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Visual Skills, Session 10

Lino Printing

Due to me self isolating, I wasnt able to attend this session. I did, however, manage to complete this task at home. I had some lino scraps lying about the house. I didn't have much to work with, so the design is quite simplistic.

I liked the outcome, however, my inks were too watered down to use for printing. In future I should use a thicker medium, or ass black acrylic to the ink to act as a thickening agent.

Visual Skills Session 9 (Pt. 2)

On Location, Cardiff Bay

The following video is a short flip through of the accordion sketchbook we were given at the beginning of the term.

We filled the remaining pages with what we saw on our walk to the Barrage at Cardiff Bay.

Personally, I didn't enjoy this at all. I don't really like to draw whist standing, or in crowded places (especially with the current covid situation). That day it was especially crowded, and it was very cold. I found it difficult to focus on drawing with all the people passing by staring at me. That's partly why I'm not pleased with the overall outcome of these studies.

I did, however, really like the outcome of the "Hidden Drain". The minimalistic look helped to focus on the details of the area I was looking at.

Visual Skills- Session 9 (Pt 1)

Portraiture and Reportage

I forgot to take photos of the progress of the piece, however the guide that I followed is as shown below.

I started out in portraiture so this session was simple and quite enjoyable. Personally, I don't think that I captured that much of the model's likeness apart from her hair. This shows that even though instated out in this specific area; I am a bit out of practice because of all the building studies that I have been doing as of late.

My tutor commented that she almost looked asleep and that there was a peaceful atmosphere to the piece. I'm glad that that's what came through, seeing as we were both drawing a subject matter we enjoyed; we were both quite at ease and peaceful.

Here you can see my model (my flatmate/ classmate) along with the portrait she did of myself.

Visual Skills- Session 8

Museum trip (Basic Composition)

For this trip we were given multiple tasks to do.

The first being to find artwork from the exhibits that were examples of the basic composition rules. I found three that were good examples of this. All three below happened to have used the golden ratio. Either consciously or subconsciously done, I found this ratio in many of the pieces of artwork.

The second task was to do some warm-up drawings before continuing onto the next task. These were just some continuous line drawings of the exhibits.

I completed these put of order due to where I was and the limitation of where I could go because of Covid restrictions.

I ended up doing the fourth task before the third. We were given some prompt words to work from, "Horrifying, Claustrophobic, Tiny, Queasy". I chose horrifying, mainly because I was standing beneath the skeletal structure of a woolly mammoth. I chose to do a downward perspective to make the viewer feel smaller, as if it were looking down at you and singling you out.

The final task ended up incomplete due to lack of time. For this we were asked to do three contour line drawings from the natural history part of the museum, using the basic principles of composition. I managed to do Viewpoint and the Golden Ratio.

Visual Skills- Session 7

Basic Composition (Photoshop edits)

Illustrators:

Yuko Shimizu, Cassandra Jean, Ryan Agsawa (@diwatero on Instagram)

The following images are not mine and all belong to the illustrators listed above.

In this session we covered and focused on understanding the basis of basic composition and how this impacts an illustration.

We looked at how we could utilise these techniques for our own pieces, at the bottom of the blog you can see how I've used this technique in one of my own illustrations.

Shimizu's illustration is a good example of using the Golden ratio, a technique that I find myself using quite a bit in my own work. But varying the size and how much information is placed into an area of the canvas, the image becomes more balanced (to a degree).

Shimizu also uses the lines and shapes of her images to draw you eye inward towards the head and arms of the character, you then begin to follow their arms to what they are reaching for. Slowly, the more you looks, the more unfolds. Again this was a really good example of both the Golden Ratio and the use of Lines and Shapes.

Agsawa's illustration is also a great example of golden ratios. Below you can clearly see how the details are all focused to one point and then pan out across the canvas. This allows the eye to subconsciously travel across the image and it creates motion.

(You can see quite clearly that the aswang is leading her pups on the hunt)

I used Cassandra Jean's work as an example of the Rule of Thirds, as well as Viewpoint. The perspective and viewpoint has been skillfully sectioned using the rule of thirds. By doing this we first focus on the fuel below and later look up to see the king watching his knight from above. Being at a downward angle allows us to be a spectator on the crowd.

For my illustration I used the Golden Ratio. I wanted the details and information in the image to be balanced. By doing this I could include more details where the centre of the spiral hits and have it become less focus as it pans out/downward.

Visual Skills- session 6

Light and Shadow (homework task)

For homework we were given the task of continuing with the light and shadow studies. We had to do a self portrait with an extreme light source and harsh shadow.

I ended up focusing too much on the shadows and shading, I ended up losing the likeness.

I like the overall outcome of the shadows, however I believe that I still need to focus on capturing the likeness of my subject matter.

I should note that the task was for us to do a self portrait. opposite the study is a photo of myself.

Visual Skills- session 6

Shadow and Light (intro)

This session we focused on light and shadow and looked at how they impacted an illustration. We were asked to bring in a series of objects and to then draw and shade them. The subject matters were lit, from my perspective, from behind.

We completed the shading over top the images by taping down some tracing paper. By doing this we kept the original sketch and we had the shading.

You can see examples of the two separated above.

The last page you can see is just some studies I completed in between sketching and shading the images. it was fun to loosen up before shading for a long period of time.

Visual Skills- session 5

Draw into Reality challenge

Due to the lockdown restrictions our on location sessions were replaced with challenges. These being one of them.

We were tasked with creating an illustration that was apart of our surroundings. The materials that I chose for each illustration were just a simple ink wash and black pen. I wanted these to look very separate from reality, so choosing these and colouring in grayscale was really effective.

I interpreted this task in 2 ways. First by drawing a character illustration and putting them into our reality.

Second was drawing an object from the room around me and drawing my own interpretation of it.

This task was quite enjoyable, apart from lining up the images for the photos; I found it very pleasing and I was satisfied with the outcome of each illustration.

Visual Skills- session 4

Texture and mark making

In this session we looked at the different ways of creating marks on paper. We used a variety if materials for this. I ended up using a stiff dry brush with ink.

I had experimented a bit with the opacity if the ink, using various washes on top of the marks made with the brush helped to add depth to the piece.

These studies were enjoyable and I was pleased with the overall outcome of them all.

Visual Skills- Session 3 (pt 1)

Observational studies, Cardiff Bay, and Life Drawing classes

Here we focused on still lives and scaling up images.

For this session we were asked to bring in objects from our homes and draw them from different angles and in times intervals.

This, I found helped to developed my visual skills further. Still lives are quite helpful and a very good way of developing your observation skills faster. I can see this in the work that I produce now.

This task, although I found it difficult to complete due to my height, I found it to be quite enjoyable in the end and was pleased with the results.

Visual Skills- session 2

Negative space and Perspective studies.

Visual Skills- Session 1

Observational Studies:

Continuous line and Contour line studies

Visual Skills, 29th Sept. 2020.

A day out and about around Cardiff.

Using the techniques that we covered in our first visual skills session; we were divided into groups of three and were then scattered around the city drawing various locations.

I used the contour line technique for the entire sketchbook. Personally, I don't really like this technique. Not because I find it difficult, it just doesn't align with my stylistic preferences of broken lineart and hatching.

I often found myself going back into my style and breaking my lines mid drawing.

Slowly, I managed to get used to the technique, and I managed to produce some sketches that I found were quite well done.

For these sketches, and for most of my studies, I used a black ink pen. I don't like using graphite for studies because I often feel compelled to erase and fix things.

my-dankest-stolen-memes

brandyandpipetobacco

This is legitimately one of the funniest things I’ve seen in weeks.

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No no you're missing the best part

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