GA1A01 - Theoretical Foundations of Art and Design – Submission Four

Submission - Self Portrait

The scanned image turned out a little darker than the original

For the final submission of the portfolio summative, I chose this self-portrait I drew a few months back because I deem it’s the best traditional work I have produced this year, and I will be explaining the artwork in detail and why I think this is my best work.

The reference photo I chose from was one I took earlier in the year. I found this photo to have very soft diffused lighting over my face, and I chose this lighting over harsh and contrasting (such as closely shining a lamp over my face) because I felt the resulting drawing would bare more resemblance to my real face as you don’t walk around every day with a lamp shining over your head. This choice however also raises the difficulty of drawing my self-portrait as the slightest shade change can result in deforming the face.

The time spent on this drawing was around 10 – 12 hours (three nights of 3 – 4 hours’ work). I spent the first night getting the proportions matching as closely as possible, which meant heaps of light line work, comparing, and erasing/fixing. I highly prioritised this step because the human face is perhaps our most sensitive region of visual perception and the tiniest alteration/difference in proportion can be easily picked up. Next night I did the majority of shading, mostly on the eyes and skin, and then on the last night I drew the hair and finished up the whole drawing. I left the clothing mostly without detail to keep the focus of the portrait to the face.

Features I felt I did well were the general proportions of the face and the shading on the skin to show form. I feel these two features were the standouts of my portrait and the reason I think the portrait bares great resemblance to my face.

Features I felt that were most difficult to draw were the eyes and hair. The shape of the iris was especially challenging due to the preciseness needed to make it look natural. Hair was more time-consuming than difficult, but I think the shading requires more attention than I have given it.

The features I felt I could improve most are also the details around the eyes and the hair. Details such as eyelashes and my eyeliner became mixed up, which I feel could have been fixed by drawing the details much finer. The hair needs another night of detailing each strand and the overall highlights need improving especially around the side of the head. Overall I think I did a fine job on the self-portrait.

Wang, Q. (2013). Self-portrait. 

Portfolio Submission Three

GA1A01 - Theoretical Foundations of Art and Design – Six Life Drawings

Drawing 1: Gestures of female model

I decided to submit this drawing because I believe it demonstrates an understanding of form, movement and weight. This drawing comprises of three sketches, each of the same model in different poses. The sketches also differ in the amount of time spent on each; therefore they also differ in the amount form and weight.

The centre drawing was done within the least amount of time, so it only comprises of gesture lines. Even so, the flow of movement can be seen by from how the lines curve from the head to the spine to the legs and arms, both creating the form and showing positions of where they are.

The outer two drawings show more form and weight than the centre as they also comprises of spherical forms. As seen in both drawings, the centre of weight is in her buttocks, with the weight of her tummy pulling towards this centre in the left drawing. Movement can be seen in her spine how it creates a wave-like shape.

Improvements that could be made to the drawings include more visible gesture lines in the outer two drawings, and if the drawings were more in the correct proportion.

Wang, Q. (2013). Gestures of female model.

Drawing 2: Posterior pose of female model

I chose this drawing as it is a more refined drawing of the previous three of the same model and shows better anatomy. The gesture lines and spherical forms can clearly be seen within the outlines, similar to a combination of the previous three. A smaller gesture only drawing of the same pose is situated on the top-right of the page.

A distinctive feature of this drawing compared to the previous three is the twist in her waist. The twist can be seen in the gesture line of her spine, showing movement. The spherical forms in this drawing create a more proportionate drawing than the previous three.

Improvements that can be made would be a better eye for detail, especially her legs. Her knee lacks proper form from an anterior view, and her lower legs are not correctly in proportion.

Wang, Q. (2013). Posterior pose of female model. 

Drawing 3: Box form gestures

I chose this drawing even though it is rather rough because box form emphasises on movement and form rather than accurate anatomy. This drawing comprises of two fighting stance poses, the left a mid-punch pose and the right an injured pose.

These two poses show strong movement, as this can be seen from the curves and twists within the gesture lines and box forms. The curves can be seen in the left pose with the arms positioned 90 degrees to the torso and the right leg bend and tip-toed. The twists can be seen in the right pose around the torso as the boxes are not lined up with each other and a progressive twist of the boxes from top down and vice versa.

Improvements that could be made would be stronger outlines to show the box forms more clearly, and tidier boxes as there are too many diamond-shaped boxes that did not quite fit the box form style.

Wang, Q. (2013). Box form gestures.   

Drawing 4: Overlapping poses

I chose this drawing because out of all my life drawings, I believe this one shows the most understanding of weight distribution. The drawing comprises of three poses which overlap onto each other, but all share a common pivot point. This pivot point is set in the centre of contact between the model and the surface he is sitting on. The three poses combine together to show the model getting up from a surface as if he was getting out of bed.

The first of the poses shows the model lying on the surface with his bodyweight shifting downwards. This can clearly be seen by looking at the model’s waist and hips as there is a noticeable curve inwards that would not be seen in an upright position.

