Missed ...

Just tidying up this last semester's work when I realised that there's a few bits I hadn't managed to upload to the blog:

Did another one of these (so theres five in the set)

Also, as some homework for the life painting sessions, we had to take a photo, and using a black and white version of it as tonal reference, do a high key and low key version of it.

Low key

High key

The idea being that after that we could black and white photocopy the two paintings to see if we managed to get the tones right - I didn't get them exactly (especially the background area) but did better on the hands. This is what the two look like (left low key, right high key):

I think this is the last of this year's work (apart from some random sketches)... Phew! What a year of learning ... and my 198th post! Maybe I should do something special for the 200th .... hmmm....

Look out for a feature on this year's graduating class from UWE illustration in the next few days :)

Tying it all up

Today was the last of our life painting classes and a chance to amalgamate everything we had learnt in the last few weeks. I was mostly just playing with colours still and getting to grips with working tonally. I did move up a gear and worked at a larger scale - apart from the bottom portrait, everything else is A3 size - and the paintings you've seen up to now have been A4.

The end has come round much too soon :(

Embrace the colour ...

I think I'm finally beginning to get to grips with painting and colour ... well at least I've begun to see what combinations I actually like to work with. This has been such a steep learning curve.

Painting in colour

Here's a double whammy update on our painting classes from last Thursday and today. They actually work together as you can see the progression from this to adding more colour; working in low-key colour; and eventually moving to high-key colour.

Last week:

There was a warm spotlight on him, hence the warm yellow in the middle.

This week:




Phew ... I'm not sure about this high-key stuff - very not me (although when Hockney does it it looks fab). I had to really let go of any inhibitions, especially on the last one. Its all about learning though, isn't it?

Painting in tone

Progression from last week: painting in tone:


As you can see, I'm really struggling with acrylics. Then we moved on to adding one tint (colour):



I missed the last bit of the session as I had been volunteered by the course director to go sit in a student consultation. During that time the rest of the class did a head and shoulders in tint of the life model. So I did a self portrait in the same technique once I got home.


Homework had been to do a tonal scene, not necessarily with figures, and we could choose what media to use - charcoals/conte or acrylics. Guess what I went for ...



I sat in the back garden and looked over the fence at the neighbours. Black cat kept jumping up onto the fence so I thought I'd draw him as well.

I'm still determined to get to grips with painting in acrylics ... will just take a little time, and more practice. Still getting to grips with tones. Being currently inspired by Lucien Freud and Euan Uglow.

Drawing in Tone

Amidst the panicking over the book/ship project, we've also started our 5 week life drawing module. It all happened last Thursday, but I've only just got my act together to take photos and post ... so here goes ...

First, some warm-up 5 minute poses

Then a couple of longer 15 minute ones (the two images are 90 degrees to each other - ie one the model is lying down, and the other he's sitting forward).

After this we had a break to have a look at everyone's drawings and talk about how most of us have our model out of context and usually done in line. So our first task was to put the model in context - ie put a frame round, and fill in a background. Also, to do the drawings in blocks of tone. The one below was 60 minutes.

After lunch more practice: A 45minute full body

And a 45minute head and shoulders.

Homework for the week (which I did today) was to do two more portraits, one in daylight if possible, and one in artificial light, ideally trying to make some kind of dramatic lighting setup. As it was a sunny day, I sat out in the garden with a mirror (which seemed to freak the neighbourhood cat out) and did a self-portrait. I took a 'before' photo, before putting in the tonal values.

And this is the final one (the arrow shows the direction of sunlight). No I'm not angry, just squinting because of the light and for not wearing my glasses ;)

Then after Sunshine came home I enlisted him to be my model. I knew he had work to do so I suggested he does his work and I do him lit by his screen ... quite pleased with this one actually. I drew under candle light and he also had his screen on full power and four little tealights for extra illumination and contrast.

Tomorrow there will be more tonal work, but we'll be using paints!

And fear not ... I WILL take lots of good photos of the ship soon and upload ;)

Panoramic: Panoptic

Click on it for a much bigger and better version!

