Perspective 2

In today's session we did some more perspective drawing involving a large display of various rectangles and cubes. I did my sketches in 4B pencil on white cartridge paper with the additional assistance of a ruler for accurate measurement. 

I did some initial sketching in my sketchbook for a warm up to get used to drawing perspective again. I think the problem with these sketches is that because I've had no horizon points and to some extents no horizons, I can't get the sketches to be as accurate as I desire but I want to achieve realism in my picture today rather then accuracy which is not possible without distorting the image in some way just so its all measured out correctly. I wish I could use more space to get some measurements but that would have left a lot of undesirable negative space that would have annoyed me on a aesthetic level. I need to figure out a way to get the best of both worlds without too much compromise. Apart from that the sketches are fine for reference points and will help me to transition to a even bigger drawing.

At the end of the first session, I had completed some initial sketches that would eventually evolve into more confident line drawings. The sketches are at first light and sketchy and have uncompleted objects. This was a good start for me since I can afford to make mistakes and improve on proportions and measurements when necessary. However the criss-cross of lines can often confuse me and I sometimes I forget which lines go in front of the other. Another criticism of this initial sketching is the infuriating amount of work I got to put into finding the angles and making sure that the faces of the rectangles look all right without any fit means of measurement expect my pencil and my eye

Here is a more finalised and refined version of the previous sketch work with hardened lines and even more objects. Although it isn't complete I still deem this sketch to be a success in practising the art of perspective drawing. I really like the nice straight edges of this sketch and the precise realism we get as a result from the accuracy in measurement. I do have some problems with this piece like the fact that some of lines go over each other because of  my short sight in the long run (you can see it on the chair legs) and the lack of sense of depth that you would get in other pieces whether measurement or tonal. If I was to go back on this piece and finish it off I would start off by drawing my final lines a bit softer and only hardening them up where an object is in front of each other so it adds a little more depth to the piece, and also have better foresight with adding my final lines so I don't have incidents where multiple irregular lines cross over each other and distort the perspective.

Evaluation of Micro-Macro

I got the wooden texture of the boxes fro photo-copying the cubes in a large size so I could see all the little details in texture then applied those textures to the piece so I could share those interesting little details with the viewer. The interesting thing about my composition of the boxes is that although they appear to be in a pattern, the one at the far-right is actually uneven. The reason I did this is so it fools you initially that this is a plain simplistic tonal study of some cubes but actually upon closer look, there is a lot more to them then just that and they actually have some individuality between them.

Overall I feel that this particular piece of work has gone very well and I deem it to be a success in my experimentation with tonal simplicity and subtle detail. what I really like about this piece is the three tone structure that is portrayed throughout the piece which demonstrates my knowledge of tonal differentiation perfectly. What I also like about the piece is the use of detail that invites the viewer to explore and discover the hidden layers within the sketch but not being so obvious that it distracts them from the emphasised simplistic tone of the piece and the more subtle tone use around the edges. The wash in the background worked perfectly for this tonal piece because it was a nice cool colour of blue that didn't distract too much but was dark enough to be able to add lighter shades on top and create contrast between the two tones within the drawing. If I could think of an improvement on the piece it would be the black background in the negative space since its a bit too improvised for my liking and could be developed more into a more appropriate and effective in depicting the negative space around the object.

If was to do this again, I would try to add some more colour to the shapes and get them to match their original object. I would still do it as a wash but there would be different streaks of colour this time to make the cubes stand out more as individuals. I would also try a different material, maybe pencil next time around like my original sketch designs. The reason why is because pencil is more precise then charcoal so it would be easier to direct the tone better and add in even more detail in the texture of the cubes

Perspective

In today's session we did some perspective drawing sketches that involved reference to a sheet, for assistance, given out and a large box installation to practice drawing from by our tutor. I have learnt a lot about perspective in this lesson and have practice three point perspective for the first time.

This first sketch was a demonstration of my understanding of a two point perspective and tonal perspective. The square was constructed from the two vanishing points positioned on the horizon line. where the lines cross create a 3-dimensional shape in a 3D plain. The shadows were determined by the position of the lighting and where the vanishing points cross. Although I have already done two-point perspective, it was a nice refresher to become familiar with the technique again and to be reminded of its usefulness in terms of sketching realistically and accurately.

The second sketch was a brief introduction to the concept of three-point perspective drawing. This involved a horizon line and a third vanishing point at the bottom to create a upside-down triangle. What I like about this technique is the results that I get from this technique, it really makes the drawing look dramatic and huge like its a huge skyline somewhere. However this technique is quite tedious to draw because of the number of lines you have to draw to get accuracy, and its hard to go back any mistakes since all the lines are drawn lightly and any attempt to rub them out will just ruin the other lines, but overall I do like this technique and I will use it in the future.

The third sketch was applying those techniques to a real sketch of an object to get a real sense of accuracy from the drawing with more ease then just trying to estimate positions, perspectives, and measurements by yourself. It was quite interesting to use this technique on a live subject matter as I had to compensate with the vanishing points and squash the image down to fit into the page. Although inaccurate it did pull off a nice effect that is akin to towering skyscrapers which makes me think of how this technique would be useful for drawing buildings and cities. I would however like to improve on my perspective inaccuracies by maybe drawing the vanishing points out of the paper to get a richer sense of accuracy and scale so in future they don't look so gigantic. 

