Drawing at Leeds Museum 17/02/16

The taxidermy collection at the Leeds Museum was full of different creatures of various shapes, sizes and textures. Choosing an eagle to draw gave me a chance to practice with an avian pose. The way that the bird positions itself on top of the branch and a weighted dynamic to the drawing. Realism is also depicted in the way the bird tilts it's head to the side, looking at something in the distance. Using charcoal as a medium, I worked closely on the feathers in order to try and get a sense of individual feathers as well as grouping of the textures. The eyes were darkened and lightened a couple of times in order to get a better sense of life in the creature. The lighting in the room cast an interesting shadow to the back of the character which adds form to the character.

An issue that I found with this drawing is that the shading on the neck that is meant to separate the feathers of the head from the body has actually created the illusion that the head is slightly further forward than the rest of the body. To rectify this, smudging around the head and neck might have been a good idea to darken and smoothen the body parts.      

This Jaguar was chosen due to the nice skulking look of the animal and the way it's back and head lean slightly. This creature was quite low to the ground and so when drawn, I attempted to put a lot of small elements into a smaller space. The way the jaw curves and smooths coupled with the curve of the left side of it's face add depth to the drawing.

The legs are all different in their shapes and positions but work well as a whole due to the way that they add posture to the animal. The smudging that was later added to the legs help to add weight through the casting of shadows and light but the body does not seem as realistic as the face.

The face seems like it could leap from the page but the body is much flatter. This could be due to the difficulty of the reflective lighting that I had to draw during the lesson. Overall though This has been an enjoyable exercise that has allowed me to draw animalistic forms that are very different in scale and proportion from that of a human figure.   

Drawing Movement

This drawing is a study into motion using the medium of oil pastel. Using my fingers to smudge and spread the colours around, I managed to create an interesting development of movement with varying levels of lightness and darkness which add form to the character. The different thicknesses of line create tone in the drawing and the way that the three drawings are so close show definite movement from right to left. Even muscle structure works in favour of this as the curve of the back in the right drawing suggests a follow through to the middle drawing.

An issue with the drawing is that the final pose of the three has a bit too much masculinity in the shape of the face. There are errors that cause it to almost look like the model is a soldier wearing a helmet. The thickness of the line here doesn't work for this reason and affects the muscles in the same way. To rectify this, the darker lines should have been taken back and made thinner in order to portray a smoother face and body with more femininity.

This drawing, my first time using ink as a medium, came out quite nicely. The brush strokes formed nice variations in line and helped to portray the lean and eventual transition into a horizontal position. The table suffers as a prop as it looks too flat and takes away from the human figure who's posture and different ranges of shading, (using my fingers) have created an interesting pose. I think that this is down to my inexperience with ink and therefore struggled to recreate the form in a clear and three dimensional way.

Emotion can be seen here which makes the drawing far more interesting. It looks like loss or despair as the first and second seated drawings appear to lead to some sort of eventual breakdown where the subject lays down and gives up. The pose transitions nicely in a way that could draw the viewer in. The monochromatic nature of the ink could also add to a possible belief that the drawing shows the emotions of loss and pain. Looking at it from this perspective adds new meaning to the drawing which is something that is powerful from an artistic view.

A lot could be said about the ink making it hard to recreate facial features, again due to lack of skill with the medium but in contrast to this, it works as an overall composition as the movement of the body conveys the expression rather than having the need for a face. In conclusion this has been an interesting study into motion and using ink for drawing and so It has been extremely beneficial to me.