The second pose is the intermediate pose showing the distribution of weight shifting from all over his body to his right arm and shoulder. This weight support can be seen by the way his arm is stretched straight to be used leverage for his entire body, with the muscles in the arms tightened.

The third and final pose shows the distribution of weight shifting from his right arm to his buttocks, as he is now in a sitting pose. His left arm is leaning on his left knee, showing small weight leverage of his torsos. His right arm is no longer leverage and this can be seen by the relaxed muscles in the arm.

An obvious improvement that could be made to this drawing is to not have the poses be cut off the top of the page. I made a mistake with the starting pivot point of this drawing, therefore the positioning of the three poses ended up as they did.

Wang, Q. (2013). Overlapping poses.

Drawing 5: Transitional poses

I chose this drawing because I believe this one shows the most understanding of movement out of all my drawings so far. The drawing comprises of three poses which each occupy a third of the page in landscape. The poses show the model getting up from a starting position into a sprinting pose, representing the movement of an athlete during the start of a sprint.

The first pose shows the model kneeling with his left hand on the ground and head facing to his right. The distribution of weight and nearly all his force focused on his right knee so that he would be able to push himself up with velocity. His right hand is place on top of the knee so that in movement he would push the arm onto the knee, and the force of the push will lift his upper body up.

The second pose shows the model just on his feet from the previous pose, this time weight and force shifting to his left leg to start creating momentum for the sprint. His right arm swings to keep his body in balance. As he had just gotten up, his head has yet to face upwards.

The third pose shows the model taking his first step in the sprint, now with his head up and facing on eye level. His legs and arms have alternated in force.

The big improvement to this drawing would include properly lining up the poses to give correct perspective, which again I made a mistake with the positioning of the first pose.

Wang, Q. (2013). Transitional poses.

Drawing 6: Sitting Pose

I chose this drawing because I believe this one shows good understanding of anatomy. The pose was difficult to get proportionate, but I believe I can point out the mistakes.

The pose shows the model leaning on her right arm as leverage, her left leg over her right, left arm relaxed on her legs and waist, and head facing 45 degrees to the right. Her clavicles are prominent, her ribcage can be see through the shape above her waist, and her tibia bulging out due to the left leg being pressed against her right.

The mistakes and lack of details in this drawing would be:

·        Her hands which still lack correct anatomical especially with the carpal bones.

·        Her neck and the lack of details on the face.

·        Lacking detail on her toes and metatarsals.

·        Her torso may be a slight big longer than anatomically correct. 

Wang, Q. (2013). Sitting Pose.

Portfolio Submission Two

Commentary For My Six Paintings

First Painting (Traditional) - Virgin of the Rocks

The Virgin of the Rocks is a famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci. The full painting shows Madonna, Christ Child, John the Baptist and an angel. The section I painted was of the angel’s head and neck, which I acquired a colour printout of earlier this year during the painting studio classes. This is an acrylic painting. 

For this painting I started out by painting it upside-down. I found it to be easier to paint the face this way as the whole face didn’t distract me from all the little details; however I believe it also skewed my perception a bit of the overall facial proportions. Noticeable incorrect proportions of my painting are:

·         The nose is a slight bit too long.

·         The eyes are a bit too big.

·         The philtrum length caused by the longer nose

These few incorrections are very noticeable on a portrait, as opposed to the same amount on a still life or landscape.

For the colouring, I started out without covering the face with a base colour, but instead added mid-tones to divided sections of face. I then added a tone to each edge of sections to blend out the colours, creating a gradient. The white has only a very thin coat of white-ish pink, so most of the white is from the white paper itself, and the black colours are just one coat of black with the exception of a few small spots, as it was near impossible to paint over black.

I had the most trouble with painting the neck/clothing folds and her hair curls. I believe I spent more time on the folds than her whole face. The folds were challenging because of how thin the dark and light tones are, and also some had sharp edges while others had gradients. The only way I managed to paint them in the end was with patience and precision. The hair curls proved to be just a challenging, mostly due to how numerous there were and the line-work required to draw each was too time consuming (I did not manage my painting time efficiently), therefore I only painted what I could.

Mixing the colours were my other big challenge, mostly due to my inexperience with traditional paint. This can be seen from the neck section of my painting. There is this one fold of the skin with a slight hint of green in the original painting, and I wasn’t unable to reproduce the colour successfully and turned out more grey than I had hoped. The lighter hint of yellow on her shoulders was troubling to reproduce as well and turned out to be a darker shade of yellow.

Reference

Da Vinci, L. (1483-1486). Virgin of the Rocks. 

Retrieved from:

http://westerncivimages.com/items/show/2931

Second Painting (Digital) – Dark Forest

Final Painting

I chose this painting partially because of the setting I wanted for another summative, but also because of the background lighting where the further the object the lighter it became I found to be very interesting.

I started out with the line-work on the top layer, with the background on the bottom layer. I painted a cyan-green radial gradient in the background to match the photograph, which was the easiest part of the painting. The line-work was with the numerous branches and leaves and the different shade of black and grey each had to represent its distance. I painted each trunk and branch, and used a large paint brush for roughly half the leaves while painted the other half individually.