Composition

In today's session, we finalised a concept for a large scale drawing which was bigger than any of the other drawings we have done in the past. I chose to do a long line of the cubes that I was drawing before but in a bigger scale and on washed white paper instead of brown paper.

The first step for my big drawing was to create a wash for a background so that I could easily define lighter tones and to make it stand out from the rest. I chose the colour blue because I think it complements the tones in my piece and the fact its dark enough to differentiate light from medium tones but also light enough to also differentiate darker tones in the piece. The next step was to create some straight line outlines in pencil and charcoal sticks. I really like the precision of my lines in this piece, so much in fact that I think I'll incorporate them into the final outcome of the piece.

The next was to lay out the initial tones of the piece to establish the grounds which it will be built up on and to add layers to the piece. I feel the the overall look of the cubes is really interesting and I can't wait to build on it more. In an attempt to make the image pop I added a black outline around the sketch in charcoal to make the lighter tones pop out to the viewer. I think the outline adds a nice 3D effect and compliments the piece perfectly. I hope to add details and texture to the piece as it develops to make it look interesting up close. The idea behind this piece is to explore the almost simplistic tones of geometrical shapes and to try to make them more detailed but not to use loose that simplistic edge to them which I hope to achieve with the further detail I will add in the future.

Idea Development

In today's session we did some sketches on a large piece of brown paper so we can come to some final conclusion and end up with a more refined piece. Today I learned all about some new techniques and materials that I could use in drawing that I practised with.

Here is one of the first images I produced, It's a sketch of my object in a line drawing style, with a chalk outline. The inks are my own while the chalk is from the school.The reason I wanted to try this because I wanted to improve illustrative skills while also practising my sketching. What I like about this sketch is the added detail in texture that I got thanks to being able to put lines anywhere I wanted to put them on the image. What I feel I could improve is my accuracy with the lines and to straighten them out a bit. Maybe the use of a ruler will aid me in these endeavours.

This image was intended to try out some more unconventional materials, this case being inks and water, whilst also trying a more minimalistic style to just try out and see if it works. If I was to improve it I would try to master my brush-strokes better and to try it on a flat surface so the ink doesn't run as much. Although I do like some of the textural results from painting the inks so I'll try it another time just to see the results.

This image was a brief study of three-toned nature of the squares and grid based drawing. As a study it works but not really something I would call final piece material so at the moment its only good for a reference point for all further sketches.

This image was actually my first sketch but I've actually changed and added to it near the end of the session. It is a combination of pencil, charcoal, chalk, and inks to create a unique image. This is the image I intend to blow up for my big sketch next Friday. The composition is going to be a long line of twisted squares in a repetitive pattern. I really like this image because of its simple premise and execution with the two-toned style and the sharp shadows to contrast with some of the lightness of the image. In fact I explored the two tone style below to illustrate its effectiveness. What's great is that you can produce great results in little time without too much challenge but still have the time to put in a lot of detail to make all the squares unique. However I do have a bit of a problem with how the left cube looks and I can see the shortcomings from this technique when I look at it such as the wish-washy mid tones and some lack of definition in some parts but these can be easily overcome if i just try to stick to my strategy of separating the two tones with two tonal looks (light=white, dark=black). Overall I have learnt a lot about my referred drawing style and what materials I feel comfortable with.

Measurement

Today we did some drawing exercises based upon the techniques of measurement. We had to try, master, and demonstrate these techniques through sketches of this large installation below.

The way in which we sketched this installation was by sticking the A3 white paper onto a board then standing it on an easel that was tilted slightly so we could see the installation better. I liked this technique as it allowed me to compare and contrast my sketches easily and it didn't take as long to look at the subject and draw unlike say drawing on a table. However getting used to the angle of the board was a bit of a nuisance but otherwise i think I would like to use this technique in the future.

The first technique that we learn't about was the grid method which involves comparing the placement of objects with your pencil or brush and creating a grid based upon your observations to help to accurately position different subjects within your image with not much fuss. I found this technique to be quite helpful especially in my second sketch because it was quite hard to place objects in their spaces before. However, the technique depends upon your perception which can be inaccurate, which was a problem in my second sketch because I kept having to change the positions of objects in my sketches to try to get them to be more accurate which took quite a lot of my time.

The second technique we learned about was the sight size technique which allows you to make you sketches more accurate in scale by using your thumb or pencil to measure objects to compare to other objects to get a real sense of scale within your image. This was quite useful for me in my first sketch because it allowed me to get a quick sense of scale of the tyres which were all a similar size allowing me to shorten my time spent on trying to accurately draw each individual tyre. However, if a subject cannot be compared in size to another object it can really throw you off like in my first image where I messed up on trying to represent an odd shape that didn't match up to the scale I created and thus the rest of the sketch looked wrong because I could no longer draw it to scale.

Overall, despite some setbacks, I believe that the techniques I've learned helped me to sketch much more accurately and improved on my overall quality of sketching. I will be using these techniques in the future to further improve my sketching and drawing abilities.