Hues & Views: 2013

Monday, December 16, 2013

Figure drawing II

This one is from the life drawing class. Graphite on Canson paper. Ten days pose.

This one really helped me understand the values, and how they can create the illusion of forms on a paper.

Figure Drawing

Study from figure drawing class:

Five days pose:

Ten days pose, graphite on Canson paper:

Bargue II

My second Bargue drawing:

Steps:

1) Outer construct(Plotting the points for the outline):

Whenever there is a change in direction, plot that point. Join the plotted points with straight ghosty lines in order to understand the structure of the form. To check the correctness of your bargue in between, just measure the distance between farthest two points. Check multiple points to make sure that points are not off.

2) Construct of the shadow shape (Plotting the points of shadow(black) shape)

3) Articulation of the construct.

4) Articulation of the shadow shape(make sure that you are articulating the shadow shape and not the half tone. Also, must always use straight lines for this)

5) Fill in the shadow shape construct with value 2 or 3. When you put in this value 2 or 3 in your shadow shapes, you can see the shapes more clearly. Correct/articulate if required.

Check the shapes and make adjustments, refine it, fix it.

6)Fill it with value 7. This value of my darkest shadow shape DECIDES the value of the half tones. If shadow shape is lighter then half tones will be even lighter. And so it will be difficult to make the form turn. So spend time in getting the shadow shape value right.

Understanding the values is very important. They say painting is nothing but mastering the values and colors. Colors are second thing. Your values must be correct. So you take any colored painting by old masters and then make it black and white, it still has that three dimensional form. Big form modeling is extremely important when you need to show an object turn. Body is nothing but the masses and shapes. You need to make these shapes turn in order to create illusion of three dimension. The dark layer has to be as even as possible without any dots.

7) Big Form Modeling:

At this stage, we need to work on the lights.

Remember that you are just concentrating on making the form turn at this stage. So forget that it is a head or a face or eyes. Just think of it as simple geometric shape like cylinder or sphere. In my case, it is an egg. I have to make it look like an egg. Dark values are already in place and I should apply lighter values to turn this form. Go from dark to light. Turning should happen both ways: First left to right(horizontal modeling) and then top to bottom(vertical modeling). ONLY work on the lights. Do not touch the shadow shapes at this stage. You have to create an illusion of 3D form. With the 2B graphite dust, start shading from dark shape to the light, using a flat brush.

8) Variations of the darks (value 7,8,9) :

At this stage, work on the shadow shapes. Identify the subtle variations in the darker values of the shadow shape, and articulate it at this stage.

Identify the Bed bug line - It is the dark line that turns dark just before the shadow shape ends. Redo it. Smudge - make it dark. It is part of the shadow shape.

Wherever there is a turning of form, make it darker.

15) Variation of the lights.(0,1,2,3,4,5,6)

Big form modeling establishes the darkest tone which helps in establishing the half tones(based on the darkest values of big forms)

After that medium form modeling starts(like nose, forehead) after this, small form modeling(like hair, beard) smaller details are modeled for three dimensionality on top of the big form that looks like an egg or cylinder. Value of the small forms and medium forms (which are on top of the big form) should be adjusted to that of the big form. For example, on the beard, from right to left, it should gradually fade out. Center area of the beard can not be dark. Keep everything in context of big form.(such that the darkest values that you put in at this stage should not break the big form which is already modeled)

When you come across halftones, make sure that you don't make it too dark. It should be a part of big form and not break the big form into two medium or small forms. Hence the value is important to give an illusion of smaller changes in direction of planes of that big form. Never break it by putting in wrong values.

16) Rendering: Choose a section and bring it to finish.
Start with the area that needs most attention.

And that's it!

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Illustration

Medium: Paper cutouts, watercolors, photoshop

Making images:

Sunday, October 27, 2013

On Amazon~

It is the first time that my illustrated storybook is on Amazon- Woohoo to that :) Author told me that people love it already! How exciting!

