This weeks session of Script to screen we were given a life drawing lecture by the life drawing tutor at the main Peel Park Campus. I was familiar with life drawing from college, and knew a few things. Our main focus was on drawing figure heads and from this we may learn a few things for our own drawings and work. The key was to break down the construction process using different orientations and into three simple steps;
- Silhouettes
- Envelope
- Orientate
Our first task was to do envelope shapes of head figures from provided photos of peoples heads, then fill these silhouettes with pencil sketching. We could do this in sketchbooks or on paper but a majority of us were doing it on paper. I folded mine down to A4 scale and began my studies. Annabeth informed us that this would be the perfect time to ask questions regarding our own projects and characters. I sketched the different faces from the photos provided and this seemed a rather simple task and I wondered why it wasn't covered in my art and design life drawing back in college.
One issue though was in the hair as many times it
proved difficult to sketch in the strands and even show them in the highlights, I clearly needed practice on this matter. Never the less, I was pleased by the end result.
I used a light coloured 2H pencil for the lines and a HB pencil for the shaded elements. The next task was to sketch out the envelopes but this time we would be sketching in details such as the face line and brow line. When sketching a face Chris
told us when doing the brow line using the ears as a measuring point would be of help which was something I never thought to consider and when doing the eyes and face details it seemed to work very well which was a remarkable thing to me.
During the break I tried this method on my storytelling work on my character designs for Elise and this seemed to work with the style that I was using. I may consider approaching this further. It was then time to be sketching from life models, we sketched some members of the group, our main focus was the head.
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| Elise's character design and experiment of method. |
I started sketching Munty and he made things interesting with a time challenge which wasn't something I would normally do but I felt that this was an ambitious challenge and so I accepted. Using what I'd learned today sketching the outline/sillohette first followed by the details in the brow line and face. The beard was a challenge trying to capture the hairs and the colour was rather difficult even on a time limit. Thankfully I completed the challenge in record time, then it was Munty's turn to sketch me on the same time limit. I felt it impossible to not smile as thoughts kept coming in my head such as funny scenes from Top Gear or from old programmes. Thankfully I kept my mind a blank and Munty was able to finish and I was impressed with what he had produced, it looked very life like.
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| My life drawn sketch of Munty |
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| Munty's life drawn sketch of me. |
I wanted to sketch Paige next but she seemed occupied by sketching Adam. I then had an idea I began sketching her face and though she was moving her head from time to time I could still capture
some features of her face and hair. Her hair was a more simple element as it was straight and round on her head. She didn't seem to mind that I sketched her without her knowledge which was a relief as I was feeling worried at the time. Paige then moved her head at an angle facing upwards and so me, Adam and Ollie sketched her.
This was challenging as she was facing upward and this sort of angle was known as a worms eye view one angle I found personally challenging. However as I progressed with the life drawing I was surprised by how I was doing especially when sketching in the eyes and the face features. Chris advised to add some more shading under
the chin which was a good piece of advice and I began adding shading by smudging some of the pencil lines on the face and adding highlights with an eraser. When the piece was taking shape I felt that it was looking like a very realistic piece of artwork, and even when I added fineliners on the outlines and in some of the facial features it got better and better as I worked.
Looking back on this session it was rather good to do some life drawing again and at the same time I learned something new about drawing the face and head. This has given me some insight
into my own drawing work. In hindsight I possibly would've asked for Paiges permission before I sketched her as I didn't want her to feel that I was doing something wrong. However doing life drawing again did make me think of the past in college and making me remember some tricks and lessons taught in the past. I would think perhaps I will consider looking into the life drawing classes on Wednesdays to see if I could try and learn something new or if Chris is here teaching us next week I could learn other elements at the same time.
In conclusion this lesson was insightful and productive but I would've done somethings differently such as stayed behind to show Chris some of my work to see if there was anything I could improve upon including figure or face drawing which I would use to work on my designs. In future I shall ask more questions around the subject of life drawing and consider alternate ways of drawing my figures, but I shall build upon what I've learned and perhaps look at others who have done their characters with similar methods and learn something new.
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| Silhouette work |
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| Envelope work |
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| life model work. |
Our first task was to do envelope shapes of head figures from provided photos of peoples heads, then fill these silhouettes with pencil sketching. We could do this in sketchbooks or on paper but a majority of us were doing it on paper. I folded mine down to A4 scale and began my studies. Annabeth informed us that this would be the perfect time to ask questions regarding our own projects and characters. I sketched the different faces from the photos provided and this seemed a rather simple task and I wondered why it wasn't covered in my art and design life drawing back in college.
I used a light coloured 2H pencil for the lines and a HB pencil for the shaded elements. The next task was to sketch out the envelopes but this time we would be sketching in details such as the face line and brow line. When sketching a face Chris 
told us when doing the brow line using the ears as a measuring point would be of help which was something I never thought to consider and when doing the eyes and face details it seemed to work very well which was a remarkable thing to me. 
some features of her face and hair. Her hair was a more simple element as it was straight and round on her head. She didn't seem to mind that I sketched her without her knowledge which was a relief as I was feeling worried at the time. Paige then moved her head at an angle facing upwards and so me, Adam and Ollie sketched her.
the chin which was a good piece of advice and I began adding shading by smudging some of the pencil lines on the face and adding highlights with an eraser. When the piece was taking shape I felt that it was looking like a very realistic piece of artwork, and even when I added fineliners on the outlines and in some of the facial features it got better and better as I worked.
into my own drawing work. In hindsight I possibly would've asked for Paiges permission before I sketched her as I didn't want her to feel that I was doing something wrong. However doing life drawing again did make me think of the past in college and making me remember some tricks and lessons taught in the past. I would think perhaps I will consider looking into the life drawing classes on Wednesdays to see if I could try and learn something new or if Chris is here teaching us next week I could learn other elements at the same time.
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