Sunday 7 December 2014

Week 2: Sketchbook development and life drawing

Second week sketchbook work

In our second week, I was able to learn from what I experienced in my first week and create more simplistic studies that were quick and very basic. I enjoyed scribbling things I saw down in my sketchbook, and was often out and about to keep my ideas flowing. Some of my drawings when I look back at them are hard to recognise because I have limited the detail so much. Here are a few examples.

People on bus/in shopping centre in pencil




Light sketch of church

Church in Stockton town/fineliner




















Buses and buildings in town
















Back of man getting off bus - fineliner sketch





Buildings in Stockton town centre/bin in fineliner

Church building





















Friend met in shopping centre in fine liner



A childrens ride in the shopping centre, fine liner and watercolour








Buildings, view from outside studio window with graphite and oil pencil


















Quick drawing of my slippers







Side on drawing of Carly in fine liner



Drawing of my pencil case in mixed media - watercolour, graphite and charcoal


Life drawing

During our second week of the assignment we were also able to enjoy another life drawing class, this time with a male model. This was different for me after only ever practicing with female models, but I felt that this was a good opportunity to practice sketching the male form properly. Despite finding the process difficult at times, I also found it quite enjoyable. We, similarly to the last lesson, were given different tasks to complete whilst working. Some of which were quite fun, for example portraying the man in an imaginary setting. I worked with various media having found that this worked well previously, and used some colour at times, although this was quite limited in comparison to the previous weeks.
My immediate sketches were very quick and light with
very limited detail. (Pencil)


2 Harsher marks/graphite and charcoal 
1 Using fineliner and focusing on one section

Same as 2 - struggled getting the proportions right


Not very clear: putting the man in an imaginary situation - in
this case his home. 


Same idea as above, in this case model laid down with signs
saying "lay down if you need" and "Rest, forget"
Man from behind using graphite (I was more pleased
with this study)
Experimenting with watered down acrylic and
graphite (Proportions are off again!)
Focussed on foot in same media



Despite finding this session quite frustrating due to finding it hard to depict the figure accurately and correctly, I think on reflection it was an important part of my practice and I have learned a lot. I would like to try it again at some point.

Overall, I very much enjoyed studying reportage as it was a great challenge and I feel as though I learned quite a lot from it. I am very much used to spending hours on one piece of work, and so this pushed me well out of my comfort zone as I learned how to draw something in a matter of seconds, and then move on. I also was able to focus on drawing things like moving objects which I am not used to, and drawing outside in the open rather than in the comfort of indoors. Also, experimenting with new and unusual mediums was something that was new to me but was exciting and fun to do, and I was able to learn what worked and what didn't. Filling a minimum of ten sketchbooks in two weeks at first sounded like a daunting and impossible task but I learned new strategies and was able to manage my time in this project. I do however wish that I had further experimented with certain mediums or practiced more and more techniques rather than sticking to basic and traditional materials a lot of the time. I think though in conclusion that reportage has given me a lot of experience and is something that I will look back on in the future for help with my work.

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