At the moment it is only on Amazon - uk. Click Here for the link. Next week it will be on Amazon US.

Sharing this gif for the process and making of one of the illustrations.

Have a happy sunday!

hemali

Friday, October 25, 2013

Figure drawing

After the morning sessions of drawing from the Bargue plates, we have life study class in the noon.

This is our studio:

Studio for life drawing class

We started with gesture drawing. The figure needs to be drawn in simple 'C' curves and 'S' curves and straight lines. Then to define the shapes more clearly, we learnt to do the straight line articulation.

Some of my drawings from last week:

After the first two steps, the next is construct of the shadow shape. Squint the eyes and draw the lines where you see shadow shapes and fill it with graphite:

beautiful park on my way back home

Monday, October 14, 2013

In Florence

So I am in Florence, Italy. It's been almost a month in this beautiful city.

Flight from Brussels to Florence

On my way to Duomo

Duomo~ Florence

I am studying classical drawing at Angel Academy of Art. At the moment we are copying the Bargue plates. In any traditional atelier method, they emphasize a lot on studying the bargue plates, casts and live models. There are total 197 bargue plates and it is said that the more you copy, better you become, as an artist. We have to copy three of them. Each one takes several hours depending on its level of difficulty. And it needs to be copied as accurately as possible. Copying Bargue plates helps in training the eyes and the hand. You may not realize in the beginning, but you get better with every plate that you copy. It provides a strong foundation for drawing from life to create an illusion of 3D form on a 2D plane by training both eyes and hand.

So on day one, we started with simplest bargue plates. Mine was this one:

Construct of the outline, plotting points

Roughly it took me about 35 hours. Two weeks plus three days. In the mornings for three hours we do the bargue plates and then post lunch we have life drawing class for three hours.

When I began, I had no idea why I was doing it..but when I finished, I did realize that it is surely helping in some way..

The bargue drawing is supposed to be pasted alongside your paper. Then use a thread to mark plumb line(center line) such that it gives more information for being accurate with the measurements. One can use a plumb bob as well. If the line touches important landmarks of the drawing, it is better as you can make comparative measurements to those landmarks later.

All the measurements are done with a thread. When you begin, mark the top and the bottom of the bargue drawing that are on the plumb line. Plot these points on your paper. Be as accurate as possible as these points are now the reference points for all of the other points that you plot.

Steps/stages for drawing the Bargue plate:

1) Outer construct(Plotting the points for the outline):
Whenever there is a change in direction, plot that point.

Join the plotted points with straight ghosty lines in order to understand the structure of the form.

2) Construct of the shadow((Black) shapes

3) Articulation of contour (adding details in the outline)

4) Articulation of the shadow shape

5) Fixing all the details and correcting the contours

6) Filling up of 9, 8, 7 values in shadow shapes

7) Big form modelling: Turning the form (making it look 3D) by adding the shades with brush, eraser, stump, 2H pencil.

8) Bed bug line - It is the dark line that turns dark just before the shadow shape ends. Redo it. Smudge - make it dark. It is part of the shadow shape.

9) Variation of the darks.

10) Variation of the lights.

Construct of shadow shape

Applied the first light tone of 2B to shadow shape. (this is the first layer ~ foundation for the second layer which will be darker)
Then stomped it.

Filling up the shadow shape with value 9, 8, 7

(The first layer of 2B should be very fine(as if the paper itself is dark gray) such that the paper grains are all filled up smoothly with graphite(2B) layer. This one is not that accurate, but I'll try to be better in my next bargue!)

Very very sharp pencils (Extremely important!!)

Yes, pencil points need to be THIS sharp. It is necessary when you have to create a very smooth layer of graphite on paper(such that pencil lead can even fill in the textures of paper)

Started with the next step: Adding halftones.

Began big form modelling

Then added some more halftones:

Adding more halftones

And my first Bargue done!

In one of the figure drawing class last week the model could not come. So we did the portrait study of one of the classmates. Here is what I came up with.