Day two of at home illness nursing! My brother is actually going through rooms in the house he never enters just to avoid coming into contact with me, it's like I'm typhoid Mary! Anyways, today consisted of sleep and practice sketches in the sketch book and work on my Digital project! I feel like I've kinda over done it in that area because now I have two working drafts and I don't know which concept I like. So me being me I'm going to finish both drafts and then pick which one I like as the final at the very end. And maybe print the other one just for fun anyways.
The first image here was actually the second reconstruction I did today, I just like it the best out of the two! The original is by Gustave Courbet and is called The Desperate Man Self Portrait painted in 1845. My sketch was done only in vine charcoal once again. I would say it's because this was only meant as practice...but the shameful reality is that my charcoal pencils were all worn down and I was way too lazy to lazy/exhausted to actually go get a
sharpener from the drawer in the kitchen! So I stuck to vine charcoal today which is desperately in need of some serious spray fixative. In fact I kind of despise vine charcoal it practically falls off of the page if you breathe too hard I don't think I did so bad on this fellow! He was actually a lot of fun to draw because of how dramatic his expression is. It's as if he just woke up and realized he has an exam that started 10 minutes ago. I am familiar with that expression. I chose this image to draw partially because of that very expression and partially because of the way the shadows play on his face and his arms. It really emphasizes the planes of the face and the three dimensional quality of the features. The muscles in the neck and arms are also very defined. The sternocleidomastoid muscle is in sharp relief there on his neck which plays a part in the lighting I would think. In order for that muscle to stick out that way his head would have to be turned, muscles strained, it plays together well with the artists over all concept. I think as far as my reconstruction went I managed to do a good job on the upper half of the head and the quick sketch of the hands/shirt etc. The lower half of the face I shortened slightly. When looked at by itself I think that the proportions of the face still fit and it still looks pretty decent but when compared to the original.
This second sketch I'm not as big a fan of mostly because I don't think I picked a very good reference painting this time. The painting is gorgeous don't get me wrong but for the purpose of what I am trying to learn I don't think it fit very well. I just kinda got caught up in the pretty face. And THEN I ran into vine charcoal issues! Seeing as this was the sketch I did first today I had to cover it while doing the other sketch. Yeah it got all wiped off. All of the shading, and in particular the lips, got smudged leaving the outline and vague shading that didn't make sense. I tried to fix it but the mouth needs to be redone most definitely. At least the lower lip does. Looking at it like this is actually making me mad I just wanna fix it now! But oh well I will work on it in the morning!
The reasons I chose this image initially were because of the light in her hair. I really liked how the artist made it feel as if it was real strands of hair without spending time drawing out every strand. The way he treats it is almost gestural. I was also attracted by the fact that her neck looks so skinny she could be anorexic. How does a neck that thin hold up someones head? I don't think it's possible, especially because compared to her neck her head does look rather large. This painting, A portrait of Julia Saner an up and coming model, was created by an artist named Danny Roberts. The fact that it's of a model kind of explained the whole stick like neck, and really makes me worry about the whole concept of anorexia in the modeling industry...I mean when did THAT become the standard for beauty in any country? But that is completely off topic! The point is, I think my sketch exercises for the day were pretty beneficial. By analyzing my own work up against artists such as
Roberts and Courbet I find that I am coming to a better understand of what works and what doesn't when working with the human face. Roberts painting does give the illusion of weight and a three dimensional form but not in the same way as Courbet's. His shading is more subtle, lighting more even, and it's a little harder to imitate because it the planes of the face aren't entirely clearly defined. It's like when you look at a person standing in front of you. Yes you can draw that person, but in order to do so you have to work out where the planes on their face are and how the light is hitting those planes etc. It can be tricky! Courbet uses very strong lighting that clearly defines all the planes, even though the light source itself seems a little ambiguous (both arms are in harsh light but on opposite sides? I'm still trying to figure that part out). I find this kind of work interesting though. One artist strove to show the beauty of the person, the other strove to show the emotion and personality.
Yet another long post! I don't know who reads this but whomever you are I am sorry that I seem to be rambling so much! But this is an art blog and these are my thoughts on said art. Plus...I'm sickly and have nothing else to do besides work on my projects, write here, and watch Gilmour Girls on a loop while I fall in and out of sleep!
So goodnight blogger land! Tomorrow will bring more musings, rantings, ravings, and hopefully more sketches. Until then!
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