since it was something I knew I could
do well with but when using materials like charcoal, it didn’t always end in
the result I wanted which was quite frustrating. Getting the body proportions
to be accurate on my model drawings can also be a challenge for me; mostly
because of the body posing, especially with the legs and arms.
After
looking at Erik Gist’s work, who does nude model drawings with charcoal, I can
see the attention to each joint on the body which I really like. This is one of
his works; a 20 minute figure drawings. The body qualities are really defined in
the darker areas, and the shadows are evident which gives the model a
background, rather than just levitating on a piece of paper. When I give tone
to my work, it does turn out very well but I want to make it more realistic. I
think that mistake was that I did my charcoal figures too small so I couldn’t
put in as much detail as I would have liked. What I also like about his work is
that he can get the proportions on point which I have trouble achieving,
especially with the legs. Reason being is that the top half of the model’s body
is usually on point but the bottom half ends up smaller which makes the model’s
shape look peculiar and not realistic. I am going to solve this by doing
practice drawings of legs in my sketchbooks and using my friends and myself as
leg models. I also need to work on how I shade in certain parts of the body
that have shadows as I can sometimes shade too hard and much which can result
in my drawing to become messy and flat. If I could managed my proportions from
different angles like Gist has done here, my pieces would improve so much with
whatever material I use, especially with charcoal.
Frida
Kahlo, who was well known for her self-portraits, is one of my favourite
artists due to how well she observed herself when painting. I really like how
she captures every detail on her face but what I really find interesting about
her work is that she often painted herself in backgrounds with objects that
were considered surreal which does interest me. For example, this is one of her
most famous pieces, known as ‘The Hummingbird,’ which was considered to be an
example of surrealism among the critics. However, she only claimed that she was only her
own reality. Since my portraits of models don’t have any background to them, it would be good for me to
experiment in putting a background or something symbolic in my work. I have
done some of my models with two sets of water-colours, which represents the
darkness and lightness of the model’s position. Having a background based on
surrealism would be an interesting theme for my model drawings. My water-colour
portraits are probably my best ones as I can blend in the colours extremely
well and really define the different types of shading on the body with it. Both
of my pink and purple have worked very well here for the light and shadows but
if would have used Kahlo’s ‘reality’ background for the model, it would have
looked so much better.
Vincent Van Gough’s work also stands out to me
because of his style of drawings. Although he doesn’t do as many self-portraits
and Kahlo and Gist, he does do wonderful landscapes. My favourite piece of work
that he has completed is called ‘Starry Night’ because of the way he has used
his paints. With a far as paint goes, I have only used it to blend colours
together rather than define each stroke individually to form a picture. I would
very much like to use this style in my own work rather than just stick to one
way of using paint since it gives my work a wider variety. I feel that this
would make a nice style for a background for a model and it’s the same with
Kahlo’s ‘reality’ backgrounds. I think
that my mistake with my portraits is that they are all too organised and basic.
I feel as if I need to be more care-free and relaxed with how I draw, rather
than feel anxious with getting everything on point. That means that I have to
go bigger with the model’s size and include more for the background, whether it
be shadows or an actual landscape. This could also be something that I could practice
with by using the university campus as my background since the fallen leaves
create a beautiful atmosphere and landscape with their colours. As evident to
my work here, I was attempting to give a coloured shadow to the model but this
did not turn out the way I wanted to as it just looked like the colours have
just formed too much with the water and has just made a messy puddle. The
colours have blended well on the model but it doesn’t show the shadows or light
at all. This is why I think Gough’s style of painting would work much better on
the model as each stroke of paint would define the model more to look more realistic
with light and shadows too.
(950 words)
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