The most challenging part of the painting was managing the different colour shades as they were the only indication of distance in the picture. I believe I did a good job replicating the background colour and each grey shade of the trees. Only improvement apart from adding more detail to each individual leaf (very tedious work) would to get better proportions of the forest, as the cluttering of the leaves and branches made it difficult to correctly proportion every trunk and branch.

Anthraxdeathrider. (2012). Foggy Dark Forest. Retrieved from:

http://anthraxdeathrider.deviantart.com/art/Foggy-Dark-Forest-337638969

Reference

Third Painting (Traditional) – Chick and Egg

I decided to draw a chick with an egg because it proved a challenge at representing two opposite textures in one painting: a smooth surface of an egg verses the feathering fluff that is the chicken, and also because the photo was so cute. This is an acrylic painting.

Proportion-wise I think it was much less difficult than my other paintings to draw correctly, though the one noticeable mistake is shorter length of a talon on the chick’s further foot.

The colour I think was pretty close, but not exact. The orange tone of the egg was the most difficult to mix, together with the gradient proved to be too difficult to get exact. From looking at the painting and photo right now, I think the egg can be improved with more yellow and white in the colour, but only a slight bit as I think was I have already is a good mid-tone.

The other challenge was painting the chick’s body. The fine details, like the dark spots showing the protrusion of the feathers, were virtually impossible to paint with my common brushes. I borrowed a fan brush from a fellow classmate, and experimented with its effects for the first time. The result turned out alright, but perhaps a too dark and too many darker lines. The little folds in the chick’s legs were difficult to reproduce, and what I did was press my brush tip horizontally to form parallel presses, and the excess paint squeezed out from the edges formed the lighter folds on the legs. I then painted a slightly darker tone on the presses to intensify the lighter lines.

Overall I am happy with the result considering my lack of experience with different types of brushes.

Retrieved from:

http://stephrogers.com/2013/02/24/down-with-eggs-chickens-rule/

Reference

Fourth Painting (Digital) – Peeled Orange

Final Painting

This digital painting I started back in a lab on Photoshop, and decided to finish it off for the summative. It is a monochromatic painting of a peeled orange still life.

I decided to go monochromatic to better focus on the shades than the colour as I find working only with shades is more challenging to successfully represent a still life. I also painted this using the smudging tool for the great majority of the painting. This was only because I found it easier at the start of the painting when I did yet have a graphic tablet.

I think I did a good job on this painting as well, and managed to paint all the detailed features on the orange. The only criticisms I have are the lack of the water droplets on the orange due to a lack of time, the rushed background (though not too important), and a slight proportion difference which is to be expected.

Reference

Gomez, A. (Year Unknown). Retrieved from:
http://lumartingalleries.com/artists-2/alfredo-gomez-still-life-paintings/#2

Fifth Painting (Traditional) – Four Seasons

For this painting I based it on two different photo references, and created it my own. This is an acrylic painting. It is a painting of the same tree in four different seasons, with each season occupying a quarter of the painting.

The painting looks a bit too cartoonish and not realistic enough with realistic lighting effects. The autumn sky looks too red and the clouds aren’t realistically shaped. The spring branches look too rough and too thick, and should’ve been more like the winter branches. I tried creating sun glare on the summer sun, and I think I came close at recreating a realistic looking glare, but not so much when matches with a visible sun. Improvements on this would be for a near white sun with more noticeable and brighter glare lines.

It was my earliest painting I did at school, so I think my painting skills have improved since then.

(Left Photo) Retrieved from:
http://www.edb.utexas.edu/visionawards/petrosino/index.php?usr=katieraegan&id=s:home_katieraegan

(Right Photo) TheAngelsFace. (2013). 4 Seasons Tree. Retrieved from:
http://theangelsface.deviantart.com/art/4-seasons-tree-347511010 

Sixth Painting (Digital) – Sand Dune

My last painting is of the Sahara Desert. I always wanted to paint a desert for its beauty, and also because I could use this backdrop for my game project I am working on.

I approached this painting with similar techniques from my orange still life, as it was (almost?) monochromatic with many gradients of shades. I laid down a base colour for the whole desert, then applied shades and highlights to individual sections and focused on completing each section before moving onto the next. I used the smudge tool in Photoshop to create the gradients, which wasn’t too challenging but was time consuming to get the right shade.

The most challenging part of the painting was the ripples in the sand, and how to show the dark lines. I found it extremely difficult to draw line by line was they were either not on the correct angle or had too many breaks in between creating jagged lines. I settled with a brush in Photoshop that had two parallel lines each, therefore giving a better illusion of uniformed ripples. The biggest improvement I could make to this painting would be giving more time to the ripples and making them more details, as right now they are aren’t very realistic upon closer inspection.

Retrieved from:

http://funcrawler.blogspot.co.nz/2010/11/great-sahara-desert.html

Reference