3 Figure drawings

Prior to this exercise, I spent some time researching photographic works by Francesca Woodman. Her gothic self-portraits made a huge impression on me, so I decided to make a few drawings based on her photographs. I used dark paper to convey the mysterious and moody atmosphere so charachteristic to her work. Drawing with dark soft pencil on dark grey-blue paper created a troublesome in-between feeling. It’s neither day nor night, and the person portrayed seems to occupy an in-between state. I really liked this story-telling element in the drawing process.

However, it’s not always a very rewarding experiencing to make a drawing based on a photograph. The result doesn’t come even close to the photograph in terms of emotional impact and reproduction of reality. Also, the bright highlights in the second drawing with a lying half-nude don’t look very good. They are either in the wrong places or not needed at all.

I created the third drawing of a seated man in a hat at a drawing workshop. One of the biggest classical art museums in the Netherlands Rijksmuseum organises live drawing workshops, which I sometimes (very rarely) attend. I quite like them because I get a chance to do some live drawing and explore new media and techniques. For this drawing, for example, I covered almost the entire surface of the paper with charcoal and then started working with a rubber to ‘carve out’ forms and shapes. It’s almost like creating a sculpture, but without the 3D effect of course. I like this technique as it helps me produce interesting new marks.

I’m not very happy with the shading in the drawing – in some areas it’s way too crude. I should have used softer lines when shading, otherwise, the dark areas draw too much unneccesary attention to themselves.

Structure (of a human body)

Exercise 1 in Project 4 Structure

My sketches of individual body parts appear fragmented and unrelated to each other. And, in a way, they are since they were done from direct observation, photographs of my own body and photographs of models I don’t personally know. All this makes for a rather incoherent collection. Maybe it’s the way it should be, and every body part is indeed so unique and complex it can be seen as a fully independent organism. That is not true of course, unless you’re dreaming or watching some twisted horror movies.

This reminds me of the hand from the Addams Family movie, which they called ‘Thing’.

Image source: http://www.addmasfamily.com

This beautifully written review of the book ‘Leonardo da Vinci: Anatomist’ (2012) features a few examples of Leonardo’s anatomical drawings.

Studying Leonardo’s drawings individually shows just how complex the human body is as well as demonstrates Leonardo’s dedication to science. It makes it look quite obvious that studying form and mechanics of individual body parts should go hand-in-hand with studying of the bones and muscles. This way, one toe at a time, it would be possible to start grasping the complexity of the human body.