As promised, this is what we made last Thursday (took a while to get good photos). The idea was to work in groups of 2 or 3 and work on location around Bush House (where the illustration studios are) to record the environment in a 360-degree panorama. Didn't have to be exact, just our version of it. We could include anything we wanted including interiors, snippets of conversation overheard, people, buildings, anything really. ... I teamed up with Luke and Jen and we all went out for about two hours drawing quick sketches (we had to make about 32 each of about A6 size). We three have very different styles and it was nice to see how it would all come together. I also took some photos and did some rubbings (which the other groups hadn't thought to do!). Here's some of the stuff I managed to do in the freezing cold (some were done out of the studio windows when we couldn't take the cold and wet anymore - hence the one through the dome shaped window!)







We then congregated back in the studio and started photocopying the drawings; changing their scale, making some of them negative; and in our case, as I managed to get hold of some acetate, making some see through images too. We cut these out and stuck them down on two large A1 sheets stuck end-to-end. It was HUGE and actually quite difficult to do any decent composition-ing on as we couldn't quite see what it would look like. The process was obviously quite organic with us cutting things, moving things round, and running back and forth to the copier making more stuff. And in 2 hours we made what you see above ... I think actually it came together quite well, and we worked well as a team too. I've actually really enjoyed this fast paced generation of source material, and then manipulation to produce a final image, and am quite tempted to try some more ... Below is a close-up of my favourite bit of the image, the bottom right corner ... I love the series of boats and series of cranes.


I'll be putting up more work from Luke and Jen (and a couple of others) in the next day or two. I've had them all over today and we've had a portrait party! Its past my bedtime now so I'll do the collating and stuff tomorrow ...

Portrait exercises

Last Thursday (yes, I am a week behind on updating the drawing module work) we spent the day doing portraits in pairs. I paired up with the lovely Mrs Charlie who you see above (no guarantee of resemblance!). Our first task had been to take it in turns to draw a detailed portrait of the other - on for ten minutes; then swapping; posing for ten minutes; etc. We each did 4 or so sessions, so the drawing above took about 40 minutes in total. Gary the tutor was very keen for us not to 'draw' per se, but just do a lot of measuring (pencil at arms length kind of stuff) and marking off where things were, and building up on that. Most of us did a bit of that to get proportions right, but then started drawing in details. I think though what he had really wanted was for us to just keep measuring and making marks, and hoping that that would eventually form itself into a picture of the person. I understand this now ... and I think I might have another go at this with Sunshine as my model.

Then we had to look only at our drawing, and generate 6 new smaller drawings which were, from top left; continuous line, blind contour, only tonal, left handed, using different media, and last but not least, from memory. I think the continous line one is my favourite.


Then the exercise was repeated, but looking at the real life model. We were being quite pressured for time by this point and you can see that we had both started drawing at the same time (Charlie's looking away from me) as we didn't have the time to take it in turns. It was fun though - and we were having a real laugh! I managed to draw her smiley face blind and make her teeth look like a mustache (!) whereas in one of her drawings she managed to make my nose look like a pig's! Very very funny .... but we didn't really care. It was all about loosening up and trying things that we don't normally do and looking at 'drawing' in different ways.


The last exercise was to start with a full portrait and then make each progressive one simpler, and simpler ... and see what you're left with...


I must say I struggled with this whole session as it was several things that are mental blocks for me - drawing people, drawing from an 'alive' subject, and on a couple of them, drawing faces from memory. EEEkkk!!! But I'm pushing my comfort zones, and that can only be a good thing ... And it was really nice to have Charlie as a partner - as we mostly struggled with the same things and could push each other on ...

We had a fab time at the drawing class today - I'll hopefully update all about that tomorrow when I've managed to get hold of some good pictures of what we've produced. It was also last day of term, before three weeks of Easter break! Yippee!!! I shall be celebrating my birthday on Monday not worrying about handing in assignments (although a lot of Easter break will be spent on the Narrative and Sequence module book project) or having to wake up early the next day ... aaaahhhhhh ..... lovely ....

Crafting hands

So there you have it, these are the originals from which the final drawing was done. Sorry for the lightness - they were done with quite hard pencils on an off-white cartridge paper sketchbook.

Thank you to everyone who has been leaving me messages about sewing-drawing. It appears I have the special plate necessary to be able to do this on our sewing machine, and I've also invested in some embroidery hoops ... really excited about having a go!