Overview on Advance Drawing Module

End of Module Review

Looking over what I have done for this module, I have seen an improvement in my drawings, with the speed of recording what I observe, more life and energy in my figures, use of different compositional elements for my drawings, different ways to convey intent,  using sketches and personal drawing briefs to create characters and implementing figures with backgrounds and utilising them into my practice. 

Though I have practice with drawing figures and placing them in backgrounds, I feel there is more I can improve on to make them feel more natural. I also need to work on the speed and improve on my recording of locations from observation to both increase the amount of detail I record and also the atmosphere.

To improve my drawings further especially my weaknesses, I will continue to set myself drawing briefs to focus around these issues, increase the amount of time for my personal observational drawings and implement more drawing experiments from these. 

Through this module I have learnt of different tactics that I can now use to improve my skills even further for my practice as an Illustrator. 

Figure expressions and character making

This week I gave myself the brief to record figures socialising and eating, and also facial expressions, as I wanted refine my figure drawings. During the week I went into town and different restaurants to collect these sketches. For the facial expressions I had my friend, who is doing an acting course, model for me different emotions that she was practicing for her course.

From these drawings I knew I wanted to experiment with them but I wasn't sure how, until I saw what my other classmates had to do for their self-publishing brief, whereby they took vintage monsters, form of outsiders, and had to depicted them in a playful and light-hearted manner. I saw that this was a great way to not only experiment with my sketches but also to create my own spin on a character that is usually perceived as scary. I took the werewolf archetype, and created Kaita, a playful, optimistic, boy who loves to eat tasty foods and hates brussel sprouts.     

  

Journey through Cheltenham:2/2 week project

Using the journey location sketches from the previous week, I had to create rough experiment drawings of:

1. A map. (for children, tourism or historical purposes)
2. A narrative.

For the map experiment, I decided to use the statues that are seen around Cheltenham. I decided to make it for tourist and children, with the theme "Icons of Cheltenham" implementing elements of some of the backstories for the statues.

For the narrative, I thought of the whimsical story of Cheltenham's Imperial Gardens at night, with the statues of Hoist coming alive, conducting the flowers as they sing and dance.

These experiments helped with the refining of implementing characters and backgrounds, along with creating narratives from sketches.

Journey Through Cheltenham: 1/2 week project

 This week I went through Cheltenham's town centre, starting from Imperial Gardens to my university campus FCH to record a journey. For the drawings I had to recorded different locations with elements from the previous scene to connect the sketches together. For the sake of time I used materials that would be convenient to carry, which were graphite pencil and water soluble tinted graphite pencils. As I wanted to improve my drawing in regards to characters in and interacting with scene backgrounds, this excise was a great way of combining the two, figure and backgrounds, in refine my skill set.  

Informing my Practice: What I need to work on

Personal notes: 

• Need to draw more surrounding sketched (interior and exterior) to place my figures.
• 
  
• More expressive figures. (facial and gestural)
• 
  
• Figures doing something and in motion.
• 
  
• More experiments including all that I have learnt in my Advance Drawing module.

Structures of Shapes

This week in the studio, using the still life set-ups I had to do informative drawings capturing form and shape, structure, tone and textures. Then from the drawing create experiment thumbnails incorporate some of the elements.

From the still life drawings, I created experiments using shapes and structure in to form of one of drawings, sequence and even a possible scene to use in my Children's Book. Though I didn't fully connect with this project, ways that I could improve would be to have more drawing to inform on texture and have a variety of different angles on a setup. What I learn't from this experiment was again the use of thumbnails and boarders can greatly help with placing and anchoring drawings in a space.

Abstract Composition

With this weeks task of Abstract composition, we had to first look through photographs and German Expressionist films to find the abstract compositions well like and use those elements to help identify them with observational drawings around the university. What I liked from the initial thumbnails from films and photos were use of light, shapes in the composition and distorsion or vast space. These elements were what I wanted to capture in my observational sketches.  

Drawing my sketches in the confinement of thumbnails helped me to better place and compose the abstract composition filling the space with the geometric shapes of the objects, where as if there was no boundaries I would loss the intention of an abstract composition and it would be hard to see or none existent.   

Joy and Surprise: Recording Expressions and Adding Intent

Working in a group of four, we were set the task of collecting gestural expressions of joy and surprise using line drawings. They had to be full figure gesture which included body movement, facial expressions and surroundings.

After collecting the drawings we had to then use them for our own intent. I decided that I wanted to create illustrations of nonsense, maybe embedded with contextual of theme of going/looking/having breakfast. 

Moving through Space

Brief: Figure moving through space.

Voyer approach using both birds eye view and below views in perspective. 

Personal notes after initial sketchs: I need draws of interior space to set all the figures in context. (eg. Full view of the refractory, pathways and more doors)  

Christmas Project

Christmas Project brief with the theme of "Christmas Shopping."

While doing my experiments I realised I didn't have enough drawn information for scenes and the ones I did have, since they were large drawing they took more time to complete. With my figure I had the intention of capturing gesture, expression and movement, which I feel I accomplished.

Experiment Sketches

Really rough sketches at the Shungo Exhibition at the British Museum in London with my sister, trying to capture the use of line and drawing the images that I personally liked. 

At the airport to go home to Cayman for the Christmas.

Continuing the Christmas Project brief at home with the theme of at te beach. Observational drawing of figures in action and developing figure drawings. What I would improve on is capturing figures moving  using various mark making, drew more scene sketches to improve my experiment sketches.

Experiment Sketches

looking at composition and capturing the theme.