Assignment five, Option 4 - Drawing figures

Review of past figure drawing work

Looking back over the work from Part four of the course, Drawing figures 

Quick sketches:

-         When drawing the quicker poses I found it natural to look at the image as a whole to see where it was placed in relation to markers in the background, eg a chair or table, and how one part of the body was in relation to another in terms of its position, alignment, size, angle.  I found this helped me to achieve  reasonably accurate proportions.   It was not, however, natural for me to use the medium as a measuring tool, but it became more second nature the more I drew.  

-         Initially I wasn’t always placing the figure correctly on the page, so I took it that drawing from the middle of the page as advised may have helped with that and tried to remember that going forwards.

-         I did enjoy trying to capture the figure in a quick sketch, I felt the limit on time helped me focus and really go for getting the whole figure captured and I was able ignore too much detail.  Sometimes the time pressure helped, but other times it didn’t!  I did like trying to capture the form with just line and no shading and sometimes I would manage to capture the character of the person in a very simple way.

Longer poses

-         Here I focused more on establishing form through light and dark.  Longer poses allowed me to go slower, to break down the figure into shapes before going over it again and establishing more of the individual character through line and tone.  More time also enabled me to slow down and get used to measuring the proportions of the figure as I went along.  I also found it a useful tool to establish the angle of the central axis when drawing figures in different positions, particularly if they were twisting or leaning in some way.

Form/Essential elements

-         Initially I found it hard to do a quick drawing focusing on tone rather than line. I established an approach which involved laying down basic geometric shapes, then adding some contour line to create a more realistic shape and then enhancing the form through shading.

-          I learnt that certain poses which involved a more defined pose eg bent or crossed legs, helped in getting the best sense of the pose, rather than if the model was just lying or sitting.

Gesture, stance and energy

-          To quickly capture a stance or gesture I found it invaluable to first establish the central axis.  From this I could see the true stance much more clearly, even if it was subtle.  I also used the central axis when looking to capture an action or energy, plus I found it helped to really focus on the action going on, when trying to draw it.

Of my work from part four, I feel most strongly about my self portrait for a number of reasons:
I was immediately inspired when I saw the book of etchings by Lucien Freud as to how I wanted my portrait to look.  To find that inspiration really helped me by giving me a confidence in what I was aiming to achieve and it helped to have that focus in my approach to the drawing which then wasn’t just about getting a likeness but was also about achieving a style of drawing.    I was inspired to create a self portrait using rather minimal but key and effective mark-making.  I liked the idea of establishing key proportions and features of the image first and then using my chosen medium to building up the image using sparing marks.  I wanted to achieve a portrait of myself which actually showed a likeness and yet had been achieved very simply.

1.    I also enjoyed the simplistic approach of the sketches I did for the exercise ‘Form and movement in a clothed figure’  using pen and ink and coloured marker pen.  I would like to play more using marker pens and maybe using more colours which I overlay to get interesting effects with tone.

1.      In one of my final pieces where I drew an image focusing on tone, I felt confident using charcoal as a medium and as I feel confident with it and enjoy using it I feel that I should continue to explore its use with the aim of improving my skill in this area.

What I would like to achieve with assignment 5
From the point of picking this option I knew I wanted to do a portrait of some sort.  I spent some time visiting galleries and thinking about the artistic styles I like.  I have always liked the portraits of Modigliani.  This exercise made me think about why I like his style of portrait.  Below are some examples:

 I simply like them.  They are warm, different and distinctive and full of character.  In a way they are a bit like a caricature which emphasises something about the subject.  But I find this a adds life and interest. It is more than a straightforward portrait.  The works portray a type of beauty whoever the subject is.  They seem to me to portray a sense of life and maybe glamour, which was probably very far from how he and his models lived.  I think its like looking at life through slightly rose tinted glasses
!

Another work I recently saw at Tate Modern is the Seated Man 1949 by Alberto Giacometti.  It was written next to this piece that Giacometti's portraits emerged from an intense scrutiny of his subjects, and a process of continually reworking the image in order to record his shifting visual impressions. For want of a better word,  I like the 'messiness' of it!  To me it portrays a sense of freedom in the drawing process, like he focusses on the subject more than anything else and less so the precision of his drawing.  I aspire to gaining the confidence to be so free in my drawing

At the National Portrait Gallery there was an exhibition of portraits by Bob Dylan.  Here below are two examples.  I liked the simplicity.  That he focused on tone and then very free lines.  I liked them and saw depth in them despite their apparent simplicity.  I noticed that mainly he would use a very limited black/grey/white palette but also the tiniest hint of another colour and that touch would bring the image alive.

I was also interested in the following portrait by Frank Auerbach.  I have notice the work of Auerbach in the past and have found it interesting that he takes a long time over the production of works that, because of his style, could be perceived as having been done quickly.  I am interested in the creative process he goes through.

In my work for this assignment I would like to achieve a freedom in expressing the essence of the subject rather than being concerned about achieving a visual likeness.